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The City of EIrris Pjonors tPje rr\ar\ v/ho planted its elms. 



HISTORY 



OF 



THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN 



THE PRESENT TIME. 






BY AN ASSOCIATION OF WRITERS. 



EDITED BY 

EDWARD E. ATWATER, 

Author of History of the Colony of New Haven. 



WITH BIOGRAPHIES, PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 




/ 



/ 



NEW YORK: 

W. W. MUNSELL & CO. 

1887. 



COPYRIGHT, 1887, 
i;\ W. \V. MUNSELL & CO. 



Pkinteu uv 

IDE KVEMNG I'OSTJOB PRIXTING OKKICE, 

ac-S IVoadway, cor. Fulton Si., New York. 



EDITOR'S PREFACE. 

TT 77777 diffidence the Editor presents to the people of Nezc Haven this 
y y history of the genesis and groivth of their city. It is the joint product 
of inany contributors, some of zvhoni have sent valuable communicatiotis, which 
either appear anonymously or have been wrought into the work, while others have 
authorized the publicatioti of their jiames and thus become personally responsible 
for what they have written. 

It was hoped that the chapter on the Productive Arts would be compiled under 
the supervision of the Hon. James E. English, than whom no one is better 
acquainted with the various industries of New Haven. But zuhile the gentlemen 
who were engaged iti gathering the materials for that chapter were occupied with 
their tasks, Mr. English was engaged in more pleasant activities, from which 
it could 7iot be expected that he should turji aside. Since the completion of the 
chapter it has been submitted to his perusal, and such corrections have been made 
in it as were suggested by hint. 

The Editor returns thanks to his associates in the work for the patience 
with which they have received suggestions restraining excursiveness and preventing 
repetition. His thanks are also dice to his life-long friend, Mr. Horace Day, who 
lias not only contributed items of history from the storehouse of his memory, but 
has by careful proof-reading eliminated errors of the compositor. 

It is due to those who furnish the portraits zvith which the volume is 
adorned, to say that without the generous subsidy of these patrons it could not 
have beeti published. To them, all zuho value the volume are indebted both for 
the possibility of its production and for the increase of its value by reason of these 
costly engravings. 

A word of commendati07i is due to the publishers for the courage with which 
they have invested a large sum of money in zohat seemed to some an impracticable 
undertaking, and for the energy with which they have wrought out their plan. 
The success ziliich is nozv assured, is zvell deserved. 

New Haven, January i, i88j. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



I'AGE 

Editor's Preface, ■' '" 

CHAPTBR 

I. The Colony of New Haven to its Absorption into Connecticut. By tlie Editor, .... i 

ir. The Town of New Haven l^efore the War of the Revolution. By the Editor, ... - lo 

in. New Haven during the War of the Revolution. By the Editor, 33 

IV. New Haven during the War of the Rebellion. By the Editor, - 65 

V. Annals of the City of New Haven from its Incorporation in 1 784 to its Centennial in 1884. By the Editor, So 

\T. Churches and Clergymen. By the Editor, 104 

VII. Schools. By the Editor, - «47 

VIII. Yale College. By William L. Kingsley, 164 

IX. Libraries of New Haven. By Addison Van Name, 1S4 

X. Contributions to Literature. By the Editor, . . . . ig, 

XI. The Fine .Arts. By James M. HorpiN, 206 

XII. The Periodical Press. By the Editor, 212 

XIII. The Bench and Bar of New Haven. By Lvnde Harrison, - - - - - - - - 226 

XIV. The Practice of Medicine and Surgery. By Francis B.ACON, M.D., ..--.. 260 

Homreopathy and its History in New Haven. By Paul C. Skiff, M.D., 2S0 

History of the Practice of Medicine in New Haven by Physicians of the Eclectic School. By Georce 

Andrews, M.D, 286 

XV. The Practice of Dentistry. Compiled under the direction of Dr. Joseph H. Smith, Member .\merican 

Dental Association, ...-.-.---.--.- 294 

XVI. The H.-irbor and Wharves. By Charles Hervey Townshend, 298^ 

XVII. The Custom House. By the Editor, ..-_ 317 

XVIII. Banks and Banking. By Charles .VrwATER, 323 

XIX. Financial Panics. By the Editor, 335 

.\X. Insurance. By the Editor, 33S 

XXI. Streets, Avenues, and Bridges. By the Editor, --.--.---.. 346 

X.XIl. Travel and Transportation. By George Henry Watroi's, 351 

XXIII. The Post Office. By the Editor, 373 

XXIV. Inns and Hotels. By the Editor. _.... 383 

XXV. Public Amusements. Compiled under the supervision of C. C. Beniiam, 393 

XXVI. Trees and Parks. By Henry Howe, 396 

XXVII. Artificial Illumination. By the Editor, -.... ^07 

X.WIII. Water Supply. By the Editor, 410 

XXIX. Sewerage. By the Editor, ^j-^ 

XXX. Health. By William H. Brewer, 416 

XXXI. Municipal History .,2 

1. The Town Government. By Charles H. Levermork, 422 

2. The City Government. By Charles H. Levermore, 446 

3. The City Seal and Flag. By Henry Peck, 45S 

4. Civic Buildings. By the Editor, 45^ 

5. Police Department. By Henry Peck, 46- 

6. Fire Department. By A. C. Hendrick, 466 

.\XXII. History of Political Parties. By Lynde Harrison 470 

XXXIII. Commerce— Foreign and Domestic. By Thomas R. Trowbripge. Jr., 489 

XXXIV. Traffic— Wholesale and Retail. Compiled, cio 

.\XXV. Pro<Iuctive Arts. Compiled, .,, 

XXXVI. Societies and Clubs. Compiled, ... g,. 

XXXVII. Military Organizations. By General Siephkn R. Smith, assisted by Captain {George M. White, - 645 

XXXVIII. Philanthro))ic Institutions. Compiled, ... (.-. 

XXXIX. Cemeteries. By the Editor, .... ^^ 

Appendix. Witchcraft in New Haven. By the Editor, /- 



HISTORY 

OF THE 

CITY OF NEW HAVEN 



TO THE PRESENT TIME 



BY AX ASSOCIATION OF WRITERS. 



CHAPTER I 



THE COUJNY OF NEW HAVEX TO ITS ABSORPTION INTO CONNECTICUT. 



THE Indian name of the place now covered by 
the City of New Haven — the City of Elms — ■ 
" the cathedral city, whose streets are aisles"— was 
Quinnipiac. It is said that in the language of the 
aboriginal inhabitants, Quin is equivalent to long; 
Nippe, to ivafer; and Ohke, to place. Quinnipiac 
was, therefore, in their conception, the long-water- 
place. To one who stands on the summit of East 
Rock Park, and follows with his e3'e the silver 
thread which seems to lie on the flat meadows of 
the Quinnipiac Valley, and widens itself out into 
the spacious harbor and more spacious Sound, the 
propriety of the aboriginal name is apparent. 
From the little village of Montowese in the north 
to the mouth of the harbor in the south, is a long 
water-place. It was this peculiarity of the land- 
scape — ottering easy transportation from one neigh- 
borhood to another, and abundant forage with no 
other labor than to cut and stack the hay sponta- 
neously growing on the meadows — which attracted 
to the place its first European settlers. These 
were a company of English Puritans, led by John 
Davenport and Theophilus Eaton. Davenport 
had been the vicar of St. Stephen's Church, Cole- 
man street, London, and Eaton had been a parish- 
ioner in the same parish. Their friendship had 
probably been of earlier date than their residence 
in London, as they were both born in Coventry 
and there was no great difference in their ages. 
The company sailed from London in the Hector 
"and another vessel " whose name has not been pre- 
served, and arrived in Boston, June 26, 1637. 
The country between Saybrook and Fairfield 
having become known to the English that summer 
by means of the Pequot war, an e.xploring party, 
led by Theophilus Eaton, left Boston August 31, 
and came by water to Quinnipiac. The e,\- 
plorers were so well satisfied with what they 
found, that they left seven of their number to spend 
the winter, preparing for the permanent occupation 
of the place. In the ensuing April, the whole i 



company arrived from Boston. It now included 
not only those who had come from London with 
Davenport and Eaton; but a company from Here- 
ford and other western counties of England, which, 
sailing from Bristol, in the James, under the leader- 
ship of Peter Prudden, a nonconforming minister of 
the Church of Englantl, had united itself in Boston 
to the London company; and in addition not a few 
residents of Massachusetts who were disposed to 
join the new enterprise. On the Sunday following 
their arrival at Quinnipiac, the company assembled 
twice for public worship; Mr. Davenport preach- 
ing in the morning and Mr. Prudden in the after- 
noon. The service was held under a spreading 
oak near the northeast angle made by George and 
College streets. Public worship was ever after 
maintained in the town, and about a year after the 
arrival of the settlers, or planters as they styled 
themselves, the erection of a House of Worship was 
commenced. 

In October the planters of Quinnipiac welcomed 
an accession to their number. Ezekiel Rogers, a 
much respected nonconforming minister in York- 
shire, having embarked at Hull, on the Humber, 
with a company who personally knew him and 
desired to enjoy his ministry, arrived in Boston late 
in the summer. Such representations were made 
to him by Davenport and Eaton, or their agents, 
that he engaged to come with his followers to 
Quinnipiac; and within eight weeks after his arri- 
val in Massachusetts, a portion of his people came 
by water to the new settlement. The remainder 
of the company were e.xpected to follow; but 
Rogers changed his mind and commenced a new 
settlement at Rowley, in Massachusetts. He sent 
a pinnace to bring back those of his people who 
had preceded him in his intended voyage; but 
some of them, refusing to return, became perma- 
nent residents at Quinnipiac. 

In November, a formal purchase of land was 
made; the Indians reserving a small portion for 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



themselves and acknowledging in the deed of sale 
that the protection from hostile tribes, which the 
English promised to afford them, was one of the 
considerations which induced them to alienate 
the land. The marks with which the sachems 
attested the deed of sale are as follows: 

]Momaua:in 



his mark. 



Sugcogisin 



Quesaquaush 




his mark. 



his mark. 



his 
mark. 



Carroughood ^k his mark. 

Shaumpishuh Weesaucuck 

her mark. 



On the iith of December, Montowese, sachem 
of another tribe, in presence and with allowance 
and consent of Sawseunck, an Indian who came 
in company with him, sold to the English a tract 
of land lying north of that sold by Momaugin, 
and described as extending about ten miles in 
length from north to south, eight miles easterly 
from the river of Quinnipiac toward the river of 
Connecticut; and five miles westerly toward Hud- 
son's river. The attesting marks of Montowese 
and Sawseunck arc as follows: 



Montowese 



Sawseunck 




his mark. 



his mark. 



Contemporaneously with the excitement among 
the Yorkshire people about returning to Massa- 
chusetts, there was conference among those who 
had come with Prutiden from Hereford, tending 
toward a removal from (^)uinnipiac to a separate 
plantation, wliere they might enjoy his ministry. 
Before February 12, 1639, Pruddcn's friends had 
determined tt) commence a settlement at Milford, 
and on that day received a formal deed of land 
from Ansantaway, the Sachem of the Wcpowaugs, 
as the aborigines of Milford called themselves. 

More than a year elapsed before the planters at 
Quinnii)iac were ready for any formal establish- 



ment of civil or ecclesiastical authority. A town 
plat was immediately laid out, and house lots were 
assigned to each planter, varying in size according 
to the number of persons in his family and the 
amount of estate on which he was able and willing 
to pay rates from year to year. Probably there was 
some temporary provision for the protection of life 
and property, but there is no record of it extant. Cer- 
tainly there was no church organized; and though 
there was public worship on every Lord's day, 
there was no administration of sacraments. 

On the 4th day of June, 1639, a meeting of 
all the proprietors, or free planters as they were 
called, was held in the barn of Mr. Robert New- 
man, " to consult about settling civil government 
according to God, and about the nomination of 
persons that might be found, by consent of all, 
fittest in all respects for the foundation work of a 
church." At this meeting it was voted that, in the 
civil government to be established, the right of suf- 
frage should be conferred on church members 
only; and twelve men were chosen and instructed 
"to choose out of themselves seven, that shall be 
most approved of the major part, to begin the 
church." In due time the twelve thus appointed 
and empowered, chose seven men, who on the 22d 
of August, 1639, instituted the church by a solemn 
and formal covenant one with another. 

On the 25th of October, civil government was 
instituted; the seven men appointed by the twelve 
chosen in a full meeting of free planters, conferring 
the right of suffrage upon "all those that have been 
received into the fellowship of this church since the 
gathering of it, or who being members of other 
approved churches, offered themselves." Of the 
little commonwealth thus established, Theophilus 
Eaton was chosen " Magistrate for the term of one 
whole year; and Robert Newman, Matthew Gil- 
bert, Nathaniel Turner, and Thomas Fugill, Dep- 
uties to assist the Magistrate in all Courts called 
by him for the occasions of the plantation, for the 
same term of one whole year." Thomas Fugill was 
chosen Clerk; and Robert Seelcy, Marshal. 

Prudden, and his friends who had accompanied 
him across the ocean, did not join with Davenport 
and his followers in the institution of a church and the 
establishment of civil authority in Quinnipiac. At 
first, so far as appears, they expected to remain at 
Quinnipiac, and house-lots were assigned to them 
as to other planters. But, during the summer 
of 1638, Prudden being invited to preach for a 
time in Wethersfield, found several fiimilies so- 
dissatisfied with the state of the church there, 
that they were willing to remove to a new plan- 
tation and place themselves permanently under 
his ministry. 1 he Herefordshire people at Quin- 
nipiac, taking encouragement from this accession 
to their strength, determined therefore to remove 
to Milford, as has been already mentioned. 

In August, 1639, their removal was not yet 
completed. But on the day after the Quinnipiac 
people had formally instituted their church, seven 
men selected by those who expected to remove' 
from Quinnipiac to Milford, also entered into a 
covenant to be a Church of Christ: the mode of 



THE COLONY OF NEW HA VEN. 






institution being the same in both cases. The 
removal from Quinnipiac was not fully consum- 
mated till the autumn of 1639. 

It had been from the beginning the intention of 
the people of Quinnipiac that, in addition to the 
house-lots assigned in the spring of 1638, the land 
outside of the town plat should, as soon as practi- 
cable, be divided among the free planters. Accord- 
mgly arrangements were made in January, 1640, 
for the division of a tract extending in every direc- 
tion about a mile from the center, and of the salt 
meadows bordering on the rivers east and west of 
the plantation. Some months after the first divi- 
sion of outlands, and apparently before it was fully 
consummated, the free planters assembled in gen- 
eral court, ordered a division of lands outside of 
the two-miles square. This second division dis- 
posed of the greater part of the land available for 
tillage by dwellers in the town, though there were 
in subsequent years several other acts of division, 
of which the third division so called, made in 1680, 
was by far the most important. After the second 
division had been made, the rate of taxation was 
fixed; all the upland in the first division, with all 
the meadows in the plantation, yielding to the pub- 
lic treasury fourpence an acre yearly, and all the 
land in the second division twopence an acre 
yearl)'. 

While the division of lands was in progress, the 
name of the plantation was changed, by order of a 
General Court held on the first day of September, 
1 640, from Quinnipiac to New Haven. The record 
does not allege any reason for the adoption of the 
new name, but as the first English ship which ar- 
rived in the harborofQunnipiac brought emigrants 
from Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, it is a reasonable 
conjecture that she sailed from the port of New- 
haven, on the coast of Sussex, and that the visit of 
a vessel from that port determined the choice of the 
English name. The captain of this ship had been 
so much pleased with the harbor that he at first 
sight called it the "The Fair Haven." Probably 
the planters had some reference to expected immi- 
gration when they voted to disuse a name uncouth 
to English ears, and adopted in its stead a name 
familiar to the people of Sussex and the adjoining 
counties. 

Mention has already been made of the arrival of 
an English shiji in the harbor of Quinnipiac in the 
summer of 1639. This, and another vessel which 
followed at no long interval, brought emigrants 
from the southern counties of England. They 
came expecting to commence a separate plantation 
in the neighborhood of Quinnipiac, of which Eng- 
lish settlement they had evidently heard before 
leaving their native land. While on ship-board 
those who came in the vessel which first arrived 
signed the following covenant: 

We, whose names are hereunder written, intending by 
God's gracious permission to plant ourselves in New Eng- 
land, and if it may he, in the southerly part about Quinni- 
piac: We do faithfully promise each to each, for ourselves 
and families and those that belong to us, that we will, the 
Lord assisting us, sit down and join ourselves together in 
one entire plantation; and to be helpful each to the other in 
every common work, according to every man's ability and 



as need shall require; and we promise not to desert or leave 
each other or the plantation, but with the consent of the 
rest or the greater part of the company who have entered 
into this engagement. 

As for our gathering together in a church way and the 
choice of officers and members to be joined together in that 
way, we do refer ourselves until such time as it shall please 
God to settle us in our plantation. In witness whereof we 
subscribe our hands the first day of June, 1639. 

One of the signers of this agreement was Henry 
Whitfield, a clergyman of inherited wealth, which 
he was willing to use freely for the benefit of the 
plantation he and his associates intended to estab- 
lish. 

Mr. Whitfield and his company very soon after 
their arrival at Quinnipiac, visited Guilford, and 
being pleased with the resemblance of the place to 
the coast land in the south of England, purchased 
of the aboriginal inhabitants a territory, to which 
they afterward added another tract by successive 
purchases from two different sachems, both of 
whom claimed an exclusive title. The first of these 
deeds bears the date of September 29, 1639. From 
the commencement of the plantation till the gather- 
ing of a church in 1643, '^e undivided lands were 
held in trust by six of the planters; four of whom 
were designated as a provisional committee in 
whom all civil power was vested. 

The same summer which witnessed the arrival 
in the harbor of Quinnipiac of the planters of Guil- 
ford, saw also the arrival of another company, with 
their minister, who purchased land on Long Island, 
allowing the deed to be given to the magistrates of 
New Haven, and thus putting themselves under 
the same civil authority with New Haven. But as 
Southold, the place in which they settled, has 
passed out of the jurisdiction, not only of New 
Haven, but of Connecticut, we need not follow 
their history further. 

Stamford, in Fairfield County, was also pur- 
chased and settled by planters, who acknowledged 
allegiance to New Haven; and that colony claimed 
it as a part of its territory till the colony itself was 
absorbed into Connecticut. 

In 1643, Guilford and Milford, which hitherto 
had been entirely separate and independent plan- 
tations, united with New Haven, Southold and 
Stamford in the establishment of a colonial govern- 
ment, and thereby qualified this combination of 
towns to unite with the other colonies of New Eng- 
land, viz., Massachusetts, Plymouth and Connecti- 
cut, in a confederation for offense and defense, 
mutual advice and succor. Milford being the 
only one of the plantations intending to unite in 
the colony of New Haven, which had deviated 
from the rule that only church members should be 
free burgesses, was obliged, before she was ad- 
mitted, to stipulate that "the present six free bur- 
gesses, who are not church members, shall not at 
any time hereafter be chosen either deputies or into 
any public trust for the combination. Secondly, 
that they shall neither personally, nor by proxy, 
vote at any time in the election of magistrates; and 
thirdly, that none shall be admitted freemen or 
free burgesses hereafter at Milford but church mem- 
bers, according to the practice at New Haven. " 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



Milford having made these concessions to the 
less liberal views of the other plantations, the latter 
so far yielded as to grant 

First, that the said six freemen, being already admitted by 
them, may continue to act in all proper particular town bus- 
iness wherein the combination is not interested; and, 
secondly, that they may vote in the election of deputies to 
be sent to the general courts for the combination or jurisdic- 
tion; which deputies, so to be chosen and sent, shall always 
be church members. 

The union of these plantations in a colonial 
government, and the confederation of the col- 
ony with Massachusetts, Plymouth and Con- 
necticut, were auxiliary to the establishment of 
security and peace. A stronger front was pre- 
sented toward their Dutch neighbors and toward 
the aborigines than when each plantation stood 
alone. 

This confederation of four colonies much resem- 
bled both the confederation of thirteen colonies, 
which afterward prosecuted the War of the Revolu- 
tion, and the present Constitution of the United 
Stales. Its articles declare that the four colonies 
agree to be, and to be called The United Colonies 
of New England. Reserving to each colony its 
sovereignty, they provide for a congress of com- 
missioners, to meet yearly, clothed with power to 
make war and peace, and to frame and establish 
such orders as may preserve friendship between the 
members of the union. In case of war, offensive 
or defensive, involving the interests of the whole, 
or of any one of the confederates, the expense was 
to be assessed according to the number of male in- 
habitants in each colony between the ages of six- 
teen and sixty years. When any colony was 
invaded by an enemy, its confederates must aid it 
in the proportion of one hundred men for Massa- 
chusetts, and forty-five for each of the other colo- 
nies. The Commissioners are required to frame 
and establish rules for the free and speedy passage 
of justice in each jurisdiction to all the confederates 
equally as to their own, and for the surrender of 
fugitive servants and fugitive criminals. 

In the spring of 1644, Totoket or Branford, " a 
place fit for a small j)lantation, betwixt New Haven 
and Guilford,'' was sold to Mr. Swain and others of 
Wethersfield, upon condition that they should join 
in one jurisdiction with New Haven and the other 
plantations, upon "the fundamental agreements set- 
tled in 1643, which they, duly considering, readily 
accepted." From this time to its dissolution in 
1665, the New Haven colony consisted of the six 
plantations of New Haven, Southokl, Stamford 
(including Greenwich), Guilford, Milford, and 
Branford. 

In two important particulars, New Haven differed 
from the other colonies. It was part of " its funda- 
mental law,'' as we have already seen, that only 
church members should be free burgesses. By 
"fundamental" was meant unchangeable. In our 
day it is generally allowed that a people have the 
right to change the constitution of their govern- 
ment; and most written constitutions recognize 
their own mutability by indicating the method in 
which a change may be wrought. But the funda- 
mental law established by the iilanters of Quinni- 



piac on the "fourth day of the fourth month, called 
June, 1639," and afterwards assented to by the other 
plantations constituting the jurisdiction of New- 
Haven, was designed to be unalterable. It was 
understood to be a compact or agreement from 
which those who had assented to it could not 
recede. In the words of the colonial constitution, 
" It was agreed and concluded as a fundamental 
order, not to be disputed or questioned hereafter, 
that none shall be admitted to be free burgesses in 
anv of the plantations within this jurisdiction for 
the future, but such planters as are members of 
some or other of the approved churches in New 
England." In Massachusetts only church members 
could be made freemen till the law was changed 
by command of King Charles the Second; but the 
requirement of church membership was not a " fun- 
damental law," as it was in New Haven. 

The second particular in which New Haven 
differed from the other colonies was in not using 
juries. In the plantation courts and in the courts 
of the jurisdiction, the judges determined all ques- 
tions of fact as well as of law, and of discretionary 
punishment. It has been thought by some, that 
Governor Eaton's observations while resident in 
the Baltic countries suggested this departure from 
English law. But if suggested by anything he 
had seen in other lands, it was doubtless com- 
mended to him, and those who acted with him in 
establishing a new government, by its conformity 
to the institutions of Moses. 

The records give no evidence that the disuse of 
juries occasioned any trouble; but Hubbard, a 
contemporary historian, thus criticises this pecu- 
liarity of New Haven: 

Those who were employed in laying the foundation of 
New Haven colony, though famed for much wisdom, expe- 
rience, and judgment, yet did not foresee all the inconveni- 
ence that miglit arise Irom such a frame of government, so 
differing from the other colonies in the constitution thereof, 
manifest in their declining that prudent and equal tempera- 
ment of all interests in their administration of justice, with 
them managed by the sole authority of the rulers without 
the concurrence of a jury, the benefit of which had lieen so 
long confirmed by the experience of some ages in our own 
nation; for where the whole determining, as well both mat- 
ter of fact as matter of law, with the sentence and execution 
thereof, depends on the sole authority of the judges, what can 
be more done for the establishing of an arbitrary power ? 

Hubbard also testifies concerning the limitation 
of the right of sufi'rage: "There had been an ap- 
pearance of unquietness in the minds of sundry, 
upon the account of enfranchisement and sundry 
civil privileges thence following, which they 
thought too shortly tethered up in the foundation 
of the government." His testimony on this subject 
is confirmed by that of the records. 

For ten years after its establishment the colonial 
government experienced no great trials. But in 
1653, England and Holland being at war, the 
Dutch at Manhattan were believed by their neigh- 
bors in New Haven and Connecticut to be instigat- 
ing a general conspiracy among the Indians against 
the F".nglish. It was rumored that a Dutch fleet 
would arrive, and that the Dutch and Indians 
would make a combined attack upon the English 
plantations. Connecticut and New Haven were 



\ 



THE COLONY OF NEW HA VEN. 



naturally much alarmed and became clamorous for 
war. The Commissioners of the United Colonies, 1 
after investigation, declared war by a vote of seven 
to one. Mr. Bradstreet, of Massachusetts, voted I 
against the declaration, and the General Court of j 
that province being then in session, certified the 
Commissioners that they did not understand that ; 
they were called to make a present war against the j 
Dutch. This action of the General Court expressed i 
the general sentiment of its constituency. Less i 
irritated against the Dutch on account of previous 
injuries, and less exposed to present danger, the 
people of Massachusetts were not so ready to be- 
lieve that war was imperatively necessary and un- 
questionably just. 

The contention between Massachusetts and the 
other colonies became so sharp as to threaten the 
immediate dissolution of the confederation. The 
Commissioners determined to adjourn sine du\ and 
would have done so but for a vote of the General 
Court of ^Massachusetts, declaring " that by the 
Articles of Confederation, so far as the determina- 
tions of the Commissioners are just and according 
to God, the several colonies are bound before God 
and man to act accordingly, and that they sin and 
break covenant if they do not; but otherwise we 
judge we are not bound, neither before God nor 
man. " 

In view of this communication, the Commission- 
ers were so far p.icified that they proceeded to busi- 
ness, "referring all further questions to the addresses 
the IMassachusetts shall please to make to the other 
General Courts. '' But the very first matter presented 
for their consideration renewed the old dispute. 
It was a complaint that Sachem Ninigret had made 
a hostile raid upon the Indians of Long Island, 
tributaries and friends of the English, in which two 
Sachems and about thirty other Indians were slain, 
and divers women taken captive. The Commis- 
sioners immediately dispatched messengers lo bring 
Ninigret's anbwer to this complaint. Upon return 
of the messengers, bringing an insolent reply from 
Ninigret, and reporting that he had allowed his 
men to insult and threaten them, the Commission- 
ers declared war against him. 

^Massachusetts refusing in this case to furnish her 
contingent of i66 soldiers, the Commissioners pro- 
tested that "the ^lassachusetts have broken their 
covenant," and adjourned. 

When the time for the next Congress of the Com- 
missioners drew near, the question was raised in 
the General Court of New Haven, whether Com- 
missioners should be chosen. The result of the 
debate is thus recorded: 

The Court having found such ill fruit from the Massachu- 
setts of the two former meetings, are discouraged to send ; 
yet, that they might show themselves followers of peace, and 
that they earnestly desire to continue their confederation 
upon the terms it first began, and for sundry years hath been 
carried on, did agree and choose the Governor and Francis 
Newman Commissioners for the year ensuing, and particu- 
larly for the next meeting at Hartford, if it hold; and Mr. 
Keete and Mr. Cioodyear are chosen to supply, if the provi- 
dence of God order it so that one or both of the others should 
be hindered; but with this direction from the Court, that if 
the mind of the Massachusetts remain as they have formerly 
declared, which hath made the other three colonies look 



upon the confederation as broken by the Massachusetts, they 
conceive there can be no fruit of their meeting, but only to 
consider the eleventh article, and require such satisfaction 
from the delinquent colony as they shall judge meet. 

No sooner had the Congress assembled than 
"they fell upon a debate of the late diiTerences 
betwixt the INIassachusetts and the other colonies 

* * * and after some agitations and writing 
about the same, the Commissioners for the Massa- 
chusetts presented the ensuing writing:" 

To the intent all former diflerences and offences may be 
issued, determined and forgotten betwixt the Massachusetts 
and the rest of the confederate colonies, we do hereby pro- 
fess it to be our judgment, and do believe it to be the judg- 
ment of our General Court, that the Commissioners, or six of 
them, have power, according to the articles, to determine 
the justice of all wars, etc. ; that our General Court hath, and 
doth recall that interpretation of the articles which they sent 
to the Commissioners at Boston, dated the 2d of June, 1653, 

* * * and do acknowledge themselves bound to execute 
the determinations of the Commissioners, according to the 
literal sense and true meanmg of the Articles of Confedera- 
tion, so far as the said determinations are in themselves just 
and according to (lod. 

With this retraction, the open quarrel between 
Massachusetts and the other colonies ended. But 
when the Commissioners, proceeding to make war 
upon Ninigret, gave the appointment of the com- 
mander-in-chief to Massachusetts, the appointee, 
Major Willard, carried out the policy of his colony 
almost as closely as if no army had been sent. The 
Commissioners censured him for inactivity, but he 
doubdess felt assured that in his own colony his 
conduct was approved. 

News of peace between England and Holland 
having arrived before -IMassachusetts retracted her 
offensive interpretation of the articles, the subject 
of hostilities against the Dutch was no more agi- 
tated, and gradually New Haven, as well as the 
other colonies, settled into tranquillity. 

In 1655, Governor Eaton presented to the Gen- 
eral Court a digest of the laws of the colony, which 
he had been requested to prep.ire. The Court ap- 
proved of what he had done, but desired him "to 
send for one of the new books of laws in the Mas- 
sachusetts colony, and to view over a small book 
of laws newly come from England, which is said 
to be Mr. Cotton's, and to add to what is already 
done as he shall think fit, and then the Court will 
meet again to confirm them, but in the meantime 
(when they are finished) they desire the elders of 
the jurisdiction may have the sight of them for their 
approbation also." A few months later "the 
laws which at the Court's desire have been drawn 
up by the Governor, viewed and considered by the 
elders of the jurisdiction, were now read and seri- 
ously weighed by this Court, and by vote concluded 
and ordered to be sent to England to be printed, 
with such oaths, forms, and precedents as the gov- 
ernor may think meet to put in: and the governor 
is desired to write to Mr. Hopkins: and Mr. 
Newman to his brother, to do the best they can to 
get five hundred of them printed. " Ten months after 
this order for printing was made, "the Governor 
informed the Court that there is sent over now in 
Mr. Garrett's ship, five hundred law books, which 
Mr. Hopkins hath gotten printed, and six paper 
books for records for the jurisdiction; with a seal 



HIS TORI' OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



for the colony, which he desired them to accept as 
a token of his love.'' 

Governor Eaton died suddenly in January, 1658: 

Having worshiped God after his usual manner, and upon 
some occasion with much solemnity charged all the 
family to carry it well unto their mistress, who was 
now confined by sickness, he supped and then took 
a turn or two abroad for his meditations. After that 
he came in to bid his wife good-night, before he left her 
with her watchers; which when he did, she said, " methinks 
you look sad." Whereto he replied, "The differences 
risen in the church of Hartford make me so." She then 
added: " Let us even go back to our native country again." 
To which he answered: "You may, but I shall die here." 
This was the last word that ever she heard him speak, for 
now retiring unto his lodging in another chamber he was 
overheard about midnight fetching a groan; and unto one 
sent in presently to inquire how he did, he answered the 
inquiry with only saying, " Very ill," and without .saying 
any more, he fell asleep in Jesus. 

"This man," says Hubbard, "had in him great 
gifts, and as many excellences as are usually found 
in any one man. He had an excellent princely 
face and port, commanding respect from all 
others. He was a good scholar, a traveler, a great 
reader; of an exceeding steady and even spirit; 
not easily moved to passion; and standing unshaken 
in his principles when once fixed upon. Of a pro- 
found judgment; full of majesty and authority in 
his iudicatuies, so that it was a vain thing to offer 
to brave him out." 

As Eaton had been elected to the chief magis- 
tracy annually, from the institution of the colonial 
government, so Stephen Goodyear had been for 
several years chosen Deputv-Governor. Naturally 
he would have succeeded to the place vacated by 
the death of Eaton; but his absence on a visit to 
England obliged the freemen to look elsewhere for 
a chief magistrate. At the Court of Election in the 
following May, Francis Newman, who had for 
some years been Secretary of the Jurisdiction, was 
chosen Governor, and William Leete, Deputy- 
Governor. 

Mr. Goodyear was so generally regarded as sec- 
ond only to Governor Eaton in all qualifications 
requisite for the chief magistracy, that if he had 
lived to return, he would probably have been 
called, as soon as an election occurred, to the high 
position for which his only disqualification in May, 
1658, was absence from thecolonv. 

His death occurred in London not long after- 
ward, them elancholy tidings of it having been 
received before October 20th, at which date pro- 
ceedings were commenced for the settlement of his 
estate. 

Mr. Newman anil Mr. Leete were re-elected in 
1659 and in 1660. On October 17th of the 
latter year a Court of Magistrates was held, at 
which the following record was made, the Governor 
being ab.sent; 

By reason of the afflicting hand of God on New Haven 
by much sickness, the Court could not pitch upon a day for 
public thanksgiving through the colony, for the mercies of 
the year past; and did therefore leave it to the elders of the 
church at New Haven, as God may be pleased to remove 
his hand from the Governor and others, to give notice to the 
rest of the plantations what day they judge fit for that 
duty, that we may give thanks and rejoice l«fore the I^rd 
together. 



Governor Newman died November 18, 1660. 
Mr. Davenport, in a letter to his friend, the 
younger Winthrop, thus communicates the partic- 
ulars of his decease: 

We hoped he was in a good way of recovery from his 
former sickness, and were comforted with his presence in 
the assembly two Lord's days and at one meeting of the 
church on a week day, without sensible inconvenience. 
And on the morning of the day of public thanksgiving, he 
found himself encouraged to come to the public assembly. 
But after the morning sermon he told me thafhe found him- 
self exceedingly cold from head to toe; yet, having dined, 
he was refreshed and came to the meeting again 
in the afternoon, the day continuing very cold. That 
night he was very ill, yet he did not complain of any 
relapse into his former disease, but of inward cold, which 
he and we hoped might be removed by his keeping warm 
and using other suitable means. I believe he did not think 
that the time of his departure was so near, or that he should 
die of this distemper, though he was always prepared for 
his great change. The last day of the week he desired my 
son to come to him the next morning to write a bill for him 
to be prayed for, according to his direction. My son went 
to him after the beating of the first drum; but, finding him 
self not fit to speak much, he prayed him to write for him 
what he thought fit. When the second drum beat, I was 
sent for to him. But before I came, though I made haste, his 
precious immortal soul was departed from its house of clay 
unto the souls of just men made perfect. 

In 1 66 1, William Leete was chosen Governor, 
and Matthew Gilbert, Deput3-Governor, and they 
were both re-elected in 1662 and 1663. In 1664, 
Mr. William Jones was chosen Deputy-Governor 
in place of Mr. Gilbert, the latter being elected a 
magistrate to fill the place vacated by Mr. Jones' 
promotion. 

About four months previous to the death of Gov- 
ernor Newman, tidings came that the Stuart fam- 
ily had been restored to the throne of England in 
the person of Charles II. These tidings were not 
joyfully received. The change from a kingdom tu 
a commonwealth, twenty years before, had injured 
New England in its material interests by checking 
the emigration which was pouring into it popula- 
tion and wealth. But this disadvantage had been 
outweighed, in the judgment of the Puritan colo- 
nists, by the elevation of men in sympathy with 
themselves to supreme power and authority in what 
they called the State of England. They were more 
earnest to secure "the ends for which they had come 
hither, " than to obtain a larger price for their corn 
and cattle, and they were confident that these ends 
would not be frustrated by any action of the home 
government so long as Puritans were in power in 
England. 'What effect upon the colonies the res- 
toration of the Stuarts might produce, it was impos- 
sible clearly to foresee ; but the Puritan colonists 
naturally feared that it would be evil. 

When the time arrived for the next election in 
the colony of New Haven, it was difiicult to find 
suitable persons willing to accept office. John 
Wakeman and William Gibbard were nominated 
for the magistracy in the Plantation Court of New 
Haven, notwithstanding their protest ; Mr. Wake- 
man, who had some thought of removing to Hart- 
ford, saying, when questioned if he intended to 
remain at New Haven, that he was not resolved 
whether to go or stay, but rather than he would 
accept the place, he would remove. In the Court 



THE COLONY OF NEW HA VEN. 



of Election for the Jurisdiction they were both 
elected magistrates, but neither of them took the 
oath. Mr. Benjamin Fenn, of Rlllford, being elect- 
ed magistrate, took the oath, with this explana- 
tion before the oath was administered, that he would 
take the oath to act in his place, according to the 
laws of this jurisdiction; but in case an)- business 
from without present, he conceived he should give 
no offence if he did not attend to it, who desired 
that it might be so understood. It does not appear 
that the Governor or Deputy-Governor hesitated to 
take the oath, but from the whole history of this, 
the first election after the restoration of the Stuarts, 
it appears that it was generally apprehended that 
trouble might result from it to the colony of New 
Haven. 

In truth, trouble was already brewing ; for two 
members of the High Court which had condemned 
to death the father of the reigning monarch, had 
been, for more than a month before the election, 
concealed in New Haven and search warrants had 
been issued for "the finding and apprehending of 
Colonel Whalley and Colonel Goffe, who stand 
charged with crimes as by his Majesty's letter ap- 
pears." On the day of election, Whalley and Gofife 
were at the Judges' Cave on West Rock, where 
they could see the turret of the building where the 
election was held and hear the rattle of the drum 
by which the freemen were convened. But prob- 
ably only two or three persons knew that they were 
in the neighborhood. All who were in office were 
under the necessity of assisting to apprehend them, 
and other persons might be disposed to do so, 
either from loyalty to the King or from the hope of 
reward. Their places of concealment were therefore 
known to only a few persons; though, with scarcely 
an exception, the people of the colony were at heart 
friendly to them. But in a few months, difference 
of opinion was developed; Governor Leete and 
others beginning to fear evil results to the colony 
and to the magistrates from their neglect to appre- 
hend the fugitives. This difference of opinion 
seems to have occasioned some sharpness of feeling. 
Mr. Hooke, formerly teacher of the church at New 
Haven and a brother-in-law of Colonel Whalley, 
writes from England, where he was now residing, 
to Mr. Davenport, "I understand by your letter 
what you have lately met with from Mr. Leete," 
etc., and proceeds to explain that a certain letter 
was not designed to caution New Haven people 
against befriending the regicides, but only against 
doing it openly. 

The man was in the country when he wrote it, who sent 
it up to the city to be sent by what hand he knew not, nor 
yet knoweth who carried it; and such were the times that 
he durst not express matters as he would, but he foresaw 
what fell out among you and was willing you should be se- 
cured as well as his other friends, and therefore he wrote 
that they might not be found among you, but provided for 
by you in some secret places. » • « i ],opg y^t all will 
be well, though now I hear as I am writing of another order 
to be sent over, yet still I believe (lod will suffer no man to 
touch you. I am almost amazed sometimes to see what 
cross capers some of you do make. I should break my shins 
should I do the like. 

Governor Leete had apparently understood the 
cautionary letter as advising an entire withholding 



of entertainment from the regicides, and had changed 
his position by a cross caper such as Mr. Hooke 
thought himself incapable of executing. 

Another intimation that Leete had changed his 
ground is contained in a letter to Deputy-Governor 
Gilbert from Robert Newman, formerly ruling elder 
in the church at New Haven, but now residing in 
England, who writes: 

I am sorry to see that you should be so much surprised 
with fears of what men can or may do unto you. The fear 
of an evil is ofttimes more than the evil feared. I hear of 
no danger, nor do I think any will attend you, for that 
matter. Had not W. L. written such a pitiful letter over, 
the business, I think, would have died. What it may do to 
him, I know not: they have greater matters than that to ex- 
ercise their thoughts. 

The fears which Leete now entertained that evil 
consequences might result to the colony and to 
himself personally from the neglect to apprehend 
the regicides, led him to negotiate privately with 
Governor Winthrop, of Connecticut, who, in Au- 
gust, 1 66 1, sailed for Europe charged with a com- 
mission from the General Assembly of Connecticut 
to procure from his Majesty a charter for that col- 
ony. Leete desired Winthrop to include the terri- 
tory of New Haven with Connecticut in the appli- 
cation. In a letter to Winthrop, dated August 6, 
1 66 1, he says: 

I wish that you and we could procure one patent to reach 
beyond Delaware, where we have expended a thousand 
pounds to procure Indian title, view, and begin to possess. 
If war should arise between Holland and England, it might 
suit the King's interest; a little assistance might reduce all 
to England. But our chief aim is to purchase our o-wii 
peace. 

With this understanding between him and Leete, 
Winthrop included in his application for a charter 
all the territory between Massachusetts on the 
north and Long Island Sound on the south, and 
between Rhode Island on the east and New York 
on the west. The charter which was granted him 
not only included all the territory for which he 
asked, but it was with regard to powers of govern- 
ment (as Bancroft says) still more extraordinary. 

It conferred on the colonists unqualified power to govern 
themselves. They were allowed to elect all their own of- 
ficers, to enact their own laws, to administer justice without 
appeals to England, to inflict punishments, to confer par- 
dons and, in a word, to exercise every power, deliberative 
and active. The King, far from reserving a negative on 
the acts of the colony, did not even require that the laws 
should be transmitted for his inspection; and no provision 
was made for the interference ot the English government, 
in any event whatever, Connecticut was independent, ex- 
cept in name. 

Winthrop was aided in his mission by a com- 
bination of favorable influences. Lord Say and 
Seal, a Puritan nobleman, who had once intended 
to remove to America, still retained his friendly feel- 
ing toward New England, and was now in a posi- 
tion where his influence with the King was very 
powerful. Although he had opposed the tyranny 
of Charles the First, he was and continued to be a 
Royalist in principle. During the Commonwealth 
he lived in retirement, and was among the first to 
move, when opportunity offered, for the restoration 
of the ancient constitution. As a reward for his 
services Charles the Second had made him Lord 
Privy Seal. The Earl of Manchester was also a 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



Puritan. He likewise was high in office and high 
in favor with the King. Forced to resign his com- 
mission as Commander-in-Chief of one of the grand 
divisions of the Parliamentary Army by the in- 
trigues of men who wished to eliminate both 
royalty and aristocracy from the constitution, he 
too had lived in retirement, waiting for an oppor- 
tunity to assist in restoring the ancient form of 
government. He was now Lord Chamberlain and 
more active in public affairs than his aged friend, 
Say and .Seal. 

Both of these noblemen lent to the Puritan 
colony their influence with the King. Winthrop 
himself was singularly well qualified for the nego- 
tiation in which he was engaged. A university 
scholar, he had made the tour of the Continent as 
far as to Constantinople before he emigrated to 
New England. Gifted by nature, and polished 
with the best European culture, he was qualified 
to converse on those subjects which were every- 
where discussed in society, and by his experience 
in America was able to discourse of a country full 
of marvels to Englishmen, whether they had trav- 
eled on the Continent or journeyed only within 
their native land. Mather relates that Winthru]) 
had a ring which his grandfather had received from 
Charles the First; and that the acceptance by his 
Majesty of this souvenir of his father, effectually 
pledged him to favor the suppliant who offered it. 

The charter bore the date April 23, 1662. For 
some time after it came into his possession, Win- 
throp expected to return home that summer and 
be himself the bearer of the document; but chang- 
ing his plans and deciding to spend a second win- 
ter abroad, he sent it by another hand. At the 
General Assembly or Court of Election held at 
Hartford October 9, 1662, "the PATENT or 
CHARTER was this day publicly read in audience 
of the freemen, and declared to belong to them 
and their successors." 

There had been an understanding and an agree- 
ment between Winthroj) and Leete, tiiat the freemen 
of New Haven should not be brought under the 
authority established by the charter unless with 
their own consent. 

They both believed that it would be better for 
New Haven to unite with Connecticut than to 
attempt to maintain itself as a separate sovereignty; 
but they were equally agreed in the expectation 
tiiat the freemen of New Haven would not be com- 
pelled to submit to Connecticut. But no sooner 
had the charter been read and acce|)ted at Hart- 
ford than the General Court began to receive as 
freemen of Connecticut disaffected inhabitants of 
Southold, Guilford, Stamford, and Greenwich. 

Winthrop, when he heard of it, wrote to Major 
John Mason, the Deputy-Governor, that he hoped 
it had been done "from misunderstanding and not 
in design of prejudice to that colony, for whom I 
gave assurance to their friends that their rights and 
interests should not be disquieted or prejudiced by 
the patent.'' He recommends that "if any injury 
iialh been done by admitting of freemen or appoint- 
ing of officers, or any other unjust intermeddling 
with New Haven colony in one kind or other 



without the approbation of the government, that it 
be forthwith recalled." 

Probably Winthrop's letter to INIason miscarried, 
for there was no recall of proceedings such as he 
advised. Connecticut insisted upon the submis- 
sion of New Haven, and a long controversy ensued. 
The freemen of New Haven were divided on the 
question of uniting with Connecticut ; some desir- 
ing to avail themselves of the security afforded by a 
royal charter, and others setting more value on the 
ancient constitution of the colony with its funda- 
mental law limiting suffrage to church members, 
than on a royal charter. But however divided in 
opinion concerning the expediency of coming 
under the charter, New Haven was unanimous 
in refusing to treat concerning a union till she was 
redintegrated and acknowledged as a distinct col- 
ony. If Connecticut had fully believed that by 
retracting she could set in motion measures which 
would result in the absorption of New Haven, she 
might have sacrificed to the pride of her sister col- 
ony, the required punctilio. But fearing that the 
part)', whose professed desire was "that we may 
for the future live in love and peace together as 
distinct neighbor colonies, as we did above twenty 
years together before you received and misunder- 
stood and .so abused your patent," might become 
masters of the situation, she would not retract 
what she had done, lest she should in so doing 
admit the independence of New Haven. The 
negotiation between the two colonies was at a 
dead-lock when Royal Commissioners arrived from 
F^ngland, instructed to require the colonies to 
assist a fleet which had been sent to reduce under 
F^nglish authority, all the territory occupied by the 
Dutch; the King claiming it as of right belonging 
to the F'nglish, and bestowing it on his brother, 
the Duke of York. As the territory thus granted 
was to be bounded on the east by the Connecticut 
River, New Haven experienced a sudden change 
of heart toward Connecticut, preferring to submit 
to her jurisdiction rather than be subjected to the 
rule of a man who was a Royalist, a Romanist, and 
a Stuart. 

In less than three weeks after the arrival of the 
Royal Commissioners, Governer Leete convened 
the General Court at New Haven, and having 
explained the new aspect of affairs, and related 
some conference he had had with a committee 
recently sent from Connecticut in which he had 
signified to that committee that " if Connecticut 
would come and assert their claim to us in the 
King's authority, and would secure what at any 
time they had propounded to us, and would en- 
gage to stand to uphold the liberties of the patent, 
we would call the General Court together, that they 
may consider of it and be ready to give them an 
answer; and said for our parts we did not know 
but we might bow before it, if they assert it ami 
make it good. " After much debate the Court voted 
as follows: "If Connecticut do come down and 
assert their right to us by virtue of their charter, 
and require us in his I\Iajesty's name to submit to 
their government, that then it be declared to them 
that we do submit." 



THE COLONY OF NEW HA VEN. 



If anything was now wanting to the settlement 
of the question whether New Haven belonged to 
Connecticut, it was a formal determination by the 
Royal Commissioners of the boundary between 
Connecticut and New York. The royal grant to 
the Duke of York made the Connecticut River his 
eastern boundary; but the Winthrop charter gave 
Connecticut one hundred and twenty miles west- 
ward from the Narragatisett River. By one instru- 
ment New Haven was in New York, and by the 
other it was in Connecticut. There was no place 
for it as an independent colony. They had no 
title whatever from the English crown, and their 
territory was claimed by two different parties. 

The diplomacy of Winthrop was equal to the 
occasion. Having been appointed by the General 
Assembly of Connecticut to go with others to New 
York to congratulate his Majesty's Honorable 
Commissioners, he and his associates were em- 
powered "if an opportunity ofiTer itself that they 
can issue the bounds between the Duke's patent 
and ours, so as in their judgment may be to the 
satisfaction of the Court to attend to the same. " 
Winthrop had already rendered important aid to 
the Commissioners some months before, in negoti- 
ating the surrender to them of New Amsterdam; 
but still further to prepare the way for an issue that 
would be to the satisfaction of the Court, an order 
had been passed "that Colonel Nicolls and the 
rest of the Commissioners be presented with four 
hundred bushels of corn as a present from this 
colony." 

The Commissioners after assigning Long Island, 
which Connecticut claimed as one of the adja- 
cent islands mentioned in her charter, to his 
Royal Highness the Duke of York, proceeded to 
declare : 

That the creek or river called Mamoronock, which is re- 
puted to be about twelve miles to the east of Westchester, 
and a line drawn from the east point or side, where the 
fresh water falls into the salt at higliwater mark, north- 
north-west to the line of the Massachusetts, be the western 
bounds of the said colony of Connecticut ; and all planta- 
tions lying westward of that creek and line so drawn to be 
under his Royal Highness's government, and all plantations 
lymg eastward of that creek and line to be under the gov- 
ernment of Connecticut. 

The submission of New Haven was an unqual- 
ified triumph for Connecticut. There had been a 
time when she would have modified the qualifica- 
tions for suffrage, and made them as nearly con- 
formable to those in New Haven as the home gov- 
ernment would allow. The qualifications she had 
proposed to New Haven in the preceding year are 
almost exactly what ^Massachusetts adopted when 
the Royal Commissioners demanded in the King's 
name that church-membership should not be in- 
sisted on. At that time she seemed willing to per- 
mit New Haven to have a court in which magis- 
trates might, without a jury, try and determine 
causes. But New Haven, instead of securing con- 
cessions by capitulating when they were offered, 
had obstinately refused, and now submitted without 
any definite treaty. The last General Court of the 
colony was held December 13, 1664, and voted, 
2 



I. — That by this act or vote we be not understood to jus- 
tify Connecticut's former actings, nor anything disorderly 
done hy our own people upon such accounts. 

2. —That by it we lie not apprehended to have any hand 
in breaking or dissolving the confederation. 

V'et, in testimony of our loyalty to the King's Majesty, 
when an authentic copy of the determination of his Commis- 
sioners is published, to be recorded with us, if thereby it 
shall appear to our committee that we are by his Majesty's 
authority now put under Connecticut Patent, we shall sub- 
mit; as from a necessity brought upon us by their means of 
Connecticut aforesaid, but with a salvo jure of our former 
right and claim, as a people who have not yet been heard in 
point of plea. 

Relying on the following assurance, given on the 
19th day of the preceding November, by the Com- 
mittee from Connecticut, who demanded their sub- 
mission: 

We do further declare that it is intended by the ( ieneral 
Court of Connecticut that the freemen of New Haven, upon 
the presentment of their names with testimony, be accepted 
as freemen of Connecticut. 

About twenty of the New Haven freemen went 
to Hartford at the next election, which was in May, 
1665, but "were sent home as repudiated, after 
they had suffered the difficulties and hazards of 
an uncomfortable and unsafe journey in that wet 
season."* 

Naturally, those who had made the journey to 
Hartford expecting to be received as freemen of 
Connecticut on proof that they were freemen of 
New Haven, were irritated by the treatment they 
received; and the record of a town meeting, held 
on the 8th day of May, 1666, shows that the dis- 
appointment and consequent irritation was general. 

Mr. Jones accjuainted the town that Mr. Sherman was now 
in town, in pursuance of the General Assembly's order of 
last year, to tender the freemen's oath to our present free- 
men, and to as many others of the town as should orderly 
present themselves and be found fit. But there was only 
Mr. Henry Rutherford, Henry Glover, Mr. Thomas Vale, 
John Winston, Mr. James Russell, Ralph Lines, Francis 
Brown, Jeremiah Osborne and Henry Bristow took tlie oath, 
and that according to the terms of our submission. 

So far as appears, these nine, with one in addi- 
tion (David Atwater), who had been sworn in at 
Hartford when the others had refused to take the 
oath, were the only freemen of Connecticut in the 
town of New Haven in May, 1666; the magis- 
trates and other civil and military officers being al- 
lowed to continue in their respective places without 
taking the oath required of its freemen by Con- 
necticut. But a beginning having been made, re- 
conciliation made progress till in 1669, the consta- 
bles of New Haven reported to the General Assem- 
bly the names of ninety persons in that town who 
were freemen of Connecticut. Probably by that 
time nearly all in the town who had been freemen 
of the New Haven colony had transferred their 
allegiance. The name of Nicholas Street, the rev- 
erend teacher of the church, is not in the list of 
1669, though his death did not occur till 1674. 

The name of John Davenport is, of course, not 
found among the freemen of 1669, for he had 
then become a resident of Boston; but there is no 
reason to believe that if he had remained in New 

* Davenport's Letter to Winthrop, declining to preach the Election 
Sermon in 1666, 



10 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



Haven he would so soon have become reconciled 
to Connecticut. 

Abraham Pierson, pastor of the church in Bran- 
ford, had, many years before, removed with sever- 
al families of his flock out of the jurisdiction of 
Connecticut into that of New Haven, because they 
so much preferred its fundamental law. They 
were naturally disappointed and grieved when Con- 
necticut followed them with its latitudinarianism in 
the admission of freemen. Their disappointment 
was so great that some of them, including the pas- 
tor, removed to Newark, New Jersey, and con- 
menced a new settlement.* 

To none was the disappointment so severe as to 
Davenport, who, on the other side of the sea, had 
devised, in co-operation with his now deceased 
friend, Eaton, the peculiar constitution of New 
Haven — who had seen the establishment of one 
plantation after another according to the pattern he 
had set, and the combination of them under a co- 
lonial government, which he fondly thought would 

* In my History of the Colony of New Haven, I followed the state- 
ment of Trumbnll, that Mr. Pierson and almost his whole church and 
congregation removed to Newark, and earned off the records of the 
church and town. I have since been informed by the Rev. E. C. Bald- 
win, formerly of Branford, that ihe records of the/iJ7t'« were not carried 
away, and that Trumbull's statement respecting the number of emi- 
grants is too strong. Mr. Baldwin says that there was no intermission 
in the maintenance of public worship in Branford consequent upon the 
emigration to Newark. 



remain till the coming of the Lord. He speaks in 
a letter to a friend in ^Massachusetts of "Christ's 
interest in New Haven colony as miserably lost.'' 
In this state of mind he received an invitation to the 
pastorate of the First Church in Boston, there to 
champion the cause of orthodo.xy against the half- 
way covenant, and, contrary to the wishes of his 
church and congregation, accepted the invitation. 
Mr. John Hull, of Boston, writes in his diary, un- 
der date of May 2, 1668: " At three or four in the 
afternoon came Mr. John Davenport to town, with 
his wife, son, and son's family, and were met by 
many of the town. A great shower of extraor- 
dinary drops of rain fell as they entered the town: 
but Mr. Davenport and his wife were sheltered in a 
coach of Mr. Searl, who went to meet them." 

Mr. Davenport's ministry in Boston was of short 
duration. He died in less than two 3'ears after his 
removal thither. His departure from New Haven 
doubtless helped to obliterate the bitter feelings 
produced by the controversy between Connecticut 
and New Haven. The union of the two colonies 
was in itself so desirable, that resentment against 
what was wrong in the means of accomplishing it, 
yielded to the stronger feeling of satisfaction with 
the result. After two centuries, New Haven scarce- 
ly remembers that she was once a distinct colony. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE TOWN OF NEW HAVEN BEFORE THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 



NEW HAVEN from the first aspired to be a 
colony as well as a plantation. But there j 
was onlv a theoretical difference between colonial 
and plantation authority previous to the combina- 
tion of Guilford and Milford with New Haven. 

The Plantation Court at New Haven had made i 
and issued "orders" concerning Southold and 
Stamford when no representative of either of those 
plantations was present. But after the combination 
with Guilford and ^Milford, the plantation of New 
Haven held its general Courts distinct from those 
of the colony. Gradually the word plantation fell ; 
into disuse, and the word toivn took its place. 

It will not be inappropriate now, when we have 1 
seen the colonial government come to an end, to ' 
take a look at the plantation as it was during the 
lifetime of its first planters. 

There is in the first volume of the Colonial 
Records^ — little discrimination having been made 
between the acts of the town and those of the col- 
ony — a schedule exhibiting the names of the pro- 1 
prietors of the plantation of New Haven in 1641^4 
the number of persons each had in his family; 
the amount of his estate ; the number of acres he 
was entitled to have of uj)land near the town, of 
meadow, of land in the neck between Mill and 
Quinnipiac Rivers, and of upland remote from the 
town; and the amount of his annual tax. Omitting 
the tax column for want of room, we transcribe 
this schedule that the reader may become acquainted 



with those who commenced the settlement of the 
town. 



Names of the 
Planters. 



Mr. Theophilus Eaton.... 

Mr. Samuel Eaton 

Mrs. Eaton 

David Yale 

William Tuttlc 

Kzelvicl Cheever 

Captain Turner '. . 

Richard Perry 

Mr. D.»venport 

Richard Mallion 

Thomas N.ash 

John Benhain 

Tho. Kimberly...^ 

John Chapman 

Matthew Gilbert 

Jasper Crane 

Mr. Rnwp ■- ■ ■ 

An Elder 

George Lamberton 

William Wilks 

Thomas Jeffrey 

Robert Seeley ' 4 

Nicholas Elsey I 2 

John Budd 

Richard Hull 

William Preston 

Honjamin Fenn 

William Jeanes 

John Brocketl 

Roger Ailing 













t 








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165 


33 


■53 


800 


45 


9 


41 


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10 


2 


8 


300 


■7i 


3* 


■54 


4.50 


375 


7l 


26 


20 


85 


1H32 


2i 


Sod 


575 


.a 


434 


2t0 


20^ 


4S-1-.6 


144 


I003 


574 


II'I 


5^4 


500 


4iJ 


84 


28iS 


no 


23 


44+16 


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70 


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150 


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84 


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74 


254 


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62 
107 

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206 
l"4 

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64 
124 
120 
212 
lOS 
212 

34 

24 

43 

10 

102 

■3+4 



40 

5 



THE TOWN OF NEW HA VEX 



11 



Names of the 
Planters. 



Mr. Hickock 

Mr. Mansfield 

, Thomas Gregson 

Stephen Goodyear 

William Hawkins 

Jeremiah Whitnell 

Samuel Bailey .... 

Thomas Buckingham 

Richard Mile« X. 

Thomas Welch 

Nathanit^l Axtell 

Henry Stonell 

William Fowler 

Peter Priidden 

James Pruddcn 

Edmond Tapp 

Widow Baldwin 

An Elder 

Richard Piatt 

Zachariah Whitman 

Thomas Osborne. 

Henry Rutherford 

Thomas Trowbridge 

Widow Potter 

John Potter 

Samuel Whitehead 

John Clark 

Luke Atkinson 

Arthur Halbidge 

Edward Bannibter 

William Peck 

John Moss 

John Charles 

Richard Beach 

Timothy Ford 

Peter Brown 

Daniel Paul 

John Livermore 

Anthony I'hompson 

John Reeder 

Robert Cogswell 

Matthias HitcTicock 

Francis Hall 

Richard Osborne 

William Potter 

James Clark 

Edward Patteson 

Andrew Hull 

William Ives 

George Smith .'•, 

Widow Sherman 

Matthew Moulthrop 

Thomas James, Sr 

Widow Greene 

Thomas Vale 

Thomas Fugill 

John Punderson 

John Johnson 

Abraham Bell 

John Evance 

Mr. Mayres 

Mrs. Constable 

Joshua Atwaier 

Thomas Fugill 

Edward Wigglesworth . . . 

Thomas Powell 

Henry Browning 

Mrs. Higgin=on , 

Edward 'tVp'-h - .... .■■ . 

Jeremiah Dixon 

William Thorp 

Robert Hill 

Widow Williams 

Andrew Low 

Francis Newman , 

John Caffinch 

David Atwater 

— Lucas , 

— Dearmer 

Benjamin Ling 

Robert Newman , 

William Andrews 

John Cooper ^ 

Richard HL-ckley V, 

Mr. Marshall 

Mrs Eldred , 

Francis Brewster , 

Mark Pearce , 

Jarvis Boykin , 

James Russell , 

George Ward 

Lawrence Ward 

Moses Wheeler 



400 
600 
1000 
1000 

50 
250 

60 
400 
250 
500 
300 
800 
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800 
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SO 



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320 

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■ 5° 

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150 

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84 
66 
86 
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73 
141 

92 
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210 
210 
263 



Of these proprietors several were non-resident, 
having never come over from England; others 
soon removed to Milford. They all had their 
house-lots on the half-mile square bounded by 
George and Grove, State and York streets, or on 
one of the two irregularly-shaped blocks which 
they called suburbs; except the last four on the 
catalogue, who lived in East Water street. The 
half mile square was divided into nine squares, of 
which that one now called the Green, they called 
the Market Place. 

In the center of the Market Place was the Meet- 
ing-house. It was of wood, was fifty feet square, 
had a roof shaped like a truncated pyramid, and 
was surmounted by a tower and turret. There 
were also "banisters and rails on the meeting- 
house top," which probably inclosed that higher 
and flatter portion of the roof from which the tower 
ascended. It was built in accordance with an 
order of the General Court passed November 25, 
1639, and continued in use till 1670, when its 
successor was ready for occupancy. 

The frame of the first meeting-house being in- 
sufficient to support the weight of the tower and 
turret, it became necessary to shore up the posts. 

In time it was found that the shores were 
impaired by decay, and fears were e.xpressed that 
the house would fall. In January, 1660, there 
was a discussion at a General Court concerning 
the Meeting-house. Some were for removing the 
turret and allowing the tower to remain. Some 
thought that both tower and turret might be re- 
tained, if the shores were renewed and the frame 
was strengthened within the house. In conclusion 
it was "determined that besides the renewing of 
the shores, both turret and tower shall be taken 
down." 

Probably the order to take down the tower 
and turret was not e.xecuted, for a committee 
on the meeting-house reported August 11, 1662, 
that "they thought it good that the upper turret 
be taken down. The thing being debated, it was 
put to vote and concluded to be done, and left to 
the townsmen to see to get it done." 

The internal arrangement of the meeting-house 
is shown in the accompanying plan. Behind the 
pulpit was the seat of the teaching elders; imme- 
diately in front of it was the seat of the ruling elder; 
and before the seat of the ruling elder was the seat 
of the deacons, having a shelf in front of it which 
ordinarily hung suspended from hinges so as lo 
present its broad surface to the congregation, but 
when needed for a communion-table was ele- 
vated to a horizontal position. The officers of the 
church thus sat facing the congregation. The 
sexes were seated apart, the men on one side and 
the women on the other side of "the middle 
alley." "The soldiers' seats," however, were an 
exception to the rule; one-half of them being on 
the women's side of the house. The "forms" 
between the ' ' alleys " were long enough to accom- 
modate seven persons; but only two or three per- 
sons were assigned to the forms near the pulpit, 
the space allowed to each having some proportion 
to his dignity. 



12 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 




r I 



Exterior of Meeting-House. 

There were two pillars in the meeting-house, 
one on the side where the men were seated, and 
one on the women's side. Apparently they were 
designed to aid in supporting the weight of the 
tower and turret. On the accompanying ground- 
plan they are represented as placed in the side 
" alleys," half way from front to rear. 

The first seating which is recorded placed only 
proprietors and their wives. The 
second was more liberal, including 
apparently all heads of familie.s, 
but, with the exception of Mr. Good- 
year's daughters, no unmarried women. 
This more liberal policy in the assign- 
ment of seats rendered it necessary to 
place benches in the " alleys, " before 
every front seat and before each of the 
pillars. In January, 1647, "'t was 
ordered that the jwrticular court with 
the two deacons, taking in the advice 
of the ruling elder, should place people 
in the meeting-house, and it was 
ordered that the governor may be 
spared therein." The governor was 
probably " spared " because his wife 
having been excommunicated, no .seat 
could, according to luiglish custom, be 
assigned to her. But there was plenty 
of room for her in the seal with " old 
Mrs. Eaton." Nine years later, the 
governor's mother being now dead, tlie 
seat was assigned to his wife under the 
adroit circumlocution: " The first as it 
was." But the committee's faculty of 
circumlocution failed when they came 
to the bench in front of that seat and 
they wrote: "Before Mrs. Eaton's 



seat." There had doubtless been " a 
seating" earlier than that of 1647, but 
it escaped being recorded. At a general 
court held March 10, 1647, the com- 
mittee appointed in January having 
meanwhile performed their duty, " the 
names of people as they were seated in 
the meeting-house were read in court, 
and it was ordered they should be re- 
corded." In 1656, nine years later, 
another record was made; and in 1662 
there was a third record of the names 
of people as they were seated in the 
meeting-house. We have transcribed 
the earliest of these lists of names, so 
as to place it before the eye of the reader. 
The other two may be found in the 
" History of the Colony of New Haven 
to its Absorption into Connecticut," by 
the editor of this volume. 
SEATING THE MEETING-HOUSE IN 1647. 

FIRST, FOR THE MEN'S SEATS, VIZ.: 
The middle seals have to sit in them: 
1st seat, the governor and deputy-governor. 
2d seat, Mr. Malbon, magistrate. 
3d seat, Mr. Evance, Mr. Bracey, Mr. Francis 
Newman, Mr. Gibbard. 

4th seat, Goodman Wigglesworth, Bro. At- 
water, Bro. Seeley, Bro. Miles. 
5th seat, Bro. Crane, Bro. Gibbs, Mr. Caffinch, Mr. 
Ling, Bro. Andrews. 

6th seat, Bro. Davis, Goodman Osborne, Anthony 
Thompson, Mr. Browning, Mr. Rutherford, Mr. Higginson. 
7th seat, Bro. Camfield, Mr. James, Bro. Benham, W™. 
Thompson, Bro. Lindon, Bro. Martin. 

8th seat, Jno. Meigs, Jno. Cooper, Peter Brown, Wm. 
Peck, John Gregory, Nicholas Elsey. 

9th seat, Edw. Bannister, Jno. Harriman, Ben j. Wil mot, 
Jarvis Boykin, Arthur Halbidge. 



PI 


1 1 








. 1 s 


s 


1 1 s 1 


1 1 1 




mil , 


ii^ni , 



Interior of Meeting-House. 



THE TOWN OF NEW HA VEN. 



v.\ 



In the cross seats at the end. 

1st seat, Mr. Pell, Mr. Tuttle. Bro. Fowler. 

2(1 seat, Thorn. Nash, Mr. Allerton, Bro. Perry. 

3d seat, Jno. Nash, David Atwaler, Thomas Vale. 

4th scat, Robert Johnson, Thorn. Jeffrey, John Pun- 
derson. 

5th seat. Thorn. Munson, Jno. Liverinore, Roger Ailing, 
loseph Nash, Sam. Whitehead, Thomas James. 

In the other little seat, John Clark, Mark Pearce. 

Jn the seats 011 the siiie^ for men. 

1st, Jeremy Whitnell, W'm. Preston, Thorn. Kimberley, 
Thorn. Powell. 

2d, Daniel Paul, Richard Beckley, Richard Mansfield, 
James Russell. 

3d, W™. Potter, Thorn. Lamson, Christopher Todd, 
William Ives. 

4th, Hen. Glover. W'm. Thorp, Matthias Hitchcock, 
Andrew Low. 

On the other side of the door. 

1st, John Moss, Luke Atkinson, Jno. Thomas, Abraham 
Bell. 

2d, George Smith, John Wakefield, Edw. Patteson, 
Richard Beach. 

3d, John Bassett, Timothy Ford, Thom. Knowles, 
Robert Preston. 

4th, Richard Osborne, Robert Hill, Jno. Wilford, Henry 
Gibbons. 

5th, Francis Brown, Adam Nicolls, Goodman Leeke, 
Goodman Dayton. 

6th, Wm. Gibbons, John \'incent, Thomas Wheeler, John 
Brockett. 

SECONnLY, FOR THE WOMEN'S SEATS. 

In the middle. 

1st seat, old Mrs. Eaton. 

2d seat, Mrs. Malbon, Mrs. Gregson, Mrs. Davenport, 
Mrs. Ilooke. 

3d seat, Elder Newman's wife, Mrs. Lamberton, Mrs. 
Turner, Mrs. Brewster. 

4th seat, Sister Wakeman, Sister Gibbard, Sister Gil- 
bert, Sister Miles. 

Sth seat, Mr. Francis Newman's wife. Sister Gibbs, Sis- 
ter Crane, Sister Tuttle, Sister Atwater. 

6th seat. Sister Seeley, Mrs. Caffinch, Mrs. Perry, Sister 
Davis, Sister Cheever, Jno. Nash's wife. 

7th seat, David Atwater 's wife. Sister Clarke, Mrs. Vale, 
Sister Osborne, Sister Thompson. 

Sth seat. Sister Wigglesworth, Goody Johnson, Goody 
Camfield, Sister Punderson, Goody Meigs, Sister Gregory. 

9th seat. Sister Todd, Sister Boykin, William Potter's 
wife, Matthias Hitchcock's wife, Sister Cooper. 

In the cross seats at the end. 

1st, Mrs. Bracey, Mrs. Evance. 

2d, Sister Fowler, Sister Ling, Sister Allerton. 

3d, Sister Jaffrey, Sister Rutherford, Sister Livermore. 

4th, Sister Preston, Sister Benhani, Sister Mansfield. 

5th, Sister Ailing, Goody Bannister, Sister Kimberley, 
Goody Wilmot, Sister Whitnell, Mrs. Higginson. 
In the little cross seat. 

Sister Potter, the midwife, and old Sister Nash. 
In the seats on the side. 

1st seat. Sister Powell, Goocjy Lindon, Mrs. James. 

2d seat. Sister Whitehead, Sister Munson, Sister Beck- 
ley, Sister Martin. 

3d seat. Sister Peck, Joseph Nash's wife, Peter Brown's I 
wife, Sister Russell. I 

4th seat. Sister Ives, Sister Bassett, Sister Patteson, Sis- | 
ter Klsey. 

In the seats on the other side of the door. 

1st seat, Jno. Thomas' wife. Goody Knowles, Goody ' 
Beach, Goody Hull. '■ 

2d seat. Sister Wakefield, Sister Smith, Goody Moss, [ 
James Clarke's wife. I 

3d seat, Sister Brockett, Sister Hill, Sister Clarke, I 
Goody Ford. 

4th seat. Goody Osborne, Goody Wheeler, Sister Nicolls, 
Sister Brown. 



At the town meeting at which the second list of 
names was read, "it was agreed that (because 
there want seats for some, and that the alleys are 
so filled with blocks, stools and chairs, that it 
hinders a free passage) low benches shall be made 
at the end of the seats on both sides of the alleys 
for young persons to sit on." But these additional 
seats did not suffice; for, about twelve months 
later, the townsmen, or, as we now term them, 
the selectmen, were " desired to speak with some 
workmen to see if another little gallery may not 
for a small charge be made adjoining that [which] 
is already." This menlion of the gallery prompts 
us to suggest that, as, with few exceptions, the per- 
sons who had seals assigned to them by name were 
heads of families, young men and young women 
sat in the gallery, as was the general custom in New 
England in later generations. There is reason for 
believing that the boys clustered together on the 
gallery stairs, and that though not allowed to wear 
their hats, as their fathers were, they sometimes dis- 
turbed the "exercise " with their exuberant vitality. 
That the interior of the building was cared for and 
kept free from dust is evident from the minute: " It 
is ordered that sister Preston shall sweep and dress 
the meeting-house every week and have one shilling 
a week for her pains.'" 

Toward the rude sanctuary in the Market Place, 
the persons whose names are written above, and 
many others too youthful or too lowly in station to 
be dignified with an assigned seat, went up in the 
morning of every Lord's Day. The first drum was 
beaten about eight o'clock in the tower of the 
meeting-house and through the streets of the town. 
When the second drum sounded, an hour later, 
families came forth from their dwellings and walked 
in orderly procession to the House of God; chil- 
dren following their parents to the door, though 
not allowed to sit with them in the assembly after 
they were of sufficient age to be separated from their 
mothers. The tninisters in the pulpit wore gowns 
and bands, as they had done in England; their 
Puritan scruples reaching not to all the badges of 
official distinction which they had been accustomed 
to see and to use, but only to the surplice. 

The only other public buildings on the Market 
Place were a school-house and a watch-house. The 
latter was for the comfort of the watchmen who 
were on duty at night, and on Sundays and lecture 
days and other days, ordinary and extraordinary, 
of solemn worship. In 1645 

It is ordered that the market-place be forthwith cleared, 
and the wood carried to the watch-house, and there piled 
for the use and succor of the watch in cold weather; and 
the care of this business is committed to the four sergeants. 



From a record four years later, it appears that 
this work of clearing the Market Place was to be 
performed by the inhabitants, each working in his 
turn, either personally or by proxy; that some trees 
were then still standing; and that some of the in- 
habitants had not yet done their share of the labor. 
Probably a wood-pile had been provided sufficient 
for the use and succor of the watch for four years; 
after the lapse of which time, "it was propounded 
that some wood might be provided for the watch. 



14 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF XEW HA VEN. 



The sergeants were desired to inquire who hath not 
wrought in tiie market-place, that they might cut 
some wood out; and in the meantime the treasurer 
was to provide a load." A watch ordinarily con- 
sisted of one intrusieil as master of the watch and 
six other watchmen. 

The master of the watch is to set the watch an hour 
after sunset, divitlint; the night into three watches, sending 
forth two and two together to walk their turns, as well 
without the town as within the town and the suburbs also, 
to bring to the court of guard any person or persons wlioni 
they shall find disorderly, or in a suspicious manner within 
doors or without, whether English or Indians, or any other 
strangers whatsoever, and keep them there safe until the 
morning and then bring them before one of the magistrates. 
If the watchmen in any part of their watch see any apparent 
common danger, which they cannot otherwise prevent or 
stop, then they are to make an alarm by discharging their 
two guns, which are to be answered by him that stands at 
the door to keep sentinel, and that also seconded by beat- 
ing of the drum. And if the danger be by fire, then with 
the alarm, the watchmen are to cry: fire ! fire I ! And if it 
be by the discovery of an enemy, then they are to cry: 
arm ! arm ! 1 all the town over, yet so as to leave a guard 
at the court of guard. The master is to take care that one 
man always stand sentinel in a sentinel posture without the 
watch-house, to hearken diligently after the watchmen, and 
see that no man come near the watch-house or court of 
guard; no, not those of the present watch who have been 
walking the round, but that he require them to stand, and 
call forth the master of the watch to question, proceed, or 
receive them as he shall see cause. The master of the 
watch is also to see that none of the watchmen sleep at all, 
and that none of their guns remain uncharged till the watch 
break up, and also that no man lay aside his arms while 
the watch continues. 

In 1647 "it was propounded that men would 
clear wood and stones from their pale-sides, that 
the w-atchmen in dark nights might the more safely 
walk the rounds without hurt thereby." The pales 
with which the house-lots were inclosed were in 
some cases six feet aiul in other cases five feet high. 
In some instances rails were used for fencing, but 
the use of such an expression as " pale-sides" in 
the record, seems to imply that the streets weie 
more commonly separated from the inclosures by 
pales. The avenues which led out of the town 
plat were j>rovided with gates, which at night were 
shut, and tloubtless locked. 

New Haven excelled all the other plantations of 
New England in the elegance and costliness of its 
domestic architecture. Hubbard, the historian, 
who was seventeen years of age when New Haven 
was founded, speaks of its "error in great build- 
ings," and afterward alludes to it again, saying: 
"They laid out too much of their stocks and es- 
tates in building of fiiir and stately houses, wherein 
they at the first outdid the rest of the country." 
Tradition reports that the house of Theophiius 
Katon was so large as to have nineteen fireplaces, 
and that it was lofty as well as large. Its principal 
apartment, denominated — as in the mother coun- 
try — the hall, was the first to be entered. It was 
sufficiendy spacious to accommodate the whole 
(iimily when assembled at meals and at prayers. 
It contained, according to the inventory taken 
after the Governors decease, "a drawing tabic," 
"a round table," "green cushions," "a great 
chair with needle-work," " high chairs," "high 
stools," "low chairs," "low stools," "Turkey 



carpets," "high wine stools," and "great brass 
andirons." 

"The parlor," probably adjoining the hall, and 
having windows opening upon the street, served as 
a withdrawing room, to which the elder members 
of the family and their guests retired from the crowd 
and bustle of the hall. But, according to the fash- 
ion of the time, the parlor contained the furniture 
of a bedroom, and was occasionally used as the 
sleeping apartment of a guest. 

Mather, speaking of Eaton's manner of life, says 
that "it was his custom when he first rose in the 
morning to repair unto his study; " and again, that, 
"being a great reader, all the time he could spare 
from company and business, he commonly spent in 
his beloved study.'' There is no mention in the 
inventory of " the study; " but perhaps the apart- 
ment referred to by Mather was described by the 
appraisers as "the counting-house," the two names 
denoting that it was used both as a library and as 
an oflice. 

If these three rooms filled the front of the man- 
sion, the reader may locate behind them at his own 
discretion, the winter kitchen, the summer kitchen, 
ihe buttery, the pantry — offices necessarily implied, 
even if not mentioned, as connected w^ith an exten- 
sive homestead of the seventeenth century — and 
then add the brew-house and the warehouse, both 
mentioned in the inventory. 

Of the sleeping apartments in the second story, 
the green chamber, so called from the color of its 
drapery, was chief in the expensiveness and ele- 
gance of its furniture, and presumably in its size, 
siiuaiion and wainscoting. The walls of the blue 
chamber were hung with tapestry, but the green 
drapery was of better quality than the blue. The 
blue chamber had a Turkey carpet, but the ap- 
praisers set a higher value on the carpet in the 
green chamber. All the other sleeping rooms were 
lurnished each with a feather-bed of greater or less 
value, but the green chamber had a bed of down. 
In this chamber, probably, was displayed the silver 
basin and ewer, double gilt and curiously wrought 
with gold, which the Fellowship of Eastland Mer- 
chants had presented to Mrs. Eaton in acknowl- 
edgment of her husband's services as their agent 
in the countries about the Baltic. The appraisers 
valued it at forty pounds sterling, but did not put 
it in the inventory, because Mrs. Eaton claimed it 
as "her proper estate," 

There was in the house, in addition to the bowl 
and ewer, plate to the value of one hundred and 
seven pounds eleven shillings sterling. Taking 
into consideration what we know of the house and 
furniture, we must conclude with Hubbard, that 
the (Governor "maintained a port in some measure 
answerable to his place. " 

Of course there was no other house in the plan- 
tation equal to that of Governor Eaton; but Presi- 
dent Stiles has transmitted the names of three other 
planters whose mansions he includes with that of 
Eaton among the four which excelled in stateliness 
all other houses erected in New Haven by the first 
generation of its inhabitants. The three were Mr. 
John Davenport's, Mr. Thomas Oregon's, and Mr. 



THE TO WN OF NEW HA VEX. 



15 



Isaac AUerton's. * He informs us that he had him- 
self in his boyhood been famihar with the interior 
of Mr. Davenport's house, and that it had thirteen 
fire-places. He tells us on the authority of one of the 
mechanics who demolished the Allerton house, that 
the wood was all of oak and of the best joiner- work. 

The average dwelling-house of the first genera- 
tion of planters was supported by a frame of heavy 
timber. White oak was a favorite wood for this 
purpose, and some of the larger pieces were con- 
siderably more than a foot square. Such a house 
had a stone chimney measuring, perhaps, ten feet 
in diameter where it passed through the first floor; 
being even larger in the cellar, and tapering as it 
ascended, the lire-place in one of the apartments 
of the first floor being six or eight feet long. A 
door in the middle of the front side of the house 
opened into a hall, which contained the principal 
stairway on the side opposite to the entrance and 
opened on the right hand and on the left into front 
rooms used as parlors, but furnished, one or both 
of them, with beds; which, if not commonly in 
use, stood ready to answer such drafts upon hospi- 
tality as are frequent in a new country, where all 
traveling is by private conveyance. The apartment 
most used by the family, in which they cooked and 
ate their food, and in winter gathered about the 
spacious fire-place, was in the rear of the chimney. 
At one end of it was a small bedroom and at the 
other a buttery. 

The frame of such a house was covered with 
clapboards or with shingles, and after a little ex- 
perience the planters learned to prefer cedar shin- 
gles to perishable and inflammable thatch as a 
covering for the roof The floors were of thick 
oak boards fastened with wooden pins. The 
rooms were plastered on the sides; but the joists 
and floor above were exposed to view\ In the 
parlors, the side contiguous to the chimney was 
usually wainscoted, and thus displayed wide panels 
from the largest trees of the primeval forest. The 
window sashes, bearing glass cut into small dia- 
mond-shaped panes and set with lead, were hung 
with hinges to the window-frames and opened 
outward. The doors were of upright boards, fast- 
ened together with battens, and had wooden latches. 
The outside doors were made of two layers of 
board, one upright and one transverse, fastened 
together with clinched nails, so arranged as to cover 
the door with diamond-shaped figures of equal 
dimensions. The front door was made in two 
valves, which, when closed, met in the middle and 
were fastened in that position by a wooden bar, 
placed across from one post to the other, and se- 
cured by iron staples. 

Lower in rank than these framed buildings were 
log-houses, which, when small and built with little 
expenditure of joiner-work, were called huts rather 
than houses: as on a Western prairie a log cabin is 
even now distinguished from a log-house. 



* Isaac Allerton was one of the pilgrims who came to Plymouth in 
the Mayflower. Having fallen under censure on account of some 
commercial transactions in whichhewas the agent of the colony, he 
removed first to Marblehead and afterwards to New Haven. A lot 
was granted him on Union street, near Fair street, where he built " a 
grand house with four porches." 



In the seventeenth century, as compared with 
the present day, household furniture was rude and 
scanty, even in England; and doubtless emigra- 
tion to a new country deprived the planters of New 
England of some domestic conveniences which 
they might have possessed if they had remained at 
home. A few of the most distinguished men in 
New Haven had tapestry hangings in their princi- 
pal apartments; and Governor Eaton had, in addi- 
tion to such luxuries, two Turkey carpets, a tapestry 
carpet, a green carpet fringed, and a small green 
carpet, besides rugs; but the mansion of a planter 
who had been a London merchant is not to be 
taken as a fair specimen of contemporary dwellings. 

Besides the beds, which stood in so many of the 
apartments, the most conspicuous and costly piece 
of furniture in a house was, perhaps, a tall case of 
drawers in the parlor. It was called a case of 
drawers and not a bureau; for at that time a writing- 
board was a principal feature of a bureau. If, as 
was sometimes the case, there were drawers in the 
lower part and a chest at the top, it was called a 
chest of drawers. This form, being in itself less 
expensive, received less of ornament, and was to 
be found even in the cottages of the poor. Still 
another form had drawers below and doors above, 
which, when opened, revealed small drawers for 
the preservation of important papers or other arti- 
cles of value. This form was sometimes called a 
cabinet. After the death of Governor Eaton, "there 
was found in his cabinet a paper, fairly written with 
his own hand, and subscribed also with his own 
hand, having his seal also thereunto affixed," which 
was accepted as his last will and testament, " though 
not testified by any witnesses nor subscribed by any 
hands as witnesses." The inventory of Governor 
Eaton does not mention a cabinet, but specifies 
among the items "in the green chamber, " which 
was evidently the most elegant of his apartments, a 
cupboard with drawers. This was doubtless, under 
a more homely name, the same piece of furniture 
which in the probate record is called a cabinet. 

The inventory of Governor Eaton makes no 
mention of a clock, and probably there was none 
in the Colony of New Haven while he lived, unless 
his friend Davenport had so early become the pos- 
sessor of the "clock, with appurtenances," which, 
after the death of its owner, was appraised at ^5. 

At a later date a clock outranked the case of 
drawers however elegant, by its greater rarity and 
greater cost. For a long time after their first ap- 
pearance, clocks were to be found only in the 
dwellings of the opulent, the generality of the peo- 
ple measuring time by noon-marks and sun-dials. 

Table furniture, as compared with that of the 
present day, was especially scanty. Forks were not 
in common use in England till after the union of 
New Haven with Connecticut, though, as Palfrey 
suggests, there was a very liberal supply of nap- 
kins, as if fingers were sometimes used for forks. 
Spoons used by families of the middle class were 
commonly of a base metal called alchymy, though 
some such families had a few spoons of silver. 
But if silverware was not in general use, families of 
opulence seem to have been well supplied with it. 



16 



HISTORY OF THE CTTV OF NEW HA VEN. 



Governor Eaton had, including the basin and ewer 
presented to Mrs. Eaton by the Eastland Fellow- 
ship, more than £,\\o worth of plate, and Mr. 
Davenport's plate was appraised at ^"50. 

Table dishes were generally of wood or of pew- 
ter, though china and earthenware are specified in 
the inventory of Mr. Davenport's estate. \^essels of 
glass are also sometimes mentioned in inventories. 
Drinking vessels, called cans, were cups of glass, 
silver or pewter, with handles attached to them. 
Porringers were small, bowl-shaped vessels for hold- 
ing the porridge commonly served for breakfast or 
supper. Usually they were of pewter and supplied 
with handles. Meat was brought to the table on 
platters of pewter or of wood, and from these was 
transferred to wooden trenchers, which, in their 
cheapest form, were square pieces of board, but 
often were cut by the lathe into the circular shape 
of their porcelain successors. 

In all but the most wealthy families, food was 
cooked in the apartment where it was eaten, and 
at the large fire-place, which by its size distin- 
guished the most frequented apartment of the 
house. A trammel in the -chimney, by means of 
its hook, which could be moved up or down ac- 
cording to the amount of fuel in use at the time, 
held the pot or kettle at the proper distance above 
the fire. At one end of the fire-place was an oven 
in the chimney. Supplementary to these instru- 
ments for boiling and baking, were a gridiron, a 
long-handled frying pan, and a spit for roasting 
before the fire. At the end of the room, pewter 
platters, porringers and basins, when not in use, 
were displayed on open shelves; and hanging 
against the wide panels of the wainscot were uten- 
sils of tin and l)rass, the brightness of the metal 
showing forth the comparative merit of the house- 
keeping. 

The diet of the planters necessarily consisted 
chiefly of domestic products; though commerce 
supplied the tables of the wealthy with sugar, for- 
eign fruits and wines. Kine and sheep were few 
during the early years of the colony, but there was 
such an abundance and variety of game, that the 
scarcity of beef and mutton was but a small in- 
convenience. In town, venison brought in by En- 
glish or Indian hunters was usually to be obtained 
of the truck-master; and at the farms, wild geese, 
wikl turke)-s, moose and deer were the prizes of 
the sharpshooti r. The air in spring and autumn 
was sc^metimes perceptibly darkened with pigeons; 
the rivers were full of fish; on the sea-sliore there 
was [ilcnty of clams, oysters and mussels. Poultry 
and swine soon multi])lied to such an extent, that 
they could be used for the table; and within ten 
years from the foundation of New Haven, beef had 
become an article of export. The abundance of 
game, of pork, and of poultry, doubtless hastened 
the exportation of this commodity. Tillage pro- 
duced, besides the maize, the beans, and the 
squashes indigenous to the country, almost every 
variety of food to which they had been accustomed 
in England. 

The diet for breakfast and supper was frequently 
porridge made of meat and of peas, beans or 



other vegetables. Frequently it was mush and 
milk. A boiled pudding of Indian meal, cooked 
in the same pot with the meat and vegetables 
which followed it, was often the first and principal 
course at dinner. It seems to have been assigned 
to the first course, in the interest of frugality, to 
spare the more expensive pork and beef. Of escu- 
lent roots, the turnip was far more highly prized 
and plentifully used than the potato. Tea and 
coffee had not yet come into general use so as to 
be articles of commerce even in England, but beer 
was the common drink of Englishmen at home 
and in America. A brew-house was regarded as 
an essential part of a homestead in the New Haven 
colony, and beer was on the table as regularly as 
bread. 

While the breakfast, dinner and supper de- 
scribed above may be taken as a specimen of the 
diet frequently appearing on the table of a New 
England family in the seventeenth century, they are 
by no means to be regarded as fixed by a rule from 
which there was no variation. There were flesh-days 
and there were fish-days in every week; and on Sat- 
urday, the oven being heated for baking bread, a 
pot of beans was put in, which, being allowed to re- 
main for twenty-four hours, furnished a warm sup- 
per for the family when they returned from public 
worship. There was variation from and addition 
to the ordinary fare on those numerous occasions, 
when friends, traveling on horseback, stopped to 
spend the night, or to rest in the middle of the 
day. Then the table was burdened with variety 
and abundance according to the means of the fam- 
ily and the providence of the mistress. Feasting 
reached its acme on the day of the annual thanks- 
giving, when there was such plenty of roast meats, 
and so extraordinary an outcome from the oven, 
that ordinary diet was for some days afterward dis- 
placed by the remains of the feast. 

No picture of domestic life in New England 
could be complete which did not exhibit the family 
observing the annual thanksgiving. Rejecting 
Christmas, the Puritans established in its place an- 
other festival, which became equally domestic in 
the manner of its observance. Children who had 
left their parents to prepare themselves for the du- 
ties of adult life, or to occupy homes which they 
themselves had established, were gathered again in 
the home of their nativity, or under the root of 
those whom they had learned since thev were mar- 
ried to call father and mother. Here they re- 
counted the blessings of the year, and united in 
giving thanks to God. If there were children's 
children, they came with their parents, and spent 
the hours which remained after worship in feasting 
and frolic. 

Family worship was an important feature of do- 
mestic life in a Puritan household. It was im- 
portant because of its frequency, regularity, and 
seriousness. Whenever the family came to the 
table for breakfast, dinner or supper, there was a 
grace before meat, and when they left it, a grace 
after meat, every person standing by his chair while 
the blessing was asked and the thanks were given. 
The day was begun with worship, which included 



THE TOWN OF NEW HA VEN. 



Vt 



the reading of Scripture and prayer, and ended 

with a similar service, all standing during the 
prayer. A member of Governor Eaton's family 
reports: 

It was his custom, when he first rose in a morning, to 
repair unto his study— a study well perfumed with the med- 
itations and supplications of a holy soul. After this, calling 
his family together, he would then read a portion of Scrip- 
ture among them, and after some devout and useful reflec- 
tions upon it, he would make a prayer, not long, but 
extraordinarily pertinent and reverent; and in the evening 
some of the same exercises were again attended. On the 
Saturday morning he would still take notice of the ap- 
proaching Sabbath in his prayer, and ask the grace to be 
remembering of it and preparing for it; and when the even- 
ing arrived, he, besides this, not only repeated a sermon, 
but also nistructed his people with putting of c|uestions re- 
ferring to the points of religion, which \\ould oblige them to 
study (or an answer; and if their answer were at any time 
insufficient, he would wisely and gently enlighten their un- 
derstanding; all which he concluded by singing a psalm. 

In the New Haven Colony the Lord's Day began, 
according to the Hebrew manner of reckoning, at 
sunset. -Saturday was the preparation day. The 
diet for the morrow was made ready fo far as was 
possible, and the house was put in order. The kitch- 
en floor received its weekly scrubbing, and the floor 
of the parlor was sprinkleti anew with the white sand 
from the sea-shore. Before the sun had disappeared 
beneath the western horizon, the ploughmen had re- 
turned from the fields; the mistress and her maids 
had brought the house-work to a stop. Because 
"the evening and the morning were the first day," 
they began their .Sabbath observance at evening. 
It was because Saturday evening was a part of the 
Lord's Day that the master of a house added to 
the usual family worship some endeavor to impart 
religious instruction to his children and servants. 

New Haven retained its custom of beginning the 
Lord's Day at evening through the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries. Whatever may have been the 
disadvantages of the custom, they were of a world- 
ly and not of a spiritual nature. Perhaps less labor 
was accomplished; though it admits of question 
whether the subtraction of an hour or two from 
the work-time of Saturday did not, by a more thor- 
ough restoration of strength to the laborer, increase 
rather than diminish the labor accomplished. There 
can be no question that the custom was more fav- 
orable to the religious improvement of the Lord's 
Day than that which, by exacting e.xtra hours of 
labor on Saturday, occasions unusual fatigue at 
the end of the week. It is also indisputable that 
the custom exerted a refining influence by means 
of the social intercourse on Sunday evening, for 
which it afforded opportunity. Every house was 
then dressed; and every person, even if obliged on 
other days to delve and drudge, was in his best 
apparel. Sunday in the New Haven Colony was 
at once a holy day and a holiday; the Puritan re- 
straint with which it was kept till sunset, giving 
place in the evening to recreation and social con- 
verse. 

Though young men were by law forbidden " to 
inveigle or draw the affections of any maid, with- 
out the consent of father, master, guardian, gov- 
ernor or such other who hath the present interest 
or charge, or, in the absence of such, of the near- 

3 



est magistrate, whether it be by speech, writing, 
message, company-keeping, unnecessary familiar- 
ity, disorderly night-meetings, sinful dalliance, 
gifts," or any other way, yet every respectable 
young man knew of some house where he might 
meet on Sunday evening one of the maidens whom 
he had seen in the opposite gallery of the meeting- 
house, without fear that her father, master, guard- 
ian, or governor would be displeased. 

The marriages which resulted from these Sunday 
evening visits of the young men, were not solemn- 
ized by a minister of religion, but, according to the 
Puritan view of propriety, by a magistrate. The 
requirement that marriage should be contracted 
before an officer of the civil authority, was a pro- 
test against the position that marriage is a sacra- 
ment of the Church. Clandestine marriage was 
carefully prevented by the requirement that the 
intention of the parties should be three times pub- 
lished at some time of public lecture or town- 
meeting, or be set up in writing upon some post of 
their meeting-house door in public view, there to 
stand so as it may be easily read, by the space of 
fourteen days. Although the same statute required 
that the marriage should be in " a public place," 
this requirement was sufficiently answered when 
spectators were present; and usually marriages 
were solemnized at the home of the bride. 

A marriage implied a new home — perhaps a 
farm to be cut out of the primeval forest, and a 
house to be built with lumber yet in the log. 
A portion of the work had preceded the marriage, 
but a life-long task remained. The people were 
generally frugal and industrious, and the women 
in their sphere were as truly so as the men. The 
mistress and her maids, if she had them, were as 
busy in the house as the master and his servants in 
the fields. Besides the house-work, the dairy-work, 
the sewing, and the knitting, there was everywhere 
spinning, and in some houses weaving. They 
spun cotton, linen, and wool. New Haven prob- 
ably had in its Yorkshire families special skill in 
the manufacture of cloth. Johnson, speaking in 
his "Wonder Working Providence" of that part of 
Ml". Rogers' company which began a settlement in 
Massachusetts and called it Rowley, after the name 
of their former home in Yorkshire, says: "They 
were the first people that set upon making of cloth 
in the Western World, for which end they built a 
fulling-mill and caused their little ones to be very 
diligent in spinning cotton, many of them having 
been clothiers in England." This industry, so far 
at least as spinning is concerned, spread through 
the whole community. Every farmer raised flax, 
which his wife caused to be wrought into linen; 
and wherever sheep were kept, wool was spun into 
yarn for the knitting-needles and the loom. A 
young woman who could spin between sunrise and 
sunset more than thirty knots of warp or forty of 
filling, was in high estimation among sagacious 
neighbors having marriageable sons. This industry 
occupied a chamber in the dwelling-house, or a 
separate building in the yard. The music of the 
wheel was frequently accompanied with song. 
Tradition relates that when Whalley and Goffe were 



18 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



concealed at Milford in a cellar under a spinning- 
shop, the maids, being accustomed to sing at their 
work and unaware that any but themselves were 
within hearing, sang a satirical ballad concerning 
the regicides, and that the concealed auditors were 
so much amused that they entreated their friend, 
the master of the liouse, to procure a repetition of 
the song. 

The simple, regular life of a planter's family was 
favorable to health. As compared with the present 
time there was but little excitement and but little 
worry for man or woman. As compared with Old 
England in the seventeenth century, New Haven, 
during the twenty-seven years in which it was a 
separate jurisdiction, might be called a healthy 
region. England was then often ravaged by the 
plague. While Mr. Davenport was vicar of St. 
Stephen's, the City of London was visited with a 
pestilence which swept away thirty-five thousand of 
its inhabitants. The parish register records the 
vote of the parishioners that Mr. Davenport shall 
have of the parish funds, in respect of his care and 
pains taken in time of the visitation of sickness, as 
a gratuity, the sum of .^20. 

In coming to New Haven the planters found a 
more salubrious, or certainly a less deadly atmos- 
phere than they had breathed in England; never- 
theless they were grievously afflicted with sickness, 
malaria having been more prevalent than in the 
other New England colonies. 

" It is not annual," says Hubbard, " as in Virginia, there 
teing sundry years when there is nothing considerable of it, 
nor ordinarily so violent and universal; yet at some times it 
(alls very hard upon the inhabitants, not without strange 
varieties of the dispensations of Providence; for some years 
it hath been almost universal upon the plantations, yet little 
mortality; at other times it hath been very mortal in a plan- 
tation or two, when others that have had as many sick, have 
scarcely made one grave; it hath been known also in some 
years that some one plantation hath been singled out and 
visited after a ' sore manner when others have been healthy 
round about." 

Much has been written of the depression which 
settled upon the town of New Haven in conse- 
quence of the failure of its expectations in regard 
to commerce, and there is no reason to doubt that 
the planters were so much disappointed in such ex- 
pectations, that they jirojected a new plantation on 
the Delaware Bay, and were willing to listen to 
proposals that they shouUI remove to Ireland and 
to Jamaica. But perhaps the prevalence of malaria 
may have had much to do with the discouragement 
of tlie people: for, as this disease in modern times 
takes away the energy and hopeftilness of the patient, 
so it was then, as Ilubbartl testifies, " attended with 
great prostration of spirits. " 

Mr. Davenport, writing to his friend Winthrop, 
who included a knowledge of medicine in the en- 
cyclopedia of his acquisitions, concerning the great 
sickness which prevailed in New Haven in 1658 
and 1659, mentions such symptoms as gripings, 
vomitings, fluxes, agues and fevers, giddiness, much 
sleepiness, and burning. He says, "It comes by 
fits every other day." He informs him that the sup- 
ply of medicine he had left w'ith Mrs. Davenport is 
spent. "The extremities of the peojile have caused 
her to part with what she reserved for our own fam- 



ily, if need should require." He adds, in a post- 
script, " Sir, my wife desires a word or two of ad- 
vice from you, what is best to be done for those 
gripings and agues and fevers; but she is loth to be 
too troublesome; yet, as the cases are weighty, she 
desires to go upon the surest ground and to take 
the safest courses, and knoweth none whose judg- 
ment she can so rest in as in yours." 

With all the despondency resting upon the town, 
there was mingled the same comfort which com- 
forts all communities afflicted with malaria, namely, 
the conviction that the evil is not so great as in 
some other places. Mr. Davenport, when writing 
that "many are afflictively exercised," adds, 
"though more moderately in this town, by the 
mercy of God, than at Norwalk and Fairfield. 
Young Mr. Allerton, who lately came from the 
Dutch, saith they are much more severely visited 
there than these parts are. It is said that at Mas- 
peag, the inhabitants are generally so ill that they 
are likely to lose their harvest through want of 
ability to reap it. " 

It is evident that the care of the sick must have 
been an important part of domestic life in New 
Haven while these malarial diseases prevailed. 
With more or less of skill, and more or less of suc- 
cess, every family nursed its sick. With what de- 
gree of skill the disease was combated at first, the 
reader may guess from the declaration of Hubbard 
that the "gentle, conducdtious aiding of nature 
hath been fount! better than sudden and violent 
means by purgation or otherwise; and blood-letting, 
though much used in Europe for fevers, especially 
in the hotter countries, is found deadly in this fever, 
even almost without escaping." 

The restraint which the Puritans put upon their 
feelings appears, perhaps, more wonderful when 
death entered the house than at any other time. 
We have a detailed report of the manner in which 
Governor Eaton carried himself when his eldest son 
was called to die: 

His eldest son he maintained at the college until he pro- 
ceeded master of arts; and he was indeed the son of his vows 
and the son of great hopes. But a severe catarrh diverted 
this young gentleman from the work of the ministry, whereto 
his father had once devoted him; and a malignant lever, then 
raging in those parts of the country, carried off Inm with his 
wife within two or three days of one another. This was 
counted the sorest of all the trials that ever befell his father 
in the days of the years of his pilgrimage, but he bore it 
with a patience and conrposure of spirit truly admirable. 
I His dying son looked earnestly on him and said: "Sir, what 
shall we do?" Whereto, with a well-ordered countenance, 
he replied; "Look up to (jod." And when he jiassed by his 
j daughter, drowned in tears on this occasion, to her he said: 
I "Remember the sixth commandment, hurt not yourself with 
immoderate grief; remember Job, who said, ' The Lord 
hath given and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the 
name of the Lord.' " Yon may mark what a note the spirit 
of God init upon it — " In all this Job sinned not nor charged 
God foolishly." " ( ^od accounts it a charging him foolishly 
when we don't submit unto him patiently." Accordingly he 
now governed himself as one that had attained unto the 
rule of wee])ing as if he wept not; for it being the Lord's 
day he repaired unto the church in the afternoon, as he 
had been there in the forenoon, though he was never like 
to see his dearest son alive any more in this world. And 
though, before the liist ])rayer began, a messenger came to 
prevent Mr. Davenpcjrt's praying for the sick person who 
was now dead, yet his affectionate father altered not his 



TitE Town of ne\v ha t'ix. 



19 



course, but wrote after the preacher as formerly, and when 

he came home, he held on his former methods of divine 
worship in his family, not, for the excuse of Aaron, omitting 
anything in the service of God. In Hke sort, when the 
people had been at the solemn interment of this liis worthy 
son, he did with a very impassionate aspect and carriage 
then say, " Friends, I thank 3-ou all for your love and help, 
and for this testimony of respect to me and mine — the Lord 
hath given, and the Lord hath taken; blessed be the name 
of the Lord." Nevertheless, retiring hereupon into the 
chamber where his daughter (in-law) then lay sick, some 
tears were observed falling from him while he uttered these 
words, "There is a difference between a sullen silence or a 
stupid senselessness under the hand of God, and a childlike 
submission thereunto." 

Social life among the •planters of the New 
Haven Colony, had for its basis contemporary 
social life in England, but was modified by Ptiri- 
tanism and by entigration to a wilderness. Some 
features of it which seem strange to one acquainted 
only with the present age, were brought with tiiem 
across the water and disappeared earlier than in 
the old country. They brought with them En- 
glish ideas of social rank, of the relative duties of 
parents and children, of the reserve and seclusion 
proper for young women, and of the supervision 
under which young people of the different se.xes 
might associate. They did not originate the public 
sentiment or the legislation on these subjects which 
provokes the merriment of the present age. 

Their religious convictions, of course, influenced 
their social life. It would be impossible that any 
community as homogeneous and as earnest in re- 
ligion as they were, should not have some pecu- 
liarity springing from this source. A peculiarity 
of the Puritans was seriousness. Such convictions 
as they cherished will necessarily produce more 
than an average seriousness of manner; and if this 
be true in a prosperous community, whose tran- 
quillity has not been disturbed for a generation, we 
should expect to find even more seriousness among 
a people who have expatriated themselves for their 
religious convictions. If we again take Theo- 
philus Eaton as an illustration, he was a man of 
gravity when residing in London and in the East 
countries. He would have been such if the Puri- 
tan party had been in power, and he consequently 
in security. He was probably more so by reason 
of the annoyances and dangers to which he and 
his friends were exposed. Having undertaken to 
establish a new plantation in the wilderness, his 
greater responsibility would naturally produce a 
deeper seriousness. A member of his family testi- 
fies that "he seldom used any recreations, but, 
being a great reader, all the time he could spare 
from company and business he commonly spent 
in his beloved study." It would be an error, 
however, to suppose that this seriousness had with 
it no admixture of gaiety; for Hubbard, who was 
partly his contemporary, describes him as "of such 
pleasantness and fecundity of harmless wit as can 
hardly be paralleled." 

Residence in a new country also influenced 
social life, but not as much as in many other cases 
of removal to a wilderness. It has been said in 
modern time that emigration tends to barbarism; 
but this could not have been true in their case in 



any considerable degree. From the first Sabbath 
they maintained the public worship of God. Be- 
fore the first )'ear had passed their children were 
gathered into a school. Laws were as diligently 
executed as anywhere in the world. Every planta- 
tion had in it from the first, some persons of polite 
manners, to whom those of less culture looked up 
with respect. 

New Haven was from the first a compactly set- 
tled town of niore than one hundred and thirty 
families, and some of its inhabitants were not only 
refined but wealthy. The peculiarity of their 
social state was not that they were more barbarous 
than other Englishmen, but it consisted rather in 
that mutual dependence and helpfulness usually to 
be found in a new country. 

News from home was communicated to the 
neighbors. " Letters of intelligence," an institution 
which during the existence of the colony began to 
give place to printed newspapers, were passed from 
hand to hand. Corn was husked and houses were 
"raised" by neighborly kindness. The whole 
plantation sympathized with a family afflicted with 
sickness, and the neighbors assisted them in nurs- 
ing and watching. Families entertained travelers 
after the manner of Christians of the first centuries, 
and highly prized their visits as seasons of fellow- 
ship, and opportunities for learning the news of 
the day. The train-band and the night-watch were 
also peculiar features of the social system incident 
to a plantation in the wilderness. Comparing the 
social state in the New Haven Colony with that 
which now obtains on the same territory, we find 
more manifestation of social inequality. This ap- 
pears in the titles prefixed to names. The name 
of a young man had no prefix till he became a 
master workman. Then, if he were an artisan or a 
husbandman, he might be addressed as goodman, 
and his wife might be called goodwife or goody. 
A person who employed laborers, but did not labor 
with them, was distinguished from one whose pre- 
fix was goodman, by the prefix Mr. This term, 
of respect was accorded to elders, magistrates 
teachers, merchants, and men of wealth, whether 
engaged in merchandise or living in retirement 
from trade. Social inequality was also strikingly 
manifest in " the seating of the meeting-house," 
the Governor and Deputy-Governor being seated on 
the front form, and allowed its whole length for 
the accommodation of themselves and their guests, 
while others were disposed behind them and in 
the end seats according to social position; but a 
back seat of the same length as those in front was 
considered sufiiciently long for seven men. The 
women on the other side of the house were ar- 
ranged with the same consideration of rank. No 
seats were assigned to persons inferior to a good- 
man and a gooJwife. 

Although many of the people were much con- 
fined at home during the week by domestic in- 
dustry, all assembled every Sunday for worship. 
In but few cases was the attendance perfunctory. 
They went to the House of God from a sense of 
duty, but they went with a willing mind. They 
were interested not only in the worship and in- 



20 



HISTORl' OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEX. 



struction of the Church, but in the assembly. 
Their social longings were gratified with the an- 
nouncement of intended marriages; with "bills" 
asking the prayers of the Church for the sick, for 
the recently bereaved, for those about to make a 
voyage to Boston; or with "bills" returning 
thanks for recovery from a dangerous illness, or 
for a safe return from a journey or a voyage. Be- 
sides such personal items as reached their ears by 
way of the pulpit, others came to them in a more 
private way, as they spoke with acquaintances 
dwelling in a different quarter or at the farms. It 
was a satisfaction to persons %vho during the w-eek 
had seen only the inmates of their own houses and 
a few neighbors, even to look on such an assembly. 
Let the readeriancy himself entering the Market 
place while Stephen Metcalf and Robert Bassett, 
"the common drummers for the town," are sound- 
ing the second drum on Sunday morning. The 
chimney-smoke rises, not only from the habitations 
of the town, but from as many Sabbath-day houses 
as there are families dwelling at the farms.* From 
every direction families are approaching the square. 
The limping Wigglesworth, whose lameness was af- 
terwards so severe " that he is not able to come to 
the meeting, and so is many times deprived of the 
ordinances," starting early from his house (which 
was in Chapel street, near the intersection since 
made by High street), is the first to enter the south 
door of the sanctuary. Lieutenant Seeley, straight 
and stalwart in contrast \vith this poor cripple, 
stands near, conversing with the Master of the 
Watch, as the watchmen move away to patrol the 
town. Following Wigglesworth comes "the Right 
Worshipful Stephen Goodyear, Esquire," Deputy- 
Governor, and his neighbor, the reverend Teacher 
of the church, William Hooke, afterward Chaplain 
to Oliver Cromwell, wearing gown and bands. On 
the east side of the market-place the Pastor, also in 
gown and bands, comes, in solitary meditation, 
through the passage, which the town had given 
him, between Mr. Crane's lot and ^Ir. Rowe's lot, 
"that he may go out of his own garden to the 
meeting-house." His family, that they may not 
intrude upon him in this holy hour, come through 
the public street. Governor' Eaton, with his aged 
mother leaning on his arm, walks up on the op- 
posite side of the same street, and crosses over 
from Mr. Perry's corner, followed by his honored 
guests and the rest of his numerous household. 
When all but a few tardy families have reached the 
meeting-house, the drums cease to beat. The 
squadron on duty for the day march in and seat 
themselves on the soldiers' seats, near the east 




fluo.»i„^iH=;M.c.,„g.h„,,«--Hi;i;.ri);c;;c;^n;',o;;.";i^h= ;:;"'"' 



rhc writer remcmberTi iuch hi 



IIIIS- 

lOiisCT in a country parish 



sion of worship. 

near New Haven, where he visited when a cliil.l. In one o( them he 
.pent nn intermisiion, dividini; h,s attention, when in the room devoted 
to the hum.in inmates between doughnuts and the opi n fire-place with 
.t-s rusty fire-d„p and large bed of live coaU, but prefernng the company 
of the pony behind thecKimney to lh.-,t of the solemn p.nple beirethe 
fire. He was born a little too late to remember Sabhith-day houses in 
New Hiven. bin h.s lather has told him where this and that family had 
such accommodations. ■■iiiiiiy naa 



door, which is "kept clear from women and chil- 
dren sitting there, that if there be occasion for the 
soldiers to go suddenly forth, they may have free 
passage. " 

Days of extraordinary humiliation were appointed 
by the General Court from time to dme, in view of 
public calamities or apprehended danger. On such 
days there were two assemblies, and abstinence 
from labor and amusements was required, as on 
the Lord's day, though with less rigidness of inter- 
pretation, the prohibition crystallizing in later times 
into the formula, "all servile labor and vain recre- 
ations on said day a/e by law forbidden." On 
Thanksgiving Day, as we learn from Davenport's 
letter to Winthrop, in which he mentions Governor 
Newman's sickness and death, there were also two 
services in the meeting-house. Adding these occa- 
sional assemblies to those of the Lord's Day, we 
find that the whole population were often called to- 
gether. But there were, besides, convocations on 
lecture days, occasional church meetings, and, in 
the several neighborhoods, "private meetings, 
wherein they that dwelt nearest together gave their 
accounts, one to another, of God's gracious work 
upon them, and prayed together and conferred, to 
their mutual edification.'' These private meetings 
were held weekly and in the daytime, as appears 
from a question which Mr. Peck, the Schoolmaster, 
propounded to the Court: "Whether the master 
shall have liberty to be at neighbors' meetings once 
every week .?" Assemblies for worship were cer- 
tainly a very important feature in social life. 

Almost equally prominent were military train- 
ings. Soldiers were on duty every night. One- 
fourth of the men subject to bear arms were 
paraded before the meeting-house every Sunday, 
and were at frequent intervals trained on a week- 
day. Si.x times in the year the whole military 
force of the plantation was called out. A general 
training brought together not only those obliged 
to train, but old men, women, and children, as 
spectators of the military exercises, and of the ath- 
letic games with which they were accompanietl. 
Almost as many people were in the Market place 
on training day as on Sunday, and those who came 
had greater opportunity for social converse than on 
the Day of Worship. The enjoyment which each 
experienced in watching the maneuvers of the 
soldiers, and the games of cudgel, backsword, 
fencing, running, leaping, wrestling, stool-ball, 
nine-pins, and quoits, was enhanced by sharing 
the spectacle with the multitude, meeting old 
friends, and making acquaintance with persons of 
congenial spirit. 

Election days were also occasions when the 
people left their homes and came together. The 
meeting of a plantation court did not indeed bring 
out the wives and daughters of the planters as a 
general training did; but when the annual election 
for the jurisdiction took place, the pillion was 
fastened behind the saddle and the goodwife rode 
with her goodman, even from the remotest planta- 
tion, to truck some of the yarn she had been spin- 
ning, for ribbons and other foreign goods, as well 
as to gather up the gossip of the year. On such 



THE TOWN OF NEW HA YEN. 



21 



occasions a store of cake was provided beforehand, 
and "election cake" is consequently one of the 
institutions transmitted from our forefathers. 

P'or several years there were two fairs held annu- 
ally at New Haven, one in May, and one in Sep- 
tember, for the sale of cattle and other merchandise. 
These, of course, attracted people from all parts of 
the jurisdiction. 

In addition to these public assemblies of one 
kind and another, there was daily intercourse be- 
tween neighbors. Women sometimes carried their 
wheels from one house to another, that they might 
spin in company. There were gatherings at wed- 
dings and funerals. There was neighborly assist- 
ance in nursing and watching the sick. There 
was, as has been already related, social visiting in 
the evening of the Lord's Day. There were house- 
raisings, when the neighbors assembled to lift and 
put together the timbers of a new dwelling; and 
house-warmings, when being again invited, some 
months later, they came to rejoice with those who 
had taken possession of a new dwelling. There 
were huskings in the autumn when the maize had 
been gathered and brought in; but in the planta- 
tion of New Haven single persons were not allowed 
to "meet together upon pretence of husking Indian 
corn, out of the family to which they belong, after 
nine of the clock at night, unless the master or 
parent of such person or persons be with them to 
prevent disorders at such times, or some fit person 
intrusted to that end by the said parent or master." 

In view of the frequency with which the planters 
were convened in greater or less companies, it is 
evident that, however affected by their Puritanism 
and by emigration to a wilderness, they were a 
social people. They did not retire within them- 
selves to live recluse from human converse; but 
endeavored to purify their social life. In this re- 
spect New Haven resembled the other New Eng- 
land colonies; but, contrary to a somewhat prevalent 
opinion, did not go as far as the other colonies in 
attempts to control social life by legislation. In 
Massachusetts, Winthrop w'rites, about six months 
after the settlement at New Haven was begun, that 
"the Court, taking into consideration the great 
disorder general throughout the country in costli- 
ness of apparel and following new fashions, sent 
for the elders of the churches and conferred with 
' them about it, and laid it upon them, as belonging 
to them, to redress it, by urging it upon the con- 
sciences of iheir people, which they promised to 
do. But little was done about it; for divers of the 
elders' wives were in some measure partners in this 
general disorder." Some years previously there 
had been an order of the Court prompted by sim- 
ilar feelings, and having a similar design. After- 
ward there were in different years several orders 
designed to restrain extravagance in apparel, espe- 
cially amongst people of mean condition; one of 
them expressly providing that "this law shall not 
extend to the restraint of any magistrate or other 
public officer of this jurisdiction, or any settled 
military officer or soldier in term of military service, 
or any other whose education and employments 
have been above the ordinary degree, or whose 



estates have been considerable, though now de- 
cayed. " 

But nothing similar to this is found on the rec- 
ords of New Haven. Some writer noticing that 
both Plymouth and New Haven differed from 
Massachusetts, in that they did not attempt to 
regulate dress, says that Plymouth was too poor 
and New Haven too rich for such legislation. 
Perhaps, however, New Haven was restrained from 
enacting sumptuary laws more by its mercantile 
character than by its wealth. Its leading men had 
been accustomed not only to wear rich clothing 
themselves and to see it worn by others, but to 
increase their estates by selling cloth to all comers 
who were able to pay for it. Their feelings were 
consequently different from those of a man like 
Winthrop, who had never been a merchant, and 
had, like other English country gentlemen, re- 
garded rich apparel as a prerogative of the gentry. 

Did space permit, this sketch of New Haven as 
it was during the lifetime of its first planters might 
be much amplified; but we must now follow the 
history of the town as it descends the stream of 
time. The first generation had, with very few ex- 
ceptions, disappeared when the seventeenth century 
came to an end. Meanwhile the General Assembly 
of Connecticut had passed an order "that from the 
east bounds of Guilford to the west bounds of Mil- 
ford shall be for future one county, which shall be 
called the County of New Haven." In this, as in 
other counties established about the same time, a 
court was held semi-annually for the trial of cases 
which did not put in jeopardy life, limb, or con- 
tinued residence within the colony. In cases not 
involving more than twenty shillings, the trial 
might be in these County Courts before the judges 
without a jury; but in the Superior Court at Hart- 
ford, where were tried appeals from County Courts 
and all actions involving loss of life or limb or 
banishment, the law required that a jury should be 
impaneled. 

In 1667 the General Assembly of Connecticut 
granted to "the town of New Haven, liberty to 
make a village on the East River if they see it 
capable for such a thing, provided they settle a vil- 
lage there within four years from May next. " In 
1670 the same authority incorporated " New Haven 
village " as a town and named it Wallingford. A 
few planters were on the ground before this last 
action; but during the year in which it was incor- 
porated as a town, an organized company removed 
from New Haven to occupy the New Haven village. 
A committee appointed by the town of New Haven 
was vested with pow-er to manage the whole busi- 
ness of commencing the settlement. This com- 
mittee held the lands as trustees and conveyed 
them to actual settlers as a free gift from the pro- 
prietors of New Haven. They also arranged and 
directed in all matters of common concern in the 
new plantation till May, 1672, when the inhabit- 
ants being fully organized, assumed the manage- 
ment of their own affairs. The committee then 
resigned their trust. 

Wallingford is the only town whose territory was 
taken out of that of the town of New Haven before 



22 



f/ISTORi' OF TttE CITY OF NEW HA VEK. 



the incorporation of the city in 1784. The sub- 
traction of fifty families from its census for the 
settlement of Wallingford made the growth of New 
Haven appear less than it really was. The inhab- 
itants of Wallingford, though in a different town, 
were tributary to New Haven in the way of trade; 
as were the people of Derby, which in 1675 was 
also incorporated, its territory being taken from 
that of Milford. It was, doubtless, in hope of 
some advantage to the trade of New Haven, that its 
proprietors relinquished their right to the common 
lands at Wallingford. The following statistics 
show the fluctuations in the wealth of New Haven 
from the time of its submission to Connecticut on- 
ward. The table shows also the number of ta.xable 
persons in 1676 and thereafter. They are taken 
from the Connecticut Records. 

Estates in New Haven. Value. Persons. 

f" '666 ^r7,474 

1667 , 16,580 

1668 15.932 

1669 15,402 

1670 16,140 

'^71 13.759 

1672 13.017 

1673 14,290 

1674 14,881 

'^75 13,550 

1070 '2,993 237 

1677 12,707 214 

'^7S 13,713 294 

'°79 13,973 26s 

1680 14,280 268 

'681 12,463 240 

1682 12,367 238 

'('83 12,467 248 

'684 13,127 26S 

;^|5 15.428 302 

'ff : •• '5,426 303 

■"o? '4,191 323 

1688. Usurpation of Andross. 

1689. 16,286 317 

'690 15.559 322 

'09' 15,622 321 

'692 14,546 316 

'693 14,413 262 

■694 14,009 256 

'695 15,101 283 

'996 15,525 290 

'997 15,642 300 

'698 15,890 310 

'699 16,534 3,5 

1700 16,769 330 

A comparison of these statistics with those of 
Hartford shows that the two towns made progress 
with nearly equal step. 

Estates in Hartford. Value. Persons 

I" 1666 /16. 150 

'667 17,000 '. \\\ 

'668 17,940 ' 

'669 17,037 

'670 17,028 ' 

'671 ; 16,402 

'672 16,836.. 

1673 16,857 ;; 

'^74 .6,334 

'675 15,462 

'676 14,559 241 

'677 16,577 226 

'°7» 16,299 227 

'679 16.848 239 

17.189 250 

■6,969 243 



1681. 
1682. 



1683. 



'7.'os 246 



Estates in Hartford, 
16S4.... 
1685.... 
1686.... 
1687 
1688, 
1689 
1690 
1691 
1692 



Value. 

16,730. 

, '7,162 . 

17. '84 

18,118. 

Usurpation of Andross. 

19,112 . 

19,102 . 

19,211- 

■6,633 



■693 17,346. 



1694. 

■695- 
1696. 
1697. 
1698. 
1699. 
1700. 



Persons. 

250 

255 

269 

273 

298 

307 

253 

274 

267 

275 

285 

285 

302 

293 

17.324 300 

307 



18,115 
■7.936. 

'7.435 • 
17-253 ■ 
16,900 . 



17.844 . 



The records of Connecticut exhibit a list of the 
freemen in the town of New Haven in 1669, from 
which one may learn the names of nearly all its 
principal inhabitants one year before the settlement 
of Wallingford. The names as returned by the 
Constables were: 



Mr. William Jones 

Mr. James Bishop 

Mr. Matthew Gilbert 

Cap' John Nash 

Mr. Samuel Street 

W™ Andrews 

Mr. Thomas Yale, .Sen' 

W"- Peck 

Roger Ailing 

John Gibbs 

L' Thomas Munson 

J no Mosse 

Jno Cooper, Sen' 

Nicholas Elsey 

\\'"' Thorpe 

Samuel Whitehead 

John HrocUet 

James Russell 

i^Ienry Glover 

Jere Whitnell 

W'" llradley 

Philip Leek 

John Harriman, .^en' 

David Atwater 

Thomas Morris 

W'" Basset 

John Winston 

Henry Bristow 

Joseph Alsup 

Abra: Doolittle 

John Chidsey 

John Ailing 

W'" Payne 

John Jackson 

Nathaniel Merriman 

Ralph Lines 

Kphraim How 

Al>ra: Dickerman 

Jere: Osborne 

lohn ( HIbcrt 

Mr. William Tuttle 

Mr. P.enjamin Ling 

The: Mix 

John Hall, Sen 

W"" Holt 



James Heaton 
Isaac Beecher 
W'" Wooden 
John Johnson 
John Clark 
Wm Wilmot 
Joseph Mansfield 
Rich: Sperry 
Ailing Ball 
Tho: Kimberly 
Moses .Mansfield 
Jonathan Tuttle 
Eliezer Brown 
Joseph Benham 
Thomas Tuttle 
Jere: How 
Daniel Sherman 
Jno. Cooper, Jun' 
.Samuel Munson 
Joseph Moss 
Windle Johnson 
John Hall, Jun' 
Jno Thomas, Sen' 
jno Miles 
Edward Perkins 
Samuel Miles 
Isaac Turner 
James Clark 
Matthew Moulthrop 
Ellis Mew 
John Potter 
James Dennison 
John Osbill 

Samuel Hemingway >- 
TVIr. John Hodshon 
Mr. Tho: Trowbridge 
Thomas Banies 
(ieorge Ross 
Timothy Eord 
John Peck 
Joseph Peck 
Samuel Ailing 
Thomas Yale, J' 
Thomas Sandford 
Joseph Bradley 



In June, 1675, Philip, of Mount Hope, which is 
perhaps an Anglicized form of the aboriginal 
Montaup, or Montop, commenced hostilities 
against the English in his neighborhood. Other 
tribes were soon found to be confederate with him 
ami a bloody conflict ensued, known in history by 
the name of King Philip's War ; a conflict too 



I 



THE TO WN OF NEW HA VEX. 



23 



dreadful, by reason of savage barbarities and tor- 
tures, to be told in its details to modern ears. 
Philip was a son of Massasoit, the Sachem of the 
Pokanokets and the early friend of the English at 
Plymouth. IMassasoit had two sons, known dur- 
ing his lifetime as Wamsutta and Metacomet. One 
day, after the death of Massasoit, his eldest son, 
who had succeeded to his fadier's authority, came 
to the Court at Plymouth, and, after having made 
several other requests which it was not difficult to 
grant, expressed a wish to have an English name. 
"In this matter, it cost the Court," says Pal- 
frey, "nothing to gratify him, and ihey may 
be supposed to have increased his content by ac- 
quainting him with the magnificent import of their 
choice. They ordered that for the future he should 
be called by the name o{ Alexander Pokaiioket; and 
desiring the same thing in the behalf of his brother, 
they named him Philip. '' Alexander's reign was 
soon terminated by his death, and his brother 
Philip became the chief Sachem of the Pokanokets. 

In one sense King Philip's War may properly be 
said to have terminated with his death in August, 
1676; for not only all the region into which he 
himself had carried devastation and slaughter was 
henceforth quiet, but the tribes north and west of 
the Pokanokets were either driven far away from 
their homes or had submitted to the English. In 
another sense. King Philip's War may be said to 
have continued till 1678, for the English settlers in 
Maine and New Hampshire were in as great dan- 
ger of the tomahawk and scalping-knife after the 
death of Philip as those in Plymouth and Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut had been in 1675 and 
1676. 

From the outbreak of King Philip's War in June, 

1675, till the death of that sachem in August, 

1676, New Haven suflered from constant danger 
and frequent alarms. 

At a town meeting on the 2d of July, just twelve 
days after hostilities were commenced. 

Mr. Jones* acquainted the town that the occasion of 
caUing the meeting so suddenly, was concerning the rising 
and outrage of the Indians in Plymouth colony at Seakonk 
and Swansy, which was informed by letters sent from the 
Narragansett country to the Governor, the copies of which 
were sent to us, that we consider and prepare in time 
against the common danger. After the reading of the let- 
ters, it was moved that every person now would be cjuick- 
ened to have his arms ready by him for his use and defense. 
And it was advised that those who live abroad at the farms 
be careful not to straggle abroad nito the woods, at least 
not yet, till we have further intelligence of the Indians' mo- 
tions, and that they keep watch in the night to discover 
danger, and upon intelligence of danger to get together to 
stand for their defense at the farms or else to come to the 
town. Mr. Jones further informed that Philip the Indian 
was a bloody man, and hath been ready formerly to break 
out against the English, liut had been hitherto restrained. 
But now war was broke forth, and it is likely must be pros- 
ecuted. 

♦Hannali Eaton, tlie youngest cliild of Theopliilus Eaton, reujrned 
jo England witli tier mottier soon after tier tattler's deatli, and tliere 
btcame ttie second wife of William Jones, a son of one of the regicide 
judges. IVIr. Jones emigrated witli tiis family 10 America eoon after 
tils marriage to Hannali Eaton, and on the 23d of Stay, 1662, was made 
a freeman of New Haven Colony. On ttie 28tti of tlie same montli tie 
was elected a magistrate, and re-elected in 1663. In 1664 tie was 
chosen Deputy-Governor. After the union with Connecticut, he was 
chosen a magistrate of that colony, and so continued to be chosen an- 
nually for thirty-lhree years. 



The town was also informed that the magistrates had 
had speech with our Indians, and they denied all knowl- 
edge of Philip's motions, neither did they like them, and 
also said that they had no meit gone that way, and would 
give us any intelligence they meet with, and that if any 
strange Indians come to them they will inform us and not 
harbor them. The town ordered that an account be taken 
of the Indians; how many men they are and where they 
are; and Matthew Moulthrop, who now took the constable's 
oath, was to warn them and look alter them. 

At a meeting September 24, 1675, 

The town did desire Mr. William Jones, Mr. James 
Bishop, Capt. William Rosewell, Lieut. Thomas Trow- 
bridge, Lieut. Thomas Munson, Jeremiah Osborne, and 
Henry Glover, to be a committee to consider of and erect 
some fortification at the Meeting-house as had been spoken 
of, as also in any other place or places about the town as 
they or the major part of them agree. 

Also the town by vote desired and appointed Capt. 
William Rosewell to prepare the great guns, or so many of 
them as is necessary, to be fit for service. 

The town, considering the present commotions and our 
danger, by vote appointed, whilst these exercises are on us, 
that all the inhabitants bring their arms and ammunition to 
the meetings upon the Sabbaths and other public days. 

On the 1 2th of October, 

.'Vt a meeting of the dwellers in the town, the farms not 
being warned, Mr. Jones acquainted the to«n that the 
cause of calling the town together was the sad tidings that 
was come unto us of the burning of Springfield and some 
persons slain by the Indians, and thereupon the committee 
which was appointed by the town to consider of fortifying 
for defense, thought it was necessary to call the town to- 
gether to acquaint them what thoughts they had had; that 
besides what was doing at the Meeting-house, it might be 
useful to make some fortification at each street and at the 
angles of the town and fortify some houses; and also there 
had been speech about fortifying around the square of the 
town with a line of palisades or posts on the side of the 
quarters; and now he desired to consider and speak their 
mmds. 

Upon debate of these things, it was propounded and ordered 
that at the ends of the streets and at the four angles, these 
fortifications or places of shelter against the shot of an ene- 
my should be set up as the committee shall appoint, and 
the persons in the town to work freely at it until they were 
finished. 

It was appointed, and by vote ordered, that all small 
wood, brush and brushwood within half a mile of the town 
plat should be cut down and cleared away, that it might 
not afford shelter to Indians to creep in a skulking manner 
near the town. 

On the 1 8th of the same month there was an- 
other meeting, at which 

Mr. Jones acquainted the town that the occasion of this 
meeting was the danger we are in according to the intelli- 
gence that Cometh unto us as by letters from Major Andross 
to the General Court, informing that there is a strong con- 
federacy amongst the Indians in these parts against the En- 
glish, and that our pretended friends are in the plot, and 
that this light moon they did intend to attack Hartford 
and some other places as far as Greenwich; as also Major 
Treat informs that the Narragansetts are in great prepara- 
tions for war. Also the General Court and Council do ad- 
vise all the plantations to fortify themselves the best way 
they can against the common enemy. And therefore it is 
our duty to use all means for defense and to do it unani- 
mously. Also acquainted them that the Committee had 
viewed some houses for fortification, and desired that it 
might be speedily attended. 

In the debate upon the matter, some propounded for 
fortifying some houses first, others propounded and thought 
it better to fortify with a line about the town. It was put 
to vote which should be done first, and the vote was to gar- 
rison some houses first;* and then in a second vote it was 

• Mr. Harriman's was one of the fortified houses. This was the 
house built by Deputy-Governor Goody ear on thesitewhere Moseley's 
New Haven House now stands. 



24 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



agreed and ordered that there should be a line of fortifica- 
tion made about the town, as had been spoken of from the 
Committee in a former meeting. 

On the 30lh of the same month there was an- 
other meeting, and further arrangements were made 
for hastening tlie fortification. 

The lieputy-Governor (l.eete, of Guilford) being present 
in the meeting, ^pokc much to the encouragement and ad- 
vising of the inhabilanls to go on with the work, and to do 
it with unanimity, seeking the safety of the whole as far as 
may be, but especially as m the natural body the hands 
and all the members seek the securing of the heart. 

The success which liad attended the sudden and 
general rising of the savages was succeeded by dis- 
aster and great slaughter when the English had had 
time for military organization. In the course of 
the autumn an army of i,ooo men was raised by the 
three colonies of New England for a winter cam- 
paign against the Narragansetts, who though at the 
first uprising they had made a treaty of neutrality 
with the English, were now confederate with Philip. 
The quota required of Connecticut was three hun- 
dred antl fifteen men; but she sent three hundred 
Englishmen and one hundred and fifty INIohegans 
and Pequots. These were divided into five com- 
panies, one of which had for its captain Nathaniel 
Seeley, of .Stratford, son of the Robert Seeley who, 
at the first setdement of New Haven, had been 
second in military command in that plantation. 

The whole corps was commanded by Major Rob- 
ert Treat, of Milford, afterward Governor of Con- 
necticut at the time when the surrender of its charter 
being demanded, the document so mysteriously dis- 
appeared from the table of the General Assembly. 

Those who planned this campaign were sensible 
that an expedition at this season would be most 
distressful and ha/.ardou.s. They were not without 
apprehension that the whole army might perish 
should the troops be obliged to lie uncovered a 
single night in the open field. It did not escape 
their deliberations (says Trumbull) that the snow 
often fell so deep that it wotild be extremely diffi- 
cult, if not impossible, to send any succor to the 
army in case of any misfortune; but they considered 
this as the only probable expedient of defeating the 
enemy and preventing the desolating of the country. 
Observing that "it was a humbling providence of 
God that put his poor people to be meditating a 
matter of war at such a season," they appointed the 
second of December to be observed as a solemn 
fast, to seek the Divine aid. 

The Connecticut troops formed a junction with 
liiose from Massachusetts and Plymouth on Satur- 
day, the 1 8th of December, and were obliged, as 
they had been the night previous, to remain un- 
covered in the open field. On Sunday morning, 
at the dawning of the day, the whole army com- 
menced to march toward the enemy, who were in 
a swamp about fifteen miles distant. The troops 
from Massachusetts led the van; the two Plymouth 
companies were in the center; the Connecticut 
men guarded the rear. Wading through the snow 
until nearly one o'clock in the afternoon, without 
fire to warm or food to refresh them, they found 
themselves in the immediate neighlxirhood of the 
enemy's seat. It stood upon an eminence in the 



center of a large swamp ; was fortified with pali- 
sades; and compassed with a hedge on the outside 
of the line of nearly a rod's thickness. The only 
entrance which appeared practicable was over the 
trunk of a tree, which had been felled in such a 
position as to form a bridge across a body of water 
lying between the fort and the swamp which sur- 
rounded it. This log lay from four to six feet 
above the ground, and was commanded in front 
by a block-house, and on the left by a flanker. 

As soon as the Massachusetts men entered the 
skirts of the swamp, they discovered an advanced 
party of the enemy and immediately fired upon 
them. Returning the fire, the enemy retreated to- 
ward the only passage-way into the fort, and the 
Massachusetts troops, led by their officers, mount- 
ed the log and followed the enemy into the fort, 
without waiting to form themselves or reconnoiter 
ihe fort. But there was more of courage than skill 
in this haste, for before the main body of the army 
could wade through the deep snow and come up 
to the aid of the few who had crossed the bridge, 
these heroes, were all either slain or driven back. 
But as the troops continued to come up, they 
continued to cross the bridge, notwithstanding 
the fire which poured upon them from every part 
of that side of the fort, as well as from the sheltered 
batteries of the block-house and the flanker. 
While the Connecticut troops were thus forcing 
their way into the fort, three of her five captains 
were killed, one of them falling from the fatal log, 
and Seely, so well known in New Haven, being 
shot down at the head of his company soon after 
they had achieved an entrance. A fourth received 
a mortal wound. Possibly the attempt to force an 
entrance over the log might have proved a failure, 
if a break had not been discovered in the line of 
palisades at a distance from the spot where the fight 
was hottest. A small party of English finding this 
neglected place, where the only fortification con- 
sisted of a high and thick hedge of trees and brush, 
climbed over it unobserved, and running down 
between the wigwams, attacked on the rear the 
Indians, who were crowded closely together in 
defense of the entrance of the fort. Thus assailed 
in front and rear, they were driven from the flanker 
and the block-house, so that the English on the 
outside had no more difficulty in crossing the 
bridge. Pressing in with great spirit, they drove 
the enemy from that part of the fort to the center, 
and from one covert to another, till, with horrible 
yells, the savage foe fled out of the fort and into the 
wilderness. As they retired, the soldiers set fire to 
the wigwams, about six hundred in number, all of 
which were instantly consumed, together with great 
store of corn and wampum. 

It w-as supposed that three hundred warriors 
were slain, besides many wounded, who afterward 
died of their wounds and of cold. Nearly the 
same number of men were captured, and in ad- 
dition three hundred women anil children. 

It was nevertheless a tlearly-bought victory. Six 
English captains had fallen in the action ; another 
hatl been mortally wounded; eighty menjri all had' 
been either killed or fatally injured ; a huntired 



T.^iis Map was drawq Sy Joseph Brown /n /7E^, and copiecf by Pres/c/enf S//7&S /n /7d^. 
The names of the. occupants of houses area/yen as they were in i/Z^ac- 
corc/i'na to Mr. Brown's remembrance. Number of houses /o7. 




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THE TOWN OF NEW HA VEN. 



35 



and fifty more were wounded, who afterward re- 
covered. But the sufferings of the army had only 
just begun. They had too hastily destroyed the 
wigwams that might have sheltered them during the 
night ; and now, having already marched fifteen 
miles since daybreak, and fought a battle which 
lasted more than three hours, the)' again, as the sun 
was going down, took up their line of march, and 
spent the most of the night as they had spent the 
morning, in wading through the snow. Two hours 
after midnight they reached shelter at Wickford. 
The night was very cold and stormy, and the snow 
was deep. Several of the wounded died of cold and 
fatigue during the march. Many of the soldiers were 
frozen and their limbs exceedingly swollen. Four 
hundred were disabled and unfit for duty. The 
Connecticut troops suffered more than those from 
the other colonies. They had spent a night in the 
open field before they made a junction with their 
allies, and, in addition, that which immediately pre- 
ceded the battle. They had sustained a much 
greater loss in the action, in proportion to their 
number, because they had entered the fort when 
the fire of the enemy was deadliest. 

The destruction of the Narragansett fort with its 
stores, though not so utterly and immediately ru- 
inous to the Narragansetts as the similar disaster at 
Mystic had been to the Pet[uots in the year pre- 
ceding the foundation of New Haven, was, how- 
ever, the beginning of the end of their tribal 
existence. They were still able to harass the En- 
glish, scattering themselves in different directions, 
plundering and burning towns b)' surprise. But 
the fortune of war was against them after the de- 
struction of the fort with its stores. They were 
driven from their own territory in the course of the 
spring and summer, and so cut off from almost 
every kind of subsistence, that in July and August 
of the year 1676 they began to come in to the En- 
glish in large bodies, and submit themselves to the 
mercy of their conquerors. 

The town meetings at New Haven in which for- 
tification was ordered, were, so far as we have yet 
noticed the record of them, antecedent to the de- 
struction of the Narragansett fort. The next ex- 
tract from the town records which we present 
relates to a meeting held February 7, 1676, when 
the remnant of the foe, scattered in different direc- 
tions, were surprising one village after another with 
conflagration and butchery. These surprises had 
happened chiefly in Massachusetts, but fiiendly 
Indians, sent out ''to make discovery of the ene- 
my," had brought back intelligence that they 
meant soon to fall upon the western line of the sea- 
board settlements. 

At that meeting on the 7th of February, 

It was propounded, that now the winter season, which 
had hindered the finishing of the fortification about tlie town, 
wearing off, it might go forward again and be perfected, 
and that the present state of things as to the war calls for 
attendance to that work, especially the Narragansetts ap- 
pearing in such hostility; and the last intelligence from the 
Council at Hartford was that the enemy doth scatter into 
several bodies to disperse themselves into the country; and 
they being hungry will seek for supply, and the consid- 
eration of what damage may come should hasten us in our 
duty to be in the use of means for our safety. 

4 



On the 6th of March 

Mr. Jones acquainted the meeting that the reason of 
calling them together was to consider of the fortification, 
which went slowly forward, and that it were good the in- 
habitants would be quickened to the work, the season for 
business coming on, and the war continuing; and there are 
reports of twenty-one hundred Indians in a body up in the 
country; and it is said they intend to set out about this time 
or the middle of this month, and fall upon the towns on 
the River, and so come down and along the coast as far as 
New York, and do what spoil they can. Also we hear of 
killing two men at Springfield. Therefore we had need be 
quickened into all due means for our safety, and to attend it 
speedily. 

Jeremiah Osborne acipiainted the town that the com- 
mittee for the fortification had met according to former 
order, and had appointed himself and John Punderson, 
Junior, to oversee and set the work forward, and that they 
had gotten in all the wood which was ordered from the in- 
habitants, or within about fifteen loads; and that to finish 
the line on their side, they do think there will want one 
hundred loads; and also there are not gates; and without 
all be finished it will not be safe. John Cooper, Senior, 
also, overseer on their side, informed that there would want 
one hundred loads of wood to finish the line on their side. 

It was propounded for a supply of wood to finish the 
line, and after it had been debated, it was by vote ordered 
that every team in the town and farms, except those on the 
east side of tlie East river, do each of them bring to the 
work one load of suitable wood (and those that have not 
teams to help to cut it); and to bring it, at the furthest, on 
the 8th and 9th days of this month, and to lay it according 
as the overseers of the work shall appoint; as also the said 
overseers to see that those who are behind for the time past 
bring in portions; and any person that shall neglect to at- 
tend the work according to this order, to be under the pen- 
alty the Council hath appointed. 

It was ordered that no Indian be suffered to come into 
the town to see the fortifications, or take notice of any of 
our actings and motions; and that, by the constable, warn- 
ing be given them that not any of them may come into the 
town, nor unto any English houses; and that if any Indian 
come into the town, he be apprehended and sent back 
again; yet, what may be, to avoid any misusage of them. 

The gates were spoken of, and it was informed that Mr. 
Augur and Mr. Trowbridge would give, each of them, 
twenty shillings toward making of them; and it was lelt to 
the committee to get all the gates finished, and all the forti- 
fication also. 

It was ordered that no person shall plant any Indian 
corn within two rods of the stockade line. 

On the nth of the same month 

Mr. Jones informed that the occasion of calling the 
meeting was to publish some orders from the Council re- 
specting the towns in the colony, particularly New Haven. 
The said orders were read. 

It was moved, that now there being some quantify of 
wood brought for the line, that all persons, young and old, 
that are able to work, should work at it, which was with 
common consent agreed and ordered to be attended to, as 
the sergeants in their squadrons shall give notice; and to set 
out to work when the drum beateth in the morning; and 
every one that is defaulty herein shall, as a fine for his neg- 
lect, pay five shillings, which shall be improved for the ben- 
efit of the work. 

The Council, in their orders read, appointed that a 
committee be chosen to regulate the ditching and breast- 
work; and the town chose and appointed the committee for 
the fortification to do that work also, or the major part of 
them. John Nash, who had been of that committee for for- 
tification, desired the town to spare him in this, because he 
had many occasions, and he might be more beneficial to 
persons about their arms, which many stood in need of ; 
and it was by some consented unto, and none spake to the 
contrary. 

At a town meeting; April 25, 1676, 

It was ordered, after some debate, that the fortification 
line about the town should be attended andlfinished as soon 
as seed could be got into the ground ; and that when all the 



2G 



HISTORY OF THE CTTT OF NEW HA VEN. 



wood that should be brought from several persons yet be- 
hind, is brought in, what is then wanting, the commitlec to 
appoint how it shall be supplied, and the line finished. 

The records do not give complete proof that 
the palisade was ever finished. It sometimes hap- 
pened that orders passed in town meeting were 
never executed. But as we find the town ordering 
about a year afterward, when there was a fresh 
alarm, that all persons should have their arms and 
ammunition in readines.s, and that watches and 
wards should be attended, without a word about 
finishing the line, it is probable that the palisade 
was completed in the spring of 1676. In Decem- 
ber, 1678. 

On account of the peace, the town ordered that all for- 
tification wood or stuff, whether set up or lying down, 
which is not quarter-fence, be sold l^y tlie townsmen for llie 
good of the lown. But the order was not carried into ex- 
ecution, for on the 3tst of January, 1681, the townsmen pro- 
pounded to sell the fortification to those whose fence was 
and is to be where it is standing, at sixpence a rod. The 
town ordered that the fortification wood be sold, as it stands, 
to owners of fence, in the place where it stands, at sixpence 
a rod, if they will buy it; or else the townsmen to sell it as 
they can after the ist of May next. Also further ordered 
that every person do make his fence in the aloresaid line. 

The peace referred to was the end of the war 
with the Eastern Indians; a war which, beginning 
immediately after the uprising of Philip, continued 
two years after his death. The palisade at New 
Haven, if finished as soon after April 25, 1676, 
"as seed could be got into the ground," ceased in 
a few weeks after its completion to have that ur- 
gent reason for its existence which had impelled 
the inhabitants to its erection; but as long as there 
were any Indians in any part of New England 
waging war against the English, it was thought 
prudent to retain a fortification already set up. 

That the order to fortify private houses was car- 
ried into execution, appears in the record of a 
meeting held October 18, 1675. 

Goodman Harriman acrjuainted the town that the 
sentinels going daily upon his house, upon the platform, did ' 
do him some damage breaking or removing the shingles 
(they being decayed), so that the water came the more nito 
the house, and did propound, that if ihe town did think it 
for their convenience to make use of his house that way, 
that they would do something in helping him to cover it. 
The town having heard wha^ was said, answered to the 
said Goodman Harriman that what he had said was con- 
siderable, and therefore the town did desiic and appoint 
the townsmen to advise about the n after and speak with 
Goodman Harriman, and so do as ihey shall see good 
reason and cause for. 

That the order to fortify the Meeting-house was 
carried out, ajjpears from a record dated Decem- 
ber 6, 1685, when the town having voted to build 
some additional seats in the Meeting-house, "or- 
dered that what of those planks or timbers that 
were the Hankers at the i\leeting-house, which are 
not useful for the afoiesaid .scats, shall be sold." 

In 1680 the third division of lands was arranged 
and issued. Tiie number of acres to be allotted 
to each proprietor was determined by the number 
of persons in his family, and the amount of estate 
on which he paid taxes. Those who had been 
" soldiers in the late war," received for that reason 
a larger portiqn, two hundred acres being divided 
among the soldiers. A few young men who had 



never before been enrolled as taxpayers, but had 
served in the army, were allowed to draw ' ' a por- 
tion of land for their heads, or what estate they 
have in the list." The number of acres allotted 
to a soldier was proportionate to his time of ser- 
vice. 

When the nuinber of acres to which each was 
entitled had been ascertained, the proprietors were 
enrolled in two coinpanies; one to have their allot- 
ments east of the town, and the other on the op- 
posite side. Then lots were drawn to determine 
w-hich of each company should have his "accom- 
modation'' nearest to the town, and in what order 
of proximity the allotments of the others should 
be set off to them. Some who desired it were per- 
mitted to divide the acres they were to receive into 
two portions, and thus, by drawing two numbers, 
increase the chances of having some of their land 
nearer to their homesteads. The two tables fol- 
lowing exhibit the names of all the proprietors in 
1680; the number of persons which each had in 
his fainily; the amount of his estate; and the num- 
ber of acres he was entitled to in the new division. 
Cipliers indicate that the proprietor is non-resident: 
or, that having divided his lot into two lots, he has 
connected his family with the other. 

Now for the eastern side of the town the persons who 
are to have land in the third division: Here tblloweth their 
names in the order their lots came forth from the first 
throughout unto the last : 



Names. 



Samuel Bassett 3 

Mrs. Gilbert 4 

Widow Talmadge 4 

Thomas Mix 8 

Widow Hodgkins 2 

Edward Keeley I 

I^Widow r\.o\\e 2 

I Thomas liarnes 3 

Mercy Moss 3 

Isaac Turner 5 

John Stevens 7 

John Cooper, Jr 7 

Mrs. Tattle..! 2 

John I'aine 6 

James Clarke 2 

John Barnes 6 

Mr. William Jones 000 

Nathaniel Yale 1 1 

Mrs. Miles ' I 

Thomas Talmadge 4 

John I lavis 4 

William Collins 5 

John .Mix I 4 

Joshua Hodgkins ] 3 

John Brooks ! 7' 

John llumiston I l{ 

John Blaxly 

Thomas Johnson. . 
Christopher Todd. 
William Bassett.. . 
William Miles 




Barthole Jacobs | 7 

Abraham Bradley 

Jonathan Tnttle , 

J ames Heaton 

William Gibbons 

l.ieut. Nathaniel Merriman 



THE TO WN OF NEW HA VEN. 



27 



Names, 



John Holt 

Widow Morris. . 
John Tuttle, Sen 

Joseph Tuttle 

Samuel Hodgkins 
John Cooper, Sen 
Richard Newman 
Mr. James Bishop 

Samuel Clark 

John Johnson 

David Atwater, Jun 
Mr. Thomas Yale 
Jonathan Atwater 
The School Lot 
Robert Augur. . 
Samuel Johnson 

John Hill 

Mr. Fenn's Lot 

John Todd 

Ceorge Pardee, Sen 
Henry Stevens 
John Hancock 
Mrs. Davenport 
Nathaniel Thorp 
Abraham Dickerman 
William Bradley 

John Atwater 

Lieut. Thomas Munson 
Samuel Humiston 
Lieut. Mosts Mansfield 
Henry Brooks 
John Hodgkins. 
Widow Thorp 
David Atwater, Sen 

Widow Ball 

Mr. James Davids 
Capt. John Nash 
Jeremiah How 
Joseph Bradley 

John Frost 

Eleazar Morris 
John Ball .... 
Widow Judson 
Mr. William Jones, 
John Brockett 
Eleazar Brown 
John Thomas, Jun 
Widow Brockett 
Thomas Tuttle 
Samuel Brown 
Thomas Leeke 
Thomas Beamont. 
Joseph Mansfield 
Daniel Barnes, 
John Pardee, 
Mrs. Coster 
John Cooper, Sen 
John Bassett 
Joshua Atwater 
Mrs. AUerton 
John Morris, 
Richard Little. 
Widow How 
Nathaniel Potte 
Nicholas Hughes 
John Watson 
Mr. James Bishop 
Joseph Jones 
Thomas Kimberley 
Thomas Powell 
Samuel Todd 
Thomas Sanford 
Thomas Humiston, 
William Paine 
David Tuttle 




The persons that are to have their third division of land 
on the western side of the town : Here foUoweth their names 
in the order their lot came forth from the first throughout to 
the last. 



N.\MES. 



Henry Bristow 

Mr. Thomas Trowbridge 

Ebenezer Brown 

Jeremiah Hull 

1 )aniel Thomas 

William Johnson 

William Trowbridge 

Isaac Eeecher, Sen ., , 

Benjamin Bunnell 'J. 

Widow Thomas 

Edward Preston 

John Downe 

Benjamin Bowden 

Nicholas Elsey 

Benjamin Bradley 

Nathan Andrews 

Joseph AUsup, Sen 

Samuel Lines 

Simon Tuttle 

Eli Roberts 

Richard Rosewell 

John Gibbs 

Thomas Hodgkins 

John Sperry 

Henry CHover 

1?S'^" [ Fowler 

Samuel Smith 

Henry Glover 

Isaac Beecher, Jun 

John Chidsey 

Edmund Dummer 

Mary Hall, widow 

John Jackson 

Widow (ilover 

Jonathan Samson 

John Harriman, Sen. [ 

Mr. John Harriman, Jun. \ 

Eleazar Beecher 

Nathaniel Kimberly 

Joseph Allsup, Jun 

William Peck 

Joseph Moss 

Joseph Preston 

Ebenezer Hill 

John Sackett 

Nathaniel Boykin 

Samuel Bristow 

Peter Mallory, Sen 

Eliezer Holt 

William Chatterton 

Widow Osborne 

Samuel Fearnes 

Peter Mallory, Jun 

William Pringle 

William Wooden 

Jeremiah Whilnell 

John Clark . 

Samuel Ford 

John Thomas, Sen 

John \\'olcott 

Ralph Lines, Sen 

Mrs. Gregson 

John Winston 

Kichard Sperry, Jr. . ." 

Samuel Whitehead 

Mr. John Hodshon 

Benjamin Ford 

Roger Betts 

John Ailing, Jr 





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28 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF KEW HA VEX. 



Names. 



Philip Allcock 

Zaccheus Canl)ee 

Ensign John Miles 

Tiinotiiy Ford 

Wilh'am Thompson 

John Nash 

John Punderson 

Samuel Ailing 

Widow Andrews \ 
Timothy Ciibbard )' 

Edward Perkins 

John Thompson 

Richard Sperry, Sen 

Joseph Peck 

Mrs. Goodyear, widow to Mr. Lam 

herton 

John Perkins 

W'itlow Tliompson 

Mr. llooke's Lot 

John Culver 

William Wilmot 

John Beecher 

John Umbertield 

Ralph Lines, Jun 

John .Mling, .Sen 

John Smith 

Ebenezer Smith 

Henry ( Jibbons 

Edward Cranniss 

Richard Miles 

John Hcecher 

Daniel Sherman 

Matthew Ford 



< 

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26 

I 

23 
60 

180 

52 

533 

306 

150 

74 

40 

666 
18 
22 
o I 500 
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68 

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20 
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26 

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20 

35 
25 
4 
20 
38 
80 
42 
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23 



These underwritten were not brought in until after the 
lots were drawn and were allowed to come in after the 
former, on the east side. 



Names. 


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a. 
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Jeh Tuttle 


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20 


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Nalh. Tuttle, a soldier 


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S 


Jo-shua Culver 


26 



By order of the Committee of the Third Division. 

The iitrocities of Philip's War had been followed 
by dangers and alarms of a different kind. King 
Charles the .'second had graciously granted to Con- 
necticut a charter as liberal as it could be without 
conceding the indciiendence of the province. Dur- 
ing his reign no attempt had been made to retract 
this royal gift. He became angry with Massachu- 
setts and vacated its charter; but had never ex- 
pressed displeasure with Connecticut. 

King James the Second had no sooner come to 
the throne than he attempted to unite all New Eng- 
land under one Governor appointed by himself. 
Sir F.dmund Andross accordingly was sent to New 
Kngland to carry into e.xecution the royal pleasure. 

Plymouth having no charter, and Rhode Island 
submitting at once, the only obstacle was in the 
Charter of Connecticut. On the thirty-first day of 
October, 1687, Andross made a formal demand at 



• Sold 10 Mr. James Picrpont and his heirs l>y the said Nathaniel 
Tullle. 



Hartford, where the General Assembly were sitting, 
for the surrender of the charter. 
Trumbull says: 

The assembly were extremely reluctant and slow with 
respect to any resolve to surrender the charter, or with re- 
spect to any motion to bring it forth. The tradition is that 
(Jovernor Treat strongly represented the great expense and 
hardships of the colonists in plantmg the country ; the blood 
and treasure which they had expended in defending it, both 
against the savages and foreigners; to what hardships and 
dangers he himself had been exposed for that purpose, and 
that it was like giving up his life now to surrender the patent 
and privileges so dearly bought and so long enjoyed. 

The important affair was debated and kept in suspense 
until the evening, when the charter was brought and laid 
upon the table where the assembly was sitting. By this 
time great numbers of people were assembled, and men suf- 
ficiently bold to enterprise whatever might be necessary or 
expedient. The lights were instantly extinguished, and one 
Captain Wadsworth, of Hartford, in the most silent and 
secret manner, carried off the charier and secreted it in a 
large hollow tree, fronting the house of Hon. Samuel 
Wyllys, then one of the magistrates of the colony. The 
people appeared all peaceable and orderly. The candles 
were ofliciously relighted; but the patent was gone, and no 
discovery could be made of it or ol the person who had con- 
veyed it away. Sir Edmund assumed the government, and 
the records of the colony were closed in the following words: 

"At a general court at Hartford, October 31, 16S7, his 
excellency. Sir Edmund Andross, knight and captain. gen- 
eral and governor of his majesty's territories and dominions 
in New England, by order from his majesty, James the 
Second, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, 
the 31st of October, 1687, took into his hands the govern- 
ment of the colony of Connecticut, it being by his majesty 
annexed to Massachusetts and other colonies under his ex- 
cellency's government. 

Finis." 

Before returning to Massachusetts, Sir Edmund 
made a tour through the colony as far west as Fair- 
field, and as far east as New London. He spent a 
Sunday in New Haven, where, as tradition reports, 
his eye fell upon Di.xwell at the morning service in 
the Meeting-house. At_noon he inquired the name 
and occupation of the person whom he described, 
and was told that he was a merchant of the name of 
James Davids. Sir Edmund replied that he knew 
he was not a merchant, and became particularly in- 
quisitive in regard to him. Probably Colonel Di.x- 
well was informed of the Governor's inquisitiveness, 
for he was not present at the afternoon service. On 
the same Sunday the Governor's anger was stirred 
because the Deacon gave out the fifty second psalm 
to be sung. In Sternhold and Hopkins' version, 
which was then in use, the psalm reads: 

" Why dost thou, tyrant, boast abroad 

"Thy wicked works to praise? 
" Dost thou not know there is a (^od, 

" Whose mercies last always? 

" Why doth thy mind yet still devise 

" Such wicked wiles to warp? 
"Thy tongue untrue, in lorging lies, 

" Is like a razor sharp. 

" Thou dost delight in fraud and guile, 

" In mischief, blood and wrong; 
" Thy lips have learned the flattering style, 

" O false, deceitful tongue." 

The tradition is that the new Governor resented 
the choice of this psalm as a personal insult, but 
was obliged to subside into silence when told that 



H 



THE TOWN OF NEW HA VEN. 



29 



it was the custom of the church to sing the psalms 
in course. 

Sir Edmund's government proved to be unnec- 
essaril}' and provokingly arbitrary, as well as con- 
trary to the charier which Connecticut so highly 
valued. One of his tools boasted, in a letter to 
England, that the Governor and his Council were 
"as arbitrary as the Great Turk." 

All business relative to the settlement of estates 
must be transacted at Boston, however distant the 
residence of the heirs might be, and the fee for 
the probate of a will was fifty shillings, however 
small the estate. The Governor laid taxes at his 
pleasure without assembling the representatives of 
the people, and even in the absence of a majority 
of his council. He declared that the titles of the 
colonists to their lands were of no value — that In- 
dian deeds were no more worth than " a scratch 
with a bear's paw. " 

Not the fairest purchases and most ample conveyances 
from the natives; no dangers, disbursements, nor labors in 
cultivating a wilderness and turning it into orchards, 
gardens, and pleasant fields; no grants by charter nor by 
legislatures constituted by them; no declarations by pre- 
ceding kings nor by his then present Majesty, promising 
them the quiet enjoyment of their houses and lands: nor 
fifty or sixty years undisturbed possession, were pleas of 
any validity or consideration with Sir Edmund and his 
minions. The purchasers and cultivators, after fifty and 
sixty years improvement, were obliged to take out patents 
for their estates. P"or these, in some instances, a fee of 
filly pounds was demanded. Writs of intrusion were issued 
against persons of principal character who would not 
submit to such impositions, and their lands were patented 
to others.* 

The heaviest share of this oppression fell upon 
Massachusetts and Plymouth. Connecticut, as it 
was farther removed from the seat of governinent, 
was less exposed to the notice of the oppressors. 
But the people throughout the entire territory 
which had recently been theColony of Connecticut, 
were "in great fear and despondency. They were 
no strangers to what was transacted in the neigh- 
boring colonies, and expected soon to share fully 
with them in all their miseries. A general inac- 
tivity and languishment pervatleil the whole public 
body. Liberty, property and everything which 
ought to be dear to men, grew every day more 
and more insecure." 

In this slate of things, news came in April, 1689, 
that the Prince of Orange had landed in England 
to take possession of the government. The people 
of New England did not wait to see if he would 
succeed in his enterprise, but rose at once to rid 
themselves of their oppressors. Boston, seizing 
and imprisoning the royal governor, appointed a 
provisional government, which took to itself the 
name of a "Council for the Safety of the People 
and Conservation of the Peace. '' 

As soon as titlings of the revolution in {Massa- 
chusetts reached New Haven, a town meeting was 
called, and was held on the third day of May. It 
had been unlawful under the tyranny of Andross 
to have more than one town meeting in a year. 
In the preceding year the town had been convened 
on " the third Monday of that month by order ap- 

* Trumbull. 



pointed for town meetings, to choose selectmen and 

other officers. " This year it was held on the third 
day of the month, and probably as soon as it 
could be assembled after it was known that Andross 
was in prison; for the provisional government at 
Boston was organized on the 20th of April. The 
record of the meeting is as follows: 

After the opening of the town meeting and prayer 
made lor dneciion from fiod in this dangerous juncture, 
the town \\'ere informed of the late dissolution of the gov- 
ernment at Boston by the (Governor, .Sir Edmund Andross, 
his resignation of the same, with surrender of the Castle 
and Fort into other hands, intrusted till further orders from 
the present powers in England. And this change hast- 
ened by the discovery of a dangerous plot against Boston, 
to destroy that place as we are credibly informed; which 
great overture hath occasioned or necessitated the free- 
men in all or most places in the colony to choose their 
deputies to meet together in the usual place and at the 
usual time of election, to consider together what to do, 
and to have the proxies of the freemen ready, if need be, 
in order to the reassuming and settlement of government 
according to charter, to prevent anarchy or confusion and 
the dangerous eflTects thereof, especially when we have 
grounds and cause to suspect Indians or other enemies. 
And for the lietter understanding of the premises and our 
further consideration what to do, the printed Declaration 
from Boston was publicly read. 

It is not improbable that some of the leading 
men in Connecticut, as well as in Massachusetts, 
were expecting the movement of the Prince of 
Orange, for the deliverance of England from the 
yoke of the Stuarls. It is affirmed by Gershom 
Bulkley, a writer friendly to Andross, that the 
"gentlemen of 'Connecticut " received encourage- 
ment from England, by letter, to take their charter 
government again, "telling them they were a com- 
pany of hens " if they did not do it. Palfrey in- 
clines to the opinion that there was a conspiracy 
throughout New England to rise against Andross, 
and that the landing of the Prince of Orange at 
Torbay was an unexpected opportunity for the 
conspirators. He finds support for this theory in 
the care with which the " printed declaration from 
Boston is composed, as if it were "a work of 
time," to which brief mention of the enterprise of 
the Prince had been added after the news of it ar- 
rived. In either case everything favors the suppo- 
sition that the leading men in Connecticut Irad 
made preparation for the resumption of govern- 
ment under the charter. At the town meeting in 
New Haven, Captain Moses Mansfield and Lieut- 
enant Abraham Dickerman were appointed Dep- 
uties to the General A.ssembly which convened on 
the eighth day of the same month, and "ordered 
that all the laws of this colony formerly made ac- 
cording to Charter, and courts constituted in this 
colony for administration of justice as they were 
before the late interruption, should be of full force 
and virtue for the future, and till the Court should 
see cause to make further and other alteration and 
provision according to ciiarter." "All the pres- 
ent military officers " were confirmed; Justices of 
the Peace were appointed for the towns where no 
magistrates resided; the armament of the Fort at 
Saybrook was provided for. The Governor was 
charged to convene the General Assembly, if oc- 
casion should require anything to be acted respect- 



30 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



ing the charter. Tlien, having appointed a day ot 
fasting the Assembly adjourned. 

Upon the 26th of May, a ship arrived at Boston with 
advice that William and Mary were proclaimed King and 
Queen of England. The joyous news soon reached Con- 
necticut. .\ special Assembly was called, which convened 
on the 13th of June. ( >n the same day, William and Mary, 
Prince and IVincess of Orange, were proclaimed wilh great 
ceremony. Never was there greater or more general joy in 
New England than upon the accession of William and Mary 
to the throne of Great Britain.* 

So great was the dehght with which New Eng- 
land heard of the e.vpulsion of the Stuarts and the 
accession of William and Mary, that they rushed 
with enthusiasm into the sacrifices and perils of 
another Indian war. France, espousing the cause 
of the Stuarts, invaded England, and sent an army 
of Canadians and Indians to harass the English 
planters of New England. Connecticut, less e.x- 
posed than her neighbors, sent assistance to New 
York and Albany, and at the same time made prep- 
aration to resist invasion, whether by land or by 
sea. New Haven, at a town meeting March 3, 
1689, 

Ordered (I) a military watch; (2) the whole body of 
listed soldiers to bring their arms on the Sabbath-days; {3) 
mounted scouts to be sent out from day to day; (4) four 
houses in town and some houses at the farms to be garri- 
soned, and the water-side to be fortified; (5) committee to 
manage the whole of this aft'air, and with the greatest expe- 
dition; (6) that for the fitting out of a flying army, as there 
may be occasion, out ot our listed soldiers we will draw 
forth a tenth part, to be commanded by such officers as the 
Major-General shall appoint, with the approbation of a 
major part of said flying army. Also voted, that the inhab- 
itants agree and order, that for the present exigency, and 
till we may come to a better settlement, the Dragoon com- 
pany submit their arms to be viewed by Lieut. John Miles, 
and themselves, in case of any inroad or assault, to be com- 
manded by him, and that all others attend Captain Mans- 
field's view of Arms and Command, as there shall be occa- 
sion, for the common safely of the place. 

On the 6th of August 1690, the town meeting present 
by their vote, recommend to the committee for fortification 
appointed by the (leneral Court, that with all the speed it 
may be, the fortification be carried on according to former 
agreement, viz., ihe water-side; two of the houses at pre- 
sent, the other two to be further considered at another 
town meeting. 

Not only New Haven, but the whole Colony of 
Connecticut passed through this French and Indian 
war occasioned by the expulsion of the Stuarts 
from England, without invasion. The people will- 
ingly bore great burdens of ta.xation in preparing 
to repel invasion, and in e.xpeditions to Canada; 
but were mercifully preserved from such massacres 
as those at Schenectady, and .Salmon Falls on 
the river which divides New Hampshire from 
Maine. This war, commencing in 1690, had 
cost Connecticut, when it came to an end in 1697, 
twelve thousand pounds sterling. The Legislature 
had been obliged to levy ta.xes, amounting in the 
course of three years to more than two shillings on 
the pound, on the whole list of the colony. The 
ta.xes were not collected in money, for there was 
not money enough in the colony to pay the taxes 
of a .single year. " Its whole circulating cash 
amounted only to about two thousand pounds." 
"The taxes were laid and collected in grain, pork, 

♦ Trumbull . 



beef, and other articles of country produce. These 
commodities were transported to Boston and the 
West Indies; and by this means money and bills 
of exchange were obtained, to pay the bills drawn 
upon the colony in England, and to discharge its 
debts at home. " 

After five years of rest another French and Indian 
war commenced. It found Connecticut so im- 
poverished, that she was obliged to issue paper 
money. Hitherto, by heroic taxation, the colony 
had been able to pay the expenses of its protracted 
military operations. But when her Majesty, (Jueen 
Anne, proposed to send a fleet to Boston with five 
regiments of regular troops, and required Connec- 
ticut to send 350 men, and the governments east 
of Connecticut 1,200 mure, to co-operate with these 
regulars in an attack on Quebec, and at the same 
time required Connecticut to furnish her quota to- 
ward an army from Connecticut, New York and 
New Jersey, to make a simultaneous attack on 
Montreal, the Legislature of Connecticut, at a 
special assembly voted " that to assist in the expe- 
dition, for want of money otherwise to carry it on, 
there be forthwith imprinted a certain number of 
bills of credit on the colony, which, in the whole, 
shall amount to the sum of ;^8,ooo and no more." 

It was enacted, saysTrumbull, that die bills should 
be issued from the treasury as money, but should be 
received in payments at one shilling on the pound 
better than money. One-half only was to be 
signed and issued at first; and the other was to 
remain unsigned until it should be found neces- 
sary to put it into circulation. Taxes were imposed 
for the calling in of one-half of it within the term 
of one year, and the other at the expiration of two 
years. The Legislature showed their zeal not only 
by contracting this debt, but by voting an address of 
thanks to her Majesty for her royal care and favor 
to the colonies in devising means for the removal 
of an enemy by whotn the colonies had been so 
great and repeated sufferers. 

But this attack on Canada under Queen Anne 
was as fruitless as the similar attack under King 
\\'illiam had been. A treaty of peace between 
Great Britain and France, signed March 30, 17 13, 
was proclaimed in Connecticut on the 2 2d of the 
following August, and, though the people regretted 
that the enemy in the rear had not been subdued, 
they rejoiced greatly in the advent of peace. 

There was a third and a fourth French war be- 
fore Canada became subject to Great Britain. 
While Canada was held by the French, the English 
colonists ever felt insecure, and were willing to 
make unexampled sacrifices of blood and treasure 
to dispossess the rival nation which had stirred up 
the red men to fall upon unsuspecting villages witli 
the firebrand, the tomahawk, and the scalping- 
knife. 

But little can now be learned in detail of what 
Connecticut — of what New Haven — suffered in these 
Indian wars. The fields of battle were distant 
from New Haven and outside of Connecticut; but 
the imi)overishnient consequent upon so many wars 
was here felt as well as elsewhere, and almost 
every family mourned for a son who had died afar 



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THE TOWN OF NEW HA YEN. 



31 



from home. Trumbull, the historian of Connecti- 
cut, reckons that in King Philip's War alone, the 
united colonies of New England lost one-eleventh 
of their entire militia, as well as one-eleventh of 
, their homesteads. If we add, in imagination, to 
this destruction of life in a single war, the desola- 
tions of five other periods of Indian warfare, we 
shall, perhaps, better comprehend the heroism of 
our fathers and the price of our heritage. | 

There was an interval of jusl one hundred years 
between the commencement of King Philip's War 
and the commencement of the War of the Amer- 
ican Revolution. During this period there were 
thirty years of Indian warfare; and the longest 
truce was that of the eleven years which preceded 
the battle of Le.xington. But the late Indian wars 
differed from the earlier, in that they were carried 
on, not by the unaided colonies, but by the strong 
arm of Great Britain. The war in which Canada 
was finally reduced was especially helpful to the 
colonies in the stimulus it gave to trade. 

The extension of settlements (says Trumbull); the in- 
crease of cultivation, numbers, commerce and wealth of the 
colonies, for about ten or twelve years after the pacification 
of Paris, were almost incredible. During the war, and this 
whole subsequent period, money was plenty and suffered no 
depreciation. Provisions of every kind, especially pork and 
beef, were in the best demand. This called forth the ut- 
most exertions of the husbandman in the cultivation of his 
fields, and enabled him with facility to pay the taxes which 
the state of the country demanded. It was the policy of 
Connecticut, in this favorable period, to tax the people as 
highly as they could cheerfully bear, providing substantial 
funds, in short periods, for the payment of their whole debt. 
To assist them in supporting the war, the Legislature called 
in all their outstanding debts. Contracts were made with 
the British commissary, annually, for several years, ior pro- 
visions to the amount of four thousand pounds sterling. 
This was paid in money, or in bills of exchange. These 
contracts were principally for pork. At the same time 
great quantities of fresh provisions were furnished the ar- 
mies in droves of fat cattle. The merchants had a safe and 
prosperous trade. Especially after the peace, an almost 
boundless scope of commerce and enterprise was given lo 
the colonists. In these favorable circumstances, with the 
return of thousands of her brave and industrious inhabitants 
to the cultivation of their fields and the various arts and la- 
bors of peace, the colony was soon able to exonerate itself 
from the debt contracted by the war. 

We cannot see how the colonies, without this 
income of wealth from the old country, could 
have been prepared for a successful prosecution of 
war with England. New Haven more than kept 
pace with the rest of the colony in the increase of 
wealth. l\Ir. Trowbridge, in his paper on the 
"Ancient JMaritime Interests of New Haven," 
quotes Dr. Dana as saying that, in 1740, the whole 
navigation of New Haven consisted of two coasters 
and one West India vessel, and adds his own 
belief that such had been substantially the case 
for si.xty years previous. 

With the fall of Ouebec, and the subsequent cession of 
Canada to Great Britain in 1763 (says Mr. Trowbridge), the 
maritime interests of New Haven may be said to have been 
successfully established; and so rapidly did the commerce 
increase, that from almost nothmg in the decade from 1740 to 
1750, it had, in the following ten years, grown so much, 
that from 1760 to 1770 some thirty vessels annually left the 
port on foreign voyages, and during that time commercial 
relations were initiated between New Haven and the West 
India Islands, which, with but slight interruption, have con- 



tinued to the present time. Trade was also maintained with 
Great Britain, especially with Ireland, where the flaxseed 
raised in Connecticut was in demand. In 1764 there arrived 
here from the City of Dublin the brig Derby, of forty tons, 
bringing for a cargo twenty tons of coals and thirty-eight 
Irish servants. 

The sums of the estates in New Haven returned 
for taxation show a large increase of wealth be- 
tween 1700 and the commencement of hostilities 
with England. The following schedule, which we 
copy from the Colonial Records of Connecticut, 
illustrates this statement, and shows the quinquen- 
nial increase: 

Estates in New H.wen. 
Year. £ s. d. 

1700 16,769 

1705 '8.528 

1710 17.483 6 

1715 21.384 16 ^\ 

1720 28,316 

1725 3'. 160 13 2 

1730 36,242 

1735 40,001 8 4 

1740 41.550 

1745 43.750 6 <i 

1750 54.44S 15 li 

1755 45.924 9 I4 

1760 56,175 II 6 

1765 55.695 19 3 

1770 63,335 4 I 

The first movement toward the incorporation of 
a city within the limits of the town of New Haven 
preceded the Revolution. At a town meeting on 
the 9th day of December, 1771, the following was 
put on record: 

Whereas, a motion was made to the town that this 
town might have the privileges of a city, and that proper 
measures might be taken to obtain the same, it is thereupon 
voted that Roger Sherman, John Whiting, Thomas Darling, 
Daniel Lyman, David Wooster, Joshua Chandler, James A. 
Hillhouse, Simeon Bristol, Caleb Beecher, Esq., Samuel 
Bishop, Ir., and Messrs. James Peck, Benjamin Douglas, 
Ralph Isaacs, .Adam Babcock, Thomas Howell, Joel llotch- 
kiss, Samuel Clark, Jr., and John Woodward be a commit- 
tee to take the same iuto consideration, and judge of the 
motion what is best for the town to do with regard to the 
same, and report thereon to the town at another meeting. 

As no report of this committee has been found, 

it is probable that in the excitement preceding the 
Revolution the project dropped out of sight, and was 
not again agitated till the war had come to an end. 

We have already mentioned that but one new 
town was taken out of the original territory of New 
Haven before the city was incorporated. But sev- 
eral distinct parishes, or religious societies, had 
been instituted besides that in \\'allingford. East 
Haven applied for incorporation in 1707 and re- 
ceived a charter so ambiguous, that it was, and has 
been ever since, difficult to determine what the 
General Assembly meant to authorize. 

New Haven was quite willing they should be a 
separate parish, but quite unwilling they should be 
a separate town, and ordered her townsmen, "with 
good advice in all proper methods of law, "to op- 
pose the endeavor of their "neighbors at the iron 
works" Mr. Dodd, in his East Haven Register, 
intimates that Governor .Saltonstall, who was a 
neighbor on the other side of the iron-works, used 
official influence against East Haven, in resentment, 



32 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



because not a single vote was given for him in that 
village, the people having become incensed against 
him for waging war on their geese when they strayed 
to Saltonstall Lake and the Governor's farm on its 
bank. 

The Generals Assembly, in 1710, either with 
or without the Governor's inspiration, taking into 
consideration the act of 1 707, declared, in interpre- 
tation thereof, that there is nothing contained in the 
said act that concerns property of lands, or that ex- 
cludes the said village from being within the Town- 
ship of New Haven, nor that intends to give the 
said village the liberty of choosing deputies distinct 
from the Town of New Haven. In 1 7 1 6 the con- 
troversy was renewed, and the General Assembly 
reiterated its decision of 1710. 

Silenced by the terror of lawsuits and "the 
powers that be, " East Haven submitted till "an- 
other generation arose that had not known a 
Saltonstall." 

On the 1 8th of December, 1752, at a meeting of 
the inhabitants, it was voted, that we will take 
up the jirivileges that the General Assembly and 
the Town of New Haven have formerly granted. 
On the 6th of December, 1753, the Selectmen that 
day chosen sent a communication to the inhabitants 
of New Haven in town meeting assembled, notify- 
ing them that East Haven had organized a town 
government "in order that the said Town of New 
Haven may hereafter exempt themselves from any 
further care or trouble respecting the affairs of the 
said Town of East Haven, the regulation thereof, 
or the appointment of officers therein." 

"These proceedings, however," says Mr. Dodd, 
"brought upon them once more the broad hand 
of the General Assembly." 

Several other attempts were made, but without 
avail, till, in 1785, New Haven having given her 
consent, it was 

Kcsiilvedh)' the General Assembly, ' ' That the said 
inhabitants of said parish of East Haven be, and 
they are hereby constituted a Town, by the name 
of East Haven. '' 

The controversy had related chiefly to the title 
to common lands, and was settled by the confirma- 
tion of what the village of East Haven had done in 
the allotment of land to settlers, and the relinquish- 
ment on the part of East Haven of claim to all the 
common land in th" other parts of New Haven. 

West Haven was, "upon the petition of the 
West Farmers in New Haven, constituted a sep- 
arate society to carry on the worship of God among 
themselves" by an Act of the General Assembly in 
171 5; and by a similar act the same privilege was 
granted in 1716 to North Haven upon the petition 
of the " farmers on the northeast part of the town 
of New Haven." 

About the middle of the century the jiarish of 
.Amity, now called Woodbridge, was separated 
from the first society in New Haven; and several 
years alterward a parish in Hamden was estab- 
lished, part of it being taken from New Haven and 
part from North Haven. 

President Dwight, in the description which he 



gives of New Haven in the first volume of his 
travels in New England, states, without referring 
to his authority, that in 1756 the township of New ' 
Haven contained 5,085 inhabitants. He reports 
also a population in 1774 of 8,295.^ The latter 
statement accords with a census taken by order of 
the General Assembly. The town then included 
Woodbridge, Hamden, North Haven and East 
Haven. Dr. Dana, in the notes to his Century Ser-, 
mon, gives the population of the city in 1787 as 
3,364. Of these 1,657 were males and 1,707 fe- 
males. The number of each age from i to 90 
stood thus: 



Age. 


Number. 


Ar.E. 
31 


Number. ( 


Age. 


Number. 


, 


•73 


! 
45 1 


61 


II 


2 


"3 


32 


42 


62 


8 


3 


ICX3 


33 


38 


63 


9 


4 


119 


34 


33 


64 


10 


5 


107 


35 


49 


65 


«; 


6 


100 


36 


50 


66 


8 


7 


87 


37 


3' 


67 


3 


8 


96 


3« 


31 


68 


5 


9 


^ 


39 


36 


69 


3 


10 


&S 


40 


52 


70 


6 


II 


70 


41 


29 


71 


I 


12 


80 


42 


33 


72 


2 


13 


86 


1 43 


29 


73 


2 


14 


95 


44 


18 


74 


2 


15 


71 


1 ^s 


28 


75 


3 


16 


'03 


' 46 


22 


76 


I 


17 


62 


47 


34 


77 


5 


18 


84 


48 


9 


78 


2 


19 


62 


49 


12 


^9 


3 


20 


74 


5° 


35 


80 


4 


21 


77 


SI 


17 


81 





22 


57 


52 


14 


82 





23 


58 


S3 


6 


S-^ 


I 


24 


55 


54 


12 


84 


I 


25 


66 


55 


'7 1 


8S 





26 


5' 


56 


18 1 


86 


I 


27 


55 


57 


10 


87 


I 


28 


5° 


58 


II 


88 





29 


40 


59 


7 


89 





30 


66 


60 


28 1 


90 


I 



The value of the table is diminished, but not de- 
stroyed, by errors which cause a discrepancy of 
21 between the total as Dr. Dana gives it and that 
which is rendered by the addition of the particu- 
lars. * 

The progress of the town is illustrated by the 
four maps which accompany this chapter. I'hc 
map of 1641 shows the number, names and loca- 
tion of the proprietors at that date. The map of 
1724 exhibits the names of householders as they 
were remembered by Mr. Joseph Brown, and pre- 
served by President Stiles. We are indebted to 
Gen. Wadsworth, of Durham, for the map of 1748, 
on which he has inscribed the names of nearly all 
the householders at that time. The map of 1775 
shows the buildings but not the names of the 
iniiabitants. 

* Professor Dexter informs me that this census was a private enter- 
terprisc, undertaken, as he learns from Stiles' Diary, by Messrs. Josiah 
Meigs, Isaac Jones. D.ivid Daggett, and others, .Sciitember 8, 1787 
and some preceding days, Mr. Meigs published the full result in his 
newspaper, the Ntrw Haven Gazette, for September 20th. By compar- 
ing the report in the Gazette with Dr. Dana's copy, it appears that it 
was Mr. Meigs' printer who made the mistakes. 




PLAN OF IJE'A' HAVEM IN 1775, BV PRESIDENT STILES. 



i 



nURIXG THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 



33 



CHAPTER II I 



NEW HAVEN DURINt; THE WAR OF THE REVTJLUTION. 



THE General Assembly of Connecticut at its 
May Session in 1764, appointed a committee 
to prepare a State paper setting forth the reasons 
why the Stamp Act, which the British Ministry pro- 
posed to bring before the Parhament, ought not 
to pass. At the October session the reasons al- 
ledged in this report were adopted by the Assembly 
as their own, and it was resolved that a copy of 
them should be sent to Richard Jackson, Esquire, 
the agent of Connecticut in London. Jared In- 
gersoll, a distinguished citizen of New Haven, 
whose monument still stands in the crypt of the 
Center Church, was one of the committee to pre- 
pare this document. Ingersoll, soon after its adop- 
tion, sailed for England, taking with him one 
hundred printed copies of the statement of rea- 
sons. Soon after his arrival in London he received 
notice that the General Assembly had associated 
him with Mr. Jackson as the agent of the colony. 
But in vain did Ingersoll, Franklin, and other 
Americans, remonstrate against the passage of the 
bill. Ingersoll, before he went abroad, had written 
to a personal friend who happened to be one of 
the joint secretaries of the treasury, and as such 
was anxiously studying how the bill might be best 
shaped: 

The people think, if the precedent of a Stamp Act is once 
e.stabhshed, you will have it in yonr power to keep us as 
poor as you please. The people's minds, not only here, Init 
in the neighboring provinces, are tilled with the most dread- 
ful apprehensions from such a step's taking place: from 
whence I leave you to guess how easily a tax of this kind 
would be collected. Don't think me impertinent, since you 
desire information, wlien I tell you that I have heard gentle- 
men of the greatest property in neighboring govern- 
ments say, seemingly very coolly, that should such a step 
take place they would immediately remove themselves with 
their families and fortunes into some foreign kingdom. Vou 
see I am ijuite prevented from suggestmg to you which of 
the several methods of taxation that you mention would be 
the best or the least exceptionable; because I plainly perceive 
that every one of them, or any supposable one, other than 
such as shall be laid by the legislative bodies here, to say 
no more of them, would go down with the people like chopt 
hay. As for your allied plan of enforcing the acts of trade 
and navigation and preventing smuggling, let me tell you 
that enough would not be collected here in the course of 
ten years to defray the expenses of fitting out one, the least, 
frigate for an American voyage; and that the whole labor 
would be like burning a barn to roast an egg. 

It was Ingersoll who preserved the elocjuent pro- 
test which Colonel Barre made in Parliament 
against the passage of the act. One of the minis- 
ters had affirmed the right of Britain to ta.x "the 
children planted by our care, nourished by our in- 
dulgence, and protected by our arms.'" Colonel 
Barre, who had served in America as an officer in 
the army, and knew the history of the colonies, 
instantly e.xclaimed: 

They planted by your care ! No ! Your oppressions 
planted them in America. They fled from your tyranny to 
a then uncultivated and inhospitable country, where they 
exposed themselves to almost all the hardships to which 
human nature is liable; and among others, to the cruelties 

5 



of a savage foe, the most subtle, and, I take it upon me 
to say the most formidable of all people upon the face of 
God's earth; and yet actuated by prniciples of true English 
liberty, they met all these hardships with pleasure com- 
pared with those they suffered in their own country from 
the hands of those who should have been their friends. 

They nourished by _j'o«r indulgence! They grew by your 
neglect of them. As soon as you began to care about them 
that care was exercised in sending ]iersons to rule over 
them in one department and another, who were perhaps the 
deputies of deputies to some meml.ier of this house, sent 
to spy out their liberties, to misrepresent their actions and 
to prey upon them; men whose behavior on many oc- 
casions has caused the blood of those sons of liberty to re- 
coil within them; men promoted to the highest seats of jus- 
tice, some of whom, to my knowledge, were glad by going 
to a foreign country to escape being brought to the bar of 
a court ol justice in their own. 

They protected by your arms 1 They have nobly taken 
up arms in your defense; have exerted a valor amidst their 
constant and laborious industry for the defense of a coun- 
try whose frontier was drenched in blood, while its interior 
was yielding all its little savings to your enrichment And 
believe me, remember I this day told you so, that same 
spirit of freedom which actuated that people at first will ac- 
company them still. But prudence forbids that I should ex- 
plain myself further. God knows I do not sjjeak from party 
heat; what I deliver are the genuine sentiments of my heart. 
However superior to me in general knowledge and exper- 
ience the respectable body of this house may be, yet I claim 
to know more of America than most of you, having seen 
and been conversant in that country. 

The people, I believe, are as truly loyal as any subjects 
the King has; but a people jealous of their liberties, and 
who will vindicate them it they should be violated. But the 
subject is too delicate, and I will say no more. 

]\Ir. Ingersoll was present when this unpremedi- 
tated eloquence burst from the lips of Barre, and 
to him we are indebted for its preservation. It 
was reported by him at the time to a friend in Con- 
necticut, and was first given to the world in a New 
London newspaper. 

The sentiments of Colonel Barre (says Mr. Ingersoll in a 
letter to Governor Fitch) were thrown out so entirely with- 
out premeditation, so forcibly and so firmly, and the break- 
ing off was so beautifully abrupt, that the whole house sat 
awhile as if amazed, intently looking and without answering 
a word. I, even 1, felt emotions that I never felt before, 
and went the next morning and thanked Colonel Barre in 
behalf of my country. 

But the ministry were determined to pass the 
bill, and no argument or entreaty could turn them 
from their course or prevent them from obtaining 
a majority in both houses of Parliament. Mr. In- 
gersoll did, by his personal influence with one of 
the Secretaries of the Treasury, who had the bill in 
his hands for revision and amendment, succeed in 
removing some of the worst features of the bill, as, 
for example, the tax on marriage licenses. But the 
bill passed the House of Commons on the 27th of 
February, 1765; was agreed to by the Lords on the 
8th of ]\iarch; and a fortnight later received the 
royal assent. 

The leading civilians in the colonies, though dis- 
posed to prevent the passage of the bill if possible, 
were expecting quietly to submit to its execution if 



34 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



it became a law. Mr. Ingersoll therefore did not 
hesitate to accept the position of Stamp-master for 
Connecticut. I5ut when he landed in Boston early 
in August he found the city in a blaze of excite- 
ment. As soon as the Bostonians learned that An- 
drew Oliver was to be the Stamp-master in their 
city, they hung up his effigy on a stately elm, already 
known as the Great Tree. In the evening an 
' 'amazing''multitude followed the image,laid out on 
a bier, through the streets, and burned it in front of 
the Stamp-master's residence. Not long afterward, 
the newspaper announced that "the Great Tree at 
the south end of the town upon which the effigies 
of a Stamp-master was lately hung, was honored 
last Wednesday with the name of the Tree of Lib- 
erty; a large plate of copper with that inscription 
in letters of gold being fi.xed thereon." 

Seizing upon an expression in Colonel Barre's elo- 
quent speech, those who in all parts of New Eng- 
land demonstrated their hostility to the stamp act 
by acts of violence, called themselves Sons of Lib- 
erty. In Connecticut, many of the leading civilians 
were very conservative. Governor Fitch having 
done all he could to prevent the passage of the act, 
was disposed to submit to its execution till its re- 
peal could be procured by law-ful means. A ma- 
jority of his Council were of the same mind. But 
Timothy Pitkin, the Lieutenant-Governor, and Jon- 
athan Trumbull, one of the Councillors, were so 
strongly opposed to acquiescence, that when the 
Governor was about to lake the oath required by 
the act, they indignantly left the room, refusing 
even to be present. At the next election, though 
Governor Fitch had been regularly nominated for 
re-election, the people chose Timothy Pitkin, Gov- 
ernor, and Jonathan Trumbull, Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor. 

The clergy were leaders of the people in opposi- 
tion to the Stamp Act. They preached and prayed 
against it as if it plainly proceeded fi-om the Evil 
One in opposition to the Kingdom of God. The 
Rev. Stephen Johnson, of Lyme,* a descendant of 
Thomas Johnson one of the first planters of New 
Haven, wTote for the Qmneclicul Gazelle, printed in 
New London : 

The advocates for these measures seem to he tounsellors 
of Rehohoam's stamp. Instead of hearing the cries and 
redressing the ijrievanccs of a most loyal and injured peo- 
ple, they are for adding burden upon burden, till they 
make the little finger of his present majesty a thousand 
times heavier than the loins of his good grandfather; and 
would bind all fast with a military chain. Such counselsendtd 
in Israel in such a revolt and wide breach as could never be 
healed. That this may end in a similar event is not im- 
probable to the providence of God, nor more improbable 
to Britons than five years ago lliis Stamp Tax was to Ameri- 
cans. 

But Johnson was moderate compared with the 

Professor of Divinity in Yale College. In the 

\ Conncclicul Gaselle, ])rinted in New Haven, there 

\^ appeared on the 9th of -\ugust, five days before the 

outbreak in Boston, an article signed ''Cato," said 

to have been written by Professor Daggelt. Some 

•Mr. Johnson's wife was the dauchler of William Diodatc. of New 
Haven, ,ind could Irace her descent from a noble Italian family, which 
removed from Lucca to Geneva in 1575, having previously embraced 
the doctrines of the Reformatioii, 



one, arguing that if the Stamp Act must be in- 
forced, it was better that the stamps should be dis- 
tributed by Americans, had inquired, "Had you 
not rather these duties should be collected by your 
brethren than by foreigners ^ " 

"No! vile miscreant 1 itideed, we had not," answers 
Cato. " If your father must die, is there no defect in filial 
duty in becoming his executioner, that the hangtiian's part 
of the estate may be retained in the family ? If the ruin of 
your country is decreed, are you free from blaiiie for taking 
part in the plunder ? " 

When Ingersoll arrived at his home in New- 
Haven, he found a great and dangerous excitement 
among the people. Before his arrival, the inhabi- 
tants of Norwich, in a regularly warned town meet- 
ing, had unanimously voted "that the clerk shall 
proceed in his office as usual, and the town will 
save him harmless from all damage that he may 
sustain ihereb}-. " In this early demonstration 
against the Stamp Act there was nothing personal; 
for it was not yet known w'ho the distributing 
officer would be. But, after IngersoU's return, 
demonstrations of hostility became not only more 
frequent, but personal. Sometimes public meet- 
ings protested in an orderly and dignified manner 
against the Act as a violation of natural right and 
of the British Constitution. More frequently, 

Short, pithy sentences, ridiculing the ministry and setting 
forth the Stamp Act in vivid, though not always refined, 
language, circulated from sheet to sheet of the colonial news- 
papers, or passed from neighbor to neighbor in familiar dis- 
course; quaint proverbs, scornful satires, jests, with biting 
edge, pamphlets all glowing with indignant remonstrance 
or wailing with the cry of expiring freedom, hand-bills with 
single sentences of dark warning, posted upon the doors of 
pulilic offices or hawked about the streets by daylight, 
moonlight, and torchlight; anonymous letters addressed to 
gentlemen in high judicial or executive places — all flew 
hither and thither upon their several errands. The passions 
and the understanding were also addressed through the eye. 
Copies of the Stamp Act were carried in procession, and 
buried with funeral honors as equivocal as could well be con- 
ceived. Sometimes it was buried with the effigy of the 
officer who had been appointed to execute it.' 

"We hear from Norwich and New London," 
says the Bos/on Evening Pusl, ' ' that last week the 
Stamp Master for the colony of Connecticut was 
hung in effigy at each of those places, and after- 
1 wards burnt, amid the shouts and acclamations 
jof a great number of people." These demonsira- 
I tions took place on the 2 2d of August. On the 26th 
there were exhibitions of popular ilispleasure at 
Windham and Lebanon, with some vaiiaiions in 
the programme. In hope of alla\ing the excite- 
ment, Ingersoll inserted in the Gmneclicul Gazelle 
of August 30th, the following card : 

To THE Good People of Connecticut. 

When I undertook the office of Distributor of Stamps for 
this colony, I meant a service to you, and really thought 
you would have viewed it in that light, when you caiue to 
urn erstand the nature of the Stamp Act, and that of the 
office; but since it gives you so much uneasiness, you tiiay 
be assured if I find (after the Act takes place, which is the 
first of November) that you shall not incline to purcha.se or 
make use of any stamped paper, I shall not force it upon 
you, nor think it worth tuy while to trouble you or myself 
with atiy exercise of my oftice; but if, by that litue, I shall 
find you generally in much need of statnped paper and very 

^Bancroft. 
I 



DURING THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 



35 



anxious to obtain it, I shall hope you will be willing to re- 
ceive it of me (if I shall happen to have any) at least until 
another person more agreeable to you can be appointed in 
my room. 

I cannot but wish you would think more how to get rid of 
the Stamp Act than of the officers who are to supply you 
with the paper, and that you had learned more of the nature 
of my office before you had undertaken to be very angry at 
it. I am yours, etc. 

J. INGERSOLL. 

New Haven, 24th August, 1765. 

On the 6th of September " the Civil Authority, 
Selectmen, and a considerable number of the princi- 
pal Gentlemen and Inhabitants of the town of New- 
Haven, being occasionallv met at the Court House 
in said town, were informed that there was a report 
that a considerable number of persons from some 
of the neighboring towns were e.xpected to assem- 
ble in said New Haven, and to be joined by some 
of the people of the town, to show their resentment 
against the gentleman appointed Distributor of 
Stamps for this colony, and that it was said that 
some of the principal men of the town would coun- 
tenance the thing. Whereupon the gentlemen 
present unanimously declared their dislike and dis- 
approbation of any such proceeding as being of 
dangerous tendency, and resolved to use their en- 
deavors to discourage and prevent any such riotous 
assembly, and would advise the people of this town 
not to be concerned therein. They at the same 
time declared that they were desirous that proper 
and lawful measures might be taken to obtain a 
repeal of the late Stamp Act, which occasions so 
great and universal uneasiness in the country; and 
they thought the most likely way to effect it would 
be for the colonies to unite in a dutiful remon- 
strance to the King and Parliament for relief And 
that the wisdom of the Honorable General Assem- 
bly (the time of whose session is near at hand) may 
safely be relied on to conduct the affair on behalf 
of this colony.'' 

The above is a verbatim report of this law and 
order meeting, as it was printed in the next issue 
of the Gazelle. 

In the same issue appeared another card from 
Mr. Ingersoll, as follows: 

In order to show to people on this side of the water how 
little it was apprehended on the other side, by the most 
zealous friends of America, that their having anything to do 
with the stamp appointments would subject them to the 
censures of their friends, I beg leave to give some account 
of the manner in which those appointments happened, and 
in particular that for New York, in doing which I am sure I 
shall be excused by those gentlemen whose names I shall 
have occasion to mention. 

I ought in the first place to observe, that about the time 
the Parliament began their session last winter, the agents of 
the colonies met together several times in order to concert 
measures for opposing the Stamp Act; in consequence 
whereof the Minister was waited on by them in order to 
remonstrate against the same, and to projiose, if we must be 
ta.xed, that we might be allowed to tax ourselves: a very 
particular account of which, of the difficulties that occurred 
upon every proposed plan, and of all the arguments pro and 
con, and of the several steps taken ni the progress of the bill 
through the House of Commons, was communicated by me 
in several letters to the Governor of this colony, and which 
I understand have been publicly read to the General As- 
sembly. 

The merchants of London trading to America also met 
together about this time and appointed a committee of them- 



selves to make all the opposition they could to the Stamp 
Bill. Ot this committee, Mr. .Alderman Trecothick was 
Deputy Chairman. 

It is well known to many people of the first figure in 
lioston and New York, as well as elsewhere, that Barlow 
Trecothick, Esq., who was brought up at Boston under the 
late Mr. Apthorp, and whose daughter he married, after- 
ward removed and settled in London, where he has acquired 
a great estate with the fairest character, and is at this time 
one of the Aldermen of the City of London, and well known 
by all who have the honor of his acquaintance, to be a 
steady, cool, but firm friend to America. This committee 
of merchants were pleased to invite the agents to a joint 
conference. They were frequently together and several 
limes before the Minister, upon the Stamp and other bills 
that related to America, where Mr. Trecothick was always 
principal spokesman for the merchants. 

After the Stamp Bill passed into an act, and the Minister 
had resolved on the general measure of offering to the 
Americans the offices of Stamp Distributors in the respective 
colonies, for reasons, as he declared, of convenience to the 
colonies, he sent for Mr. Trecothick, and desired him to 
name some friend of his in whom he could confide for the 
office of Distributor for the province of New York. Mr. 
Trecothick said to him, as I am well warranted to assert, to 
this effect: " Sir, you know that I am no friend to the Stamp 
Act. 1 heartily wish it had never taken effect, and fear it will 
have very ill consequences; however, it is passed, and, I 
conclude, must have its operation. I take it as a favor that 
you are willing to put the principal offices into the hands of 
the Americans, and esteem it an honor done me that you 
permit me to name a person for New York," and so named 
Mr. McEvers, and went, I believe, of his own accord, and 
gave bond for him at the office, and all (most undoubtedly) 
without the privity or knowledge of that gentleman. 

And upon this general plan and principle were all the 
appointments made, that is to say, the offer was made gen- 
erally to those who had appeared as agents or friends of 
the colonists, to take it themselves or nominate their friends, 
and none of them all refused as I know of. Indeed thmgs 
were not, I believe, viewed in that very strong light at that 
time, either there or here, as they now are here. 

There happened but three instances of persons then on the 
spot belonging to the old continent colonies, to whom the 
offer was made, who were in a condition to accept it them- 
selves; these were Colonel Mercer, from Yirginia, and Mr. 
Meserve, son of the late Colonel Meserve, from New Hamp- 
shire (who happened accidentally in London at that time 
upon business of their own), and myself. 

Now upon this view of the matter, will not every unpreju- 
diced mind believe that Alderman Trecothick was, in the 
first place, a sincere friend to the colonies, and really averse 
to the passing the .Stamp Act, when even his interest as well 
as his inclination and connections led him that way ? for 'tis 
well known he deals largely with America and could not 
expect to have his own affairs bettered by the act. In the 
next place, will anybody suppose that he imagined by this 
step he should expose a valued friend to the resentments of 
his country ? 

Again, when the measure of making the appointments in 
America was thus general, and come into as generally, will 
any one think that any one of the persons concerned imag- 
ined he betrayed his country liy falling in with the measure ? 

Berhapi at this time, when popular rage runs so very 
high, some may think the friends of America mistook their 
own and their country's true interest when they listened to 
these overtures, but who can think their intentions were 
ill? •■ 

I thouglit this brief narrative was a piece of justice due to 
those who have fallen under so much blame of late for med- 
dling with the obnoxious offices above mentioned. 

And here I cannot but take notice how unwilling some 
news writers seem to be, to publish anything that serves to 
inform the minds of the people of any matters, which tend to 
abate their prejudices. They even make use of some kind 
of caution, I observe, to prevent the people from listening to 
any such cool and dispassionate dissertations and remarks 
which at any time they happen to publish, and at the same 
time deal out their personal abuses in the most unrestrained 
manner, repeating with pleasure the accounts of the most 
extraordinary libellous exhibitions and practices — practices, 



36 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



which My Lord Coke describes as being not only the most 
injurious to individuals, but a scandal to government, lend- 
ing to the breach of the peace and stirring up sedition, the 
dreadful eflects of which we already begin to see, and 
which, it appears to me, can answer no other public purpose 
except so to incense the mother country against us as that 
they will refuse even to treat with us upon the subject of our 
burdens. I wish all such persons would bear in their minds 
those few lines which the facetious poet so aptly applies in 
his " Hudibras " to the beginning of those civil dissensions 
which laid England in ruins about a century ago. 

When civil dudgeon first grew high. 
And men fell out, they knew not why; 

When hard words, jealousies and fears 
Set folks together by the ears, etc. 

Nt-.w lUvRN, September lo, 1765. J. I. 

On the 17th of the same month, there was a town 
meeting in New Haven, which is thus reported in 
the Gazelle of September 20th: 

On the 17th inst., the freemen of this town met here. 
After choosing Roger Sherman, Esq , and Mr. Samuel 
Bishop to represent them in the General Assembly to be 
holden next month, they unanimously desired those Rep- 
resenlatives to use their utmost endeavors (at the Assembly 
now sitting at Hartford and also at the ensuing session here) 
to obtain "a repeal of ihe Stamp Act. The Stamp-Master 
General of this colony was at the said meeting, where these 
words were read aloud: "Likewise voted that the freemen 
present earnestly desire Mr. Ingersoll to resign his stamp 
office immediately.'' Numerous were the signs of consent 
to this vote, when a gentleman condemned it as needless and 
inconsistent after their former proceedings. The Stamp Of- 
ficer then arose and declared in the strongest terms that he 
would not resign till he discovered how the General Assem- 
bly were in that respect. It is said he is gone to Hartford 
to make that important discovery, and he has written to 
New York requesting that the Stamp Paper may be detained 
there till it is wanted here. 

It was indeed true that Mr. Ingersoll had gone 
to Hartford. As we have his own account of his 
journey, we will give it in full. 

As the affair of the 19th inst., relative to my renouncing 
the office of Distributor of Stamps for this colony, is too 
public to be kept a secret; and yet the particulars of it not 
enough known to prevent many vague and diflerent reports 
concerning it, I thought it might be well to give the public 
a brief narrative of that transaction, which I shall do with 
all possible impartiality, without mentioning the names of 
any of the concerned, and without any remarks or animad- 
versions upon the subject. 

Having received repeated and undoubted intelligence of 
a design formed by a great number of people in the eastern 
parts of the colony to come and obtain from me a resignation 
of the above mentioned office, I delivered to the Governor 
on the 17th at New Haven, on his way to meet tlie General 
Assembly at Hartford on the igth, a written information ac- 
quainting him with my said intelligence and desiring of him 
such aid and assistance as Ihe emergency of the affair should 
require. On the 18th 1 rode out with his Honor and some 
other gentlemen, members of the Assembly, in hopes of 
being able lo learn more particularly the time and manner of 
the intended attack. 

".\bout eighteen mileslience on the Ilarlford road, we 
met two men on horseback, with pretty long, and large new- 
made, white staves in their hands, whom I exiiected to be 
part of the main body. I accordingly stopped short from 
the company and asked them if they were not in pursuit of 
me, acquainting them who I was and that I should not 
attcmi)t lo avoid meeting the people. After a little hesi- 
tancy, they frankly owned that they were of that party, and 
said there were a great number ot people coming in three 
divisions: one from Windham through Hartford, one from 
Norwich through H.addam, and one from New London by 
the way of Urantbrd, and that their rendezvous was to be 
at liranlord on the evening of the 19th, Irom thence to 
come and pay me a visit on the 20tli ; these men said they 



were sent forward to reconnoiter and to see who would 
join them. I desired them to turn and go with me as far 
as Mr. Bishop's, the tavern at the Stone House, so called, 
(hie of them did. Here I acquainted the Governor and the 
other gentlemen with the matter and desired their advice. 
The Governor said many things to this man, pointing out to 
him the danger of such a step and charging him to go and 
tell the people to return back; but he let the Governor know 
that they looked upon this as the cause of the people, and 
i, that they did not intend to take directions about it from any- 
' body. 

" As I knew, in case of their coming to New 1 laven, there 
would most likely be an opposition to their designs and most 
likely by the militia, I was afraid lest some lives might be 
lost, and that my own estate might receive damage; I there- 
fore concluded to go forward and meet them at Hartford, 
and accordingly wrote a letter to the people who were com 
ing in the two lower divisions, acquainting them generally 
with my purposes with regard to my exercising the office 
aforesaid, and which I had the day before delivered to the 
Governor lo be communicated to the Assembly, which were 
in substance that I should decline the business if I found it 
generally disagreeable to the people, and which I hoped 
would be sufficient; but if not that I should be glad, if they 
thought it worth their while, to meet them at Hartford and 
not at New Haven, assuring them that I should not attempt 
to secrete myself. This done, I got Mr. Bishop to go down 
to New Haven, with a letter to my family that they and my 
house might be put in a proper state of defense and secur- 
ity, in case the people should persist in their first design of 
coming that way. 

" Having taken these precautions, I tarried that night at 
Mr. Bishop's. The next morning, Thursday, the 19th, I set 
off" alone about seven o'clock for Hartford, but just as I was 
mounting, Mr. Bishop said he would go along and see what 
should happen, and accordingly overtook me, as I did Major 
Hall, a member of the Assembly upon the road; and so we 
went on together until we came within two or three miles of 
Wethersfield, when we met an advanced party of about four 
or five persons. I told them who I was, upon which they 
turned, and I fell into conversation with them upon the 
general subject of my office, etc. About half a mile further, 
we met another party of about thirty, whom I accosted, and 
who turned and went on in the same manner. We rode a 
little further and met the main body, who, I judge, were 
about five hundred men, all on horseback and having white 
staves, as before described. They were preceded by three 
trumpets, next followed two persons dressed in red, with 
laced hats; then the rest, two abreast. Some others, I think 
were in red, being, I suppose, militia officers. They opened 
and received me; then all went forward until we came into 
the main street in the town of Wethersfield, when one rid- 
ing up to the person with whom I was joined and whom I 
took to be the principal leader or commandant, said to him: 
" We cannot all hear and see so well in a house; we had as 
good have the business done here." Upon this they formed 
into a circle, having me in the middle with some two or 
three more, who seemed to be principal managers. Major 
Hall and Mr. Bishop also keeping near me. I began to 
speak to the audience, but stopped and said I did not know 
why I should say anything, tor that I was not certain I 
knew what they wanted of me. 

" riiey said they wanted me to resign my office of Stamp 
Distributor. I then went on to tell ilieni that I had always 
declared that I would not exercise the othce against the gen- 
eral inclinations of the people; that I had given to theliov- 
ernor, to be communicated to the Assembly, my declarations 
upon that head ; and that I had given orders to have the 
stamped paper stopped at New York, from whence it 
should not come until I should be able to learn from the As- 
sembly that it was their choice and inclination to have it 
come, as I did not think it safe to bring it in without; that I 
was under bonds to the Stamp Office in England, and did 
not think it sate or proper for me to resign the office to every 
one th.at should .ask it of me; and that I only wanted to 
know the -sense of the Government, whether to conform to 
tlie act or not, in order to my getting dismissed from my of- 
fice in a proper manner. And as it had been said that the 
Assembly would not say anything about the matter, I had 
now put it upon this fair footing, that if they did not, by 
some act relative to the affair, plainly show their minds and 



DURING THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 



3t 



inclination to Iiave the stamped paper brought into the col- 
ony, I should not think it safe, as times were, to suffer the 
same to come in, nor take any steps in my office. Also ob- 
served to them that the Governor would have power and in- 
structions to put in another if I should be removed; that the 
step could do them no good. They said: 'Here is the 
sense of the Government, and no man shall exercise that of- 
fice.' I as-ked if they thought it w-as fair that the counties 
of Windham and New London should dictate to all the rest 
of the colony? Upon this, one said: 'It don't signify to 
parley. Here is a great many people waiting, and you 
^ul^t resign.' 1 said: '1 don't think it proper to resign till 
I meet a proper authority to ask it of me,' and added: 
'What if I won't resign; what will l>e the consequence?' 
One said: '■Your fate." Upon which I looked him full in 
the face, and said: ^ Afy fate, you say?' Upon which a 
person just behind, said ^' The fate of your office.^ I answered 
that I could die, and perhaps as well now as another time, 
and that I should die but once. Upon which the Command- 
ant (for so, for brevity's sake, I beg leave to call the person 
who seemed to have the principal conduct of the affair said): 
' We had belter go along to a tavern ' (which we did), and 
cautioned me not to irritate the people. When we came 
against the house, and tl^e people began to alight, I said, 
' ^'ou can soon tell what you intend to do; my business is 
at Hartford; may I go there or home? ' and made amotion 
to go. They said, ' No, you shall not go two rods from 
this spot before you have resigned,' and took hold of my 
horse's bridle; when, after some little time, I dismounted 
and went into the house with the persons who were called 
the committee, being a certain number of the principal 
persons, the main body continuing without doors. And 
here I ought not to omit mentioning that I was told repeat- 
edly that they had no intentions of hurting me or my estate, 
but would use me like a gentleman. This, however, I con- 
clude they will understand was on condition I should com- 
ply with their demands. 

"When I came into the house with this select committee, 
a great deal of conversation passed upon the subject and 
upon some other matters, as my being supposed to be in 
England when the first leading vote of Parliament passed 
relative to the Stamp Act, and my not advising the Gov- 
ernor of it; whereas I was at that time in America — and the 
like, too tedious to relate. Upon the whole, this committee 
behaved with moderation and civility, and I thought seemed 
inclined to listen to certain proposals which I made; but 
when the body of the people came to hear them they 
rejected them, and nothing would do but I must resign. 

"While I was detained here, I saw several members of 
the Assembly pass by, whom I hailed, aciiuainting them 
that I was there kept and detained as a prisoner, and de- 
sired their and the Assembly's assistance for my relief. 
They stopped and spoke to the people, but were told they 
had better go along to the Assembly, where they might 
possibly be wanted. Major Hall also, finding his presence 
not altogether agreeable, ^\'ent away; and Mr. Bishop, by 
my desire, went away to let the Governor and the Assem- 
bly know the siiualion I was in. 

" Afier much time spent in fruitless proposals, I was told 
the people grew very impatient, and that I must bring the 
matter to a conclusion. I then told them I had no more to 
say, and asked wh >t would they do with me ? They said 
they would carry me to Windham a prisoner, but would 
keep me like a gentleman. I told them 1 would go to Wind- 
ham; that I had lived very well there, and should like to go 
and live there again. This did not do. They then advised 
me to move from the front window, as the sight of me 
seemed to enrage the people. Sometimes the people 
from below would rush into the room in great numbers and 
look pretty fierce at me, and then the committee would de- 
sire them to withdraw. 

"To conclude: After about three hours spent in this 
kind of way, and they telling me that certain of their gen- 
tlemen, members of the General Assembly, had told them 
they must get the matter over before the Assembly had time 
to do anything about it; and that it was my artifice to 
wheedle the matter along until the Assembly should, somehow 
or other, get ensnared in the matter, etc. The command- 
ant coming up from below, told me, with seeming concern 
in his countenance, that he could not keep the people off 
from me any longer; and that if they once began, he could 



not promise me when they would end. I now thought it 
was time to submit. I told him I did not think the cause 
worth dying for, and that I would do whatever they should 
desire me to do. Upon this I looked out at a front window, 
beckoned the people, and told them I had consented to 
comply with their desires, and only waited to have some- 
thing drawn up for me to sign. We then went to work to 
prepare the draft. I attempted to make one myself; but 
they not liking it, said they would draw one themselves, 
which they did, and I signed it. Then they told me that 
the people insisted on my being sworn never to execute the 
office. This I refused to do somewhat peremptorily, urging 
that I thought it would be a profanation of an oath. The 
committee seemed to think it might be dispensed with, but 
said the people would not excuse it. One of the committee, 
however, said he would go down and try to persuade them 
off from it. I saw him from my window amidst the circle, 
and observing that the people seemed more and more fixed 
in their resolution of insisting upon it, I got up and told the 
people in the room I would go down and throw myself 
among them, and went down, they following me. When I 
came to the circle they opened and let me in, when I 
mounted a chair which stood there by a table, and having 
pulled off my hat and beckoned silence, I proceeded to read 
off the declaration which I had signed, and then proceeded to 
tell them that I believed I was as adverse to the Stamp Act 
as any one of them; that I had accepted my appointment to 
this office, I thought, upon the fairest motives; that learning 
how very obnoxious it was to the people, I h.ad found myself 
in a very disagreeable situation ever since my coming home; 
that I found myself at the same time under such obligations, 
that I did not think myself at liberty peremptorily to resign 
my office without the leave of those who appointed me; that 
I was very sorry to see the country in the situation it was in ; 
that I could, nevertheless, in some measure, excuse the 
people, as I believed they were actuated by a real, though 
a misguided, zeal for the good of their country; and that I 
wished the transactions of that day might prove happy for 
this colony, though I must own to them I very much feared 
the contrary — and much more to the same purpose. 

When I had done, a person who stood near me told me 
to give 'Liberty and Property ' with three cheers, which I 
did, throwing up my hat into the air; this was followed by 
loud huzzas; and then the people, many of them, pleased 
to take me by the hand, and tell me I was restored to their 
former friendship. I then went with two or three more to 
a neighboring house, where we dined. I was then told the 
company expected to wait on me into Hartford, where they 
expected I should publish my declaration again. I re- 
minded them of what they had before told me, that it might 
possibly ensnare the Assembly for them to have an opportu- 
nity to act or to do anything about this matter. Some in- 
clined to forego this step, but the main body insisted on it. 
We accordingly mounted, I believe by this time to the num- 
ber of near one thousand, and rode into Hartford, the 
Assembly then sitting. They dismounted opposite the As- 
sembly House and about twenty yards from it. Some of 
them conducted me into an .adjoining tavern, while the main 
body drew up four abreast and inarched in form round the 
Court House, preceded l-iy three trumpets sounding, then 
formed into a semicircle at the door of the tavern. I was 
then directed to go down and read the paper I had signed, 
and which I did within the hearing and presence of the As- 
sembly; and only added that I wished the consequences of 
this day's transaction might be happy. This was suc- 
ceeded with ' Liberty and Properly ' and three cheers, soon 
after which the people began to draw off, and I suppose 
went home. I understand they came out with eight days' 
provision, determined to find me if in the colony. 

" I believe the whole time I was with them was better 
than three hours, during a part of which time, I am told, 
the Assembly were busy in forming some plan for my relief; 
the Lower House, thinking to send any force, were it in 
their power, might do more hurt than good to me, agreed 
to advise the sending some persons of influence to interpose 
by persuasion, etc., and communicated their desire to the 
Upper Board, in consequence whereof certain gentlemen of 
the House were desired and were about to come to my re- 
lief, it being about half an hour's ride; but before they set 
out they heard the matter was finished. Had they come, 
I conclude it would have had no effect. 



38 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



" This, according to the best of my recollection, is the 
substance of the transaction, and in most of it I have had 
the concurrent remembrance and assent of the before -men- 
tioned Mr. Bishop. If I have omitted or misreported any- 
thing material, 1 hope it will be imi)uted to want of memory 
only, as I mean not to irritate or inflame, but merely to sat- 
isfy the curious, and to place facts in a true and undisguised 
light. "J. INGERSOI.L. 

" New H.wf.n, September 23, 1765. 

"P. S.— I perceive these people, the night before this 
aflfan- happened, placed a guard round the Court House in 
Hartford, and at my usual lodgings in that town, also se- 
curing the passage over the bridge in the town, and all the 
passes, even by the Farmington road, to prevent my getting 
into town that night— a needless pains had they known it. 
The Members of the Assembly arrived in town the same 
evening. 

Copy of the above-mentioned resignation: 

" I do hereby jiromise that I will never receive any 
stamped papers which may arrive from Europe, in conse- 
quence of any Act lately passed in the Parliament of Great 
Britain, nor ofticiate in any manner as Stamp Master or 
Distributor of Stamps within the colony of Connecticut, 
either directly or indirectly; and I do hereby request all the 
inhabitants of this his Majesty's colony of Connecticut (not- 
withstanding the said office or trust has been committed to 
me) not to apply to me hereafter for any such stamped pa- 
pers, hereby declaring that I do resign said office, and exe- 
cute these presents of my own free will and accord, without 
any equivocation or mental reservation. 

"In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand. 

"J. Ingersoll. 

Tradition reports that some rough jests were 
given and taken during the ride from Welhersfield 
to Hartford, the populace reminding their victim 
that his initials were those of Judas Iscariot; and 
Mr. Ingersoll, who chanced to ride a white horse, 
declaring that he had now a clearer idea, than ever 
he had before conceived, of that passage in the 
Revelation which describes Death on a pale horse 
and Hell following with him. 

In view of the turbulent and violent proceedings 
of the 19th of September, Governor Fitch issued a 
proclamation on the 23d of the same month, warn- 
ing the people of the colony against such violations 
of the peace. 

IngersoUs public resignation did not entirely 
satisfy the Sons of Liberty. Receiving two anony- 
mous letters calling on him to give some further 
assurance with regard to his intentions, and to con- 
firm them with an oath, and having, as he says, 
"good reason to think those letters came from a 
large number of people belonging to this colony,'' 
he declared : 

1. I never was, nor am now, desirous or even willing to 
hohl or exercise the aforesaid office, contrary to the mind 
and inclination of the general body of jicople in this 
colony. 

2. I have for some time been, and still am, persuaded, 
that it is the general opinion and sentiment t>f the people of 
this colony (after mature deliberation) that the Stamp Act 
is an infringement of their rights, and dangerous to their 
liberties, aii<l therefore I am not willing, nor will I, for that 
and other good and sufficient reasons, as I suppose ^and 
which I hope and trust will excuse me to those who aj)- 
pointed mc), exercise the said office against such general 
opinion and sentiment of the people; and generally, and in a 
word, will never at all, liy myself or otherwise, officiate 
under my said deputation. As I have, so I will, in the 
most effectual manner I am able, apply to the proper board 
in England ff>r a dismission from my said oflicc. 

J. Ingersoll. 



New Haven, ss., Jan. 8, 1766. 

Then personally appeared Jared Ingersoll, Esq., and 
made oath to the truth of the foregoing declaration; by hmi 
subscribed before me. Daniel Lyman, Just. Peace. 

The first day of November, 1765, was the time 
appointed for the law to go into execution. 

Friday, the first morning in November, (says Bancroft) 
"broke upon a people unanimously resolved on nullilying 
the Stamp Act. From New Hampshire to the far South, the 
day was introduced by the tolling of mufffed bells; minute 
guns were fired and' pennants hoisted at half-staff; or a 
eulogy was pronounced on liberty and her knell soundeil, 
and then again the note changed', as if she were restored to 
life; and while pleasure shone on every countenance, men 
shouted " Confusion to her enemies." Even the children at 
their games, though hardly able to speak, caught up the 
general chorus, and went along the streets merrily carolling: 
"Liberty, Property, and no Stamps." 

The jniblishers of new^spapers which appeared on Fri- 
day, (continues Mr. Bancroft) were the persons called 
upon to stand the brunt in braving the penalties of the Act. 
Honor then to the ingenious Benjamin Mecom, the bold- 
hearted editor at New Haven, who, on that morning, with- 
out apology or concealment, issued the Connecticut Gazette, 
filled with "patriotic appeals; for (said he,) the press is the 
test of truth, the bulwark of public safety, the guardian ol 
freedom, and the people ought not to sacrifice it. 

As the Gazette went to press, the editor in- 
serted this notice, 

New Haven, Novemlier i, 1665. 

This morning three tells in this town which are near 
neighbors, began to toll here, and still continue tolling and 
saluting each other at suitable intervals. They seem to 
speak the word No-vem-ber, in the most melancholy tone 
imaginable. 

The Americans were perhaps emboldened to 
resist the Stamp Act by the news which came 
before it went into execution, that the King had 
determined to organize a new ministry, and that 
Lord Chatham was to be at its head. They sub- 
mitted to all the inconveniences and risks which 
attended the transaction of business \vithout the 
required stamps, in hope that legality would soon 
be restored to the forms of business by a repeal of 
the Act. After the first day of November no 
Courts of Justice sat in New Haven for several 
months; but as spring approached, the inhabitants 
in town-meeting signified their desire that the 
Courts, and especially the Honorable the Superior 
Court, would sit as formerly for the administration 
of justice. The Courts accordingly resumed their 
functions, not only before tidings arrived of the 
repeal, but before the repeal itself News came to 
New Haven on Monday the 19th of May, 1766, 
that King George had approved the Bill repealing 
the Stamp Act. He had signed on the morning of 
the i8th of March, among other bills, what after- 
ward he regarded as the well-spring of all his 
sorrows, " the fatal compliance of 1766." 

Mr. Mecom in his Gazette of May 23d, announces : Last 
Monday morning, early, an express arrived here with the 
charming news; soon after which many of the inhabitants 
were awakened with the noise of small arms from diflerenl 
ipiarters of the town; all the bells were rung, and cannun 
roared the glad tidings. In the afternoon the clergy pub- 
licly returned thanks for the bles.sing, and a company of 
militia were collected under the principal direction of Colonel 
Wooster. In the evening were illumination, bonfire and 
dances; all without any remarkable indecency or disordei-. 

The repeal of the Stamp Act was not the end of 
the controversy between the Parliament and the 
Colonies. Pitt, now created Earl of Chatham, did 



DURING THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 



30 



indeed form a new Ministry, but of heterogeneous 
elements, some of which were hostile to America. 
If the Premier had retained his heahh he might 
perhaps have guided the course of events so that 
the troubles of the next decade would never have 
occurred. As it was, the Ship of State, though 
nominally commanded by a friend of Ameiica, was 
actually guided by those who believed that Amer- 
icans should be taxed by Parliament rather than by 
their own colonial assemblies. Such men might 
think it a matter of policy to repeal an Act which 
they found could be enforced only by importing 
armies into the colonies and retaining them 
there perpetually; but their views of what was just 
were unchanged. Charles Townshend, the Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer, was determined to tax 
America; not so much for the avails of the tax, as to 
maintain the right to do so. In the absence of 
Chatham, an Act was passed ostensibly for the reg- 
ulation of trade, but providing that lea, paints, 
paper, glass and lead should pay a duty at the 
colonial Custom-Houses. The colonists on their 
part resisted this mode of taxation, by non-importa- 
tion. Leagues were formed in every town, of 
persons pledged not to use any manufactured 
articles but such as were of home product, and not 
to trade with merchants who kept on sale goods 
imported from Great Britain. 

The year 1770 was (says Hollister) one of peculiar in- 
terest in Connecticut. The merchants of the colony had 
kept the articles of agreement entered into with those of 
New York, in relation to the non importation of British 
ijoods, with singular lidelity. In New York, on the other 
hand, these articles had been in many instances violated 
with a shamelessness that elicited such universal indignation 
that it was resolved that a general convention of delegates 
from all the towns in the colony should meet at New Haven 
on the 13th of Sejitember, to take into consideration the 
]ierilous condition of the coinitry, to provide for the growth 
and spread of home manufactures, and to devise more 
thorough means for carrying out to the letter the non-im- 
jiortation agreement. 

Preparations for this meeting occupied the minds 
of the people throughout the colony for month'', 
and the zeal in behalf of home manufactures, and 
in opposition to trade with Britain, increased as the 
discussion proceeded. "Frequent town meetings 
were held, speeches were made, and resolutions 
were passed; many of which found their way to 
England, and caused the ears of the British ministry 
to tingle, and their cheeks to redden with anger." 
This mode of opposition enlisted women as well as 
men and " the popular feeling in favor of domest'c 
manufactures grew to be a passion. The women 
of the colony, without reference to rank, encour- 
aged their husbands, sons and lovers, and vied 
with them in bringing back the age of home-spun. 
The sliding of the shuttle, the buzz of the spinning- 
wheel, the bleaching of cloth upon the lawn that 
sloped downward from the kitchen door of the 
family mansion to the rivulet that threaded the 
bottom of the glade, found employment for the 
proudest as well as the humblest female in the 
land." 

New Haven appointed its delegates to this con- 
vention on the loth of September. In town- 
meeting it was "voted that Colonel Nathan 



Whiting, Mr. Adam Babcock, Joshua Chandler, 
Esq., Daniel Lyman, Esq., Mr. Jesse Leavenworth, 
Mr. Ralph Isaacs, Captain Joel Hotchkiss, and Dea. 
David Austin, be a committee to meet the gentle- 
men who may be appointed in the other towns in 
this colony, to meet on the 13th day of instant 
September, to consider what may be done toward 
promoting the commercial interests of the colony.'' 
On the 1 8th of September, at another town- 
meeting, a committee of thirty-eight, consisting of 
Thomas Darling, Adam Babcock, David Wooster, 
Joshua Chandler, Daniel Lyman, Roger Sherman, 
John Hubbard, Simeon Bristol, Samuel Heming- 
way, Benjamin Smith, Andrew Bradley, Thomas 
Howell, Joseph !\Iunson, William (jreenough, 
Nathan \Vhiting, Joel Hotchkiss, David Austin, 
Samuel Bishop, Jr., Ralph Isaacs, Phineas Bradley, 
John Whiting, Stephen Ball, Jeremiah Atvvater, 
John Woodward, James Thompson, Jesse Leaven- 
worth, Enos Ailing, William Gregory, Jacob Pinto, 
Hezekiah .Sabin, Samuel Sacket, Caleb Beecher, 
William Douglas, Jared IngersoU, James A. Hill- 
house, Isaac Beers, Timothy Jones Jr., and Amos 
Botsford, was appointed "to take into considera- 
tion the present state of the commercial interests of 
this place, and report their opinion what they 
judge is best and needful to be done relative 
thereto. " 

It does not appear that this committee ever made 
a report to the town. Not long after its ap- 
pointment, the Parliament, frightened at the 
unanimity with which the Americans had joined 
in and adhered to their non-importation agreement, 
and moved by petitions from British meichants 
whose traffic with America had been interrupted, 
amended the Act for the regulation of trade, so as 
to remove all duties except that on tea. This was 
retained at the express command of the King, for 
the sake of bearing testimony to the right of 
England to tax the colonies. But as the Amer- 
icans would not use tea, there was no collision till 
1773, when an attempt was made to secure the 
payment of three-pence per pound at the colonial 
Custom-Houses, by remitting the duty of nine-pence 
per pound which had been required when tea was 
imported into England. The King was willing 
his subjects in America should purchase tea at a 
lower price than those in England, if they would 
pass through the form of paying a duty on it. But 
when the tea ships arrived in the harbor of Boston, 
there was a tea-party of an unexpected character, 
and the tea was thrown overboard. The quietness 
which had reigned for three years was suddenly 
terminated by this outbr^?ak of popular indignation. 
Even those who had stood up in Parliament in 
defense of the Americans were now ready to sup- 
port the Ministry. A bill introduced into Parlia- 
ment in the beginning of 1774, punished Boston 
for the tea-party by closing its port against all 
commerce. Another punished Massachusetts by 
abridging the privileges secured to it by its charter. 
The Boston Port Bill contributed more than any 
other one thing to precipitate the collision between 
the mother-country and the colonies which had 
been impending since tidings came of the Stamp 



40 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



Act. The inhabitants of Boston assembled in town 
meeting on the 14th of May, and 

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this town that if the other 
colonies come into a joint resolution to stop all importation 
from and exportation to Great Britain and every part of the 
West Indies till the Act be repealed, the same will prove the 
salvation of North America and her liberties; and that the 
impolicy, injustice, inhumanity, and cruelty of the Act 
exceed our powers of expression . \Yc therefore leave it to 
the just censure of others, and ap]K-al to God and the world. 

Copies of this vote were transmitted to each of 
the colonies. The General Assembly of Connecticut 
being in session at the time, appointed a day of 
humiliation and prayer; ordered an inventory to be 
taken of all the cannon, small arms, ammunition, 
and other military stores belonging to the colony 
at the battery of New London; incorporated several 
new military companies, and passed pungent reso- 
lutions in censure of the ministry. The several 
towns throughout the colony held town-meetings 
in which resolution of sympathy with Boston were 
passed, and committees of correspondence were 
appointed to communicate with other towns and 
especially with Boston. One of the earliest of 
these town-meetings was at New Haven. 

At a legal town-meeting, held at New Haven on the 23d 
day of May, 1774, Daniel Lyman, Moderator; 

Voted, That we will to the utmost of om- abilities, assert 
and defend the liberties and imnumities of British America, 
and that we will cooperate with our sister towns in this and 
the other colonies in any constitutional measures that may 
be thought most conducive to the preservation of our invalu- 
able rights and privileges. 

f'o/?</. That Joshua Chandler, Esq., Samuel Bishop, Jr., 
Esq;, Daniel Lyman, Esfj., Mr. Stephen Ball, Pierjxmt 
Edwards, Esq., John Whiting, Es(| , Mr. Isaac Doolittle, 
Mr. David Austin, Capt. Joseph Munson, Mr. Peter Colt, 
Mr. Jeremiah Atwater, Mr. Timothy Jones, Jr. , Mr. Isaac 
Beers, Capt. Timothy Bradley, Mr. Silas Kimberly, .Simeon 
Bristol, Esq., Mr. Jose])h Woodward, and Capt Joel Hotch- 
kiss, Ix; a standing committee for the salutary purpose of 
keeping up a correspondence with the towns of this and the 
neighboring colonies, and, in conjunction with them, pursu- 
ing in the |)resent important crisis, such judicious and con- 
lititutional measures as shall appear to be necessary for the 
preservation of our just rights, the maintenance of ])ublic 
peace, and su])port of general union, which at this time is so 
absolutely requisite to be preserved throughout this con- 
tinent. 

Also, Voted, That a co])y of the alMve resolves shall be 
transmitted to the Committee of Correspondence for the town 
of Boston, in answer to their letter to tjiis town. 

This meeting adjourned to the third Monday of [inie 
next, at two of the clock in the afternoon. 

At a town meeting held in New Haven, by adjournment, 
u]>on the 20th day of June, 1774; 

Voted, That Samuel Bishop Es(|., be desired to inform the 
Honorable Committee of Correspondence of this colony, 
that it would be very agreeable to this town to have a 
General Congress as soon as may be, and that in their 
opinion a General Ainmal Congress would have a great 
tendency to promote the welfare and happiness of all the 
American Colonies. 

/ 'oted, That upon the request of the Committee of Corre- 
spondence, the Selectmen be desired to call a town meeting. 

The time fi.xed for closing the port of Boston 
was the first day of June. With only a few days' 
notice, the inhabitants found their means of sub- 
sistence cut off. The immense property in ware- 
houses and wharves became in a measure useless. 
Persons dependent on wages and salaries were des- 
titute of income. But so deep and wide-spread 
was the sympathy with Boston, ihat contributions 



flowed in from every quarter. The ne.xt town- 
meeting in New Haven was chiefly occupied with 
arrangements for the relief of those thus deprived 
of an opportunity to earn a livelihood. 

At a town-meeting held in New Haven, by adjournment, 
upon the l8th day of October, 1774; 

J'oled, That it is the opinion of this town, that a subscrip- 
tion be set on foot for the relief of inhabitants of the town of 
Boston that are now suftering in the common cause of 
American freedom, and that Messrs. Joseph Munson, David 
Austin, Benj. Douglass, Adam Babcock, Enos Ailing, Isaac 
Doolittle, Henry Daggett, Jonathan Osborne, Isaac Chidsey, 
Azariah Bradley, Silas Kimberly, Samuel Candee, James 
Heaton, Jr., Stephen Jacobs, Timothy Bradley, Amos 
Perkins, Simeon Bristol. Theoj^h. Goodyear, Isaac Beecher, 
Jr., Timothy Ball, and .Samuel Beecher. be a committee to 
receive in subscrii)tions, and transmit what may be so col- 
lected to the Selectmen of the town of Boston, to be by them 
disposed of for the su]>port of the inhabitants of the town ot 
Boston. 

No report appears on the records of the amount 
of these subscriptions, but there is reason to believe 
that as New Haven was not behind other towns in 
its zeal for "the common cause of American free- 
dom," so it was not deficient in generous gifts to 
Boston. In some towns the amount contributed 
was put on record. The town of Windham sent 
two hundred and fifty fat sheep; the contributions 
from Norwich consisted of money, wheat, corn, 
and a flock of three hundred and ninety sheep. 
^^'ethersfield sent a large quantity of wheat. 

But arrangements for this subscription were not 
the only transactions of the town-meeting held on 
the iSth of October. It was also 

Voted, That the Selectmen build a suitable house to i>ut 
the town's stock of powder in, of such dimensions as they 
shall judge needful, either upon the land of Messrs. Beers, 
Doolittle or Meloy, 

]'ot,il. That the .Selectmen procure a stock of powder, 
agreeable to the law in such case provided, as soon as may 
lie, for the town's use. 

Adjourned without day. 

The action in regard to powder was doubtles^ 
occasioned by a resolution passed a few days 
before by the General Assembly, viz. : 

Resolved hy this A.ssembly, that the several towns in this 
colony be and are herby ordered to provide, as soon as may 
be, double the cpiantity of powder, ball, and flints that they 
were heretofore Iiy law obliged to i)rovide, under the same 
directions and penalties as by law already provided. 

It is evident in' the light of history that this 
resolve of the Assembly, and the corresponding 
action of the towm, meant more than appears in the 
language used. They were preparing to use powder 
if necessary; but they spoke with a reserve like 
that with which the .\ssembly si.\ months later 
referred to Lexington and Concord. 

IVereas it is represented to this Assembly that sundry 
acts of hostility and vit)lence have lately been connnitted in 
the province of Massachusetts Bay by which many lives 
have been lost; and that some inhabitants t)f this colony are 
gone to the relief of the people distressed: It is thereiqion. 

A'cjtf/rrrfby this Assembly, that Captain Jo.seph Trundiull 
and Mr. Amasa Keyes be and they are hereby appointed a 
committee to procure all necessary pro\-isions for the in- 
habitants of this colony who have gone to the relief of the 
]>eo])le aforesaid, and that they superintend the delivery out 
and apportioning the same among them, till this Assembly 
shall consider what measures are proper to be taken relative 
thereto, and give orilers accordingly. 

Meanwhile the General Congress, which the in- 



DURING THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 



41 



habitants of New Haven at their meeting in June 
were hoping for,* had met and recommended as a 
means of redress for the grievances which threatened 
the destruction of the hves, liberty and property of 
his INIajesty's subjects in North America, "the non- 
importation, non-consumption, and non-exporta- 
tion agreement." They recommended that commit- 
tees of inspection should everywhere be appointed 
to see that the articles of agreement were faithfully 
observed. Three delegates from Connecticut attend- 
ed and acted in this Congress with delegates from 
each and every of the other twelve colonies. Roger 
Sherman, an honored citizen of New Haven, was 
one of the three delegates from Connecticut. The 
recommendations of Congress were approved by 
the General .Assembly at the October session; and 

At a town-meeting holden in New Haven, upon the I4tli 
(lay of November, 1774, in pursuance of the resolve of the 
House of Representatives in October last in New Haven, to 
choose a committee for the purpose mentioned in the nth 
article in the association entered into by the late Continental 
Congress, held at Philadelphia, it was— 

Voted, that Roger Sherman, Esq. , be Moderator. 

Voted, that this town will choose a committee for the pur- 
pose mentioned in the 1 1 th article of said association, agree- 
alJe to the resolve and recommendation of said House of 
Representatives. 

I'oted, that the major part of the committee be chosen 
within the limits of the First Society. 

Voted, that the following persons be a committee for the 
purpose aforesaid, viz. Jonathan Fitch, Michael Todd, 
David Atwater, Jr., Samuel Bird, David Austin, Timothy 
Jones, Jr., Joseph Munson, Peter Colt, Abraham Bradley, 
.Samuel Mansfield, Henry Daggett, John White, Jr., James 
Gilbert, Robert Brown, Thomas Bills, John Miles, Thomas 
Green, Daniel I'enham, Jonathan Osborn, Stephen Smith, 
Azariah Bradley, Jonathan Smith, John Benham, Jesse 
Todd, Giles Pierpont, Timothy Bradley, Enoch Newton, 
Isaac Beecher, Jr., Joel Hotchk'iss, Sanniel Martin and Joel 
Bradley, Jr. 

For some reason there was dissatisfaction with 
this Committee as not being large enough, so that 
we find this record : 

At a town-meeting held at New Haven, by adjoiu-ument, 
upon the 20th day of December, A. D. 1774. 

Voted. That this town do approve of the association 
entered into by the late Continental Congress held at Phila- 
delphia. 

Whereas, The inhabitants of the town of New Haven, at 
their town-meeting, held on the 14th day of November last, 
called for the purpose of choosing a Committee of Inspection 
(according to the advice of the Continental Congress, and a 
vote of the Lower House of Assembly of this Colony), 
to carry into execution the resolutions of said Congress, did 
nominate and appoint a committee of thirty-one persons, 
named in the records of the proceedings of said town, which 
committee are now mianimously approved by this meeting; 
and 

IVAereas, A number of the inhabitants of this town are 
desirous to have said comnn'ttee enlarged, in order there- 
fore that there may be |ieace and imanimity in this town; 

Voted, That tbe following persons be added to said Com- 
mittee, viz.: Messrs. Stephen Ball, Benjamin Douglass, 
Phineas Bradley, John Mbc, William Greenough, Levi'lves, 
Isaac Doolittle, Elias Shipman, Amos Morris, Isaac Chidsey, 
Lamlierton Painter, Lamberton Smith, Jr., Joseph Pierpont, 

*As early as 1766. Jonathan Mayhew one of ihe pastors in Boston, 
being greatly moved by the dangers which threatened the colonies on 
account of the Stamp Act. wrote to lames Otis: Lord's day morning, 
8 June, 1766. A'ou have heard of the communio:i of churches. While 
I was thinking of this m my bed, the great use and importance of a 
communion of colonies appeared to me m a strong light. Would it not 
be decorous for our Assembly to send circulars to all the rest, ex-press- 
ing a desire to cement union among ourselves. A gcod foundation tor 
this has been laid by the Congress at New York ; never losing sight 
of it may be the only means of perpetuating oiu- liberties. 



Joshua Barnes, Amos Perkins, Samuel Newton, Samuel 
Atwater, Jonathan Dickerman, Timothy Ball, and Amos 
Hitchcock. 

The Committee of Inspection as thus consti- 
tuted consisted of fifty-one persons, and, like 
similar committees in the other towns of the 
colonv, had almost absolute power over the com- 
fort and prosperity of their townsmen. 

The reader may discover what was expected of 
the Committee from the following communication 
to the Connecticut ycmntal. 

Messrs. Printers,— Please to give the following lines a 
place in your ne.\t, and you will oblige your humble 
servant. 

Wednesday evening last, a number of ladies and gentle- 
men belonging to this town, collected at a place called East 
Farms, where they had a needless entertainment, and made 
themselves extremely merry with a good glass of wine. 
Such entertainments and diversions can hardly be justifiecl 
upon any occasion; but at such a day as this, when every- 
thing around us has a threatening aspect, they ought to be 
discotuitenanced, and every good man should use his influ- 
ence to suppress them. Are not such diversions and enter- 
tainments a violation of the eighth article of the Association 
of the Continental Congress ? -And is it not expected that 
the Committee of Inspection will examine into such matters, 
and if they find any persons guilty of violating said Associ- 
ation, that they treat them according as the rules of it 
prescribe ? 

July 19, 1775. 

The following e.\tracts from the minutes of the 
Committee also illustrate the work it was expected 
to do. 

In Committee Meeting, March 7, 1776. 

A complaint being made against William Glen, merchant, 
for a breach of association, by buying tea and selling it at 
an extortionous price, and also refusing paper ctirrency 
therefor: said Glen was cited to appear before the Com- 
mittee and make answer to the foregoing charge: he 
appeared and plead not guilty, wherefore the evidences 
against him were called in and sworn, and on motion, voted 
that the evidence is sufficient to convict William Glen of 
buying and selling tea contrary to the Association, and 
ordered that he be advertised accordingly, that no person 
hereafter have any dealing or intercourse with him. 

Also, Freeman Huse, Jr., being complained of for buying 
and selling tea contrary to Association, %\as cited to appear 
before the Committee. He neglecting to appear, or make 
his defense, the evidences were called in and sworn. On 
motion, voted that the evidence is sufficient to convict Free- 
man Huse, Jr., of a breach of the Association, by buying 
and selling tea, and ordered that he be advertised accord- 
ingly, that no person have any further dealing or intercourse' 
with him. 

Signed per order of the Committee, 

Jox'TH. Fitch, Chairman. 

A copy of the minutes. Test. Peter Colt, Clerk. 

I, William Glen, merchant, being advertised by the Com- 
mittee of Inspection in this town, as a violator of the Conti- 
nental .Association, for buying tea, and selling it at an 
exorbitant price, confess myselt guilty of the same, for 
which I humbly ask their and the ]iublic''s pardon, and prom- 
ise for the future, my conduct shall be such as shall give 
no occasion of offense. Professing myself firm for the liber- 
ties of America, I desire the Conimittee and the public to 
restore me to my wonted favor. 

I am, with sincerity, their most humble and obedient 
servant, Wm. Glen. 

The confession of Wm. Glen being read, voted satisfac- 
tory, and ordered to be published. 

Jon. Fitch, Chairman. 
A true copy of minutes, examined by 

Mark Leavenworth, Clerk, pro temp. 
May I, 1776. ' ^ 



42 



HISTORY OF THE CTTF OF NEW HA VEN. 



An extract of a letter from New Haven to the 
printer of a royalist paper in New York, will also 
illustrate the function of a Committee of Inspec- 
tion. It is dated April i, 1775. 

Our Coniinittce of InsjiL-ctioM have proceedwl to vi-iy 
unwarrantable lens»ths. They ordered summonsi.-s lo be 
served on se\eral persons who Iiad not lieen altoijellier com- 
plaisant enou;^li to the mandates of ihe Cont;ress. <*ne of 
the committee men demanded of a loyal Constitutionalist: 
"What! do you drink tea? Take care what you do, Mr. 
C, lor you are to know the committee conuuand the mob, 
and can in an instant let them loose upon any man who 
opposes their decrees and complete his destruction." But 
upon his damning the King, the spirit of the gallant royalist 
grew imjialient, .and he opened a battery of execrations upon 
Committees and Congresses of all denominations. This of 
course occasioned his being ordered before the whole 
sanhedrim, where he is to be interrogated after the manner 
of the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions. To this com- 
plexion IS American liberty, through the influence of the 
King-killing republicans, already arrived. But the culprit 
is true game and will prove as tough a sajibng as ever these 
big-wigs have tried their strength on. If these choose to 
carry matters to extremity, now is the time to repel force by 
force, in defense of the constitutional liberty of the colony; 
and be the strength of the disaffected what it may, tlie lives 
and fortunes of many in this country will be freely hazarded 
in defense of King (k-orge Third and the laws of his realm. 

Wednesday, April 19, 1775, having been ap- 
pointed by his E.xcellency Jonathan Trumbull, 
Governor of Connecticut, to be observed through- 
out that colony as a day of fasting and prayer, the 
people of New Haven were assembled in their 
respective places of worship "to offer up fervent 
prayers to Almighty God for his blessing on our 
rightful Sovereign, King George the Third, that he 
may have the divine direction in all his adminis- 
tration, and his government be just, benign, gra- 
cious and happy to the nation and these colonies." 

Very early in the morning of the same day the 
troops of that rightful sovereign had shed the first 
blood in a war which ended in the acknowledg- 
ment by King George that his American colonies 
had become independent States. But no telegraph 
flashed the news to New Haven to disturb the 
quiet of its worshiping assemblies. When the tidings 
came on Friday, about noon, Benedict Arnold, Cap- 
tain of the Governor's Guards, immediately called 
out his company, and proposed that they should 
start for the aid and defense of their friends in 
Massachusetts. About fifty of the company con- 
senting to accompany their commander, he paraded 
them the next morning, before the tavern where a 
committee were in session, and applied to the com- 
mittee for powder and ball.* Those who had 
charge of the ammunition declining or delaying to 
supply him, Arnokl threatened to take by force what 
he needed. Colonel David Wooster, who, a few 
days later, was ap])ointed Major-General of tlie 
Militia of the colony, being present in the meeting 
of the committee, went out and endeavored to re- 



*This W.1S prob.ibly .1 commitleti appointed at a mcuting of citizens, 
who, witliout previous concert, assembled in the "Middle IJrick " as 
soon as the news arrived. The record-; of the meeting have not been 
preserved, but tradition relates that Roger Sherman was appointed 
Moderator by a majority of one over a citizen of more conservative 
views. The opposition to taxation by any other Legislature than that 
of the colony was universal, but the shedding of blood brought on a 
crisis and a division of sentiment. .Many who up to this day had been 
iiiore or less in sympathy with the Sons of Liberty, and a few weeks af- 
terwards were aiding and abetting the rebels, were not ready instantly 
to take arms against the King, for whom they had sincerely prayed on 
the preceding Wednesday. 



strain the impetuosity of the young man, advising 
him to wait for orders from the proper authority, 
before starting for the scene of conflict. Arnold 
answered the veteran of three-score and four years: 
"None but Almighty God shall prevent my march- 
ing." The committee, perceiving his fixed resolu- 
tion, supplied him, or did not prevent him from 
supplying himself with the powder and ball he re- 
tiuired; and he with his company marched off im- 
mediately, reaching Wethersfield on the next day 
at evening, and the quarters of the Massachusetts 
army at Cambridge on the 29th of April. 

In Force's "American Archives" may be found 
"An agreement subscribed by Captain Arnold and 
his company of fifty persons when they set out from 
Connecticut as volunteers to assist the provincials 
at Cambridge." 

To all Christian people believins^in nml relying o» that God, 
to whom our enemies have at last forced us to appeal: 
Be it known, that we, the subscribers, having taken up 
artiis for the relief of our brethren, and defense of their, as 
our, just rights and privileges, declare to the world that we 
from the heart disavow every thought of rebellion to His 
Majesty as supreme head of the British Empire, or opposi- 
tion to legal authority, and shall on every occasion manifest 
to the world, by our conduct, this to be our fixed principle. 
Driven to the last necessity, and obliged to have recourse to 
arms in defense of our lives and liberties, and from the sud- 
denness of the occasion deprived of that legal authority, the 
dictates of which we ever with pleasure obey, we lind it 
necessary, for preventing disorders, irregularities and mis- 
understandings in the course of our march and service, sol- 
emnly lo agree to and with each other on the following 
regulations and orders, binding ourselves by all that is dear 
and sacred, carefully and constantly to observe and keep 
them. 

In the first place, we will conduct ourselves decently 
and inoflfensively as we march, both to our countrymen and 
one another, paying that regard to the advice, admonition 
and reproof of our ofticers, which their station justly entitles 
them to expect, ever considering the dignity of our own 
character, and that we are not mercenaries, whose viewsex. 
tend no farther than pay and plunder, whose principles are 
such that every path that leads to the obtaining these is 
agreeable, though wading through the blood of their coun- 
trymen; but men acquainted with and feeling the most gen- 
erous fondness for the liberties and inalienable rights of 
mankind, and who are, in the course of divine providence, 
called to the honorable service of hazarding our lives in 
their defense. 

Secondly. — Drunkenness, gaming, profancness and every 
vice of that nature shall he avoided by ourselves and dis- 
countenanced in us by others. 

Thirdly. — So long as we continue in our present situation 
of a volunteer independent company, we engage to submit 
on all occasions to such decisions as shall be made and given 
by the majority of the officers we have chosen; and when 
any difierence arises between man and man, it shall be laid 
before the officers aforesaid, and their decision shall be final. 
We mean by officers the captain, lieutenants, ensign, Ser- 
jeants, clerk, and corporals; the captain, or, in his absence, 
the commanding officer, to be the moderator and have a 
turning or casting voice in all debates; from whom all or- 
ders shall from time lo time issue. Scorning all ignoble 
motives, and superior to the low and slavish practice of en- 
forcing on men their duty by blows, it is agreed that when 
private admonition for any offense by any of our body com- 
mitteil will not reform, public admonition shall be made: 
anil il that should not have the desired ctTcct, after proper 
pains taken and the same repeated, such incorrigible person 
shall be turned out of the company as totally unworthy of 
serving in so great and glorious a cause, and be delivered 
over to sufifcr the contempt of his countrymen. 

As to particular orders, it shall from time to time be in the 
jiower oi' the officers to make and vary them as occasion 
may require, as to delivering our provisions, ammunition 



DURING THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 



43 



rules and orders for marching, etc. The annexed order for 
the present, we think pertinent and agreeable to our mind. 
To which, with the additions or variations that may be made 
by our said officers, we bind ourselves by the ties above 
mentioned to submit. 

In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hamls, this 
24th of April, 1775. 

[Fri5ni the date of this document it appears to have been 
signed wliile the company were on the march and probably 
on Monday morning before they left Wethersfield. It was 
prol>ably copied from a similar covenant drawn by Silas 
Deane for Captain Chester's company.*] 

It has been stated that as this company p.issed 
through Pomfretthey were joined by Israel Putnam; 
but this is an error which ought not to pass uncor- 
rected. Putnam receiving on Thursday at 8 a.m. 
a despatch from the Committee of Safety at Cam- 
bridge, dated Wednesday, 10 a.m., and, at a later 
hour on Thursday, a second despatch, had mount- 
ed his horse, and, riding all night, had reached 
Cambridge on Friday before Arnold called out his 
company at New Haven. A letter written by 
Putnam from Concord, on Friday, to Colonel 
Williams, soon after appointed to be one of ths 
Connecticut Committee of Safety, was printed in 
Norwich on Sunday, the 23d, at 4 p. m., in an 
extra from the office of the Nonvkh Packet. 

Not long after the departure of Arnold and his 
men. Captain Hezekiah Dickerman, with nine 
members of his militia company, followed their 
townsmen to the camp at Cambridge. 

Both these squads went as volunteers and with- 
out assurance of pay from any public treasury, but 
doubtless with assurances from many of their 
neighbors of contributions for their support while 
engaged in the common cause. Perhaps when 
Captain Dickerman left New Haven, the commit- 
tee whom Arnold could not wait for, had come to 
some conclusion what they should do for the 
maintenance of the volunteers. However it may 
have been with the town authorities, the General 
Assembly, at an adjourned meeting which com- 
menced on the 26th of the same month, provided 
for provisioning " those inhabitants of this colony 
who had gone to the relief of the people at the 
Bay;" and at the May Session, directed "all of- 
ficers who assisted in asseinbling, or furnishing 
ammunition to, such of the colony, in the late 
alarms, who marched East or West, to deliver to 
the selectmen of their respectives towns, their 
accounts, and the names of those who marched in 
relief of those in distress and the names of those 
who supplied, to be laid before the committee of 
pay table for settlement." 

The Selectmen of New Haven received under this 
resolution of the Assembly, thesum oi £2^,% is. i id. 
for the services and expenses of New Haven men, 
"in the Lexington alarm." 

Benedict Arnold, who thus makes his first ap- 
pearance on the stage of history, was at this time 
thirty-five years of age, having been born at Nor- 
wich, January 3, 1740. Though regarded as 
courageous even to recklessness, he was not in 
high esteem among his townsmen as a man of 
honor. He had been for some time in business at 

* See Collections of Conn. Hist. Soc. Vol. II, p. 215. 



New Haven as a druggist, and his sign may still be 
seen at the rooms of the New Haven Colony Histor- 
ical Society. He did not confine his traffic however 
to drugs, as the following advertisement in the Co7i- 
necticut Gazette will make evident. 

Benedict Arnold 
wants to buy a number of large, genteel, fat horses, pork, 
oats, and hay. — And has to sell choice cotton and salt, by 
quantity or retail; and other goods as usual. 
New Haven, January 24, 1766. 

^ The goods which he ofi"ered for sale he had 
himself imported ; and those he desired to pur- 
chase were doubUess for export to the West Indies. 
He was part owner of three small vessels; the For- 
tune, of forty tons; the Charming Sally, of thirty 
tons; and the Three Breathers, of twenty-eight tons. 
It appears from a card in the Gazette, dated only a 
few days after the above advertisement, that he 
sometimes went as supercargo in his vessels, and 
that he was not careful to comply with the require- 
ments of the Custom-House. In evading customs, 
however, he probably was not at all singular; as 
smuggling was one way of opposing the Stamp Act 
which about two months before had gone into 
operation. One of his sailors having given infor- 
mation against Arnold, the Custom-House Officer 
declined to receive it on Sunday and desired the 
informer to come on Monday; but Arnold having 
learned early on Monday what was to be done by 
the seaman, "gave him a little chastisement," and 
ordered him to leave town. Afterward finding him 
in town, Arnold, with others — apparently the other 
seamen in the same vessel — took the informer to the 
whipping-post "where he received near forty lashes 
with a small cord and was conducted out of 
town. " 

Mr. Horace Day informs me, that many years 
ago, desiring to ascertain from one of the oldest and 
most prominent citizens of New Haven what was the 
social standing of Benedict Arnold while he was 
living in New Haven previous to the Revolution, he 
inquired : " How did your father treat him .'" The 
respectable old gentleman replied; "My father 
bowed to him whenever they met and said: ' Good 
morning. Captain Arnold,'" " Well! did your father 
respect him enough to invite him to his house Y' 
"My father invite Arnold to his house.? No, sir; 
the extent of their acquaintance was 'Good 
morning. Captain Arnold.'" 

As the first blood of the Revolution was shed by 
British troops in the endeavor to capture munitions 
of war belonging to the Colony of Massachusetts, 
the first thought of the provincials was to seize 
upon Ticonderoga, Crown Point and St. John's, 
the defenses of LakeChamplain, which were known 
to be providetl with abundant munitions of war 
and extremely small garrisons. Immediately after 
the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, some 
gentlemen in Connecticut, of whom these at least, 
David Wooster, Samuel Bishop, Jr , and Adam 
Babcock, were New Haven men, formed a plan for 
seizing these fortresses without the publicity incident 
to any mention ofitinthe General Assembly. Some 
of these gentlemen giving their individual obliga- 
tions with security, they were allowed to borrow 



44 



HISTORY OF THE CTTF OF NEW HA VEN. 



the necessary funds from the pubHc treasury. Six- 
teen men left Connecticut as secretly as possible, 
and, as they passed through the Western County of 
Massachusetts, persuaded about forty yeomen of 
Berkshire to unite with them in the enterprise. 
They then advanced to Bennington, where they were 
joined by Col. Ethan Allen, -Seth Warner, and 
about one hundred Green Mountain boys. At 
Castleton they received further reinforcements, so 
that -their numbers amounted to two hundred and 
seventy men. 

While this party of sixteen were journeying from 
Connecticut toward Casdeton, and adding to their 
number as they went, Benedict Arnold was travers- 
ing tlie country from Cambridge to Castleton on a 
similar errand. Arriving at Cambridge on his 
March from New Haven, on the 29th of April, he 
had immediately suggested to the Committee of 
.Safety the importance of seizing Ticonderoga and 
its tributary fortresses. Whether his mind had 
spontaneously conceived the idea, or received it as 
he passed through Hartford and Windham Counties 
it may be impossible to determine. However that 
may be, he suggested the adventure to the Massa- 
chusetts Committee, and asked that he might him- 
self receive a commission to carry the plan into ex- 
ecution. They gave him the commission and he 
overtook the Connecticut party at Castleton, arriv- 
ing there with no companion but a servant. The 
Connecticut party were already organized, having 
chosen Ethan Allen, a resident of Vermont, though 
a native of Connecticut, as chief; James Easton, of 
Berkshire County, Massachusetts, as second; and 
Seth Warner, of Roxbury, Connecticut, as third in 
command. 

With characteristic assumption of superiority, 
Arnold demanded that the whole force should be 
put under his command. Neither the Connecticut 
men, who had brought the pay chest with them, nor 
the hardy mountaineers of the neighborhood, were 
ready to relinquish the right to choose their own 
leaders. However, Arnold's commission was ex- 
amined, and he was, by the choice of those whom 
he desired to lead, appointed the associate and as- 
sistant, of Ethan Allen, the chief commander. 

The day before the attack on Ticonderoga was 
made, Captain Noah Phelps, one of the original 
sixteen from Connecticut, having disguised himself, 
entered the fort in the character of a countryman 
wanting to be shaved. In searching for a barber, he 
examined everything critically and passed out un- 
suspected. The story of the' capture of the fort at 
daylight, when Allen meeting the officer in com- 
mand coming out of his bedroom with his breeches 
in his hand, demanded the instant surrender of the 
fort " in the name of the great Jehovah and the 
Continental Congress," is too familiar to need rep- 
etition in all its detail. 

The subsidiary fortresses of Crown Point and 
St. John's were both captured a few hours later. 
Colonel Warner being sent against the former, and 
Colonel Arnold against the latter. In one day the 
Americans gained possession not only of a most 
important strategic point, but of a large amount of 
nuinitions <if war not otherwise to be acquired. 



The volunteers, who upon the Lexington alarm 
marched from New Haven to the aid of Massachu- 
setts, remained with the army before Boston only 
a few weeks. By that time Connecticut had two 
well organized regiments on the ground, under the 
command of Generals Spencer and Putnam; and 
those who did not choose to enlist for permanent 
service could return to their homes. It is said that 
about a dozen of Arnold's company enlisted in 
these Connecticut regiments. One of them, Elias 
Stilwell, continued in service through the war and 
rose to the rank of Captain. When the army be- 
fore Boston was taken into the service of the Con- 
tinental Congress, Washington, on his way to 
Massachusetts to take the command, passed through 
New Haven. The local newspaper, under date of 
July 5, 1775, announces: "Last Wednesday, his 
Excellency, General Washington, Major-General 
Lee, Major Thomas Mifflin, General Washington's 
aiJe-dc-ccimpjUmi Samuel Griffin, Esq., General Lee's 
(7/r/e-(/f-C(?w/, arrived in town, and early next morning 
they set out for the provincial camp near Boston, 
attended by great numbers of the inhabitants of 
the town. They were escorted out of town by 
two companies dressed in their uniform, and by a 
company of young gentlemen belonging to the 
Seminary in this place, who made a handsome ap- 
pearance, and whose expertness in the military 
exercises gained them the approbation of the gen- 
erals. " 

At home, arrangements were made for the de- 
fense of the colony, and especially of the towns on 
the coast. Fifty men, under the command of 
Captain Joseph Thompson, were employed in 
building a breastwork and battery at Black Rock, 
on the eastern shore of New^ Haven harbor, to 
repel any hostile attack from British ships. This 
was done by order of the Governor and Council, 
and at the expense of the colony, but the work 
was to be done under the direction of a committee 
appointed by the town. The Governor was re- 
quested by the Council to write to the Committee 
of the City of New York for the loan of eighteen 
pieces of iron cannon, and one hundred muskets 
were ordered to be sent to New Haven from the 
interior. In December, Captain Thompson and 
his men being obliged, through the severity of the 
weather, to discontinue their work, were discharged 
from further service at Black Rock. In March the 
work was resumed and was finished in June, when 
the "colony cannon"* at New Haven were or- 

* There is reason lo suspect that these "colony cannon" were bor- 
rowed from King George's storehouse in New York. Force's Americ.in 
Archives contains the lollowing letter from the Selectmen of New Ha- 
ven to (lovemor Trumbull. 

" New Haven, May 29, 1775 

•' Sir, — One of our number waits on your Honor with this to infoim 
the General Assembly, through the channel of your Honor, that we are 
now in possession of upwards of sixty cannon — nine, six and three 
pounders— for the use of the colony; out of which a sufficient number 
may be made use of for the defense of this town, if the honorable Gen- 
eral Assembly think proper to order a battery built and carriages made 
for the guns, with suitable stores of powder and ball to be provided. 
We refer yon to .Mr Ball for the particulars of the manner of our being 
possessed of these cannon, which we think a great acquisition, and 
shall esteem ourselves happy to receive the directions of the honor- 
able General Assembly how they are to be disposed of. 

" We are, with great respect, your most obedient servants, 

"Jeremiah Atwater, 
" Isaac Doomttle, 
"James Gii.hert, 

"Honorable Jonathan TRrMBiu., Est]." " Selert nitii . 




\t 






r 



- i "^ 



iyi.A,JK tlKlT, irD.XTllli "y^Dr)S'T)|i:]R 




DURING THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 



45 



dered to be placed at Black Rock in the care of 
Captain Thompson, who was directed to build a 
cheap barrack near Black Rock, doing the labor 
with his soldiers, and at an expense not exceeding 
£2'~,. At the same date, £i\ los. 8d. was al- 
lowed Captain Thompson toward expenses in 
building the fort at Black Rock. Also an order 
was made in his favor for /^20o for his company. 
In October of the same year, Captain Joseph 
Thompson drew .^^300 to pay the wages of his 
company. 

An intercepted letter from the Massachusetts 
traitor. Dr. Church, of a little later date, says: 

The people of Connecticut are raving in the cause of hb- 
erty. A number from thi5 colony, from the town of Stam- 
ford, robbed the king's stores at New York, with some 
small assistance the New Yorkers lent them. These were 
growing turbulent. I counted two hundred and eighty pieces 
of cannon, from twenty-four to three pounders, at Kings- 
bridge, which the committee had secured for the use of the 
colonists. 

At the end of the war, when it became neces.sary 
that borrowed articles should be put back as the 
borrowers had found them, the gentlemen who, as 
selectmen, had taken some responsibility in regard 
to the cannon brought from New York, had to de- 
termine what should be done with them. 

At a town-meeting December 13, 1784, 

Voted, That Messrs. Stephen Ball, Jeremiah Atwater, Isaac 
Doolittle, James Gilbert and James Rice, be a committee to 
inquire concerning the cannon brought to this city from 
New York by Thomas Ivers, etc., and make report at the 
adjourned meeting. 

17S4, December 27. I'oted, That Messrs. Jeremiah At- 
water, Stephen Ball, James Rice and Hezekiah Sabin be a 
committee to examine further with regard to the great guns 
brought from New York, and do what they judge is needful 
to be done with regard to them, so as to save the town from 
any loss and charge relative thereto. 

At a town-meeting in New Haven, November 
6, 1775, it was 

Votc'd, That every person who looks upon himself bound 
either in conscience or choice to give intelligence to our en- 
emies of our situation, or otherwise take an active part 
against us, or to yield obedience to any command of his 
majesty King George the Third, so far as to take up arms 
against this town or the United Colonies — that every such 
person be desired peaceably to depart from the town. A 
special committee of fifteen was appointed to call before 
them "to-morrow, or as soon as may be, every person sus- 
pected of harboring the sentiments above mentioned," and 
on conviction desire them to depart the town, as soon as may 
be, in a peaceable way. 

On the nth of December, in the same year, it 
was 

Voted, That there be a Committee of Inspection chosen, 
and that there shall be four persons chosen in each society 
within the limits of the Kirst Society, and two persons in each 
of the other parishes in the town. 

Voted, That Messrs. Jonathan Fitch, Michael Todd, Eneas 
Monson, Adam Babcock, Peter Colt, Timothy Jones, Jr., 
David Austin, John McChive, Isaac Doolittle, Joseph Trow- 
bridge, Thomas Bills, Daniel Bonticou, James Gilbert, Mark 
Leavenworth, Abram .\ugur, Joel Gilbert, Joshua Austin, 
Stephen Smith, Lamberton Painter, Silas Kimberly, Jesse 
Todd, Noah Ives, Timothy Bradley, Amos Perkins, Joel 
Bradley, Jr., Bazel Munson, Isaac Beecher, Jr., and Joel 
Hotchkiss, be the Committee of Inspection for the year ensu- 
ing. 

In December, 1776, it was voted that the Select- 
men of the town be the Committee of Inspection 



for the ensuing year. In December, 1777, a vote 
I similar to the above was passed, but three weeks 
! afterwards the Selectmen were released from being 
a Committee of Inspection, and Isaac Beers, Peter 
Johnson, Levi Ives, John Miles, Isaac Chidsey, 
Silas Kimberl)', Stephen Ives, Jesse Ford, Stephen 
Goodyear, and Jared Sherman, were appointed to 
that service. In the following March, Messrs. 
James Hillhouse, Abel Burrit, Timothy Atwater, 
Newman Trowbridge, and Hezekiah Sabin, Jr., 
were added to the Committee of Inspection. 

In ^March, 1776, Mr. Babcock, of New Haven, 
moved the Council of the Colony in behalf of Jere- 
miah Atwater, Isaac Doolittle, David Austin and 
himself, for liberty to erect a powder-mill imme- 
diately, for manufacturing gunpowder at New Ha- 
ven. It was reported to the Council, on the 27th 
of August, next following, that "Doolittle and 
Atwater had manufactured at this date 4, 100 pounds 
of powder at New Haven." 

Immediately after the commencement of hostili- 
ties at Lexington, the General Assembly of Con- 
necticut set about raising an army. At first it con- 
sisted of six regiments, to which two more were 
soon added. David Wooster, of New Haven, was 
appointed to the chief command of this colonial 
army with the title of Major-General. The same 
summer, he was appointed a Brigadier-General in 
the continental service. 

DAVID WOOSTER. 

Major-General David Wooster was born in Strat- 
ford, Conn., March 2, 17:0, and died at Danburj-, 
May 2, 1777. He graduated at Yale College in 
1738, and in 1739, when the war broke out between 
England and Spain, he entered the provincial army 
as Lieutenant. Subsequently he was appointed to 
the command of a vessel built and equipped by the 
colony for the defense of its coast. In 1745 he 
was a Captain in the regiment of Col. Burr, which 
participated in the capture of Louisburg, and from 
that place went in command of a cartel ship to 
England, where he was received with great favor 
and made a Captain in the regular British army, to 
serve under Sir William Pepperell. In the French 
War, which ended in 1763, he was commissioned 
by the Governor of Connecticut as Colonel and 
subsequenriy as Brigadier-General, and served dur- 
ing the whole war. 

Upon the return of peace he engaged in trade in 
New Haven; first in partnership with his college 
classmate, Aaron Day, and afterward alone. Dur- 
ing his connection with ^Ir. Day, he resided in a 
house in George street, which is still standing, and 
is depicted on the following page by the engraver. 
Not man)' years before the outbreak of hostilities 
with Great IBritain, he removed to the new township, 
where both the dwelling and the warehouse which 
he occupied are still standing in the street which 
bears his naine, though the gambrel roof which he 
put upon the house has been removed. This is 
the warehouse of which Capt. Townsend speaks, in 
his chapter on the Harbor and \^'harves, as the 
place to which Gen. Wooster conveyed cargoes of 



46 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



goods, in scows, across fields which are now covered 
with buildings. 

When tidings came of bloodshed at Lexington, 
Wooster, though less impetuous, was not less 
prompt than Arnold. In June he had gathered a 




Wooster's House. 

regiment, and with a commission from the Gover- 
nor of Connecticut as Major-General, Commander- 
in-Chief of the six regiments raised by that colony, 
he was ready to march to New York, where it was 
expected that a part of the British army which 
came over in 1775 would land. 

Deacon Nathan Beers, himself an officer in the 
revolutionary army, communicated to the Ameri- 
can Historical Magazine the following statements 
concerning General Wooster's departure for New 
York. 

The last time I saw ("<eneral Wooster was in June, 1775- 
He was at the head of his regiment, which was then embod- 
ied on the Green, in front of wliere the Center Churcli now 
stands. They were ready for a march, with their arms glit- 
tering and their knapsacks on their backs. Colonel Wooster 
had already dispatched a messenger for his minister, the 
Rev. Jonatlian Edwards, with a request that he would 
meet the regiment and pray with thein before their depar- 
ture. He then conducted his men in military order into the 
meeting-house and seated himself in his own pew, awaiting 
the return of the messenger. He was speedily informed 
that the clergyman was absent from home. Colonel Wooster 
immediately stepped into the deacon's seat, in front of the 
imlpit, and, calling his men to attend to prayers, offered up 
a humble petition for his Ixjloved country, for himself, for the 
men under his immediate command, and for the success of the 
cause in which they were engaged. His prayers were offered 
with the fervent zeal of an apostle, and in such pathetic 
language, that it drew tears from many an eye and affected 
many a heart. Wlien he had closed, he left the house with 
his men in the same order they had entered it, and the regi- 
ment took up its line of march for New York. 

Before his departure, Wooster with other Con- 
necticut men had concerted the plan for seizing 
upon the defenses of Lake Champlain, and liis sig- 
nature was alTixed to the bond of indemnity to the 
person who supplied the funds for that service. 

From New York, Wooster went with his regi- 
ment to Canada, where, after General IMontgom- 
ery's death, he was chief in command. Returning 
home in the summer of 1776, he was appointed 



first Major-General of the Militia of Connecticut, 
and was in active service during the whole of the 
winter of 1776-77, guarding the coast. In the 
spring he spent a little time at home with his fam- 
ily, where, on .Saturday, April 26th, he received in- 
formation that a large body of the enemy had landed 
at Compo, in Fairfield. He immediately set off 
for Fairfield, leaving orders for the militia to be 
mustered and sent forward as soon as possible. 
When he arrived at Fairfield, finding General Silli- 
man had marched in pursuit of the enemy with 
the troops then collected, he followed on with all 
expedition, and at Reading overtook General Sil- 
liman, with a small body of militia, of which he of 
course took the command, and proceeded the 
same evening to the village of Bethel. Here it 
was determined to divide the troops, and part were 
sent off", under Generals Arnold * and Silliman. 
The rest remained with General Wooster, who led 
them by the route of Danbury, in pursuit of the 
enemv, whom he overtook on the Sabbath, about 
4 o'clock, near Ridgefield. Observing a party of 
the enemy who seemed to be detached from the 
main body, he delermmed to attack them, though 
the number of his men was less than two hundred. 
He accordingly led them on himself, ordering 
them, with great spirit and resolution, to follow 
him. But, being inexperienced militia, and the 
enemy having several field pieces, our men, after 
doing considerable execution, were broken, and 
gave way. The General was rallying them to re- 
new the attack, when he received a mortal wound. 
A musket ball, from the distance of fifty rods, took 
him obliquely in the back, broke his back-bone, 
lodged within him, and could not be found. He 
was removed from the field, had his wound dressed 
by Dr. Turner, and was then conveyed back to 
Danbury, where all possible care was taken of him. 
The surgeons were from the first sensible of the 
danger of the case, and informed the General of 
their apprehensions, which he heard with the ut- 
most composure. The danger soon became more 
apparent. His whole lower parts became insen- 
sible, and a mortification, it is thotight, began very 
early. However, he lived till Friday, the 2d of 
May, and then, with great composure and resigna- 
tion, expired. It was designed to bring his re- 
mains to New Haven, to be interred here, but this 
was found impossible, and they were therefore 
buried at Danbury. 

The above narrative of the death of General 
Wooster is from the Connecticut Journal of May 
M, 1777. Hollister thus describes the death scene: 

A messenger was immediately dispatched to New Haven 
for Mrs. Wooster, and the wounded man was speedily re- 
moved to Danbury. Inflammation soon extended to the 
brain, and when Mrs. Wooster arrived he was too delirious 
to recognize her. For three d.iys and nights he suftered the 
most excruciating agony. On the morning of the 1st of 

* Arnold was journeying through Connecticut, on his way from 
Providence, where he w.is in command, to I'hiladelphia, when 
this invasion occurred, and volunteered aid to Wooster and Sil- 
liman. in this eng.agement he showed his usual coolness under fire. 
Havmg had his horse shot under him, he sat s ill upon his fallen steed, 
with his eye upon a British soldier, who was approaching to run him 
through with a bayonet, till, the man being so near that a pistol could 
not miss the mark, Arnold drrw one from his holsters, and shot the 
man dead. 



DURING THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 



47 



Jlay the pain suddenly ceased. During that whole day and 
the next, his wife, who remained constantly at his bed-side, 
noticed, with the quick eye of a woman's affection, that his 
mind was laboring with the broken.images of scenes that 
had long ago faded from his recollection, and were now 
passing in wild review before him. Still, she called vainly 
upon him for a token of recognition. The paleness of 
death, the short breathing, the fluttering pulse, at length in- 
dicated that the last moment was at hand. She was stoop- 
ing over him lo wipe the deathdcw from his forehead, 
wlien suddenly he opened his eyes and fixed them full upon 
her, with a look of consciousness and deep love. His lips 
trembled. He sought to speak, but his voice was stifled in 
the embrace of death. 

General Wooster was not the only citizen of New 
Haven who sacrificed his life on that occasion. 
Against the west wall of the Grove street Cemetery 
is a brown sandstone, on which is inscribed: 

In memory of Mr. David Atwater, a noted apothecary, 
a valuable member of society, just and upright in his deal- 
ings, generously beneficent to the public, diffusively chari- 
table to the poor; a kind and amiable husband, a faithful 
friend, and a firm advocate for his country; in defense of 
which he fell a volunteer in the battle at Cumpo Hill, April 
2Sth, A.D. 1777, ae. 41. 

This patriotic volunteer, who, seizing a musket, 

marched to the defense of his country, was of the 

Wallingford branch of the Atwater family, but had 

been for several years in business in New Haven 

as a druggist. His son, of the same name, his fourth 

and youngest child, was born in 1777 (the other 

^ children having previously died), graduated at Yale 

' College in 1797, and died in 1805. By his death 

' this branch of the family became e.xtinct. 

Mr. Atwater's latest advertisement appeared in 
the Connccticul Journal oS. k\m\ 9th: 

Just come to hand and to be sold by 
David Atwater, Junior. 

Rhubarb, Camphor, Balsam Capivi, Oil of Almonds, 
Gum Arabic, Liqorice Ball, Carohna Pink Root, Linitive 
Electuary, Cinnamon and Mace by the quantity, and other 
Medicines as usual. 

Also Paper by the ream, large and small. Looking 
Glasses, Dutch Spectacles, Shoemakers' Awls, Brass and 
Washed Thimliles, Children's Shoe Buckles by the gross, 
French Barley in small casks. Oatmeal, Currants, the best 
French Indigo, Whalebone, Logwood, etc. 

The same journal, in its issue of April 30th, thus 
mentions his burial: 

''This day the remains of Doct. Atwater were 
brought to town and buried with military honors." 

Three companies of volunteers went from New 
Haven, of whom the only private killed was the 
one mentioned above. Abner Bradley and Tim- 
othy Gorham were wounded, though not mortally. 
E.xcepting the death wound of General Wooster, 
the casualties to the New Haven men all took place, 
at Compo Hill, as the British were re-embarking 
under the protection of fresh troops. 

In December, 1777, Articles of Confederation of 
the United States having been proposed by the Con- 
gress to the consideration of the Legislatures of the 
several States, the General Assembly of Connecti- 
cut submitted them to the towns, and New Haven 
appointed a committee of thirty-three, who, at the 
next town-meeting, made a report favorable on the 
whole to the articles, but indicating a few expres- 
sions they could wish otherwise. Among their 
criticisms is, "objection to furnishing troops in 



proportion to the white inhabitants only, as we hope 
the time may be when a black may be a freeman 
and the owner of property, and then he ought to 
contribute his proportion toward furnishing troops." 
In March, 177S, a Committee on Measures for 
the Defense of the Town, appointed at a previous 
meeting, made a report recommending as imme- 
diately necessary the following, viz. : 

That two small works should be erected at the West 
Bridge capable of receiving four pieces of ordnance; which 
would cost two days' work with a good team, and about 
seventy days' of other labor. 

The other only pass into the town from the westward 
is on the road by or near the paper-mill. The ground there 
is very advantageous for defense; the whole of it, by ndiich 
the enemy could pass between the West Rock and any part 
of the river which is fordable, b^'ing easily commanded by 
cannon. \\^e are of opinion that a small work or redoubt on 
the east side of the West River on the road leading to Amity, 
capable of receiving two or three field pieces, is necessary 
in order to secure that pass. This probably would cost about 
half the labor of the work proposed at the West Bridge. 

The committee proceed to mention the impor- 
tance of a field piece at West Haven and another 
at East Haven, and recommend that the State be 
asked to establish a camp for recruits in each of 
those suburbs of the town. 

An important measure for the defense of the town 
had been provided in the first year of the war, viz., 
a beacon to communicate an alarm to the neighbor- 
ing towns. We can best inform our readers in re- 
gard to the beacon by copying from the Cunnectkut 
founml the advertisement of the committee ap- 
pointed for its erection. 

Be.\con. 

The town of New Haven having this day erected a 
beacon on Indian Hill at East Haven, now Beacon Hill, 
about a mile and a half southeast of the town, and ordered us, 
their committee, to give public notice thereof, we now inform 
the pviblic in general, and the neighboring towns in particu- 
lar, that the Beacon will be fired on Monday e\ening next, 
the 20th instant, at 6 o'clock. All persons are then desired 
to look out for the Beacon and take the bearing of it 
from their respective places of abode, that they may know 
where to look out for it in case of an alarm, which will be 
announced by the firing of three .cannon. If our enemy 
should attack us, and we be under the necessity of making 
use of this method to call in the assistance of our brethren, 
we request that all persons \\-ho come into the town will take 
care to be well armed with a good musket, bayonet, and 
cartridge-box well filled with cartridges, under their proper 
officers, and repair to the State House, where they will 
receive orders from Colonel Fitch what post to take. 

The ministers of the several parishes of this and the 
neighboring towns are requested to mention to their respec- 
tive congregations the time when the Beacon will be fired. 
Phineas Bradlicy, 
Isaac Doolittle, 
James Rice, 

Commissioners. 

New Haven, 14th November, 1775. 

The invasion of New Haven, which its inhabitants 
apprehended in 1778, came to pass in 1779. On 
Sunday evening, the fourth day of July in that year, 
the Lord's day being kept according to the Puritan 
custom from evening to evening, and holy time 
having ceased at the going down of the sun, a 
public meeting was held to prepare for the celebra- 
tion of the anniversary of the Declaration of In- 
dependence. The programme arranged for the 
morrow has not been preserved to our day, but the 



48 



HISTORF OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



custom of the time authorizes us to believe that 
there was to have been a public reading of the 
Declaration of Independence and an oration, fol- 
lowed by a dinner with toasts and speeches. But 
the order of proceedings was changed by the un- 
welcome intelligence that the British troops were 
landing at \N'est Haven. 

"The Invasion of New Haven by the British 
troops, July 5th, 1779,'' is the theme of a paper 
read to the New Haven Colony Historical Society, 
by Rev. Chauncey Goodrich, and published in the 
Collections of the Society. "The British Invasion 
of New Haven, Connecticut," is the title of a 
brochure by Charles Hervey Townshend published 
in connection with the celebration of the one 
hundredth anniversary of the invasion. We shall 
avail ourselves freely of the researches of both these 
writers, and transcribe their language with or with- 
out alteration as may best subserve our purpose. 

The British fleet, composed of two men-of-war, 
with tenders and transports to the number in all of 
about forty-eight vessels, anchored off West Haven 
Point at an early hour in the morning. It w^as 
commanded by Sir George Collier, Commodore, 
and had on board some three thousand troops 
under the orders of Major-General Tryon. Fifteen 
hundred of these were landed at West Haven under 
Brigadier-General Garth; and the rest were sub- 
sequently landed at South End in East Haven, 
Tryon himself conducting the movement in that 
quarter. The appearance of the fleet off West 
Ha\en had at first occasioned some excitement, 
which increased when the vessels came to anchor. 
Alarm guns were then fired, and Colonel Sabin, of 
the militia, ordered the drums to beat to arms. In 
the early light of the summer morning, between 
four and five o'clock. President Stiles, standing on 
the tower of the College Chapel, saw with the aid of a 
spy-glass, the movement of boats conveying troops 
to the shore. This becoming known, the town was 
at once full of confusion, excitement and alarm. 
Many persons began to remove furniture and other 
articles of value back into the country; important 
papers were secured; articles of plate were buried 
or secreted. Numbers of men, women, and chil- 
dren went out to the East and West Rocks or to the 
adjacent country, some as far as Mount Carmel 
and North Haven. Some remained quietly in 
their houses; among them were aged, infirm and 
feeble folk; also some timid Whigs and some who 
were, openly or secretly, Tories. 

The movements of the British fleet, as it ad- 
vanced to its anchorage, had been watched by 
several men on the shore, connected with a mili- 
tary company. One of them, 'i'homas Painter by 
name, thus relates what he saw : 

About the lirst of March, in the year 1779, I enlisted in 
a company of artillery under the command of (apt. 
Bradley, which had been raised and stationed in and about 
New Haven for the defense of the town. The company 
was divided into three portions: one for the East Haven 
side of the harbor; one for the West Haven side; and one 
for New Haven itself. My place of service w.as my native 
village (West Haven), under the immediate command of 
Lieut. Azel Kimberly. While I was serving in this com- 
pany, the enemy paid us a visit early in the month of July, 
landing at the (,)ld I'iekl shore, The night when they came, 



I was upon guard at the house then owned by Deacon 
Josiah Piatt, now the property and residence of Mr. Wilmot. 
Not far from midnight the news came that a large fleet of 
the enemy's ships were in the Sound, and it was feared that 
they were destined for New Ha\'en. Soon I with some 
others of the guard, extended our walk to Clark's Point. 
As it was a starlight night, we soon discovered the fleet 
standing in to the eastward, with a slight lireeze on the 
land. We watched their maneuvers until they came to 
anchor off the Old Field shore, a little before clay. I then 
hastened up to my Uncle Stevens' to inform them of the im- 
pending danger; but they were extremely incredulous and 
imwiUing to Ijelieve there was really any danger, for they 
had become accustomed to frequent and imnecessary alarms. 
I told them that they must be up immediately and get their 
breakfast if they intended to have it at home and in peace; 
and I also advised them to hide their valuables and handy 
articles of clothing, for fear of the worst. Then, mustering 
up what ammunition I had, and crossing into the other 
street, I with three others of the guard obtained permission 
of an ofticer to go down to the shore and watch the enemy's 
landing. We then went to the (_)ld Field shore, where we 
waited until sunrise, when a gmi was fired from the Com- 
modore as a signal for landing; and instantly a string of 
boats was seen dropping astern of every transport ship, full 
of soldiers and pulling directly for the shore. It was near high 
water and a full tide, so that the boats could come plump 
up to the beach. .'\s soon as they came within point blanl< 
shot, we fired into them, and continued to fire until they 
began to land within a few yards of us. Then I thought it 
was time either to retreat, or, on the other hand, beg for 
quarter, rather than run the risk of crossing the open field 
under the shower of shot which I well knew would be 
hurled after me. It was an emergency in which I knew 
not what to do; for after we had been so foolish and impu- 
dent as to fire into an army of men, all huddled into their 
boats, with no opportunity of returning our well-aimed 
shots, I knew they would soon make short work with us if 
they once had us in their power. So there was really no 
alternative but to run and abide the consequences. I there- 
fore instantly started across the fields at the top of my speed 
and the bullets after me like a shower of hail, which seemed 
to prostrate all the grass around me. But fortunately I 
escaped unhurt, and retreating to another good stand on the 
Rock pasture, 1 waited the approach of the flank guard. 
Then I would fire a few shots and retreat to another 
ambush, and fire a few more and again retreat, and so I 
continued to do until I got nearly up to the Milford turn- 
pike road, w here there was an adjutant of the enemy killed 
and left behind. 

The British, after landing and forming in line of 
march, proceeded up the road toward VVest Haven 
Green, plundering and destroying on the way. 
Houses were violently entered, furniture was bro- 
ken to pieces, beds were cut open to discover any 
articles of value concealed therein, and many things, 
as books, papers, and the like, were taken out of 
doors, heaped up, and set on fire. Tradition tells 
us that Rev. Mr. Williston, then Pastor of the Con- 
gregational Church in West Haven village, was 
engaged in removing soine articles from the par- 
sonage, which stood on the west side of the Green, 
when the enemy appeared close at hand. Passing 
out of the back door, he attempted to escape to the 
woods in the rear of the parsonage, but fell, in 
climbing over a fence, and broke one of his legs. 
The Tories of the place and the soldiers, into whose 
hands he came, threatened to kill him, as he had 
been active in rousing the patriots to resist British 
aggression. Bui Adjutant Campbell, of the British 
service, rescued him from their violence, had him 
carried into the house, ordered the surgeon of the 
regiment to set the fractured limb, and provided 
that he should be suitably cared for. Mr. Willis- 



DURING THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 



49 



ton, it is said, "after being saved, sung, and blessed 
the Lord all the remaining part of the day that he 
had broken his leg, and thus providentially escaped 
being shot while running from the enemy. He 
used, in subsequent years, to tell his friends that, 
though he was suffering bodily pain, it was the 
happiest day of his life. "* 

The enemy, on reaching the Cireen in West 
Haven, made a halt of two hours. Adjutant Camp- 
bell, with other officers, breakfasted at a house oppo- 
site the northwestern corner of the Green, then a 
tavern, and by their presence protected it from at- 
tempts at pillaging made by the soldiers. After 
resting about two hours, the troops took up their 
line of march, moving in a main column of three 
divisions often companies each. General Garth be- 
ing nearly in the middle of the column. Their 
Hanking parties extended perhaps fifty or sixty rods 
on either side. 

While the British were marching up through 
West Haven toward West Bridge, Lieutenant-Col- 
onel Sabin and Captain Phineas Bradley, with such 
of the militia as made their appearance, marched 
out on the Milford road to prevent the entrance of 
ihe enemy into the town across West Bridge. 
James Hillhouse, then Captain of the Governor's 
Foot Guards, having assembled such of his com- 
pany as he could, and accepted the services of sev- 
eral volunteers, some of whom were members of 
Yale College, went out with the militia; and while 
the latter halted at the bridge, Hillhouse crossed 
the bridge and the causeway, and went down the 
road within a quarter of a mile of the British. 
Much of the time for a 3'ear or two previous, a 
Connecticut regiment had been stationed at New 
Haven for the defense of the place, but at this time 
there were no American troops within reach, except 
such as lived in the town. In the course of the 
day, hundreds came in from the country to render 
such aid as they could, but too late to prevent the 
incursion of the enemy. Probably the defenders of 
the town on the west side did not number two hun- 
dred, while the British division, which landed at 
West Plaven, contained nearly ten times as many. 
Mr. (Goodrich informs us that one of the volunteers 
was his grandfather, Elizur Goodrich. " He was 
then eighteen years of age, a member of the .Senior 
Class in Yale College, and was boarding at the 
house of his uncle, Hon. Charles Chauncey, which 
stood in Church street, where the Third Congrega- 
tional Church was afterwards built. On hearing of 
the approach of the enemy, he procured a musket 
and equipments, and started to join the party under 
Captain Hillhouse. As he was passing along the 
street, a lady called to him from the window of a 
house, asking whether he had a supply of bullets. 
He replied that he had some. She urged him to 
come in and get more, and, on his entering the 
house, opened a drawer, full of bullets, which she 
had been casting. He seized a handful, and hur- 
ried on to join the party, already in motion." 

The Rev. Naphtali Daggett, Professor of Divinity 
in Yale College, had been from the first an ar- 
dent champion of the rights of the colonists. 

* Historical Discourse by Rev. Erastus Colton. 
1 



Ten years before the outbreak of hostilities, he 
published in the Conneclicut Gazelle a series of papers 
in opposition to the Stamp Act, one of which has 
been already cited in this chapter and may be 
found in full in the chapter on ihe periodical press. 
The Professor was as prompt with his gun as with 
his pen. Mr. Elizur Goodrich thus relates how he 
rode past his pupils on his way to meet the foe. 

"I well remember the surprise we felt as we 
were marching over West Bridge toward the enemy, 
to see Dr. Daggett riding furiously by us on his 
old black mare, with his long fowling-piece in hand 
ready for action. We knew the old gentleman had 
studied the matter thoroughly and settled his own 
mind as to the right and propriety of fighting it 
out, but were not quite prepared to see him come 
forth in so gallant a style to carry his principles into 
practice. Giving him a hearty cheer as he passed, 
we turned down toward West Haven, at the foot of 
Milford Hill, while he ascended a little to the west 
and took his station in a copse of wood, where he 
seemed to be reconnoitering the enemy like one 
who was determined to bide his time. As we passed 
on toward the south, we met the advanced guard 
of the enemy and taking our stand at a line of 
fence we fired on them several times, and then 
chased them the length of three or four fields as 
they retreated, till we found ourselves involved with 
the main body and in danger of being surrounded. 
It was now our turn to run, and we did for our 
lives. Passing by Dr. Daggett, in his station on 
the hill, we retreated rapidly across West Bridge, 
which was instantly taken down by persons who 
stood ready for the purpose, to prevent the enemy 
from entering the town by that road. 

' ' In the meantime Dr. Daggett, as we heard after- 
ward, stood his ground manfully, while the British 
columns advanced to the foot of the hill, deter- 
mined to Jiave the battle to himself as we had left 
him in the lurch, and using his fowling-piece now 
and then to excellent effect as occasion offered, 
under cover of the bushes. But this could not last 
long. A detachment was sent up the hill-side to 
look into the matter, and the commanding officer 
coming suddenly to his great surprise on a single 
individual in a black coat, blazing away in this 
style, cried out: ' What are you doing there, you 
old fool, firing on his Majesty's troops }' ' E.x- 
ercising the rights of war,' says the old gentleman. 
The very audacity of the reply anil the mixture of 
drollery it contained, seemed to amuse the officer. 

" ' If I let you go this time, you rascal ' said he, 
' will you ever fire again on the troops of his 
Majesty.'' 'Nothin> more likely,' said the old 
gentleman in his dry way. This was too much for 
flesh and blood to bear, and it is a wonder that 
they did not put a bullet through him on the spot. 
However they dragged him down to the head of the 
column, and as they were necessitated by the des- 
truction of West Bridge to turn their course two 
miles further north to the next bridge above, they 
placed him at their head and compelled him to 
lead the way. I had gone into the meadows in the 
meantime, on the opposite side of the river, half a 
mile distant and kept pace with the march as they 



50 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



advanced towards the north. It was, 1 think, the 
hottest day 1 ever knew. The stoutest men were 
inehcd by the heat." 

The following narrative of the treatment of Prof. 
Daggett by the soldiers, was written by himself and 
sworn to before David Austin, a Justice of the 
Peace. 

An account of the cruelties and barbarities which I re- 
ceived from the British troops after I had surrendered my- 
self a prisoner into their liands.. 

It is needless to relate all the leading circumstances which 
threw me in their way. It may be sutticient to observe 
that on Monday, the 5tli inst., the town of New Haven was 
justly alarmed with very threatening appearances of a speedy 
invasion from the enemy. Numbers went out armed to op- 
l>ose them. I, among the rest, took the station assigned me 
on Milford Hill, but was soon directed to r|uit it and retire 
farther north, as the motions of the enemy required. Hav- 
ing gone as far as I supposed sufficient, I turned down the 
hill to gain a little covert of bushes which 1 had in my eye, 
but to my great surprise I saw the enemy much nearer than 
I expected, their advanced guard being little more than 
twenty rods distant; plain, open ground between us. They 
instantly fired upon me, which they continued till I had run 
a dozen rods, discharging not less than fifteen or twenty 
balls at me alone; however, through the preserving provi- 
dence of God I escaped them all unhurt, and gained the 
little covert at which I aimed, which concealed nie from 
their view, while I could plainly see them through the woods 
and bushes advancing toward me within about twelve rods. 
I singled out one of them, took aim and fired upon him. I 
loaded my musket again, but determined not to discharge it 
any more; and as I saw I could not escape from them, I de- 
termined to surrender myself a prisoner. I lagged for 
quatter, and that they would spare my life. They drew 
near to me, I think only two in number, one on my right 
hand, the other on my left, the fury of internals glowing in 
their faces. They called me a damned old rebel, and swore 
they would kill me instantly. They demanded, "What 
did you fire upon us for ? " I replied, " I5ecause it is the 
i-xercise of war." The one made a pass at me with his bay- 
onet, as if he designed to thrust it through my body. With 
my hand I tossed it ui> from its duection, and sprung in so 
near to him that he could not hit me with his bayonet. I 
still continued pleading and begging for my life with the 
utmost importunity, using every argument in my power to 
mollify them and induce them to desist from their nuu'derous 
jnu-posc. One of them gave me four gashes on my head 
with the edge of his bayonet to the skull bone, which caused 
a plentiful eflusion of blood. The other gave me three slight 
pricks with the point of his bayonet on the trunk o( my 
l)ody, but they were no more than skm deep. But what is 
a thousand times worse than all that has been related, is the 
blows and bruises they gave me with the heavy barrels of 
their guns on my Ijowels, by which I was knocked down 
once or more, and almost deprived of life; by which bruises 
I have been confined to my bed ever since. These scenes 
might take up about two minutes of time. They seemed to 
desist a little from their design of murder, alter which they 
stripped me of my shoe and knee buckles, and also my 
stock buckle. Their avarice further led them to rob me of 
my pocket-handkerchief and a little old tobacco box. They 
then l>ade me march toward the main body, wliich was 
about twelve rods distant, where some officers soon inquired 
of me who I was. I gave them my name, station and char- 
acter, and begged their protection, that I might not be any 
more hurt or abused by the soldiers. They promised me 
Iheir protection. But I was robbed of my shoes, and was 
committed to one of the most unfeeling savages that ever 
breathed. They then drove me with the main body, a hasty 
march of five miles or more. I was insulted in the most 
shocking manner by the ruffian soldiers, many of whom 
came at me with fixed bayonets and swore they would kill 
mc on the spot. They damned n)e and those who took me, 
because they spared my life. 'I'hus, amidst a thimsand in- 
sults, my infernal driver hastened me along faster than my 
strength would admit in the extreme heat of the day, weak- 
ened as I was by my wounds and the loss of blood, which, 
at a moderate computation, could not be less than one quart'. 



And when I failed in some degree through faintness, he 
would strike me on the back with a heavy walking staff, 
and kick me behind with his foot. At length, by the sup- 
porting power of God, I arrived at the Green in New Ha 
ven. But my life was almost spent, the world around mc 
several limes appearing as dark as midnight. 1 obtained 
leave of an officer to lie carried into the widow Lyman's, 
and laid on a bed, where I lay the rest of the day and suc- 
ceeding night in such acute and excruciating pain as 1 never 
felt before. 

NAriiTAi.i I)ai;c;ett. 
Niiw Haven, July 26, 1779. 

Dr. Daggett was for a considerable lime in much 
danger of his life from physical exhaustion and the 
wounds he received. He recovered, however, so 
far as to be able to preach in the College Chapel 
during a part of the ne.xt year. But it cannot be 
doubted that his death, which occurred sixteen 
months afterward, was hastened by this experience 
of hardship. His affidavit makes no mention of 
any intercession in his behalf by persons who were 
on the British side. But there is a tradition that 
William Chandler, who acted as guide to the enemy 
on their march, having formerly been a student in 
theCoUege, interceded for the Professorand secured 
that his life should be spared. It is also said that 
when he reached the New Haven Green, in his 
exhausted condition, he was recognized by one of 
the Tories of the town who came to meet the 
British, and at the request of this Tory was set at 
liberty. Perhaps in the confusion of the aflair, the 
Professor did not know of these acts of mediation 
in his behalf 

Not far from the spot where Dr. Daggett was 
taken prisoner. Adjutant Campbell, who had 
shown so much generosity to Parson Williston, 
was killed. On reaching the foot of Milford Hill, 
the British found the fire from the field pieces at 
West Bridge so effective as to deter them from an 
attempt to cross the causeway. These guns, served 
by Captain Phineas Bradley, threw shot across to 
the foot of the hill and swept the causewa}-. It 
being decided to continue the march northward to 
the next bridge, the Adjutant riding up the hill, 
perhaps to give the necessary orders to the flanking 
companies, was seen by a young man belonging 
in the neighboihood, who, having been engaged in 
the skirmish, was now silting behind a tree or wall. 
As the otliccr rode near him, he raised his musket, 
fired, and saw that his shot had taken effect. He 
then ran from the approaching enemy, whose balls 
flew around him, escaping to live through a long- 
life and tell the story of shooting this officer to a 
son born some years after, from whom the narrative 
came to our time. Campbell was carried into a 
house, then standing on the south side of the road, 
where he died, attended by his servant. When the 
enemy had passed on, and the people of the neigh- 
borhood returned, his dead body was found strip- 
ped of clothing. Only a cambric liandkerchief 
which hatl been pressed into the wound remained. 
It had his name on it, and was for a long lime 
preserved as a relic. The next day he w'as carried to 
a place of inteiment on the north side of the road. 
His grave was long unmarked by any memorial, 
and was in danger of being wholly forgotten, until 
in October, 1831, Mr. J. W. Barber placed over it 



DURING THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 



51 



a small rough stone bearing Campell's name and 
the year of his death. The pocket dressing-case of 
Adjutant Campbell is in the possession of the New 
Haven Colony Historical Society, his servant having 
s:ild it to a resident of New Haven. 

We now return to the march of the enemy from 
the foot of Milford Hill into town by way of West- 
ville. While most of their New Haven assailants 
had retired across West Bridge, a number of pa- 
triots hung on the left flank of the British column 
and kept up a constant firing all along the road 
to Hotchkisstown (as Westville was then called) 
from behinti trees and stone walls. These were for 
the most part militiamen from the vicinity, and 
were under the general direction of Aaron Burr, 
afterward Vice-President of the United States, who, 
then a young man, was visiting relatives in New 
Haven That morning he conveyed his cousin, 
the youngest daughter of Pierpont Edwards to a 
place of safety in North Haven and hastened back 
to aid in repelling the invaders. 

Mr. Goodrich has incorporated into his narrative 
of the invasion, a statement received through Dr. 
G. O. Sumner from Mrs. Robert Brown. "She 
was born in 1774, and was consequently about five 
years of age when the events of which we are 
speaking occured. Although of tender years, she 
seems to have received a very distinct impression of 
the facts, and to have retained then in a remarkable 
degree in advancing years. Her father, a Mr. Mix, 
was a baker by trade and resided in the Hotchkiss- 
town of that day. On the morning of the invasion, 
a relative who lived near by, came running into the 
house and said to Mr. Mix, 'The enemy have 
landed; you must take your gun immediately and 
go out to meet them.' He seized his musket, had 
a few hurried words with his wife, directing her to 
hide some valuables in the well and to take her 
children and go to her father's house, which was a 
mile or more further in the country, and then 
went out to meet the advancing foe. From an 
eminence near the house of her grandfather, the 
child of five years old had a distinct view of the 
liirilish troops as they marched on. She observed 
their red coats, the exactness of their march, as 
though it was all one motion, and thought how 
small they looked, as being at a distance of a mile 
or more. On the way to her grandfather's house, 
the road was full of men hurrying into town with 
their guns, some on foot, others on horseback. 
The day was exceedingly hot, and the dust flew in 
clouds. When they reached the house, she saw 
her grandfather cutting up great pieces of raw 
pork and of bread, which she understood to be for 
the men coming in from ihe countiy to defend the 
town. " 

Leverett Hotchkiss was in a company of militia 
which came over from Derby as soon as possible 
after the alarm was given, and was one of those 
who annoyed the enemy on their left flank, keep- 
ing along the side of the hill, west of the road from 
Allingtown to Hotchkisstown. For a time the at- 
tacking party were behind a stone wall crouching 
down and firing over it. They had fired several 
times in this way, when the enemy made a move- 



ment intended to flank and capture them. The 
Captain of the company from Derby was behind 
a large rock and did not perceive the movement of 
the enemy; but a Lieutenant Holbrook saw it, 
and jumping up on the rock, urged the Captain to 
give orders to move so as to escape the danger. 
He, however, did not appreciate the state of the 
case, and would not give the order for a change of 
position. After attempting to rouse the Captain 
to the emergency of the situation, Holbrook, seeing 
that the enemy had nearly completed their flanking 
movement, took the responsibility, and shouted to 
the men thateveiy one should take care of himself, 
whereupon they scattered and retreated along the 
side of the hill. As Leverett Hotchkiss was thus 
retreating, in company with a man named Bradley, 
from Derby, the two passed, in crossing a field, 
under a tree. A limb of the tree hung low, and 
Hotchkiss bent down his head in passing under it. 
Just then, a bullet from the pursuing enemy cut 
off a small branch from the tree, which fell on the 
neck of Hotchkiss. Bradley was hit and killed at 
the same time, and, as he dropped, his musket fell 
on Hotchkiss. The latter escaped, and after the 
skirmish was over, when inquiries were made about 
Bradley, he told the story of their experiences, 
and guided the way to the spot where the body 
lay. 

Later in the fight, one of the British soldiers was 
captured, and Hotchkiss was appointed to guard 
him until it was determined what to do with him. 
As he was watching the prisoner, a man named 
Humphrey, from Derby, came near them. Hav- 
ing been at first of Tory proclivides, he had enlisted 
in the service of King George, but had deserted 
and joined the rebels. The Briush prisoner seeing 
him, said, " I know that man; he was in the same 
regiment, and company, and mess with me." 
Hotchkiss replied, "Oh ! he is not English; he be- 
longs about here." But the prisoner persisted in his 
statement. The matter was dropped, but afterward 
Humphrey said to some one, "That man was 
right, and you see what would have become of me 
if I had been captured." 

The Lieutenant Holbrook referred to, was a man 
of much courage and efficiency. In the morning, 
as he was about leaving home, his father said to 
him, " You are going to fight the enemies of your 
country; now remember that I had rather see you 
brought back wounded in front than in running 
from the enemy." After the enemy gained posses- 
sion of New Haven, he was in and out of town 
several times. He saw, as evening came on, how 
drunk and disorderly they became, and went to the 
American General in command of the militia who 
had gathered on the outskirts (General Ward), 
proposing a night attack on them, asserting that 
they could easily be captured. When this proposi- 
tion was rejected, he pleaded hard for a few men to 
go with him and make an attack, as he was sure 
that he could greatly alarm them, and probably 
could capture a large number. But cautious coun- 
sels prevailed, and his desire was not granted. He 
continued in the military service during the war, 
and became colonel of a regiment. 



52 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



While the enemy were moving toward Hotch- 

kisstown, Lieutenant-Colonel Sabin, Captain Hill- 
house, and Captain Bradley, with the men whom 
they commanded, went across the fields on the east 
side of the river, to meet and oppose the enemy 
at Thompson's Bridge, as that at Hotchkisstown 
was then called. 

Some persons who had fled from New Haven to 
the houses of friends near West Rock, ascended 
the rock, and from its front edge viewed the march 
of the British as they advanced and entered the 
village. One of the number in after )ears de- 
scribed the sight as very striking, and even beauti- 
ful. The long column of men moving with the 
regular step of disciplined troops; the mingling 
color of the uniforms worn, as the bright red of the 
English Guards blended with the graver hues of the 
Cierman mercenaries; the waving line of glittering 
bayonets; the hurried riding back and forth of 
mounted officers, and the frequent flashes of mus- 
ketr)', no doubt combined to make up a scene 
which might well attract admiration, were not the 
occasion so fraught with terror to the spectators. 

At the west end of the village was the powder- 
mill of Doolittle & Atwater, which has been 
already mentioned. The enemy made a movement 
in that direction for the purpose of destroying the 
powder-mill. This being resisted b}- the patriots, 
some sharp fighting took place and the attempt 
was abandoned, and this mill continued to furnish 
powder thrcmghout the war. 

Resuming their march toward the town of New 
Haven, the enemy's right flank forded the stream a 
few rods below the bridge, while the main body 
crossed on the bridge itself. Colonel Sabin, and 
those who went with him from West Bridge, did 
not reach the place till the enemy had gained pos- 
session of the bridge and the fordable part of the 
river. They took, however, a position on top of 
the slight eminence to which the road ascends 
eastwardly, and gave the invaders a smart fire from 
the field-pieces till their ammunition tailed. The 
Americans probably availed themselves here, as 
well as at West Bridge, of the intrenchments 
thrown up about fifteen months before. An ac- 
count of the invasion in " Barber's History and An- 
ticpiities of New Haven, "states that these embank- 
ments were quite recently visible; but evidently the 
writer thought they were cast up on that memorable 
fifth day of July, not sufliciently considering the 
difficulty of removing so much earth in a single 
morning. The Americans being no longer able to 
use artillery, retreated slowly, continuing to u.se 
their muskets as they retired. The tradition is that 
the enemy came in on GolTe street and on Whalley 
aveiuie. Probably the main body moved from 
Thompson's Bridge, or Derby Bridge, as President 
Stiles calls it, through Gofle street, skirmishers 
being thrown out on their right as far as Whalle_\- 
avenue, and their left flank being protected by the 
Beaver Pond. When they had passed the Beaver 
Pond they encountered a body of militia who had 
come in from the north, and then began the warm- 
est and most protracted fighting which occurred 
during the day. At Ditch Corner there was, says 



President Stiles, "incessant firing on both sides all 
the afternoon and sundry were slain, and at length 
the firing ceased in the evening.''* 

The Conneclicui yoiiriml of July 7, 1779, ^'^o 
says: "A body of militia sufiicient to penetrate the 
town could not be collected that evening. We 
were oliged, therefore, to content ourselves with 
giving the enemy every annoyance in our power, 
which was done with great spirit for most of the 
afternoon at or about Ditch Corner." 

Leaving their skirmishers fighting at Ditch Cor- 
ner, the main body passed on, preserving military 
order, till they reached the dwellings on Broadway, 
where they broke ranks, and rushed to the work of 
cruelty and devastation. They vented their spite 
on the houses, breaking windows and demolishing 
furniture. Some of them having caught a flock of 
geese, did not stay to pluck and dress the geese, 
but boiled them in a large brass ketUe and made a 
hasty meal at the tavern of Mrs. Eunice Tuttle, 
where Christ Church now stands. Mrs. Tuttle and 
her family, with the exception of her son, Elisha Tut- 
tle, who, being insane, could not be persuaded to go 
with his fi lends, had fled for safety to the Hubbard 
Farm near West Rock, now owned by the town. 
This unfortunate man had, on attaining his major- 
ity, married and removed into the wilderness of 
Northern New York, where, while he was on a 
visit to New Haven, his whole family had been 
murdered by Indians, except a little daughter, 
whom they carried into captivity. After a vain 
search for his daughter, he came back to New Ha- 
ven heart-broken and deranged. As his derange- 
ment often manifested itself in silence, it is probable 
that his refusal to speak brought upon him the 
anger of the soldiers. They beat him cruelly, 
pried open his mouth with a bayonet, and cut his 
tongue, injuring him so that he died the same da}-. 

The enemy reached the Green a little before one 
o'clock p. 51. Their dead and wounded were car- 
ried across the Green and to Long Wharf in seven 
chairs, a name given to the oUl-fashioned chaise 
without a top, and in five wagons (one of which con- 
tained ten men). This fact was reported to Pres- 
ident Stiles by an eye-witness, and is recorded by 
him in his diary. 

On entering the town, the enemy distributed 
printed copies of a Proclamation signed by Com- 
modore Collier and Major-General Tryon, which 
was as follows: 

]?y Sir George Collier, Commander-in-Chief of liis 
Majesty's ships and vessels in Norlli America, and Major- 
C.eneral Tryon, commanding his Majesty's land forces on a 
separate expedition. 

Address to tJie Inhnbllnuts of Conned'niil. 

The ungenerous and wanton insurrection against the 
sovereignty of Great Britain, into which this colony has been 
deluded by the artifices of designing men for private pur- 
poses, might well justify you in every fear which conscious 

* I3itch Corner was between wtiat is now known as Munson Park on 
tlie east, and ttie Beaver Pond on tlie west. Goflfe street is Jiere wedge- 
sliapcd, and at that time tlie road to Hamilen and Clieshirc started 
from the west end of the wedge, the lower end of Dixwell avenue being 
of modern origin. Orchard street is a part of this old road, or Long 
lane, as it was called, lint Long lane W.-1S, as Mr. Sylvaniis Butler in- 
ft)rms me, broader than Orchard street; a strip two rods wide having 
been sold to the adjoining proprietors. The militia from the north 
coming down I-ong lane, encountered the Brilisli at Ditch Comer. 



DURING THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 



53 



guilt could form respecting the intentions of the present 
armament. 

Voiir towns, your property, yourselves, lie within the 
grasp of the power whose forbearance you have ungraciously 
construed into fear, but whose lenity has persisted in its mild 
and noble efforts, even though branded with the most un- 
worthy imputation. The existence of a single habitation on 
your ilefenseless coast ought to be a subject of constant re- 
proof lo your ingratitude. Can the strength of your whole 
province cope with the force which might at any time be 
poured through any district in your country? You are 
conscious it cannot. Why then will you persist in a ruinous 
and ill-judged resistance? We hoped that you would re- 
cover from the phrensy which has distracted this unhappy 
country; and we believe the day to be near when the 
greater part of this continent will begin to blush at their de- 
lusion. You who lie so much in our power, afford the most 
striking monument of our mercy, and therefore ought to set 
the first example of returning to allegiance. 

Reflect on what gratitude requires of you; if that is 
insufficient to move you, attend to your own interest; we 
offer you a refuge against the distress which, you universally 
acknowledge, broods with increasing and intolerable weight 
over all your country. 

Leaving you to consult with each other upon this invita- 
tion, we do now declare that whoever shall be foiuid, and 
remain in peace, at his usual place of residence, shall be 
shielded from any insult either to his person or his property, 
excepting such as bear offices, either civil or military, under 
your present usurped government; of whom it will be fur- 
ther required that they shall give proofs of their penitence 
and voluntary submission; and they shall then partake of 
the like immunity. 

Those whose folly and obstinacy may slight this favor- 
able warning, must take notice that they are not to expect 
a continuance of that lenity, which their inveteracy would 
now render blamable. 

(_iiven on lioard his Majesty's ship Caniilla, on the 
Sound, July 4, 1779. 

George Coixier. 
William Tryon. 

Notwithstanding the promise of protection to 
those who should remain at their homes, the town 
was given up to promiscuous pillage by the sokiiers, 
from the time of their arrival till the darkness of 
night came on. A few houses were e.xempted as 
occupied by favorers of the British cause. Build- 
ings were forcibly entered; articles of value, as 
silver plate, watches, buckles, clothing, money, 
and the like were taken, often in a brutal manner; 
nor was this the worst, for personal violence was 
added in many cases to such robbery, and both 
aged men and helpless females were shockingly 
abused. 

The invaders did not always discriminate be- 
tween Whigs and Tories, for many of the latter 
were badly treated. One lady who felt secure in 
her loyalty to his Majesty, was compelled to fly to 
the cellar for safety. She concealed herself in an 
empty hogshead, but the rude soldiers found her 
and rolled the hogshead with her in it, over and 
over, till she feared for her life. Before leaving 
the house, they tore her ear-rings from her ears, as 
was done in many other cases. 

It is said that nine hundred feather beds were 
carried to New York, and many more wantonly 
ripped up; some of which were thrown into the 
harbor. Looking-glasses were generally broken; 
some few were saved, one of which was in Captain 
Bradley's house. It appears that on some former 
occasions Captain Bradley had saved the life of 
his neighbor, Joshua Chandler, aTory lawyer, when 
some furloughed American soldiers in a drunken 



frolic had seized him and were threatening to hang 
him to a neighboring tree. As a return for this 
kindness, the property of Captain Bradley was 
protected, though he had been that day foremost 
in resisting the invaders; a guard being placed at 
his house by the sons of Chandler, who were of- 
ficers in the British service. 

No buildings were set on lire while the enemy 
thus had possession of the town. The public 
buildings, as those of Yale College, the State 
House, and the churches were injured little if at 
all. The soldiers dispersed about the town, quar- 
tering themselves on the inhabitants and engaging 
in the work of pillage. 

The following incident is given by Rev. Dr. 
Bacon in his brief memoir of James Hillhouse, 
published originally in the American yournal of 
Ediicalion. 

Mrs. Hillhouse, widow of James Abraham Hillhouse, was 
a member of the Church of England, and her political 
sympathies were with the liritish. Hers therefore was one 
of the few houses to be protected from pillage. Some of the 
British officers were quartered there and weie received with 
the courtesy due to men who bore his Majesty's commission. 
Yet the loyal lady was in great danger from the imputation 
of her nephew's patriotism. It happened that the news- 
paper containing Captain Hillhouse's patriotic call for 
recruits came under the notice of the officers almost as soon 
as they entered the house which was to be protected for its 
loyalty. The house and its contents would have been im- 
mediately given up to the plundering soldiers, had not the 
lady, with a dignified frankness which repelled suspicion, 
informed her guests that though the young man whose name 
was subscribed to that call was a near and valued relative of 
hers, and was actually resident umler that roof, the property 
was entirely her own, and that the part which he had taken 
in the conflict with Great Britain was taken not only on Ins 
own responsibility, but in opposition to her judgment and 
her sympathies. 

This explanation was accepted and the protec- 
tion was continued. The "call for recruits" was 
printed in the New Haven paper of the preceding 
week, and ends thus: 

Who is there that will deprive himself of the pleasure 
and satisfaction he would derive through his whole life, from 
reflecting upon his having served a campaign in so im- 
portant a period of the war. I hereby invite all, and shall 
make the offer to as many as possible, to engage before the 
loth day of July next, when I am to make return to his Ex- 
cellency. Those who incline to accept, will by making ap- 
plication, receive their bounty in bills, and be kindly treated 
by their most obedient and humble servant, 

James Hillhouse. 

New Haven, June 21, 1779. 

Another instance in which a dwelling was pre- 
served from pillage by female intervention is told in 
" Barber's History and Antiquities of New Haven," 
and in his " Historical Collections of Connecticut.'' 
Mr. Amos Doolittle was one of the Governor's 
Foot Guards who went to Cambridge in 1775, and 
was no less prompt in his country's service on this 
occasion. When obliged to retire from Westville, 
as the enemy advanced, he returned to his house, 
which was on the west side of College street a little 
north of Elm street. Throwing his musket and 
equipments under a bed, he waited the approach 
of the enemy, and the more anxiously as his wife 
lay on a sick bed. When the British soldiers 
came in front of the house, an English lady who 
was residing with him, went to the door and re- 



54 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



quested of one of the officers that a guard might be 
assigned to protect it. The officer with an oath 
asked who she was. .She replied that she was an 
Englishwoman and had a son in his Majesty's 
service. On hearing this, the officer ordered a 
Highlander of his command to protect the house 
and. see that no damage was done to its inmates. It 
was owing to the address of the same lady that Mr. 
Doolittle was not carried to New York by the 
enemy; for some of the soldiers entering the house 
by the back door and discoveiing the gun, in- 
quired what it meant, and were for taking the 
owner prisoner. The lady, with great presence of 
mind, replied that the law obliged every man to 
have a gun in his house, adding that the owner of 
it was as great a friend to King George as them- 
selves. 

A musket is in possession of the New Haven 
Colony Historical Society which was captured with 
its owner, a Hessian, by Mr. Jonah Hotchkiss, 
who at the time had his last charge of powder and 
ball in his own gun. Pointing his weapon at the 
Hessian he demanded surrender on pain of im- 
mediate death. The man surrendered readily, and 
on searching him, it was found that he had twenty- 
three charges remaining in his cartridge-box, of 
which Mr. Hotchkiss availed himself The Hes- 
sian was taken to the dwelling of his captor 
and remained there several da)s, being kindly 
treated. When it became known that the father 
(Mr. Caleb Hotchkiss) of his captor had been 
killed in the fight, Jonah Hotchkiss said to him, 
"If I had known that your people had killed my 
father, I would not have spared you.'' The man at 
last asked permission to go; which, being granted, 
he left town. This statement came from Mr. 
Henry Hotchkiss, who deposited with the Histor- 
ical Society the musket which his grandfather took 
from the Hessian. 

There are in the rooms of the Historical Society 
four framed maps, not a little defaced by time, two 
of which are perforated by bullets. They hung at 
the time of the invasion in the east front chamber 
of the Mansfield House, which stood between Hill- 
house avenue and Prospect street as now laid out, 
antl a little north of the spot where North Sheffield 
Hall now stands. Mr. Nathan Mansfield, the 
owner and occupant of the house, was a decided 
favorer of the British side, and was accustomed to 
offer a petition every morning at family prayers for 
the success of the arms of King George. Hence 
he was not among those who resisted the invaders. 
His sons and sons-in-law were all Whigs, and by 
their inlUicnce saved him from much abuse which 
he might oUicrwise have received from the patriots 
of the town. When the British entered New 
Haven, the families of his children, and other 
friends, sought refuge in his house as likely to 
escape molestation on account of his known sym- 
pathies. Then, too, the house was thought to be 
so far out of town that the enemy would not 
come to it. In this opinion however, people were 
mistaken. The enemy advanced in that direction 
and occupied an old building standing where 
Sheffield Hall now is, as a guard-house. A strong 



guard was stationed there, and the red-coats were 
soon scattered through the neighborhood. The 
day was very warm, and the soldiers came to the 
well in Mr. Mansfield's yard to get water. Some 
of them entered the house, and one stole a silver 
tankard belonging to the family, which had been 
secreted under a bed. Afterward some liritish 
officers visited the house, and Mrs. Mansfield 
made complaint to them of the theft. They 
promised to make an effort to find and restore the 
tankard, but she never heard anything more of it. 
Early on Tuesday morning, as the British were 
prejiaring to leave town, some militiamen from an 
adjoining town came into the vicinity of the house, 
and seeing the red-coats, fired on them, and then 
retreated behind the house. The British guartl 
seeing from what direction the shot came, returned 
the fire, and some bullets passing through the 
front of the house lodged in the wall. The maps 
referred to were pierced at the same time. 

An account of the injuries and death of Nathan 
Beers is given in a letter from Isaac Beers, his son, 
to Nathan Beers, another son, who was a Lieutenant 
in the American army and on service in Rhode 
Island. This letter is in the valualile collection of 
autographs belonging to Prof E. H. Leffingwell, 
a grandson of Isaac Beers, who kindly gave Mr. 
Goodrich permission to copy it. 

New H.wkn, i6th July, 1779. 

Dear Brother, — I suppose long before this th.it you have 
heard ol the great misfortune that has befallen this town in 
being plundered Vjy the enemy. As I was taken up in 
attending on lather and was in much confusion other ways, 
I desired Mr. Hazard, who was then here, to inform you of 
our situation and that our dear father was then near his end 
by a wound received from those bloody savages; which 
letler was sent by last post and I hope came to hand. Our 
father was wounded in his own house some time after the 
enemy had been in town; the shot was aimed at his breast, 
but he pushed the gun so far on one side that it passed 
through his hip; it was at first thought that the wound was 
not dangerous; but he had lost so much blood before he 
could have relief that the wound proved fatal. He lived 
fron\ Monday afternoon, the time he received the wound, till 
the .Saturday following, tlie most of the time in great distress, 
and then left this troublesome world, I hope for one far 
better. Thus we have lost a kind jiaient by the hands of these 
merciless \\'retches at a time which added greatly to the dis- 
tress we already ha<l to bear with. 

As I suppose you will learn by the papers the particulars 
of the action while they were here, I shall omit it, only just 
inform you of their behavior in town. They landed at 
West Haven about sunrise, but were kept from getting into 
town till .ibout noon on Monday, 5111 July. I w.as made 
prisoner, but had the good luck to be released soon. No 
sooner had the enemy got into town than they began to 
plunder withf>ut any distinction of Whig or Toi'y, can-ying 
off all the valuablearticles they could, breaking and destroy 
ing the remainder. In many houses ihey broke thi" doors, 
windows, wainscot-work, and demolished everything inside 
of the house they possibly could. Some few houses escaped 
by mere acciilent: Joel Atwater's, Michael Baldwin's, 'and 
five or six others in that neighborhood, although the families 
had all lied. 1 had the good fortune to be plundereil but 
little. Elias was not plundered a great deal. Father's 
house was plundered considerably, but not damaged any. 
Old Mrs. Wooster stayed in her house and was most shock- 
ingly abused; everything in the house was destroyed or car- 
ried off by them, not a bed left or the sm.iUest article in tlu' 
kitchen ; Deacon Lyman's shared as bad ; also William 1 .yon's 
and several others in different parts of the touu. They lelt 
the town early on Tuesday morning; Chandler, Botsford 



DURING THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 



55 



ami Capt^iiii Cani]j with their famiUes went witli them. Bill 
Chandler was their guide into town, for whieh the Lord 
reward him ! They have carried off several inhabitants 
prisoners, among them Captain John Mix, Hezekiah Sabin, 
Senior, Ksq'r Whiting, Thomas Barrett, Jere Townsend, 
Captain Elijah Foster, Adonijah Slierman, etc. There 
were killed, belonging to town. Constable Hotchkiss, John 
Ilntchkiss, K/ekiel llutchkiss, Elisha 'I'uttle, a crazy man, 
C.iplain John (lilbert, Joseph Dorman, As.i Todd and several 
others from the farms and coinitry round. 

Since the enemy left this place they have burned the 
towns of Fairfield and Norwalk, and we were again alarmed 
that they were reluming to burn this town. A person w ho 
made his escape from them at Norwalk, says the officers 
found much fault with theCeneral for not burning this town 
when they were here, and they swore it should be Ai>wQ. yet. 
This alarms us so much that we have moved all our effects 
from the town back into the country, and a great many 
families have gone out, so that we are almost desolate 
already. Indeed it is the most prevailing opinion among the 
most judicious that they intended to burn all the seaports. 

So far the letter of Mr. Beers goes and then 
breaks oft' abruptl}'. Another account of the cir- 
cumstances attending the wounding of Mr. Beers 
is to this effect: When the alarm spread that the 
enemy were approaching the town, the family of 
Mr. Beers made ready to leave their home. But 
the old gentleman would not go with them, saying 
that he had never taken up arms against the King, 
and it was not likely that he would be molested. 
So he remained quietly in his house, on the corner 
of Chapel and York streets, and his two negro ser- 
vants stayed with him. As the British troops came 
toward the corner, and the noise in the street at- 
tracted his attention, he went to the door to look 
out. While he stood there, three shots in rapid 
succession were fired on the enemy from the gar- 
den attached to the house. The smoke being seen 
to rise in that direction, three British soldiers 

rushed toward him, calling out, " You d d old 

rebel, why do you harbor men in your house who 
fire on his Majesty's troops .-' " He replied, 
"Gentlemen, no one has fired from this house; I 
can't control men outside of my house." They 
persisted in abusing him and aimed their muskets 
at him; he pushed aside two of these and changed 
the direction of the third, so that the charge entered 
his hip instead of his breast, as intended. This 
history of the transaction was narrated by himself 
to Dr. .-]'Jieas Munson, Senior, who was his medical 
attendant, by whose son (who himself, on one oc- 
casion dressed the wound of Mr. Beers) it was 
transmitted, says Mr. Goodrich, to our time. 

On another corner of Chapel and York streets, 
where the Calvary Baptist Church now stands, and 
diagonally opposite to the residence of Mr. Beers, 
stood the house of Mrs. Jeremiah Parmelee. Her 
husband had been a Captain in Colonel Hazen's 
continental regiment, and having been severely 
wounded about two years before, in the battle of 
Brandywine, had since died. On the near ap- 
proach of the invaders to that part of the town, 
Mrs. Parmelee prepared to take her departure for 
the country. But before her arrangements were 
completed, she was both surprised and alarmed at 
a volley of musketry near by, which sent the bul- 
lets fJying about the house. Recollecting that a 
keg of gunpowder was in the cellar — a most 



precious as well as dangerous article — she went 
downstairs, brought it up, and with her own hands 
concealed it near the well, having previously satu- 
rated it with water. While she was so engaged, a 
ball occasionally whizzed through the air above her 
head, giving token of the approach of the enemy. 
Mrs. Parmelee witnessed the assault on her neigh- 
bor Mr. Beers, and at a later hour of the day she 
saw the unfortunate Elisha Tuttle, after he received 
his wounds and before he died. While filled with 
horror at what she had seen across the street, she 
was alarmed by the entrance of soldiers into her 
own dwelling. They demanded men's shoes, but 
she told them she had none, as no man lived 
there. One of the soldiers who had been cove- 
tously eyeing a string of gold beads which she wore 
on her neck, clutched it with a strong hand ; she 
resisted with so much force and success that the 
string gave way, and the beads flew into the open 
fire-place among the ashes. The ruflSan, discom- 
fitted by his failui'e, left without further attempts at 
violence. In searching through the ashes after- 
ward, she recovered all the beads but two. To 
escape further molestation in her isolated and de- 
fenseless condition, IMi's. Parmelee left her house, 
to seek temporary refuge in that of Deacon Stephen 
Ball, which was in Chapel street, nearly where the 
Yale School of Art now stands. 

Mr. Ball, as a Deacon of the First Church, had 
the care of the vessels used at the Lord's Supper 
and for the administration of baptism. They are 
of solid silver, and some of them have interesting 
associations connected with them.* When the 
news came that the British were actually marching 
into town, the good Deacon felt a natural and 
proper anxiety to save these sacred vessels. The 
chimneys of those da3's were large, and in many 
cases were provided with ledges or recesses for 
keeping valuable articles. As the chimney of 
Deacon Ball's house was so constructed, it was 
determined to deposit the silver there. His daugh- 
ter, then eight years old, was lifted up into the 
chimney sufficiently high to put the vessels into the 
hiding place. As the British came near the house, 
this daughter, with two playmates (one of whom 
was Sally Maria Beers, afterward the wife of Mr. 
William Leffingwell, and the other Anna Atwater, 
afterward the wife of Mr. Jeremiah Townsend), 
went down into the cellar. While there, they 
heard the soldiers enter at the front door, place 
their muskets in the hall and disperse through the 
house for plunder. Mrs. Ball, who remained 
quietly in the house, wore a string of gold beads, 
which was taken from her neck. The church sil- 
ver however remained in sa''ety, and is still in use. 

The little girl who hid the silver in the chimney 
became the wife of Mi". Abraham Bradley. 

The house of Mrs. Wooster, which is still stand- 
ing in Wooster street, was specially obnoxious to 
the enemy, it being known that she was the widow 
of an officer in the British army who had espoused 

* The baptismal bowl has on it this inscription: "The Gift of Mr. 
Jeremiah Atwater to the First Church of Christ in New Haven, A. D. 
1735." The history of the bowl is given in the chapter on Churches 
and Clergymen. 



56 



HISTORV OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEX. 



the cause of the rebels. Everything valuable in the 
house was destroyed or carried away. Among the 
spoils were a box and two large trunks containing 
manuscripts. The following correspondence will 
sufficiently explain their nature and value to New 
Haven and Yale College. 

New Haven, July 14, 1779. 

Sir, — The troops of the separate expedition under your 
Kxcellency's command, when they left New Haven on 
the 6th inst., carried away with them, among other things, 
the papers MSS. of the Rev. President Clap, the late head 
of this seat of learning. They were in the hands of his 
daughter, Mrs. Wooster, lady of the late General Wooster, 
and lodged in the General's house. Among them, besides 
some compositions, were letters and papers of consequence 
respecting the college, which can be of no service to the 
]>rcsent possessor. This waits upon you, .Sir, to request this 
box of MSS., which can have no respect to the present 
times, as Mr. Clapji died in 1767. A war against science 
has tieen rejirobated for ages by the wisest and most 
jiowerful generals. The irreparable loss sustained by the 
republic of letters liy the destruction of the Alexandrian 
Library and other ancient monuments of literature, have 
generously jimmpted the victorious commanders of modern 
ages to exeni]>t these monuments from ravages and desola- 
tion insejiarable from the highest rigor of war. 1 beg leave 
upon this occasion to address myself only to the jn-inciples 
of politeness and honor, humbly asking the return of those 
MSS., which to others will be useless— to us valuable. 

1 am. Sir, Your Excellency's most obedient and very 
humble servant. Ezra Stii.es, Presidatt. 

His Excellency Major-General Tryon. 

Sent by Captain Sabin, August 17, 1779. 

New York, 25th September, 1779. 

Sir, — Disposed by princijilc, as well as inclination, to pre- 
vent the violence of war from injuring the right of the 
republic of learning, I very much approve of your solicitude 
for the preservation of IVIr. Chqi's MSS. Had they been 
found here, they should most certainly have been restored, 
as you desire; but, after dilligent impiiry, 1 can learn nothing 
concerning them. The officer of the jiarty at the house 
where the box is supposed to have been deiiosited, has been 
examined, and dues not remendier to have seen it, nor api>re- 
liends that any such papers fell into the hands of the soldiery. 
I would therefore indulge a h(.t[>e that better care has been 
taken of the collection than you were led to imagine at the 
dale of ytnn- letter. This however will not abate my atten- 
tion and inquiry; nor shall I, if I succeed, omit the gratifi- 
caljfjn i.>f your wishes. 

I am. Sir, your very obedient servant, 

\Vm. Trvon. 

To the Rev. Mr. Ezra Stiles, rresident of Vale College, 
at New Haven. 

Received Oct. 21, 1779. 

Yai.e Coli.E(;e, December 14, 1779. 
Sir, — The latter eml of October last, I received yoin- letter 
of 25tli September. It is unnecessary for you to make any 
further inquiry respecting President Clap's manuscript. 
Capt. Bosvvell, of the guard, while here on the fatal 5th of 
July last, showed some of them in town, which he said he 
had taken Ironi Gen. Wooster's house, and it is presumed 
that he well knows the accident wliich befell the rest. Your 
troops carried away from Mrs. Wooster's a box and two 
large trunks of papers. One of them was a trunk of papers 
«hich the General took to Canada; the others were his own 
and the President's. On the night of the conflagration of 
Fairfield, three whale boats of our people, on their way from 
Norwalk to the eastward, pas^ed by your fleet, at anchor off 
Fairfield (then in llames), sailed through a little ocean of 
floating papers, not far i'rom your shipping. They took up 
some of them as they passed. I have since separated and 
reduced them all to three sorts and no more, viz.: Gen. 
Wooster's own papers; Gen. Carlton's French Commissions 
and orders to the Canadian Militia; and Mr. Clap's, a few of 
which last belong to tliis College, This s[>ecimen, Sir, shows 
us that the rest are unhapiiily and irrevocably lost, unless, 
perhaps Capt. Boswell might have selected some before the 



rest were thrown overboard. If so, your polite attention to 
my recpiest convinces me that I shall Ik; so fortunate as to 
recover such as may have Ijcen saved. 

I am, .Sir, your very humble servant, 

Ezra Stiles. 

To his Excellency Gen. Tryon, New York. 
Sent by Major Harnage, of the Saratoga Convention 
troops. 

Mr. Ebcnezcr Huggins resided in the lower part 
of Crown street in a house which is still standing. 
The experience of Mr. Huggins and his wife on 
that memorable day was related to Mr. Goodrich 
by their granddaughter, Mrs. E. B. M. Hughes. 

When the alarm was given in the morning that 
the enemy were approaching New Haven, Mrs. 
Huggins, in view of the possibility that her husband 
might be taken prisoner and carried away, sewed a 
guinea into the waistband of his clothes. Having 
-occasion to go into the street after the enemy had 
possession of the town, he took with him a musket 
for self-defense. This caused him to be made a 
prisoner on meeting some British soldiers, as 
"bearing arms against the King of England.'' He 
was captured in State street, opposite the spot now 
occupied by the Mechanics' Bank. Being carried 
to New York, he was put on board the old prison 
ship near the Long Island side of the East River. 
His wretchedness was very great, being uncertain 
of the fate of his wife and two little children left 
unprotected in their home. He could neither eat 
nor sleep, but sat or paced about silently, in anguish 
insupportable. The commander of the prison ship 
asked him why he did not eat, and why he apjieared 
so unhappy. He replied, "should you not be wretch- 
ed had you left a wife and two babes in the midst 
of the British army .? " With compassionate looks 
and words the officer directed that Mr. Huggins 
should not be furnished with the ordinary prison fare, 
but should be supplied from his own table. He was 
afterward treated with great kimlness during the time 
he remained on the vessel. With the guinea so 
fortunately sewed into his waistband he managed 
to purchase a boat, and in this he made his escape 
at night, crossed the Sound safely and reached New 
Haven. He brought with him Mr. Robert Town- 
send, who had also been taken as a prisoner from 
New Haven. It wouki seem as if Mr. Huggins 
were allowed to buy the boat antl make his escape; 
for how otherwise could he have done this under 
the mouths of British guns ,^ 

Mrs, Huggins sat alone in her house on that 
eventful afternoon, with her two babes, the oldest 
being about two years old on her knee, and the 
younger in her arms, her husband gone and no 
one to advise her what to do — no one to speak to 
her. A cannon boomed and the ball passed 
through the room where she was sitting. She 
heard the tramp of soldiers in the street. Her 
heart was very desolate as she looked forward to 
the destruction of herself and her children. She 
did not ever expect to see her husband again, but 
alreatly mourned him as dead. She was in moment- 
ary expectation that her fate would be decided, 
when there entered the house a gentleman in the 
dress of a British officer of the highest rank. Every 



DURING THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 



57 



word he spoke was polite, kind, and respectful. 
He told her to fear nothing and wrote on the door 
of the house, " Let no one enter here. By order 
of General Garth.'' She never forgot this kind 
treatment, and in her old age spoke with gratitude 
of the fact that there had been human hearts in the 
breasts of her country's enemies. Later in the day 
her brother, Mr. Isaac Dickerman, came and took 
her out to the house of Colonel John Hubbard 
near West Rock, where she remained during her 
husband's captivity. 

In the early part of the day, this Mr. Dickerman, 
who lived where Edgewood Farm now is, came 
into town with an o.x-cart to convey persons and 
things from the house of his father's family in 
Broadway out to that of the Mr. Hubbard just 
referred to as a little back of West Rock. He 
went in the first place down to the residence of Mr. 
Iluggins to bring away some articles for that 
family. As he passed along the streets with his 
cart, so many valuable articles were thrown into 
it by persons endeavoring to save their property, 
that by the time he reached his Aether's house, little 
room was left for the use of those whom he had 
come especially to help. Some of them climbed 
on the heaped-up load ; others walked by the side 
of it, driving the cows before them. 

John Hotchkiss is mentioned as among those 
killed in the skirmish on the way from Milford 
road to Hotchkisstown. He went out in the 
morning with others to oppose the march of the 
British, and was shot, among the first of the patriots 
who fell. He was robbed after being shot, of his 
silver shoe buckles, knee buckles, stock buckle, 
sleeve buttons and pistols. Mr. Hotchkiss had 
married a daughter of Timothy Jones, who was a 
descendant of Theophilus Eaton by his daughter 
Hannah. Mr. Goodrich states that Mr. Hotchkiss 
lived where Alumni Hall now is at the corner of Elm 
and High streets; that his widow lived there till 
her death; and that an unmarried daughter occupied 
the house after her mother's death. The latter 
part of the statement is probably true ; but the 
Co>iiiec/icu/ Jntirni?/ of 'Ma.Tch 12, 1788, advertises 
that by direction of the Court of Probate, "the 
Administrators on the estate of John Hotchkiss, late 
of New Haven, deceased, will expose for sale, at 
public vendue, the lot and dwelling-house and 
other buildings where the deceased dwelt * * * 
situate in State street. " 

The house of Michael Baldwin, in George street, 
mentioned in the chapter on Inns and Hotels as 
"Mr. Baldwin's Tavern, and near the upper end of 
Leather lane," is said to have been protected and 
so to have escaped pillage. The story is that " a 
British officer who was in this expedition had been 
a paroled prisoner in the latest French War, and had 
in some way found a temporary home at this house, 
which was at that time a sort of country tavern." 
The writer ventures to correct this tradition by 
suggesting that this house was in the time of 
the French War the residence of Colonel David 
Wooster, and that the recollection of hospitalities 
received from a brother officer saved the house 
from pillage. 



There was once a house where the Tontine 
Hotel now is, which some persons still living re- 
member as Ogden's Coffee-house. At the time of 
the invasion it was the residence of Joshua Chandler, 
a lawyer of some note in his day. He was a strong 
Tory and made himself offensive by the advocacy of 
the British side of the question. Mention has 
already been made of his rescue from some Amer- 
ican soldiers who were threatening to hang him. 
It is said that the family of Chandler prepared a 
grand supper in anticipation of the arrival of their 
British friends, but that, owing to the confusion of 
the time, and the preoccupation of those for whom 
it was designed, the expected guests did not appear. 
Notice was given to Mr. Chandler of the intention 
of the British to leave on Tuesday morning, and 
he and his family left with them, never to return. 
They finally went to Nova Scotia, and on some oc- 
casion when most of them were passing from one 
point on the coast to another by sea, the vessel was 
wrecked, and, though they reached the shore, they 
perished miserably by cold and starvation while 
attempting to make their way through an unin- 
habited country. The property of Chandler was 
confiscated and his house passed into other hands. 
It was variously occupied until removed to make 
room for the Tontine. It is still standing on Church 
street further north than when occupied by the 
Chandlers, and was for many years the home of the 
Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon. 'The Hon. Mr. Upham, 
of Salem, once called on Dr. Bacon and announced 
that he was a son of a daughter of Joshua Chandler. 
His mother had escaped the calamity which fell on 
the rest of her family, and her son came to look at 
the house from which his mother had gone out at 
fifteen years of age never again to visit the home of 
her childhood. 

Two sons of Joshua Chandler were guides to the 
two divisions of the British troops which landed at 
the mouth of New Haven harbor on the 5th of 
July, 1779. William Chandler (Y. C. 1773) was 
with the party which landed at West Haven, and his 
brother "Thomas was with General Tryon's division 
in East Haven. 

The house now occupied by Miss Foster on Elm 
street, was in 1779 the residence of Mr. John Pier- 
pont, a grandson of Rev. James Pierpont, an early 
pastor of the First Church. For some time before 
the invasion, Mr. Pierpont and his wife (who was a 
daughter of Nathan IBeers, Senior) had felt much 
anxiety as to the probability of such an occurrence. 
This anxiety influenced him to make arrangements 
for the transportation of his family to a certain place 
in Haniden or North Haven, and for their accommo- 
dation there if the exigency should arrive. Mrs. 
Pierpont had also formed her plans to the same end. 
When therefore the alarm was given, they were soon 
ready and on their way to the place of refuge. 
Part of their valuables were buried in the cellar, 
and part were carried with them. On the return 
of the family, one of the chambers was found to 
bear marks of having been occupied as a temporary 
hospital. The family had left in such haste, that a 
batch of bread which had been put into the oven to 



58 



HISTORY OF THE CI TV OF NEW HA VEN. 



bake was overlooked, 
family returned. 



It was not there when the 



Captain William Lyon resided in a house which 
stood where the Lyon building now is, in Chapel 
street. While the British held possession of the 
town, as some of them were passing down Chapel 
street on the opposite side from this house, a mus- 
ket shot was fired at them from its windows, which 
wounded one of them. It w^ould appear that, the 
family having vacated the house, some person had 
entered, gone upstairs, and from one of the 
windows had fired on this party of the enemy, and 
then fled by some back way. The soldiers came 
across the street in great rage, and searched the 
rooms to find the person who fired on them. Not 
finding him they committed considerable damage 
in the way of breaking doors and windows, and by 
ransacking desks, drawers, and other repositories, 
and by tearing up and scattering papers. Two of 
the doors, one having a panel replaced where it 
had been dashed out by the soldiers, and the other 
pierced by a musket ball, continued in use as long 
as the house remained. 

There is, in the collection of curiosities in the 

rooms of the Historical Society, a cannon ball, 

which, being fired from the British fleet just before 

it left the harbor, lodged in the chimney of a house 

then standing at the corner of State and Fair streets. 

This house, which has given place to a brick 

block, was built in 1771 by Major William Munson, 

who died in 1826. It was his residence at the 

time of which we are speaking, but the family had 

gone from it when the I3ritish entered the town. In 

the course of the afternoon of Monday, the mother 

of Major Munson's wife, Mrs. John Hall, who 

lived a few rods south of the deserted house, went 

to it to secure some articles of value which had 

been left there. In coming out of the house after 

accomplishing her purpose, she was met by two 

British Officers, one of whom raised his sword in a 

manner which seemed to indicate to the lady an 

intention of cutting her throat; but it was only to 

cut from her neck a string of gold beads which she 

wore. He also cut the silver buckles from her 

shoes. It is a tradition, which seems well founded, 

that after the enemy had finally embarked their 

troops, and their vessels were leaving the harbor, a 

gunboat returned up the harbor and fired several 

times toward the town. The ball in question 

probably came from one of these discharges. The 

daughter of Major Munson, Mrs. Grace Wiieeler, 

from whom Mr. Goodrich received the account, 

remembered to have heard her father say that it 

came from the harbor, tearing its way through the 

old Sabin House in Union street, entering his house 

under a window on the south side, and finally 

lodging in the ciiimney near or in the fire-place. 

She had often seen him when there were visitors at 

the house, brush off the soot from the exposed 

surface of the ball, to show it to them. 

A brick house is still standing on the corner of 
West Water and Columbus streets which was in- 



habited at that time by Rutherford Trowbridge, 
an earnest patriot. When the alarm was given that 
the "Regulars" were coming, he placed his wife 
and children in a boat at the dike just east of his 
house, and sent them up the Quinnipiac River to 
North Haven. The family left in so much hurry that 
a batch of bread put into the oven to bake was left 
there. Having thus provided for their safety, Mr. 
Trowbridge took his musket an old "King's arm,"' 
with powder-horn and bullet-jiouch, all of which 
had done good service in the French War in 
Canada, and went out with the volunteers to West 
Haven. This musket and equipments are now in 
the rooms of the Historical Society. He with 
others went down toward West Haven Green and 
attacked the British. He was accustomed to say 
that "after crossing West Bridge, every man 
seemed to be fighting on his own hook." When 
the enemy came on in force and were compelled to 
march up to Hotchkisstown, he went to the hills 
at their left and aided in annoying them by firing 
from behind trees and walls. He said that the 
British kept together and did not attempt to pursue 
the assailants on the hill sides, but returned the fire 
whenever they could see the patriots, and that bul- 
lets came whizzing abundantly past the heads ol 
those who were behind the trees. After the enemy 
gained possession of the town, Mr. Trowbridge 
was in it, but did not dare to go to his own house 
lest he should fall into their hands. This house 
was in plain sight from another, since known as 
the Totten House, at the corner of West Water and 
Meadow streets. At this latter place, then in- 
habited by Captain Thomas Rice, who was a Tory, 
General Garth and other British officers were en- 
tertained. Captain Rice was a strong personal 
friend of Mr. Trowbridge, though they differed 
diametrically as to public affairs. Some of the 
British officers noticed the house of Mr. Trow- 
bridge and asked, "Who lives there.'" On hearing 
the name of the owner, and that he was what they 
called a rebel, and also that he had a brother who 
was a captain in the " rebel " army, and a near rel- 
ative who was in command of an armed brig 
holding a letter of marque and cruising against 
British commerce, they gave orders to visit the 
house. Captain Rice, desirous of saving his friend's 
property, interceded, saying that the family had 
been gone from town for some time, and that the 
house was shut up. Whereupon the order was 
countermanded and the house escaped visitation. 
On the return of Mr. Trowbridge and family after 
an absence of two days, everything was found un- 
disturbed, even to the bread in the oven. When 
Captain Rice was asked, after the British had gone, 
how he could say that the family had been absent 
"for some time," his reply was that some time 
was a very indefinite period. 

The house of Captain Caleb Trowbridge, which 
was across Meadow street from Captain Rice's, did 
not fare so well. It was furnished with unusual 
elegance for those days, and was replete with con- 
veniences and luxuries. The cellar was stored 
with choice wines and liquors. The owner was 
the relative of Mr. Rutherford Trowbridge already 



DURING THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 



59 



referred to as commanding a war vessel cruising 
against British commerce. On learning this fact, 
the enemy sacked his house, brought his fine 
furniture out to the street and burned it. Long 
afterward when the house was undergoing repairs, 
bullets were found in the ceiling and wainscoting 
which had been fired into the building by the 
British. 

Not far from this house was one in Whiting street, 
occupied by Rev. Bela Hubbard, D. D., the Rector 
of Trinity Church. He was a man of great kind- 
liness of heart, and at this time of trouble many of 
his parishioners came to his house for comfort and 
protection. A party of British soldiers were 
pursuing a poor deaf and dumb girl through the 
street, and she rushed into the house of Dr. Hub- 
bard. He had witne.ssed the whole affair and both 
excited and anxious to keep the pursuers from 
seizing the girl, he called to his wife, "Grace, what 
shall I do .'' '' She said, " put on your gown." He 
did so and appeared in the door of the house 
in his gown with the Prayer Book in his hand. 
The soldiers as they saw him, said, " Oh ! there is 
a clergyman of the Church of England," took off 
their caps, bowed and passed along. 

John Whiting, Esq., Clerk of the Courts, was also 
resident in this neighborhood. He was asked, 
previous to the possession of the town by the ene- 
my, whether he would not make his escape. His 
reply was that he had not borne arms, that he was 
loyal to the King, and, pointing to an engraving of 
King George which hung on the wall of the room, 
he added, " This will protect me." But when the 
soldiers came into the house, they did not respect 
his claim to loyalty. He was holding an office 
under the rebel government, and moreover, was 
a Deacon in the First Church. He was carried off 
a prisoner, and so quickly, it is said, that he had 
not time to put on his wig. 

Among those who had been wounded was Elizur 
Goodrich, the grandfather of the Rev. Chauncey 
Goodrich to whom we are indebted for collecting 
many of the incidents related in this narrative. Mr. 
Goodrich received a bullet in his leg, but continued 
in the fight till the enemy entered the town. He 
tiien went to his room and lay down on his bed, 
overcome with excitement and the extraordinary 
heat of the day. A British soldier entered the room, 
and, either informed of the part he had taken, or 
suspecting it by reason of his appearance, stabbed 
him in the breast. The wound was severe, but not 
mortal; for he sprang up and, wounded as he was, 
seized the soldier, pushed him against the wall and 
handled him so severely that the man begged for 
his life, and was let off on this appeal. Though 
exhausted by the struggle and suffering with pain, 
Mr. Goodrich made his way down Chapel street to 
the house of Abiathar Camp, originally from Dur- 
ham, where Mr. Goodrich's father was settled minister 
of the town. This house stood where the Chapel 
street Church afterward stood, and where Masonic 
Temple now is, and was protected, its owner being 
a Tory. Mr. Camp readily gave all needed assist- 
ance to the wounded son of his former pastor; had 
the wounds cared for; and provided him with food 



and shelter for the night. It was the last night that 
Mr. Camp and his family spent in that house. They 
left New Haven in the morning with the British 
troops. 

Among those who were wounded were two 
brothers of the name of Bassett, James and Timo- 
thy. They lived with their parents in a house still 
standing when Mr. Goodrich read his article to the 
Historical Society, near the station of the New 
Haven and Northampton Railroad at Hamden 
Plains. Each of them had served a term of either 
draft or enlistment in the continental army. Timo- 
thy had been under General Gates, and had taken 
part in the battles near Saratoga which preceded 
the surrender of Burgoyne. James had served in 
New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and had come home 
in broken health. On hearing the alarm, the young 
men took down their muskets and hurried into 
town with others from that quarter. They partici- 
pated in the fight at Ditch Corner, and both were 
wounded; James being hit by a musket ball, which 
broke his arm, and Timothy being shot through 
the body. As the last fell, a British soldier stepped 
forward, and after appropriating whatever on his 
person was of value, was about to inflict a fatal 
blow, when William Chandler interposed, saying 
that he was well acquainted with the young man; 
that they had often hunted foxes together; and 
begged that, as the wound already inflicted seemed 
likely to prove fatal, no further violence should be 
used. James reached home in the evening and 
reported that his brother had been killed. The 
next morning, the father came into town in search 
of Timothy, and found that he had been carried 
into a house and was yet living, though in a condi- 
tion of extreme exhaustion. With much difficulty 
he was conveyed home, and after continuing for 
nearly a year in a feeble state of health, he recov- 
ered in a measure, although he suffered to the end 
of life from the effect of his wound. This statement 
was furnished to Mr. Goodrich by Mr. George B. 
Bassett. 

Our narrative has dwelt thus far on the move- 
ments of that part of the invading expedition which 
landed in West Haven. We have still to give at- 
tention to that detachment which landed on the 
east side of the harbor. 

We have already taken notice that soon after the 
commencement of the war, a beacon was established 
on what has since been known as Beacon Hill. In 
the night of Sunday, July 4th, about midnight, 
the three guns gave the signal of alarm appointed 
to accompany the firing of the beacon. Chandler 
Pardee, then eighteen years of age, was sitting at the 
door of a friend's house not far distant from Black 
Rock Fort, engaged in social chat with other 
young people. It being Sunday evening he was 
wearing the dress-suit of those days, part of which 
consisted in short breeches, and shoes with silver 
buckles. On hearing the alarm guns the young 
men sprang for their muskets, and hastened to the 
appointed rendezvous. Pardee with his mind 
more intent on present duty than on his silver 



60 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



buckles, did not wait to change his dress shoes for 
others more suitable for the work before him, an 
omission which came near costing him his life. 
The little company of militia proceeded to the point 
where the old light-house still stands, taking with 
them, in addition to their muskets, a small cannon 
or swivel drawn by an old white mare. There 
they waited for the landing of the enemy, which 
was delayed till late in the forenoon; the boats 
being busy in the service of the other detachment. 
" Before noon, (says General Tryon) I disembarked 
with the 23d, the Hessian, Landgrave, and King's 
American Regiments, and two pieces of cannon, on 
the eastern side of the harbor, and instantly began 
the march of three miles to the ferry from New 
Haven east toward Branford. We took a field- 
piece, which annoyed us on our landing, and pos- 
sessed ourself of the Rock Battery of three guns, 
commanding the channel of the harbor, abandoned 
by the rebels on our approach. The armed vessels 
then entered and drew near the town.'' 

The landing was effected in two divisions, one 
of which directed its course so as to reach the 
shore on the south or Sound side of Light-house 
Point, the other on the harbor side. Each boat 
had a gun mounted on the bow, and as it neared 
the shore, opened fire on the little company that 
obstructed the landing. Our men replied with 
their swivel; but being only a handful against so 
many, they saw that it would be useless to resist 
the landing of the enemy ; and a retreat was 
ordered. But one of them, more plucky or more 
rash than the others, declared that he would not go 
till he had had one shot at them with his musket, 
and took position behind a tree, waiting till they 
should came within range. -As they drew near 
the shore, an officer stood erect in the foremost 
boat, flourishing his sword, and shouting "disperse, 
ye rebels." Here was an opportune mark for the 
man behind the tree, of which he took advantage. 
He fired, apparently with deadly effect, as the 
officer fell into the bottom of the boat, and it is 
certain that one of the enemy was buried hastily a 
little north of the spot where the light-house stands. 
It was probably Ensign and Adjutant Walkins, of 
the King's American Regiment whose commanding 
oflicer was Colonel Edmund Fanning, a son-in-law 
of General Tryon and a graduate of Yale College in 
the class of 1757. 

The route our men took in their retreat was 
along the Cove, where they halted, probably with 
the idea of making a stand behind some slight 
breast-works which had been thrown up there. 
But seeing that the enemy were moving so as to 
surround them, they again retired. 

The first man killed by the British on this side of 
the harbor was Adam Thorpe, of Cheshire. He had 
been drinking freely of cider-brandy, and had fired 
several times on the enemy. When he came to a place 
in the road opposite the north gate of Raynham, 
the seat of the family of Townsend, he refused to 
go any further, declaring that he would not run an- 
other step for all Great Britain. He was as good 
as his word, and consequently was soon pierced by 
many bayonets. A stone was afterward placed oil 



the spot where he was killed, bearing the inscrip- 
tion, " Here fell Adam Thorpe, July 5, 1779." 

Somewhere along the course of the retreat oc- 
curred the affair which nearly proved fatal to Chand- 
ler Pardee. In passing through a piece of marshy 
ground he missed his footing, and stepping into the 
soft earth, one of his feet sunk in quite deep, so 
that in pulling it out, he lost his shoe off with its 
silver buckle attached. Hoping to recover it, he 
tarried behind. While in a stooping position, feel- 
ing in the mud with his hand for the shoe, a mus- 
ket ball from the pursuing enemy struck him 
in the lower part of the back, and traversed 
his body to the breast, where it lodged near 
the surface. He was able to get to a com- 
fortable place to lie down before the enemy 
came up with him. They were in three squads, 
each of which stopped to hold some conversation 
with him. Those in the first and second of these 
squads spoke kindly and offered assistance, which 
he declined. Those in the third were quite abusive 
and threatened to finish him with their bayonets; 
but the oflicer in command restrained them from 
violence and offered to take him with them. This 
offer he declined, preferring to take the chance of 
being found by his friends. After examining his 
wounds and pronouncing him surel)' beyond hope 
of recovery, the squad went on, leaving him to his 
fate. Some hours passed before he succeeded, by his 
repeated signals, in attracting friends to his assist- 
ance. At last, being heard and discovered, he was 
carried into a house near by, where surgical aid 
being procured, the ball was easily extracted. His 
recovery from so dangerous a wound amazed every 
one; but none more than the surgeon who attended 
him. He lived to be the father of several children, 
and to have many grandchildren. Among the lat- 
ter were Alfred W. Morris, and the three brothers, 
Chandler, Luinan, and Ruel Pardee Cowles. A 
subsequent incident in his history is of interest in 
connection with the story of his wound. About a 
year passed before he was sufficiently recovered to 
engage in active employment. Afterward, he en- 
gaged in the service of his country, and at the age 
of twenty was a prisoner of war in New York City. 
On one occasion he heard some British soldiers on 
guard over him, in conversation about their ex- 
ploits at the invasion of New Haven, relating how 
many rebels they had killed and where they had 
killed them. He interrupted them by calling in 
question the accuracy of their statements, and re- 
marked that he thought they did not kill all whom 
they thought they hati killed. But the soldiers were 
quite confident, and mentioned the case of the man 
shot in the fresh meadow in East Haven. Said 
Pardee, " I can convince you that you did not kill 
that man.'' Their reply was that they were sure 
that they killed him. One of them claimed to have 
fired the fatal shot, to have .seen the man on the 
ground in the agonies of death, and to have exam- 
ined the wound where the bullet passed through 
the bt>dy. Chandler then by way of convincing 
them, related the conversation between himself and 
them as they passed by him. Then, removing 
ills clothing, he showed where the ball entered and 



DURING THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 



61 



where it was cut out by the surgeon. "Yes, "said 
he, " I am the man 3'ou shot in the fresh meadow." 
"Well," said some one, "have not you got enough 
of fighting us yet .?" "No, "he answered, "I hope 
to kill a thousand of you before I die." "You are 
a good fellow," was the reply, "come and take a 
glass of toddy. ' 

Within the Black Rock Fort was a garrison of 
about nineteen men, including the neighbors who 
came in to assist. They were, it is believed, un- 
der the command of Captain Moulthrop. Mr. 
Joseph Tuttle, who lived quite near the fort, and 
his eldest son, a lad of seventeen years, were among 
the volunteers who had come into the fort in the 
morning. Mrs. Tuttle, taking si.x younger chil- 
dren and a few valuables, retired in an ox-cart to 
the north part of the town, looking back upon her 
home as the flames rose to heaven. The little 
garrison held the fort till their ammunition was ex- 
hausted, when they left it after spiking and dis- 
mounting the guns, hoping to escape along the 
beach. But they were taken prisoners by the skir- 
mishers and carried oft" to New York. 

A chief object of the invaders was to gain pos- 
session of Beacon Hill; and toward Beacon Hill 
was the retreat of the patriots. To the northeast 
of the Tuttle House, on the site of the present resi- 
dence of Hon. A. L. Fabrique, was a clump of 
bushes, and toward the road a brush hedge. Some 
of the patriots masked themselves behind this 
hedge, and poured a destructive fire upon the ene- 
my as they were pursuing at the double quick the 
rebels whom they saw retreating toward the hill. 

While widening Townsend avenue, June, 1870, 
the tradition of the slaughter of the enemy near 
the Tuttle House was well sustained, says Mr. 
Charles Hervey Townshend, by the discovery of 
human bones found while moving stumps of trees 
planted by Mr. Townshend's father forty years be- 
fore. 

These bones were proved not to be Indian by Dr. T. 
Beers Townsend, who was on the spot when the graves were 
opened, and made a most careful examination. These dead 
were all probably buried in the ryelands on the west 
side of the road and just north of the Tultle mansion; and 
the spot being burnt over, the locality of the graves was 
not discovered; and as many wounded soldiers were seen to 
l)e taken to the boats and carried to the ships, it was sup- 
posed that the dead were also removed in order to hide 
their great loss. While the doctor was making a careful 
examination of the bones, the writer with a spade thoroughly 
searched the graves, and, besides bones, found a number of 
German silver buttons, and some of lead and composition 
(white metal) about the size of a dime. A copper coin was 
also found, which has excited much interest. It was the 
size of an English half-penny, and known as a stiver. It 
had a hole in the circumference, and was probably held by 
means of a string attached to the neck of the wearer. On 
the face side is the motto: " Dominus Auxit Nonien;" in its 
center the figure of a man with a mantle about his loins, in 
a sitting position, left hand on his hip and in his right hand 
a sword drawn over the head as if to strike; to the right a 
laurel branch. The figure is represented sitting inside a 
circular fence with gate in front. The other side is a laurel 
wreath with the word in center, "Hollandia." 

The invaders having possessed themselves of 
the Rock Fort and Beacon Hill, spread themselves 
out upon the adjacent heights, where they lay 
upon their arms during the night. We have little 



account of their movements during the rest of 
Monday and the morning of Tuesday, except that 
small parties roamed through the neighborhood, 
taking whatever they could carry away, and destroy- 
ing whatever they could not carry. General 
Tryon crossed the ferry to New Haven to confer 
with General Garth, and returned the same evening 
to his quarters. 

Very early on Tuesday morning, the British be- 
gan to evacuate New Haven in accordance with the 
plan determined on by the two Generals in their 
conference on Monday afternoon. The 54th 
Regiment marched to Long Wharf, and was sent 
from the wharf to their transports. The remainder 
of General Garth's division crossed the ferry and 
joined General Tryon's division. The militia of 
the surrounding towns had collected in such num- 
bers that the British Generals probably had some 
apprehension that their two divisions might be 
separated, and one or both cut off from their 
vessels in the harbor. Tryon reports that at half- 
past one on INIonday the plan had been that Garth 
should commence burning the town as soon as he 
had secured Neck Bridge, but that " the collection 
of the enemy in force on advantageous ground, 
and with heavier cannon than his own, diverted the 
General from that passage." The great amount of 
drunkenness among his troops seems to have 
troubled General Garth. It was this trouble, prob- 
ably, which caused the embarkation of the 54th 
so early in the morning, and the transfer of the re- 
mainder across the ferry, where they would find less 
rum while waiting for the boats. 

The families of Tories were notified of the intended 
evacuation, and four families went with the troops 
who embarked at Long Wharf A rear guard of 
one hundred and fifty men set fire to the store- 
houses on the wharf between six and seven o'clock, 
and were then conveyed to the ships. 

In the course of Tuesday forenoon, Major- 
General Ward, of the State militia, crossed Neck 
Bridge with four regiments, which by this time had 
gradually assembled, and pressed on the enemy, 
compelling them to evacuate Beacon Hill, which 
our people immediately occupied, planting a field- 
piece there, from which a lively fire was kept up on 
the British vessels. Tryon, in retiring, burnt the 
barracks at Black Rock, and embarked his troops 
toward evening. The houses near Light-house 
Point were, with one exception, burned before the 
embarkation. As the fleet did not sail till Wednes- 
day, a boat was sent to burn the one house which 
had thus far escaped. It belonged to Mr. Jacob 
Pardee, the father of Chandler, whose adventures 
have been related. 

Mr. Townshend gives a list of the nimes of East 
Haven residents who went f»rth to meet the in- 
vaders, adding "There were many others which I 
have no means now of knowing. " 

Rev. Nicholas Street, Captain Amos Morris, 
Captain John Moulthrop, Captain Josiah Bradley, 
Captain Jedediah Andrews, Elam Luddington, 
John Morris, Dan Bradley, Moses Thompson, 
Jesse Luddington, Isaac Hotchkiss, Elihu Bradley, 
Dan Tuttle, John Dennison, Edward Russell, Jr., 



62 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



Isaac Chidsey, ist, Joshua Austin, Israel Bishop, 
Abram Bradley, Phineas Curtis, Jacob Goodsell, 
Nathan Luddington, Ambrose Smith, Joseph Rus- 
sell, Stephen Sheppard, Timothy Bradley, David 
Grannis, Joseph Tuttle, Matthew Rowe, John 
Woodward, Jr., John Hughes, Elisha Andrews, 
Patterson Smith, Stephen Smith, Samuel Holt, 
John Fillet, Samuel Townsend, Stephen Pardee, 
Samuel Smith, Jr., Thomas Grannis, .Samuel 
Crumb, Samuel Holt, Abram Chidsey, James 
Adkin Broton, Isaac Forbes, Moses Hemingway, 
James Thompson, Asa Mallory, Caleb Smith, 
Samuel Hemingway, Samuel Sheppard, Eben 
Roberts, Daniel Wheden, Samuel Thompson, 
Simeon Bradley, John Hemingway, Eyria Field, 
Stephen Tuttle,' John Barnes, Levi Chidsey, Israel 
Potter, Joseph Alallory, Jared Bradley, John Good- 
sell, Stephen Woodward, John Woodward, Sr., 
Isaac Pardee, Jehiel Forbes, Levi Pardee, Isaac 
Chidsey, 2d, Gurdon Bradley, Dan Holt, Abijah 
Bradley, George Londcraft, Asa Bradley, David 
Eggleston, Ezra Rowe, Amos Morris, Jr., Henry 
Freeman Hughes, Elias Townsend. 

From the "East Haven Register" by Rev. 
Stephen Dodd, it appears that the enemy burned 
on the east side of the harbor, eleven dwelling- 
houses, nine barns, and several other buildings. 
The value of the buildings thus destroyed, as esti- 
mated by aCommitteeofthe Legislature was /'4, 154 
9s. 5d. The largest individual loss was that of Mr. 
Amos Morris, being /i, 235 15s. 4d. 

Mr. Morris and his son Amos, Jr., residing at 
the Point, were peculiarly exposed to annoyance 
from the British and the Tories. They had built a 
fine new house a few years before the war, and this 
was among the houses destroyed. On that mem- 
orable Monday morning, he with his large family 
had been busy in the early hours removing articles 
of furniture and the like, to hiding-places where 
they hoped they might be secure. AH the stock 
except swine were driven away; small things as 
tools, pieces of crockery-ware, were concealed in 
the woods; and a stocking-leg filled with silver 
coin was thrust into a hole in a stone wall. Much 
of this property, however, was found and carried 
oft", probably in part at least by Tories. The 
crockery was broken in pieces. The stocking-leg 
full of silver remained undiscovered, notwithstand- 
ing the fact that the red-coats passed directly over 
the wall where it was hid, and that one end of the 
stocking was exposed to view. The women and 
children were sent away in full time to escape per- 
sonal danger, while Mr. Morris and his hired man 
remained at the work of securing the property to 
the last moment. When it seemed to him quite 
unsafe to stay longer, he said "Now I will put a 
tankard of cider on the table and perhaps they will 
spare my house.'' He went to the cellar for the 
cider, and as he came back he caught sight of the 
enemy, and exclaiming, " Here they are upon us," 
made a hasty retreat, followed by the man. Moving 
so as to keep the house between themselves and 
the approaching enemy, they reached a stone wall. 
In climbing over this they were seen and a shower 
of bullets llcw t)ver them as they skulked along the 



wall with their heads down. Presently they came 
to the usual gateway in such walls, an open 
space with rails for closing it. As they passed this 
opening and were seen, another volley of musketry 
greeted them, but they escaped unhurt and were 
scfon out of danger. The rails did not escape so 
well, being riddled by the balls. One of these 
rails, notwithstanding its perforated condition, con- 
tinued in use as late as the year 1845, when a 
relic-hunter saw and coveted it. The perforated 
part was sawed out and found its way to the rooms 
of the Historical Society at Hartford. 

The amount of property destroyed by the British 
in New Haven was estimated by a Committee of 
the Legislature at £2\,%^i 7s. 6d. This includes 
of course the amount mentioned above as destroyed 
on the east side of the harbor. 

There were, according to the Connec/icii/ Juurnai 
of the following Wednesday, twenty-seven persons 
killed and nineteen wounded on the American 
side. The loss on the British side, as reported by 
General Tryon to General Sir Henry Clinton, 
amounted to fifty-two. Of these he reports three 
killed, thirty-two wounded and seventeen missing. 

There is no reason to doubt that it was at first 
designed to burn the town. General Garth probably 
changed his mind in consequence of the great 
amount of drunkenness among his troops, and the 
strength of the military force which soon assembled. 
By Monday night so many militiamen had come 
in, that the British General preferred a quiet with- 
drawal to the fight which would certainly have fol- 
lowed a confiagration. "The enemy unexpectedly, 
and with the utmost stillness and dispatch, called in 
their guards and retreated to their boats," says the 
Connedicut fmiinal, and the report of General 
Tryon says: "As there was not a shot fired to mo- 
lest the retreat. General Garth changed his design 
and destroyed only the public stores, etc." In 
concluding the narrative of the invasion, we present 
the greater part of the letter of General Tryon from 
which this extract is taken. It was copied into the 
Connectmit Juurnai from the London Gaze/le of 
October 6, 1779. 

New YiiRK, July 20, 1779. 

Having on the 3d instant joined the troops assemliled on 
board the transports at Whitestone, Sir Geori;c Collier i;ot 
tlie fleet luider \\ay the same evening; but the winds being 
light, we did not reach the harbor of New Haven until the 
jtii, in the morning. The first division, consisting of the 
tiank com]xinies of the Guards, the Fusiliers, the 54th 
regiment, and a detachment of the Yagers, with four field • 
l>ieces, inider the command of Brig. General Garth, landed 
about 5 o'clock, a mile south of West Haven and liegan their 
march, making a circuit of upwards of seven miles, to head 
a creek on the west side of the town. 

The second tlivision could not mo\'e till the return of the 
boats; l)Ut Ix'fore noon I disembarked with the 23d, the 
Hessian, Landgrave, and King's American regiments, and 
two pieced of cannon, on the eastern siile of the harbor, and 
instantly began the march of three miles to the ferry, from 
New Haven East to Branford. We took a field piece which 
ainioyed us on our landing, and possessc<l ourselves of the 
Rock Battery of three guns, commanding the channel of the 
harbor, abandoned by the rebels on our approach. The 
armed vessels then entered and drew near the town. 

General Garth got into the town, but not without oppo- 
sition, loss, and fatigue, and reported to me at half-past one 
that he should begin tlie conflagration, which he thought it 
merited, as soon as he had secured the bridge lietween us 



New naven c/L/r/nq the IVar oftne nei/o/uf'ton. 



tVesf- Rock 




//ere Professor Dofatit' G) ^ 

/nirSn ftf'Soner. ^ 

/^ere itdj CamfiteJ/ ki//e9 



//ere CoLf>f//,//hoi^sesfi'^r/^ '. 



J O fy f Sfon 

We/sh fus/Zeers 

jt/tic/ ^/- pt ecGS Cccnnon 



. - ( J 

% ^' ^ ^""^^^ """" """' "'^"' f y1---r,c/.nfJu/y S^X A.M. 

U^^CN '^^^L_^^G-er7Tryon Si 200o me.n. 

^i} ^^ JT Dii'/'sion 



Sion 
23 /fegrf'rneni' 
Hessian Do. 
Loinc/qrcLi^e. Do. 
/fawners Oc. 
\;jj_^ Tories Do 

Br/T/sh /ni/as/on of Netv Haven Ji///S-. /779- /"eces ca 

ffra.wn oy Presic/eni Sfi/es. ' ' 



DURING THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 



63 



over Neck Creek. The collection of the enemy in force on 
advantageous ground, and with heavier cannon than his 
own, diverted the General from that passage, and the boats 
that were to take ofi" the troops being not up, I went over to 
him, and the result of our conference \\'as a resolution that 
\\ ith the first division he should cover the nortli jiart of the 
town that night, while with the second I should keep the 
heights above the Rock Fort. In the morning the first 
division embarked at the southeast part of the town, and, 
crossing the ferry, joined us on the East Haven side, except- 
ing the 54th, which were sent on board their transports. In 
the progress of the preceding day from West Haven, they 
were under a continual fire: but by the judicious conduct of 
the General, and the alertness of the troops, the rebels were 
everywhere repulsed. The next morning, as there was not a 
shot fired to molest the retreat. General Garth changed his 
design and destroyetl only the public stores, some vessels 
and ordnance, excepting six field-pieces and an armed 
privateer, which were brought oft". 

The troops re-eml)arked at Rock Fort in the afternoon 
with little molestation; and the fleet leaving the harbor that 
evening, anchored the morning of the 8th off the village of 
Fairfield. • • • The general effect of the printed address 
from Sir George Collier and my.self to the inhabitants, 
recommended by your Excellency, cannot be discovered till 
there are s(jme ftu'ther operations and descents upon their 
coasts. Many copies of it were left behind at New Haven 
and at Fairfield. 

I have the honor herewith to transmit to yom Excellency 
a general return of the killed, wounded and missing on this 
expedition. 

At the first town-meeting after the invasion, it 
was voted that the commissioned officers in the 
parishes call upon those persons who neglected to 
appear and oppose the enemy, and defend the 
town in the late invasion, and know their reasons 
for their neglect, and the same report to the town. 

At the same meeting a committee was appointed 
to examine into the reasons of the conduct of those 
persons who continued in town at the time when 
said town was in the possession of the enemy, and 
report at the ne.xt meeting. On the i6th of August 
that committee reported 

That Messrs. Ebenezer Lines, .Stephen Munson, Martin 
Gatter, Ebenezer Chittenden, Abraham Bradley ,John Chand- 
ler, Theopliilus Munson, James Rice, Eli Beecher, Richard 
Eld, Abel Buel, Joseph Bradley, Benjamin .Sanford, Stephen 
Bradley Thomas Davis, Truman Huse, Joseph Munson, 
James Lane, Samuel Nesbit, Elizur Brown, James Sherman, 
James Gilbert, Elias .Shipman, Newman Trowbridge, Zepha- 
niah Hatch, Thomas W'ihnot, Edward Burk, Jehiel Forbes, 
Eli Forbes, William Day, Enos Hotchkiss, Jesse Upson, 
Thaddeus I'errit, John Miles, Jr., Nchemiah Hotchkiss, Noah 
Tucker and Patrick O'Collely have waited on the said com- 
mittee and given their reasons for tarrying in town during 
the time aforesaid ; which reasons appear to the committee suf- 
ficient to justify their conduct in tarrying in town at said time. 

The committee further report that .Messrs. Stephen Ball, 
Thaddeus Beecher, John Townsend, Richard Cutler, Leveret 
Hubbard, Jr. , Ebenezer Huggins, Joel Buck, Josiah Robert-s, 
Gad Wells, Charles Prindle, Edmund French, Isaac Beers, 
Elias Beers, Thomas Rice, Samuel Chatterton, Nathan How- 
ell, Stephen Trowbridge, William Lyon, Jeremiah Atwater, 
George Cook, Asa Austin, Miles Gorliam, Leveret Hubbard, 
John Whiting, Thomas Howell, Prout Bonticou, William 
Mansfield, Joseph Adam, Jeremiah Townsend, Jr., Benoni 
Pardee, James Thompson and Henry Gibbs have waited on 
the committee and give their reasons for tarrying in town 
at the time aforesaid, which reasons do not appear 
sufficient to justify their conduct in tarrying in town at 
said time; but the committee taking into their serious 
consideration the particular situation said persons were 
in at that time; that the alarm was sudden and the time too 
short for them to move their families and effects; and that 
many of them were kept from their own concerns by lend- 
ing their useful aid and assistance to repel the common 
enemy ; and the most of them being persons who have ever 



been accounted good members of the community ; the com- 
mittee think it their reasonal^le duty to recommend them to 
the good will and candor of the inhabitants of the town; 
hoping they will pass over in silence \\'hatever was wrong in 
their conduct at that time, as it fully appears to the com- 
mittee an error in judging what \\as best for them to do in 
the hurry and confusion they « ere in, rather than from any 
liesign or predetermination to tarry in town, and submit and 
put themselves under the protection of the enemies of the 
United States of America. The committee make the fore- 
going report in favor of said persons, on condition that they 
associate themselves with the rest of the good people of this 
town to repel our merciless enemy, if they should ever in- 
vade us again. 

The committee fiu'ther report that they have notified 
Messrs. Enos Ailing, Bela Hubbard, Richard Woodhull, 
John Ailing, Da\'id Cook, Edward Carrington, Benjamin 
Pardee and Daniel Upson of their appointment, and the 
time when and the place \\here the committee would wait 
upon them, but they have either refused or neglected to 
appear and give their reasons; which refusal or neglect of 
said persons, the committee judge to be in contempt of 
the authority of this town. 

The committee find that Messrs. Elijah Forbes, William 
Ward, Oliver Burr, Abraham Bradley, Jr., Samuel (Soodin, 
Zinah Denison, Amos Doolittle, William Brintnall, John 
Mix, Thomas IJurrit, Adonijah Sherman, William Doaks, 
Benjamin Osborn, Jonah Baldwin, Samuel Tuttle and John 
Baldwin, were in town when the enemy took possession; but 
they were either taken off by the enemy or have since 
moved out, or have otherwise been out of the way, and 
have never been notified of the appointment of the com- 
mittee for the purpose aforesaid. 

The committee would likewise acquaint the town that they 
have made u]) the foregoing report upon the reasons which 
these persons gave themselves, without calling on any evi- 
dence to contradict them; which method of taking their 
reasons apjiears to the committee very partial. Moreover 
the committee are very confident that there are evidences, 
which if calle<l would contradict the account that hath been 
given by some of said persons. 

All which the committee humbly submit. 

By order of said committee, 

Phineas Bradley, Chairman. 

The report of the committee is to a modern 
reader in more than one respects inexplicable. For 
illustration, Amos Doolittle, who upon the first 
tidings of hostilities in 1775, had marched to Cam- 
bridge with the Governor's Guards, and had on the 
very day of the invasion been in the ranks of the 
Guards repelling the enemy, is arraigned as rec- 
reant to duty and left under reproach. On the 
other hand some are cleared on their own testimony, 
when the committee knew of conflicting evidence. 

New Haven was not again visited by the enemy. 
In 1 78 1 New London was invaded by the traitor 
Arnold, and suffered atrocities compared with which 
the conduct of Tryon and Garth was honor and 
chivalry. 1 

The recurrence of the name of Arnold is a temp- 
tation to copy from the Cunnecticut Jturnal a recital 
of the ceremonies with which the people of New 
Haven expressed their wrath when they heard of 
his treason. 

OcTOHER 19, 17S0. 

A concise description of the figures exhibited and ])araded 
through the sti'eets of this city on Saturday last. 

A stage raised on the body of a cart, on which was an 
effigy of General Arnold sitting. This was dressed in regi- 
mentals, having two faces, emblematical of his traitorous 
conduct, a mask in his left hand, and a letter in his right hand 
from Beelzebub, telling him that he had done all the mischief 
he could do, and he must hang himself. 

At the back of the General was a figure of the Devil 
dressed in black robes, shaking a jnu'se of money at the 
General's left ear, and in his right hand a pitchfork, ready 



64 



HISTORY OF THE CTTY OF NEW HA YEN. 



to drive him into hell as the reward due for the many crimes 
which his thirst fur gold had made him commit. 

In the front of the stage, and before General Arnold, was 
placed a large laiithorn of transparent paper « ith the consc- 
(|uences of his crime thus delineated, i.e., one part, General 
Arnold on his knees liefore the Devil, who is pulling him 
into the flames; a lalicl from the General's mouth with these 
words, "My dear sir, I have served you faithfully," to 
which the Devil replies, "And I'll reward you." On an- 
other side, two figures lianging, inscribed "The Traitor's 
Reward," and written underneath, "The .Adjutant-General 
of the British army and Joshua Smith, the first hanging as 
a s])y, and the other as a traitor to his country." On the 
front of the laiithorn was written the following: " Major- 
General Benedict Arnold, late Commander of the Fort 
West Point. The crime of this man is high treason. He 
has deserted the important jiost, West Point on Hudson's 
River, committed to his charge by his Excellency, the Com- 
mander-in-Chief, and is gone off to the enemy at New York. 

" His design to have given up this fortress to our enemies 
has been discovered by the goodness of the omniscient Cre- 
ator, who has not only prevented him carrying it into execu- 
tion, but has thrown into our hands Andre, the Adjutant- 
General of their army, who was detected in the infamous 
character of a spy. 

" The treachery of this ungrateful General is held up to 
public view for the exposition of infamy, and to proclaim 
with joyful acclamation another instance of the interposition 
of bounteous Providence. 

"The effigy of this ingrate is therefore hanged (for want 
of his Ixidy) as a traitor to his native country and a betrayer 
of the laws of honor." 

The procession began about four o'clock in the following 
order: 

Several gentlemen mounted on horseback. 

A line of Continental officers; sundry gentlemen in a line. 

A guard of the City Infantry. Just before the cart drums 
and fifes playing the Rogues' March. Guards on each side. 

The jirocessioii w-as attended with a numerous concourse 
of people, who, after expressing their abhorrence of treason 
and the traitor, committed him to the flames, and left both 
the effigy and the original to sink into ashes and oblivion. 

The alarm which the visit of Arnold to the sea- 
coast of Connecticut occasioned, is the only event 
in the history of New Haven to which we need call 
attention before the announcement of peace. On 
the very day when New London was in flames, 
and the garrison at Fort Griswold was put to the 
sword after their surrender, the New Haven paper 
contained tliis notice. 

New Haven, September 6, 1781. 
On Friday morning last, between one and two o'clock, 
three of the enemy's vessels, a brig of sixteen guns and two 
armed sloops, came oflf to West Haven and landed one 
hundred and fifty men, who, having secured the sentinels 
and guards, eleven in all, surrounded several houses, where 
they fixed guard in such a manner that not the least alarm 
was given, nor was the invasion generally known in the 
|)arish (though comjiact) till near sunrise; all which time the 
enemy were collecting cattle, horses and other jilunder. 
Several families knew nothing of the atfair, nor missed their 
cows till they went to milk them. The alarm was not given 
in town till too late to affor<l any assistance, the enemy hav- 
ing effi.:cted their designs and got on board the vessels. 
They took off four of the inhabitants and about thirty head 
of cattle and horses. 

The capture of Cornwallis, at Yorktown, in Oc- 
tober of the same year, determined the great contest 
in favor of the Americans. The armies of the two 



nations remained in the field for another year; but 
there was but little fighting, and a well-founded 
expectation of peace prevailed. The Coiitiectkul 
Journal thus notices the rejoicing over the surren- 
der of Cornwallis: 

New Haven, November S, 1781. 
There have been public rejoicings in this and the neigh- 
boring towns on account of the signal and important victory 
obtained by His Excellency, General Washington, over Gen- 
eral Earl Cornwallis. In this town, on Monday last, a 
numerous assembly convened at the Brick Mceting-House, 
i where the audience were highly entertained with an animat- 
ing, ]iathetic. and ingenious oration, ileli\ered by one of the 
tutors of the college, and a trium])haiit hymn sung liy the 
students. The clergy and a number of other gentlemen 
dined in the .State House. In the evening, the State House, 
College, and all the other houses round the Market jilace, 
were beautifully illuminated; the whole was conducted with 
the greatest regularity, good nature, festivity and joy. 

On the 30th of November, 1782, provisional 
articles between the United States and His Britan- 
nic Majesty were signed at Paris, in which the 
United States were declared to be free, sovereign, 
and independent. On the 19th of April next fol- 
lowing, at noon. General Washington proclaimed 
to the American army the cessation of hostilities. 
As soon as trustworthy tidings of that announce- 
ment reached New Haven, arrangements were made 
for a celebration. The following notice of the cel- 
ebration appeared in the Cumieclicul Journal. 

New Haxen, May i, 1783. 

Thursday last was observed as a day of festivity and re- 
joicing in this town, on receipt of indul-iitable testimony of 
the most important, grand, and ever memorable event, the 
total cessation of hostilities between Great Britain and these 
United States, and the full acknowledgment of their sover- 
eignty and independence. Accordingly, the day, with the 
rising sun, was ushered in by the discharge of thirteen 
cannon, paraded on the green for that ])urpose, under ele- 
gant silk colors, with the coat of arms of the United States 
most ingeniously represented theretm, which \\ as generously 
contributed upon the occasion by the la<lies of the town. At 
nine o'clock in the forenoon, the inhabitants met in the Brick 
Meetiiig-House for divine service, where were convened a 
\ery crowded assembly. The service was opened with an 
anthem, then a very pertinent ]>rayer, together with thanks- 
giving, was made by Rev. Dr. Stiles, President of Yale 
College; after was sung some lines jniriiosely composed for 
the occasion, by the singers of all the congregations in con- 
sort. Then followed a very ingenious oration, sjioken by Mr. 
Elizur (ioodrich, one ol the tutors of the college, after which 
a \ery liberal collection was made for the jioor of the town, 
to elevate their hearts for rejoicing. The service conclmled 
with an anthem. 

A numlx-r of respectable gentlemen of the town dined 
together at the coffee-house. After dinner, several patriotic 
toasts were drank. 

At three o'clock were discharged thirteen cannon; at 
four, twenty-one ditto; at five, seven ditto; at six, thirteen 
ditto; at seven were displayed the fireworks, with rockets, 
serpents, etc.; at nine o'clock a bonfire on the green con- 
cluded the diversions of the day. The whole affair was con- 
ducted with a decorum and decency uncommon for such 
occasions, without any unfortunate accident. A most pa- 
cific disposition and heartfelt joy was universally conspicuous, 
and most emphatically expressed by the features of every 
countenance. 



DUJiING THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 



65 



CHAPTER IV. 

NEW HAVEN DURING THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 



ON the 7th of November, i860, it was known 
that Abraham Lincoln had been elected Pres- 
ident of the United States. This election was a 
triumph of the polic}' of the party which aimed to 
restrict slavery to the territory in which it already 
existed. It extinguished in the breasts of those 
who loved the institution of slavery, all hope of ex- 
tending it into the virgin soil of the public domain 
by constitutional measures. Their only remaining 
hope now lying in illegal and revolutionary expe- 
pedients, they determined to make war upon the 
National Government, to prevent, if possible, the 
inauguration of the President-elect, and to use the 
months that intervened before his accession to au- 
thority, in possessing themselves of the national 
purse and the national sword. By the aid of trai- 
tors in high places, they seized upon forts and arse- 
nals within the States which afterward seceded, 
having first filled them with arms and ammunition; 
they scattered the army by sending the soldiers 
who had garrisoned the fortresses of the South to 
the foris on the remotest frontier of the West; they 
dispatched the vessels of the navy to the remotest 
seas; they emptied the treasury of the public money. 
By the aid of patriots as watchful to preserve the 
national life as the traitors were to destroy it, Lin- 
coln escaped the plot for assassinating him on the 
way to the seat of Government, and was inaugu- 
rated on the 4th of March, 1861. On Friday, the 
1 2th of April, the War of the Rebellion began by 
the bombardment of Fort Sumter, in the harbor 
of Charleston. Major Robert Anderson, a faithful 
and loyal officer of the L^nited States Army, having 
refused to surrender the fortress to the rebels, they 
commenced to fire upon it at half-past four o'clock 
on the morning of that memorable day. On Sun- 
day the fort was evacuated, and on Monday, Presi- 
dent Lincoln, recognizing the fact that hostilities 
had begun, issued a call, for three months' service 
of 75,000 volunteers, and summoned an extra ses- 
sion of Congress to meet on the 4th of July. 
Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were days of in- 
tense excitement in New Haven. The strife of 
parties had been running high for months. Many 
citizens of New Haven had blamed the Republican 
party for exasperating the South by the election of 
Lincoln, and their sympathies had been with the 
secessionists more than with the men who had just 
come into power at Washington. But the bom- 
bardment of Sumter excited the indignation of this 
class of men, so that, with few exceptions, they 
immediately espoused the side of the Union against 
those who had fired upon the flag of the nation. 
Whatever fears had been previously entertained; 
whatever doubts disturbed the minds of thoughtful 
men in regard to the fidelity of Northern Demo- 
crats to the Union — it was immediately apparent 
that they were going to bury the issues of the past 
9 



and join with those who had elected Lincoln, in 
maintaining the Constitution and the Union. On 
Tuesday, the i6th, came the proclamation of the 
Governor of the State, calling for one regiment of 
volunteers for immediate service, and immediately 
enlistments began. On Wednesday, the 17th, about 
1,200 of the Massachusetts quota of troops passed 
through New Haven, and were received at the de- 
pot, between Chapel and Wooster streets, by a 
great crowd, and saluted with cheers and music. 
On Thursday, the iSth, a second regiment was 
called for, and New Haven designated as its 
rendezvous. On Friday, a Home Guard of sev- 
eral hundred men — many of them too old to go to 
the war — was organized to preserv'e the peace of 
the city and prevent insurrection. Sunday was a 
day of as much excitemeni as the preceding Sab- 
bath had been, but much less quiet. Another de- 
tachment of Massachusetts troops passed through 
the city in the course of the day. On Monday a 
large temporary building on Olive street, fronting 
Court street, built for the Presidential campaign, 
and named "National Hall," was hired for one 
year for the use of the Home Guard and other 
military uses, and here the Guard were drilled on 
successive evenings. Here also squads of men, 
who hid enlisted in country towns, were quartered 
for several days, till regimental quarters were pro- 
vided. Other squads found shelter at the State 
House. As soon as tents could be obtained the 
regiment was full, and went into camp on ^londay, 
April 2 2d, near the hospital, in a field which is 
now covered with dwellings and gardens. So 
great was the zeal for enlistment, that within two 
days after the First Regiment was mustered in, 
several companies of the Second had arrived in 
New Haven, and all of its ten companies were 
making daily progress in filling their ranks. The 
companies, as they successively arrived, were pro- 
vided with temporary shelter. 

On IMonday evening, the 22d of April, a crowded 
and spirited meeting was held in Music Hall to 
give voice to the popular feeling. The Nav Haven 
Daily Register of the next day reports it with the 
heading: 

" Glorious Meeting in Music Hall. 
New Havex, Union All Over." 

Mayor Welch presided, and men of all parties par- 
ticipated. Addresses were made by Rev. Dr. Leon- 
ard Bacon, Rev. Dr. Cleaveland, James F. Bab- 
cock, James Gallagher, Thomas H. Bond, W. 
S. Charnley, Thomas Lawton, Charles Ives, C. 
S. Bushnell, Ira Mervvin and Rev. W. T. Eus- 
tis; and every patriotic sentiment was cheered 
to the echo. Resolutions were passed recommend- 
ing the Common Council to appropriate ten thou- 
sand dollars for the families of volunteers. The city 



66 



lllHTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



autliorities conformed to the recommendation, but 
doubled the amount. On Tuesday, the 23d, the 
ladies of the city met in large numbers at the shirt 
factory of Winchester A: Davies, in Court street, to 
make garmenls and bedding for the soldiers. At 
the North Church, at Dr. Cleaveland's Church, and 
at the rooms of Mr. Shaver, a teacher of drawing, 
there were also parties of ladies making shirts, 
bandages and lint. A day or two afterward the 
Veteran Grays organized themselves as a home 
guard. Such was the record of New Haven during 
the last half of the memorable month in which the 
War of the Rebellion commenced. 

Early in May a third regiment was called for, and 
immediately began to fill up. The greatest enthu- 
siasm prevailed among the young men; and fathers 
and mothers willingly permitted their sons to enlist 
for the preservation of the national life. 

On Thursday, May 9th, the First Regiment left 
New Haven for the theatre of war. At 3 o'clock 
p. II., they were reviewed at the camp near the 
hospital by Governor Buckingham and staff, and 
immediately commenced their march, through 
Davenport avenue. Broad, College, Chapel, Union, 
and Water streets, to the steamer Bienville, on 
which they were to sail without knowing whither. 
The next day, Friday, May loth, the .Second Regi- 
ment, under Colonel Alfred H. Terry, left its camp 
in Brewster Park, now Hamilton Park, about 6 
o'clock p. M. , and marched down Whalley avenue, 
Broadway, and Elm street to the Green, where at 7 
o'clock a set of regimental colors was presented 
and received. Prayer having been offered by the 
venerable Dr. Leonard Bacon, the march was re- 
sumed, and the soldiers, accompanied and followed 
by an immense crowd of sympathizing friends, pro- 
ceeded through Chapel and State streets, to the 
Steamer Cahawba, lying at Long wharf. The steamer, 
casting off its hawser about half-past eleven o'clock, 
moved away amid the cheers of the multitude. 
The patriotic enthusiasm of New Haven on that 
dry was not greater than when the First Regiment 
departed, but there was a deeper and more tender 
personal interest in the Second, for the reason that so 
many of its officers and privates were citizens of 
New Haven. Two companies were entirely made 
up from the city in which the regiment had been 
organized, and one of them was the historic "New 
Haven Grays." The Colonel, Alfred H. Terry, 
though born in Hartford, had been brought up 
in New Haven, and three other New Haven men 
were on his siatT. 

On the 20th of May the Third Regiment, which 
had rendezvoused at Hartford, passed through 
New Haven. Arriving by train, they left the cars 
at Grand street, and marched to Long wharf, 
escorted by the Governor's Horse Guard, under 
command of Major Ingersoll, the Governor's Foot 
(iuard, under i\hijor Norton, and a company from 
General Russell's School. This was the last' of the 
regiments enlisted for three months of service. 
Orders came about the time that the Third Regi- 
ment passed through New Haven that a fourth 
regiment should be raised, and that the enlistment 
should be for three years. 



New Haven's first martyr to the war was Theo- 
dore Winthrop, who w^as killed at the battle of 
Great Bethel, "Va., June 10th, 1861. He was born 
in New Haven, September 22, 1828; graduated at 
Yale College in 1848; and for the sake of his health 
visited soon after his graduation, England, Scot- 
land, France, Germany, Italy and Greece. Return- 
ing to New York, he became tutor to Mr. W. H. 
Aspinwall's son, and afterward accompanied his 
pupil to Europe. On his return he entered the 
counting-house of Mr. Aspinwall in New York. He 
resided about two years in Panama, in the employ 
of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company; visited 
California, Oregon, and Vancouver's Island; re- 
sumed his situation in the counting-house for a 
short time; and then joined the unfortunate expedi- 
tion of Lieutenant Strain, to explore the Isthmus of 
Darien. In 1854 he came home with shattered 
health, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and 
commenced practice in St. Louis; but the climate 
proving uncongenial, he soon returned to New 
York. When President Lincoln's proclamation 
calling out the militia was issued, after the fall of 
Fort Sumter, he joined the famous Seventh Regi- 
ment of New York, and went with it to Washing- 
ton. Before the expiration of its term of service, he 
became military secretary to General Butler, at 
Fortress Monroe, with the rank of Major. He vol- 
unteered to accompany the expedition to Great 
Bethel, and when leading a charge upon the 
enemy's redoubt, leaped upon a log, shouting, 
"Come on, boys, one charge and the day is ours." 
A North Carolina drummer, seeing so fair a mark, 
borrowed a gun, took deliberate aim and buried 
a bullet in his bosom. He fell dead, "nearer to 
the enemy's works than any other man." His body 
was brought to New Haven and buried in the 
Grove street Cemetery. 

Winthrop had fine literary taste, and would, 
doubtless, if his life had continued, have distin- 
guished himself in literature. He was the writer 
of an article which appeared in the Allanlic Mutil/ily 
of the same month in which he was killed, de- 
scribing the march of the New York Seventh Regi- 
ment from Annapolis to Washington; and he left 
in manuscript three novels, "Cecil Dreeme, " 
"John Brent," and "Edwin Brothertoft," which, 
since his death, have been given to the public. 

The first regiment of volunteers for three months 
completed the quota of Connecticut; but three 
regiments were filled and accepted, and still there 
were twenty-four companies in different parts of 
the Slate and in different degrees of progress 
toward fullness. The second and third regiments 
having been accepted by President Lincoln, on 
condition that Connecticut should send two regi- 
ments of men enlisted for three years, and Gov- 
ernor Buckingham having agreed to the condition, 
well knowing that they would be needed, a call 
was issued on the nth of May for the enlistment 
of men for three years, and in sufficient numbers to 
constitute two regiments. At the same time the 
men enlisted for three months were discharged. 
Most of them immediately gave their names to be 
enrolled for three years, and were in haste to go to 



DURING THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 



m 



the front lest, as they said, the regiments already 
in the field should inconsiderately finish the war 
without waiting for reinforcements. 

The General Assembly of Connecticut having 
adjourned sitie die on the 3d of July, Governor 
Buckingham spent the Fourth at New Haven. In 
the forenoon there was a review of the volunteer 
and militia companies; in the afternoon a mass 
meeting to listen to addresses and the singing of 
the Children's Brigade. 

Some weeks before, Mr. Benjamin Jepson, 
teacher of music in the public schools, had issued 
a circular, in which he urged that all children 
should be imbued with ineratlicable love of country 
by early instruction in our nationaJ songs, and in- 
vited the children to assemble and rehearse a pro- 
gramme for the Fourth of July. In response to 
this call, a thousand children had assembled from 
time to time for practice. At two o'clock on the 
anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, 
the Children's Brigade assembled at the National 
Hall in Olive street, and, forming in procession, 
marched through some of the principal streets to 
the State House. The line included in the boys' 
division a representation of the Boston Tea-party in 
the costume of Indians, the Washington Zouaves, 
the Wide-awake Fire Engine Company, with a 
miniature engine, the Marine Guard, and the In- 
fant Rifles; and in the division of the girls, the 
Daughters of Columbia, the Goddess of Liberty in 
a floral car. Young America with Continental Guard, 
Brother Jonathan in full costume, and the Union 
of the States, represented by thirty-four young 
ladies. The costumes of the children accorded 
with the parts assigned them; each carried a flag, 
and the entire procession was interspersed with 
banners and various appropriate devices. Arriv- 
ing at the State House, the children were seated 
on the steps ascending to the north portico, and 
thus presented a beautiful tableau to the vast au- 
dience of from ten to twenty thousand, who stood 
below to listen to their songs. 

The time of the three-months' men e.xpired in 
July, and the First and Second regiments were mus- 
tered out at New Haven. The First arrived on the 
28th of July, and the S;cond on the 5th of August. 
As the people had assembled to see them depart, so 
they now came in equal numbers to welcome their 
return. The volunteers for three months, almost 
unanimously re-enlisted for three years. More than 
five hundred men of these three regiments were 
afterward commissioned officers. They arrived 
home just in time to re-enlist and make themselves 
useful in drilling recruits; for on the 15th of August 
Governor Buckingham called for four more regi- 
ments, to be numbered in the order in which they 
were mustered in. The Si.xth to be commanded 
by Colonel Chatfield, recently Colonel of the First, 
and the Seventh, under Colonel Terry, formerly of 
the Second, were to rendezvous at New Haven. 
The camp was located on Oyster Point, and there 
squads and half-formed companies from different 
parts of the State were received. Many who had 
been in the three-months' service joined these regi- 
ments. The veterans put their awkward comrades 



rigidly through the manual, e.Kercising them in 
company and battalion drill, morning, afternoon, 
and evening. The Si.xth left New Haven on the 
17th of September for Washington, and the Seventh 
followed on the i8th. From Washington they 
were despatched to the coast of South Carolina. 

The Eighth did not pass through New Haven, 
but left Hartford on a steamboat. 

The Ninth, recruited at Camp English, New 
Haven, was composed of men of Irish birth or 
parentage. Its commanding oflicer was Colonel 
Thomas W. Cahill, a much-respected citizen of 
New Haven, long connected with our State 
militia as Captain of the Emmet Guards. The re- 
cruits for this regiment came chiefly from the cities 
and large towns in the lower counties of the State, 
New Haven contributing about 250 men. 

When Governor Buckingham issued orders in 
.September, 1861, for the formation of the Tenth, 
he reached the limit set by the General Assembly 
in its May session. He therefore convened the 
assembly in a special session. In that session a 
law was passed, authorizing the Governor to enlist, 
organize and equip, according to his discretion, an 
unlimited number of volunteers, and directing the 
Treasurer to provide two million dollars in addition 
to the two millions already appropriated. 

In accordance with this action of the General 
Assembly, the F'leventh, the Twelfth and the 
Thirteenth were organized in the autumn of 1861, 
and the Thirteenth spent the winter in barracks 
in the carriage factory of Durham & Booth, at the 
corner of Chapel and Hamilton streets. Their 
quarters being in the city, the)' were constantly 
visited by patriotic men and women, who brought 
the soldiers not only sympathy and moral support, 
but many physical comforts and luxuries. Prayer- 
meetings were numerously attended in the chapel 
by citizens as well as soldiers ; quartets came and 
sang, and orators discoursed in the hearing of the 
soldiers. There was more sickness, however, 
within those brick walls than in the tented field of 
the Twelfth at Hartford. 

Colonel Birge, who commanded the Thirteenth, 
was a strict disciplinarian. He enjoined neatness, 
cleanliness, and military bearing. Every belt and 
every shoe must be polished; every gun-barrel and 
bayonet must shine like a mirror; every hand must 
wear a glove of spotless white; every form must be 
erect, ^y some the Thirteenth was called "a 
dandy regiment,'' and it was thought that the men 
would never be willing to spoil their clothes in a 
fight. A year or two afterward, at the close of a 
hot battle, Colonel Birge being reminded of this 
prediction, replied: " I notice that they did not run 
away like some dirty regiments." Life at the bar- 
racks ended March 17th, when the regiment em- 
barked on the Granite State for New York, thence 
to be conveyed by ship to the mouth of the Missis- 
sippi. 

About the time when the Thirteenth began to 
appeal to the people of New Haven, by its presence 
in the midst of them, for personal attention, came 
also a circular from the National Sanitary Com- 
mission, which called for much labor, especially of 



68 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



women. In the fitting out of the first three regi- 
ments, individuals, and especially women, had 
rendered much aid. The State being unprepared 
for war, everything for the outfit of soldiers was 
wanting, and was needed immediately. The ladies 
of New Haven, as has been already said, met and 
prepared bedding and clothing for the recruits who 
came to New Haven in April and May. The 
Fourth and Fifth Regiments needed less of this aid 
from private persons, because the State had taken 
care that the soldiers should be supplied through 
commissary officers, with clothing and other com- 
forts, such as the earlier recruits had received from 
the bounty of patriotic individuals. Friends of the 
three-months' volunteers, however, continued to 
send to them boxes of comforts and luxuries as 
long as they were away from home. The Sanitary 
Commission had been organized at Washington in 
June, but the responses to its calls were not very 
liberal till autumn. The need of such an organi- 
zation became so apparent, that, in October, ar- 
rangements were made for forwarding contributions 
of every kind suitable for hospital use as fast as they 
might be brought in. At a meeting for making 
such arrangements, A. C. Twining, Alfred Walker, 
Charles Carlisle, S. D. Pardee, Thomas R. Trow- 
bridge, and Moses C. White were appointed a 
committee to aid in furnishing supplies for sick 
and wounded soldiers. Other members of the 
committee aided, but Mr. Walker was foremost in 
the work of this committee. On the loth of Octo- 
ber, he gave public notice that he would receive, 
pack and forward whatever the people saw fit to 
contribute for the Sanitary Commission. That he 
did not expect a large business, either in receiving 
cash or forwarding goods, is evident from the fact 
that he began to keep his account on the last leaves 
of an old ledger, devoting the last two pages to 
the cash account, and the preceding four to a rec- 
ord of articles received and forwarded. On the 
19th he sent the first box; by November 6th he 
had filled the four pages, ending with box 287. 
Seeing such an unexpected increase of business, 
he secured free transportation by steamboat to New 
York, and thence with Government freight to Bal- 
timore and Washington. The records and ac- 
counts were kept gratuitously by himself and those 
in his employ. The packing was done gratuitously 
by volunteers, who were for the most part of the 
sex that cannot fight. By such means the entire 
cash expenditure for a year was only $1,242.01, 
which included boxes and freight. The cash 
brought in with other articles amounted to 
$1,232.03. The record for the first year shows 
that Mr. Walker had forwarded 371 boxes and 
barrels to the Sanitary Commission and 44 boxes 
to Connecticut regiments. The value of the whole 
was, at a moderate estimate, more thin $25,000. 
At the commencement of his second year's work, 
the ladies of New Haven came to his aid, organiz- 
ing the New Haven Soldiers' Aid Society, to act 
mainly in co-operation with the llnited States San- 
itary Commission, but with a special eye to the re- 
quirements of Connecticut regiments. The Society 
was permitted to occupy rooms in the State House, 



and here the ladies were constantly employed for 
three years. Here cloth was cut and delivered to 
friends from towns in the interior to be made up; 
here garments were received when made, and 
packed to be sent to hospitals for distribution to 
the sick and wounded. The New Haven Society 
was, soon after its formation, authorized to act for 
the whole State in behalf of the U. S. Sanitary 
Commission, and one hundred and twenty towns, 
through their local associations, became its tribu- 
taries. These auxiliaries greatly swelled the list of 
consignments to Washington. 

The officers of the New Haven Society were: 
First Directress, Mrs. A. N. Skinner; Second Di- 
rectress, Miss M. T. Twining; Third Directress, 
Mrs. W. A. Norton; Managers, Mrs. William Ba- 
con, Mrs. E. Barrett, Mrs. Bassett, Miss E. Brad- 
ley, Miss C. L. Brown, Mrs. L. Candee, Mrs. C. 
Candee, Mrs. R. Chapman, Miss R. Chapman, 
Miss C. Collins, Miss Dickerman, Mrs. H. Du- 
Bois, Mrs. J. W. Fitch, Miss J. Gibbs, Mrs. J. 
Goodnough, Mrs. E. S. Greek}', Miss M. Hill- 
house, Miss I. Hillhouse, Miss S. B. Harrison, 
Mrs. C. A. Ingersoll, Mrs. B. Jepson, Miss A. 
Larned, Mrs. H. Mansfield, Mrs. H. Plumb, Mrs. 
D. C. Pratt, Miss P. Peck, Mrs. W. H. Russell, 
Mrs. G. B. Rich, Mrs. J- A. Root, Miss E. Sher- 
man, Mrs. J. Sheldon," Miss M. Storer, Miss A. 
Thacher, ISIrs. A. Treat, Mrs. C. R. Waterhouse, 
Mrs. William Winchester, Miss D. Woolsey; Cor- 
responding Secretaries, Mrs. B. S. Roberts, Miss J. 
W. Skinner; Recording Secretary, Mrs. H. T. 
Blake; Treasurer, Mrs. Emily M. Fitch; Advisory 
Committee, Messrs. Alexander C. Twining, Charles 
Carlisle, Thomas R. Trowbridge, Alfred \\'alker, 
Stephen D. Pardee, and Dr. Moses C. White. 

This society received and disbursed in cash be- 
tween November i, 1862, and November 18, 1S65, 
the sum of $27, 304.96, of which amount the ladies 
earned by a Sanitary Fair, in 1862, $2,912.26. 
The balance came from various towns and individ- 
uals, but New Haven was not behind any town 
in the State in the generous competition. 

The records of the society, and the letters which 
it received from the U. S. Sanitary Commission 
and other consignees, are deposited with the New 
Haven Colony Historical Society. With them are 
the records which Mr. Walker kept from October, 
1861, to November, 1865, of which the following 
is a summary: 

Nunibcr of cases sent to the U. S. Sanitary 
Commission since Octo1)er, 1861 1,292 

Number of cases sent to Connecticut re5;i- 
raeiits and liospitals 1 20 

Total Ii4l2 

The cases forwarded by Mr. Walker contained, 
of course, contributions from all parts of the State; 
but the ladies of New Haven not only gave their 
time and labor at the rooms of the society in the 
State House, but were zealous contributors and 
collectors. 

The following table exhibits the contents ot the 
1,412 cases forwardeil from New Haven to the U. 
S. Sanitarv Commission and to Connecticut regi- 



DURING THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 



69 



merits and to hospitals, from October i, iS6i, to 
November i, 1865: 

Denomination. Quantity. 

Dried apples 36 barrels. 

Other dried fruit (4 barrels) 323 pounds. 

Blackberry and other cordials... 251 gallons. 

Wine and s])irits 346 " 

Bay rum and cologne 188 bottles. 

jellies and jams (160 pounds). , . , 1,686 jars. 

Farinaceous food 1,34^ pounds. 

Crackers 8 barrels. 

Tea and coffee 148 pounds. 

Bronia, cocoa, etc 260 " 

Sugar 266 " 

Spaces 251 " 

tresh fruits 8 barrels. 

Tomatoes and fruits in cans 141 cans. 

Pickles 960 gallons. 

Lemons 17 boxes. 

Condensed milk 290 cans. 

Catsup _ 22i gallons. 

Tamarinds 4 tubs. 

Ginger 6 jars. 

Cider 6 barrels. 

Vinegar 6 " 

Cheeses 16. 

Onions 810 bunches. 

Beets 8S0. 

Squashes 150. 

Vegetables 453 barrels. 

Groceries in packages 556 packages. 

Miscellanies 470 cases. 

Shirts— Flannel, 5,291; Cotton, 

4.723 10,014. 

Drawers— Flannel, 4,207; Cotton, 

1.765 5.972. 

Dressing-gowns 1,122. 

Handkerchiefs and napkins 15,098. 

Socks 10,755 P'lii's. 

Mittens 1,412 " 

Sli])pers 6S2 " 

Towels 9,291 . 

Sheets 6,360. 

Pillow-cases 4,449- 

Quilts 2,400. 

Blankets 787. 

Pillows 3,333. 

Pads and cushions 2,750. 

Bed and pillow-sacks 203. 

Neckties ■ 300. 

Fans 250. 

Second-hand garments 261. 

Arm-slings 261. 

Abdominal supporters 219. 

Needle-books and comfort-bags. . 700. 
Bandages 31 barrels. 

Rags.' 53 " 

Lint 5 " 

Crutches 36 pairs. 

Mosquito netting 1 73 yards. 

Books 2, 156. 

Magazines 3,300. 

Miscellaneous articles 1,639. 

Cases (contents unknown) 54. 

On Thanksgiving Day, 1864, final victory being 
within the field of vision, the U. S. Sanitary Com- 
mission sent to the soldiers in the field a dinner, 
consisting, among other things, of si.K hundred 
tons of turkeys, numbering about 2co,ooo. Con- 
necticut furnished her full share of these; but it 
having been ascertained that the First Connecticut 
Cavalry was beyond the reach of those who carried 
the Thanksgiving dinner, the New Haven Soldiers' 
Aid Society sent them a dinner for New Year's 
Day. It was thus acknowledged by their Chaplain: 



Camp of First Connecticut Cavalry. 
Near Winchester, Va., 

January 3, 1865. 
Mrs. B. S. Roberts, Soldiers' Aid Society, New Haven. 

Madam, — You will be glail to know that the many good 
things contributed by our frienils in New Haven reached 
here safely,and were a very considerable contribution to the 
grand dinner which our regiment enjoyed yesterday after- 
noon. Everything came in good contlition — thanks be to 
excellent cooking and excellent packing. Our tables spread 
upon the snow, were covered with seventy-eight turkeys, one 
hundred and twenty-tive chickens and with any quantity ot 
mince pies, cakes, cheese, apples, pickles, preserves, etc. — an 
ample supply, not only for the immediate occasion, but for 
one or two meals to-day. If you could have heard the 
"Three cheers for the friends at home," and the many ex- 
pressions of delight at the practical assurances afforded that, 
in all the holiday enjoyment, the soldier was not forgotten, 
you wotdd ha\e been fiUly repaid for the trouble which our 
enjoyment has cost you. With the help of your contribution 
of gloves and mittens, I was enabled to present to the regi- 
ment about 350 pairs— a very acceptal)le New Year's gift to 
men who had for two cold months done, barehanded, the 
hardest of cavalry work. « • « 

Be good enough to accept our hearty acknowledgment 
to yourself and the ladies of your association, believing me, 
in liehalf of the command. 

Very respectfully and gratefully, 

Theodore J. Holmes, 
Chaplain First Connecticut Cavalry. 

The Chaplain's Aid Commission was organized 
not long after the New Haven Soldiers' Aid So- 
ciety. Mr. Alfred Walker, who had for a year 
been very active in forwarding cases to the Sanitary 
Commission, learning that his son, the Rev. Ed- 
ward A. Walker, the Chaplain of the Fourth Reg- 
iment, which had been transformed from the Fourth 
Infantry to the First Heavy Artillery, desired a large 
tent for a chapel and reading-room, collected two 
hundred and twenty-five dollars and purchased the 
tent. After it had been exhibited for a day or two 
on the Green, it was forwarded to the regiment in 
Mar}'land, where it was set up, much to the satisfac- 
tion not only of the Chaplain, but of the officers 
and privates generally. 'Fhe Chaplain soon after 
wrote: 

The Temple of Nature, sufficient in summer, is too chilly 
in December; and of late it has been too leaky overhead and 
too wet under foot to be very inviting, and the number of 
worshipers has been sadly out of proportion to the accom- 
modation. Now we have a chin*ch and Divine Service and 
something more like a Sabbath. We have our ])rayer- meet- 
ings and Bible-class, our lectures, temperance-meetings and 
musical society. We have also a melodeon; for when the 
men heard that the tent was coming, they started at once a 
subscription, declaring that they would now have service in 
style. 

This canvas chapel and reading-room being 
found so useful, an association was formed of men 
from all parts of the State to supply Connecticut 
regiments with chapel-tents, book.s, magazines and 
newspapers, and generally to aid chaplains in pro- 
moting the moral and spiritual welfare of the 
soldiers. It w-as called the Chaplains' Aid Commis- 
sion. Its oflftcers were: President, Governor Will- 
iam A. Buckingham; Vice-President, Lieutenant- 
Governor Benjamin Douglass; Corresponding Sec- 
retaries, Rev. L. W. Bacon, Rev. A. R. Thompson; 
Recording Secretary, Francis Wayland; Treasurer, 
Stephen D. Pardee. The members of the commis- 
sion, in addition to those in office, were: President 
Theodore D. Woolsey, Right Rev. John Williams, 



70 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



Rev. Robert TurnbuU, Rev. Leonard Bacon, Rev. 
G. W. Woodruft; Rev. P. S. Evans, H. M. Welch, 
H. B. Harrison, William H. Russell, William B. 
Johnson, Edward W. Match, Richard D. Hubbard, 
Henry T. Blake, F. J. Kingsbury. 

The people responded to the call of the commis- 
sion with great liberality. Money sufficient to 
purchase tents for the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, 
Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Regi- 
ments was soon collected. Each of the ten regi- 
ments in the field was also furnished with a library 
of from seventy-five to one hundred and twenty- 
five bound volumes. Mr. Wayland who, his brother 
being Chaplain of the Seventh, had special facilities 
for informing himself concerning the value of the aid 
thus rendered to the chaplains, cheerfully gave not 
only much time, but the use of his law office to the 
commission. For each of the libraries he provided 
a strong portable case, so constructed that by turning 
the key it was prepared for transportation and as 
easily prepared for use on its arrival at a new camp. 
By July, 1 , 2S4 bound volumes and 5,448 magazines 
had been sent, and an uncounted number of illustra- 
ted and religious newspapers. The books sent were 
of high character and great variety. Many of them 
were purchased expressly for the purpose by the 
Secretary, and others were choice volumes culled 
from their private libraries by friends of the soldiers. 
The tents and libraries were received with delight by 
officers and privates. Chaplain Hall, of the Tenth, 
wrote : 

It is tile most convenient thing imaginable. I have con- 
structed a long writing-desk, on which I jilace all the papers 
which yon so kindly fnrnish me ; at the end of the desk is 
my liljrary of liooks. You will always find from ten to fifty 
men in the lent, reading or writing. The library is just the 
thing needed. The books are well assorted and entertain- 
ing. 

The chapel-tents, however, were found to be 
so liable to seizure for military uses, that only those 
regiments which have been mentioned were sup- 
plied with them, and most of these were either left 
behind for want of transportation, or converted 
into hospitals. After about a year of active service, 
the Chaplains' Aid Commission rested for a time 
from its labor, till the Connecticut branch of the 
United Stales Christian Cnmmission was organized 
in 1864- 'I'he officers of this branch were, with a 
few changes, the same as the officers of the Chap- 
lains' Aid Commission, '{'he work also was similar 
in some respects, but included the sending of volun- 
tary Christian workers to the cam]is and hospitals. 

The winter of 1861-62 saw a revolution in the 
construction of naval vessels. The old dynasty of 
wooden ships of war passed away, and the new 
era of iron came in. The Navy Department had 
determined to build an iron-clad as an experiment, 
and the contract had been taken by Mr. Cornelius 
S. Bushnell, an enterprising citizen of New Haven. 
To assure himself of the stability and buoyancy of 
the vessel under the stipulated coat of iron,' he con- 
sulted with Captain John Ericsson, of New York, 
wiio showed him the plan of a vessel which was 
not merely iron-clad, but wholly of iron. Want of 
money had prevented Ericsson from constructing 



a vessel according to his plan, but he believed that 
the vessel, if constructed, would be a success. Mr. 
Bushnell became a convert to Ericsson's opinion, 
and offered to risk his entire fortune in the experi- 
ment. A contract between the two was written 
and signed, and the work of construction com- 
menced immediately. In Just one hundred days 
the monitor was launched and immediately pro- 
ceeded to Fortress Monroe, just in time to sink 
the Merrimac, and demonstrate the future worth- 
lessness of " w'ooden walls." Mr. Bushnell had 
been much respected in New Haven, but by this 
achievement he became the hero of the day. 

CORNELIUS SCRANTON BUSHNELL 

was born in Madison, New Haven County, Conn., 
July 18, 1828. His father, Nathan Bushnell, and his 
mother, Chloe Scranton, were each descended in 
direct line from Francis Bushnell an"ti John Scran- 
ton, who emigrated from England to the New 
Haven Colony in 1638, in the company which 
purchased the Guilford plantation from tlie Indi- 
ans, and erected the stone house which may 
still be seen in good condition just north of the 
Guilford depot. The boyhood of Mr. Bus'inell 
was spent in the retirement of his native town. 
Opportunities were few, but work was plenty on 
the farm and in his father's quarr)'. In winter he 
attended the village school, making the best use he 
could of the meager facilities it afforded. At the 
age of fifteen his life-work began. Starting out on 
a coasting vessel, he became, in less than a year, 
master of a sixty-ton schooner, and, by great effort 
and economy, succeeded in saving during the next 
five years the sum of $2,700. This he invested in 
a house in New Haven, which henceforth became 
his home. The day after he became of age he 
was married to Family Fowler Clarke. The result 
of the marriage was the birth of nine sons and one 
daughter, viz. : Sereno Scranton, Samuel Clarke, 
Charlotte Beecher, Cornelius Judson, Nathan, 
Henry Northrop, Ericsson Foote, Winthrop Grant, 
Edward William, Levi Ives. 

Soon after his marriage he entered into partner- 
ship with his brother, Nathan Townsend Bushnell, 
in the wholesale and retail grocery business, estab- 
lishing what has been, and still is, the largest bus- 
iness of its kind in the State. F^arly in 1858 he 
had become interested in the New Haven and 
New London Railroad, which was greatly embar- 
rassed for want of funds. It had become evident 
that the running of trains must be abandoned un- 
less a larger earning capacity could be secured; 
which could only be obtained by extending the 
road to Stonington. Mr. Bushnell was chosen 
president, and pushed the new enterprise with such 
vigor (obtaining assistance on his own notes in- 
dorsed by friend.s, and by .securing a contract with 
Daniel Drew, of the Stonington steamboat line, 
to advance his notes for $15,000, as rent of the 
steamboat dock at Groton) that through trains 
began to run from Boston to New York in i860. 
Great difiiculty was ex])erienced, however, by the 
refusal of the New York road to sell through tick- 




-^ac :rT,'rLyL.j'jrevcets ;- 



d^ -^ /^--^'Ct^T^A^'i^-^.-n^^je.--^^^^^^ 



DURING THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 



71 



ets, or check baggage, owing to a contract then in 
force with the Hartford road. Mr. Bushnell accord- 
ingly had recourse to the Legislature, then in session 
at Hartford, and by the help of Charles R.Ingersoll, 
representative from New Haven, and afterward 
Governor of the State, secured the passage of a bill 
compelling the New York and New Haven Rail- 
road to afforil the Shore Line Railroad equal facil- 
ities with those granted to any other line. The 
bill was stoutly opposed by the powerful railroad 
corporation, which was managed then in Hartford, 
and not obeyed until the Supreme Court of the 
Slate issued a mandatory order after wearisome 
litigation. Mr. Bushnell's next effort was to ob- 
tain recognition of the U. S. Postal Department, 
and secure through mails over the Shore Line Road, 
but a long and exciting struggle was necessary be- 
fore the result was gained. Meanwhile the war had 
begun, and Mr. Bushnell turned his attention to 
ship-building, employing the services of Samuel 
H. Pook, one of the most experienced and scien- 
tific naval constructors in the United States, who 
(after the completion of the steamship Stars and 
Stripes) had matured plans for the iron-plated 
steamship Galena. At the request of Hon. Gid- 
eon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Bushnell, 
greatly aided by Hon James E. English, Member 
of Congress from New Haven, had already secured 
the passage of a bill authorizing the Secretary of 
the Navy to appoint three naval experts to examine 
all plans for iron vessels, and adopt whatever might 
be approved. Under this bill a contract was en- 
tered into for the construction of the Galena. But 
many naval officers, doubting the ability of the 
vessel to carry the amount of armor proposed, the 
plans were submitted to Captain John Ericsson, of 
New York, who pronounced them satisfactory, 
saying that the vessel would easily perform the 
work that was expected of her. It was at this in- 
terview, however, that the plan of the Monitor was 
first brought to light. Mr. Bushnell having gained 
the information he desired concerning the Galena, 
was about to retire, when Captain Ericsson asked 
him if he would like to see a battery which would 
be absolutely impregnable to the heaviest shot or 
shell, and then placed before him the model of the 
Monitor, which he had invented many years before, 
but which, owing to the strained relations existing 
between him and the Navy Department, he had 
never presented to the United States Government. 
Overjoyed at the discovery of the Monitor, and 
receiving carle blanche to do with the invention as 
he thought best, Mr. Bushnell at once called upon 
Secretary Welles and laid the plans before him, 
announcing that now the country was safe. He 
next assi" .iated with himself Messrs. Griswold and 
Winsl' w, of Troy, N. Y., as partners in the enter- 
pri.'-j, offering each of them a quarter interest in 
the undertaking, retaining a quarter each for Cap- 
j tain Ericsson and himself, and then, with his asso- 
I ciates, submitted the plans tro the Naval Board. 
\ President Lincoln was greatly pleased with the 
i, plan, as were two members of the Board, Admirals 
Smith and Paulding. But Captain Davis declared 
that he would never sign a report recommending 



its adoption. Matters thus had come to a stand- 
still, and would have so remained indefinitely, had 
not Mr. Bushnell succeeded, by a pardonable sub- 
terfuge, in getting Captain Ericsson to come to 
Washington and plead the case before the assem- 
bled Board, which resulted in the adoption of the 
Monitor, though under such conditions as to 
make her construction the result of the ardent pa- 
triotism of her builders; who were under obligation 
to refund the money advanced by Government on 
account, in case the vessel should not prove a suc- 
cess on her trial trip. It should be borne in mind, 
therefore, that the Monitor was the property of the 
gentlemen above named when she went into action 
at Hampton Roads, and by defeating the INIerri- 
mac, saved Washington and the Union. Mean- 
while other enterprises were on foot. A ship-yard 
was established at Fairhaven, Conn., from which 
Mr. Bushnell turned out more steamships for the 
Government than were furnished by any other 
builder in the country. In connection with Cap- 
tain Ericsson and associates, eight monitor bat- 
teries, much improved on the original, were con- 
structed, among them the Puritan and Dictator, 
either of which could have contended successfully 
with the navy of any nation in the world. 

His relations with the Government necessitated 
his frequent presence in Washington, and brought 
him into contact with many public men. One of 
them. Senator Dixon of Hartford, placed Mr. 
Bushnell's name in the original Pacific Railroad 
bill as one of the corporators, and from that time 
forward this enterprise commanded his closest at- 
tention. He attended the meeting for organization 
at Chicago in 1863, and was appointed on the 
committee to procure subscriptions to the stock; 
two millions being required and twenty per cent, 
paid in, before the company could begin business. 
Of this two millions Mr. Bushnell secured more 
than three-quarters, and was himself the largest 
subscriber to the original stock. He was also 
largely instrumental in securing the amendment of 
1864, without which it would have been impossible 
to finish the road. He was also the only corpora- 
tor who remained from first to last in connection 
with the enterprise; leaving the Company only after 
it had become a great .success, and, unfortunately 
for himself, embarking in the construction of what 
is now the Atlantic end of the Southern Pacific 
Railroad. Owing to the great financial depression 
of 1873, and the repudiation of Louisiana, the Com- 
pany, from which Mr. Bushnell was to have re- 
ceived millions of dollars on contract, failed, and 
so embarrassed him that he was compelled to sus- 
pend, losing thus the large fortune which he had 
spent twenty years in accumulating. Overwork 
and anxiety prostrated him, and for some years 
his health was far from good. During 1864 he 
purchased an extensive iron property, called Iron 
Ridge, in Wisconsin, and erected a blast fur- 
nace, using charcoal as fuel, making pig iron 
at a lower price per ton than at any other fur- 
nace in the country. This property he sold to 
Byron Kilbourn's Rolling Mill Company for a 
large profit on the original cost. He also, with 



72 



HISTORY OF THE CTTV OF NEW HA VEN. 



associates, purchased a large lead and silver mine 
in Utah, which was afterwards sold to English 
capitalists for over $300,000 profit. In 1871-72 
he erected the Masonic Temple in New Haven, 
at a cost of more than $200,000; at the pres- 
ent time not worth half the cost, owing to the 
removal of the railroad depot. In 1865-70 he 
built the horse railroad over the Cincinnati and 
Covington, Ky. , great wire bridge, extending for 
several miles into the latter city. On January 10, 
1S69, I\Ir. Bushnell's wife died at New Haven, and 
was universally mourned. 

On the 15th of March, 1870, Mr. Bushnell was 
married to Mrs. Caroline M. Hughston, widow of 
Hon. J. A. Hughston, of New York, by whom she 
had had three children, one son and two daughters. 
One of these daughters, Annie, has since died; the 
other has been married to Mr. Bushnell's third 
son, Cornelius Judson. 

On the 9th of June, 1862, the General Hospital 
of Connecticut at New Haven was, by special ar- 
rangement with the War Department, opened for 
the reception of sick and wounded soldiers. The 
patients were, like other patients, under the care 
of the Hospital Society until April 7, 1863, at 
which time tlie care of the sick and wounded sol- 
diers was transferred to the War Deparlment. The 
building was vacated by the Hospital Society and 
leased to the Government, and thus became an 
army hospital, under the name of "The Knight 
Hospital." The name honored a beloved physi- 
cian of New Haven, and the presence of hundreds 
of sick and wounded heroes in the city excited 
sympathy and desire to help in every humane and 
patriotic heart. Every day the hospital was vis- 
ited by ladies, who wrote letters, assisted the sur- 
geons in dressing wounds, and in many ways made 
themselves useful. The clergymen of the city were 
in turn present every day, to celebrate Divine Ser- 
vice for the benefit of those who were well enough 
to attend, and to administer the consolations of 
religion at the bedside of those w-ho sent for them. 
These visitors brought daily gifts of fruit and flow- 
ers. The accommodations of the hospital were 
supplemented with temporary barracks and tents, 
so that hundreds could be simultaneously under 
treatment. 

The battle of James Island occurred June 16, 
1862. In it fell Captain Edwin S. Hitchcock, 
who was a private in the New Haven Grays when 
that company went to the war as part of the Second 
Kegiment. Returning at the end of three months, 
he was appointed the deputy of the Postmaster in 
New Haven, but being solicited by Colonel Terry 
to raise a company for the Seventh, he did so, and 
received a Captain's commission. Hon. James M. 
Townsend, a former Captain of the Grays, who 
had befriended the company in many ways during 
its three months of service, permitted Captain Hitch- 
cock to organize his company under the name of 
the "Townsend Rifles," and the popularity of both 
the patron and the commanding officer accelerated 
enlistment. The Townsend Rifles were the first 
company of Union troops that landed on the soil 



of South Carolina, in November, 1861. From 
that time until the following June, Hitchcock par- 
ticipated in the toils and privations of the siege of 
Charleston. A day or two previous to the battle of 
James Island, he was sent forward, in command of 
Companies B and G, to reconnoitre the position of 
the foe. Preparations were made in accordance 
with the information thus obtained, and on the 
morning of the i6th of June an intrenchment of 
the rebels was assailed, the First Connecticut Bat- 
tery opening with artillery, and the Seventh charg- 
ing at double-quick. The official report says: 
"Captain Edwin S. Hitchcock, of Company G, 
among the foremost, and enthusiasticall}' cheering 
on his men, was severely wounded in the thigh. 
He continued to call out cheerfully, and to fire 
rifles handed him by his men, until he received a 
rifle ball straight from the front through his upper 
lip. Four of his men undertook to carry him to 
the rear. While they were doing this, two of 
them — Sergeant W. H. Haynes and Private J. N. 
Dexter — were wounded by rifle balls, and they were 
obliged to leave the gallant Captain dying there." 
He died within the rebel lines, but his conspicuous 
valor had so stirred the admiration of the foe that 
they placed his body in a box and buried it with 
honor. The body was afterward taken home and 
reburied, with additional honors. A monument 
was erected to his memory by members of his 
company, which will be more appropriately de- 
scribed in the chapter on cemeteries. 

In August of the same 3ear, the battle of Cedar 
Mountain saddened every heart in New Haven, for 
in that fatal engagement she lost two of her noblest 
sons. 

Lieutenant Henry M. Dutton was born at New 
Haven September 9, 1836. He was a son of the 
Hon. Henry Dutton, Professor of Law in Yale 
College, and in previous years Governor of Con- 
necticut. Graduating at Yale College in the class 
of 1856, he studied law, and when the war burst 
into flame had acquired a larger practice than usu- 
ally falls to the lot of lawyers in the first years of 
their profession. Inducing scores to join him, he 
left his office in Litchfield, and went to Hartford as 
a private in the Fifth Regiment. As a reward of 
success in recruiting, he received a Lieutenant's 
commission, and his popularity and influence were 
not less when he was an officer than they had been 
when he was in the ranks. From August, 1861, 
to August, 1862, he was on the bank of the Poto- 
mac, and learned its fords and ferr'ies for nearly a 
hundred miles in doing duty as an officer of the 
picket. Sometimes only four of the twenty Lieu- 
tenants of his regiment were on the roll as ready 
for service, the others being absent or sick; but 
Dutton was constantly on hand, and found his 
pleasure in the dischar-ge of duty, even when re- 
quired to watch every fourth night. At the camp 
in Hartford and in Maryland, by the camp fire at 
night and as the regiment halted at noon on the 
march, Dutton was a favorite with officers and sol- 
diers, on account of the buoyancy of his spirits. 
None could tell more amusing stories; none could 
repeat more snatches of poetry; none could better 



DURING THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 



73 



sing a song; none so good a physician amid dis- 
comfort, home-sickness and blues as he. His 
cheerfulness shortened many a weary mile, and 
burst forth refreshingly in gleeful laughter and 
winning stor}'. On Sunday morning, May 25, 
1862, the regiment was for the first time exposed 
to a shower of rebel bullets, and one of Button's 
comrades says: 

Well do I recollect amid tliat wild storm of tlie rebel 
chart;e, when their advance forced itself almost up to our 
lines, the splendid bearing of Lieut. Dutton as he maintained 
tlie line of his company, and with upright form and sword 
gleaming through the smoUe, encouraged his men, until 
E\\'ell's whole division fell back repulsed before three scant 
regiments. 

About this time his friends noticed that a change 
had come over him. He was still as cheerful and 
occasionally as gay as ever, but he was also at times 
thoughtful and serious. The same friend who 
described his bearing at Winchester, says: 

From our first crossing into Virginia he had become 
gradually changed. Books became the companions of his 
leisure hours, or alone with some esteemed comrade, he 
gave voice to that thorough religious and heroic spirit that 
lay beneath the sparkling siu-face, and told of his glorious 
aspirations for the future life and his bright hopes for the 
future of his country. At Front Royal, about the last of 
June, in com]jany with him I attended the last little prayer 
meeting which assembled in the regiment jirevious to his 
death; and as he did our singing that day, I felt that not the 
lips only but the heart entered into the spirit of the hymns. 
Soon after he became for a time a tent-mate of my own, and 
my intereviews with him led me more than ever before to 
admire in him the man, the hero and the Christian. 

The battle of Cedar Mountain was fought 
August 9th, 1862. Commencing at 5 p. m. it was 
at first an artillery duel, the two forces being about 
a mile from each other. Rapidly the enemy multi- 
plied their batteries and concentrated upon the 
National troops a fire of such intolerable severity 
that it was determined to silence some of the guns 
by a charge of infantry. To General Crawford's 
Brigade, consisung of the Forty-sixth Pennsylvania, 
Tenth Maine, Twenty-eighth New York, and Fifth 
Connecticut was assigned the duty of capturing an 
enfilade battery on the riglit front. It was about 
six o'clock when the order was given. The troops 
sprang forward at the double quick into a mur- 
derous fire, which came not only from the battery 
in front, but from the whole line of the enemy. 
Still they pressed on, leaving in their path a wake 
of their dead and wounded. With loud cheers 
they rushed into the woods from which the unseen 
batteries were belching forth their incessant volleys, 
when there sprang from the underbrush such an 
overwhelming force of the rebels, pouring in such a 
point-blank fire of musketry, that the battery could 
not be taken. The Fifth Connecticut preserved 
its ranks till the men reached a small brook that 
flowed through the field. Here fifty men were 
struck down in two minutes. Most of the compa- 
nies lost their leaders and straggled back to the 
protection of the wood from which they had issued. 
A large number, borne forward by the impetuosity 
of the charge, rushed into the midst of the enemy 
concealed near the battery and were there slain or 
captured. All the field officers were killed or made 
prisoners, and all the other officers, except five, 

JO 



were wounded. After Captain Corliss was wounded, 
Lieut. Dutton led his company across the field, 
though but a remnant reached the wood in which 
the enemy were concealed. He is reported to 
have seized more than once the regimental flag 
from some fallen hero and borne it on till he could 
commit it to some one still able to carry it aloft. 
His commanding form could not long escape, and 
he fell, pierced by a volley of musketry. "History," 
says John S. C. Abbott, ' ' has presented to my 
view few scenes more sad than the vision of the 
venerable father of this young man, wandering, a 
few days after the battle, over this field in the un- 
availing endeavor to find the remains of his beloved 
and only son." 

Major Edward F. Blake, a son of Eli W. Blake, 
was born at New Haven, November 25, 1837. 
Graduating at Yale College in the class of 1858, 
he was for a time undecided in respect to his career 
in life, and spent two years in the study of modern 
languages and general literature. In i860 he made 
choice of the law as a profession, and entered the 
Yale Law School. A few months afterward the 
war broke out, and though as yet uncertain whether 
duty called him to the tented field, he began at 
once to study army tactics and joined a company 
organized for daily drill. If cost him a severe strug- 
gle to decide upon entering into army life, so many 
phases of which were repugnant to his tastes and 
feelings. But he was not one to shut his eyes on 
any duty, and from month to month he approached 
nearer to the devotion of himself to his country. 
Accustomed from boyhood to annual camping-out 
parties and long rowing excursions, he w-ent in the 
summer of 1861 with a party of friends to spend 
his vacation in the usual manner. While thus ab- 
sent from home, he said one day to his compan- 
ions, " Who would believe, fifty years hence, that we 
spent a month roving in this way up the Connecti- 
cut River, when great armies were fighting for the 
life of our Government .''' In August, soon after his 
return from this excursion, he tendered his services 
to the Governor. A friend writes his recollections 
of a conversation he had with him as they chanced 
to meet one moonlight evening soon after he had 
come to a decision. 

Although perfectly cheerful, as he always was, he was less 
gay — not in such exuberant spirits as I had often see him. 
He had evidently been thinking very seriously and deliber- 
ately. He told me that he had not yielded to a first im- 
pulse — to any hasty enthusiasm — which might have prompt- 
ed him to go at once into the army. He had preferred to 
wait, to satisfy himself that the war was what it seemed to 
hnn, " one of the pivotal wars of the world." I remem- 
ber his e.xpression perfectly. He had thought about it, he 
said, calmly, and was sure now that it was so — a war of 
principles; a war on which immense results for the whole 
world depended. And he said that with this conviction he 
was resolved to go as soon as he could, to have his share in 
it. I wish that I could remember our talk, word for word. 
I can only recall its general tone, and his manner and ex- 
pression, so serious, so unselfish, so good, and that particu- 
lar phrase, "one of the pivotal wars of the world." 

In October he was appointed Adjutant of the 
Fifth Connecticut, then in the field in Maryland, 
and in the summer of 1862 was promoted to be 
Major. Shortly after his promotion, he was ordered 
to Connecticut as bearer of dispatches to the Gov- 



74 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



ernor. It so happened that this detail brought him 
home on the day of the College Commencement, 
when classmates and friends were present to join 
with his family in welcoming his return. It was a 
dark hour of thewar,and his heart was full of solici- 
tude for his country. He said in private conversa- 
tion, and said again when called up for a speech, 
"Young men of intelligence and education ought 
to join the army; they are needed and can do 
much." The ne.\t Sabbath he was at the commun- 
ion table in the church where his family worshiped, 
with father and mother, brothers and sisters around 
him: before the ne.xt .Sabbath he had returned to 
the field, had led his men into action, and had led 
them for the last time. In the heat of the action, 
as the Fifth was crossing the open field, a few men 
on the left flank faltered in their advance and 
sought shelter behind some rocks and bushes. 
Major Blake, running toward them, shouted, 
' ' Never let it be said that Connecticut men wavered 
to-day," rallied them and led them on to the woods 
in which the rest of the regiment were gallantly con- 
tending against great odds of numbers and position. 
Here Major Blake was instantly killed by a rebel 
bullet as he was waving his sword and encouraging 
his men. His body rests in an unknown grave. 

During the winter of 1861-62, it had been 
thought that the number of enlisted men was 
sufficient to put down the Rebellion. The War 
Department issued orders April 3, 1862, discontinu- 
ing the recruiting service, and the ardor of the peo- 
ple for enlisting subsided. In May, when the Sec- 
retary of War asked Governor Buckingham for 600 
men to fill up the Eighth, Tenth and Eleventh, so 
few responded that the call was modified into an 
order for the organization of a Fourteenth Regi- 
ment to join the 50,000 men designed for the camp 
of instruction at Annapolis. But the Fourteenth 
made slow progress in filling up, till in midsummer 
a new uprising of the people commenced, which 
was occasioned by disasters to the Union arms. 
As long as the people believed that there were men 
enough in the field, they preferred the pursuits of 
peace; but they were determined to save the coun- 
try. The Governors of the loyal States united in 
a letter to the President, urging him to "call for such 
numbers of men as might in his judgment be nec- 
essary to garrison and hold all the numerous cities 
and military positions that have been captured by 
our armies, and to speedily crush the Rebellion." 
In response, the President issued a proclamation on 
the I St of July, calling for 300,000 men, and on 
the 3d of July for the " immediate formation of 
si.x or more regiments." The response was speedy 
and vigorous. A large and spirited meeting was 
held in New Haven at Music Hall. Commodore 
Foote presided, and speeches were made by Governor 
Buckingham, Senator Dixon, Rev. Dr. Bacon, and 
Charles Chapman, of Hartford. It was resolved to 
put a regiment (the Fifteenth) into the field imme- 
diately. A recruiting committee was appointed, of 
which the active men were William S. Charnley, 
H. M. Welch, H. B. Harrison, S. D. Pardee, Will- 
iam II. Russell, A. D. O.sborne, P. A. Pinkerman, 
Francis Wayland, Jr., J. W. King, E. S. Quintard, 



D. J. Peck, Luman Cowles, Lucius R. Finch, Wyllis 
Bristol, C. A. Lindsley, John Woodruff, Lucius Gil- 
bert, E. I. Sanford, Eli Whitney, B. S. Brvan,James 
H. Lansing, J. C. HolUster, J. D. Cand'ee, D. H. 
Carr, E. Downes, C. S. Bnshnell, Charles W. Elliot, 
D. C. Gilman, Rev. William T. Eustis, John A. 
Porter, C. B. Rogers, John W. Farren, R. S. Fel- 
lowes, L. R. Smith, H. E. Pardee, Alexander Mc- 
Allister, H. D. White, N. D. Sperry. 

Recruiting began immediately, and the commit- 
tee, meeting daily, pushed the work so rapidly 
that the regiment was full and ready to move on 
the 25th of August. Dexter R. Wright was ap- 
pointed Colonel, Samuel Tolles was Lieutenant- 
Colonel, and Eli W. Osborne was Major. These 
gentlemen were all from New Haven. 

The camp was at Oyster Point, where the Seventh 
had rendezvoused, and from this camp the regi- 
ment took its departure on the 28th of August for 
Washington. No sooner was the camp vacated 
by the Fifteenth than it was occupied by the squads 
and companies that came for the Twentieth, which 
was immediately full, and departed on the iith of 
September. 

The call of the Governor was for six or more 
regiments, and the response was seven full regi- 
ments and a battery of light artillery, with 1 1 5 
men. 

But the call of July 3d was followed by another 
call from the Governor on the 4th of August for 
seven regiments of nine-months' men. Man}', whose 
duties at home would not permit them to be absent 
for three years, cheerfully volunteered for nine 
months, but before the quota of Connecticut was 
full, recruiting lagged, and the Governor announced 
on the 2 1st of August that there would be a draft 
on the 3d of September, unless the requisition 
should be previously filled. Preparations were 
made for the draft, and among other preparations, 
four camps were established in different parts of 
the State, one of which was Camp Terry, at Grape- 
vine Point, in New Haven. Many towns, and 
among them New Haven, filled their quota. On the 
day appointed for a draft, a crowd, estimated at 
from three to five thousand, gathered in the morn- 
ing at the north portico of the State House. A 
citizens' meeting was organized, with Thomas R. 
Trowbridge as Chairman, and Edwin A. Tucker as 
Secretary. Joseph Sheldon immediately oftered, 
on behalf of Arthur D. Osborne, $15 each for two 
volunteers, in addition to all bounties. James 
Gallagher offered $15 for one man. I. W. Hine 
and William A. Beckley each made the same offer. 
William Franklin offered $15 for each of ten men; 
N. D. Sperry $15 for each of ten more; John 
Woodruff $15 for each of twenty more; Thomas 
R. Trowbridge $15 each for thirty more; Hiram 
Camp $15 for each often more. Each announce- 
ment was greeted with loud applause. Rev. George 
De F. Folsom made a short and spirited address, 
and offered $15 for each of five men. A call was 
made for a general contribution, to be equally di- 
vided among those who should volunteer. S. T. 
Parmelee offered $100; D. J. Peck, $50; and 
James Gallagher having called for more, sums 



DURING THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 



th 



of from $1 to $20 were passed up till the sum of 
$1,200 for equal distribution had been received. 
At noon fifty-two men had volunteered, andS'5 
each had been ofliered for eighty-eight more, be- 
sides an interest in the fund for equal distribution. 
Enlistments were continued, but at 3.45 o'clock 
twenty-five men were needed to fill the quota. 
The Selectmen then gave notice that the draft 
would begin at 4 o'clock; but as the number was 
nearly complete at 4 o'clock they delayed, and at 
half-past 4, N. C. Hall announced that the quota 
was full, and that there would be no draft in New 
Haven. Nine tremendous cheers broke forth, and 
the crowd dispersed. 

The Twenty-third, the Twenty-seventh, and the 
Twenty-eighth rendezvoused at New Haven at the 
camp on Grape-vine Point. One of them left for 
the front in October and the others in November. 
In the course of two months Connecticut had 
awaked from the sleep to which she had resigned 
herself after the departure of the Thirteenth, and 
had raised fifteen additional regiments. New Ha- 
ven had furnished her quota, and had been, and 
still continued to be, one of the chief centers of 
military activit)'. Many of her citizens made fre- 
quent visits to the camp, and welcomed to their 
homes the soldiers with whom they became ac- 
quainted. 

In September, 1862, one of the heroes of the 
war in whom New Haven felt a special interest, fell 
in battle. Joseph King Fenno Mansfield was 
born in New Haven, though his parents removed 
to Middletown in his infancy. His ancestors had 
resided in New Haven from the first settlement of 
the town. Educatetl at West Point, he had con- 
tinued in the army till the breaking out of the Re- 
bellion, when he was promoted to be a Brigadier- 
General in the regular army. While bravely lead- 
ing on his forces in the battle of Sharpsburg, Sep- 
tember 17, 1862, he received a mortal wound, 
which soon terminated his life. \\'hen informed 
that there was no hope for him, he calmly replied, 
" If it be God's will, it is well.'' Middletown was 
the chief mourner. ' ' No man was better known 
or loved in Middletown than Mansfield;" but the 
city of his birth was in sympathy with the city of 
his residence in the mourning at his burial. 

At the battle of F"redericksburg, New Haven lost 
Captain Bernard E. Schweizer, a brave German 
soldier; Captain Addison L. Taylor, who being, 
when the war broke out, a pupil and a military in- 
structor in General Russell's Collegiate and Com- 
mercial Institute, had drilled Captain Joseph R. 
Hawley's Company in the three months' service; 
Frank E. Ailing, a student at Yale when he en- 
listed; and Sergeant Thomas E. Barrett, a much es- 
teemed and successful teacher in the Eaton School. 
All these were in the Twenty-seventh Connecticut. 

The State election of 1862 had been very quiet. 
Party excitement had subsided. The peace Demo- 
crats had shut their mouths, and the war Democrats 
were not disposed to displace Governor Bucking- 
ham. New Haven, unlike some other towns, had 
never witnessed any public anti-war demonstra- 
tions. Apparently the whole community were 



united in the prosecution of the war. There was 
really, however, among those who were united in 
the prosecution of the war, a difference of opinion 
in regard to the manner of conducting it. The 
Democrats insisted that nothing should in any case 
be done that was not in accordance with the Con- 
stitution. The Republicans, though not disposed 
to alienate any true patriots, held that in such a 
struggle for the national life, the rebels had lost 
their right to that property in men which the Con- 
stitution guaranteed, so that whenever military ne- 
cessity demanded the abduction or emancipation 
of slaves, the rebels were to be deprived of such 
au.xiliaries. But there was great difference of opin- 
ion among Republicans during the 3'ear 1862 on 
the question whether all disloyal masters should 
be deprived of their slaves. One blow after another 
was struck at slavery. In March it was abolished in 
the District of Columbia, Congress appropriating 
$1,000,000 for the compensation of loyal masters, 
and offering to give pecuniary aid " to any State 
which may adopt a gradual abolishment of slav- 
ery." It caused great joy in New Haven that its 
distinguished son, the Hon. James E. English, 
voted for the abolition of slavery in the District of 
Columbia. In June, a bill prohibiting slavery in 
the Territories was passed. On the 2 2d of Sep- 
tember the President announced by proclamation 
that on the ist day of January, 1863, he should, 
as an act of military necessity, declare all slaves 
free in every State then in rebellion against the 
United States. On the ist day of January the 
proclamation was accordingly issued. Though ap- 
proved by Republicans, it awakened some opposi- 
tion, and a division took place in the ranks of the 
Democrats of Connecticut, some continuing to act 
with the Republicans in the support of Governor 
Buckingham, and others endeavoring, in the State 
election of 1863, to place Thomas H. Seymour in 
the gubernatorial chair. Two years of war had 
not sufficed to restore the Union. It had now be- 
come a war against slavery, and no great advan- 
tage had resulted to the Union cause from the 
emancipation of the slaves. The "peace men" 
of Connecticut rallied under the cry of " No more 
war," and declared that the Union could be saved 
only by the cessation of hostilities. So many "war 
men " were absent from the State, that there was 
reason to fear that the peace men were in the 
majority, and furloughs were freely given to sol- 
diers to come home and fight the foe who were in 
the rear. The soldiers were unanimous in the 
opinion that the war should continue, and those 
who could not procure furloughs sent home the 
most impassioned appeals. This was in New Ha- 
ven as dark a time as there was during the war. A 
daily union prayer-meeting was held to express the 
desire of the people that God would save the nation. 
The contest was so close, that though the State 
polled more votes in the absence of twenty-five 
regiments than she did in the Presidential election 
of i860, Buckingham's majority was only 2,637. 

While the Assembly was in session, tidings 
reached New Haven of the death of another of 
her heroes. 



76 



HISTORl' OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



ANDREW HULL FOOTE 

was born at New Haven, September 12, 1806. His 
father, the Hon. Samuel A. Facte, graduated at Yale 
College in 1797, and studied law; but the want of 
health compelling him to engage in active life, he be- 
came junior partner with his wife's father, in the West 
India trade, in New Haven. The trade with the 
West Indies was unusually prosperous in the latter 
part of the eighteenth century and the first few 
years of the nineteenth, but was crippled by the War 
of 1812. The next year after this war commenced, 
Mr. Foote removed from New Haven to Cheshire, 
his native town, and there his home was till his 
death. He was one of the representatives from 
Connecticut in the fifteenth and in the sixteenth 
Congress, a Senator of the United States from 1827 
to 1833. He was again elected a representative 
to Congress, but being also chosen Governor of the 
State, he soon resigned his seat in Congress. His wife, 
Eudosia, daughter of Gen. Andrew Hull, of Chesh- 
ire, was a woman worthy of her husband. Andrew 
Hull Foote, the second son of this excellent couple, 
was bright, strong-willed and amiable, with a full 
share of that adventurous spirit which prompts boys 
to "go to sea." His father, instead of urging him 
to go to college, consented, after he had spent 
some years at the Episcopal Academy in Cheshire, 
that he should follow his bent and enter the navy. 
His first voyage was under the command of Lieu- 
tenant Gregory, better known now to New Haven 
people as Admiral Gregory, and was the occasion 
of a life-long friendship between the two Admirals. 
His second voyage was with Commodore Hull, in 
the Pacific Ocean. His hope was that his next 
cruise would be in the Mediterranean, trusting that 
his father's influence would procure for him what 
all young naval officers covet. But he was disap- 
pointed, and found himself assigned to further duty 
amid the West India Islands, where he had served 
with Gregory. While he was absent on that voy- 
age, his mother received from him a letter which be- 
gan with such words as these: "Dear Mother, — You 
need not be anxious any more about your sailor 
boy. By the grace of God, he is safe for time and 
for eternity." From this announcement he pro- 
ceeded to tell of a great change that had come over 
him, including the definite purpose, "henceforth, 
in all circumstances, I will act for God." From 
that high jjurpose he never receded. His brothers 
saw a great change in him when he came home 
from sea the third time. The natural qualities which 
made him attractive, and were of themselves a 
promise of eminence in his profession, were begin- 
ning to be exalted and ennobled by this purpose to 
act for God. In that pur|)ose there was the germ 
of a new and higher life. Such a purpose, breathed 
by God's spirit into a manly soul, makes that soul 
more manly. In eight years from the time he 
entered the service, during which he had been al- 
most continually at sea, the midshipman became a 
lieutenant. Twenty-five years more made him a 
commander. After many years of almost uninter- 
rupted service at sea, he was assigned to duty at 
the Naval Asylum at Philadelpliia, that he might 



enjoy a season of rest. Devoting himself to the 
welfare of the pensioners under his command, he 
won their affectionate confidence, obtained a bene- 
ficial moral influence over them, and by persuad- 
ing many of them to give up their spirit ration and 
to pledge themselves for total abstinence from in- 
toxicating drinks, introduced into the navy a new 
principle — the principle of voluntary self-reforma- 
tion and self-improvement among the common 
sailors. That principle was further established in 
his next cruise. As first lieutenant of the Cumber- 
land, on the Mediterranean, he persuaded the 
entire crew to abstain from intoxicating drinks. 
On his return from the two years' cruise in the 
Cumberland, being disabled by a painful disease of 
the eyes, he was ordered, after six months' absence, 
to the Navy Yard at Charlestown, Mass., where he 
remained through the whole period of the Mexican 
War. As soon as he was sufficiently recovered, he 
was put in command of the brig Perry, and sent 
to the coast of Africa, to serve again under his old 
friend, Commodore Gregory. Here he did much 
to promote harmonious co-operation between the 
British and American squadrons, and thus to break 
up the slave trade. In the Perry also he per- 
suaded the seamen to forego the liquor ration, and 
had the pleasure of bringing back his vessel from 
that sickly coast without the loss of a single man. 
After another rest he sailed from the Chesapeake 
Bay in command of a magnificent sloop-of-war, the 
Portsmouth. Two years afterward he returned, 
having won the applause not only of his own 
countrymen, but of all "outside barbarians," by 
the bombardment and storming of the barrier forts 
in the Canton river. 

His career as a navigator was now ended. He 
was assigned to duty at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, 
and when after three years the great rebellion broke 
out, his naval experience, wonderful promptitude 
and executive ability were put in requisition to pre- 
pare vessels for service. But the hero of the barrier 
forts of China was thought to be the right man to 
storm the forts which the rebellion had built on the 
Mississippi, the Tennessee and the Cumberland, for 
the protection of the States on the Gulf of Mexico. 
Foote was sent to Cairo, Illinois, to prepare a fleet 
of gunboats as speedily as possible. In three 
months everything was ready, and on Monda}', the 
2d of February, 1862,* a combined naval ami 
land expedition left Cairo for the purpose of reduc- 
ing Fort Henry on the Tennessee River. The land 
forces were under the command of General Grant. 
The naval armament consisted of seven gunboats 
under Commodore Foote. None but the oflicers 
knew its destination. It was generally believed that 
it was to descend the Mississippi. On Thursday of 
that week Fort Henry surrendered to the gunboats 
before the arrival of the land forces, which had dis- 
embarked nine miles below the fort. Ten days 
afterward, by the co-operation of army and navy, 

* On Sunday, the day preceding his departure from Cairo, Commo- 
dore Foote went to church as usual, and finding that no minister was 
present, went into the pulpit, read a portion of Scripture, offered a 
fervent prayer, and in an address pertinent to all, but especially to the 
soldiers present, recommended that faith in God which he exemplified 
in his life. 







<>--2-2^ 



I 

4 



DURING THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 



11 



Fort Donelson was captured, General Grant making 
his neat little speech to the commander who in- 
quired for terms of capitulation: "Unconditional 
surrender. I propose to move immediately upon 
your works." Foote was severely wounded at Don- 
elson, but, supported by crutches, he remained on 
duty till Island Number Ten, tire uppermost and 
strongest of the rebel forts which obstructed the 
passage down the Mississippi, was captured on the 
8th of April. His health was now so impaired by 
long and close application, by the pain of his wound, 
and grief at the sad tidings from home that three of 
his children had sickened and died, that his physi- 
cians enjoined him to leave the remainder of the 
work in other hands. He came home and spent a 
few months with his family, but before he was 
physically able reported himself ready for service. He 
was ordered to Washington to organize a new bu- 
reau in the Navy Department, and when his work 
was so far advanced that other hands could carry it 
on, he was transferred to the South Atlantic squad- 
ron. He accepted the appointment, feeling that his 
health was so impaired that he should never return, 
but determined to do his utmost for his country. 
Promoted soon after the capture of Island Number 
Ten to be a Rear-Admiral, he left home for his new 
command with higher rank than ever before; but 
was not permitted to enter upon hisnew career. 
The disease which his strong constitution had so 
long resisted, obliged him to stay in New York, and 
there he died, at the Astor House, June 26, 1863. 

The time of the nine months' regiments expired 
in the summer of 1863, and in August the Twenty- 
third was formally received in New Haven and wel- 
comed in an address by Ma}-or Tyler; the Twenty- 
seventh by Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon; and the 
Twenty-eighth by Alderman Edwin Marble. The 
greater part of the Twenty-seventh had been cap- 
tured at Chancellorville, and had recently been re- 
leased from Libby Prison; but the seventy-five who 
escaped capture had fought in the thickest of the 
fight at Gettysburg, where of the seventy-five, eleven 
were killed, twenty-four wounded, and four cap- 
tured. Henry C. Merwin, its Lieutenant-Colonel, 
was among the dead. He went as Sergeant with 
the New Haven Grays into the Second Regiment at 
the outbreak of war. After the muster-out, he re- 
mained at home till it became evident that the nation 
must put forth all its strength. He then gathered 
around him a full company of men for the Twenty- 
seventh, and was elected Lieutenant-Colonel. 

Along the weary march to Gettysburg he insjiired tlie 
men with his own indomitable spirit, and on that fated 
wheat-tiekl, where the missiles of the enemy avowed down 
the waving grain, he fell mortally wounded, breathing words 
of noble self-forgetfulness: "My poor regiment is suffering 
fearfully ! " 

Though a native of Brookfield, he spent inost of 
his life in New Haven. 

In the same battle. Captain Jedediah Chapman, 
of New Haven, was killed. He also was a mem- 
ber of the Grays, and went with them in the three- 
months' service. 

In the summer of 1863, when the soldiers who 
had enlisted for nine months were about to return 



to their homes, another requisition was made for 
troops. On the ist of July, it was ordered by the 
War Department that there should be a draft: that 
Connecticut should furnish 7,692 men; and that 
to cover exemptions 11,539 should be drafted. 
The draft was in many places opposed with great 
violence, and hostility to it culminated in New 
York in a bloody mob, in which the peace men 
vented their hatred of the war upon the unfortunate 
race who had been the innocent occasion of the 
strife. Negroes could not walk the streets in safety, 
and in several instances were clubbed to death or 
hung upon lamp-posts. Similar violence was threat- 
ened in New Haven, and was only prevented by 
the vigilance of the Mayor, Morris Tyler, and the 
co-operation of hundreds of good citizens, who 
kept themselves in constant readiness to support 
the right with all their might. Once, when the ex- 
citement was at the highest, every house occupied 
by people of color was vacated, and its inmates 
were sheltered for a night under the roof of some 
friendly neighbor. 

So many of the drafted men were exempted for 
one cause and another, and so many deserted, that 
the gain to the army was of little importance. An- 
other requisition was therefore made in October, 
and a draft ordered in case the requisition was not 
filled by January 5, 1864. Large bounties being 
offered, enlistments multiplied. Nevertheless, a 
draft would have been inevitable, but for a change 
of policy and of orders. Other States were alreadv 
sending as soldiers men of color, and Connecticut 
in the draft of July had not refused to enroll men of 
color, or to accept their service if the lot fell upon 
them. A bill was now passed in the General As- 
sembly authorizing the organization of regiments of 
colored men, and Governor Buckingham immedi- 
ately called upon that class of citizens to volunteer, 
promising the same pay as for other soldiers. A 
thousand men soon offered themselves, and were 
organized as the Twenty-ninth Regiment. The Thir- 
tieth Regiment was soon afterward commenced, 
and during the winter was recruited with material 
of the same kind, though it never became full. 
In addition to this expedient for completing the 
quota of the State, recruiting officers were sent to 
the three years' regiments in the field to offer a fur- 
lough of thirty days and a large bounty to those 
who would re-enlist. The large bounties attracted 
also veteran soldiers from Europe, so that, though 
the call in October for 300,000 men before Janu- 
ary 5, 1864, had been modified into a call for 
500,000 before March loth, and the quota of Con- 
necticut thereby increased from 5,432 to 9,053, the 
requisition was fully met, and there was no occa- 
sion for a draft. The next requisition was made 
March 14th, and the whole number required by 
the President being 200,000, the quota of Con- 
necticut was 5,260. In two weeks the quota was 
full by voluntary enlistments, with so large a sur- 
plus to be credited on any subsequent call, that no 
demand was afterwards made upon Connecticut. 

The year 1864 was a time of more hopefulness 
in New Haven than any preceding year since the 
commencement of hostilities. There were vicissi- 



ts 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



tudes in the fortune of war; but the pubUc mind 
had settled since the battle of Gettysburg in the 
summer of 1863, into the belief that sooner or 
later the Rebellion must collapse. The Southern 
Confederacy was surrounded by a military cordon 
so strong, that the utmost its Generals could ac- 
complish was to keep possession of the territory 
thus surrounded. They could spare no forces for 
another invasion of the North. The Union armies 
must, sooner or later, advance their lines inward 
upon the territory they inclosed, or, by patient 
waiting and masterly inactivity, exhaust the re- 
sources of the foe. As the year advanced, and 
Sherman marched through Georgia to the sea, the 
hopelessness of the Confederacy became more and 
more apparent; and confidence of final success su- 
pervened upon the doubt and uncertainty which 
had burdened the public mind at an earlier stage 
of the conflict. 

But the brighter prospect for the republic did not 
immediately bring to the soldiers exemption from 
danger and death, or to their friends an end of be- 
reavement. In every church in New Haven many 
pews were occupied with families clad in the ap- 
parel of mourning, and every month increased the 
number. In June, Captain William Wheeler was 
killed while on the march with Sherman through 
Georgia. He was born in the City of New York 
August 14, 1836, but when he entered Yale College, 
his widowed mother removed to New Haven, and 
the family have, from that time, continued to reside 
here. When the war commenced he was practicing 
law in New York, and joined the famous Seventh 
Regiment. When the Seventh returned, he joined 
a Battery of Light Artillery, and was in several en- 
gagements in 1862 and 1863, including that of 
Gettysburg, where his battery was actively engaged 
on each of the three days. On the second and 
third days it was stationed on the crest of Cemetery 
Hill at the curve in our convex line, where the 
hardest fighting took place. He was soon afterward 
promoted to the Captaincy of his battery as a re- 
ward for his faithful and efficient service in a sub- 
ordinate position. In October, he, with his battery, 
was transferred to Sherman's army, and arrived at 
Lookout Mountain a little too late to participate in 
its capture. At Chattanooga the question of re-en- 
listment came up, and Captain Wheeler, who had 
previously determined to leave the army in Octo- 
ber, 1864, when the three years for which he had 
enlisted would expire, finding that all the men in 
his battery, except two, were willing to re-enlist if 
he would remain with them, but not otherwise, de- 
termined to retain his commission, and thus secure 
SO many more men to the service of the country. 
But in the battle of Gulp's Farm, near Marietta, 
seeing a vacant space between the First and Second 
divisions of the Corps, he moved his battery into 
the gap, and though informed by the General com- 
manding one of these divisions that he could spare 
no infantry to support him, bravely replied, "Then 
I will support myself" A few minutes after, as 
he was sighting a gun, a rifle ball from a rebel 
sharpshooter pierced his heart, and he died in- 
stantly. 



Another family in the same congregation mourn- 
ed the death of Colonel Frank H. Peck. He was 
born in New Haven in 1836; graduated at Yale 
College in 1856, and went out to New Orleans 
in 1 86 1 as Major of the Twelfth. Almost immedi- 
ately it devolved upon him to be in command of 
the regiment, Colonel Deming being detailed to 
act as Mayor of New Orleans, and Lieutenant- 
Colonel Colburn as Superintendent of a railroad. 
In January, 1863, Colonel Deming having re- 
signed. Major Peck was promoted to be Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel. During November and December, 
1863, the men of his regiment having re-enlisted, 
the General commanding the division to which they 
belonged issued the following order: 

Headquarters, First Division, 
igTH Army Corps, 
New Iberia, La., January i, 1864. 
General Orders, No. 2. — The Twelfth Connecticut \'o\- 
unteers, Lieutenant-Colonel F. H. Peck commamlini;, hav- 
ing re-enlisted, will comply with Special Orders, No. I, from 
headquarters igth Army Corps, and proceed to Ne«' Or- 
leans. 

The General commanding this division thinks it due to 
this regiment, and to the Lieutenant-Colonel commandini; 
it, to express his high opinion of ils good conduct, wliether 
in the face of the enemy or in camp, and especially the 
promptness with which it has come forward to re-enlist 
under the first call of the President of the United States. 
His regiment is the first that has been called upon under the 
law. It has set a good example. The country, and the au- 
thorities which represent the country, will not fail to honor 
the Twelfth Connecticut. 

By command of Brigadier-General Emery, 

Frederick Speed, 

A. A. General. 

The regiment then returned home on the thirty 
days' furlough allowed to re-enlisting veterans. 
Arriving at New Haven on Friday morning, Feb- 
ruary 1 2th, in the steamer Traveler, the regiment 
was met at the dock by the city authorities, and, 
under escort of the Fair Haven Band, Battalion 
Veteran Reserve Corps, New Haven Grays, a Com- 
pany from Russell's School, National Blues, Light 
Guard, city officers in carriages, marched to Music 
Hall, where a breakfast had been prepared for 
them. After the repast. Mayor Tyler welcomed 
the men in a brief and graceful speech, to which 
Lieutenant-Colonel Peck responded as follows: 

In behalf of the officers and members of the regiment 1 
thank you. We have been reminded many times that we 
were not forgotten by the friends at home. For a long 
period we have felt we possessed yom- friendship. But 
we feel that your generous demonstrations are entirely 
bevonil our deserts. Two years ago this month, we left this 
city to ioin the army of General Butler. Since that time we 
have been in active service in the face of the enemy. How 
active that service has been, four hundred vacancies on onr 
rolls to-day show. But discouragements and failures have 
never yet appalled us, we assure you. On the contrary, not 
to have re-enlisted would have seemed like abandoning the 
principles which actuated us in entering the service. At a 
proper time we shall be ready to take the field again. And 
let me say that it depends upon you « ho remain at home, as 
much, if not more than upon us, what the result of this 
contest will be. You who remain enjoying the blessings of 
peace should see to it that you are loyal in your legislation, 
loyal in your conversation, loyal in all things; and we jiledge 
you our lives to carry your flag and our flag with honor into 
the face of the enemy. 

The furlough having been extended, the regiment 
left New Haven on the morning of May 8th, and 



DURIXG THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 



70 



arrived at New Orleans on the 17th of that 
month. 

In the course of the summer, the Army Corps to 
which the Twelfth belonged was transferred from 
the Department of the Gulf to the command of 
General Sheridan in the valley of the Shenandoah 
in Virginia. On the 26th of August, Lieutenant- 
Colonel Peck received a commission as Colonel, in 
consequence of the resignation of Colonel Colburn. 
About the middle of September, Sheridan advanced 
up the valley of the Shenandoah, and in an engage- 
ment near Winchester on the 19th of the month, 
Colonel Peck yielded up his life for his country. 
As the command, " Forward, double-quick " issued 
from his lips, he was struck by a piece of a shell 
which e.xploded within a few feet of his head and 
severely wounded him. He died the ne.xt morning, 
saying: "I do not regret that I came to the war; 
it is all perfectly right;" and again, "I do not know 
how I could die in a better cause. " 

Still another family in the same congregation was 
smitten in the spring of 1S65, when Major E. Wal- 
ter Osborn, of the Fifteenth Regiment, having been 
mortally wounded in North Carolina, and taken 
prisoner, died in captivity. He was born in New 
Haven, and was thirty years old at the time of his 
death. He was for several years Captain of the 
Grays, and at all times was an active and enthusias- 
tic member of that popular organization, which he 
commanded at the first battle of Bull Run when 
the Grays were in the Second Regiment. When 
the Fifteenth, or Lyon, Regiment was formed, he 
accepted the position of Major, in which he had 
nearly served through his three years of enlistment. 
He was on detached service when his regiment 
moved to battle, and on his own application ob- 
tained leave to join his comrades and share their 
fortune. His equable and generous temperament, 
his unselfishness, and his kindly manner, joined 
with high manly attributes, attracted love and con- 
fidence; and his death was sincerely mourned by 
the brave men who had known him in camp and 
battle. 

These instances of chivalric surrender of life are 
conspicuous by reason of the military rank of those 
who died; but there were hundreds of privates who 
gave their lives to their country with equal un- 
selfishness. New Haven holds the dust of 625 
patriot soldiers of the War of the Rebellion. The 
verse which a poet of New Haven had previously 
written of soldiers of the Revolution, is equally ap- 
propriate when applied to the graves of these 
heroes of a later day. 

Many of them died here in hospital and were 
interred afar from home and the graves of their 
kindred. But many of the soldiers whose remains 
lie in our cemeteries were natives or residents of our 
city. The soldier of the Revolution was buried 
on the field where he fell; but increased facilities 
of transportation have permitted the modern soldier 
to be gathered to the garnered dust of his fathers. 

Here they repose 
After their generous toil. A sacred band, 
They tal<e their sleep together, while the year 
Comes with its early flowers to deck their graves, 



And gathers them again, as Winter frowns. 

Theirs is no vulgar sepulcher — green sods 

Are all their monument, and yet it tells 

A nobler history than pillared piles, 

Or the eternal pyramids. They need 

No statue nor inscription to reveal 

Their greatness. It is round them; and the joy 

W'itli whicli their children tread the hallowed ground 

That holds their venerated bones, the peace 

That smiles on all they fought for, and the wealtli 

That clothes the land they rescued — these, though mute, 

As feeling ever is when deepest — these 

Are monuments more lasting than the fanes 

Reared to the kings and demigods of old. 

Tidings of the evacuation of Petersburg and 
Richmond reached New Haven on Monday, the 
3d of April. Immediately a national salute was 
fired, and the bells rang out a joyous peal. Flags 
waved all over the city. At a meeting in Brewster 
Hall in the evening, to hear the result of the State 
election, there was great enthusiasm at the an- 
nouncement of the news from the seat of the war, 
as well as at the report that the people of Connec- 
ticut had given a majority of 1 1,066 for their War 
Governor, and were not disposed to acknowledge 
that the war was a failure. 

About this time, so many discharged soldiers 
were passing through New Ha\en on their way 
home, that a Soldiers' Rest was established in Olive 
street, where they might find food and shelter. 
The Quartermaster for the post furnishing an im- 
mense tent, and the officer in charge of the Knight 
Hospital a supply of mattresses and blankets, while 
a committee of citizens made an arrangement with 
a restaurant in the neighborhood for meals. The 
institution was put under the charge of Mr. George 
Buell, a discharged soldier, with instructions to 
keep it open night and day for all old soldiers re- 
turning home through New Haven, and to supply 
them gratuitously with food and lodging until 
they were able to proceed on their journey. 

News of Lee's surrender reached New Haven on 
Sunday evening, April 9th. Between nine and ten 
o'clock the message flashed over the wires, but be- 
fore the tidings could be extensively circulated, 
many, if not most, of the citizens had retired to 
their beds. They were, however, speedily awakened 
with the noise of bells and a national salute. The 
people sprang from their slumbers and rushed to 
the public square. Wood-piles and lumber-yards, 
and quartermaster's boxes, were appropriated with- 
out preliminary arrangements, and huge bonfires 
glowed in Chapel street, rendering the principal 
thoroughfare of our cit}' as light as day. The crowd 
becoming larger and larger, a procession was 
formed and proceeded to visit the residences of 
prominent men. His Honor the INIayor first re- 
ceived the congratulations of the rejoicing people. 
He briefly responded, expressing his thanks for the 
honor, and his very great joy at the occasion of 
this demonstration. Hon. E. C. Scranton, Prof. 
Northrop, Hon. Henry B. Harrison, C. S. Bush- 
nell, Esq., Hon. E. K. Foster, Hon. N. D. Sperry, 
Hon. John Woodruff, Edwin Marble, Esq., Rev. 
W. T. Eustis, Hon. E. I. Sanford, ISIajor Pliny 
A. Jewett, and Major-General Russell were among 
those who were called upon. As the procession 



80 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



moved, a blaze of fireworks was kept in the air, 
gongs were sounded, dinner-bells were rung, and 
horns added to the general jubilation of the occa- 
sion. The Tohn Brown anthem was sung, and 
from hundreds of strong voices went up the dox- 
ology "Praise God from whom all blessings flow." 
Houses were illuminated from top to bottom; 
ladies waved their handkerchiefs, and banners and 
streamers were everywhere displayed. Till da)-- 
light, the city was wild with joy. At sundown 
the thunder of cannon was again heard on the 
Green, and simultaneously the bells in all the 
steeples rang forth a joyful peal. 

On Tuesday evening, Tyler's Hall was filled 
with citizens to make arrangements for a celebration. 
A committee was appointed, and instructed to report 
at a meeting to be called by them when they were 
ready. That committee never reported, for the 
reason that, on the following Saturday morning, a 
message came on the wire that Lincoln had been 
assassinated. As soon as the despatch was put on 
the bulletin board, business was suspended; stores 
were closed; in less than an hour private and 
public buildings began to exhibit the drapery of 
mourning; flags were put at half-mast; the boom- 
ing of cannon and the tolling of bells proclaimed 
the mournful tidings to the most secluded citizen. 
About ten o'clock a. m., a call for a meeting on the 
Green at noon was bulletined, and at twelve o'clock 
the largest assemblage ever witnessed in New 
Haven came together at the south portico of the 
State House. Prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. 
Bacon, and resolutions expressive of sorrow for 
the death of the martyred President, and determina- 
tion to support the cause of the country against his 
murderers, were presented by Hon. James F. 
Babcock. Rev. Dr. Harwood, Hon. James E. 
English, Rev. W. T. Eustis, Hon. H. B. Harrison, 



Judge E. K. Foster, Hon. R. I. Ingersoll, Rev. 
Dr. Bacon, and Rev. S. D. Phelps addressed the 
meeting, and the resolutions were adopted. 

On Monday, a week later, the following Procla- 
mation was issued: 

Mayor's Office, 
City of New Haven, April 17, 1865. 

Wednesday, the 19th inst. li.ivint; been offici.iUy appointed 
as the tlay fur public funeral ser\ices in honor of oiu" late 
President, Abraham Lincoln, I hereby leqiiest that all places 1 
of business lie closed: and that no public amusements be I 
permitted; and that the people assemble at twelve o'clock 1 
noon, with their religious teachers, in their respective places 
of worship, for prayer to Almighty God in lichalf of our 
bereaved country, and for all in authority, especially for him 
who has been so suddenly called to the executive chair; 
that he may he enabled to emulate the wisdom and virtue ol 
his illustrious ])redecessor, and to gain, like him,_the conti- 
dence and affection of the loval people of the United States. 

By order of the Aldermen. Morris Tyler, 

Mayor. 

In accordance with the request of the Chief 
Magistrate of the city, funeral honors were rendered 
to the Martyr President. It was a day of sorrow, 
and yet of joy. The people mourned for Lincoln 
as many a family had mourned for a son slain in 
battle. But as the joy of such a family was greater 
than their sorrow, so the rejoicing of the people 
over the downfall of rebellion, could not be drowned 
in their mourning for the death of Lincoln. Sim- 
ultaneous with his death was the restoration of the 
Lhiion. The joy which otherwise might have been 
intemperate and forgetful of God, was chastened _| 
into seriousness, but was nevertheless a great joy. fj 
In the course of four years, from April, 1861, to 
April, 1865, the War of the Rebellion had many 
times called the people of New Haven to assemble 
for prayer or the enlistment of volunteers, or va- 
rious works in aid of soldiers, but after the solemn 
obsequies of the 19th of April, 1865, the city was 
no more disquieted with rumors of war. 



CHAPTER V. 



ANNALS OF Till-: CITY OF 



NEW HAVEN FROM 
CENTENNIAL IN 



ITS 
1 88- 



INCORPORATION IN 17S4 T(_) IPS 



BEFORE the War of the Revolution there was 
some movement, as we have seen, toward the 
incorporation of a city within the limits of New 
Haven. But the war was so imperative in its de- 
mands, that neither the General Assembly, nor those 
who desired a city charter, had leisure to attend to 
anything else than the salvation of the country 
from the invading armies of the enemy. But 
within a year after the proclamation of peace, the 
movement was resumed. If there had been oppo- 
sition from persons living in remote parts of the 
township, much of it had been silenced by the 
erection of three new towns, viz. : East Haven, 
North Haven, and Woodbridge. A petition for 
incorporating New Haven as a city was presented 
to the General Assembly at the October session of 
1783, and a bill in accordance with this petition 
was passed by the Upper House; but as an ad- 



journed session was to be held in January, the 
Lower House deferred the consideration of the 
subject. In a town-meeting on the 5th day of Jan- 
uary, 1784, the representatives of the town in the 
General Assembly were requested to exert them- 
selves, that the act for incorporating a part of tlie 
town of New Haven be piassed with all convenient 
speed. Three days afterward, the General Assem- 
bly passed the desired act of incorporation, enact- 
ing that all freemen of this State, inhabitants of 
New Haven, residing within certain limits, "shall 
be one body corporate and politic, in fiict antl in 
name, by the name of the Mayor, Aldermen, Com- 
mon Council, and Freemen of the City of New 
Haven. " 

The people who asked for the act of incorpora- 
tion were moved to do so by the hope that it would 
promote the revival of trade. We have spoken yf 



ANNALS OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



81 



the increase of wealth in the town for several years 
before the war. Commerce was then in a more 
prosperous condition than ever before. In the 
year ending May i, 1774, the e.xports amounted to 
jj 1 4 2, 000. Of the articles which contributed to 
make up this amount, there were 150,000 pounds 
of flax-seed, 15,000 bushels of wheat, 20,000 of 
■yS' 33.000 of Indian corn, 2,000 oxen, and 1,400 
horses. But the war put an end to commerce, and 
for about eight years New Haven suffered a paral- 
ysis of business and a wasting of its wealth. At the 
conclusion of the war, the ancient enterprise of 
the merchants of the place immediately began to 
reappear in the renewal of their intercourse with 
foreign countries. The incorporation of a city was 
one of a system 'of measures for developing and in- 
creasing the business of the place. Another was 
the removal of the animosities produced by a war 
in which neighbors had arrayed themselves on op- 
posite sides. In a town-meeting, March 3, 1784, 
it was, on motion of Pierpont Edwards, Esq., 

Voleci, That Pierpont Edwards, John Whiting, David 
Austin, David Atwaler, Sam Huggins, James Hillhouse, 
Jonathan IngersoU, and Jonathan Dickcrnian be a committee 
"to consider the propriety and expediency of admittmg as in- 
habitants of this town persons who in the course of the late 
war adhered to the cause of Cireat Britain against the 
United States, and are of fair characters, and will be good 
and usefiil members of society and faithful citizens of this 
State, and that said committee report to this meeting. 

The committee immediately brought in a report, 
which doubtless had been previously prepared, as 
follows: 

We, your committee appointed to consider, etc., beg leave 
to report that by the Federal Constitution of the United 
States, each State, as to its internal police, is sovereign and 
independent to all jnirjioses not specially excepted in the Ar- 
ticles of Confederation, and the power of admitting to in- 
habitancy is reserved unimpeached to each State, liable to 
no restriction or limitation but by its own municipal law; 
that there is no law of this State that forbids the persons 
pointed out in the vote of the town from coming into or 
dwelling therein; that l)y the express provisions of the stat- 
utesof this State, each town has the exclusive right and power 
of admitting its inhabitants; that by the articles of the De- 
finitive Treaty, and the recommendations of Congress found- 
ed thereon, a spirit of real peace and philanthropy toward 
our countrymen of the aforesaid description is most strongly 
inculcated; that as these United States, by the blessing of 
Heaven, established their independence and secured their 
lilx;rties on that basis, to which their wishes and exertions 
were directed, and as the great national question on which 
those persons differed from us in sentiment is terminated 
authoritatively in favor of the United States, it is our opinion, 
that in point of law and constitution, it will he proper to ad- 
mit as inhabitants of this town such persons as are specified 
in said vote, but that no persons who committed unauthor- 
ized and lawless plundering and murder, or have waged war 
against these United States contrary to the laws and" usages 
of civilized nations, ought on any account to be admitted. 

With respect to the expediency of such a measure, we beg 
leave to report that in our opinion no nation, however dis- 
tinguished for prowess in arms and success in war, can be 
considered as truly great unless it is also distinguished for 
justice and magnanimity, and no people can with the least 
propriety lay claim to the character of being just who violate 
their most solemn treaties, or of t)eing magnanimous who 
persecute a conquered and submitting enemy; that, there- 
fore, the present and future national glory of the Uiiited 
States is deeply concerned in their conduct relative to per- 
sons described in said vote; for although at the present 
moment, while the distresses and calamities of the late war 
are fresh in our recollection, we may consider a persecuting 
spirit as justifiable, we must, whenever reason assumes her 
11 



empire, reproach such a line of conduct, and he convinced 
that future generations, not being influenced by our passions, 
will form their ideas of our character from those acts which 
a faithful historian shall have recorded, and not from our 
passions, of which they can have no history. That as this 
town is most advantageously situated for commerce, having 
a spacious and safe harbor, surrounded by a very extensive 
and fertile country, which is inhabited by an industrious and 
enterprising people fully sensible of the advantages of trade, 
and .as the relative and essential importance and consequence 
of this State depend on the prosperity and extent of its agri- 
culture and commerce, neither of which can alone render it 
important and happy, we are of opinion that in point of real 
honor and permanent utility, the measure proposed will be 
highly expedient. 

The report of the coinmittee was accepted and 
approved, and the Selectmen were directed to act 
according to it in the admission of inhabitants. 

The General Assembly had already provided, in 
the act incorporating the city, that, 

IV/n-rcas, There are many persons living within said limits, 
who by law are qualified to be freemen of this State, that 
have not taken the oath provided by law to be taken by free- 
men — that all such persons living within said limits, who 
shall, before the second Monday of February next, procure 
the major part of the Selectmen of the said town of New 
Haven, to certify that they are cpialified to be admitted and 
made free of this State, and shall, after procuring such certi- 
ficate, take, before some Assist.ant of this State or Justice of 
Peace within and for the County of New Haven, the oath 
provided by law for freemen, shall, to all the purposes in 
this act mentioned, be considered as freemen of this State and 
freemen of the said City of New Haven. 

Dr. Stiles records that the total number in the 
city qualified to become freemen, as certified by 
the Selectmen, was three hundred and forty-three. 
Fifty-five of them were college graduates. Eighty- 
four of the three hundred and fort3'-three had not 
taken the freeman's oath; some being absent, some 
disabled, and some indifterent. Dr. Stiles judges 
that there were about six hundred adult males liv- 
ing within the city limits; so that if his estimate 
was accurate, nearly one-half of the adult males 
were disqualified. The disqualification may have 
been owing to the want of the required amount of 
property or to adherence to the enemies of the 
United States during the war. 

In the same sessionin which the city was incor- 
porated, the General Assembly had made the cities 
and ports of New London and New Haven free 
cities and ports for the term of seven years from the 
first day of June, a.d. 1784, exempting merchants, 
whether citizens of Connecticut or not, importing 
foreign goods to the amount of j/'3,ooo,or bringing 
in ;^2,ooo in money, from taxation on the profits 
of their business; exempting also their ships, if em- 
ployed four months in a year in the European, 
Asiatic, or African commerce, "Provided, never- 
theless, that no person, who having adhered to the 
King of Great Britain in the course of the late war, 
and under pretext of such adherence has been guilty 
of lawless and unauthorized plundering or murder, 
or who has waged war against the United States, 
contrary to the laws and usages of civilized nations, 
shall be entitled to the benefit of this act. " It was 
further provided that nothing in the act should be 
construed to interfere with any laws or regulations 
of Congress, or to imply countenance or allowance 
of the slave trade, 



82 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



If, after such declarations from the General As- 
sembly, those inhabitants of New Haven who had 
been Tories during the war needed any further as- 
surance that they would be kindly received as free- 
men of the State of Connecticut and of the new City 
of New Haven, the action of the town must have 
given them the assurance they required. 

There seems to have been a general disposition 
on the part of those who had sympathized with 
Great Britain to accept the situation. Both parties 
united with equal alacrity in the organization of 
the city government. That the citizens not only 
desired the co operation of all residents, however 
alienated in the time past, but wished also to 
attract strangers to make New Haven their place of 
residence, appears in a vole passed at a meeting of 
the Mayor, Aldermen, Common Council and Free- 
men on the 23d day of September, 1784. 

Voted, That Charles Chauncey, Pierpunt Edwards, James 
Hillhouse, Timothy Jones, Jonathan Infjersoll, David Austin, 
and Isaac Beers. Esqrs., be a committee in behalf of this 
city, to assist all such strangers as shall come to the city for 
the purpose of settlement therein, in procurinj; houses and 
land on the most reasonable terms, and to prevent such per- 
sons, as far as possible, from being imposed upon with 
respect to rent and the value of houses and lands, and to 
give them such information and intelligence with respect to 
business, markets and commerce, mode of living, customs 
and manners, as such strangers may need; and to culti\'ate 
an easy acquaintance of such strangers with the citizens 
thereof, that their residence therein may be remlcred as 
eligible and agreeable as possible. 

It appears from contemporary newspapers that 
there was a particular class of strangers whom New 
Haven hoped to attract. Articles contra and pro, 
appear in the Connecliciit Jourtial of May 8th and 
May 15th, respecting the desirableness of permitting 
and encouraging the Tory merchants of New York 
to remove to New Haven. The action of the State, 
as well as of the town and of the city, doubtless 
had reference to those New York men who, it was 
thought, could bring wealth and business to New 
Haven At least one wealthy firm did remove 
from New York to New Haven. The Coiiiieclicul 
Journal of August 25, 1874, contains this an- 
nouncement. 

The subscribers, being desirous of availing thenselves of 
tlie generous laws and invitation of the Legislature of this 
State at their late session, have removed IVom New York to 
the City of New Haven, where they will open and have 
ready for sale on Monday, the 6th of Sejitembcr next, a 
large and elegant assortment of Hurojiean and India Gooils, 
suitable to the present and approaching seasons, which they 
will sell at the same adv.uice as they do in New York, a 
mode they mean strictly to adhere to through the course of 
their trade. Their frienils in general, and particularly those 
of this State, are re(|uested to call upon them at the above 
day, or any future period; when they will have the satis- 
faction of being supplied with goods immediately imported 
from Europe by inhabitants of this State. 

We have tor sale .Madeira and Sherry wines, of the first 
([uahty, by the pipe or quarter-cask; also, London Porter in 
casks and bottles. N.B. -Cash, I'ork, Beef, Potash, Butter 
and Flax-seed will he taken in payment. 

Broome & Platt. 
New Haven, August 25th. 

It is not known to the writer that anv other 
merchants removed from New York to New Haven. 
New Haven grew by a natural growth, but New 
York could not be grafted in upon so small a 



stock. The firm of Broome & Platt were for a 
time, or seemed to be, very prosperous, importing 
in vessels sailing from Great Britain direct to the 
harbor of New Haven. But a-fter a few years 
the business was removed back to New York, 
and the firm finally failed. The partners both 
died in poverty in New Haven. Twins were born 
to Mr. Broome, whom he named respectively 
George Washington and Horatio Gates; and for 
the twins, he had constructed the double-headed 
mahogany cradle which is preserved in the rooms 
of the New Haven Colony Historical Society. It 
was received with other articles of furniture by Mr. 
Ezra Lines in payment of house rent when Mr. 
Broome had become old and impoverished. Mr. 
Augustus Lines, in his history of the cradle, relates 
that his father, Mr. Ezra Lines, was accustomed, 
when a young man, to work as a tailor in the 
houses of both the partners of this wealthy firm, for 
"fifty cents a day and his keeping." He also re- 
lates that the younger of the twins spent his last 
years in Hartford, where he earned a meager sup- 
port in old age by sweeping and making fires in 
several offices. The last time Mr. Lines saw him, 
he inquired, being then nearly eighty years of age, 
about the mahogany cradle. 

Reference has already been made to the census 
taken in 1787, and we repeat in this p)lace the 
figures which it reported, showing the sum total of 
the population within the city limits at that time. 
The total was 3,364; of whom 1,657 were males 
and 1,707 were females. 

Dr. Dana gives us another census taken in 1800 
or 1801, just before the printing of his century ser- 
mon. He reports the population at that time as 
1,914 males; 2,086 females. This makes a total 
of 4,oco. Families, 730; dwelling-houses, 524; 
stores, no; barns and shops, 337. 

Dr. Dwight sa3-s that the whole number of houses 
in the spring of 1808, as he numbered them, was 
720, and that 314 of them were built "on the 
streets forming the squares." 

The same authority gives 5, 1 57 as the population 
of the town of New Haven in 1800; of which 
4,049 were included in the city. The United 
States Census gives New Haven in 18 10 a popula- 
tion of 6,967. Dr. Dwight explains that this 
signifies that there were so many in the town; the 
number in the city being 5,772. 

By the act of incorporation, it was provided that 
there should be a meeting of said city holden an- 
nually in June, at such time and place as by the 
by-laws of said city shall be directed, for the pur- 
pose of choosing all the annual officers of said city. 
And that the annual officers of said city, chosen at 
such meeting, shall continue in office until the ex- 
piration of the month of June then next, unless 
others shall be sooner chosen and qualified in their 
stead. It was also provided that the Mayor, hiving 
been chosen by the city assembled in legal meeting, 
should hold his office during the pleasure of the 
General Assembl}'. The Act having also provided 
that the first meeting of the city should be holden 
at the State House in New Haven on the loth day 
of the next February, at nine of the clock in the 



ANNALS OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



83 



forenoon, for the choice of the Mayor, Aldermen, 
Common Council, and Sheriffs of said city, and 
minutely defined the method in which the freemen 
should proceed in their meeting, Roger Sherman 
was at that meeting elected the first Mayor, and 
the General Assembly having never intimated that 
it was their pleasure that he should be removed 
from the office, continued Mayor as long as he 
lived. 

ROGER SHERMAN 

died in 1793. To this record of his death 
ought to be added some of the principal events 
of his honorable and useful life. He was born 
at Newton, Mass., April 19. 1721. When he was 
at the age of twenty years, his father died, and 
consequently the care of a large family devolved on 
him and an older brother. In 1743 he removed to 
New Milford, Conn., and became a partner with 
that brother in a mercantile business. His oppor- 
tunities of attending school in his boyhood had 
been very limited; but his clear and strong intellect 
gathered knowledge from every quarter. In 1745 
he was appointed county surveyor, and in 1754 he 
was admitted to the Bar. While a resident of New 
Milford he also became a Justice of the Peace and a 
Justice of the Quorum, a Deacon of the Church, and 
a representative of the town in the General Assembly. 
Removing to New Haven in 1 761, he was soon 
appointed Judge of Common Pleas, and an Assistant 




Roger Sherman's House in Chapel Street. 

or Member of the Upper House in the Legislature. 
He was annually re-elected to the latter office for 
nineteen years, and held his judgeship till 1789, 
the latter portion of the time on the Bench of the 
Superior Court. In 1774 he was appointed a Mem- 
ber of the first Congress, a post in which he con- 
tinued till his death; at which time he held a seat 
in the Senate, having been elected thereto in 1791. 
In the Congress of 1776 he was one of the com- 
mittee to draft the Declaration of Independence, 
and during the war he served on .some of the most 
important committees, and was successively a 
member of the Board of War and Ordnance and 
of the Board of Treasury. While so much occupied 



with national affairs, he was also during the war a 
member of Governor Trumbull's Council of .Safety. 
For many years previous to the Revolutionary War 
he was the Treasurer of Yale College; and, the 
war being ended, his fellow-citizens in New Haven 
called him to be the chief officer of the newly 
incorporated city. 

In the Columbian Jic^'is/er o[ August 19, 1845, 
is "A Plan of part of Chapel Street, showing the 
Buildings and Occupants about the year 1786." 



CHURCH 



Richard Cutler's 

Lhvfllin!;. ^ 



Richard Culler's 



□ 



Warehouse 
and Start. tZl 



IlezeUiah Beardsley's | — 1 
House and Drug Store. 1 I 



Eli Beecher's 
House. 



John Cook's 

Dwelling House and 

Tailor Shop. 



Samuel Covert's 
Tailor Shof. 



□ 



Bishop & Hotchkiss 
Hal Store. 



CD 



\Vm. McCracken's I 1 
House and Store. I — I 



Eben. Beardsley's r — i 
House and Drug Store. I — I 



Theophilus Munson's [ | 
Dwelling House and 



Blacksmith Shop. □ 
Tree. ^ 



Watts House,occupied^ 

by Messrs. Sher-j^ | 
man, A. Bradley, 
2d, and D. Cook. 



Titus Street's 
House and Store. 



D 



STATE 



STREET. 




Thad. Beecher's 

f/ouse^ Store and 
Warehouse. 




Timothy Phelps' 
'— 'Z)ri' Goods Merchant. 


n 


John Miles' 
Tavern. 


□ 


Ruth Crane. 


□ 


John Beecher. 


□ 


Maltby & Fowler, 
Grocers, 


n 


N. Kimberly, 
Painter. 


— An old house where 

1 1 now is the New Haven 

Bank. 


Now Orange Street. 


D 


Pember Jocelyn. 


j — 1 Jeremiah Atwater, 2d, 
' — ' House. 


D 


Atwater & Lyon's 
Store. 


D 


Z. Read's 
House. 


n 


Z. Read's 

Saddlery. 


n 


Mix's 
Bakery. 


— 


Joseph Mix's 
Dwelling House. 


1 1 


Col. Wm. Lyon's 
House. 


n 


Nath. Lyon's 
Tin Shop. 


D 


Warehouse. 

Bradley & Huggins' 
Store. 


STREET. 



84 



HISTORT OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



It was drawn by Deacon Charles Bostvvick, who is 
said in the context to be the only person remain- 
ing who resided or had his place of business in 
that section of Chapel street in 1786. Probably 
Mr. Bostwick was at that date an apprentice to a 
saddler on Chapel street. In an advertisement in 
the Coniiecticiil Journal of November 6, 1 794, 
"Charles Boslwick respectfully informs the public 
that he has taken a shop opposite the Church in 
New Haven, where he carries on the saddling and 
harness-making business in their various branches. " 
Ten )eais later he was in Chapel street, informing 
his customers and the public on the 9th of Febru- 
ary, 1804, " that he has removed his saddling bus- 
iness to his new shop, nearly opposite Miles' 
Tavern." At the time which the diagram repre- 
sents there was not a brick building on that part of 
Chapel str-eet. The first brick building between State 
and Church streets was erected by Colonel William 
Lyon, and was occupied as a banking-house for 
the New Haven Bank for several years. 

At a city meeting, .September 22, 1784, it was 

I'ottd, That the streets in the City of New Haven be 
named as follows, viz.: The street from Captain Samuel 
Munson's corner to Thomas Howell, Esq.'s shop, State 
Street. The street from Cooper's corner to Captain Rob- 
ert Brown's corner. Church Street. The street from 
Dixwell's corner to Dunbar's corner, College Street. 
The street from Tench's corner to Andrus' corner, York 
SrREET. The street from Captain Samuel Munson's corner 
to Tench's corner, Gro\e Street. The street from Bish- 
op's corner to Darling's corner, Elm Street. The street 
from Rhode's corner to Mr. Isaac Doolittle's corner, Chapel 
Street. The street from Andrus' comer to Thomas 
Howell, Esq.'s sliop, George Street. The street from 
John VVhitini;, Esq.'s corner to the head of the Wharf, 
Fleet Sireet. The street from Captain Thomas Rice's to 
Ferry Point, Water Street. The street from Captain 
I.everctt Hubl)ard's corner to Captain Trowbridge's corner. 
Meadow Street. The street from Mr. Hezekiah Sabin's 
to Douglas' House, Union Street. The street from the 
Rope Walk to Storer's Ship-yard, ( >live Street. The 
street from Major William Munson's to Captain Solomon 
Phipps', Fair Street. The street from Grove sireet 
across the squares, a little west of Pierpont Edwards, Esq.'s 
house over into George street. Orange Street. The 
street across the middle squares in front of the Court House 
and other public buildings, Temple Street. The street 
between the dwelling-houses where Mr. Timothy Jones, de- 
ceased, dwelt, and where Mr. David Austin, junl, now lives, 
up through the square to the Green and across the opposite 
square, near the new Jail, Court Street. The street across 
the iqqicr square; from Grove street to George street, which 
runs between the dwelling-house and store of Henry Daggett, 
Esq., High Street. The street from Mr. Joseph Howell, 
across the square's, between the old and new houses of Mr. 
Joel Atwater, Crown Street. The street from Mr. Eben- 
e/er Townsend's corner to Captain Mo.ses Ventre's house. 
Cherry STREEr. The streets or ways from Mr. Josiah 
liurr's house, out on Mt. Carmel and Amity Roads, Broad- 
way. Test. Timothy Jones, 

Clerk. 

We propose to follow, in the remainder of this 
chapter, the course of events through the century 
which followed next after the incorporation of the 
city; avoiding, however, as much as possible, sub- 
jects which in our Table of Contents have been 
designated for treatment in separate chapters. 

The first tiling, after the organization of the city 
government, which requires mention, was the visit 
of the first President of the United States. 

Washington, having been inaugurated in April, 



had suffered with a severe illness in August. Con- 
gress having, in September, taken a recess of three 
months, the President determined to make a tour 
through New England for the re-establishment of 
his enfeebled health; for the pleasure of reviewing 
the scenes of his first military campaign as Com- 
mander-in-Chief; and of meeting the associates 
who had contributed to lessen his toils and invig- 
orate his spirit in times of peril and despondency. 

About the middle of October he left New York, 
accompanied by his two secretaries, Mr. Lear and 
Mr. Jackson, and was absent a month. He trav- 
eled in his own carriage, and proceeded by way 
of New Haven, Hartford, Worcester, Boston, Sa- 
lem, and Newburyport, as far as Portsmouth in 
New Hampshire. He returned by a different route 
through the interior of the country to Hartford, 
and thence to New York.* 

We extract from the Conneclicul Journal o{ Oq\o- 
ber 21, 1789, the following narrative of his passage 
through New Haven. 

On Saturday last the Legislature of this State, now in ses- 
sion in this city, having received information of the approach 
of the President of the United States of America, passed 
the following resolve, viz.: 

General Assembly, State of Connecticut. 1 

New Haven, October, a.d. 1789. 

In the House of Representatives, Mr. Edwards, Gover- 
niir Griswold, Mr. Tracy, Major Hart, Mr. Dana, Mr. 
Earne<l, Mr. Ingersoll, Colonel Seymour, Colonel Leffingwell, 
Colonel Grosvenor, Mr. Davenport, are appointed, with such 
gentlemen as the Honorable Council shall join, a connnittee 
to prepare and report an address from this Legislature to 
the Presi<lent of the United States, on his arrival in this city, 
and to meet the President at some ci^nvenient distance from 
said city, and attend him to his lodgings, and to present such 
address as shall be ordered, and to attend the President on 
his journey as far as propriety shall in their opiirion require. 
Test. James Davenfdrt, Clerk. 
In The Upper House. 

John Chester and James Hillhouse Est|uires are ajipoinled 
to join the Committee of the House of Representatives in the 
affair above mentioned. 

Test. George Wyi.lys, Secretary. 

The Legislature also requested his Excellency the Gover- 
nor to order his Company of Guards in this city to attend the 
committee in esc'>rting the President. 

At the time appointed by the President, the committee 
])resented him with the following address. 
To George Washington, President 0/ the United Stales 
of America. 

Impressed with the sentiments which animate the millions 
of our fellow-citizens. We, the Legislature of the State nl 
Connecticut, cannot on this occasion be silent. 

Your presence recalls to our admiration that assembly ol 
talents, which with impenetrable secrecy and unvarying-; 
decision, under the smiles of Divine Providence, guided to 
victory and peace the complicated events of the late long 
and ar<luous war. 

The scenes of perilous horror through which you conducted 
the American arms, taught your country and mankind to 
receive you as the greatest of heroes. \'our s.rcred legaLil 
to the rights of freemen and the virtues of humanity, inspired 
the united voice of all America to hail you as the first and 
worthiest of citizens. 

With grateful veneration we Ix^hold the father of his coun- 
try—our frieml; our fellow-citizen; our supreme magistrate. 

When peace had succeeded to the vicissitudes of war, yoiu- 
ardent desire for retirement was sanctioned by the voice of 
patriotism. 

Your country has again solicited your aid. In obedience 
to her wishes, you have sacrificed the felicity of dignified 
retirement, and have hazarded on the tempestuous ocean of 

* Sparks* Life of Washington, 



ANNALS OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



inililic life, the rich treasui'e of your fame. This display of 
patriot zeal gives you a new right to what you before pos- 
sessed, the hearts of all your fellow-citizens. 

While we thus express our sentiments and those of the 
freemen whom we represent, we beg liberty to assiu-e you of 
our zeal to support your public administrations. 

May the Divine Being, \\-ho has given you as an example 
to the world, ever have you in his Holy keeping; may He 
long preserve you, the happiness and the glory of your coun- 
try; may the assurance that the government formed under 
your auspices will liless future generations, rejoice the even- 
ing of your life; and may you be finally rewarded with 
the full glories of immortality. 

In the name and behalf of the Legislature of the State of 
Connecticut. Samuel Huntington, Governor. 

To which address the President was pleased to retm-n the 
following answer. 

To the Legislature of the State of Connecticut. 

Gentlemen, — Could any acknowledgment which lan- 
guage might convey, do justice to the feelings excited by your 
partial approliation of my past services, and your aftectionate 
wishes for my future happiness, I would endeavor to thank 
you; but to minds disposed as yours are, it will suffice to 
observe that your address meets a most grateful reception, 
and is reciprocateil in all its wishes witli an unfeigned 
sincerity. 

If the prosperity of our common country has in any degree 
been promoted by my military exertions, the toils which 
attended them have been anijily rewarded by the approving 
viiice ot my fellow-citizens. I was but the humble agent 
of favoring heaven, whose benign interference was so often 
manifested in our behalf, and to whom the praise of victory 
alone is due. 

In launching again on the ocean of events, I have obeyed 
a summons to \\'hich I can never be insensible. When my 
country demands the sacrifice, personal ease will always be 
a secondary consideration. 

I cannot forego the opportunity to felicitate the Legisla- 
ture of Connecticut on the pleasing prospect which an abun- 
tlant harvest presents t<-> its citizens. May industry like theirs 
ever receive its reward, and may the smile of heaven crown 
all endeavors which are prompted by virtue, among which it 
is justice to estimate your assurance of supporting our eipial 
government. G. Washington. 

New Havkn, Octolier 17, 1789. 

The President received also the following address from the 
Congregational Ministers of the City of New Haven. 
To the President of the United States. 

Sir, — The Congreg.itional Ministers of the City of New 
Haven beg leave to make their most respectful address to 
the President of the United States. We presume that we 
join with the whole collective body of the Congregational 
pastors and Presbyterian ministers throughout these Slates 
in the most cordial congratulations of themselves, of their 
comitry, and of mankind, on your elevation to the head of 
the combine<l American Republic. As ministers of the bless- 
ed Jesus, the Prince of Peace, we rejoice and have inexpres- 
sible pleasure in the demonstrations you have given o( your 
sincere affection towards that holy religion which is the 
glory of Christian States and will become the glory of the 
world itself at that happy period wdien liberty, jniblic right, 
and the veneration of the Most High, who presides in the 
miiverse with a most holy and benevolent sovereignty, shall 
triumph among all the nations, kingdoms, empires and 
republics on earth. We most sincerely rejoice in the kind 
and gracious providence of Almighty God, who hath been 
pleased to preserve your life during your late dangerous 
sickness, and to restore you to such a degree of health as gives 
us this opportunity to express our joy, and aftbrds us the 
nmst pleasing hopes that your health may be firmly estab- 
lished. We pray the Lord of Hosts, by whose counsels and 
wisdom you ha\e been carried triumpliantly and gloriously 
through the late war, terminating in the establishment of 
American Liberty, and pei'haps in the liberty of all nations, 
that He would be pleased ever to have you under His holy 
protection; continue you a blessing to Church and State: 
support you under your arduous cares; and perpetuate that 
estimation and honor which you have justly acquired of 
your country. May this new and rising republic become, 
under your auspices, the most glorious for population, per- 



fection of policy, and happy administration of govermnent, 
that ever appeared on earth; and may you. Sir, havmg 
finished a course of distinguislied usefulness, receive the 
rewaril of public virtue in the kingdom of eternal glory. 

Ezra Stiles. 

James Dana. 

JoN.^THAN Edwards. 

Samuel Wales. 

Samuel Austin, Jun. 
City of New Haven, October 17, 1789. 

To which the President was pleased to relurn the follow- 
ing answer. 
To the Congregational Ministers of the City of NdT.t! Haven. 

Gentlemen, — The kind congratulations contained in your 
address, claim and receive my grateful and aftectionate 
thanks. Respecting, as I do, tVie favorable opinions of men 
distinguished for science and piety, it would be false delicacy 
to disavow the satisfaction which I derixe from their appro- 
bation of my public services and private conduct. Regard- 
ing that ileportment which consists with true religion, as the 
best security of temporal peace and the sure means of 
attaining eternal felicity, it will be my earnest endeavor (as 
far as human frailty can resolve) to inculcate the belief and 
practice of opinions which lead to the consummation of those 
desirable objects. The tender interest which you have 
taken in my personal happiness, and the obliging manner in 
which you express yourselves on the restoration of my 
health, are so forcibly impressed on my mind, as to render 
language inadequate to the utterajice of my feelings. If it 
shall please the great Disposer of Events to listen to the pious 
supplication which you have presented in my behalf, I trust 
the ix'mainder of my days will evince the gratitude of a heart 
devoted to the advancement of those objects which receive 
the approbation of Heaven and promote the happiness of our 
fellow-men. 

My best prayers are offered to the Throne of Grace for 
your hajipiness and that of the Congregations committed to 
your care. G. Washington. 

City of New Haven, October 17, 1789. 

The citizens of this place were highly gratified by the pres- 
ence of the President of the United States, who came to town 
hast Saturday afternoon in good health. The next day he 
attended Divine Service in Trinity Church. His Excellency 
the tiovernor, his Honor the Lieutenant-Governor, Hon. 
Roger Sherman, the honorable the Sjieaker of the House 
of Representatives, with the Treasurer, dined with him; and 
attended the afternoon service at the Rev. Dr. Edwards' 
Meeting. 

Early on Monday morning the President set out from 
hence for the Eastern States. 

Dr. Button, in his "History of the North Church 
in New Haven," relates this anecdote. 

President Washington, when passing through 
this part of the country, spent a Sabbath in New 
Haven. Appointment was made by or for him to 
attend the Episcopal Church in the forenoon, and 
the White Haven Church in the afternoon. Some 
of Dr. Edwards' people, who were desirous (as 
often happens in similar cases) that their minister 
should do credit to himself and them by preaching 
what is flippantly called '■ a crack sermon," took 
care that he should know of the appointment. In 
the afternoon a great multitude followed Washing- 
ton to the White Haven Church. When Dr. Ed- 
wards rose to deliver his discourse, much to the 
disappointment of those who were desirous of a 
specially great sermon, he gave out this text: "Train 
up a child in the way he should go, and when he 
is old he will not depart from it," and observed: 
"In speaking from these words, I shall direct my 
remarks principally to the children in the galleries." 
He had designed that discourse for that afternoon, 
and doubtless thought that the services of the sane- 



86 



Ml STORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



tuary of the King of kings should not be changed 
on account of the entrance of an earthly magistrate. 
PiMbably Washington respected him more than he 
ditl the minister in Rhode Island, who, in similar 
circumstances, preached a sermon, the object of 
which was to compare Washington, as the deliverer 
ijf his country, with Christ as the Redeemer of the 
world. 

Washington was everywhere greeted on this oc- 
casion with demonstrations of attachment to him- 
s.'lf personally, and was pleased to find evidence 
that the new constitution and the administration of 
the government under it were acceptable to the 
public. Mr. Sparks says: 

Sucli was the enthusiasm which was now felt by all classes 
of the coniinnnity in retjaid to Washington —an enthusiasm 
inspired by his virtues and his fame— that it was impossible 
for him to move in any direction without drawing around 
him thousands of spectators, eager to gratify their eyes with 
a sight of his person, to greet him with acclamations of joy, 
and to exhibit testimonies of their respect and veneration. 
Men, women and children, people of all ranks, ages and 
occupations, assembled trom far and near, at the crossings of 
the roads and other public places where it was known he 
would pass. Military escorts attended himon the way, and 
■at the principal towns he was received and entertained by 
the civil authorities. Addresses were, as usual, presented 
to him by corporate bodies, religious societies, and literary 
institutions, lo which he returned appropriate answers. 

This journey was in all respects satisfactory to him, not 
more as furnishing proofs of the strong attachment of the 
people, than as convincing him of the growing prosperity 
of the country, and of tire favor which the constitution 
and the administration of government were gaining in the 
public mind. He was happy to see that the effects of the 
war had almost ilisappeared, that .agriculture was pursued 
with actisity, that the harvests were abundant, manufactures 
increasing, the towns flourishing, and commerce becoming 
daily more extended and profitable. The condition of so- 
ciety, the progress of improvement, the success of indus- 
trious enterprise, all gave tokens of order, peace, and con- 
tentment, and a most cheering promise for the future. 

On his return from this journey the President 
spent a night in New Haven, but without any pub- 
lic demonstration. The Conneclicut yountal of 
November ii, 1789, contains the following: 

Yesterday afternoon the President of the United States 
came to town from the eastward via Hartford, and early 
this morning set out for New York. 

In order to promote the increase of traffic, both 
foreign and domestic, the Chamber of Commerce 
was instituted April 9, 1794. At first a by-law 
rendered the olTicers ineligible to the same offices 
for more than two years. It appears to have been 
forgotten for several years after 18 14, and, having 
been brought to light, was repealed in 1837. In 
the first year of the history of the Chamber, "in 
consequence of a contagious fever in this city, 
many of the members left the place, and no meet- 
ing was held from the last of July to the 29th of 
October." With this exception, monthly meetings 
were held for several years after the organization of 
the Chamber. Then the interest declined for some 
years till 1S72, when many new members joined 
simultaneously, and the organization returned to 
the position and inliuence it occupied at the begin- 
ning of the nineteenth century. 

Its Presidents have been I'Hias Shipman, 1 794-96; 
Joseph Drake, 1796-98; Elias Shipman, 1798- 



1800; Isaac Beers, 1800-2; Elias Beers, 1802-4; 
Henry Daggett, 1804-6; Joseph Drake, 1S06-8; 
Isaac Tomlinson, 1808-10; Henry Daggett, Jun., 
1810-12; Isaac Tomlinson, 1812-14; Elias Ship- 
man, 1814-21; Gilbert Totten, 1821-34; Roger 
Sherman, 1834-37; Ezra Hotchkiss, 1837, died 
1S66; Thomas R. Trowbridge, 1872-83; Henry (I. 
Lewis, 1883-S6; James D. "Oewell, 1886. 

The contagious fever mentioned as occurring in 
the yerr when the Chamber of Commerce was in- 
stituted, was a more severe epidemic than has oc- 
curred in New Haven from that time to the ])resent. 
In the appendi.x to Dr. Dana's Century .Sermon, 
he observes: " In the former part of the year 1 794, 
the scarlet fever, or putrid sore throat, pievailed. 
To this succeeded the )'ellow fever. The dysentery 
followed in 1795. The mortality by the first was 
50; by the second, 63; by the last, 75. Of 140 
who had the yellow fever, 77 recovered.'' 

The terror which the epidemic of 1794 inspired, 
may be better appreciated by reading the following 
edict of non-intercourse. We copy it from a paper 
which has evidently been "posted up." 

North H.wen. August 26, .\.D. 1794. 
At a meeting o( the Civil Authority and Selectmen of the 
Town of North Haven, together with a number of other re- 
spectable inhabitants. 

Resolved: First. — That we heartily sympathize with the 
inhabitants of the City of New Haven in their present dis- 
tressed circumstances, and are willing and desirous to assist 
them every way we are able, consistent with safety. 

Second. — That it is our earnest desire that the inhabitants 
of this town would refrain from going into said city until 
such measures shall be adopted by the said citizens as shall 
render it safe for us to go in, of which the earliest notice 
shall be given. 

Third. — It is our desire that the householders of this town 
would not receive any individual or family that shall come 
out of said city into their houses until sufficient proof can be 
obtained of their being clear of that contagious disorder now 
among them. 

Lastly. — That these resolutions be posted up in suitable 
places, and we will use our influence, and wish all the in- 
habitants to do the same, to carry them into execution. 
Joseph Pierpont, 
Samuel Mix, 

Civil Authority. 
Peter Eastman, 
Joseph Brocket, 
Joshua Barnes, 

Selectmeti. 

The first notice in the newspaper of the sickness 
occurs April 10, 1794: 

It is reported in many parts of this State th.it a disease 
now rages in this city similar to that which prevailed in 
Philadelphia Last fall, which report is without foundation. 
The scarlet fever, sometimes denominated the ulcerous sore 
throat, or canker rash, which has raged in the neighboring 
towns, has been the prevailing epidemic in this city ever 
since the 1st of January, 1794. The number who have been 
aflccted with this epidemic is 2qo, of which only S have 
died. The malignancy of the disease has abated, and its 
symiJtoms ajipear comparatively mild. 

The following official notice was issued in July, 
and was followed by weekly reports of the state of 
the city, published in the Journal, by the same 
committee: 

CiTV OF New Haven, July S, 1794. 

To the Public. 

The epidemic disease which has for some months past 

been prevalent among the inhabitants of this city, and other 

sickness, has been truly afflicting to many of the citizens 



ANNALS OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



87 



thereof; and as the reports in the country respecting the 
mortality of this disease have been various, and, as we be- 
lieve, very much exaggerated: To relie\'e the minds of our 
friends in the country, and by order and direction of the 
authority and the body of the people in this city, we beg 
leave to submit to the public the following as an exact state- 
ment of the numbers who have died within the limits of thi> 
city since the first day of January last past in each month, 
and shall continue to publish the numbers hereafter weekly 
during the continuance of the di-ease: 

1794. 

From January ist to February 1st 8 

" February Ist to March 1st g 

" March 1st to April Ist 13 

" April i.st to May 1st 10 

" May 1st to June 1st 11 

" June 1st to July 1st 26 

Total 77 

Forty three of the above number died with the malignant 
scarlet fever, eighteen with the consumption, sixteen with 
erratic diseases. Of the above numbers have died fifty-one 
persons under tWL-nty-one years of age. Six persons have 
died since July 1st, one of which was an adult. 

Ene.\s Munson. 

Simeon Baldwin. 

Dyer White. 

A week later the committee report two deaths, 
and that few persons are now sick in town, and 
that the epidemic is evident!}' decreasing. July 23d 
they report that two deaths only have happened 
during the week, and that though the epidemic still 
continues, there are few persons sick with it, and 
" none of them to our knowledge dangerous." July 
30th, the committee report that one person only 
had died the week past. The next report is dated 
August 13th. The committee state that having ac- 
cidentally omitted to publish a list of deaths in this 
city last week, they now report the names of four 
persons who died between July 30th and August 5th, 
and the names of four persons who died between 
August 5th and August 12th. The ne.Kt week they 
report that there have been only four deaths, and 
certify that they know of but five persons who are 
now sick with putrid fever, and that some of them 
are in a fair way of recovery, and they flatter them- 
selves that an observance of the regulations lately 
adopted will prevent the progress of the fever and 
remove the apprehensions of their friends in the 
countr)-. 

The ne.xt report bears the same date as the poster 
of the civil authority and Selectmen of North Ha- 
ven. There hail been during the week, nine 
deaths; all but one of putrid fever. 

September 2d. — The commiltee to make weekly reports 
of the deaths and state of sickness in this city, certify that the 
following deaths have taken place since the date of their last 
publication. [Names of five persons.] 

As the committee consider their honor concerned in the 
faithfulness of their reports, they have felt a degree of mor- 
tification to hear that the truth of their reports has in tome 
instances been scrupled: and as they are convinced that a 
uniform relation of the simple truth is the best mode of cor- 
recting the errors of vague and unguarded rumors, they 
have only to assure the public that in preparing their reports 
of deaths, their own recollection has always been corrected 
by the books of the sexton; and they are confident that not 
a single death in the city has escaped their notice. They are 
happy further to certify that the scarlet fever, which was the 
prevailing epidemic at the time they began their reports, is 
now, they hope, nearly extinct. They do not know of a 
single patient sick of that disease in the city. They further 



certify that they have flattering prospects of a speedy ter- 
mination of the putrid fever. Several who were sick with 
it at the date of their Ia~t publication have since recovered, 
and only one has died. \Ve know of but three persons 
who are haid sick at this time; and four convalescents, 
some of whom have had the disease very severely. They 
also certify that no person is now sick of that disease in 
any part of the city west of the creek dividing the Old from 
the New Township, nor on the Wharf or its vicinity where 
the disease began; and that the utmost care has been used 
for several days past, thoroughly to cleanse the wharf and 
buildings adjoining, of everything that is thought to aid the 
progress of the contagion. 

September loth. — The commiltee report si.x 
deaths, and after careful inquiry, further certify that 
they know of but twelve persons who are any ways 
affected with the disease, four of whom have had 
the disease severely and are recovering fast; four or 
five of the others have the disease slightly, and but 
one of them is at prisent considered dangerous. 
That the sick are still principally in theNew Town- 
ship, two in Fleet street, one in a cross street of the 
south square, and none on the Wharf; that the dis- 
ease has evidently within ten days past assumed a 
milder aspect, and that where a physician has been 
called on the first appearance of the disease, they 
have of late been very successful. 

September i6th. — The committee report four 
deaths, and further certify that they know of but 
seven persons sick of the fever this day; two of 
these have been very sick and are now convalescing; 
three are yet hard sick; the others have a pros- 
pect of having it lightly. 

September 23d. — The committee report three 
deaths, and further certify that there are fourteen 
persons sick of the putrid fever; that six of them 
are belter and in a fair way of recovery; that three 
are dangerous; that the fever has not arrived at a 
crisis with the others; that the disease still grows 
milder in its attacks and more readily yields to the 
power of medicine. They further certify that there 
is but one person sick in all that part of the city 
northward of George street and west uf Union 
street, which divides the Old from the New Town- 
ship; that the public roads leading to and through 
the city and the principal streets of trade are en- 
tirely free from it. 

September 30th. — The committee report eighteen 
deaths and further certify that there are fifteen per- 
sons sick with the putrid fever; eight of whom are 
getting belter, four are dangerous, and the fever 
has not arrived at a crisis with the other three; and 
that there is but one person sick with the fever in 
all that part of the city north of George and west 
of Union streets. 

October 7th. — The committee rejiort seven deaths 
and further certify that there are twelve persons 
sick with the fever, three of whom are dangerous; 
that the fever has not arrived at a crisis with the 
others, and that one only of the above list has been 
taken sick within the last three da\s. They further 
certify that Dr. Hotchkiss, who is in a fair way of 
recovery, is the only person sick of the fever within 
the nine original squares of the city. 

October 14th. — The committee report five deaths, 
and further certify that there are but eight persons 
in any way afflicted with the disease; that only one 



88 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



of them has been taken sick within the last six 
days (with her the fever has not arrived at a crisis); 
that all the rest, except one whose case is doubt- 
ful, are better and in a fair way of recovery. 

October 21st. — The committee certify that Mr. 
Nathaniel Jocelyn, aged 73, who died last evening, 
is the only person since their last report. He had 
been sick with the putrid fever, which left him in a 
declining state. They certify that there are only 
three persons in any way affected with the fever, 
one of whom is dangerous, the others recovering; 
that those sick of the fever are in the new township. 
They further certify that the families which left the 
city on account of the sickness, have many of them 
returned and others are daily returning. 

October 29th. — The committee report two deaths, 
and further certify with peculiar pleasure that the 
putrid fever (as the late contagious disease has been 
called) is now wholly extinct, and no remains of 
it exist in the city. They also certify from their 
own observation, and particular inquiry of the 
physicians, that the city at this time, compared 
with former seasons, enjoys an uncommon degree 
of health. The committee are happy to find that 
the alarm of the country has subsided with the 
cause of it; that the intercourse with the country is 
again freely opened; and they assure the few of 
their fellow-citizens who still remain in the country 
that they may safely return. 

Here the work of the committee ends. The 
Connecticut Journal o{ '\ii.\m7i.XY i, 1795, contains the 
names of persons who died during the year 1794, 
and of persons who have recovered from yellow 
fever. 

The deaths by scarlet fever were.. 50 
" " " yellow " " .. 63 

" " " consumption and 

lingering diseases were 51 

The deaths by other infirmities 

and diseases were 15 

Died at sea 12 



191 



Census of the city in 1791, souls, 3,471 

The mortality of 1794 is more than one-twentieth 
part of the souls. 

The number who recovered from the yellow 
fever was 77. 

In the above summary of deaths in 1794, one of 
the epidemics of that year is called the yellow fever; 
but that name does not occur in any of the weekly 
reports issued by the committee. 

In 1795, New Haven was again afflicted witii an 
epidemic sickness. This time it was the dysentery. 
There were, according to Dr. Dana's report, seventy- 
five deaths in that year by dysentery; a greater 
number than by either one of the epidemics of the 
preceding year. A JNliddletown newspaper reported 
"in New Haven twenty-five have died in one week, 
which is seven more than in any one week last 
year." This statement was made in advocacy of 
Middletown as the place for the autumnal session 
of the General Assembly, Hartford being also 
visited with epidemic sickness. The New Haven 
paper replies ; 



The fact is New Haven has suffered greatly from the prev- 
alence of the yellow fever last year and the dysentery this; 
but when it is insinuated that the distress of the present 
epidemic is greater than that of the fever in 1794, we declare 
the information false. Last year two-thirds of those who 
fell victims to the above-mentioned fever were heads of 
families; this year, of those who have died with the dysen- 
tery more than three-quarters have been children. We 
cannot boast of the health of our city, but we can say with 
trtith that there is not now more than one-third the number 
of sick that there were three weeks ago; that not more than 
four persons are deemed dangerous; that the deaths within 
the last five days have greatly diminished; and that no per- 
son has been attacked with the epidemic for four days past. 
We can also assert that this disease in its former attacks on 
this city has invariably subsided in the early part of Octo- 
ber or sooner, and that the present weather is happily calcu- 
lated to obstruct contagion and restore health. Thus cir- 
cumstanced we hope and believe that the inhabitants of 
Middletown before tlie Stit of tlie ensuing October may con- 
gratulate this city on a restoration to health. 

As the session of the General Assembly was held 
in New Haven, we may conclude that the frosts of 
autumn had put an end to the epidemic before the 
8th of October. But for some reason a different 
policy prevailed in 1795 from that which the civil 
authority adopted in 1794. There were no weekly 
reports in the newspaper of the sanitary condition 
of the city. It is only by way of Middletown that 
we learn that there were tw-enty-fivc deaths in one 
week. 

The only other epidemic in New Haven during 
the century now under review, sulTiciently severe 
to require a notice from the general historian, is 
the visitation of the Asiatic cholera in 1832, in 
which there were twenty-six fatal cases. Taking 
into consideration the increase in population dur- 
ing the thirty-six intervening years, this was an 
epidemic much less destructive than those of i 794 
and 1795. It was in comparison so mild, that, 
having here mentioned it, we need not again call 
it to mind. In 1849 there were a few cases of 
cholera, but they were too few to constitute an 
epidemic. 

In the Ow/«(.'r://t7//_/o«r«(7/of ]\Iarch, 1798, is "an 
accurate account of the number of inhabitants, 
buildings, etc., in the city" on the 15th day of 
February in that year. 

White males I>529 

" females >>827 

Students of Yale College 124 

Whites 3,480 

Black males 95 

' ' females 130 

225 

Total number of inhabitants 3.70S 

Families 692 

Mean number in each family 5.3 

State House I 

t"l)iscopal church I 

Congregational churches 3 

Public school-houses 2 

Colleges 2 

Chapel I 

Hall I 

Alms-house I 

Jail I 

Jailer's house I 

Public buildings 14 



AAWALS OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



89 



Dwelling-houses 506 

Stores 82 

Shops go 

Barns 176 

Total number of buildings 958 

Deaths from Jan. I, 1792, to Jan. i, 1793 51 

" I. 1793 " '" I. 1794 72 

" " I. 1794 " " I. 1795 '80 

" " I. «795 " " i> 1796 155 

" " I. 1796 " " 1,1797 67 

" " I, 1797 " " 1, 1798 58 

Number of deaths in six years 583 

Mean number q6. i 

Ditto, excluding two very sickly years, viz., 1794 

and 1795 ! 62 

Number of inhabitants Sep. 2g, 1787 3,364 

Feb. 15, 1798 3,705 

Increase 341 

Number of buildings, September, 1787 89^ 

1798 958 

Increase 65 

Number of families in 1787 614 

' ' in each family 5.4 

The number of buildings has increased in a very equal 
proportion to the number of inhabitants. 

Proportion of males to females in 1787, as 1,000 to 1,030; 
in 1798, as 1,000 to 1,205. 

After this unofficial, but apparently careful cen- 
sus, there is nothing which requires notice till we 
come to the description of New Haven, which 
President Dwight wrote in 18 10. 

President Stiles d_ving in 1795, Timothy Dwight, 
D. D. , was elected the same year to the presidency 
of Yale College, so that for the remainder of his life 
he was a resident of New Haven. Entering with zeal 
into the privileges and duties of local citizenship, 
he acquainted himself with the statistics and re- 
sources of the place, and more than almost any other 
person wrote out, for the information of his con- 
temporaries living elsewhere, and of subsequent 
generations of people residing in New Haven, the 
description of the city as it was during his resi- 
dence within it. Believing that one who would 
acquaint himself with the New Haven of that day 
should see the description of the place as given by 
Dr. Dwight, we transcribe nearly the whole of it 
from his "Travels in New England and New 
York." 

The area occupied by New Haven is probably as large as 
that which usually contains a city of six times the number 
of inhabitants in Europe. A considerable proportion of the 
houses have court-yards in front and. gardens in the rear. 
The former are ornamented with trees and shrubs; the lat- 
ter are luxuriantly filled with fruit-trees, flowers, and culi- 
nary vegetables. The beauty and healtiifulness of this ar- 
rangement need no explanation. 

The houses in this city are generally decent, and many of 
the modern ones handsome. The style of building is neat 
and tidy. Fences and out- houses are also in the same style; 
and, being almost universally painted white, make a delight- 
ful appearance to the eye : an appearance not a little enhanced 
by the great multitude of shade trees, a species of ornament in 
which this town is unrivaled. Most of the buildings are of 
wood, and may be considered as destined to become the fuel 
of a future conflagration. Building with brick and stone is, 
however, becoming more and more frequent. The mode of 
building with stone which seems not unlikely to become gen- 
eral, is to raise walls of whinstone, broken into fragments of 
very irregular form, laid in strong mortar, and then to over- 
cast them with a peculiar species of cement. 

12 



The corners, frames of the doors, arches and sills of the 
windows, cornices and other ornamental parts, are of a 
sprightly-colored freestone. The cement is sometimes di- 
vided by lines at right angles in such a manner as to make 
the whole resemble a building of marble; and being smooth 
and white, is, of course, very handsome. Several valuable 
houses have been lately built in this manner, and the cement, 
contrary to the general expectation, has hitherto perfectly 
sustained the severity of our seasons. This mode of building 
is very little more expensive than building with wood, and 
will, I suspect, ultimately take the place of every other. I 
know of no other equally handsome where marble itself is 
not the material. Both these kinds of stone are found, in- 
exhaustibly, at a moderate distance. . 

The public buildings in New Haven are the State House, 
County House, Jail, Alms-house, three Presbyterian, one 
Episcopal and one Methodist Churches, the Collegiate 
Buildings, School -houses and Bridges. The State House is 
a plain and barely decent edifice, in which the Legislature 
holds one of its semi-annual sessions. The lower story of 
this budding contains the office of the Secretary of State, a 
jury room, lobbies, etc., and a convenient hall for the Ju- 
dicial Courts. The second story contains the Council Cham- 
ber and the Chambers of the House of Representatives. 
The churches are of considerable standing, and are barely 
decent structures. The County House is a good building. 
The Jail is a strong and decent stone edifice. 

A bridge, named the Harljour Bridge, is thrown over 
the mouth of Wallingford River between this town and 
East Haven. Three-fourths of this structure are formed of 
two stone piers, extending from the shores to the channel. 
The remainder is built on trestles of wood, often styled in 
this country, piers of wood. It is half a mile in length, 
is the property of an incorporated company, and cost sixty 
thousand dollars. This is a useful erection, as it forms a 
|iart of the great road from New Haven, through New Lon- 
don and Providence, to Boston, and as it will facilitate 
several important objects of navigation and commerce. A 
wharf is already erected from it on the western side of the 
channel, at which large vessels are moored and repaired, 
and at which they load and unload with perfect conve- 
nience. 

The Alms-house is a plain building of considerable size, 
standing in a very healthful situation on the western side 
of the town. The mode in which it is conducted is prob- 
ably not often excelled. 

There are two Presbyterian* congregations in this town, 
and one Episcopal. Two of these are nearly equal in their 
numbers, and contain each between two and three hundred 
families. The third contains probably more. This was 
formerly divided, and has since been wisely and happily 
reunited. There is also a small society of Methodists, who, 
by the aid of their charitable fellow-citizens, have been 
enabled to build a church for their worship. 

New Haven, in the legal sense, is both a city and a town- 
ship. The city includes the eastern part of the township. 
The western, which is a much larger tract, is bomided by 
the township of Woodbridge on the north, by that of Milford 
on the west, and by the Sound on the south. This tract 
contains the parish of West Haven; and a collection of fami- 
lies, living chiefly on scattered plantations, about ec|ually 
numerous. The number of inhabitants in both is probably 
not less than twelve hundred. The last-mentioned division 
of these people belong to the congregations in the city. 
This part of the township lies chiefly on the hills, which 
have been heretofore mentioned as the southern termination 
of the Green Mountains. The inhabitants of this tract are 
principally farmers. 

A general view of the statu of society in the city is given 
in the following list,, taken in the year 1811. At this period 
there were in New Haven 29 houses concerned iji commerce; 
41 stores of dry goods; 43 grocery stores; 4 ship-chandlery 
stores; 2 wholesale hardware stores; 3 wholesale dry goods 
stores; i wholesale glass and china store; i furrier's store; 
10 apothecaries' stores; 6 traders in lumber; I trader in 
paper-hangings; 6 shoe stores; 7 manufactories of hats; 5 
hat stores; 4 book stores; 3 rope walks; 2 sail lofts; i ship 

* Dr. Dwigtit preferred that construction of the Saybrook Platform 
which assimilated the Congregationalism of Connecticut to Presbyter- 
ianism, and uniformly used the word Presbyterian to denote the ec- 
clesiastical communion to which he belonged. 



90 



HISrORy OF THE cm' OF XEW HAVEN. 



yard; 17 butchers; 16 schools; 12 inns; 5 tallow-chandlers; 

2 brass-founders; 3 braziers; 29 blacksmiths; i bell-founder; 
9 tanners; 30 shoe and boot-makers; 9 carriage makers: 7 
goldsmiths; 4 watchmakers; 4 harness-makers; 5 cabinet- 
makers; 50 carpenters and joiners; 3 comb-makers: 4 
Windsor chair-makers; 15 masons: 26 tailors; 14 coopers; 

3 stone-cutters: 7 curriers: 2 block-makers: 5 barliers; 3 
tinners; 1 wheelwright: I leather-dresser: I nailer; 2 paper- 
makers; 5 printing-ottices: 2 book-liinders; 5 bakers: and 2 
newspapers published. There were also 6 clergymen; 16 
lawyers; 9 practicing physicians: and I surgeon. 

One of the clergymen is attached to the College: one was 
the Bishop of tlie Episcopal Church of Connecticut: one, far 
advanced in life, was.without a cure. Most of the hnsyers 
in the county reside in New Haven. The. physicians also 
practice extensively in the surrounding country. 

I have given you this list, partly because it is, on this side 
of the Atlantic, the only specimen of the same nature within 
my knowledge: and partly because it exhibits more perfectly 
in one point of \iew, the state of society in an American 
town than it would be possible to derive from any other 
source. 

The commerce of New Haven is divided into the coast- 
ing, foreign, and inland trade. The coasting business is 
carried on w-ith all the Atlantic States from St. Mary's to 
Machias. With New York an intercourse is kept u]) by a 
succession of daily jjackets. The foreign trade is princi- 
pally carried on with the West Indian Islands, and occasion- 
ally « ith South America, most of the countries of Europe, 
the Madeira Islands, Batavia, and Canton. Several of our 
ships have circumnavigated the globe. The inhabitants of 
this town began the business of carrying sealskins from Mas- 
safuero, and, I believe, of carrying sandal-wood from the 
Sandwich Islands to Canton. The ship Neptune, in the year 
1796, fitted out for a sealing voyage at the expense of forty- 
eight thousantl dollars, returned from Canton with a cargo 
worth two hundred and forty thousand. A considerable 
part, not far from one-half, of the cargoes imported by the 
New Haven merchants are sold in New York. A great 
part also of the produce purchased in New Haven is sold in 
the same market. This renders it impossible to give an ex- 
act account of its commerce. The inland trade consists of 
an extensive exchange of European, East Indian and West 
Indian goods, for cash and produce, with the iidiabitants of 
the interior. The following statement, derived from the Re- 
ports of the Secretary of the Treasury, will give you the 
best view of the foreign trade of New Haven which can be 
obtained: 

Ye.irs. Duties on Imports. Amounts of Imports. Tonnage. 

1801 $172,888.95 S950.396 597-79 

1802 110,007.86 439,216 719-33 

1803 136,429.42 545.600 657.35 

1804 213,196.57 581,952 S57.75 
1S05 205,323.31 821,264 867.24 

1806 146,548 36 586,456 595-77 

1807 157,590.96 630,356 720.88 

1808 106,358.19 425,424 578-97 
'809 55.335-19 224,352 62354 
1810 94,617.92 378,400 650.72 

Years. E.vports. 

1801 $650,471 

1802 483,910 

1803 416,773 

1804 476,421 

1805 608,420 

1806 483,477 

1807 5,05-8-14 

1808 Einbargo. 

1S09 309,862 306,650 3.212 

1810 39°.335 387.210 3,125 

Tonnage registered and enrolled in iSoi 7,252.88 

" " 1810 6,177.12 

About one-third of the imports belonging to the merchants 
of New Haven are landed in New York, and are not in- 
cluded in the above estimate. 

The tr.ade of this town is conducted with skill, as well as 
spirit. Of this the fact that iluring the last lifteen years the 
number of failures has been ])roportionalIy smaller than in 
almost any town in the Union, is unecjuivocal proof. At the 



Domestic. 


Foreign 


$509,173 


$141,298 


347.264 


136,646 


411,621 


5.152 


448,495 


27.926 


490.657 


117.763 


471,202 


112,275 


489,362 


16,482 



same time it is conducted in a manner fair and honorable. 
A trick in trade is rarely heard of, and when mentioned, 
awakens alike surprise and indignation. 

It deserves to be mentioned here that the vessels built for 
the merchants of this town, and intended for foreign com- 
merce, are built with more strength and furnished in a 
better manner than in most places on this continent. Those 
who command them are generally distinguished by their 
enterprise, skill and probity; and are entrusted with the 
sale and purchase of their cargoes, as well as with the con- 
duct of their vessels, and thus frequently become possessed 
of handsome property. Several of them also are distin- 
guished liy their good manners, good sense, and extensi\e 
information. From these facts united it has arisen that very 
few vessels from this port meet with those accidents which 
are fatal to others. Indubitable jiroofs of the enterprise uf 
the inhabitants are seen in the institutions already men- 
tioned; in the formation of turnpike roads; the erection of 
the bridge described above; and the improvements lately 
made in the town itself. Of these, leveling and enclosing 
the green, accomplished by subscription, at an expense of 
more than two thousand dollars, and the establishment of a 
new public cemetery, accomplished at a much greater ex- 
pense, are particularly creditable to their spirit. 

The original settlers of New Haven, following the custom 
of their native country, buried their dead in a church-yard. 
Their church was erected on the Green, or jmljlic square, 
and the yard laid out immediately behind it in the north- 
western half of the square. While the Romish apprehension 
concerning consecrated burial places and concerning pe- 
culiar advantages supposed at the resurrection to attend 
those who are interred in them, remained, this location of 
burial grounds seems to have been not unnatural. But since 
this apprehension has been perceived by common sense to 
be groundless and ridiculous, the impropriety of such a lo- 
cation forces itself upon every mind. It is always desirable 
that a burial ground should be a solemn object to man ; be- 
cause in this manner it easily becomes a source of useful 
instruction and desirable impressions. But when placed in 
the center of a town, and in the current of daily intercourse, 
it is rendered too familiar to the eye to have any beneficial 
efi'ect on the heart. From its proper, venerable character, 
it is degraded into a mere common object, and speedily 
loses all its connection with the invisible world in a gross 
and vulgar union with the ordinary business of life. 

Besides these disadvantages, this ground was filled widi 
coffins and monuments, and must either be extended farther 
over the beautiful tract unhappily chosen for it, or must 
have its place supplied by a substitute. To accomplisli 
these pur])Oscs, and to efi'ectuate a removal of the numerous 
monuments of the dead, already erected, whenever the con- I 
sent of their survivors could be obtained, the Honorable a 
James Hillhouse, one of the inhabitants to whom the town, ■! 
the -State and the country owe more than to almost any of 
their citizens, in the year 1796 purchased a field of ten acre- 
near the northwestern corner of the original town, which, 1 
aided by several respectable gentlemen, he leveled and en- I 
closed. The field was then divided into parallelograms, 1 
handsomely railed and separated by alleys of sufficient 
breadth to permit carriages to pass each other. The whole 
field, except four lots given to the several congregations and 
the College, and a lot destined for the reception of the poor, 
was distributed into family burying places, purchased at the 
expense actually incurred, and secured by law trom everv 
civil process. Each parallelogram is sixty-four feet in breadth 
and thirty-six feet in length. Each family burying ground 
is thirty-two feet in length and eighteen in breadth; and 
against each an opening is made to admit a funeral proces- 
sion. At the divisions between the lots, trees are set out in 
the alleys, and the name of each proprietor is marked «mi 
the railing. The monuments in this ground are alnnj-t 
universally of marble, in a few instances from Italy; in the 
rest, found in this and the neighboring States. A consider- 
able number are obelisks; others are tables; and others, 
slabs, placed at the head and foot of the grave. The olielisks 
are placed, universally, on the middle line of the lots, and 
thus stand in a line successively through the parallelograms. 
The top of each post and the railing are ])ainted whili-; tlie 
remainder of the post, black. After the lots were laid oiil 
they were all thrown into a common stock. A meeting was 
then summoned of such inhabitants as wished to become 



ANNALS OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



91 



proprietors. Such as attended drew for their lots and lo- 
cated them at their pleasure. Others in great numbers have 
since purchased them, so that a great part of the field is now 
taken up. 

It is believed that this cemetery is altogether a singularity 
in the world. I have accompanied many Americans and 
many foreigners into it, not one of wlioni had ever seen or 
heard of anything of a similar nature. It is incomparaiily 
more solemn and impressive than any spot of the same kind 
within my knowledge: and if I am to credit the declarations 
ol others, within theirs. An exquisite taste for propriety is 
discovered in everything belonging to it: exhibiting a regard 
for the dead, reverential but not ostentatious, and happily 
fitted to influence the views and feelings of successive gener- 
ations. 

At the same time it precludes the use of vaults, by taking 
away every inducement to build them. These melancholy 
and, I think I may say, disgusting mansions seem not to 
have been dictated by nature, and are certainly not approved 
by good sense. Their salubrity is (|uestionable; and the im- 
pression left by them on llie mind transcends the bounds of 
mourning and sorrow, and borders at least upon loathing. 
That families should wish to lie buried together seems to lie 
natural: and the propensity is here gratified. At the same 
time a preparation is in this instance happily made for re- 
moving finally, the monuments in the ancient burying 
ground, and thus freeing one of the most beautiful squares 
in the world from so improper Tvn appendage. 

To this account I ought to add that the jiroprietors, when 
the lots were originally distributed, gave one to each of the 
then existing clergymen of the city. Upon the whole it may, 
I think, be believed that the completion of this cemetery will 
extensi\ely diffuse a new sense of propriety in disposing of 
the remains of the deceased. 

The Long Wharf is also a respectable proof of enterprise. 
Three-fourths of this pier are built of timber and earth, and 
the other fourth of stone, by an incorporated company, aided 
in a small degree liy lotteries. It is three thousand nine 
hundred and forty-three feet in length; longer than arty 
other in the United States by more than two thousand feet. 
On the western side, lots for the erection of stores are laid 
out and purchased throughout a great part of the extent. 
On many of them stores are erected. 

The inhabitants of New Haven deserve credit for their in- 
dustry and economy. Almost every man is active in his 
business; and lives at a prudent distance within his income. 
Almost all, therefore (with one considerable exception), are 
in ordinary circumstances, thriving. 

The exception, to which I have alluded, is that of the 
laborers. By this term I intend that class of men who look 
to the earnings of to-day for the subsistence of to-morrow. 
In New Haven, almost every man of this character is 
either shiftless, diseased, or vicious. Employment is found 
every wliere, and subsistence is abundant and easily obtained; 
the price of labor is also very high, a moderate day's work 
being usually purchased at a dollar. Every healthy, indus- 
trious, prudent man may, therefore, live almost as he wishes, 
and secure a competence for old age. The local and com- 
mercial circumstances of this town have allured to it a large 
(proportional) number of these men; few of whom are very 
industrious, fewer economical, and fewer still virtuous. 

The mechanics are in all respects of a different character, 
and are therefore generally prosperous. 

The market in this town is moderately good. The sup- 
plies of flesh and fish arc ample; and of vegetables suffi- 
cient for the demand of the inhabitants, most of whom arc 
furnished from their own gardens. Of fruit, neither the 
variety nor the quantity is such as could be wished, and 
might be easily obtained. Indeed this article is fast im- 
proving in both respects, and almost every garden yields its 
proprietor a considerable qnantity of very fine fruit; particu- 
larly of cherries, pears and peaches; as well as of currants, 
gooseberries, strawberries and raspberries. The greatest 
evil wdiich the inhabitants sufler, is the want of a regular 
system. A few years since, a new market was established 
in a convenient part of the town and placed under proper 
regulations. The consequence was that all the customary 
supplies were furnished abundantly and of the best quality. 
Unfortunately, however, several respectable citizens opposed 
the establishment so strenuously and perseveringly, as 
finally to destroy most of its good effects. There is some- 



thing very remarkable in the hostility of the New England 
people to a regular market. Those who buy and those who 
sell, manifest this opposition alike; nor has the imperfection 
and precariousness of the supplies brought in carts to their 
doors reconciled the former class; nor the superior conven- 
ience and certainty of selling at the highest price, persuaded 
the latter to the adoption of a system so obviously advan- 
tageous in all respects to both. -\ striking example is here 
presented of the power of habitual prejudice. As the fact 
is, however, an epicure, may find all his wishes satisfied 
without much difficulty in this town. 

The market prices of beef, round the year, are for the 
Ijest pieces, by the pound, from 7 to 10 cents; for the poorer 
pieces, from 3 to 6 cents; of beef, by the 100 lb., from 4|^ 
dollars to 8 dollars; of pork, by the 100 lb., from 4j-< dollars 
to 8 dollars; of good veal, mutton and lamb, by the lb., from 
5 to 7 cents: of chickens, ducks and turkeys, by the lb., from 
7 to II cents; of geese, by the lb. from 6 to 8 cents; of 
sea bass, striped bass, and blackfish, by the lb., from 4 to 6 
cents; of lobsters, by the lb., from 5 to 6 cents; of oysters, 
by the bushel, from 50 cents to one dollar; of long and 
round clams and escallops, by the bushel, from 75 cents to 
one dollar; of flour made of wheat, by the liarrel, from six 
to nine dollars: of rye, by the bushel, from 75 cents to one 
dollar; of Indian corn or maize, by the bushel, from 75 cents 
to one dollar; of oats, by the liushel, from twenty-five to 
thirty-seven and a half cents; of apples, by the bushel, from 
33 cents to one dollar; of cider, by the barrel, from one and 
a half to three dollars. 

These prices I have set down to give a succinct view of 
the expense at which the means of living are furnished 
here. The article of fuel, which is universally wood, is in 
this town, and a few others, particularly dear; hickory being 
from seven to eight dollars the cord of one hundred and 
twenty-eight feet; oak, five: and pine, three. In the in- 
terior, even in old and thrifty settlements, the price is 
often not more than a third part of what 1 have specified. 
It ought to be observed that every marketable article bears 
here an advanced price on account of the easy and regidar 
communication with New York. Nor ought it to be omitted 
that, antecedently to the year 1793, all these articles were, at 
an average, sold for half of the sums mentioned above.* 

Dr. Dwight's Table of Exports from 1 801 to 18 10, 
placed the word embirgo opposite the year 1808. 
The embargo was established by an Act of Congress 
in retaliation upon Great Britain for the repeated 
insults which American merchantmen had suffered 
from British men-of-war. It was thought by the 
supporters of the act that England would accede 
to the demand that American vessels should be 
exempt from search by British cruisers, rather than 
see her West Indian colonies suffer from the absence 
of American breadsluffs and provisions. But this 
was a policy which caused as much distress in the 
seaports of the United States as in the West Indies. 
In July, 1808, there were seventy-eight vessels lying 
idle in the harbor of New Haven. Hundreds of 
seamen became dependent on charity and were daily 
fed at a soup kitchen. All along the sea-coast there 
was indignation, and perhaps nowhere more than 
in New Haven; for almost all its inhabitants were 
dependent, in one way or another, on foreign com- 
merce. The merchants, the ship-chandlers, the 
rope-makers, the block-makers, and the ship- 
wrights, as well as the mariners, found their occu- 
pation and means of subsistence taken away. 
There was not much sale for the produce of the 
husbandman, nor much employment for the me- 
chanic. A special town-meeting was held on the 
20th of August, at which an address to President 

* This description ofNew Haven may be found in Dwight's Travels, 
Vol. I. Many of the statistics may also be found in a "Statistical 
Account of the City of New Haven," by Timothy Dwight, President 
of Vale College. 



92 



HISTORY OF THE CITV OF NEW HAVEN. 



Jefferson, prepared by Elias Shipman, Noah Web- 
ster, David Daggett, Jonathan Ingersoll, and 
Thomas Painter, was adopted, praying for a modi- 
fication or suspension of the embargo. The doc- 
ument closed as follows: 

In fvci-y vifw of this suljjcct, your memorialists conceive 
a continuance of the embargo to be as distressing as it is 
impolitic, and far more injurious to our own people'than to 
any other nation. We therefore request that— in pursuance 
of tlie power vested in you as President of the Uniled States, 
by an Act of Congress for that purpose- the operations of 
the several laws imposing an embargo may l)e immediately 
suspended. 

But it will be more appropriate to speak at 
length of the distress and indignation felt in New 
Haven on account of the embargo, in the chapter 
on Commerce. We allude to this embargo in this 
connection, because it was so important an event 
in the general history of the city. 

The embargo was removed in June, 1809, and 
non-intercourse with and non-importation from 
Great Britain and its dependencies were substituted 
in its place. The change allowed indirect trade 
with the British West India Islands, the New 
Haven vessels landing their cargoes at Dutch and 
Swedish islands, whence they were transferred to 
British islands in the vicinit}-. The Connecticut 
Journal o'i ]w\\(t 15th, notices the activity and joy 
which had suddenly returned to the city. In May, 
1 8 10, the non-intercourse act was repealed, and 
the non-importation act ceased to be enforced. 
From that time, till the War of 18 12 with Great 
Britain, trade with the British West Indies was very 
active and lucrative. From 1812, till the news of 
peace arrived in February, 1815, New Haven was 
of course blockaded by the British fleet in the 
Sound, and its commerce languished. 

But the War of 181 2 was so exclusively mari- 
time, that, apart from its influence on commercial 
prosperity, it added but little to the history of New 
Haven. The fort which Colonel Thompson built 
at Black Rock in 1775 and 1776, known during 
the Revolution as Rock Fort, and afterwards as 
Fort Hale, being regarded as insufficient for the 
defense of the town, supplementary works were 
erected on Beacon Hill, of such e.xtent that hun- 
dreds of men were employed for more than a 
month. The Journal of October 4, 1814, says: 

This work has progressed with great rapidity, and is now 
nearly completed. The inhabitants of the neighboring towns 
deserve and receive the thanks of the public for volunteer- 
mg their aid in this patriotic labor. On Wednesday and 
Thursday last, one hundred men from Cheshire, under the 
direction of Andrew Hull, Ksci., labored with great in- 
dustry and effort at the fortifications for two days. On their 
return through the city in wagons, with music playin<J-, they 
were saluted with a discharge of artillery and cheered by 
the citizens, who had collected in great numbers at the 
Public Square. On Thursday, one hundred men from the 
town of North Haven, under the direction of their reverend 
pastor, Dr. Trumbull, the VL-nerable historian of Connecti- 
cut, eighty years of age, \olunteered their services, and 
spent the day m the same patriotic work. This aged min- 
ister addressed the throne of grace and implored the Divine 
blessing on their undertaking. On Friday the same number 
from Hamdeii, under command of Cajitain Jacob Whiting 
with great industry labored at the same work, and were 
salule<l and cheered by the citizens on their return. The 
inhabitants of the town of Meriden, with a patriotism not 
exceeded I)y their neighbors, have volunteered their aid for 



VVednesday next. It is confidently hoped that our fellow- 
citizens of other towns in this vicinity, and our own citizens, 
will in the course of the present week complete the works, 
which are now nearly finished. Parties who are willing to 
give their assistance in this preparation for the common 
defense, are desired to give notice to the committee of the 
time when it will be agreeable to them to give their attend- 
ance. The enemy is hovering on the coast. Where the 
next blow will be attempted, no one can tell. Preparation 
to repel invasion cannot too speedily be made. 

The earthwork thus thrown up on Beacon Hill 
was called Fort Wooster. Fortunately peace was 
proclaimed a few months after the fort was com- 
pleted, and it encountered no enemy but storms of 
rain, which have, at length, nearly obliterated its 
walls. 

One of the excitements which the war occasioned 
in New Haven, followed the capture of the packet 
Susan the week after the above notice of the fort 
on Beacon Hill appeared in the Journal. The 
beacon daily signaled to New Haven the passage 
through the Sound of the blockading vessels, and 
sometimes when the coast was clear, a packet ven- 
tured out on a \-oyage to New York. Such a 
signal on Sunday morning, October ist, tempted 
Captain Miles, of the packet Susan, who had been 
waiting several days for a chance to venture out. 
A week afterward, October 9th, he left New York 
on the return voyage with a cargo valued at 
not less than $15,000. Most of this sum was rep- 
resented by imported goods of every description. 
One part of his cargo was several months' supply 
of paper for the Connecticut Journal, the printer of 
which, in his next issue apologizes to his patrons 
for giving them an inferior quality of paper. We 
give the remainder of the story in the language of 
Mr. Thomas R. Trowbridge, Jr. : 

Shortly after passing Stratford Point, in the afternoon 
of Monday, the Susan observed a sail approaching, ev- 
idently from Long Island. The advancing craft was a 
stranger to all on board, but they did not at all fancy 
her appearance, and as she continued her course to- 
ward him. Captain Miles tacked ship and headed his 
vessel for Stratford River. The Susan made good head- 
way toward the desired haven, but it was too late. The 
stranger gained rapidly; and though she had a load of cord- 
word upon her deck, the practiced eye of Captain Miles 
perceived through her disguise that she was a vessel in the 
service of the blockading squadron. He thought, however, 
that if he could only reach the river, all would be well. He 
would try at all events; and crew and passengers bent 
bravely to the sweeps, which had been quickly put out, 
while visions of Dartmoor and of Halifax Jail presented 
themselves to their imaginations. The stranger hoisted a 
British ensign, ran down abreast of them, luffed to the 
wind, and threw an eight-pound shot across the bow of the 
Susan. Captain Miles was too old a sailor not to compre- 
hend that marine language, and, with a sigh, he told his 
helmsman to bring his vessel to the wind. He then dropped 
his gaff, and in a few minutes a boat came alongside from 
the cruiser, and out of it a midshipman stepped upon the 
deck of the Susan, informing Captain Miles that his vessel 
was a prize to his Majesty's brig Dispatch, and that he would 
at once relieve him of the further command of the Susan. 
Several men were immediately sent on board; and, with the 
passengers and crew. Captain Miles' packet, carrying her 
rich cargo, was soon standing toward the British licet off 
New London. 

After a few days, a flag of truce sent out from 
New Haven returned with Captain Miles and some 
of his passengers, who were permitted to leave 
on parole. "The Captain came home," says the 



ANNALS OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



93 



Jouiual oi October i8th, "for the purpose of ob- 
taining the means of ransoming the packet and 
cargo. He has returned to the squadron with the 
money, and will probably arrive here again with 
his vessel to-day.'' 

Great was the joy when the news reached New 
Haven, on the 13 th of February, that the Commis- 
sioners at Ghent had agreed on terms of peace. 

Immediately the church bells were rung and cannon were 
fired on the Green. Citizens shook hands and congratulated 
each otiier as tliey met on the streets. The ever-busy boy 
marked the word Peace on doors and fences. The cannon 
from the fortifications at Beacon Hill and Fort Hale pro- 
claimed to the surrounding villages the joyful tidings that 
peace was once more to reign over our land. At night the 
city was illuminated; not a house but had a candle at every 
window. The streets were filled with a hajipy multitude: 
and, if report be true, most of the rum which liad weathered 
the gales of non. intercourse, the embargo act, and the 
blockade, was consumed dunng the joyful night of Feb- 
ruary 13, 1815. There was great rejoicing again when 
it was known that the President had ratified the treaty. 
The newspaper in its next issue said: Wednesday last, the 
treaty having been previously ratified (being also the birth- 
day of Washmgton), was devoted to the celebration of these 
two great events, the one as the harbinger of our former 
glory, the other of our future prosperity. A committee hail 
been ap|>ointed to make the necessary arrangements. The 
day was ushered in with the roar of cannon and the ringing 
of the church bells. The military were called out. The 
Governor's Horse and Foot Guards, and the Artillery, ap- 
peareil in their usual brilliancy. At eleven "o'clock the 
military and citizens repaired to the new Brick Meeting- 
House, where discourses were delivered by Dr. Dwight and 
the Rev. Messrs. Merwin and Taylor.* 

The years of the war witnessed a great change in 
the aspect of the Green. Dr. Dwight says in a 
marginal note to his description of the city: 

All the congregations in New Haven voted in 1S12 that 
they would take down theu' churches and build new ones. 
Accordingly two of them commenced the work in 1813, the 
other in 1S14. The church of the first congregation was 
finished in 1814. The other two have been completed the 
present year (1815). They are all placed on the western 
side of Temple street, in a situation singularly beautiful, 
having an elegant square in front. The Presbyterian churches 
are of Grecian architecture. The Episcopal Church is a 
Gothic building, the only correct specimen, it is believed, in 
the United States. Few structures devoted to the same pin-- 
pose on this side of the Atlantic are equally handsome; and 
in no ])lace can the same number of churches be found, 
within the same distance, so beautiful and standing in so ad- 
vantageous a position. 

The erection of these three churches, and the 
obliteration from the Green of the burial ground, 
by the removal of its monuments a few years after- 
ward, must have greatly enhanced the beauty of 
a public square, which Dr. Dwight said was the 
handsomest ground of this nature he had ever seen. 
As he did not live to see the monuments removed, 
his commendation must have been pronounced 
while the Green was still disfigured with grave- 
stones. 

In the same year in which peace with Great 
Britain was proclaimed. New Haven was for the 
first time visited by a steamboat. Travel between 
New Haven and New York had been, before the 
time of steamboats, chiefly in packets, such as the 
Susan; a round trip occupying a week, or a longer 

*Thomfls R. Trowbridge's p:iper on the Ancient Maritime Interests 
of New H.iven, in New Haven Historical Society Papers. VoL HI. 



period as the wind was more or less propitious. 
The price of passage was from three to five dollars 
each way. The first steamboat that passed through 
the Sound was the Fulton, Captain Bunker. She 
made her first trip from New York to New Haven 
in March, 1815, starting a little past five in the 
morning and arriving at half-past four in the after- 
noon. There were thirty passengers on board. 
On her return she had a large number of passen- 
gers, and was fifteen hours on the way, being de- 
layed by a dense fog. The cost of the boat was 
about $90,000. The Neiv York Advocak, giving 
an account of the first trip, says, among other things, 
"We believe it may with truth be aflinned that 
there is not in the whole world such accommoda- 
tion afloat as the Fulton aftbrds; indeed it is hardly 
possible to conceive that anything of the kind can 
exceed her in elegance and convenience." It was 
then predicted that the time would come when im- 
provements would be made in the machinery and 
in the model of boats, so that the passage would 
be made in ten hours. In the course of a few 
weeks she commenced to make regular trips, the 
price of passage being five dollars. The following 
notice of her appeared in the Columbian Register of 
May 13, 1S15: 

The steamboat Fulton arrived here on Monday last at 6 
o'clock in the afternoon; she returned to New York the same 
evening, and arrived here again on Tuesday evening. At 
6 o'clock on Wednesday morning she left here with about 
80 passengers for Hartford, intending to arrive there on 
Thursday morning, the day of om- great General Election 
and collection; she arrived at Middletown (a distance of be- 
tween sixty and seventy miles, one-half of which distance 
was on the Connecticut River and against a strong current) 
at 6 o'clock p. M. She stopped there until 4 o'clock on 
Thursday morning, when she proceeded on and arrived at 
Hartford in four hours, where she was saluted by the dis- 
charge of cannon and the huzzas of the multitudes who were 
gratified with the sight of a steamboat fifty miles above the 
mouth of Connecticut River. The steamboat arrived here 
last night from Hartford and proceeded this day to New 
York. 

In 1 81 7, New Haven was favored with a visit 
froin the President of the United States, James 
Monroe. Coming from New York in the steam- 
boat Connecticut, he arrived at the wharf about 4 
o'clock p. M. on Friday, the 20th of June. The 
President was received by a committee of citizens, 
and several military companies, and escorted 
through Wooster, Olive, Chapel, State, Elm and 
Temple streets, to his lodgings at Mr. Butler's 
Hotel. On Saturday he visited the gun factory of 
Eli Whitney, Esq. , and the Chemical Laboratory, 
Library, Mineralogical Cabinet, and Philosophical 
Chamber of the College. At 1 2 o'clock he reviewed 
the troop)s under arms. After partaking of an ele- 
gant dinner, served up in superior style, at Mr. 
Butler's, in company with the Governor and several 
other gentlemen he visited the public buildings, 
the new burying ground, and other places which 
were deemed worthy of notice. On Sunday morn- 
ing he attended Divine Service at the Center Church, 
and in the afternoon at the Episcopal Church. In 
the evening the Committee, in behalf of themselves 
and their fellow-citizens, took leave of his E.xcel- 
lency in a short address, expressing the high sense 
they entertained of his visit, with their sincere 



94 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



wishes for his individual prosperit}" and his success- 
ful administration in his exalted station. The ad- 
dress was reciprocated in a manner honorable to 
his Excellency, and highly gratifying to the Com- 
mittee. Early on Monday morning the President 
and his party, which included Mrs. Monroe, de- 
parted for Hartford. 

From the absorption of the Colony of New 
Haven into the Colony of Connecticut, to the year 
1 701, the General Assembly had met in Hartford. 
Thereafter, the May .Session was in Hartford, and 
the October Session in New Haven, till the adop- 
tion of the new constitution in 1818: which, requir- 
ing but one session in a year, ordered that the 
Assembly should meet alternately at Hartford and 
New Haven on the first Monday in May, New 
Haven having the even, and Hartford the odd 
years. By this requirement of the new constitution. 
New Haven became equally with Hartford a semi- 
capital, and remained so, till, by an amendment 
to the constitution, it was determined that there 
should be but one place for the annual sessions of 
the Legislature, and, by a majority of votes, Hart- 
ford was selected as the capital of the State. Under 
the new constitution of 181S, the first meeting of 
the General Assembly at New Haven was held 
in 1820. The writer well remembers, though it 
was a few days before he had completed the fourth 
year of his age, the military and religious cere- 
monies which distinguished "Election Day." 

New Haven was brushed in the evening of Sep- 
tember 3, 1 82 1, by a tornado of so great severity, 
that some notice of it should be recorded in a his- 
tory of the city. A large church was then in pro- 
cess of erection on the Green, near its northwestern 
corner. The Methodists of the city, who at that 
tirfie were few in number, and, though rich in faith, 
poor in this world's wealth, had made great sacri- 
fices for the accomplishment of their desire to pos- 
sess such a sanctuary. The town had allowed 
them to place it on the public glebe. Members of 
other churches had for various reasons lent a help- 
ing hand. The walls were finished; the roof was 
nearly, but not quite complete, when the wind 
prostrated the structure into a heap of ruins. It 
was a terrible disappointment to those who, as it 
appeared to human judgment, had already given 
more than they were able, to build their house of 
worship. But the Methodists were equal to the 
trial which it was fore-ordained should befall 
them, and with redoubled sacrifices they re-erected 
the house, and worshiped in it till they became 
able to build the more commodious and costly 
structure now standing on tiie other side of Elm 
street. 

Great damage was done elsewhere in the city, to 
dwellings and other buildings, and to the shipping 
in the harbor. I'"or more than three hours, fami- 
lies were in painful su.spense between remaining in 
their cracking dwellings and venturing on the dan- 
gers without. The "Scjjtember Gale" was charac- 
terized by those who at the lime were adult, as ex- 
ceeding everything of the kind which they could 



remember; and by those who were then children, 
it is remembered as more dreadful in its severity 
than any storm of wind which has since visited 
New Haven. 

The only other tornado which requires distinct 
mention, occurred in 1839. It differed from that 
of 1 82 1, in the instantaneousness with which it 
came and went, passing with a narrow swath 
through the northwestern part of the city where 
houses were few, carrying with it in its course every 
work of man which it encountered, and vainly en- 
deavoring to do likewise with East Rock. 

In 1824, the Marquis de Lafayette, attracted by a 
natural desire to see with his own eyes the marvel- 
ous progress made by the country in behalf of 
whose liberty he had unsheathed his sword almost 
half a century before, visited America. Although 
Washington was no more in the land of the living, 
there were still many companions in the War of 
the Revolution whom he desired again to take by 
the hand. Everywhere he was received with the 
greatest enthusiasm. As soon as information of his 
arrival in New York reached New Haven, the pub- 
lic joy was expressed by the discharge of cannon 
and the ringing of all the bells of the town. A 
deputation immediately sent to New York to invite 
him to visit New Haven, received a favorable reply. 
He was expected in this city on the night of the 
20th of August, in consequence of which expecta- 
tion the whole city was illuminated, and a large and 
splendid transparency with the words, "Welcome 
Lafayette," legible at a great distance, appeared 
aloft in front of Morse's Hotel, Church street, with 
American and French flags waving around the 
legend. Smaller transparencies with the same 
words were seen over the doors of many houses. 
The shops were full of people, old and young, 
ladies and gentlemen, inquiring for the General. 
Owing to numerous detentions on the way he did 
not reach the city till 10 o'clock the next day, when 
his arrival was announced by the discharge of 24 
guns, and a procession was formed by which he 
was conducted to the room of the Court of Com- 
mon Council, where an address was presented 
by the Mayor to the distinguished guest of the cit)'. 
The General was presented to the Governor, those 
officers of the Revolution who were in New Haven, 
the civil and military authorities, the Faculty of 
Yale College, the clergy, and hundreds of the citi- 
zens; and as they were presented, the General took 
them each by the hand. The troops were paraileil 
in front of the hotel and fired a salute. They then 
marched by in review^, followed by a train of three 
hundred students of the college, two and two, with 
the batlges of their several societies. He addressed 
them to the following effect: 

He thanked them for the very kind reception 
they gave him. He had passed through the town 
in 1778. He was now most agreeably surprised at 
the great improvements since made. To see such 
very fine troops had given him a particular pleas- 
ure; but above all, he should always have the pro- 
foundest sense of the cordial welcome here given 
him. Pressing his hand upon his breast, he said 



ANNALS OF THE CUT OF NEW HA VEN. 



95 



he was delighted with the manner of liis reception 
by even' kind of person. 

At 1 1 o'clock, the General, with his suite, sat 
down to breakfast with the Common. Council. 
Among the guests were his E.xcellency Governor 
Wolcott, and all the authorities, civil and military, 
the Reverend Clergy, the Faculty of the College, 
the New York Committee and the surviving officers 
of the Revolution. At the same time refreshments 
were furnished to the militar}-. While at breakfast, 
the rooms just left by the gentlemen were immedi- 
ately occupied by the ladies, more than three hun- 
dred of whom, with their children, had the pleasure 
of a particular introduction to the General. At i 2 
o'clock the General passed to the Green, and re- 
viewed the troops, consisting of the Horse Guards, 
commanded by Major Huggins; a squadron of cav- 
alry, by Adjutant Harrison; the Foot Guards, by 
Lieutenant Boardman; the Artillerv, by Lieutenant 
Redfield; the L'on Grays, by Lieutenant NicoU; 
and a battalion of infantry, by Captain Bills; the 
whole under Major Granniss. The General walked 
down the whole line, shaking hands with the officers 
and bowing to the men, making approjiriate re- 
marks on the troops; and he observed that such an 
improvement in the appearance of the troops he 
had not expected. 

Standing in the door of Mr. Nathan Smith, in 
whose house he was introduced to the family, he 
received the marching salute of the troops, and 
while waiting for the barouche volunteered by Mr. 
Street, he was introduced to the house of David C. 
Deforest, Esq., where, after partaking of some re- 
freshments, he stepped into the carriage, and riding 
to the south gate of the College yard, was there re- 
ceived by the President at the head of the Faculty, 
who conducted him through a double line of stu- 
dents to the Lyceum, visiting the Cabinet and Li- 
brary. Passing through Chapel and York streets 
to the new burying ground, he stopped a moment 
to view it. He was pointed to the graves of Hum- 
phreys, the Aid of Washington, and of Dwight, the 
Chaplain of Parsons, whom he remembered in the 
War of the Revolution. He then proceeded to the 
house of Professor Silliman; here he made a short 
visit to Mrs. Silliman's mother, the widow of the 
late Governor Trumbull. Returning, the students 
again met him at the bottom of Hillhouse avenue, 
and passing through Temple street, he again entered 
the hotel. In a few minutes, it being past two 
o'clock, he ascended the carriage to depart. The 
citizens again shouted their acclamations. A squad- 
ron of horse led the way, and a long train of 
coaches and mounted citizens followed. Fifteen 
guns announced his departure. The city authori- 
ties accompanied him to the East Haven Green, 
and then took leave. He expressed his thanks in 
a very touching manner for the kind reception he 
had met with from the New Haven citizens. 

ELI WHITNEY. 

Not many inventors have been able to anticipate 
the wants of the future so completely as to prevent 
the necessity of fundamental changes in their work. 



Most machines are produced by evolution, or by 
the fusion of difl'erent ideas from as many minds. 
Even in this industrial and inventive age, only a 
few men stand forth as creators in the mechanical 
arts, as men who have framed their ingenious 
thought in a model which all their successors must 
preserve and imitate. Such pioneeers were Ark- 
wright. Watt, and one whom New Haven is proud 
to claim as a citizen, Eli Whitney, the inventor of 
the cotton-gin. He was born at Westborough, 
Worcester County, Massachusetts, December 8, 
1765. His father's progenitors, and his maternal 
ancestors, the Fays, were both of English stock, and 
among the early settlers of Massachusetts. The 
bent of Eli Whitney's mind was unmistakable from 
the earliest years. Before he entered his teens he 
had made a violin for himself, and had improved 
a fortunate Sunday morning at home, while the 
rest of the family were at church, by taking his 
father's watch to pieces, and putting it together 
again so dexterously that the operation was not 
suspected. During the Revolutionary War, when 
iron and steel goods were in high demantl, and 
when the domestic product was of the crudest kind. 
Eli Whitney, though yet in his boyhood, engaged 
in the manufacture of nails, and became expert 
not only in the use, but even in the construction of 
tools. Not until the age of nineteen had been 
reached, did he resolve to obtain, if possible, a 
collegiate education. He persisted in the purpose, 
in spite of opposition by some of his family and 
by intelligent neighbors, who thought it "a pity 
that such a fine mechanical genius as his should 
be wasted." Owing however to sickness, and to the 
time spent in preparation and in acquiring money 
for the necessary expenses, Mr. Whitney was un- 
able to enter Yale College until May, 1789. 

While in college, he seems to have devoted 
especial attention to mathematics and mechanics. 
When a tutor regretted that he could not show a 
philosophical experiment to his class because the 
apparatus was out of order and could not be re- 
paired in this country, Mr. Whitney undertook the 
task of restoration, and performed it with complete 
success. 

Soon after graduation, in 1792, he went to Geor- 
gia, expecting to obtain employment as a private 
tutor. Disappointed in this hope, he was invited 
b}' Mrs. Greene, the widow of General Nathan- 
niel Greene, in whose company he had sailed from 
New York to Savannah, to reside in her fiimily and 
pursue his chosen study of the law. Not long 
afterward, a company of gentlemen visiting at Mrs. 
Greene's, fell into conversation about the state 
of agriculture among them and lamented that the 
cultivation of cotton was unprofitable on account 
of the difficulty of separating the cotton from the 
seed. Mrs. Greene — whose house contained many 
proofs of JMr. Whitney's mechanical skill — intro- 
duced him to the company as one who could dis- 
cover a more convenient method of cleaning cotton, 
if such a thing were possible. Mrs. Greene desired 
only to bring her proU'He to the notice of her 
friends, but Mr. Whitney took hold in earnest of 
the subject under discussion. Having obtained in 



96 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



Savannah some cotton in the seed, he formed a 
workshop in the basement of Mrs. Greene's house 
and devoted the winter of 1792-93 to the construc- 
tion of a machine for clearing cotton. None knew 
his employment beside Mrs. Greene and Mr. Phin- 
eas Miller, a native of Connecticut, and a gradu- 
ate of Yale also, who had now become the husband 
of Mrs. Greene. When the machine was finished, 
it was housed in a temporary building and dis- 
played to a number of gentlemen who were invited 
from various parts of the State. It was acknowl- 
edged to be a success, the fame of it was spread 
abroad, and in the ensuing excitement, some of 
the populace broke open the building by night and 
carried off the machiue. In this way, before Mr. 
Whitney could complete his model and secure his 
patent, there were already a number of machines 
in successful operation, each constructed with some 
slight deviation from the original, in the hope of 
evading the inventor's claim to a patent right. Mr. 
Miller, who was both zealous and wealthy, foresaw 
a goklen future for the new invention, and, May 
27, 1793, formed a partnership with Mr. Whitney 
under the firm name of ]Miller & Whitney, for the 
manuiaclure and sale of cotton-gins. The junior 
partner immediately started for Connecticut, where 
it had been determined to locate the factory. On 
the 20th of June, 1793, his application for a patent 
was filed with the Secretary of State, Thomas Jeffer- 
son, who evinced an especial interest in this ma- 
chine. 

The firm of Miller & Whitney met with discour- 
agements only. Their purpose was to erect 
machines in every part of the cotton district, and to 
secure for themselves the entire business of ginning. 
But they were embarrassed by unavoidable delays; 
were obliged to borrow money at e.xorbitant rates; 
to sustain losses by fire, by sickness, and by number- 
less defiant infringements upon their patent; and 
were even assailed by slanderous attempts to preju- 
dice public opinion against the product of the 
cotton-gin. Appeals to the law against the Geor- 
gian trespassers resulted only in loss and vexation, 
chiefly because the Georgia juries chose to favor 
their neighbors rather than Miller & Whitney. In 
April, 1799, Mr. Miller wrote to his partner as 
follows: "The jurymen at Augusta have come to 
an understanding among themselves that they will 
never give a verdict in our favor, let the merits of 
the case be as they may." In the opening years of 
this century, the patentees succeeded in obtaining 
some compensation for their public services from 
the legislatures of North Carolina, South Carolina, 
and Tennessee, but the relief came too late to cheer 
Mr. Miller, who died December 7, 1803. In the 
United States Court in Georgia, in 1807, Mr. 
Whitney obtained his first verdict for damages^ 
against a trespasser upon his patent, and afterwards 
he won several other suits. But these events availed 
him very little, for thirteen years of his patent right 
had elapsed, and more than sixty suits in Georgia 
had been begun before this first decision upon the 
merits of his claim was granted. " In prosecution 
of this troublesome business he had made six dif- 
ferent journeys to Georgia, several of which were 



accomplished by land, at a time when, compared 
with the present, the difficulties of such journeys 
were exceedingly great, and exposed him to exces- 
sive fatigues and privations, which, at times, seri- 
ously affected his health, and even jeopardized his 
life." 

All this expenditure of time, and toil, and talent 
was but litde better than futile. Nowhere in the 
South did Mr. Whitney receive the treatment which 
his inestimable public services merited. He be- 
stowed upon the whole cotton-planting community 
a benefit which should have evoked a universal 
tribute of gratitude and generous acknowledgment. 
His property was stolen, his claims ignored or de- 
nied, and he himself was treated rather as a swin- 
dler than as a benefactor. Measures were taken to 
secure to him some profit from his skill. They 
were foiled by persistent opposition and by a stupid 
prejudice against patents. With proper spirit, Mr. 
Whitney endeavored to maintain his rights against 
the legion of aggressors. From the Slate of Geor- 
gia, into which he first introduced his machine, and 
which profited most by its use, he received nothing, 
and that which he obtained elsewhere was doled 
out with so niggardly a hand, that the whole sum 
did not equal the product of half a cent per pound 
on the cotton cleaned with his machines in one 
year. If one man's labor was worth only twenty 
cents per day, the whole sum which Mr. Whitney 
received for his invention was less than the value 
saved in one hour by his machines then in use. 

From that time to this, the South has refused or 
has failed to do justice to Eli Whitney. Through- 
out the length and breath of the land which he im- 
measurably enriched, there is no public mention of 
him, no towns bear his name, no monuments are 
erected to his memory. 

In 181 2, Mr. Whitney applied to Congress for a 
renewal of his patent, but the majority of the mem- 
bers from the cotton-growing States opposed the 
petition and the request was refused. The popular 
disregard of his just claims in the South was de- 
scribed by the inventor himself to Robert Fulton in 
these words: 

"The use of this machine being immensely 
profitable to almost every planter in the cotton dis- 
tricts, all were interested in trespassing upon the 
patent-right, and each kept the other in counte- 
nance. In one instance I had great difliculty in 
proving that the machine had been used in Georgia, 
although at the same moment there were three 
separate sets of the machinery in motion so near, 
that the rattling of the wheels was distinctly heard 
on the steps of the court-house.'' 

Already in 1798, Mr. Whitney had perceived the 
necessity of some other financial reliance than his 
great invention, and with that rare sound judg- 
ment and self-reliant daring which always charac- 
terized him, he determined to engage in the manu- 
facture of arms for the United States. 

Through the influence of the Hon. Oliver Wol- 
cott, of Connecticut, then Secretary of the Treasury, 
Mr. Whitney obtained a contract (January 14, 
1798) by which ten thousand stand of arms were 
to be delivered within a little more than two years. 



ANNALS OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



97 



The works were to be erected, the machinery 
to be made, and much of it to be invented; the 
materials were to be collected, the workmen to be 
instructed, and Mr. Whitney himself was hardly 
conversant with the proposed manufacture. Ten 
citizens of New Haven, who knew and valued Mr. 
Whitney's genius and indomitable spirit, secured 
for him a loan of ten thousand dollars. The Sec- 
retary also, from time to time, advanced money. 
Mr. Whitney purchased the site at the base of East 
Rock, now known as Whitneyville, and began 
operations. The filling of the contract indeed 
occupied ten years instead of two, but Mr. Whit- 
ney's product was so satisfactory, and his improve- 
ments were so great, as to win the highest encomi- 
ums from the Government officials. He was the 
most successful pioneer in this branch of manufac- 
ture in our country. He applied his ingenuity and 
industry to every detail of the business, and even 
gave to each workman his personal supervision. 
Instead of adopting the English method of giving 
to diflerent workmen the entire construction of 
different parts of the gun, ]Mr. Whitney allotted to 
several workmen different tasks upon the same 
limb, each man performing continuously a single 
operation. 

In this way the various parts of the gun were 
shaped and finished in lots of some hundreds or 
thousands of each. Foreign officials who had an 
opportunity to examine Mr. Whitney's method of 
manufacture, prophesied that each weapon thus 
made would be a model indeed, but that the cost 
of its production would be comparatively enor- 
mous. The ingenious American had the satisfac- 
tion of proving that by his system muskets were 
made not only better, but cheaper than under the 
former mode. 

His division of labor so commended itself to 
manufacturers generally, that it gradually gained an 
universal adoption. Our larger factories now could 
hardly be conducted on any other principle, and 
the tendency is to specialize still farther. England 
adopted this system of uniformity in the manu- 
facture of arms in 1855. In 1870 and 1872, Rus- 
sia and Prussia followed her example, and other 
European States are now falling into line. 

Much of the machinery in Mr. Whitney's factory 
was original with him or adapted by him; and since 
his improvements were useful also in the general 
manufacture of iron and steel, they became of the 
widest service. Other contracts were obtained by 
him from the United States Government, and also 
from the State of New York, and up to the year 
1836, the Government was said to save by his im- 
proved methods over twenty-five thousand dollars 
per annum at the two public armories alone. At 
the present day the saving which has accrued to 
the Government and to private individuals from the 
adoption of Mr. Whitney's methods in the man- 
ufacture of arms and machinery, has amounted to 
millions. 

In person Mr. Whitney was considerably above 

the ordinary size, of a dignified carriage, and of an 

open, manly, and agreeable countenance. In New 

Haven he was universally esteemed. Many of the 

13 



prominent citizens of the place supported him in 
his undertakings, and he inspired all whom he met 
with a similar confidence. Throughout the com- 
munity, and in foreign lands, he was known and 
honored as a benefactor of the race. With all the 
Presidents of the United States, from the beginning 
of the Government, he enjoyed a personal acquaint- 
ance, and his relations with the leading men of the 
country were unimpaired by political revolutions. 

While his information was extensive and his cul- 
ture many-sided, a great power of mechanical in- 
vention remained the most remarkable trait of his 
character. But he possessed an abundant share of 
one faculty which most inventors lack, and whose 
absence has caused frequent ruin — the faculty of 
reasonable patience. His mind indeed wrought 
with precision rather than with rapidity. His aim 
was steady. He never abandoned a half-accom- 
plished effort in order to make trial of a new and 
foreign idea. No man knew better than himself 
the value of his conceptions, yet no man was more 
capable of taking a dispassionate view of the chances 
of success. His early partner, Mr. ]Miller, was of 
a very sanguine nature, and Mr. Whitney's calm 
and judicial temper was often exercised in restrain- 
ing his more ardent colleague. Mr. Whitney's ex- 
perience in Georgia aff"orded him a wide field for 
the practice of both patience and perseverance. 
Habitual caution and painstaking industry aided 
in preserving the admirable balance of his char- 
acter. His faithful attention covered the minutest 
details. He constructed factory, machinery, mill- 
dam, shops, houses and buildings, not only with 
due regard to artistic propriety and completeness, 
but also with a seemingly inexhaustible fertility of 
resource in devising new conveniences and labor- 
saving contrivances. Mr. Whitney was fortunate 
in that he lived long enough to receive in some 
measure the homage due to his achievements. 

" He has changed the state of cultivation and 
multiplied the wealth of a large portion of the 
country. Every cotton garment bears the impress 
of his genius. 

' 'The ships in which the great staple is transported 
across the waters are the heralds of his fame. The 
cities that rose to opulence by the cotton trade 
must attribute no small share of their prosperity to 
the inventor of the cotton-gin. In mechanical 
operations generally, he set an example of method 
and precision which others had not even thought of 
attempting. His liberal views, his knowledge of 
the world, his public spirit, and his acts of benefi- 
cence, insured him a commanding place in society." 
Moreover, the gentleness of his manners and the 
delicate kindliness of his feelings endeared him to 
a large circle of relatives and friends. 

In January, 1817, he married Miss Henrietta F. 
Edwards, yougest daughter of the Hon. Pierpont 
Edwards. 

Four children were born to them, a son and 
three daughters; but one of the latter died in in- 
fancy. The son, who inherited his father's name, 
has remained an active and honored citizen of New 
Haven, and conducts to-day the manufactory which 
his father founded, but which has been greatly en- 



98 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



larged and altered to meet the demands of modern 
improvement. 

In September, 1S22, INIr. Whitney was first at- 
tacked by a dangerous and extremely painful disease 
which immediately imperiled his life, and which 
from that time progressed slowly but steadily to the 
fatal end. He studied his malady composedly and 
thoroughly; alleviated his sufferings, so far as pos- 
sible, by ingenious appliances of his own invention; 
and faced the inevitable result with quiet resigna- 
tion. 

After the 12th of November, 1S24, his sufferings 
were almost continuous until the 8th of January, 
1825, when he expired. He was accompanied to 
the grave with every token of respect and affection 
from the citizens of New Haven; and the Rev. Dr. 
Day, President of Yale College, pronounced an 
eulogy over the remains. His tomb, modeled after 
that of Scipio, at Rome, stands in New Haven's 
ancient burying ground, and bears the following 
inscription : 

ELI WHITNEY, 
The Inventor of the CottonGin. 

Of useful Science and Arts the Efficient P.-itron and 
Improver. 

In the social relations of life a model of excellence. 

While private affection weeps at his tomb, his country 

honors his memory. 

Born December 8, 1765. Died January 8, 1825. 

It has been shown how quickly the planters of 
the South appreciated the utility of the cotton-gin, 
and with what avidity they appropriated to them- 
selves its immediate benefits. But the influence of 
Mr. \\'hitney's invention was not confined to one 
generation nor to any limited community. The 
men w^ho first beheld and used it, lived to see only 
the beginning of its grand effects. In 1784 a ship 
sailed into Liverpool harbor with eight bales of 
cotton from the United States, and was seized, on 
the ground that so large a quantity of cotton in a 
single cargo could not be the produce of the United 
States. From 1791 to 1793 the production of cot- 
ton was nearly stationary, and the amount of ex- 
portation actually decreased, the total crop in the 
latter year being about 12,000 bales (5,000,000 
pountis) and the total exportation being 487,600 
pounds. In 1845, 'he cotton crop of the United 
States amounted to 2, 395,000 bales (1,029, 850,000 
pounds) of which more than two-thirds was ex- 
ported; while by the census of 1880, fifteen mil- 
lions of acres in the United States were shown to pro- 
duce in one year 6,000,000 bales of cotton (about 
2,400,000,000 pounds), and the export was almost 
twice as much as the entire crop of 1845. This 
enormous quantity has not only supplied a cheap 
fabric suitable for clothing the world over, but it has 
also placed our country high in the ranks of the pro- 
ducing nations and enabled us to increase with 
safety our importations fromEurope. These achieve- 
ments the cotton-gin rendered possible. An es- 
timate of the influence of this wonderful industrial 
development upon our commercial relations can 
only approximate to the truth, hut it is probable 
that the cotton-gin has been worth to the United 
States through the exportation of cotton, over five 
billions of dollars. 



That winter's work of a Yankee schoolmaster in 
a Georgia mansion helped to clear the way for 
more than a passing glance reveals. It revolution- 
ized the agriculture of the South and enriched its 
inhabitants. It assured an active market for the 
public lands in the southwest, accelerated the 
development of the United States, and bestowed 
an immediate and permanent value upon regions 
that must otherwise have remained for a long time 
valueless. It aided in the discharge of our obliga- 
tions to foreign countries. It placed hundreds of 
factories upon our Northern and Southern streams 
and in the villages of Old England. It strength- 
ened for a time the institution of Slavery in the 
South, but to the overweening confidence of the 
South in the importance of its cotton-staple was 
partially due the Civil War, and the consequent 
triumph of Northern Free Labor. Above all it 
cheapened the clothing of man, and to clothe the 
naked is secondary only to feeding the hungry. 
Mr. Whitney by this invention created the pros- 
perity of the South, made England rich, and 
changed the commerce of the world. Lord Mac- 
aulay, in one of his brilliant sentences, placed the 
cotton-gin at the foundation of our republican 
prosperity, saying " What Peter the Great did to 
make Russia dominant, Eli Whitney's invention of 
the cotton-gin has more than equaled in its reladon 
to the power and progress of the United States.'' 

The battle of Navarino on the 20th of October, 
1827, achieved the deliverance of Greece from the 
Turkish yoke. The people of America had warmly 
sympathized with the Greeks, and there was great 
joy in New Haven when tidings came of the de- 
struction of the Turkish and Egyptian fleets in the 
Bay of Navarino by the combined Christian Pow-ers 
of Europe. The Neiv Haven C/iruniclc, of Decem- 
ber 22, 1827, says: 

The intelligence reached New Haven on Tuesday morn- 
ing, and at 12 o'clock the ringing of the bells, the music 
from the bands, and the shouts of ciii/ens bespoke the joy 
that was experienced from the tidings of so glorious a victory 
— glorious not so much from the merits of the battle as from 
its bearing on the salvation of the Greeks. On Thursday 
evening the Tontine Coffee House was brillianlly illuminated 
and a transparency of the words, Navarino, Octoher 20, 
1827, was placed over the portico of that spacious building. 
On Wednesday an invitation was circulated by the students 
of Yale College, requesting the citizens to join them in an 
Illumination on the evening of that day. Accordingly 
at half-past seven, the College Buildings were l)rilliantly 
lighted, and also many of the dwellings, stores and shops of 
the city. A beautiful transparency, representing a Turk's 
Head, underneath which were the words. The Moslem 
HAS fallen and GREECE SHALL HE FREE, was exhibited 
at South College. 

JAMES HILLHOUSE. 

The Hon. James Hillhouse died in 1832. To 
him New Haven is indebted for much of its thrift 
and beautv. We have already seen him in the be- 
ginning of his manhood, going out to repel the 
hostile troops who were invading the city. In 
1780, the next year after the invasion, " the roll of 
the House of Representatives in the State Legisla- 
ture shows the name of "Captain James Hill- 



ANNALS OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



99 



house " as the second representative from the town 
of New Haven. The next year he was first rep- 
resentative; and thenceforward he was frequently 
elected by his townsmen to this trust, till the peo- 
ple of the whole State in 1789 called him to a seat 
in the Council. 

In 1790, Mr. Hillhouse was elected one of the 
five representatives from Connecticut in the Second 
Congress of the United States, and being success- 
ively re-elected, served through the Third Congress 
and the first session of the Fourth. In 1796 he 
left the Lower House to enter the Senate, having 
been chosen to complete the unexpired term of 
Oliver Ellsworth, who had resigned his seat in the 
Senate for the seat of Chief Justice in the Supreme 
Court of the United Slates. At the inauguration of 
President John Adams, March 4, 1797, he pre- 
sented the credentials of his re-election for the full 
term then commencing. When Mr. Jefferson, 
after being elected President, withdrew from the 
presidency of the Senate, Mr. Hillhouse was made 
President /ro A'w/wc of that body. He was duly 
elected to the Senate a third time in 1803, and a 
fourth time in 1809. The Legislature of Connec- 
ticut appointed him in iSio Commissioner of the 
School Fund acquired by the sale of lands in Ohio, 
which Connecticut reserved when she ceded to the 
United States all her right and title in the land 
which she claimed under the charter which made 
"the South Sea " her western boundar)-. This fund, 
amounting to $1,200,000, consisted chiefly of the 
debts due from the original purchasers of the West- 
ern Reserve and those substituted securities which, 
in the course of a dozen years, had been accepted 
in their stead by a Board of i\Ianagers to whom it 
was entrusted. From the report of these Commis- 
sioners to the Legislature in the October Session in 
1809, it appeared not only that a large amount of 
interest remained unpaid, but that considerable 
portions of the capital, also, were in danger of being 
lost by the failure of collateral securities. A com- 
mittee, of which the Hon. David Daggett was 
chairman, recommended that the fund should be 
entrusted to the care and control of one man; and 
at the next session, in May, 1810, the office of 
" Commissioner of the School Fund " was created, 
and the Board of Managers was abolished. Mr. 
Hillhouse was fore-ordained to be Commissioner of 
the School Fund. Naturally he was fitted to be- 
come a financier, and had had much experience. 
For twenty-eight years previous to this appointment 
by the Legislature, he had been the Treasurer of 
Yale College, giving personal attention to the du- 
ties of the office, even when,by reason of his absence 
from New Haven, an Assistant Treasurer was em- 
ployed. The committee who recommended the 
substitution of one manager in the place of five, 
the jMembers of the Legislature who changed the 
mode of managing the fund, and the people of the 
State who were alarmed for its safety, all had James 
Hillhouse in mind as singularly competent to a 
work so laborious and so complicated. With dis- 
interested patriotism and exemplary devotion to 
the public welfare, Mr. Hillhouse resigned his 
seat in the Senate and gave his time and his extra- 



ordinary strength for fifteen years to the School 
Fund. 

In this period, says Roger Minott Sherman, without a 
single litigated suit, or a dollar paid for counsel, he restored 
the Fund to safety and order, rendered it productive of large 
and increasing annual dividends, and left it augmented to 
seventeen hundred thousand dollars, of well secured and 
solid capital. During his administration of the school fund, 
he attended to little else. At all seasons of the year, how- 
ever inclement, he journeyed over the extensive country 
through which his cares were dispersed, guarded the public 
land from depredation, made himself familiar with every 
debtor, and the state of his property, and by indefatigable 
labor, and by kind attention and assistance, improved the 
circumstances of improvident debtors, through the very 
measures which he pursued for the security of the Fund. 

His extraordinary power of bodily endurance; 
his superior tact in business; his marvelous pa- 
tience and perseverance; his sweetness of disposi- 
tion, perpetually welling up in the presence of un- 
foreseen difficulties and new frustrations, were all 
necessary elements in the wonderful adaptation he 
displayed for his work. He had for the first six or 
eight years of his travels, an assistant almost as ex- 
traordinary as himself, in the little mare he called 
Young Jin, which carried his sulky through the 
States where the School F'und lands lay, sometimes 
getting over seventy miles in a day. Once he 
pushed her thirty miles after twilight without stop- 
ping, having in a desolate region been dogged by two 
ruffians who attempted to relieve him of his trunk, 
containing, though unknown to them, twenty thou- 
sand dollars of the public money. Another in- 
cident illustrates the multiplicity of perils through 
which he passed. On one of his school-fund 
journeys, traversing a forest in Ohio, which for 
many a long mile had seemed as destitute of human 
habitations as on the day of creation, there sudden- 
ly glided into the path an armed Indian. The ap- 
parition was startling, but the rider having nodded 
to his new companion, kept the sulky moving. 
The Indian surveyed him earnestly from time to 
time; and, whether Young Jin quickened or slack- 
ened her pace, kept at the wheel. After about six 
miles had been traversed, the sulky drew up, and 
a fourpence-ha'pennv was handed to its persever- 
ing attendant. The Redskin received it with a 
grunt of thanks, turned off into the woods, and 
was seen no more. James A. Hillhouse, the poet, 
relating this anecdote of his father, in the notes to 
his "Sachem's Wood," suggests that if any evil pur- 
pose was harbored, perhaps his father owed some- 
thing to the sachem-marks which distinguished his 
person and aspect. By heredity Mr. Hillhouse re- 
.sembled an Indian. " He seemed,'' says Dr. Bacon, 
his pastor, who describes him as " tall, long-limbed, 
with high cheek-bones, swarthy, lithe in motion, 
lightness in his step, and strength and freedom in 
his stride — he seemed a little like some Indian 
chief of poetry or romance — the Ontalissi of Camp- 
bell's Gertrude of Wyoming; the Massasoit or 
King Philip of our early history, as fancy pictures 
them." " The Sachem " was the sobriquet by which 
Mr. Hillhouse was known in Congress as well as 
elsewhere. It used to be said in the Senate Cham- 
ber that he kept a hatchet under the papers and 
I red tape in his desk, and that when the debate 



100 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



waxed personal he took it out and laid it by the 
side of his inkstand. His favorite toast among 
friends was, in allusion to the sobriquet by which 
they called him: " Let us bury the hatchet." 

It was the good fortune of the First Commis- 
sioner of the School Fund that the measures which 
he was obliged to take tor the safety of the fund 
were as beneficial to the embarrassed debtors in 
whose bonds and mortgages the Fund was invested 
as to the Fund itself. Instead of acting against 
them as the mere attorney of an adverse party, he 
was their adviser and acted with them and for them. 
The forbearance which he (with powers almost un- 
limited, save by his own fidelity to his trust) was 
able to exercise, the legal and financial advice which 
he was so well qualified to give; and the aid, which 
in one way or another he could render when the 
claims of other creditors were pressed too urgently, 
were at the service of any debtor, who, when his 
embarassments were cleared away, would give good 
security for what he owed to the Fund. Thus by 
the manner in which he discharged his official duty 
he became at once the saviour of the Fund and the 
benefactor of those who could not have extricated 
themselves from their embarrassments by any efforts 
of their own, and in whose final insolvency the 
State would have been a losing creditor. In one 
instance a family were so much benefited by the 
services which Mr. Hillhouse rendered them be- 
yond what the interests of the School Fund required, 
that they not only willingly went beyond the require- 
ments of law in the settlement of accounts, allow- 
ing compound interest where only simple interest 
could have been legally demanded, but tendered 
the sum of six thousand dollars to the Commissioner 
for his extraordinary exertions in clearing their es- 
tate from a complication of mortgages and imper- 
fect titles, so that they were able to secure to the 
Fund, with solid mortgages, the debt of nearly three 
hundred thousand dollars which they owed. .Similar 
service rendered in another case where the debt was 
of less amount was acknowledged by a similar tes- 
timonial of gratitude, amounting to nearly twenty- 
five hundred dollars. And in a third instance of 
similar character, an allowance of more than fifteen 
hundred dollars was made by one whose estate had 
been extricated from embarrassment. Did Hill- 
house accept these presents and put the money into 
his own pocket ? Let us divide the question into 
two, and answer them separately. He did accept 
the offered presents, but instead of devoting the 
money to his own use, he paid it all into the treas- 
ury of the School Fund. He would not accept for 
his own benefit a present from those with whom he 
dealt as a public agent. 

What Mr. Hillhouse did for the School Fund in 
the fifteen years of his administration, was in many 
respects a diflerent work from that of his successors 
in office. His task was to extricate the Fund from 
the embarrassed and perilous condition which 
threatened its extinction. If that magnificent en- 
dowment yields any benefit to the people of Con- 
necticut; if it diminishes the weight of their public 
burdens; if it secures a school in every neighbor- 



hood and within reach of every family, it is to 
James Hillhouse, more than to any other man, that 
the debt of public gratitude is due. 

At the time when Mr. Hillhouse retired from his 
office as Commissioner of the School Fund, the 
citizens of New Haven had determined on attempt- 
ing the construction of a canal from their harbor 
to the Connecticut River at Northampton, and he 
was persuaded to take the leadership of that en- 
terprise. The canal was built, notwithstanding 
many difficulties and discouragements, and might 
have been a great public benefit, if canals had not 
been, soon after it was ready for business, superseded 
by a mode of travel and transportation which, in 
its present improved condition, had not entered into 
the imagination of man at the time when Hill- 
house threw the first spadeful of earth from the bed 
of the Farmington Canal, 

From youth to old age, Mr. Hillhouse was an 
active leader in every concerted endeavor to ad- 
vance New Haven toward its present beauty. He 
leveled the Lower Green and inclosed the whole 
square with a fence; thus obliterating the winding 
cart-path which, from the time of Eaton and Daven- 
port, had traversed the Market Place diagonally 
from the northwestern corner to the southeastern. 
He brought from a farm he owned in Meriden, and 
set out partly with his own hands, the elms that 
now interlock their- giant arms over the famous 
colonnade of Temple street. The once renowned, 
but now almost deserted, air-line turnpike road from 
New Haven to Hartford, though not laid out by 
him, was by his executive ability brought to com- 
pletion. It is related in the folk-lore of New Haven, 
that while Mr. Hillhouse was superintending the 
construction of this road, he received a visit from 
General Wade Hampton, of South .Carolina, one 
of his associates in Congress; that it was a part of 
his hospitality to show his Southern friend the 
great public work which was in progress; and that 
the well-trained oxen at work upon it were much 
admired by the stranger. " See'', said Hampton to 
the negro servant who attended him, " how those 
oxen work! Why, Tom, they know more than you 
do." " Yes, massa, " responded Tom, " but dem ar 
oxen has had a Yankee bringing up.'' Mr. Hill- 
house formed and carried into effect the plan of the 
Grove street Cemetery, which has become so 
honored with historic graves, his own among the 
most illustrious. That was the earliest attempt 
anywhere to provide a public cemetery so arranged 
that every family might have its own family burial 
place. 

One office Mr. Hillhouse retained to the end of 
life. Elected Treasurer of Yale College before he 
was elected to Congress, he never ceased his care 
of its finances under all his burdens and labors 
while in public life; and when, in old age, he had 
relinquished all other offices and public employ- 
ments, he still remained the Treasurer of the Col- 
lege. About noon on the 29th of December, 1832, 
as he was reading a letter on College business, 
he rose from his chair, and, without saying any- 
thing went into his bedroom. Only a moment had 
passed when his son, having occasion to speak to 



ANNALS OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



101 



him, followed. But the old man was asleep. He 
had lain down quietly on his bed, and a gentle 
touch of the Angel of Death hail released him from 
his labors. 

President Andrew Jackson visited New Haven 
in 1833, coming from New York in the steamboat 
Splendid, and arriving on Saturday, June 15th. 
On landing, the President was received with the 
salutes of the military and the cheers of the citi- 
zens. A procession was formed, according to ar- 
rangements previously made, which proceeded 
under military escort, the ringing of bells, and every 
demonstration of joy and honor, through some of 
the principal streets to the State House, where the 
President was received by the Governor of the 
State, the Mayor and other officers of the city, the 
Faculty of the College, and the veterans of the Revo- 
lution. He was welcomed in addresses by the 
Governor and the Mayor, and responded in brief 
and appropriate remarks. After paying his respects 
to the ladies assembled in the Senate Chamber, he 
received the congratulations of citizens in the hall. 

He was then, says the Comiecticut Herald, escorted to the 
Colleges by the Faculty and students, and having visited the 
Cabinet and other buildings, was again escorted by the 
whole procession to his lodgings at the Tontine, where the 
military passed in review. On Sunday, the President, with 
his suite, attended Trinity Church; and in the afternoon the 
North Presbyterian and the Methodist Church, the service 
at the latter being prolonged for the purpose of having the 
honor of a visit. At an early hour on Monday morning, 
the President, the Vice-President, and several gentlemen of 
his suite visited the manufactory of Messrs. Brewster & 
CoUis, coach manufacturers, in the beautiful villa which has 
sprung up, as if by magic, in that portion of our city called 
the New Township. The visit was both early and casual, 
but everything was m operation and in order, and no one 
that feels a pride in tlie honor and interests of our town 
could fail to be gratified at the exhibition of the extent and 
economy of the estabhshment, the industry and skill of the 
operators, and the courtesy and politeness of the proprietors. 
From the coach establishment he proceeded to the ax fac- 
tory of Messrs. Harrison & Co., in the same vicinity. He 
was conducted through the works by Mr. Harrison, was 
cheered by the workmen, and was evidently gratified by the 
hasty view which his limited time permitted. He returned 
to the Tontine to breakfast, immediately after which, at 
about half-past six o'clock, he departed for Hartford. On 
his way, two miles from the city, he visited the gun factory 
of the Messrs. Blake, at Whitneyville. 

The morning of November 13, 1833, was ren- 
dered memorable by an e.xhibition of the phenom- 
enon called Shooting Stars, more e.\tensive and 
magnificent than any hitherto recorded. The 
morning itself was, in most places where the 
spectacle was witnessed, remarkably beautiful. The 
firmament was unclouded; the air was still and 
mild; the stars seemed to shine with more than 
their wonted brilliancy, a circumstance arising not 
merely from the unusually transparent state of the 
atmosphere, but in part, no doubt, from the 
dilated state of the pupil of the ej'eof the spectator, 
emerging suddenly from a dark room; the large 
constellation Orion in the southwest, followed by 
Sirius and Procyon, formed a striking counterpart 
to the planets Saturn and Venus, which were shin- 
ing in the southeast; and, in short, the observer of 
the starry heavens would rarely find so much to 



reward his gaze as the sky of this morning pre- 
sented, independently of the magnificent spectacle 
which constituted its peculiar distinction. Prob- 
ably no celestial phenomenon has ever occurred in 
this country since its first settlement which was 
viewed with so much admiration and delight by 
one class of spectators, or with so much astonish- 
ment and fear by another class. For some time 
after the occurrence, the "Meteoric Phenomenon" 
was the principal topic of conversation in every 
circle, and the descriptions that were published by 
different observers, were rapidly circulated by the 
newspapers through all parts of the United States. 

Professor Denison Olmsted commences with the 
above paragraph an article in the American Journal 
of Science, which he entitles ' ' Observations on the 
Meteors of November 13, 1833." He then reprints 
a short article communicated by him to the A^eiv 
Haven Daily Herald, and published in the evening 
of the same day on which the meteors appeared. 
We reproduce his communicadon to the Herald as 
an excellent, though brief, description of the re- 
markable phenomenon seen by so many in New 
Haven as well as elsewhere. 

About daybreak this morning, our sky presented a re- 
markable exhibition of Fire-Bails,'commonly called Shoot- 
ing Stars. The attention of the writer was first called to 
the phenomenon about half -past five o'clock; from which 
time until sunrise, the appearance of these meteors was 
striking and splendid beyond anything of *he kind he has 
ever witnessed. 

To form some idea of the phenomenon, the reader may 
imagine a constant succession of fire balls, resembling rock- 
ets, radiating in all directions from a point in the heavens 
a few degrees southeast of the zenith, and following the arch 
of the sky towards the horizon. They commenced their 
progress at different distances from the radiating point, but 
their directions were uniformly such, that the lines they de- 
scribed, if produced upward, would all have met in the 
same part of the heavens. Around this point, or imaginary 
radiant, was a circular space of several degrees, within 
which no meteors were observed. The balls as they traveled 
down the vault, usually left after them a vivid streak of light, 
and just before they disappeared, eSploded or suddenly re- 
solved themselves into smoke. No report or noise of any 
kind was observed, although we listened attentively. 

Besides the foregoing distinct concretions, or individual 
bodies, the atmosphere exhibited phosphoric lines, following 
in the train of minute points that shot off in the greatest 
abundance in a northwesterly direction. These did not so 
fully copy the figure of the sky, but moved in paths more 
nearly rectilinear, and appeared to be much nearer the 
spectator than the fire-balls. The light of their trains also 
was of a paler hue, not unlike that produced by writing 
with a stick of phosphorus on the walls of a dark room. 
The number of these luminous trains increased and dimin- 
ished alternately, now and then crossing the field of view 
like snow drifted before the wind, although in fact their 
course was toward the wind. 

From these two varieties, the spectator was presented 
with meteors of various sizes and degrees of splendor; some 
were mere points, but others were larger and brighter than 
Jupiter or Venus; and one, seen by a credible witness before 
the writer was called, was judged to be nearly as large as 
the moon. The flashes of light, although less intense than 
lightning, were so bright as to awaken people in their beds. 
One ball that shot off in the northwest direction, and ex- 
ploded a little northward of the star Capella, left just be- 
hind the place of explosion, a phosphorescent train of pecu- 
liar beauty. This line was at first nearly straight, but it 
shortly began to contract in length, to dilate in breadth, 
and to assume the figure of a serpent drawing itself up, until 
it appeared like a small luminous cloud of vapor. This 



102 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



cloud was borne eastward (by the wind, as was supposed, 
which was blowiny gently in that direction in which the 
meteor had proceeded), remaining in sight several minutes. 
The light of the meteors was usually white, but was oc- 
casionally prismatic with a predominance of blue. 

A quarter liefore six o'clock, it appeared to the com- 
pany that the point of apparent radiation was moving east- 
ward from the zenith, when it occurred to the writer to 
mark its place accurately among the fixed stars. The point 
was then seen to be in the constellation Leo, within the bend 
of the Sickle, a little to the westward of Gamma Leonis. 
During the hour following, the radiating point remained 
stationary in the same part of Leo, although the constella- 
tion in the meantime, by the diurnal revolution, moved 
westward to the meridian nearly 15 degrees. By referring 
to a celestial globe, it will be seen that this point has a right 
ascension of 150 degrees and a declination of about 21 de- 
grees. Consequently it was, when on the meridian, 20 
degrees 18 minutes south of the zenith. The weather had 
sustained a recent change. On the evening of the nth, a 
very copious southerly rain fell, and on the 12th, a high 
westerly wind prevaUed, by gusts. Last evening the sky 
was very serene; a few " falling stars " were observed, but 
they were not so numerous as to excite particular attention. 

The writings of Humboldt contain a description of a 
similar appearance observed by Bonpland, at Cumana, in 
1799. It IS worthy of remark that this phenomenon was 
seen nearly at the same hours of the morning, and on the 
I2th of November, 

Y.'VLE College, November 13, 1S33. 

The second centennial anniversary of the plant- 
ing of New Haven was celebrated April 25, 
1838. The following narrative, describing the 
formalities which distinguished the da)', was printed 
with the historical discourse delivered by Professor 
James L. Kingsley: 

Arrangements having been made by a joint committee of 
the Connecticut Academy, the Mayor, Aldermen and Com- 
mon Council of the city, and the Selectmen of the town of 
New Haven for the celebration of this anniversary, — at 
about half-past eight o'clock in the morning, the citizens 
began to assemble near the southern portico of the State 
House. Scholars of both sexes of the several schools of the 
city, under the superintendence of their respective in- 
structors, were arranged on the public scjuare, from fifteen 
hundred to two thousand in number. The military escort 
consisted of the artillery, under the command of Captain 
Morris Tyler, and the grays, under the command ot Captain 
Elijah Thompson. Tflfe procession was formed under the 
superintendence of Charles Robinson, Esq., marshal of the 
day, assisted by several others. From the State House, the 
procession, comprising the various classes of citizens and 
strangers, proceeded to Temple street, up Chapel street to 
College street; through College street to its intersection with 
(leorge street, at which place, under a spreading oak, Mr. 
Davenport preached his first sermon just two hundred years 
before. Here the procession halted for religious exercises. 
Not only the streets were filled, but the roofs of neighbour- 
ing houses were jiartially covered, and some persons had 
taken their stations in the trees. The number here as- 
sembled was variously estimated from four to five thousand. 
The exercises at this place were commenced by singing four 
stanzas of the 80th I'salm, in the version of Sternhold and 
Hopkins. Tune, St. Alartins. 

" O take us Lord into thy grace, 
convert our minds to thee; 
Shew forth to us thy joyful face, 
and we full safe shall be. 

"From Egypt, where it grew not well, 
thou brought'st a vine full deare; 
The heathen folke thou didst expel, 
and thou didst plant it here. 

" Thou didst prepare for it a place, 

and set her rootes full fast; 
That it did grow, and spring apace, 
and filled the land at last. 



"O, Lord of Hoasts through thy good grace, 
convert us unto thee; 
Behold us with a pleasant face, 
and then full safe are we." 

Near the spot where the oak tree is believed to have 
stood, a stage had been erected, standing on which the Rev, 
Frederick W. Hotchkiss, of Sayljrook, attended by the Rev. 
Leonard Bacon, ofiered prayer. Mr. Hotchkiss is a native 
of New Haven, His mother was a direct descendant of 
Gov, Jones, and thus connected with the family of Gov. 
Eaton. Mr. Hotchkiss was distinctly heard by the whole 
assembly, and the prayer was peculiarly appropriate, solemn 
and impresive. After the religious exercises were closed, 
the procession was again formed, and moved down George 
street to State street; up State street to Elm street; up Elm 
street, by the place where the houses of Gov. Eaton and 
Mr. Davenport formerly stood, till it reached Temple street; 
and then down Temple street to the First Congregational 
Church, where the Society, whose first pastor was Mr. 
Davenport, worship, and near which spot the first house 
of worship was erected. At church, the following exercises 
were performed. The music was a full choir, under the 
direction of Mr. Ailing Brown. 

1. Hymn. By William T. Bacon, A.B. 

" Lo! we are gathering here 
Now in the young green year, 

And welcoming 
The days which the ocean o'er 
Did, to New England's shore, 
Those noble souls of yore. 

Our fathers bring. 

" Here where now temples rise, 
Knelt they 'neath these same skies, 

The woods among; 
And to the murmiu'ing sea. 
And to the forest free. 
The home of liberty, 
Eclio'd their song 

" Lives not then in our veins — 
Speak not our battle plains — 

A blood like theirs ? 
Aye 1 and from this same sod. 
Fearing no tyrant's rod. 
To the same Father, GoD, 

Ascend our prayers. 

" Make theirs, O God, our fame; 
Worthy to bear their name, 

O may we ever be; 
Thus, while each gladsome spring 
Comes with its blossoming, 
Loud shall our anthems rmg. 

For them and thee. 

' ' Theirs was the godlike part — 
Theirs were the hand and heart — 

Trust tried, though few: 
Grant that our souls be led. 
Thinking of our great dead, 
And by their great spirit fed, 

Tt) deeds as true. 

" So dolh the eaglet, nursed 
High where the thunders burst. 

Gaze with fixed eye. 
Till, gained its parent's form. 
With the same instinct warm, 
It breasts the same loud storm. 

And cleaves the sky. " 

2. Reading. Isaiah xxxv. By Rev. Lorenzo T. Bennel, 
Assistant Minister of Trinity Church. 

3. Prayer. By Rev. Leonard Bacon, Pastor of the 
First Congregational Church. 

4. Anthem, from Isaiah xxxiv, 17, and xxxv, 1-2. 
Words selecte<l by Rev. L. Bacon. Music composed by Rev. 
Prof. Fitch. The Lord, He hath cast the lot for them. 



ANNALS OF THE CITF OF NEW HAVEN. 



103 



and his hand hath dhided it unto them hy line; they shall 
possess it fnre\'er. From generation unto ijeneration they 
shall dwell therein. 

The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for 
them : the desert shall rejoice and blosom as the rose. 

It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and 
singing. The nations, they shall see the glory of the Lord, 
and the excellency of our God. 

5. Historical Discourse. By Prof. Kingsley. 

6. Prayer. By Rev. Edwin E. Griswold, Minister of the 
Methodist Church. 

7. Hymn. By Rev. L. Bacon. 

" The Sabbath morn was bright and calm, 
Upon the hills, the woods, the sea. 
When here the prayer and choral psalm, 
First rose, our fathers' God, to thee. 

" Thou heard 'st, well-pleased, the song, the pray'r; 
Thy blessing came, and still its power 
Goes onward; through all time to bear 
The mcm'ry of that holy hour. 

" What change ! through pathless woods no more 
The fierce and naked savage roams ; 
Sweet praise, along the cultured shore, 
Breaks from a thousand happy homes. 

" Law, freedom, truth, and faith in God, 
Came with those exiles o'er the waves; 
And where their pilgrim feet have trod. 
The God they trusted, guards their graves. 

' ' Here peace, beneath thy wings, and truth 
And law-girt freedom still shall dwell; 
And rev'rend age to manly youth 
His treasured stores of wisdom tell. 

" And here thy name, O God of love, 
Successive thousands shall adore. 
Till these eternal hills remove, 

And spring adorns the earth no more." 

8. Benediction. By Rev. L. T. Bennett. 

From this celebration of the second centennial 
anniversary of the settlement of the town, we pass 
to the celebration of the first centennial anniversary 
of the incorporation of the city. Early in the 
year 1884, citizens began to speak of it as the cen- 
tennial year, but the celebration was postponed by 
common consent to the Fourth of July. The act 
of incorporation passed the Legislature, as we have 
already related, in the month of January, and the 
city government was organized in February follow- 
ing. The postponement of the celebration to the 
Fourth of July, provided a more genial tempera- 
ture for festivities in the open air, and gave to the 
national holiday a double gladness. 

The day was ushered in with the ringing of bells 
for one hour and a salute of one hundred guns 
from the summit of East Rock. At 10 o'clock a. m., 
his Excellency Governor Waller and staff, were re- 
ceived at the New Haven House, and his Honor, 
Mayor Lewis, and invited guests at the City Hall, 
by the second company of Governor's Foot Guards, 
the second company of Governor's Horse Guards, 
and the Veteran Grays. At 1 1 o'clock a procession 
previously formed, began to move up Chapel street. 
It proceeded through Chapel to York, York to 
Broadway, up Broadway and around the triangular 
Park back to York, York to Chapel, Chapel to 
Church, Church to George, George to State, State 
to Eld, Eld to Orange, Orange to Elm, and up Elm 



to the north gate of the Green. The procession 
consisted of eight divisions, all under the direction 
of Brigadier-General Stephen R. Smith, as Grand 
Marshal, and each under its own Division Marshal. 
General Smith was accompanied by his Brigade 
Staff and many other Aids, and each Division Mar- 
shal had a full staff of Assistant Marshals. Between 
the staff of the Grand Marshal and the head of the 
first division, was borne the ship Constitution, 
belonging to the New Haven Colony Historical 
Society. This miniature man-of-war was picked 
up in the British Channel in 1764, by the Lark, 
on a passage from Marseilles to New Haven, and 
was carried in the procession, at the celebration of 
peace in 1783, at the celebration of peace in 181 5, 
and at the celebration of the second centennial in 
1838. 

The first division, led by Division-Marshal Gen- 
eral George M. Harmon, consisted of the Second 
Regiment of the Connecticut National Guard, 
having all its ten companies in line, followed by a 
battalion of artillery. Colonel Charles P. Graham, 
commanding the regiment was accompanied by 
the officers of his staff. The second division of 
the procession, led by Division Marshal Colonel 
Simeon J. Fox, consisted of the Grand Army of the 
Republic and civic societies. In this division was 
the Barge Mayflower, containing one young lady 
representing the " Goddess of Liberty," and thirty- 
eight young ladies, in appropriate costumes, repre- 
senting the States of the Union. 
, The third division, led by Colonel John G. 
Healey, consisted of civic societies. The fourth 
division, led by Division-Marshal Captain Jacob P. 
Richards, consisted also chiefly of civic societies, 
but was supplemented by a battalion of Antiques 
and Horribles, which caused much laughter. The 
fifth division, led by General Edward E. Bradley, 
contained the invited guests and their military 
escort, consisting of the second company of Gov- 
ernor's Foot Guards, the Veteran Grays, and the 
second company of Governor's Horse Guards. 

His Excellency the Governor of the State and 
his staff were on horseback. The Mayor and other 
officers of the City of New Haven were in carriages 
attending the Mayors of Hartford, of Bridgeport, 
of Middletown, ofMeriden, of New Britain, of New 
London, of Norwich, of South Norwalk, of Water- 
bury. In this division also was the Rev. Thomas 
R. Bacon, the orator of the day. The sixth division, 
led by ex-Chief Engineer Hiram Camp, consisted of 
veteran firemen of New Haven and fire companies 
from abroad; this part of the procession being so ar- 
ranged as to show the progress made during the 
century in apparatus for extinguishing fires. The 
seventh division, led by Division Marshal Fire Com- 
missioner Luther E. Jerome, consisted of the fire 
department of New Haven, with all its engines. 
The eighth division, led by Division Marshal Major 
Ruel P. Cowles, represented the multiform indus- 
tries of the city. The procession was about three 
miles long, and its rear was later by more than an 
hour, in passing any given" point, than the platoon 
of police which marched at its head. Its several 
divisions, having passed over the appointed route, 



104 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



were dismissed as they passed successively through 
the Elm street gate into the public square. 

The programme of the celebration included two 
exhibitions of fireworks. The day fireworks at 2.30 
p. M. , interested a host of people. It was estimated, 
says the newspaper report, that there were 10,000 
people on or surrounding the Green. 

At 4 p. M., as many persons as the house could 
contain, were assembled in the Center Church 
to listen to the oration of the day. The exercises 
were introduced by an organ voluntary by Mr. 
H. P. Earle. Prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. Ed- 
win Harwood. The pupils of the Hillhouse High 
School sang a Triumphal March from the Oratorio 
of Naaman. The Declaration of Independence 



was read by Rev. Dr.Vibbert, from the same manu- 
script which he used in the same place fifty years 
before. After the singing of the hymn, commenc- 
ing "God ever glorious, Sovereign ofNations," the 
Rev. Thomas R. Bacon delivered a discourse com- 
memorative of both the Declaration of Independ- 
ence and the organization of the city government. 
Afterward was sung the hymn, commencing, " My 
country, 'tis of thee," and the benediction was 
pronounced by Rev. Dr. Newman Smyth. 

A drizzling rain necessitated the postponement 
of the fireworks prepared for the evening; and 
the public celebration terminated at sunset with 
the ringing of bells and a salute of thirty-eight 
guns. 



I 



CHAPTER VI. 



CHURCHES AND CLERGY. MEN. 



NOT only were the first planters of New Haven 
religious men, but religion was the end they 
had in view in establishing a new plantation. Nat- 
urally, therefore, during the early years of the col- 
ony its religious institutions furnish the material 
for a large part of its history. John Davenport, the 
clerical leader of the immigrants, had some years 
before, while vicar of St. Stephen's Church, Cole- 
man street, London, become a Puritan; but he had 
never, while in England, separated himself from 
the national Church, and probably never would 
have done so, if the Puritan party m the Church 
had been in the ascendant. Forced by circum- 
stances to become a separatist from the Church of 
England, he adopted the principles of the pilgrims 
of Plymouth in regard to the true model of a Chris- 
tian Church; but retained the view in which he had 
been brought up, that only those whose Christian 
character was certified by the Church, should have 
authority in the civil government. The company 
which he led out of Massachusetts to settle at 
Quinnipiac, comprised, it is likely, a great variety 
of opinions. His friend, Theophilus Eaton, the 
Moses, as Davenport was the Aaron, of the exodus, 
seems to have agreed entirely with the clerical 
leader of the colony; but Samuel Eaton, the brother 
of Governor Eaton, was at the opposite extreme 
of opinion. He had become, while in England, 
a separatist, and the pastor of a Congregational 
Church. 

There were others in the colony who, having 
become Congregationalists either in England or 
in ^lassachusctts, leaned to the Plymouth idea 
of keeping civil government independent of the 
Church. It was perhaps this divergence of views 
which obstructed for fourteen months the organi- 
zation of both Church and State. During these 
months of abeyance, a discussion in writing was 
carried on between Davenport and Samuel Eaton, 
a fragment of which has been jireserved in a printed 
treatise of Davenport entitled, "A Discourse about 
Civil Government in a New Plantation whose De- 



sign is Religion." Ultimately the views of Daven- 
port prevailed, so that when the meeting was held 
on the 4th day of June, 1639, "to consult about 
settling civil government according to God, and 
about the nomination of persons that might be 
found, by consent of all, fittest in all respects for 
the foundation work of a church,'' the action was 
unanimous, Samuel Eaton being the only dissenter 
from the views of Davenport, and he, when in- 
treated to give his arguments and reasons where- 
upon he dissented, refusing to do so, saying "that 
they might not rationally demand it, seeing he 
let the vote pass on freely and did not speak till 
after it was past, because he would not hinder what 
they agreed upon. " 

In requiring church membership as a qualifica- 
tion for suffrage, New Haven did not differ from 
Massachusetts; but she went further than Massa- 
chusetts, and incorporated the requirement into her 
fundamental and unchangeable law; so that, in re- 
spect to such requirement, she stood at the end of 
a list at the other end of which was Plymouth. 

The Pilgrim Fathers did not require that a man 
should profess his faith in Christ before he was 
elected a free burgess. They conferred the right of 
suffrage on Miles Standish and others who were 
not members of their church as willingly as on their 
deacons. Connecticut stands next to Plymouth in 
the breadth of her liberality, having no law- requir- 
ing as a condition of being elected a freeman of the 
colony, that a man shall be a church member, but 
exercising such care in the nomination of persons 
to be elected freemen, that the result was the same 
as if only church members were eligible. Massa- 
chusetts follows next after Connecticut; having at 
first a law excluding from the freedom of the 
colony those who were not members of some 
church, and retaining it till, by command of King 
Charles the Second, it was expunged from the stat- 
ute book. After the law w-as changed, they took 
care, like the people of Connecticut, that none but 
satisfactory candidates should be proposed for elec- 



CHURCHES AND CLERGYMEN. 



105 



tion. Furthest removed from the HberaHty of Ply- 
mouth was New Haven, which, under the leader- 
ship of Davenport, undertook to confine the ad- 
ministration of civil government to Christian men, 
not only for the time being, but for all time. 

In this comparison we make no mention of 
Rhode Island, which was planted by another class 
of people; but only of the four colonies settled by 
men who, being ecclesiastically in sympathy, dif- 
fered in opinion concerning the limitation of suf- 
frage . 

We have already related that in the meeting held 
on the 4th day of June, 1639, 'o "consult about 
settling civil government according to God, and 
about the nomination of persons that might be 
found by consent of all, fittest in all respect for the 
foundation work of a church," twelve men were 
chosen, and instructed to choose out of their own 
number seven " that shall be most approved of the 
major part, to begin the church. " The seven who 
were chosen by the twelve wereTheophilus Eaton, 
lohn Davenport, Robert Newman, Matthew Gil- 
bert, Thomas Fugill, John Punderson, and Jere- 
miah Di.\on. " By these seven persons, covenant- 
ing together, and then receiving others into their 
fellowship, the first Church of Christ in New Haven 
was gathered and constituted on the 2 2d of August, 
1639." * 

In modern times, a Congregational Church has a 
Confession of Faith as well as a Covenant. But 
the First Church of Christ in New Haven had at 
its institution no such formula as a Confession of 
Faith. It was constituted " by these seven persons 
covenanting together." Unquestionably they satis- 
fied one another before the)' entered into covenant 
that their opinions were sufiiciently accordant to 
justify them in taking such a step. But so far as 
appears, it never entered into their thought to re- 
quire assent to any formula of belief as a condition 
of being admitted to the church. Mr. Davenport 
made a statement of his belief which he afterward 
sent to some friend in London, by whom it was 
printed in 1642. f The pamphlet is entitled, "The 
Profession of the Faith of that Reverend and Worthy 
Divine, Mr. J. D. , sometimes preacher of Steven's, 
Coleman street, London. Made Publicly before 
the Congregation at his Admission into one of the 
Churches of God in New England." About the 
middle of the present century this confession ot 
Davenport was reprinted at New Haven, by request 
of the church of which he had been pastor; and 
Dr. Leonard Bacon, in an "Editor's Preface," 
says of it: " There is no evidence that this confes- 
sion was drawn up to be imposed on all candidates 
for admission to the Church, or to be used at all as 
a test of soundness in the faith. It is to be under- 
stood as the form in which John Davenport made 



* Bacon's Hist. Dis., p. 24. Dr. Bacon ascertains the date from the 
records of the First Church in Milford. which was gathered in New 
Haven, where its members still resided, and. as the local tradition 
says, on the same day with the New Haven Church. Mather Mag., 
book iii., ch. 6, records the tradition somewhat differently, giving to 
each church one of two consecutive days employed in the formalities 
of institution. 

t It was probably printed for the purpose of proving that Congre- 
gationalists were orthodox; English Presbyterians being disposed to 
question it. 

u 



public profession of his own faith, when he and 
the six others who had been designated to that 
service, united in constituting the New Haven 
Church. The others may have adopted the same 
form, or they may have had each his own form of 
sound words. ' Few learned men (says Cotton 
Mather, Magnalia, book v, part i, sec. 3) have 
been admitted as members of our churches, but 
what have, at their admission, entertained them 
with notable confessions of their own composing, 
insomuch that if the Protestants have been by the 
Papists called Confessionists, the Protestants of 
New England have, of all, given the most laudable 
occasion to be called so.'" 

The Church thus constituted was of the Congre- 
gational order, as distinguished from Independency 
on the one hand, and from Diocesan or Presby- 
terial combination on the other. It soon proceeded 
to the election of officers. John Davenport being 
chosen pastor, was solemnly inducted into office, 
Mr. Hooker and Mr. Stone, elders of the church 
in Hartford, being present to assist in the solem- 
nity. The first deacons were Robert Newman 
and Matthew Gilbert. The theory of Congre- 
gationalism then in vogue required two other offi- 
cers, a teacher and a ruling elder, who, with the 
pastor, would form a Presbytery within the 
Church. Such a board of elders would, according 
to the theory, originate all motions to be brought 
before the church for its determination. In some 
churches the function of the Presbytery was so 
magnified that the rank and file could not discuss 
any matter proposed, but only vote yes or no cate- 
gorically. Mr. Stone, pastor at Hartford, so highly 
appreciated the office of an elder, that he defined 
Congregationalism as a "speaking aristocracy in the 
face of a silent democracy." Others, going to the op- 
posite e.xtreme, refused or neglected to fill the bench 
of elders, being satisfied when their church had a 
pastor, or had both a pastor and a teacher. Those 
who magnified the office of an elder were some- 
times called Presbyterians by those who magnified 
the rights of the brotherhood; but they did not 
so denominate themselves, maintaining that theirs 
was the true Congregational way. 

The Church at New Haven was at neither of the 
extremes. For about five years it left the offices of 
teacher and of ruling elder vacant, and then filled 
them by the election of the Reverend William 
Hooke as teacher, and Mr. Robert Newman, rul- 
ing elder. "The three elders, one of whom was to 
give attention chiefly to the administration of the 
order and government of the Church, while the 
others were to labor in word and doctrine, were all 
equally, and in the same sense elders or overseers 
of the flock of God. The one was a mere elder; 
but the others were elders called to the work of 
preaching. The distinction between pastor and 
teacher was theoretical, rather than of any practical 
importance. Both were in the highest sense, minis- 
ters of the gospel; as colleagues they preached by 
turns on the Lord's day and on all other public oc- 
casions; they had an equal share in the administra- 
ti(m of discipline; and if Mr. Davenport was more 
venerated than Mr, Hooke, and had more influ- 



106 



HISTORY OF THE CITF OF NEW HAVEN. 



ence in the Church and in the community gener- 
ally, it was because of the acknowledged personal 
superiority of the former in respect to age, and 
gifts, and learning, than because of any official 
disparit)'. 

"The Cambridge Platform, which was framed 
in 1648, antl with which Mr. Davenport, in his 
writings on church government, fully agrees, says 
in defining the difference between pastors and 
teachers: 

Tlie pastor's special work is to attetul to exhortation, ami 
tliereiii to administer a word of wisdom; the teacher is to at- 
tend to doctrine, and therein to administer a word of knowl- 
edge; and either of them to administer the seals of that 
covenant unto the dispensation whereof they are alike called ; 
and also to execute the censures, being but a kind of appli- 
cation of tlie word, the preaching of which, together with 
the application thereof, they are alike charged withal. 

"The pastor and teacher gave themselves wholly 
to their ministry and their studies, and accordingly 
received a support from the people; they might 
properly be called clergymen. The ruling elder 
was not necessarily educated for the ministry; he 
might, without impropriety, pursue some secular 
calling, and though he fed the flock occasionally 
with a word'of admonition, the ministry was not his 
profession. Inasmuch as he did not live by the 
ministry he was a layman. 

"It being the custom then for a minister to 
preach at his own ordination, Mather relates that 
Mr. Hooke took for his te.xt those words in the 
book of Judges: 'Go thou with Phurah thy ser- 
vant,' and raised from them the doctrine that in 
great matters a little help is better than none, which 
he gave as the reason of his own being joined with 
so considerable a Gideon as Mr. Davenport."* 

While Mr. Hooke resided at New Haven, one 
of his correspondents in England was his wife's 
near kinsman, Oliver Cromwell, and from that cir- 
cumstance (says Bacon) as well as from the family 
alliance, it may be inferred that before he came to 
this country he was on terms of intimacy with that 
extraordinary man. 

"And when at last his friend Cromwell had 
mounted to all but absolute power over the whole 
British empire; when his wife's brother, Edward 
Whalley, was one of the eight military chiefs who 
ruled the eight districts into which the Protector 
had divided the kingdom of England; when the 
fear of a Presbyterian hierarchy over the Churches 
of England had been taken away, and Congrega- 
tional principles seemed likely to triumph — it is 
not strange that he felt himself drawn toward his 
native country. The New Haven Colony was at 
that time greatly depressed and the prospect of its 
growth was gloomy. Why should he remain here 
in the woods at this outpost of civilization, preach- 
ing to a feeble, disheartened company of exiles in a 
little meeting-house of fifty feet square — with only 
slender advantages for the education of his numer- 
ous family and with little prospect of accomplish- 
ing any great result^ — when Old England oftered to 
talents like his, and to a man of his principles and 
connections, so wide a field ©faction.? And besides, 
how much might he do for New England and 

*Bacon's Historical Discourses. 






especially for his dear friends and flock in New 
Haven, if he were at the seat of empire, and at the 
ear of him who swayed the emprie.' Accord- 
ingly we find that in 1654, ' Mr. Hooke's wife was 
gone for England, and he knew not how God 
would dispose of her;' and in 1656, we find Mr. 
Hooke himself removing to England. We find 
him not long after his arrival there, writing lo 
Governor Winthrop: 

As touching myself, 1 am not yet settled, the Protector 
having engaged me to him not long after my landing, who 
hitherto hath well provided for me. I lis desire is that a 
church may be gathered in his family, to which purpose I 
have had S]ieech with him several times; but though the 
thing be most desirable, I foresee great difficulties in sundry 
respects. I think to proceed as far as I may by any rule of 
God, and am altogether unwilling that this motion should 
fall in his heart. But my own weakness is discouragement 
enough, were there nothing else. 

"Cromwell's desire to have a Congregational 
church in his own household at the royal ])alaLc 
of Whitehall, was at least so far carried into eficct, 
that Mr. Hooke became the Protector's domestic 
Chaplain, in which i;)fllce he was associated with 
no less a man than John Howe. He also had con- 
ferred upon him the mastership of the hospital 
called the Savoy in the City of Westminster, a place 
which in other times had been, and afterward be- 
came again, the Bishop of London's city residence 
— a place of some note in ecclesiastical history, as 
having received that Synod of Congregational El- 
ders and Delegates which framed the Savoy Con- 
fession, and as having been also, after the Restora- 
tion, the scene of several of those conferences and 
debates between some of the dignitaries of the es- 
tablishment and some leading Nonconformists, 
by which the court imposed upon the Puritans 
with hypocritical professions of candor, till it grew 
strong enough to throw oft" the disguise and show 
its hatred. 

" In these circumstances, the late teacher of the 
church in New Haven might very reasonably feel 
that he had found a much more important field of 
usefulness than that which he had left behind. 
Here, indeed, his Sabbath auditory had included 
the great men of the jurisdiction, the honorable 
Governor, the Worshipful Deputy-Governor, the 
magistrates, the deputies, ; but there he preached 
to his Highness, the Lord Protector of the three 
nations, and to one and another of the men 
whose counsels and agency Cromwell employed in 
his most politic and energetic atlministration. 
Here he had preached with a little array of armed 
men, commanded by the valiant Captain Malbon, 
guarding the humble sanctuary against the savages; 
there he had before him those veteran chiefs whose 
energy had swept away the king 'and all his peer- 
age,' and whose names were words of terror. Here 
he felt that he was but 'a little help' to 'so con- 
siderable a Gideon as Mr, Davenport; ' there he 
was himself, both by station and by his popular 
talents, one of the most 'considerable' of the min- 
isters in the metropolis of Protestant Christendom. 

"But how imperfectly can we, in our short- 
sightedness, judge of the comparative importance of 
difi"erent stations and spheres of usefulness. In 



CHURCHES AND CLERGYMEN. 



107 



less than two years after Mr. Hooka's arrival in 
England, his great friend, the Protector, died, and 
immediately the pillars of that uncemented fabric 
of empire tottered. Within two years more — years 
of anxious e.xcitement — Richard Cromwell had re- 
signed the iron scepter, which no hand but his 
lather's could wield; and treachery and dissimula- 
tion, taking advantage of dissensions among the true- 
hearted, had restored the monarchy in the person 
of the ever infamous King Charles the .Second." 

Reasons similar to those which drew Mr. Hooke 
back to the mother country, induced the ruling 
elder to return home when Puritanism had come 
into power in England. The church did not fill 
the vacancy created by his removal, and by the 
continuance of the vacancy to this day the office 
has become obsolete. Its function is, however, to 
some extent performed by a standing committee. 

Samuel Eaton, though he came from England 
with Davenport, was never an officer in the New 
Haven Church. There is evidence that during the 
year between the arrival of the planters at Quinni- 
piac and the institution of the church, he had some 
share in the work of preaching; but in the year 
following the organization of the church, he re- 
turned to England expecting to bring back a com- 
pany with him to commence a settlement at Bran- 
ford. But before he was ready to return, afiairs in 
England were so much more pleasant and promis- 
ing for Puritans, that instead of leading a company 
to New England, he himself remained in his native 
land. 

The preaching Elders of the Church were main- 
tained from the treasury of the church and not of 
the town, the treasury being supplied by contribu- 
tions, made every Lord's Day; but these contribu- 
tions were, if not from the beginning, certainly 
very soon after the beginning, made in accordance 
with a pledge, which every inhabitant was required 
to give, that he would contribute a certain amount 
yearly for the maintenance of the ministry. The 
plan did not work smoothly, for on one occasion 
the Deacons came to the General Court with a 
complaint that "the wampum that is put into the 
church treasury is generally so bad that the Elders 
to whom they pay it cannot pay it away. " The 
court, appointing a committee to inquire further 
concerning the matter, found that "the contribu- 
tions for the church treasury are by degrees so 
much abated that they afford not any considerable 
maintenance to the teaching officers, and that much 
of the wampum brought in is -such and so faulty, 
that the officers can hardly, or not at all, pass it 
away in any of their occasions. '' The voluntary 
principle was given up soon after the death of Mr. 
Street, when, the pulpit being supplied by minis- 
ters who were not officers of the church, and not 
so much beloved as Davenport, and Hooke, and 
Street, the voluntary plan was less efficient. In 
March, 1677, a proposition in writing from the 
church, was presented in town-meeting by Deacon 
Peck, upon which, " after debate, the town for the 
encouragement of those that preach the word of 
God unto us, according as had been propounded, 



did by vote order and appoint, that for the ensuing 
year there shall be levied and paid from the inhab- 
itants two rates and a half," that is, a tax of two 
and a half-pence in the pound. 

Thus the support of the ministry was transferred 
from the church to the town, but not till the first 
planters had passed away. By them it seems to 
have been held as obligatory that the Elders of the 
Church should be supported out of the treasury of 
the church. 

But though in the first generation the Elders were 
maintained by voluntary contributions to the church 
treasury, the meeting-house was owned by the pro- 
prietors of the plantation, and was used for meet- 
ings of the General Court as well as of the church. 
This twofold use of the edifice did not offend the 
religious sentiment of the people ; for the Court was 
composed of church-members, who came together 
in a religious spirit to serve God in the business of 
the court as truly as they served him in the ordi- 
nances of the church. It was not a temporary ex- 
pedient such as a people believing in a more 
thorough separation of Church and State, might 
adopt in a new plantation till they ivere able to 
provide more appropriately for each; but it was in 
its design a permanent arrangement, befitting a 
theocratic constitution of society. 

Lechford, a Boston lawyer, who being disbarred 
for talking with a juryman out of court, returned 
to England, wrote a book, in which he described 
the manner in which the Bostonians worshiped 
God. As there was no great difference among the 
churches of New England in respect of the ritual 
of worship, we may take his relation as the best 
description, within our reach, of Divine Service in 
the church at New Haven: 

Every Sabb.ith, or Lord's Day, they come tofjether at 
Boston, by ringing ot' a biell about nine of the clock, or 
before. The pastor begins with solemn prayer, continuing 
about a quarter of an hour. The teacher then readeth and 
expoundeth a chapter. Then a psalm is sung; whichever 
one of the ruling elders dictates. After that the pastor 
preacheth a sermon and sometimes ex tempore ^yAior'a. Then 
the teacher concludes with prayer and a blessing. 

Once a month is a sacrament of the Lord's Supper, 
whereof notice is given usually a fortnight before, and then 
all others departing save the church, which is a great deal 
less in number than those that go aw.ay, they receive the 
sacrament; the ministers and ruling elders sitting at the 
table, the rest in their seats or upon forms. All cannot see 
the minister consecrating, unless they stand up and make a 
narrow shift. The one of the teaching elders pr.ays before, 
and blesseth and consecrates the bread and wine according 
to the words of institution ; the other prays after the receiv- 
ing of all the members; and next communion they change 
turns; he that began at that, ends at this; and the ministers 
deliver the bread in a charger to some of the chief, and 
peradventin-e give to a few the bread into their hanils, and 
they deliver the charger from one to another till all have 
eaten; in like manner the cup till all have drunk, goes from 
one to another. Then a psalm is sung and with a short 
blessing the congregation is dismissed. Any one, though 
not of the church, may, in Boston, come in and see the 
sacrament administered, if he will; but none of any church 
in the country may receive the sacrament there without 
leave of the congregation, for which purpose he comes to 
one of the ruling elders, who propounds his name to the 
congregation before they go to the sacrament. 

About two in the afternoon they repair to the meeting- 
house again; and then the pastor begins as before noon, and, 
a psalm being sung, the teacher makes a sermon. He was 



108 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



wont, when I came first, to read and expound a chapter 
also, before his sermon in the afternoon. After and before 
his sermon he iirayeth. 

After that ensues baptism, if there be any; which is done 
liy either jiastor or teacher, in the deacon's seat, the most 
eminent place in the church, next under the elders' seat. 
The ]iastor most commonly makes a speech or exhortation 
to the church and parents concerning baptism, and then 
prayeth before and after. It is done by washini; or sprink- 
ling. One of the parents being of the church, the child 
may be baptized, and the baptism is into the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. No sureties 
are required. 

Which ended, follows the contribution, one of the deacons 
saying: "Brethren of the congregation, now there is time 
left for contribution; wherefore as'Ood hath prospered you, 
so freely offer." Upon some extraordinary occasions, as 
building or repairing of churches or meeting-houses, or other 
necessities, the ministers press a liberal contribution, with 
effectual exhortations out of Scripture. The magistrates and 
chief gentlemen first, and then the elders and all the congre- 
gation of men, and most of them that are not of the church, 
all single ]iersons, widows and women in absence of their 
husbands, come up one after another one way, and bring 
their offerings to the deacon at his seat, and put it into a box 
of wood for the purpose, if it be money or papers; if it be 
any other chattel, they set it or lay it down Ijefore the 
deacons, and so pass another way to their seats again. 

The sermons were much longer than would be 
endured at the present day, but were not regarded 
by the hearers as too long, such was the interest 
which the people felt in the exposition of the Scrip- 
tures, and so little else was there to occupy their 
intellectual and spiritual faculties. Long sermons, 
however, were not a peculiarity of New Haven or 
of New England. At that time the churches of 
the mother country were commonly supplied with 
hour-glasses, one hour being the ordinary measure 
of a sermon ; but when an able preacher turned 
the glass to signify that he wished to speak longer, 
the congregation would give visible, if not audible, 
expression of their approval. 

After the contribution, candidates were "pro- 
pounded " for admission to the church, or, having 
been previously announced as candidates, were, on 
their assenting to the covenant of the church, re- 
ceived into its communion. If there were any 
matters of offense requiring censure they were then 
attended to, "sometimes till it be very late." " If 
they have time, after this is sung a psalm, and then 
the pastor concludeth with a prayer and blessing." 

In the church at New Haven, it was the custom 
for the assembly to rise and stand while the 
preacher read the passage of Scripture which he 
had selected as a text for his sermon. But Hutch- 
inson says that this was a peculiarity of that 
church, and quotes a letter from Hooker to 
Shepard, referring to the Sunday when the practice 
commenced in the afternoon, Mr. Davenport hav- 
ing advocated in his morning sermon such an ex- 
pression of reverence for the word of God. 

The church in New Haven, though not requir- 
ing that its members should give assent to any one 
formula of faith, approved of the confession pub- 
lished by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, 
being represented in the General Synod at Cam- 
bridge in 1648, which thus recorded its testimony: 

This synod, having ])erused and considered with much 
gladness of heart and lliankfulness to God, the confession of 



faith published of late by the reverend assembly in England, 
do judge it to be very holy, orthodox, and judicious in all 
matters of faith, and do therefore freely and fully consent 
thereunto, for the substance thereof. Only in those things 
which have respect to church government and discipline, we 
refer ourselves to the platform of church discipline agreed 
upon by this present assembly. 

The Presbyterian party being at that time in the 
ascendant iii England, the Synod adopted the 
Westminster Confession, instead of framing one for 
themselves, for the sake of vindicating in the 
mother country the orthodoxy of New England 
Congregationalism. They say in their preface: 

We who are by nature Englishmen, do desire to hold 
forth the same doctrine of religion, especially in funda- 
mentals, which we see and know to be held by the churches 
of England. I5y this our professed consent and free con- 
currence with them in all the doctrinals of religion, we hope 
it may appear to the world, that as we are a remnant of the 
people of the same nation with them, so we are professors 
of the same common faith, and fellow-heirs of the same 
common salvation. 

If the Church of England had been at that time 
Episcopal, the Cambridge Synod would with equal 
willingness have adopted the doctrinal part of the 
Thirty-nine Articles. These articles they heartily 
received according to the interpretation commonly 
given to them in the reign of Elizabeth, in the first 
part of the reign of James I, and by the Calvinistic 
party in the Church of England subsequently. 
Both the first teacher and the first pastor of the 
New Haven Church retained the Calvinistic the- 
ology in which they had been indoctrinated at 
Oxford, and believed, as did their theological in- 
structors at the university, that it was consistent 
with and embodied in the Thirty-nine Articles. 
After the restoration of the Thirty-nine Articles in 
the National Church of England, the churches of 
Connecticut publicly agreed with the dissenters in 
the mother country, in adopting them as a standard 
of orthodoxy. The Heads of Agreement which 
accompany the Saybrook platform say : 

As to what appertains to soundness of judgment in 
matters of faith, we esteem it sufficient that a church ac- 
knowledge the Scriptures to be the word of God, the jierfect 
and only rule of faith and practice, and own either the 
doctrinal part of those commonly called the Articles of the 
Churcli of England, or the confession, or catechisms, 
shorter or longer, compiled by the Assembly at Westminster, 
or the confession agreed on at the Savoy, to be agreeable to 
the said rule. 

This declaration, though made after the first 
generation had passed away, would have been 
uttered by the fathers as willingly as by their 
children, if justified by an appropriate occasion. 

The vacancy caused by the retirement of Mr. 
Hooke was filled by the election of Rev. Nicholas 
Street, who had been Mr. Hooke's colleague at 
Taunton in the colony of Plymouth, to succeed him 
in the office of teacher in the church at New 
Haven. 

Mr. Street was born at Taunton, England, was 
educated at Oxford, and was doubtless recom- 
mended to the church at New Haven by his former 
colleague in the town named for his birth-place. 

For eight or nine years he was associated here 
with Mr. Davenport. After the removal of his col- 



CHURCHES AND CLERGYMEN. 



109 



league, he continued the only elder in the church 
till his death, on the 22d of April, 1674. Since 
that time there has been no distinction attempted 
in this church between the office of teacher and 
that of pastor. 

When the colony of New Haven was absorbed 
into Connecticut, ^Ir. Davenport was so severely 
disappointed by the dissolution of the political 
fabric which he had devised and helped to build, 
that he was willing to leave the place where the 
timbers of the fabric were lying in shapeless and 
hopeless ruin. Concurrently with this change of 
feeling toward New Haven came an opportunity of 
removing to Boston. 

As a natural result of the policy which Daven- 
port favored, of confining political power to church- 
members, a part}' had come into being and grown 
to some strength, which advocated the broadening 
and smoothing of the way into the church. They 
demanded that all baptized persons not positively 
scandalous in their lives, should be recognized as 
church-members, and that their children in turn 
should be admitted to baptism. 

Both the pastor and the teacher of the First 
Church in Boston were of this ' ' half-way-covenant " 
party; and when by the death, first of Norton and 
then of Wilson, the eldership of that church was 
entirely vacant, many of its members felt that for 
such a church no young minister, and no minister 
educated in this country, could be a fit pastor. Mr. 
Davenport, as by far the most distinguished of the 
surviving fathers of New England, though he was 
known to be opposed to the half-way covenant, 
was invited to the pastorate, September 24, 1667 ; 
and a committee was appointed to convey letters to 
him and to his church. Against this movement, 
there was within the church which sent the invita- 
tion, a strong opposition. Their former ministers 
had favored the half-way-covenant; the church had 
been brought to adopt it in practice ; its partisans 
were in the ascendant throughout the colony; a 
synod of churches had approved it. ' ' The giving of 
this call to Davenport, the greatest of the ' Anti- 
Synodists,' was," says Dr. Bacon, " a triumph of the 
party which in that church had been in the minor- 
ity; and such a triumph would naturally have a 
great effect on other churches, and on the politics of 
the colony, as affected by the chief ecclesiastical 
question of the day. Opposition on such grounds, 
though exhibited in the formal ' dissent ' of ' thirty 
brethren,' among whom where many of the prin- 
cipal members ' of that eminent church,' had of 
course no effect to discourage so strenuous an 
opposer of the new practice from accepting the 
call. 

" The messengers and letters from Boston found 
here a much more unwilling reception from the 
church than from the pastor. Mr. Davenport was 
beforehand inclined to a removal. The independ- 
ent jurisdiction of his own colony had been extin- 
guished. The principle, that the trust of govern- 
ment and of electing magistrates, should be com- 
mitted to none but members of the churches, — for 
which he had so strenuously contended, and which 



he regarded as the only full security for the peace- 
able enjoyment of the gospel with its ordinances — 
was here given up. 'In New Haven Colony,' as he 
expressed himself; Christ's interest is miserabl}- 
lost!' Besides, the great ecclesiastical controveryof 
the day was to be carried on and decided in Mas- 
sachusetts; and there his personal influence would 
bear upon the controversy far more eflicienlly than 
if he continued here. Under the influence of such 
considerations, he determined on removing, not- 
withstanding his attachment to his people and 
their unwillingness to part with him. 

"This church refused to accept his resignation, 
or in any way to consent to his removal. The 
utmost to which they could be brought by his per- 
suasions, as well as by the entreaties of the church 
in Boston, was, that if he was determined to go, 
they would no longer oppose his determination, 
though they still refused to take the responsibility 
of consenting. Upon this, he considered himself 
at liberty to act according to his own judgment; 
and, in 1668, probably in the month of April, just 
thirty years after the commencement of his ministry 
here, he removed to Boston with his family. He, 
and his son, with their wives, were received into 
the church at Boston on the nth day of October, 
and his ordination as pastor there — or, as we 
should say, his installation — took place on the 9th 
of December. 

" His removal in such circumstances occasioned 
much difficulty. The minority of the church in 
Boston charged him and the other elders with 
equivocation, because they communicated to the 
church only those parts of the letters from New 
Haven which seemed to imply a dismission; 
whereas it was maintained that, if the whole had 
been read, it would have appeared that there was 
no dismission. Several letters were written, and 
messengers were sent from that church to this, in 
the hope of prevailing on this church to declare 
their owning of the letter sent from them to be a 
true dismission of Mr. Davenport. C)f that cor- 
respondence nothing remains but a fragment of 
one of the letters from this church. That fragment 
is so full of reverent affection toward their pastor, 
even after he had torn himself away from them, and 
breathes so much of the Christian spirit, that it is 
well worthy of preservation : 

Though you, say they, judj;e it the last expedient 
for your relief, and the remedy of some eviis growing in the 
country, as also we might do the same if we had nothing 
before our eyes but his accomplishments and fitness for high 
service to God in his church; but being so much in the dark 
about his way in leaving this church and joining to yours, 
that we are not without doubts and fears of some uncomfort- 
able issue, we therefore cannot clearly act in such a way as 
is expected and desired. We arc of the same mind as when 
we returned an answer to your first letter, thus expressing 
ourselves : We see no cause nor call of God to resign our 
reverend pastor to the church of Boston, by any immediate 
act of ours, therefore not by a formal dismission under our 
hands. It is our great grief and sore aftliction that we can- 
not do for him, whom we so highly esteem in love for his 
work's sake and profitable labors among us, what is desired, 
without wrong to our consciences. Anything that we have 
or are, beside our consciences, wc are ready to lay down at 
his feet. Such is our honorable respect to him, our love to 
peace, our desire of your supply, that we shall go as far as 
wc safely can in order to his and your satisfaction in this 



110 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



matter, having before us for our warrant Acts xxi, 14. 
When he would not be persuaded, we ceased saying "The 
will of the Lord be done." Therefore, to suppress what we 
could say touching that passage in onr first letter, whereof 
such hold hath been taken, and what we have said in our 
last letter to you, of oiu' reverend pastor's making null the 
liberty Ix'fore granted, which we doubt not, we are able 
clearly to demonstrate, yet if this will satisfy (but not other- 
wise), we are content to waive and bury in silence, and lea\e 
bolh youselvcs and him to make what improvement you see 
cause (without any clog or impediment from us upon that 
account) of the liberty before mentioned. As he hath been a 
faUhful laborer in God's vineyard at New Haven for many 
vears, to the bringing home many souls to God, and build- 
ing up of many others, so it is, and shall be, our prayer to 
God to lengthen his life and tranquillity in Boston, to double 
his spirit upon hnn, assist him in his %\ork, and make him 
a blessed instrument of much good to yourselves and many 
others. The good Lord pardon, on all hands, what he hath 
seen amiss in these actings and motions, that no sinful ma- 
lignity may obstruct or hinder God's blessing upon churches 
or church administrations. As himself and his son have de- 
sired, we do dismiss unto your holy fellowship Mr. John 
Davenport, Jr., and Mrs. Davenjxirt, elder and younger, 
desiring you to receive them in the Lord as becometh saints, 
and imploring Almighty God for His blessing upon them 
from His holy ordinances, in their communion and walking 
with you. The God of all grace su])ply all your and our 
need, according to his riches in glory through Jesus Christ. 
Thus craving your prayers for us in our afflicted condition, 
we take our leave, and rest yours in the fellowship of the 
Gospel, Nicholas Street, 

In the name and with the consent of the Church of 
Christ at New Haven. 

' ' ]Mr. Davenport was at this time more than 
seventy years of age. What minister so far ad- 
vanced in hfe would now be called from one 
church to another, because of the eminency of his 
qualifications for usefulness. When was there ever 
another such instance of competition and contro- 
versy betw-een churches for the enjoyment of the 
ministry of one who, always an invalid, had num- 
bered more than three-score years and ten.' How 
rarely can you find a church who, when a minister 
has turned himself away from them, retain for him 
so strong and reverent an affection 1 

"Those in the church at Boston who had pro- 
tested against the call given to Mr. Davenport, 
were intiexible in their opposition. Having ap- 
plied in vain for a dismission, they seceded and 
formed a new church, now known as the 'Old 
.South Church in Boston.' A new impulse was 
thus given to the controversy then in progress. 
The two churches, the First and the South, had no 
mutual communion, and the whole colony of 
Massachusetts took sides with one or the other. 
The questions about the recommendations of the 
Synod had become involved with and, in a meas- 
ure, superseded by questions about the conduct of 
Mr. Davenport and the old church on the one 
hand, and the proceedings of the new church and 
its adherents on the other. It is not strange then 
that under his short ministry in Boston, there were 
no large additions tcj the church. Nor did he 
succeed in arresting the progress of the innovation 
which he so greatly feared. The half-way covenant 
system prevailed in the churches of New England 
for more than a century." 

]Mr. Davenport's ministry in Boston was of short 
duration. He died March 11, 1670, less than two 
years after his removal to Boston, antl was buried 



in the Stone Chapel burial-ground, in the same 
tomb with his friend, John Cotton. 

Immediately after Mr. Davenport's removal to 
Boston, the good people of New Haven proved 
that they were not in despair by resolving to 
erect a new meeting-house. After many delays, 
on the 3d of October, 1670, the committee ap- 
pointed for the seating of the people in the new 
meeting-house, informed the town that they had 
prepared something that way for a present trial, 
which was now read to the town. On the 14th of 
November, the old meeting-house was ordered to 
be sold "to the town's best advantage." 

In April, i68r, " there being a bell brought in a 
vessel into the harbor, it was spoken of, and gen- 
erally it was desired it might be procured for the 
town; and for the present it was desired that Mr. 
Thomas Trowbridge would, if he can, prevail with 
Mr. Hodge, the owner of it, to leave it with him 
until the town hath had some further consideration 
about it. ' In August, " the owner of the bell had 
sent to have it sent to the Bay in Joseph Alsop's 
vessel"; " and it having lain so long, it would not 
be handsome for the town to put it off.'' There- 
upon, ' ' after a free and large debate, '' it was voted 
to purchase the bell for £\'], the price asked. In 
April, 1682, a year after the bell had been first 
brought to the attention of the people, they were 
informed that it was now hanged in the turret, 
and in November they were told that the townsmen 
had agreed with George Pardee, for his son Joseph 
to ring the bell for the town's occasions on the 
Sabbaths and other meetings, as it was wont to be 
by the drum; and also to ring the bell at nine of 
the clock every night." 

After the death of Mr. Street, the pulpit was 
supplied for several years by ministers who were 
not officers in the church, but either candidates or 
temporary supplies. It was while the pulpit was 
thus supplied that the support of the ministry was 
transferred to the town. ' ' The change, " says Dr. 
Bacon, "seems to indicate not only that the 
ministers then serving in the pulpit had a much 
lower place in the affections of the people than Mr. 
Davenport and his colleagues had possessed; but 
also that the power of religion itself in the com- 
munity was declining. The change shows the 
growth of selfish and narrow feelings, and the de- 
cay of public spirit. It shows that one generation 
was passing away and that another was coming." 

After a vacancy of about ten years, an oppor- 
tunity seemed to open for the church to secure a 
worthy successor of its former officers. The royal 
governor of New Hampshire had made an order 
that the ministers within the province should admit 
all persons of suitable age antl not vicious in their 
lives to the Lord's Supper, and tlieir children to 
baptism; and that if any person should desire to 
have these sacraments administered according to 
the liturgy of the Church of England, his desire 
should be complied with. The minister who 
should refuse obedience to this order was to incur 
the same penalties as if he were in England, and a 




Lr/'^-'^^-n. /^) a I r nJ, c'U (^ 



CHURCHES AND CLERGYMEN. 



Ill 



minister there of the EstabHshed Church. He then 
sent a written message to the Rev. Joshua Moody, 
pastor of the church in Portsmouth, stating that he 
and two of his fi iend.s intended to partake of the 
Lord's Supper the next Sunday, and requiring that 
it be administered to them according to the liturgy. 
Mr. Moody refusing to comply with the demand, 
was prosecuted, convicted, and imprisoned. For 
thirteen weeks he was in close confinement, and 
was then released under threat of further imprison- 
ment if he should preach within the province of 
New Hampshire. 

The church in New Haven hearing that "Mr. 
bloody was attainable if looked after," and con- 
sidering him to be "a man, by report, singularly fit 
for the ministry," sent messengers to treat with 
him. But Mr. Moody declined to entertain the 
proposition, feeling himself bound to his former 
people, "and would try the providence of God, 
if he might not preach near them, and they 
have liberty to hear him." The messengers thus 
thwarted went beyond their commission, and at the 
advice of some ministers and other friends in 
Boston, applied to I\Ir. James Pierpont to come to 
New Haven, and preach as a candidate for the 
pastoral office. Mr. Pierpont was then about 
twenty-five years of age, and had graduated at 
Harvard College less than three years before. The 
result was that the young man came in August, 
and made so good an impression that "the ordi- 
nation of ]\Ir. Pierpont took place on the second 
day of July, 1685, after he had been with the 
people about eleven months as a candidate." 

The town provided for the new minister a house- 
lot with such an amount of meadow and upland as 
belonged to such a lot by the customary propor- 
tion. The magistrates and townsmen were ap- 
pointed a committee to obtain by free-will offerings, 
the means of building a house for the minister on 
the lot provided by the town. The committee 
were directed to plan the house according to the 
amount contributed, but to submit the plan to 
Mr. Pierpont for his approval. \\'hen finished, the 
house was one of the most commodious and stately 
dwellings in town. 

About twelve years after the settlement of Mr. 
Pierpont, a further change was made in the mode 
of maintaining the ministry. The town had al- 
ready taken the place of the church in collecting 
the funds, but as at first the amount depended on 
the liberality of the people, so under the second 
arrangement the amount depended on the proceeds 
of the rate levied. In 1697, a regular salary was 
proposed, and "after a long debate, the town by 
their vote granted to pay the Rev. Mr. James Pier- 
pont annually, while he shall preach the word of 
God to us, the sum of £1^0 in grain and flesh," 
at fixed prices, "also to supply him with firewood 
annually. " Mr. Pierpont seems to have been 
pleased with the change, but took care to stipulate 
that "the offering be brought into the house of 
God without lameness or reflections on the ministry 
in the respective years." Before, they had paid 
him what they chose to give, and their gifts meas- 
ured their esteem and love. Now they had made 



a contract with him, and he had a right to expect 
that they would fulfill their promises, and avoid 
criticism of what he gave in return. 

Contemporaneously with this arrangement for 
the payment of a stated salary to the minister, the 
town began to agitate the proposition to build a 
new meeting-house. Soon after the ordination of 
Mr. Pierpont, some additional seats had been put 
in whereever space could be found for them; and' 
there being still need of more, the galleries were 
brought forward so as to make room for a row of 
additional seats in front of each gallery. But now, 
not so much by any extraordinary influx of popu- 
lation as by the growth of children into adults, the 
meeting-house was too small. February 15, 1696- 
97, after some preliminary debate at a previous 
meeting, the town by their vote did declare that 
they would build a new meeting-house of stone 
and brick and leave it with a committee chosen by 
themselves to agree with a person or persons to 
build a meeting-house of sixty feet long, forty feet 
wide and twenty feet high, with brick and stone, 
provided they can have it completely finished for 
500 pounds current money of Boston, to be paid 
in three years: the seats in the present meeting- 
house to be disposed of by the said committee, 
and, if need be, added above the 500 pounds." 

About three weeks later, " the committee for the 
meeting-house informed the town that not any 
person doth 3'et appear to build the meeting- 
house." 

Some months later at a town-meeting, "Lieut. 
Abram Dickerman, one of the townsmen, informed 
the town that the occasion of the town-meeting was 
principally to consider of either building a new or 
enlarging the old meeting-house; and, after much 
debate, the town by their vote declared that they 
would enlarge the old meeting-house, and by en- 
largement, by their vote, declare it to be an addi- 
tion of sixteen or twenty feet on the side next to the 
burying-place, as shall be thought best by a com- 
mittee that the town shall chose. The town by 
their vote did make choice of the civil authority, 
and the present townsmen, Mr. Thomas Trow- 
bridge, Senior, and Mr. Richard Rosewell, as their 
committee, or the major part of them, to agree with 
workmen to enlarge the meeting-house." 

The enlargement of the meeting-house seems to 
have produced an architectural effect analogous to 
that of enlarging an old garment with new cloth. 
The people's taste was offended when they saw 
that the windows in the addition were not of the 
same size as in the older part of the edifice, and 
that the new lumber with which it was covered, 
revealed the defects of clapboards which for thirty 
years had been exposed to the weather. The 
town "voted that the old meeting-house be new 
boarded and that the windows in the old house be 
enlarged like the windows in the new part of said 
house." 

" The town by their vote desire and appoint the 
committee formerly chosen for the meeting-house 
to take the care of doing the outside work of the 
whole meeting-house. Also the inside work of the 
meeting-house; as making seats what is needful, 



112 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



removing the pulpit, plastering the house, and 
what is needful about doors, and what else is 
needful. The form of the seats, both for work- 
manship and placing of them, as the committee 
hath formerly discoursed of, and was now declared 
to the town — which is to remove the pulpit back 
the full breadth of it, or thereabout, and the short 
seats on each side the pulpit, their length back into 
the new- house, and make one long seat on each 
side, and one short seat on each side, and the re- 
mainder of the new house to be seated on seats 
placed facing into the house ; and a door in the 
house where George Pardee now sitteth, and 
another door opposite to it on the other side, so a 
convenient alley across the house before the Dea- 
cons' seat ; and the stairs up into the new gallery, 
behind the pulpit." 

The internal arrangement thus ordered was 
afterward changed. "The town by their vote do 
now see cause to order that the doors into the new 
meeting-house be at the place where they were laid 
out by the carpenters, and an alley be left, next to 
the wall, to the stairs behind the pulpit." 

The date of this last order is March ii, 1700, 
and as no further orders in regard to the alteration 
of the meeting-house are on record, we may believe 
that the carpenters finished their work and deliv- 
ered over the house to the plasterers a few weeks 
afterwards. 

During Mr. Pierpont's ministry, Yale College 
was founded; and to him, with the Rev. Samuel 
Andrew, of Milford, and the Rev. Samuel Russell, of 
Branford, more than to any other persons, is due the 
honor of being its founders. These three men, 
contriving the establishment of a college for Con- 
necticut, were so wise and so magnanimous as not 
to connect the design at its first proposal with any 
particular location, though they would naturally 
prefer New Haven. With much deliberation among 
themselves and consultation with others, they de- 
signated ten ministers in various parts of the colony 
as trustees for founding the institution. Two of 
the three who had been most active in the prelimi- 
nary work, viz., Mr. Pierpont and Mr. Andrew 
were of the ten. In 1700, the ten designated 
ministers met and formally organized themselves as 
a college, though they did not at that time locate 
the society. Corporate powers having been con- 
ferred by the Legislature in C)ctober, 1701, the cor- 
poration located the school in Saybrook. 

During the ministry of Mr. Pierpont, a synod, 
or general council of the churches, was held at the 
College in Saybrook, for the purpose of forming a 
system that should better secure communion of 
churclies than the simple Congregationalism which 
had come down from the fathers. Some ministers 
preferred a system more like Presbyterianism; some 
politicians wanted a way of bringing the churches 
into subjection to the civil power; all felt the need 
of more communion and mutual helpfulness. "Of 
the synod at .Saybrook," says Dr. Bacon, "Mr. 
Pierpont was a leading member. 'The Articles for 
the Administration of Church Discipline,' which 
were adopted as the result of the synod, and which 



constitute the so famous 'Saybrook Platform,' are 
said to have been drawn up by him. By the order 
of the Legislature, the ministers and delegates in 
each county, at the preliminary meeting at which 
their representatives were to be chosen for the Gen- 
eral Council, ' were to consider and agree upon 
those methods and rules for the management of 
ecclesiastical discipline which by them should be 
judged conformable to the word of God;' and the 
duly of the General Council was to compare the 
results of the ministers of the several counties, and 
out of and from them to draw a form of ecclesias- 
tical discipline." The Saybrook Platform was capa- 
ble of being interpreted almost into Presbyterian- 
ism; and also capable, when taken in connection 
with the Heads of Agreement which accompanied 
the Articles, of preserving to the churches their 
Congregational liberties. The laity generally gave a 
Congregational meaning to the Articles, while some 
of the clergy were apt to make the consociation 
equivalent to a presbytery. For a century or more 
the Saybrook Platform was a peculiarity of the Con- 
gregationalism of Connecticut. At present little re- 
mains of it to distinguish the Congregationalism of 
Connecticut from that of the rest of New England. 
Mr. Pierpont was thrice married. When he 
came to New Haven as a candidate, he was enter- 
tained, as the guest of the church, in the house of 
the widow of the only son of the first pastor of the 
church. Soon after his arrival. Deacon Peck, in 
behalf of the church, reported to the town that the 
church were well satisfied with this man, and were 
"desirous that the town would concur with them 
in encouraging him; and that there might be a 
maintenance provided, he being at Mrs. Daven- 
port's to his content." Some si.\ years after his 
settlement he was married to Abigail Davenport, 
the granddaughter of his predecessor in the pas- 
toral office. The bride went to meeting on the 
Sunday after the wedding in her bridal dress, took 
cold, and in about three months died of consump- 
tion. Two years afterward he was married at 
Hartford to Sarah Haynes, a granddaughter of Gov- 
ernor Haynes. About two years after her marriage 
his second wife died, leaving him a daughter, to 
whom he had given the name of his first wife. 
This daughter of James and Sarah (Haynes) Pier- 
pont became the wife of the Rev. Joseph Noyes, 
her father's successor in the pastorate. After an-, 
other interval of two years Mr. Pierpont was mar- 
ried to Mary Hooker, a granddaughter of the first 
pastor in Hartford. By her he had several chil- 
dren, one of whom deserves mention, not only as 
the wife of that extraordinary man, Jonathan Ed- 
wards, but as the worthy consort of such a hus- 
band. It was Sarah Pierpont, then in her thirteenth 
year, whom Edwards describes in the following 
words, which he wrote upon a blank page of one 
of his books: 

They say there is a youiiij hidy in New Haven who is lie- 
loved of that tlreat Being wlio made and rnles the world, 
and that there are certain seasons in wliich tliis Great Being, 
in some way or oilier, comes to her and Tills her mind with 
exceeding sweet delight, and that she hardly cares for any- 
thing except to meditate on Him — Ih.it she expects to be 
received up where lie is, to be raised up out of the world, 



CHURCHES AND CLERGYMEN. 



113 



and caught >ip intn lieaven; being assured that He loves her 
too well to let her remain at a distance from Him always. 
There she is to dwell with Him and to be ravished with His 
love and delight forever. Therefore, if you present all the 
world before her, with the richest of its treasures, she disre- 
gards it, and cares not for it, and is unmindful of any path 
of affliction. She has a strange sweetness in her mind, and 
singular purity in her affections; is most just and conscien- 
tious in all her conduct; and you could not persuade her to 
do anything wrong and sinful, if you would give her all this 
world, lest she should offend this Great Being. She is of a 
wonderful sweetness, calmness, and universal benevolence of 
mind; especially after this Great God has manifested hnnself 
to her mind. She will sometimes go about from (ilace to place, 
singing sweetly; and seems to be always full of joy and 
pleasure, and no one knows for what. She loves to be alone, 
walking in the Helds and groves, and seems to have some 
one invisible always conversing with her. 

In less than one year after the death of Mr. Pier- 
pont, at "a meeting of the First Society' — for the 
town was now by the erection of new parishes in 
the outlying districts divided into several ecclesi- 
astical societies — the inhabitants were called upon 
"to nominate a man to carry on the work of the 
ministry on probation.' The people were divided 
in their preferences between two ^oiing men, both 
of whom had probably occupied the pulpit, but 
Mr. Joseph Noyes had a majority of votes. Having 
heard him for two months after this nomination, 
the society expressed their approbation of Mr. 
Noyes' labors so far "as they had experienced the 
same," and engaged to give him, while he should 
labor in the ministry among them, "one hundred 
and twenty pounds per annum in money, or in 
grain and flesh" at certain prices; and two hundred 
pounds in the same pay as a settlement. Then, the 
church having elected him to the office of pastor, 
he was ordained July 4, 1716. Mr. Noyes had 
spent the three years intervening between his grad- 
uation and his first appearance in the New Haven 
pulpit, as a tutor in the College at Saybrook. The 
College being removed to New Haven soon after 
his ordination, the collegians were an important 
addition to the audience to which he preached. 
From year to year a succession of men of superior 
intellect, including such as President Clap, Samuel 
Johnson, Jonathan Edwards, Eleazar Wheelock, 
Aaron Burr, and Joseph Bellamy, sat under his 
preaching. His ministry seems to have been pros- 
perous for a score of years after his ordination; but 
afterward the church passed through a stormy 
period, in which it suffered many unpleasant e.x- 
periences, even to schismatic division. 

Spiritual religion had much declined in New 
FIngland while the second and third generations 
were passing over the stage. The half-way cove- 
nant had gradually come into use, if not in every 
church, in nearly all; the church in New Haven 
falling into line when Pierpont came to it from 
eastern Massachusetts. Some of the churches 
adopting the belief that the Lord's Supper is a con- 
verting ordinance, admitted all who were of decent 
outward deportment and seekers after inward grace 
to full communion. The union of Church and 
State had subjected the churches to the civil power; 
and in Connecticut the Saybrook Platform had re- 
stricted the liberties of individuals and of individ- 
ual churches, to the detriment of believers and of 

16 



churches as the instruments and organs of the Spirit 
of God. 

This declension was so great, that when the reac- 
tion came, there came evils with it which balanced 
and neutralized a great part of the good which there 
was in the return to spirituality. "The vear 1735," 
says Bacon, "is commonly regarded as the com- 
mencement of that great religious excitement and 
revival in New England which made the middle of 
the last century so memorable in the history of our 
churches." The revival began in Northampton 
under the ministry of Jonathan Edwards. But 
many other towns in Massachusetts and Connecti- 
cut witnessed in the same year phenotiiena such as 
Edwards describes as appearing in Northampton. 

Presently a great and earnest concern about the great 
things of religion and the eternal world became universal 
in all parts of the town and among persons of all degrees 
and all ages. All talk but .about spiritual and eternal things 
was soon thrown by; all the conversation in all companies 
was upon these things only, except so much as was neces- 
sary for people carrying on their ordinary secular business. 
The minds of people were wonderfully taken off from the 
world: it was treated among us as a thing of very little 
consequence. All would eagerly lay hold of opportunities 
for their souls, and were wont very often to meet together 
in private houses for religious purposes: and such meetings 
when appointed were generally thronged. 

Mr. Edwards, who was a brother-in-law of Mr. 
Noyes, their wives being sisters, says in his narra- 
tive of the awakening in Northampton: 

There was a considerable revival of religion last summer 
at New Haven— old town — as I was once and again in- 
formed by the l\ev. Mr. Noyes, the minister there, and 
by others. And by a letter which I have very lately received 
from Mr. Noyes, and also l>y information we have had 
otherwise, this flourishing of religion still contiuues and h.a3 
lately much increased. Mr. Noyes writes that many this 
summer have been added to the church, and particularly 
mentions several young persons that belong to the principal 
families in that town. 

Thus far the revival had brought only unmingled 
joy to the ministers in general, and to Mr. Noyes in 
particular. But in 1740 came Whitefield to New 
England; and the great revival which accompanied 
and followed his preaching, occasioned trouble for 
conservative ministers. Born and reared in Eng- 
land, where many of the clergy had entered the 
ministry without professing to have experienced a 
change of heart, Mr. Whitefield felt at liberty to 
assume that the same state of things existed in New 
England, and to pronounce judgment against any 
minister who seemed to him to be in an uncon- 
verted state. Imitators of Mr. Whitefield assumed 
to themselves a similar authority of pronouncing 
judgment against' ministers who did not approve 
of the new methods. This was one of the troubles 
of conservatives among the clergy. Another, was 
the intrusion into their parishes of itinerant preach- 
ers, who having no flocks of their own, or hav- 
ing left their own sheep without a shepherd, went 
wherever they could find any to listen to them. 
Another, was the springing up of lay exhorters, 
who usurped the functions of the ministry, and 
put themselves into competition with educated and 
ordained ministers. Still another, was the occur- 
rence of bodily manifestations of spiritual experi- 
ence, such as outcries and agitations, visions, 
trances and ecstacies, wherein women, and some- 



114 



HISTORl' OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



times men, of nervous temperament, lost their 
strength and fell down on the floor, or on the 
ground. 

These accompaniments of the revival dividetl the 
communit)', and especially the clergy, into three 
parties. One party opposed the whole movement. 
Another favored it as a whole, but endeavored to 
preserve it as pure as possible from ingredients 
which came not from the Spirit of God, but from 
human weakness or satanic malice. A third party, 
could see nothing but good in the work, and 
thought all who criticized or opposed it were chil- 
dren of "The Wicked One." 

Mr. Noyes, though not opposed to revivals, as is 
evident from the way his brother-in-law writes of 
him in 1736, probably did not give ]\Ir. Whitefield 
a warm welcome when he came the first time to 
New Haven. Whitefieid having preached in Boston 
and vicinity with much acceptance, visited Mr. 
Edwards at Northampton, and stayed there several 
days. Thence he came to New Haven, where he 
was received as the guest of Mr. James Pierpont, a 
son of the pastor of the same name, and a brother- 
in-law of Mr. Edwards and of Mr. Noyes. Trum- 
bull, who favored the side of Whitefield, says: 
"Several ministers waited on him, with whose 
pious conversation he was much refreshed," but 
does not mention Mr. Noyes. 

Mr. Whitefield was followed in his itinerant evan- 
gelistic work by Gilbert Tennent and others, under 
w'hose preaching there was great activity of mind 
throughout the country on the subject of religion. 
Trumbull says that "Connecticut was more re- 
markably the seat of the work than any part of 
New England, or of the American colonies. In 
the years 1740, 174 1 and 1742, it had pervaded, 
in a greater or less degree, every part of the col- 
ony. In most of the towns and societies it was 
very general and powerful." As the work pro- 
ceeded, more and more that was objectionable 
appeared. Let us take New Haven as an ex- 
ample. When Mr. Whitefield came here in 1740, 
he was the guest of Mr. Pierpont rather than 
of Mr. Noyes; but it does not appear that Mr. 
Noyes actively used his influence against Mr. 
Whitefield, or that Mr. Whitefield in any respect, 
or in any degree, arrayed himself against Mr. 
Noyes. But in September, 1741, less than a 
year after Mr. Whitefield's visit, came the Rev. 
James Davenport to New Haven on a similar 
errand. He was a son of the Rev. John Daven- 
port, of Stamford, and a great-grandson of the first 
pastor at New- Haven. Dr. Bacon thus describes 
him and his method of doing the work of an evan- 
gelist: "This man, having been educated at Yale 
College, where he graduated in 1732, had been 
for several years settled in the pastoral oflice at 
Southold on Long Island, and had been esteemed 
a pious, sound and faithful minister. But in the 
general religious excitement tif 1740, he was carried 
away by enthusiastic impulses, and without asking 
tlie approbation and consent of his people, set out 
upon an itinerancy among the churches, leaving 
his own particular charge unprovided for. Wher- 
ever he went he caused much excitement and 



much mischief. His proceedings were constantly 
of the most extravagant character. Endowed with 
some sort of eloquence, speaking from a heart all 
on fire, and accustomed to yield himself without 
reserve to every enthusiastic impulse, he was able 
to produce a powerful effect upon minds prepared 
by constitution or by prejudice to sympathize with 
him. His preaching was with the greatest strength 
of voice, and with the most violent gesticulation. 
It consisted chiefly of lively appeals to the imagi- 
nation and the nervous sensibilities; and in the 
mimicry or pantomime with which he described 
things absent or invisible, as if they were present to 
the senses, he appears to have been more daring, 
if not more powerful, than Whitefield himself. He 
would make nervous hearers feel as if he knew all 
the secret things of God, speaking of the nearness 
of the day of judgment like one from whom noth- 
ing was hidden. He would work upon their fancy 
till they saw, as with their eyes, the agony, and 
heard, as with their ears, the groans of Calvary, 
and felt as the Popish entiiusiast feels when, under 
the spell of music, he looks upon the canvas alive 
with the agony of Jesus. He would so describe 
the surprise, consternation and despair of the 
damned, with looks and screams of horror, that 
those who were capable of being moved by such a 
representation, seemed to see the gate of hell set 
open, and felt, as it were, the hot and stifling 
breath of the pit, and the 'hell-flames flashing in 
their faces.' And if by such means he could cause 
any to scream out, he considered that as a sign of 
the special presence of the Holy Spirit, and re- 
doubled his own exertions till shriek after shriek, 
bursting from one quarter and another in hideous 
discord, swelled the horror of the scene. In one 
instance it is recorded of him as follows — and this 
I suppose to be an exaggerated description of the 
manner in which he ordinarily proceeded at the 
close of his sermon, when he found suflicient en- 
couragement in the state of his audience: 'After a 
short prayer, he called all the distressed persons 
(who were near twenty) into the foremost seats. 
Then he came out of the pulpit and stripped off 
his upper garments, and got up into the seats, and 
leaped up and down some time, and clapped his 
hands, and cried out in these words, 'The war 
goes on, the fight goes on, the Devil goes down, 
the Devil goes down I ' and then betook himself to 
stamping and screaming most dreadfully. " 

In 1740, Mr. Davenport became unduly excited, 
and exhibited, within his own parish, such .symp- 
toms of derangement as in these days would, 
doubtless, be regarded as justifying restraint. In 
1 74 1 he felt an impulse, which he regarded as a 
call from God, to leave his parish and go from 
place to place and preach the Gospel. Crossing 
the Sound, he commenced at Stonington, and 
with such success that "the first day he preached, 
he believed near a hundred were struck with 
deep distress almost in a moment, inquiring 
what they should do to be saved .' Many of his 
opposers, among the rest, came trembling and ask- 
ing forgiveness of God and him for all their hard 
speeches." Continuing his journey westward, he 



CHURCHES AND CLERGTMEN. 



115 



tarried awhile in Saybrook and other places, mak- 
ing a great impression upon multitudes of the peo- 
ple, by reason of his intense earnestness, but de- 
nouncing those who thought his zeal the result of 
derangement, especially if they were ministers. As 
everywhere, there were earnest Christians at New 
Haven, who, not suspecting that his mind was un- 
balanced, gladly received a man so earnest in his 
piety and so magnetic in his preaching. The fact 
that he was descended from the first pastor of the 
church, and that his mother was of the New Haven 
family of Morris, may have added somewhat to the 
friendliness with which he was received. Though 
allowed to occupy Mr. Noyes' pulpit, he soon be- 
gan to denounce the pastor. A contemporary 
letter to the Boston Post-Boy, probably written by 
President Clap, and cited in "Chauncey's Sea- 
sonable Thoughts," says : 

Mr. Davenport, in almost every prayer, vents himself 
at;ainst the minister of the place, and often declares him to 
l>e an unconverted man; says that tliousands are now curs- 
ing him in hell for being the instrument of their damnation. 
He charges all to pray for his destruction and confusion. 
He frequently calls him a hypocrite, a wolf in sheep's cloth- 
ing, and a devil incarnate: and uses such vile and opprobrious 
language as that, had it been done by any other man, he 
would have been immediately sent to the workhouse. I 
think that few or none of his greatest admirers undertake 
peremptorily to justify these things; but they ha\'e conceived 
such an extraordinary opinion of his holiness and success, as 
that they seem to suppose that he has had some extraordi- 
nary assistance or commission to do that which may not be 
done by any other man. 

A week later, another letter to the Post-Boy 
continues this account 

New Havkn, September 21, 1741.— Sundry of the br-eth- 
ren of the church in New Haven, being ofl'ended at Mr. 
Davenport's publicly condemiring their pastor, the Rev. Mr. 
Noyes, as an uncon\erted man ; calling him a wolf in sheep's 
clothing, with many other the like oj^probrious expressions, 
being met together at the house of the Rev. Mr. Noyes, 
desired Mr. Davenport to give the reasons why he has thus 
reproached and scandalized their pastor, which he did, as 
follows, viz.: 

1. That a woman came to Mr. Noyes mider conviction, 
and said that she was the greatest sinner in the world, ancl 
that Mr. Noyes endeavored to abate her convictions; to 
which Mr. Noyes replied that he did not remember the in- 
stance, but supposed that it might be thus, viz. : That he 
might tell her that she was a very great sinner, and that 
she ought to be sensible of it, and more sensible of her own 
sins than of any other person's in the world, but that he did 
not suppose she was really the greatest sinner in the world. 
Upon this, Mr. Davenport declared that Mr. Noyes's saying 
so was an evidence to him that he was an unconverted man ; 
and afterwards, explaining himself upon the word evidence, 
said that it gave him reasoii to believe it was so. 

2. Another reason was, because Mr. Noyes assumed an 
honor to himself in the ministry which did not belong to 
him, because a woman told him that some years ago, she 
came to Mr. Noyes and brought a relation, wherein she 
mentioneil the names of several ministers whom she supposed 
to have been instrumental of her conversion, and Mr. 
Noyes asked her if he had not also done something towards 
her conversion, and asked her why his name was not men- 
tioned. Mr. Davenport also added that several other per- 
sons had told him that Mr. Noyes disliked their relations be- 
cause there were so many names in them besides his; to 
which .Mr. Noyes replied, 

That he did not remember any such thing, and was confi- 
dent that it was a misrepresentation. 

3. Another reason was that Mr. Noyes was not a friend to 
this work going on among them; and that he did not coun- 
tenance itinerant preachers, and that several persons had 
told him that they came to meeting with their affections 



raised, and that Mr. Noyes' preaching deadened and dis- 
couraged them, and tended to stifle their convictions; to 
which Mr. Noyes replied, that his preaching and conduct in 
these things were publicly known, and that every one was 
capable of judging without his saying anything on the 
subject. 

4. That Mr. Noyes, in private conversation with Mr. 
Davenport, had said to this effect, that he had been deeply 
sensible of the vileness and corruption of his own nature,and 
that every one that turned his thoughts inward might easily 
have such a sense, and that Mr. Noyes seemed to suppose 
that it was an easy thing; that Mr. Davenport thence con- 
cluded that he had never experienced it himself; to which 
Mr. Noyes replied, 

That he at that time utterly refused to give Mr. Daven- 
port any account of his experiences, but that they had some 
discourse upon some doctrinal fdvaKs, but he could not think 
that Mr. Davenport could reasonably understand him to 
mean or intend that every natural man had a sense of the 
vileness and corruption of his nature, or that it was an easy 
thing to have it. Several things were said upon this head, 
which could not easily be minuted down, but on the whole, 
there seemed to be a misunderstanding between them. 

Upon the whole, Mr. Davenport declared that these 
reasons were sufficient to justify him in censuring and con- 
demning Mr. Noyes as he had done. Then he said he 
would make a sort of acknowledgment, and without any 
notice given, while divers in the room were talking loud and 
others smoking, and some with their hats on, he began a 
prayer; but there being so much noise in the room, he was 
hardly heard at first. Many kept on talking; others cried 
out " stop him: " the Rev. Mr. Noyes spoke once or twice, 
and said: "Mr. Davenport, I forbid your praying in my 
house without my leave; " but he persisted, and went on in 
the midst of the greatest noise, confusion, and consternation, 
and declared Mr. Noyes an unconverted man, and his people 
to be as sheep without a shepherd, and prayed that what he 
had now said might be a means of his and their conversion, 
" or else according to thy will let them be confounded;" 
and after that manner went on near a quarter of an hour. 
And when he had done, Mr. Noyes forbad him ever going 
into his pulpit any more; and some declared to Mr. Daven- 
port that his praying in that manner was a-taking the name 
of God in vain, and so the assembly broke up in great con- 
sternation. 

This is the truth according to the best of our remem- 
brance; and the substance of the conference was minuted 
down at the time of it, and publicly read to Mr. Davenport 
and the rest, immediately after. 

Thomas Clap, Rector of Vale College, 

John Punderson, 

joh.n munson, 

ThEOPH. Ml'NSON, 

Anhrew Tuttle, 

Samuel Mix, Subscribers. 

"From this time," says Rev. Dr. Button, speak- 
ing of the conference on the 21st of September, 
" there began to be an or^a«/se(/ opposition to Mr. 
Noyes, and parties began to be formed and to run 
high, which probably then and certainly ere long, 
took the forms, the one of hostility and the other 
of friendship to the revival, and the names of New 
and Old Lights; Mr. Noyes and his friends on the 
one side, and his opposers and their adherents on 
the other. " 

At the next society's meeting, which was on the 
28th of December, about three months after Mr. 
Davenport's visit, the following memorial was pre- 
sented, signed by thirty-eight men. 

To the First Society in the Toion of Neia Ila7'en. 

Whereas, We the subscribers, have by long and sorrowful 
experience, found that the preaching and conduct of the 
Rev. Mr. Noyes has been in great measure unprofitable to 
us, and that we have also reason to think that he diflers 
from us in some points of faith, we desire tnot, as we hope, 
out of any prejudice to the persons of Mr. Noyes and our 
lirethren and friends of the society, to whom we heartily 



lie 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEX. 



wish all good) that they would allow us and others that 
may incline to join with us, lo draw off from theni in charity, 
wishing to be a distinct society, that wc may put our- 
selves under the best advantage to worship God, under such 
means, as he in his good providence may allow, and we 
hope will bless, for our spiritual good and edification. 

The signers of this petition were Gideon Andrews, 
Caleb Tuttle, Joseph I\Iix, Caleb Bradley, Joseph 
Burroughs, David Austin, Jacob Turner, Caleb 
Andrews, Enos Tuttle, Obadiah Munson, Stephen 
Johnson, Samuel Cook, Timothy Mix, Samuel 
Horton, Thomas Punderson, Jr., Joseph Sackett, 
Hezekiah Beecher, Joseph Mix, Jr., Enos Thomp- 
son, John Bull. Caleb Hotchkiss, Jr., Benjamin 
Woodin, Caleb Bull, Timothy Jones, Benjamin 
Wilmott, Daniel Turner, Stephen Austin, Thomas 
Wilmott, Abraham Thompson, Mercy Ailing, Ja- 
bez Sherman, Amoj Tuttle, Thomas Leek, Ezekiel 
Sanford, Timothy Ailing, Amos Peck. 

'• To us at this day," says Dr. Bacon, " it seems 
perfectly obvious that the only wise or reasonable 
course in regard to such a memorial, and indeed 
the only course consistent with the principles of 
religious freedom, was either to take such measures 
as might conciliate the petitioners and overcome 
their prejudices ; or, if that seemed impracticable, 
to grant them their request at once. The town, as 
experience soon proved, was large enough for two 
congregations. In Hartford there had been two 
churches, both recognized in law, for seventy years. 
A controversy not unlike that which was now 
breaking out here, had commenced in Guilford 
twelve years before, and had been adjusted, after 
several years of confusion, only by the interference 
of the Legislature to erect the minority into a new- 
society. Yet in the face of the lessons taught by 
the experience of other places, the people here, 
when the question was proposed to the society 
whether they would do anything with respect to 
the memorial of the dissatisfied party, answered in 
the negative. Contention was now of course to be 
expected. 

" The next step of the dissatisfied party was to 
prefer to the church, articles of complaint against 
the pastor, expecting, or at least demanding, that 
the charges should be investigated according to the 
strict Congregational discipline, either by the church 
itself or by a council agreed upon between the par- 
ties. In opposition to this demand, it was claimed 
tiiat the Saybrook articles, which were a part of the 
ecclesiastical constitution of the colony and of this 
church, had provided a different and better way for 
investigating charges against a pastor. By that 
rule, the ministers of the county in their associa- 
tion were in the first instance to receive charges 
against a brotlier pastor, and, if they saw reason, 
were to direct to the calling of a council of the con- 
sociated churches of the county. But such was 
the standing of Mr. Noyes with the ministers and 
churches of the vicinity, that the complainants were 
unwilling lo bring their cause before such a tri- 
bunal. 'I'he question was therefore raised whether 
the church had ever adopted the Saybrook articles 
as a rule of tliscipline; and thuugh the former pas- 
tor of the church had been not only a leading 
member of the .synod that framed the platform, but 



even the principal author of that instrument; and 
though the church was present, by its pastor and 
delegate, in the council which had approved the 
platform and formed the consociation for the county, 
and had uniformly acted as one of the confederate 
churches of the county, it was now maintained by 
the complainants that, inasmuch as there was no 
written record of any action of the church formally 
acceding to the Saybrook continuation, it was still 
to be considered as under the old rule of strict Con- 
gregationalism. And when the church overruled 
their objection and adopted a vote declaring that 
in this church the Saybrook articles were to be ob- 
served, the ground of complaint was altered. They 
now professed to be the aggrieved party; they pro- 
fessed that they had always considered themselves 
as belonging to an unconsociated church; and they 
insisted that Mr. Noyes and his friends had ' di- 
vested them of their ancient ecclesiastical privileges,' 
and by adopting the Saybrook platform, had formed 
themselves into another church than that with which 
they, the complainants, were in covenant. 

"Accordingly, considering their relation as mem- 
bers of this church to be at an end, they proceeded, 
without delay, to take the benefit of the Act of Tol- 
eration, and to organize themselves as a religious 
congregation dissenting from the established wor- 
ship of the colony. 

"On Friday, the yth of May, 1742, they were 
solemnly constituted a Congregational Church, by 
four ministers called for the purpose from the east- 
ern district of Fairfield County, namely, Samuel 
Cooke, John Graham, Elisha Kent and Joseph 
Bellamy." 

The number of persons uniting in the organi- 
zation was forty-three — eighteen males and twenty- 
five females. But in a few weeks the number in- 
creased to between seventy and eight}'. 

Leaving for the present the history of the new 
church, we follow the history of that which re- 
mained, after the secession, as the First Church, or 
to use the full name by which it has chosen to be 
called, "The First Church of Christ in New Haven." 
But for seventeen years the history of the new church 
was very much mixed with that of the old, for the 
reason that its members and adherents belonged by 
law to the First Society. The Act of Toleration 
permitted them to worship by themselves, but they 
were still bound to pay taxes for the support of 
Mr. Noyes as if they had continued to attend upon 
his ministry, and ihey still had a right to vote in 
meetings of the society. Our narrative will first 
follow the history of the old church to the present 
day, and then return to the church which separated 
from it in 1742. 

There was unquestionably a dissatisfaction with 
Mr. Noyes' preaching widely and deeply felt in his 
society; and this feeling was intensified by the con- 
trast between his cold and dull discourses and the 
fervent anil nervous appeals of the preachers whom 
the new church brought here to preach for a Sab- 
bath or two in the private house of Mr. Timothy 
Jones. Mr. Noyes was cliarged by his opponents 
with heterodoxy; but this must have been but a 
partisan accusation. Nothing was heard of it till 



CHURCHES AND CLEROrMEN. 



\l*i 



the visit of Mr. Davenport, and ]\Ir. Noyes ever 
professed allegiance to the Westminster standards. 
Such hard appellations as an Arminian, aUniversal- 
ist, and even a Deist, were sometimes used in the 
warfare against him. Probably as the contest pro- 
ceeded he did become less and less earnest in pre- 
senting and enforcing such doctrines as the entire 
sinfulness of man and the need of regeneration by 
the Spirit of God. Probably he did oppose what 
he considered the errors of the Revivalists by seda- 
tives rather than by promoting a puie revival, but 
it is not established that he departed from the or- 
thodoxy of his time. 

Before the organization of the new church, the 
First Society had resolved, by a full vote, to proceed 
to the settlement of a colleague pastor, and had 
requested Mr. Noyes, Deacon Punderson and Cap- 
tain John Munson to apply to the association at 
their next meeting for advice and direction in regard 
to the person that might be suitable to be called as 
assistant in the work of the ministry. The Sepa- 
ratists did not postpone their separation on account 
of this proposal, having probably no hope that 
either the association would recommend, or the 
old church would receive, a pastor satisfactory to 
' those who were dissatisfied with Mr. Noyes. After 
the organization of the new church, the First So- 
ciety continued to talk about a colleague, but 
nothing decisive was done till Mr. Noyes was fifteen 
years older than he was at the organization of the 
second church. 

During these years the new church had prospered. 
They had built a meeting-house, settled a minister, 
and outgrown the extravagances which naturally 
resulted from the derangement of the man under 
whose leadership their secession commenced. In- 
deed, Mr. Davenport himself, some four years after 
his visit to New Haven, which precipitated, if it did 
not occasion, the schism in the church, emerged 
from his derangement, and bitterly repented of 
many things which he had done inconsistent, both 
with a sound mind and with the law of love. 

Not only had the new church in New Haven 
prospered, but throughout the country the New 
Lights, as the party which favored the revival were 
called, had greatly increased in number. Yale 
College, whose President, and Fellows, and Faculty 
had been strongly opposed to the New Lights, was 
suffering in its interests from its connection with 
Mr. Noyes. His preaching had become devoid of 
interest to both the instructors and the students of 
the college; and as the New Lights were multiplied' 
in the colony, many parents disliked to intrust their 
sons to the religious instruction of Mr. Noyes. 
President Clap, who had been in entire sympathy 
with Mr. Noyes in his opposition to the revival, 
became convinced that the welfare of the college 
required a different preacher for the students, and 
seeing no prospect of a successor or a colleague to 
Mr. Noyes, took the bold step of establishing sep- 
arate worship in the college. The Rev. Naphtali 
Daggett was appointed Professor of Divinity, and 
the instructors and students assembled on the 
Lord's Day in the College Hall for worship, instead 
of going to the meeting-house of the First Society. 



When Professor Daggett had preached in the College 
Hall about a year, the First Society, "with Mr. 
Noyes's good liking,'' made an effort to secure him 
as colleague pastor with Mr. Noyes, and thus bring 
back the college to their congregation. When that 
proposal had been declined, they requested that 
the professor would preach in their pulpit half the 
time. But the college corporation being unwilling 
to recede from the position they had taken, that 
worship ought to be maintained within a Christian 
college, theie was no deliverance for the First So- 
ciety out of their troubles by means of Professor 
Daggett. But the negotiation with so thorough a 
Calvinist shows that the old church, however op- 
posed to what the New Lights called " the revival," 
had not departed from their ancient faith. Indeed 
in the course of this negotiation, they solemnly de- 
clared their adhesion to the Confession of Faith 
owned in the churches of the colony, and to the 
Westminster Assembly's catechism. 

About fifteen years after the organization of the 
new church, and about six years after the installa- 
tion of Rev. Mr. Bird as its pastor, it became evi- 
dent that a majority of the voters in the Firbt Soci- 
ety were New Lights. While they were still in a 
minority they had made strenuous endeavors to 
persuade the General Assembly of the colony to 
set them off as a distinct society, and when their 
increase threatened a possibility that they might soon 
outnumber their opponents, the Old Lights became 
willing to second their endeavor.=. With a view to 
a division into two societies, the society ordered 
that all the inhabitants have liberty to enter their 
names, declaring to which party they choose to be- 
long, by the general distinction of " Mr. Noyes's 
party," and "Mr. Bird's party." But when by this 
enrollment it became evident that the New Lights 
were the majority, they appeared in a society meet- 
ing in sufficient numbers to rescind what had been 
done with a view to a division, and voted a call to 
Mr. Bird " to be the minister of this society," and 
an appointnent of the New Light meeting-house to 
"be the place of public worship for the present" 

The settlement of the Rev. Chancey Whittlesey 
as a colleague with Mr. Noyes so far restored 
power to the Old Lights, that they were able, in 
1759, to secure the division which at first they 
would not allow and afterward could not obtain. 
In October of that year, by an act of the General 
Assembly, the adherents of the First Church were 
constituted the first society; and ^the adherents of 
the new church were incorporated as a new ec- 
clesiastical society by the name of the White Haven 
Society. "The plate and all the property of the 
First Church remained undivided. The new brick 
meeting-house, erected partly by the funds of the 
church, and partly by donations from individuals 
was declared the property of the First Society. The 
old meeting-house, the bell, and all the property 
which had belonged to the society before the com- 
mencement of the difirculties, was declared to be- 
long to the two societies in equal proportions."* 

The mention of the church plate in the Act of the 
General Assembly, suggests an interesting incident 

* Bacon's Historical Discourses. 



118 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



which occurred during the ministry of Mr. Noyes. 
A merchant ofNew Haven, Mr. Jeremiah Atwater, 
purchased a keg of nails in Boston in which he 
found concealed some silver dollars. He wrote to 
the Boston merchant,acquainting him with the dis- 
covery, and inquiring how the money could be re- 
stored to the rightful owner. The merchant re- 
plied that the nails were imported with many other 
similar packages; that the keg had passed through 
many hands, and, having no distinguishing mark, 
could not be traced back; that as for himself he 
purchased the goods for nails and sold them for 
nails, and of course had no claim for the money; 
and that the present possessor must dispose of it 
as he saw fit. Mr. Atwater kept the money for the 
rightful owner till, a few days before his death, he 
made a will, in which he gave the money to the 
church of which he was a member. This traditional 
history, preserved in the family of his nephew and 
namesake, Jeremiah Atwater, Steward of Yale Col- 
lege, and by his children related to Rev. Dr. Bacon is 
confirmed by the following facts: That church now 
possesses and uses a baptismal basin of solid silver, 
12 inches in diameter and 3 inches deep, weighing 
two pounds and one ounce avoirdupois, and bear- 
ing this inscription on its broad brim: " The gift 
of Mr. Jeremiah Atwater to the First Church of 
Christ in New Haven, a.d. 1735. ' 

In the Probate Office of New Haven is recorded 
the last will and testament of Jeremiah Atwater, 
dated New Haven October 21, 1732. In this docu- 
ment he thus disposes of his property: I give and 
bequeath unto the First Church of Christ in New 
Haven the sum of fifty pounds, to be improved, for 
plate, or otherwise, as the Pastor and Deacons for 
the time being shall direct, as most useful and prop- 
er, for the use of said First Church forever. Item: 
ten pounds for the relief of the poor in fellowship 
with the church aforesaid, as the Pastor and Dea- 
cons aforesaid shall think proper. After a few other 
items he bequeaths ail the residue of his estate to 
his dear-and only child, Lydia Atwater, to her and 
her heirs forever. Mr. Atwater, died October 27, 
1732, six days after the date of the will. The will 
was probated November 6, 1732. The interval of 
more than two years between his death and the 
date inscribed on the basin was the time during 
which the .settlement of the estate and the fabrica- 
tion of the plate were proceeding. * 

Mr. Noyes died June 14, 1761, a little more 
than three years after the ordination of his col- 
league. His tomb, like that of Pierpont, is beneath 
the edifice where his successors in the pastorate 
preach the gospel to the descendants of his parish- 
ioners. 

The Rev. Chauncey Whittlesey, a son of the 
second pastor of the church in Wallingford, was 
born October 28, 171 7. He graduated at Yale 
College in 1738, and continued his studies as a 
resident graduate till he was appointed a tutor in 
1739. He remained in this office for six years. 
President .Stiles, who preached the sermon at his 
funeral, testifies of him: 



* See an article on this subject by Rev. Dr. Bacon in the Journal 
and Courier of July 15, 1853. 



He was an excellent classical scholar, well acquainted 
with the three learned languages — the Latin, Cireek and 
Hebrew; but especially the Latin and (Jreek, He was well 
acquainted with geography, mathematics, natural philoso- 
phy and astronomy; with moral philosophy and history; and 
with the general cyclopedia of literature. He availed \\\m- 
self uf the advantages of an academic life, and amassed, by 
laborious reading, a great treasure of wisdom; and for lit- 
erature he was, in his day, oracular at college; for he 
taught with facility and success in every branch of knowl- 
edge. He had a very happy talent of instruction, and com- 
municating the knowledge of the liberal arts and sciences. 

About a year after his appointment as tutor, he 
was " approbated " to preach as a candidate for the 
ministry, and during his connection with the col- 
lege was often called to render occasional assist- 
ance to Mr. Noyes. His piety was too sober and 
his manner too calm to please the New Lights. 
David Brainerd made him famous by saying of 
him, "He has no more grace than this chair." 
Brainerd, entering college when Mr. Whittlesey 
commenced his work as tutor, was so modest and 
humble in his Freshman year that "on Lord's Day, 
July 6 (1640), being Sacrament Day, (he) found 
some divine life and spiritual refreshment in that 
holy ordinance, " and "next Lord's Day, July 13, 
had some special sweetness in religion; and again, 
Lord's Day, July 20, (his) soul was in a sweet and 
precious frame " under the ministry of Mr. Noyes. 
Having in his Sophomore year grown more "cold 
and dull " in matters of religion by means of am- 
bition in his studies, he was "much quickened " 
in the great and general awakening," which, begin- 
ning in January, 1741, spread itself over the Col- 
lege. But after the coming of James Davenport to 
New Haven in September of that year, Brainerd 
had the unhappiness, as President Edwards ex- 
presses it, "to ha\e a tincture of that intemperate, 
indiscreet zeal, which was at that time too preva- 
lent; and was led from his high opinion of others 
that he looked upon as better than himself into 
such errors as were really contrary to the habitual 
temper of his mind." It once happened that he 
and two or three of his intimate friends were in 
the hall together after Tutor Whittlesey "had en- 
gaged in prayer with the scholars, no other person 
now remaining in the hall but Brainerd and his 
companions. Mr. Whittlesey having been un- 
usually pathetical in his prayer, one of Brainerd's 
friends on this occasion asked him what he thought 
of Mr. Whittlesey. He made answer, ' He has no 
more grace than this chair.'" 

One of the Freshman, happening at that time to 
be near the hall, though not in the room, overheard 
these words, and reported them to a woman in the 
town, who communicated them to the Rector of 
the college. For this offense, aggravated by going 
to the New Light meeting when forbidden by the 
Rector, and by saying that he wondered the Rector 
did not expect to fall down dead for fining the 
scholars who followed Mr. Tennent to Milford to 
hear him preach there, he was expelled from col- 
lege. 

"In 1745," says Dr. Bacon, "Mr. Whittlesey 
resigned his office in the college, and, for reasons 
which do not appear, relinquished his design of 
entering into the ministry, and settled in this place 



CHURCHES AXD CLERGYMEN. 



119 



as a merchant. He continued in business about 
ten years. During all that time he was an active 
member of this church and society. He was 
brought forward by his fellow citizens into political 
life. He represented this town in the General As- 
sembly of the colony, and ' in a variety of public 
trusts he discharged himself with fidelity and grow- 
ing influence.' 

"At length, after the affairs of the society had 
arrived at the greatest perple.xity, the members and 
partisans of the separating congregation having be- 
come a majority in all society meetings, and the 
efforts to obtain the services of the college Professor 
of Divinity as assistant minister having proved un- 
successful, the church, with entire unanimity, 
elected Mr. Whittlesey to be colleague pastor with 
Mr. No3'es. The concurrence of the society, as a 
legal body, was of course out of the question; for 
the church and those who adhered to the old pas- 
tor had already become a separate meeting, with a 
place of worship erected by themselves. Instead 
of this, the membeisof the congregation worshiping 
with the church united in a subscription to a paper 
expressing their preference of Mr. Whittlese}-, and 
pledging him a support in case of his settlement as 
pastor of the church." Accordingly an ecclesias- 
tical council was convened, by whom Mr. Whittle- 
sey was ' ' separated to the work of the gospel 
ministry, and inducted into the pastoral office in 
and over the First Church and Congregation of 
New Haven." 

The place of worship of which Dr. Bacon speaks 
as erected by the church and its adherents, was 
the third meeting-house in which the church 
had worshiped. The first having been poorly 
built, gave place to the second in 1670, during the 
ministry of Mr. Street. The second house had a 
pyramidal roof, which, after 1680, was surmounted 
by a bell, the bell-ringer standing in the "alley," 
under the apex of the pyramid. In the course of 
its service of more than eighty years, it was not 
only supplied with additional seats and additions 
to its galleries, but, to meet the requirements of 
the town, which, though not growing rapidly, made 
some progress from one generation to another, was 
enlarged in 1699, by an addition "on the side next 
to the bur}'ing place." 

The third edifice was not built by the ecclesi- 
astical society within whose bounds it stood, but by 
the Church itself; which, in November, 1753, con- 
sidering that a more decent and comfortable house 
to worship God in was needful, and the many 
public stations in this place make it more expedi- 
ent, judged it is proper for them to promote the 
building said house." To this end they appointed 
a building committee, and voting to sell two par- 
cels of land, appropriated the proceeds to the 
building of the new meeting-house. At subse- 
quent meetings several other appropriations were 
made for finishing the edifice, the last of which was 
in June, 1756. At that time, " after prayer to the 
God of all wisdom, the Church observing the de- 
cayed state of the house they now worship in, and 
in consequence the necessity of finishing the brick 
house, and having the report of the committee for 



building said house, judge it their duty to improve 
part of what their forefathers laid up for pious uses, 
for building an house for the Lord and accord- 
ingly'' gave to that end six several pieces of land 
to be sold, "to finish the said brick house with, 
hoping it will prepare the same for our meeting in 
it next winter." 

The brick meeting-house erected in the time of 
Mr. Noyes by the Church and owned by the 
Church, was, according to the measurement of Dr. 
Stiles, 72 1 feet long, and 50 feet wide.* It stood 
a little east of where its successor was erected in 
1 81 2. Its longest dimension was a nearly north 
and south line; its pulpit was on its west side; its 
tower or steeple projected from the north end; 
there were three entrances, one through the tower 
one at the south end, and one on the east side, 
where the steps encroached upon Temple street. 

At the time of Mr. Whittlesey's ordination he was, 
says Dr. Bacon, ' ' in the fortieth year of his age! 
His ministry, though begun so late in life, and in 
circumstances so inauspicious, was long, peaceful 
and, for the age in which he labored, prosperou.*! 
The Church and congregation were perfectly united 
in him; and during the whole j)eriod of his minis- 
try there appears to have been no division among 
them and no alienation of their affection from him. " 

Dr. Bacon, in explanation of his remark that Mr. 
Whittlesey's ministry was prosperous for the age in 
which he labored, alludes to three respects in which 
the age was unpropitious. One was the extrava- 
gances of the revival which had preceded. Presi- 
dent Edwards says in a letter to a friend in Scot- 
land in 1751 : 

There are undoubtedly very many instances in New Eng- 
land, in the whole, of the perseverance of such as were 
thoujiiht to have received the saving lienefits of the late re- 
vival of religion, and of their continuing to walk in newness 
of life and as becomes saints— instances which are incontest- 
able, and which men must be most blind not to see but I 

believe the jiroportion here is not so great as in Scotland. I 
cannot say that the greater part of supposed converts give 
reason, by their conversation, to suppose that they are true 
converts. The proportion may perhaps be more truly rep- 
resented by the proportion of the blossoms on a tree which 
abide and come to mature fruit, to the whole numlier of 
blossoms in the spring. 

Such spurious experiences are exceedingly de- 
structive to true religion, both in those who have 
been self-deceived and in those who have watched 
the process and seen the end. 

Another respect in which ]\Ir. Whittlesey's age 
was unpropitious to his work was the prevalence 
of church quarrels. The revival had resulted not 
only in the falling off of many blossoms, but in the 
division of churches, and the bitter alienation, one 
from another, of those who called themselves the 
servants of the same master. How bitter this alien- 
ation was in New Haven we shall have occasion 
to see when, going back to the place in our narra- 
tive where the second church broke off from the 
first, we follow another thread of the stor)'. 

Then, thirdly, Mr. Whittlesey's ministry was 
synchronous with the political and social agitations 
which preceded and accompanied the Revolution- 

*StiIes' Literary Diary. 



120 



HIS TOR}' OF THE CTTF OF NEW HA VEN. 



ary War. The public mind was excited for years 
by the passage of the Stamp Act, and the measures 
taken to prevent its operation. Jared Ingerso^, the 
Stamp-Master for Connecticut, was a leading mem- 
ber of Mr. Whittlesey's church. Then came the 
shock of arms and the division of the people into 
Whigs and Tories. Joshua Chandler, the Tory, 
was an active and influential member of Mr. Whit- 
tlesey's church. It is a wonder that the Church 
was not split into factions and the pastor involved 
in the social quarrels of the day. It was good suc- 
cess to pass safely through such a stormy period, 
even though there were few accessions to the 
church, and no unusual manifestations of interest 
in the things of the spirit. 

But, notwithstanding all the disadvantages of his 
time of service, his ministry was not without fruit, 
two hundred and si.xty being added to the church 
while he was pastor. He died July 24, 17S7, in 
the seventieth year of his age and in the thirtieth 
year of his ministr}'. His grave, like those of 
Pierpont and Noyes, is beneath the present church 
edifice 

" After the death of the venerable Whittlesey," 
says Dr. Bacon, "the pulpit was supplied for a 
season, according to one of the most beautiful of 
the ecclesiastical usages of New J^ngland, by the 
neighboring pastors — each of the thirteen ministers 
who were present at the funeral volunteering to 
give one Sabbath's service for the benefit of the 
widow of their deceased brother and father. Imme- 
diately afterwards, the Rev. Dr. James Dana, of Wal- 
lingford, being at that time free from the labor of 
preaching in his own church, was called in to sup- 
ply the vacant pulpit statedly. In January, 1789, 
the Church and society, with great unanimity, elect- 
ed him their pastor; and on the 29th of April he 
was inducted into the pastoral office. Dr. Dana 
preached the sermon at his own installation, which, 
I believe, is the latest instance of that ancient 
usage in New England. Thus, in less than two 
years after the church's bereavement, another pas- 
tor was harmoniously settled." 

Dr. Dana's health having failed some years before 
his removal from Wallingford, he had relintiuished 
his salary and been released from the duties of his 
office without a dismission from the office itself 
Having now regained his health, he was willing, 
though more than fifty years old, to undertake a 
new pastorate. He had been, in his 3'outh, a man 
of suspected orthodoxy. Naturally conservative, 
as he was known to be, the New Lights had op- 
posed his settlement at Wallingford, thinking that 
he would set himself against what they regarded as 
a work of God. But as he advanced in the minis- 
try, he advanced in the respect of ministers and 
churches. They were "constrained to recognize 
inliim a man of great talents and learning; of great 
judgment and prudence in the management of af- 
fairs; of great fearlessness and conscientiousness in 
performing what he conceived to be his duty; and 
of eminent |)ublic usefulness.'' The honorary de- 
gree of Doctor of Divinity, bestowed upon him by 
the University of Kdinhurgh, did n^t diminish, and 
perhaps increased, the esteem in which he was held. 



Besides, during Dr. Dana's residence in Walling- 
ford, the distinction between "Old Light and New 
Light '" had in some measure given place to the 
distinction between "old divinity and new divin- 
ity. '' The New Lights had generally gone with 
Bellamy, Hopkins, West and the younger Ed- 
wards for those "improvements," which distin- 
guish New England theology from an older Calvin- 
ism. But some of them did not receive these " im- 
provements " and "were willing to acknowledge 
Dana as orthodox in comparison with these in- 
ventors of new divinity, and to forget the heresy 
and schism of his youth for the sake of the strength 
with which he could lead them to war against such 
metaphysical giants as those of Bethlehem, and 
Stockbridge, and Newport. " The Church in New 
Haven was well acquainted with Dr. Dana, hav- 
ing not only heard him as a candidate for more 
than a year, but often when he exchanged pulpits 
with Mr. Whittlesey ; for, though eighteen years 
younger than his predecessor at New Haven, he 
was ordained in the same year with him, and they 
had been accustomed to frequent exchanges. 

The two younger churches in New Haven were 
invited to the council called for the induction of 
Dr. Dana. During the calamities and terrors of the 
Revolutionary War the churches, which before had 
had no communion one with another, were drawn 
together by their common affliction. Dr. Stiles 
writes in his diary a few weeks after the British had 
invaded New Haven: 

August 12, 1779, Tuesday. — Last week the ministers 
of the township of New Haven met voluntarily and ayreed 
to propose to their churches a voluntary Kast, on account 
of the distressing calamities and peculiar danger of the 
seaports; proposing Thursday, 12th inst., as the day. This 
was laid before the churches and congregations last Lord's 
Day and approved. This day the nine churches in the several 
parishes in this town observed as a day of solemn fasting, 
prayer and humiliation. It was observed here with great 
decency and apparent solemnity, the militia attending divine 
service. I went to Mr. Edwards' meeting in the forenoon. 
Mr. Whittlesey's and Mr. Mather's agreed to meet together 
in Mr. Whittlesey's meeting-house, which they did. As Mr. 
Mather is in ill-health, it relieved him of one exercise. I at- 
tended Mr. Whittlesey's p. M., when he preached upon 
Isaiah xlviii, 9-1 1. The presence of tlod seemed to be 
with us all the day. Blessed be Cod that he has put it into 
the hearts of His people to seek to Him in the hour of dis- 
tress: especially now that we are threatened with the return 
of the enemy to lay New Haven in ashes. 

Perhaps from the time of this Fast in i 779 — cer- 
tainly for some \'ears before the death of Mr. Whit- 
tlesey — there was so much of peace and love among 
the three Congregational churches within the liiuits 
of the First Society, that the monthly lecture pre- 
paratory to the Lord's Supper was preached at the 
three houses of worship in rotation as a united 
service. But the ministers of the two younger 
churches were so dissatisfied with Dr. Dana, when 
he was examined by the council, that they withdrew 
from this union in the preparatory lecture. In this 
withdrawal they had tiie sympathy and perhaps 
the advice of other new divinity ministers. 

Dr. Dana's ministry in New Haven does not 
show large visible restilts. "The average annual 
addition to the number of communicants during 
his ministry of sixteen years and a half was only 



CHURCHES AND CLERGVJ/EN. 



121 



between five and six: ninety-three in all." " Yet it 
deserves to be noticed, " says Dr. Bacon, "that the 
period of Dr. Dana's ministry in this church, es- 
pecially the former part of it, was the period im- 
mediately following the Revolutionary War, when 
the disastrous and demoralizing influences of that 
long conflict were felt most powerfully in all the 
churches; and when the country in the joy of its 
new liberty, and in its sympathy with the hopes and 
horrors of the French Revolution, was continually 
blazing with intense excitement; the period in 
which the long darkness that ensued upon the ex- 
travagances of 1740 was just the deepest; the 
period in which the ministry of so gifted and 
evangelical a divine as the younger Edwards; came 
to an end in this very town for the want of success; 
the period just before the commencement of those 
great, successive, spreading, religious awakenings, 
which characterize" the early years of the nineteenth 
century. 

"Dr. Dana, by his discretion and his dignified 
propriety of conduct; by his diligence and courage 
in visiting the sick, especially in times of pestilence, 
when some other ministers retreated from the 
danger; by the venerable beauty of all his public 
performances, particularly of his prayers; and by 
his unquestionable reputation for learning and 
wisdom; continued to hold the aftections of the 
people much longer than most men could have 
done in similar circumstances. " But when, in the 
winter of 1804-5, during the confinement of the 
pastor by illness, the people listened to the eloquence 
of Mr. Jloses Stuart, impetuous by reason of his 
temperament, his youth, and his radical theology, 
they discovered, and especially the younger portion 
of them, that Dr. Dana was old and dull. Arrange- 
ments were therefore commenced for procuring Mr. 
Stuart as a colleague, and when he declined to 
accept such a position, the society signified by vote 
their will that " Dr. Dana retire from his pastoral 
labors." The right to do this they had reserved 
at the time of his settlement. Dr. Dana's relation 
to the church and society was consequently dis- 
solved by an ecclesiastical council in December, 
1805; and Mr. Stuart, being elected pastor of the 
church and invited to become the settled minister 
of the society, w-as ordained March 5, 1806. 

With ^Ir. Stuart's induction there came a great 
change in the condition of the church and society. 
His sermons were fitted to awaken activity of the 
intellect and of the sensibilities in any congre- 
gation, but their effect was augmented by the long- 
continued attendance of the people on the sedative 
preaching of Dr. Dana. During his brief ministry 
207 persons were added to the church. 

Mr. Stuart, after having served the church as 
pastor a little less than four years, was dismissed at 
his own request, the church and society reluctantly 
consenting. Having been invited to the Professor- 
ship of Sacred Literature in the Theological Semi- 
nary at Andover, he considered himself called in 
the providence of God to relinquish the pastoral 
office, and to be employed in forming the minds 
and hearts of others for the service of the spiritual 
temple. 



" For two years after the removal of Professor 
Stuart, the church was without a pastor. On the 
Sth of April, 181 2, the vacancy was filled by the 
ordination of the Rev. Nathaniel W.Taylor. In this 
ordination Dr. Dana ofliciated as moderator of the 
ordaining council, joined in the laying on of the 
hands of the Presbytery, and in the name of the coun- 
cil gave the charge to the candidate. During the 
ministry of his immediate successor his stern and 
wounded feelings had forbidden him to unite with 
this church in public worship. Still more had he 
felt himself forbidden to sit under the preaching of 
the man for whom the Society had treated him, in 
his old age, with what he esteemed great disrespect. 
He had therefore withdrawn, and at the College 
Chapel had attended on the ministry of President 
Dwight. The eftect of this had been in one im- 
portant respect happy. Formerly he had enter- 
tained strong prejudices against the President, look- 
ing upon him as tinctured with the ' new divinity, ' 
not only of his grandfather, the first Edwards, but 
also of his uncle and theological teacher, the 
second Edwards. But his six years' attendance on 
the preaching of the President, and especially his 
hearing that four years' course of sermons on the 
doctrines and duties of religion, which, since it 
was given to the public, has been read by so many 
thousands of intelligent men in all evangelical de- 
nominations with equal admiration and profit, 
went far to annihilate his prejudices. He is said 
to have acknowledged not only that he thought 
much better of Dr. Dwight than formerly, but also 
that the preaching of Dr. Dwight had led him to 
new views of some important subjects. Accord- 
ingly he saw with gratification the progress of 
measures for the settlement of one of Dr. Dwight's 
favorite pupils over what had once been his own 
beloved flock. Occasionally he came to the old 
meeting-house to join in the worship which he 
had formerly been accustomed to lead. The sight 
of his venerable form in the old place awakened 
old aftections. The society expressed by vote 
their pleasure at seeing him, and their desire that 
he would attend there in future. The gentleman 
who was appointed to communicate to him this 
vote lately gave me some account of the interview. 
'Dr. Dana,' said he, presenting a copy, 'I have a 
communication for you from the society.' 'Please 
to read it, sir,' said the old man in reply, putting 
the paper back into the hands of the other, and 
straightening himself up to a little more than his 
usual dignity. The vote was read distinctly, and 
with due emphasis. ' Please to read it again, sir,' 
said the doctor, still sitting in stiff and antique 
dignity, with his thin, ghastly countenance un-' 
moved, as if he were something between a ghost 
and a monument. Again the communication 
was read, with earnest desire that it might make a 
favorable impression. 'It is well,' said the old 
man, and his voice quivered and broke as he 
uttered his reply, ' I know not but that I may say. 
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.' 
On the first Sabbath after Mr. Taylor's ordination, 
Dr. Dana, at the invitation of the young pastor, 
took his seat in the pulpit, and there he was seen 



122 



HlSTORy UF THE CITY OF NEW HA JEN. 



thenceforward every Sabbath till his last sickness. 
He died in August of that year at the age of 77. " 

I\Ir. Taylor's pastorate continued about ten years 
and a half, when like his predecessor, he was 
drawn away from his parish to fill the chair of a 
professor in a theological seminar)'. He was a 
popular and powerful preacher, a beloved and 
useful pastor while connected with the First Church 
in New Haven; but as a teacher of theology he 
exerted a wider inlluence than any pastor. The 
"improvements" distinguishing the New England 
theology from the old Calvinism, begun by Presi- 
dent Jonathan Edwards, and promoted by his 
son of the same name, and his grandson. President 
Dwight, were still further advanced by Dr. Taylor, 
who was a pupil of Dwight's. Not only was Taylor 
himself a powerful preacher, but the young men 
whom he trained for die pulpit were able to make 
an impression upon the public mind greater than 
the preachers of the preceding generation. Dr. 
Taylor and his pupils were often misunderstood by 
those who had been trained in the "old school," 
and by some were thought to have fallen into dan- 
gerous error; but more and more the "natural 
ability " of man to do what God requires, which 
Taylor maintained, is assumed by preachers, and 
the assumption finds response in the conscience 
of their hearers. 

The house of worship now occupied by the First 
Church in New Haven was built during the minis- 
try of Dr. Taylor. The first mention of it on the 
records of the society is under the date of Novem- 
ber II, 1812, when William Leffingwell, Henry 
Daggett, Jr., William W. Woolsey, Isaac Mills, 
James Goodrich, (iad Peck, and Abraham Bradley, 
3d, proposed to build a new meeting-house at their 
expense, reimbursing themselves by the sale of the 
,pews. The proposition was accepted November 
23, 18 1 2. But when it was found that the house 
as located by the society's committee, under the 
direction and order of the County Court would 
cover some of the graves west of the old meeting- 
house, there was strong opposition to the location 
of the house. April 10, 18 13, the society directed 
the contractors to proceed as had been ordered, 
"having due respect to the dead and a regard to 
decency in the manner of doing the business." 
Another meeting of the society was held May 3, 
i8i3,"for the purpose of conciliating the dift'er- 
ences now subsisting relative to the location of the 
meeting-house." The greatest opposition to the 
locatii^n came probably from those who had friends 
buried where a trench must be dug for the founda- 
tion of the new edifice; but some objected even to 
the erection of the house over the graves of their 
friends. Could this latter class have foreseen what 
a protection the church would become to the 
graves and monuments beneath it, they would have 
been content to see it erected. Some monuments 
and some human remains were, at that time 
removed with the consent of survivors, to the new 
cemetery, and thus the way prepared for the re- 
moval, some eight years afterward, of nearly every- 
thing which could remind one that there had 
once been a burial place on the green. The cost 



of the new edifice was about $34,000. It was dedi- 
cated December 27, 1814. 

As it was necessary to demolish the old meeting- 
house before laying the foundation of the new, the 
First Society, in December, 1812, asked and re- 
ceived permission to use one of the two houses 
which the United Society had acquired by the 
union of the two societies of White Haven and Fair 
Haven. At first the use of the Fair Haven house 
was granted them, but soon afterward the United 
Society, having voted to build a new meeting- 
house, and to place it on the site of the Fair Haven 
house, both the First Society and the United Society 
used the White Haven or Blue Meeting-house; the 
United Society going in at 9 and i o'clock, and 
the First Society at 1 1 and 3. Mr. Charles Thomp- 
son, then a child, remembers that when Mr. Taylor 
was preaching one Sunday afternoon in the Old 
Blue Meeting-house there was an alarm of fire, 
which caused the men in the congregation to leave 
the house; and that after their retirement a woman 
called out, " j\Ir. Taylor, Mr. Taylor, where is the 
fire ? " 

Dr. Taylor having been dismissed in December, 
1822, Rev. Leonard Bacon, previously ordained to 
the work of the ministry, was installed pastor 
March 9, 1825. He continued in that office till 
his death, December 24, 1881, though he was re- 
leased from active duty in September, 1866, and 
was thenceforth designated as Pastor Emeritus. 

LEONARD BACON 

was born in Detroit, Mich., February 19, 1802, 
graduated at Yale College in 1820, and studied 
theology at Andover. His ministry is so recent 
that it does not yet need the pen of the historian. 
The church to which he had so long ministered, 
adopted and put on its record the following minute: 
" It having pleased God to remove out of this world 
the soul of Dr. Leonard Bacon, who for nearly 
fifty-seven years has been pastor of this church, the 
surviving members of the church desire to record, 
for the information of the generations to come, 
their veneration and love for their departed friend, 
and their gratitude to God for the natural and spirit- 
ual gifts which have rendered his ministry a bene- 
diction to our parents and to us; " and the Fxclesi- 
astical Society connected with the church placed in 
the .south wall of its house of worship a tablet bear- 
ing this inscription : 11 
By the Grace of God, ' 
LEONARD BACON, 

a servant of Jesus Christ, and of all men for His sake, here 
preached the Gospel for fifty-seven years. Fearing Cod, 
and havini^ no fear beside, loving righteousness and hating 
iniquity, friend of liberty and law, helper of Christian mis- 
sions, teacher of teachers, promoter of every good work, 
he blessed the city and the nation by ceaseless labors and a 
holy life, and departed peacefully into rest December 24, 
18S1, leaving the world better for his having lived in it. 



The services Dr. Bacon renilered in many ways 
to the city of which he was so long an inhabitant, 
caused him to be regarded in his later years by the 
whole jiopulation of the city with sontQwhat of the 






CHURCHES AND CLERGYMEN. 



133 



respect and affection he had received from his 
parishioners. The bell on the Town Hall aided 
the church bells of the cit}' in voicing the common 
mourning at his burial. Belonging to a communion 
of churches which acknowledges no hierarchy, he 
was in every ecclesiastical a.istmh\y faci/e princeps. 
In all questions respecting the polity of his de- 
nomination in the past and in the present, he was 
"the Nestor of Congregationalism. '' His mind was 
constitutionally progressive, but so deeply rooted 
in the past by historical studies, that his progress 
was like the growth of a tree pushing its branches 
upward with vigor and safety proportionate to the 
depth of its roots. At an early stage of the battle 
against slavery, Dr. Bacon espoused the cause of 
freedom, and his pen continued to be active, both 
against slavery and those who, in destroying the 
cancer, would have destroyed the body which it 
imperiled, till slavery was abolished by Lincoln's 
proclamation of freedom. Lincoln once said to 
the Rev. Dr. Joseph P. Thompson that he received 
his first convictions of the enormity of slavery from 
the writings of Dr. Bacon. 

The personal character of the man is thus de- 
picted by the Rev. Dr. Richard S. Storrs, with 
whom he had been long associated in the conduct 
of the Independent : 

He was a delightful man in social life, earnest in his con- 
victions, catholic in his sympathies with whatever seemed 
to him true and good, affectionate in his feehngs, and very 
fearless in the expression of his thought. He was a brilliant 
talker, with a great deal of wit and anecdote and his- 
torical reminiscence. He was one of the very ablest debaters 
among American clergymen, extremely clear and forcible in 
the expression of his views, and quick in repartee. He was 
a man of devout religious feeling, thoroughly sincere and 
earnest in his evangelical convictions. He was extremely 
appropriate and impressive in all public religious services, 
especially in prayer. He was a man of the utmost simplicity 
and truthfulness of character, thoroughly generous and sin- 
cere. His personal friends will miss him for his delightful 
personal qualities, his courage, his affectionate nature, his 
ardent Christian faith and hope, and his tender interest in 
whatever concerned them and their welfare. 

Soon after the release of Dr. Bacon from active 
duty, the Rev. George Leon Walker was invited to 
supply the pulpit, and so acceptable were his ser- 
vices to the church and society, that they called him 
to the pastorate. He was installed November i8, 
1868; but after four years of service he requested a 
dismission on account of ill health, and the church 
and society reluctantly yielded to his request. 

The Rev. Frederick Alphonso Noble, D. D. , was 
installed pastor November 3, 1875, ^nd was dis- 
missed April 30, 1879, that he might accept a call 
he had received to become the pastor of the Union 
Park Congregational Church, in Chicago, Illinois. 

The Rev. Newman Smyth, D. D. , the present 
pastor, was installed September 20, 1882. 

We now return to the year 1 742, when forty-three 
seceders from the First Church uttered and pub- 
lished the following declaration: 

We, the subscribers, niemliers of the said Church, firmly 
adhering to the Congregational principles and privileges on 
which the said Church was founded and hath stood un- 
shaken from the beginning, through successive generations, 
until the twenty-fifth day of January last, being by the said 



innovations hereunto necessitated, apprehend ourselves called 
of God, in company to vindicate our ancient rightful powers 
and privileges, and to put ourselves into a proper capacity 
for the enjoyment thereof upon the ancient footing: and for 
that purpose do now, under the conduct of Divine Provi- 
dence, humlily sought by fasting and prayer, assume a 
church state of the gospel, on "the ancient basis of that 
church, whereof we stood members in fact, as well as of 
right, until the unhappy period above mentioned, wherein 
the pastor, and a number of the brethren with him, went off 
from the ancient foundation as aforesaid. 

The claim of the seceders was that they had a 
right to a mutual council, i. e. a council agreed on 
by the church and its aggrieved members. But 
Mr. Noyes told them that the church, having 
adopted the Saybrook Platform, belonged to the 
Consociation, and could have no council but the 
Consociation. The complainants did not wish to 
submit their case to the Consociation, for the minis- 
ters and churches belonging to it were known to 
be opposed to the revival. For the same reason 
Mr. Noyes and his friends insisted that no other 
council than the Consociation should investigate 
and decide the case. On the one side it was 
claimed that there was no record of a vote of the 
church adopting the Saybrook Platform; and on 
the other side the well-known facts were alleged 
that the former pastor of the church was a leading 
member of the synod that formed the platform, and 
indeed the author of that instrument; and that the 
church was present by its pastor and delegate in 
the council which had approved the platform and 
formed the Consociation for the county; and had 
uniformly sent delegates, from year to year, to the 
Consociation. 

Neither party being convinced that the other had 
correctly judged the case, Mr. Noyes put the ques- 
tion to the church; but, as moderator, e.xcluded the 
petitioners for a mutual council from voting. Of 
course under such ruling the church decided that 
it was consociated. 

It was this vote, on the 25th of January, 1742, 
which the aggrieved members regarded as taking 
those who voted in the affirmative "off from the 
ancient foundation." Dr. Dutton, in his "History of 
the North Church, "says: "The complainants then 
— considering their grievances greatly aggravate 
and declaring that Mr. Noyes and his friends, by 
voting in the Saybrook Platform, had divested them 
of their ancient ecclesiastical privileges, and form- 
ed themselves into another church than that with 
which they (the complainants) were in covenant — 
drew off, affirming that they were the church on 
the original foundation; and proceeded to take the 
benefit of the Act of Toleration, which allowed per- 
sons, on qualifying themselves by taking a pre- 
scribed oath before a magistrate, to organize them- 
selves as a religious congregation di-ssenting from 
the established worship of the colony; though it 
did not free them from taxation by the society from 
which they dissented. " 

The new church, claiming to be on the ancient 
foundation from which Mr. Noyes and his friends 
had taken themselves oft', strengthened their posi- 
tion by using the same C^onfession of Faith and 
Covenant which was in use in the old church. 
Dr. Dutton evidently regarded it as " the confes- 



124 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



sion of faith and church covenant which had been 
used in the ancient church of Xew Haven from the 
beginning," and probably it was so regarded by the 
members of the new church. Actually the cov- 
enant was the same; but the ancient church at first 
had no form of confession, every individual at his 
admission satisfying the church as to his belief by 
means of such form of confession as he individually 
brought. 

At the outset the new church had to struggle 
with great difficulties. "The Act of Toleration,'' 
says Dr. Button, " only gave them the liberty of 
worshiping by themselves — it did not exempt 
them from taxation for the support of Mr. Noyes, 
so that their pecuniary burden was great. 'I his, 
however, was slight, compared with the violent op- 
position which they met from the opposers of the 
revival, the Old Lights, as they were called. These 
were very numerous and powerful in Connecticut, 
embracing many of the leading ministers, and 
generally the magistrates and principal gentlemen. 
They employed all their art and power to suppress 
the revival: to keep all ministers from abroad who 
favored it, out of the colony, and to confine all 
who favored it in the colony, to their own pulpits. 
The Old Light party was especially strong and active 
in New Haven County; and the powerful influence 
of the First Church and its pastor, and of the Pres- 
ident and Corporation of the College, and of the 
Association of the County, leagued with the gov- 
ernment of the commonwealth, was brought to 
bear upon this infant and feeble church. 

"A short time — two or three weeks — after the 
church was formed, the Legislature of the colony, 
doubtless urged by ecclesiastical influence, espe- 
cially from this county, passed a law which would 
prevent them from employing any minister with- 
out the consent of the pastor and the majority of 
the First Societ}'. According to that law, if any 
urdaiiied ox licensed preacher should preach or ex- 
hort within the limits of any parish without the 
consent of the pastor and majority of that parish, 
if he was from without the colony, he was to be 
arrested and carried out of the colony as a vagrant. 
If he was from within the colony, he was to be 
deprived of his salary, and that without any trial, 
simply upon information, whether true or false, 
lodged by any person with the clerk of his parish. 

"This law also provided that if any person not 
licensed to preach should exhort within the limits 
of any parish, without the consent of the pastor 
and majority of that parish, he might for every 
such offense be bound to keep the peace by any 
assistant or justice of the peace in the penal sum 
of one hundred pounds. 

"For this law, the As.sociation of New Haven 
County, iTi their meeting in September, 1742, ex- 
pressed their thanks to the Legislature, and prayed 
that it might continue in force. Under this law, a 
minister as judicious and distinguisiied as Mr. 
I'omeroy, of Hebron, was twice arraigned before 
the Legislature of the colony; obliged to pay costs 
of prosecution; bound to keep the jieace in a penal 
sum of fifty pounds; and deprived of his lawful 
salary for seven years. Under this law. Rev. Sam- 



uel Finley, afterwartl President of Princeton Col- 
lege, and whose name is familiar to all who have 
read the eloquent contrast, by Dr. John Mason, 
between the death of David Hume and that 01 
Samuel Finley, was arrested and carried out ot 
Connecticut as a vagrant for preaching to a seced- 
ing church in Milford. He returned very soon and 
preached to this church; when he was again ar- 
rested and transported as a vagrant. He returned 
and preached again to this church, when the Legis- 
lature, on representation that he greatly disquieted 
and disturbed the people, passed an additional act, 
providing that every person transported under the 
former act should pay the costs of his transporta- 
tion; and if he should return again and offend in 
the same way, that it should be the duty of any 
assistant or justice of the peace to bind him to 
peaceable behavior in the penal sum of one hun- 
dred pounds. 

"The Association of New Haven County also 
took up the matter of Mr. Finley's preaching in 
Milford and New Haven, and formally resolved 
that no member of the Presbytery of New Bruns- 
wick (a New Light Presbytery) should be admit- 
ted into any of their pulpits till satisfaction had 
been made for Mr. Finley's preaching within their 
bounds. 

"On the 1 8th of the next January, as we learn 
from the records of the County Court, the church 
applied to that Court through a committee, re- 
questing that ]\Ir. James Sprout, a preacher, might 
be permitted to take oaths and make subscription, 
according to the Act of Toleration, in order that 
he might be allowed to preach to them, and was 
refused. This seems to have been the only attempt 
to have a stated ministry, after the enactment of the 
above law, for five or six years. They knew, prob- 
ably, that they should be refused the privilege of 
hearing any man of their choice. 

"At the same session at which this extraordinary 
law was enacted, the Assembly advised the faculty 
of the college to take all proper care to prevent the 
students from imbibing any of the prevalent errors; 
and that those who would not be orderly should 
be expelled. Accordingly, the students were for- 
bidden to attend the meetings of this church; and 
it was partly for his once disobeying this prohibi- 
tion, in order to hear Rev. Gilbert Tennent, of 
New Jersey, that David Brainerd was expelled from 
college. 

"In 1743 the Assembly, in order to suppress 
enthusiasm, as was said, repealed the Act of Tol- 
eration, of which the founders of this church had 
availed themselves when they seceded; so that 
thereafter no class of men could be permitted to sep- 
arate from the established churches, and worship 
according to the dictate of their consciences, unless 
leave should be granted by special act of the Legis- 
lature; and moreover it was intimated in the Act of 
Repeal, that Congregatiana/ists or Presiy/erians, who 
should apply for such leave, would meet with no 
indulgence from the A.ssembly. " 

Besides persecution from the civil and ecclesias- 
tical powers, the new church suftered from social 



CHURCHES AND CLERGYMEN. 



12S 



proscription. Some of its members were by birth, 
education, and wealth, equal to any of the Old 
Lights; but as such were lew in number, they could 
not uphold one another so much as did the domi- 
nant party. In some cases families were divided 
between the parties, and the proverbial bitterness of 
a family quarrel was mingled with theological con- 
troversy. For example, the wife of the Rev. Mr. 
Noyes was a daughter of Rev. James Pierpont, a 
former pastor of the old church, and her brother, 
James Pierpont, was a leader in the secession. Dr. 
Dutton says, "The father of one of the deacons of 
this church was a deacon of the First Church. The 
child of the son died. The father, in a written note, 
dechned to attend the funeral, bceause the son be- 
longed to the New Light Church." Dr. Bacon 
used to relate with evident relish a traditional anec- 
dote like this: A family living in the Yorkshire 
quarter of the town were walking across the Green 
on Sunday morning in pjrocession, as was the habit, 
the parents in front, the children following, and the 
negro servants in the rear. As the procession 
reached the old meeting-house, it turned toward 
the door; but a daughter of the family who had re- 
cently married a "New Light " passed on with her 
husband toward the Blue Meeting-house. "Oh!"' 
said an old negro in the rear, who had been long 
in the family, " Isn't it sad to see young mistress 
going after strange gods! " After the frame of the 
New Light Meeting-house was prepared to be 
raised, the long sticks of titnber were cut in two in 
the night. They were replaced with others, over 
which the New Lights kept guard every night. The 
hostility between the two parties was kept alive and 
aggravated by the collection by force of law of the 
ta.K upon the seceders for the support of Mr. Noyes. 
Dr. Dutton says: " Many went to jail rather than 
pay it." 

The new church began in 1744 to make prepar- 
ations for building a meeting-house, but probably 
several years elapsed before it was completed. 
Meanwhile they met for worship at the house of 
Mr. Timothy Jones, on the northwest corner of 
State and Court streets. As might be expected, 
they were opposed in their efforts to build. They 
asked permission to place the house on the Green, 
and were refused. When they had acquired a site 
at the corner of Church and Elm, one of their mem- 
bers being fortunately the owner of the lot, the F'irst 
Society, "entering upon the consideration of the 
separate party's raising a meeting-house on the cor- 
ner of Mr. Joseph Burroughs home-lot, adjoining 
to the Market-place, voted that the same is very 
grievous to the said society, and that they esteem 
it very hurtful to the public peace of said society; 
and that Col. Joseph Whiting, Esq., Dr. John 
Hubbard, and Mr. Jonathan iNIansfield be a com- 
mittee from said society, immediately to represent 
to said separatists that their doings herein are un- 
lawful and hurtful, and esteemed a public nuisance, 
and to desire them forthwith to desist their work." 
At the same meeting a committee was appointed 
to appeal to the Legislature, or to prosecute the 
offenders in the law. But, notwithstanding all the 
opposition which the New Lights encountered, the 



house was at last completed. Its front was on Elm 
street. Some years afterward, at the expense of in- 
dividuals wanting seats, it was enlarged by an ad- 
dition built on the westerly side, the roof of the 
addition joining the old part at right angles. A 
steeple, sixteen feet square at the ba.se, was also 
built in front of the new part. By this addition, 
the front of the building was changed from Elm to 
Church street; and the west front was brought, by 
means of the steeple, so far west as to encroach 
upon the street. From its color it was called, at 
least in its later days, the Blue Meeiing-house. 

In 1748 an attempt was made to secure a stated 
preacher. " In order the more effectually to pro- 
vide for his support, as they could not yet hope to 
procure an incorporation from the Legislature, 
they formed a society by voluntary compact." 
Rev. John Curtiss was called to the pastoral office 
and work of the ministry, and he came and served 
them in that capacity for two years; but it does 
not appear that he was formally inducted into of- 
fice. "On the nth of March, 1751, the committee 
of the church, having heard that the Rev. Samuel 
Bird had been dismissed from the church in Dun- 
stable, Mass. , invited him, by advice of one of the 
council for his dismission, to visit this church, 
which he did in the month of May following. Some 
time in the month of June, he was unanimously 
invited by the church, with the unanimous concur- 
rence of the society, to become their pastor. He 
gave them encouragement that he would comply 
with their invitation, provided that their difficulties 
with the ancient church could be removed." 

" The members of the new church, that there 
might be no obstacle on their part to a reconcilia- 
tion, sent to Mr. Noyes a confession to be com- 
municated to his church, acknowledging the in- 
formality of their secession and condemning that 
informality, together with whatever of heat and 
bitterness of spirit had appeared in any of them, 
and asking forgiveness therefor, It does not ap- 
pear how the confession was received by the First 
Church. Probably they took no action upon it. 
But the council, which the new church called for 
the installation of Mr. Bird, were satisfied to pro- 
ceed. From the time of his installaticn the new 
Church grew rapidly. When first instituted, the 
church suffered in the public estimation from the 
extravagances connected with it. It was organized 
the same year in which the crazy James Davenport 
preached in New Haven, and though the seceders 
never committed themselves to an approval of his 
eccentricities, they,were compromised by their con- 
nection with a man whom the General Assembly of 
Connecticut, a few months afterwards, ordered to 
be sent to his home as "disturbed in the rational 
faculties of his mind, and therefore to be pitied and 
compassionated, and not to be treated as other- 
wise he might be," and whom being presented by 
the grand jury in Boston not long afterward for 
trial as a slanderer, the petit jury which tried him 
pronounced not gitiltv for the reason that he was at 
the time he uttered the slanderous words Jion com- 
pos mentis. Probably if Mr. Noyes had retired from 



120 



mSTORF OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



the pulpit at any time before the new meeting- 
house was built, and his successor had been an 
acceptable preacher, the seceders would have re- 
turned to the ancient church. But after the erec- 
tion of the Blue Meeting-house and the settlement 
of Mr. Bird, whose " form and manner were com- 
manding, his voice powerful, his elocution hand- 
some and impressive, his sentiments evangelical," 
those in the First Society who preferred him con- 
stantly increased in number, and those who pre- 
ferred Mr. Noyes decreased with equal rapidity; 
till Mr. Bird's adherents, having a majority, gave 
him a call to settle with them as the minister of the 
First Society, and at the same time voted that the 
Blue Meeting-house should be the place of wor- 
ship for the First Society. 

As the new congregation made progress in num- 
ber and influence, it deviated from the peculiarities 
in which it had its origin, and came more into 
harmony with the type and tone of religion gener- 
ally prevalent in the colony. In about nine years 
after the installation of Rlr. Bird, the half-way 
covenant was adopted by the vote of " a great ma- 
jority. ' Previously only those who professed to 
have experienced a change of heart were permitted 
to bring their children for baptism. 

Mr. Bird was dismissed in 1767, on account of 
ill-health, and Mr. Jonathan Edwards, then a tu- 
tor at Princeton, was called to the pastorate in the 
course of the next year. He was ordained Janu- 
ary 5, 1 769, but not without a protest signed by 
sixty-eight persons. Mr. F^dwards was strenuously 
opposed to the half-way covenant, and probably 
made its renunciation by the church a condition of 
his accepting the call. "For," says Dr. Button, "it 
appears from the church records, that after their 
presentation, and before his acceptance of their 
call, the church voted to abolish /he half-ivay cove- 
nant pracfice." Before the end of the year those 
who had opposed the settlement of Mr. Edwards 
resolved unanimously to " go off and worship by 
themselves." They met in the State House till 
they could erect a house of worship. The house 
was finished in December, 1770. It stood on the 
ground now occupied by the North Church, and 
was called the Fair Haven Meeting-house. In 
June, 1771, a church was organized in the Fair 
Haven Society, and, as might be expected, adopted 
the half-way covenant. 

;\Ir. Edwards continued to labor with unwearied 
diligence through the discouraging years of the 
Revolutionary War, and througli equally discour- 
aging years which followed, till 1795, when he was 
dismissed for the alleged reasop that his society 
was unable to sustain him. The author of the 
memoir ])relixed to the works of Dr. Falwards hav- 
ing mentioned the dissensions in the church and 
society at the beginning of his ministry, and the ter- 
mination of that trouble by the formation of the 
Fair Haven Church, proceeds as follows: "After a 
time, however, and for several years previous to 
his dismission, an uneasiness had arisen in the 
society from another cause. Several members of the 
church, of considerable influence, had adopted cer- 
tain principles (by themselves deemed liberal, but 



now understood to have been of the school of Dr. 
Priestly), on some of the most important doctrines 
of religion. These views were widely difl'erent from 
those of Dr. Edwards, and of the church at the time 
of his ordination, and widely different also from 
what had been professed by the very persons who 
held them in their original covenant with the church. 

"This diversity of opinion was undoubtedly the 
principal cause of the separation between him and his 
people, though others of less moment, and arising 
from this, had also their influence. The ostensible 
reason, however, assigned by the society was that 
they were unable to support their minister. He 
was accordingly dismissed by an ecclesiastical 
council at the request both of the society and him- 
self. All parties, however — the church, the society 
and the council — united in the most ample testi- 
monials to his faithfulness and his abilities." 

About eighteen months after Dr. Edwards' dis- 
mission, his church and the church in the Fair 
Haven Society were united under the denomina- 
tion of the Church of Christ in the United Societies 
of White Haven and Fair Haven. The name or 
the society was abbreviated in 181 5, by an act ot 
the Legislature, into the "The United Society, "and 
the church was thereafter called the "Church in 
the United Society. '' Popularly its house of wor- 
ship, erected m 1815, has been known as the North 
Church. 

We must return now to the year 1771, and fol- 
low the history of the Fair Haven Church till, in 
1795, its members came back to the fold from 
which they went out in 1 769. From the time of 
their secession in September, 1 769, till February, 
1773, they had no settled minister. Their pulpit 
was supplied chiefly by Mr. Bird, who, with his 
family, worshiped with them, and had fomierly sus- 
tained to most of them the relation of pastor. On 
the 3d of February, 1773, ^I''- Allyn Mather was 
ordained as their minister. His health failing 
about eight years after his settlement, he went to 
Savannah, and there dietl in November, 1784. 
Mr. Samuel Austin was ordained pastor, November 
9, 1786. The ordination sermon was preached by 
Dr. Edwards. " This," says Dr. Dutton,"is the first 
act of communion, so far as I can learn, between 
the Church of White Haven and its seceding 
daughter, the church in Fair Haven Society. The 
reason of the change is obvious. Mr. Austin, the 
pastor-elect, was a favorite pupil of Dr. Edwards, 
and fully adopted his sentiments both as to the half- 
way covenant and the new divinity." " Mr. Austin 
made a sort o{ compromise with those inthe society 
who were in favor of the half-way covenant, which 
at that time was often made in similar circumstances. 
He consented that those who had already owned 
the half-way covenant might continue to have their 
children baptized; not by himself, but by some 
minister who had no conscientious .scruples against 
the practice, with whom he would exchange, to af- 
ford an opportunity for the performance of the 
rite." But this compromi.se did not secure unan- 
imity of satisfaction with him, and he escaped 
from the difficulties of his position by requesting a 



CHURCHES AND CLERGYMEN. 



127 



dismission, that he might accept a call from the 
First Church and Society in Worcester, Mass. Af- 
ter his retirement, which was in 1 790, the pastorate 
was vacant till the church was reunited with the 
White Haven Church. 

As the United Society came into possession, by 
means of the union, of two houses of worship, they 
occupied each on alternate months, and continued 
to do so till the Fair Haven Meeting-house was 
taken down, in order that the new North Church 
might be erected on the same site. In December, 
1 81 2, twenty members of the society offered terms 
for building a new meeting-house, which were ac- 
cepted. The terms were, in substance, that the pro- 
posers should build the house at their own expense, 
and reimburse themselves by the sale of the two 
old meeting-houses, the land on which the White 
Haven house stood, and the pews in the new house, 
reserving one-eighth of the new house for the soci- 
ety. The whole expense of the house, including 
chandeliers, was $32,724.58. The sale of the pews 
and other assets, after reserving an eighth of the 
pews, produced an e.xcess over the costs of 
$5,491. 97, which was funded for the support of the 
gospel ministry in the society, but, unfortunately 
was lost by the failure of the Eagle Bank in 1824. 
The persons who generously made this proposal to 
build a meeting-house at their own risk, were 
Thomas Punderson, Increase Cook, HerveyMulford, 
Timothy Dwight, |un., Jared Bradley, James 
Henry, Abel Burritt, |un., \\'illiam Stanley, Leman 
Dunning, William H. Elliott, Hezekiah Howe, 
Ebenezer Johnson, Jun., William Dougal, Reuben 
Rice, Nathan Peck, Eleazar Foster, Charles Sher- 
man, Samuel Punderson, Eli Hotchkiss, Luther 
Bradie)'. The house was planned entirely by Mr. 
Ebenezer Johnson, one of the twenty contractors. 

The first pastor of the church in the united so- 
cieties of White Haven and Fair Haven, the Rev. 
John Gemmil, was installed in November, 1798, 
and was dismissed in November, 1801, at his own 
retiuest, but "to the great satisfaction of the 
society,'' as Dr. Dutton believed. He was "a man 
of brilliant talents and a popular speaker," but 
better fitted for some other calling than for the 
sacred office. We have had occasion to notice 
that after the installation of Dr. Dana in the First 
Church, the two younger churches refused to have 
fellowship with him. But May 12, 1798, the Unit- 
ed Society voted that in case Mr. Gemmil should 
setde in this society as their minister, it shall 
be in his discretion to exchange with Dr. Dana, 
Dr. Dwight, or any of the neighboring ministers, 
at such times as he may think proper, and as he 
may find for the spiritual interest of this society. 
From the time of the above vote, the harmony and 
co-operation of the two churches on the Green in- 
creased, till, during the partially synchronous pas- 
torates of Dr. Taylor and Mr. INIerwin, they be- 
came almost like a collegiate church. 

Mr. Samuel Merwin was ordained on the 13th 
of February, 1805, and dismissed at his own re- 
quest on the 29th of December, 1831. During his 
ministry, over eight hundred were added to the 
church. 



The Rev. Leicester A. Sawyer was installed on 
the 2d of June, 1835, ^'^^ dismissed on the 20th of 
November, 1837. 

Mr. Samuel William Southmayd Dutton was or- 
dained pastor on the 26th of June, 1838, and died, 
much lamented, on the 26th of January, 1866. 

Mr. Edward L. Clark was ordained pastor Janu- 
ary 3, 1867, and was dismissed July 17, 1872, that 
he might accept a call to a Presbyterian church 
in the City of New York. 

1 he Rev. Edward Hawes was installed Septem- 
ber 17, 1873, and was dismissed April i, 1884, at 
his own request, and with great regret on the part 
of his people, in order that the way might be pre- 
pared for a union of the church with the Third 
Ctmgregational Church. 

The Third Congregational Church, which was 
thus to be united with the Church in the United 
Society, was organized in 1826, and worshiped in 
the Orange Street Lecture-room, belonging to the 
First Society, till a house of worship, erected at the 
corner of Chapel and Union streets, with a view of 
providing especially for the eastern part of the city, 
was completed in January, 1829. The pulpit was 
supplied from 1826 to 1830 by the Rev. N. W. 
Taylor, D. D., Professor of Didactic Theology in 
the Theological Department of Yale College. The 
first pastor was the Rev. Charles A. Boardman, a 
man of popular talents, but without academic 
training. He was installed March 24, 1830, and 
was dismissed in September, 1832. 

Mr. Elisha Lord Cleaveland was ordained in 
July, 1833. Under his ministry, the church and 
society removed from the house of worship they 
had occupied, surrendering the property to the 
stockholders who had advanced the funds requisite 
for its erection. For several years they worshiped 
at Saunders' Hall, at the corner of Chapel and 
Orange streets, until, with help from abroad, they 
built a church in Court street, now occupied as a 
Jewish Synagogue. Dr. Cleaveland being regarded 
by old school theologians as more orthodox than 
other New Haven pastors, his congregation natur- 
ally received important accessions of families re- 
moving to the city, who were recommended by 
their former pastors to attend his church. Thus it 
came to pass that a more elegant edifice, and in a 
better location, was required; and, with a great 
effort, the society built a stone church on Church 
street, between Chapel and Court streets. Dr. 
Cleaveland was highly esteemed as an able preacher 
by the whole community, and, during the remain- 
der of his life his church had great prosperity; 
his congregation being little, if any, inferior in 
number, wealth and social position to the older 
churches. He died suddenly February 16, 1866, 
in the sixtieth year of his age and the thirty-third of 
his ministry. 

After Dr. Cleaveland's death, the Rev. Daniel S. 
Gregory, since then President of Forest City Uni- 
versity, was pastor of this church from January 10, 
1867, till April 20, 1869. 

Dr. Gregory was succeeded October, i, 1869, by 
the Rev. David Murdock, who was dismissed May 
15, 1874. The last pastor of the Third Congrega- 



vzs 



HISTOID J' UF THE CITV OF NEW HA VEN. 



tional Church and Society was the Rev. Stephen 
R. Dennen, D. D. , who was installed April 28, 
1875. 

He resigned in order that the church might 
unite with the church in the United Society, and 
was dismissed simultaneously with Dr. Hawes. 
The two churches, being previously united as one 
church, commenced to worship together in April, 
1S84. For a few weeks the congregation occupied 
the two houses alternately, but with the intention 
of making the North Church its permanent home. 
The name of the church, constituted by the union 
of these two churches, is the United Church, and 
the name of the society is the same as one of the 
two societies had borne before the union, viz., The 
United Society. The reason for their union was, 
that a cordon of new Congregational churches sur- 
rounding the cit}', at a distance from the center, 
had drawn away manv families, which in the olden 
time would have come to the Green as their place 
of worship, and it was thought to be an unwise 
stewardship to continue to support so many 
churches on the original nine squares in the center 
of the city. 

When the Third Congregational Church and So- 
ciety left the house which they had erected at the 
corner of Chapel and Union streets, some of the 
congregation remained, believing that a church 
was needed in that part of the city, and that with 
a pastor sympathizing with the other pastors of the 
city, it could be sustained. A new organization 
was formed, called the Chapel Street Church. Mr. 
John O. Colton was ordained pastor in November, 
1839, but his health failed almost immediately, 
and he died in April, 1840. 

Mr. Joseph P. Thompson was ordained pastor 
in October, 1840, and under his ministry the 
church and congregation greatly increased. With 
reluctance, his people consented to his dismission, 
when he was called to the Broadway Tabernacle 
Church in New York in 1845. He was succeeded 
by the Rev. Leverett Griggs, who was installed in 
August 1845, and was dismissed in September, 
1847. The Kev. William T. Euslis was installed 
in March, 1848. During his administration, which 
continued till 1869, the house of worship was en- 
larged by an addition to the rear end. Afterwards, 
in consequence of the growth of the city eastward, 
the site, which in Dr. Cleaveland's day had been 
thought by some too remote from the center, be- 
came too noisy for a place of worship, and the 
question began to be agitated of building another 
house in some more quiet location. Mr. Eustis's 
foresight of the difficulty of securing unanimity in 
the choice of a new location, and his reluctance 
to become a partisan in the strife which might en- 
sue, probably influenced him to accept a call to 
the Memorial Church in Springtield, Ma.ss. The 
church, .soon after his dismission, built a new 
house of worship on the corner of Orange and 
Wall streets, and when it removed to the new 
house changed its name to the Chjirch of the Re- 
deemer. The Rev. John K. Todd was installed 
pastor before the removal, and has continued in 



office till the present time. The church has greatly 
prospered under his ministry. 

In the order of age, the ne.xt of the Congrega- 
tional churches after the Third Church is the 
Temple Street Church. In the olden lime people 
of color sat by themselves in a corner of the meet- 
ing-house. Those of them who became communi- 
cants were sometimes enrolled on the catalogue as 
having a surname, but more frequently without. 
Among those who were in full communion with 
the First Church at the time of Mr. Whittlesey's 
ordination were Pero, Sabina, and Dinah. Among 
those admitted under his ministry were Phyllis 
and Pompey. The Second Church had on its list 
within three months after its organization, the 
names of Phyllis, servant to James Pierpont; 
Abigail (Indian); Cuff, servant of Stephen Mun- 
son; Ruth, servant of Mr. Mather; Thomas, ser- 
vant of Mr. Prout; Sanorus, servant of Mr. Mather; 
and Jane, servant of Mr. Mather. 

In 1829, some of the colored people preferring to 
have a congregation of their own, the Temple street 
Church was organized, and has continued to the 
present time with fluctuating prosperity. Its pulpit 
was supplied from 1829 to 1834 by the Rev. 
Simeon S. jocelyn. He has had many successors, 
but it would be difficult and perhaps impossible to 
make a complete list. One of the longest pastorates 
was that of the Rev. Amos G. Beman. The present 
pastor, the Rev. Albert P. Miller, was installed 
June 18, 1885. Since his installation, the house 
of worship in Temple street has been sold, and 
another has been bought in Dixwell avenue, a 
large part of the congregation residing in the 
northwest part of the city. 

The First Congregational Church in Fair Haven 
was organized in 1830. It should not be con- 
founded with the church in the Fair Haven Society, 
which lost that name by its union with the church 
in White Haven Society in 1795. The First 
Congregational Church in Fair Haven derives its 
name from the village of Fair Haven, in which it 
was organized before the City of New Haven ex- 
tended its limits to include the village of Fair 
Haven. Its first house of worship was the building 
on Grand street now used as a public school. It 
was dedicated June 23, 1830, the same day on 
which the church was organized. The number of 
original members was 53, of whom thirty were 
from the church in Fast Haven, and twenty-three 
from the North Church in New Haven. Eighteen 
more were soon after added from the North Cfiurch. 
Its second house of worship, which it still occupies, 
was dedicated April 20, 1854. The growth of the 
church was so vigorous, that, besides building a large 
house for itself, it sent out a colony of 1 19 mem- 
bers to form the Second Congregational Church in 
Fair Haven; the history of which, as it is outside 
of the city, though now within the town of New 
Haven, does not come within the recpiirements of 
our title-page. It may be of use, however, to say 
that a small number of seceders from the Second 
Church in Fair Haven formed the Center Church 
in Fair Haven, which, under the ministry of the 



CHURCHES AND CLERGI'iMEX. 



129 



Rev. William B. Lee, had a brief existence and then 
expired. The pastors of the First Church have been 
the Rev. John Mitchell, from 1830 to 1836; the 
Rev. B. L. Swan, from 1836 to 1845; and the Rev. 
Burdett Hart, who having served from 1846 to 
i860, was dismissed on account of failing health, 
but after several years of rest, returned to his former 
charge, and, being reinstalled, is now the pastor of 
the church in which he was ordained in his youth. 
During the absence of Mr, Hart, the Rev. George 
De F. Folsoni and the Rev. Henry T. Staats were 
successively pastors of this church. 

The College street Congregational Church was 
formetl in 1831. For two years it worshiped in the 
Orange street Lecture-room; then for three years 
in a large hall in Exchange Building. A house of 
worship having been erected in Church street, the 
church commenced to occupy it in September, 
1836. This house being found less convenient and 
pleasant than had been expected, it was sold in 
1848, and another was erected in College street. 
Previously to its removal to College street, its sit- 
tings were free. For the first six years after its or- 
ganization it had no pastor. The Rev. Henry G. 
Ludlow w'as installed in 1837, and was dismissed in 
1842. The Rev. Edward Strong was ordained in 
1842, and was dismissed in 1862. The Rev. O. T. 
Lanphear was installed in 1864, and was dismissed 
in 1867. The Rev. James W. Hubbell was install- 
ed in 1869, and was dismissed in 1876. The Rev. 
William W. McLane D. D. was installed February 
13, 1884. 

The Congregational Church in Westville was 
formed in 1832, but as Westville, though in the 
town of New Haven, is not within the limits of the 
city, the title of our book does not require us to 
relate its history. 

For a similar reason we may pass by the Second 
Church in P'air Haven; which by a recent change 
of town boundaries, is included in the town, but is 
not in the city. 

The Davenport Congregational Church origi- 
nated in a mission work of the Center Church, 
which was begun in Wallace street, and thence 
transferred to a chapel which the Center Church 
erected for it in Franklin street. This chapel being 
destroyed by fire May i, 1864, another was built 
on Greene street, and occupied till 1874, when the 
present house of worship was completed. The 
pastors of this church have been the Rev. Edward 
E. Atwater, under whose ministry the church was 
gathered; the Rev. John W. Partridge, whose fail- 
ing health obliged him to retire after a short 
pastorate, and the Rev. Isaac C. Meserve, who 
was installed May i, 1874, and is still the useful 
and beloved shepherd of this flock. 

The Howard Avenue Church was organized in 
1865, by persons who seceded from a church, since 
defunct, because its minister and some persons who 
controlled its property were in sympathy with the 
rebellion against the United States. Its first pastor 
n 



was the Rev. Orlando H. White, under whose 
ministry the church edifice was erected. The Rev. 
C. H. Williams, as acting pastor, succeeded Dr. 
White, but was not installed. The Rev. C. W. Park 
was installed in 1884, and dismissed in 1885. The 
Rev. William James Mutch was installed in Decem- 
ber of the latter year. 

The South Congregational Church, built in Co- 
lumbus avenue, chiefly at the expense of Gerard 
Ilallock, of the New York Journal of Commerce, 
was diverted from the Congregational denomination 
by the dissensions of the war, and soon after Mr. 
Hallock's death was purchased by Roman Catho- 
lics, by whom it is called the Church of the Sacred 
Heart. 

The Dwight place Church succeeded to the Howe 
street Church, which, beginning in a room prepared 
for It in Park street, was at first called the Park 
street Church, and afterward, having built a church 
at the corner of Howe and Martin streets, changed 
its name to that of Howe street Church. The Rev. 
Leicester A. Sawyer, who had been pastor of the 
North Church, w-as the first pastor of the Park 
street Church. His successors in the ofiice were 
the Rev. Abraham C. Baldwin, 1842-45; the Rev. 
William De Loss Love, 1848-52; the Rev. S. 
Hale Higgins, 1852-55; the Rev. David H. Hamil- 
ton, 1 85 5-58; the Rev. John S. C. Abbott, 1861-66; 
the Rev. George B. Beecher, 1866-68. When the 
house for the Dwight place Church was finished in 
1870, a new organization was effected which suc- 
ceeded to the Howe street Church, inheriting its 
property and furnishing its congregation with a new- 
home. The Rev. George B. Newcomb was the 
first minister of the Dwight place Church. He 
preached in Howe street when the new edifice was 
commenced, and in the new house, at the corner of 
Chapel street and Dwight place, for several years 
after its completion; but was not installed. The 
Rev. Thomas R. Bicon was installed pastor De- 
cember 8, 1880, and was dismissed December 31, 
1884. The Rev. J. E. Twitchell is now the acting 
pastor of this church. 

The Taylor Church, now worshiping on Dix- 
well avenue, at the corner of Division street, origi- 
nated in a mission, and has been fostered by the 
Center Church. It is in a prosperous condition, 
and promises to become in every respect a self- 
sustaining institution. Several different ministers 
have been acting or installed pastors of this church. 
Mr. Henry L. Hutchins was ordained pastor INIay 
27, 1873, and was dismissed January i, 1880. 
His successors have been: the Rev. Newton I. 
Jones, 1881-83; the Rev. Daniel W. Clark, 1883- 
"85; the Rev. John Allender, 1885. 

The Humphrey street Church originated in a 
mission of the Center Church, as did the Daven- 
port at an earlier date. Situated in a part of the 
city destitute of church accommodation, the chapel 
was soon filled with those who were capable of 
managing their own affairs, and a church and 



130 



HISTORl' OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



society were organized. The first pastor was tlie 
Rev. R. G. S. McNeille, who was ordained to the 
office in 1870, and dismissed January i, 1872. 
He was succeeded by the Rev. R. P. Hibbard, 
who was installed March 30, 1876, and dismissed 




Humphrey Street Congregational Church. 

March 31, 1879, to accept a call to the New 
England Church in Brooklyn, N. Y. The Rev. 
John A. Hanna was installed November 19, 1879, 
and was removed by death July 30, 1880. The 
Rev. S. H. Bray has been for several years acting 
pastor. During his ministry the society has erected 
a new and commodious church on the north side 
orHumi)hrey street, which was dedicated January 
18, 1S83. 

Besides the churches which have been mentioned 
as becoming defunct by transmigration into some 
other church — as, for example, the South into the 
Howard avenue, and the Howe street into the 
Dwight place — the Wooster place Congregational 
Church should be mentioned in any catalogue of 
the Congregational churches in New Haven which 
claims to be complete. The edifice, now popu- 
larly called the Wooster Place Baptist Church, own- 
ed and occupied by the P^irst Baptist Church, was 
built by Mr. Chauncey Jerome, then a prosperous 
manufacturer, for a Congregational church, and 
when completed it was occupied for a short time 
by a church organized for that purpose. But 
pecuniary reverses thwarted Mr. Jerome's benevo- 
lent intentions, and the church was disbanded. 
The Davenport Church occupies the territory 



which was to have been covered by the disbanded 
church. 

EPISCOPAL CHURCHES. 

There are no records to indicate the exact time 
when the oldest parish in New Haven, of the Prot- 
estant Episcopal Church, was organized. When 
the Rector of Yale College and one of its tutors, 
and two of the Congregational pastors in the 
neighborhood of New Haven declared for Epis- 
copacy in 1722, there was neither any Episcopal 
Church in New Haven, nor any clergyman of the 
Church of England resident in the town. The 
movement of these gentlemen originated in their 
own studies, and not in any effort of Episco- 
palians to draw them away from the ecclesiastical 
order in which they had been educated. The 
College had received from England generous gifts 
of books, which so far as they were theological or 
ecclesiastical, were, with few exceptions, written by 
divines of the Church of England. Those who 
read them perceived and appreciated the culture 
of the authors, so much the more by reason of its 
superiority to any tiiey had seen at home. New 
England was too new and raw at that time to pro- 
duce elegant literature, and these books drew those 
who studied them into admiring and loving con- 
cord with the writers. But the movement was 
among scholars, and not among the people. 
Other Congregational ministers were more or less 
interested in it, but drew back when they found 
what sacrifices they must make if they stepped 
down and off from the Saybrook Platform, as by 
law established. These accessions of clergymen 
to the Episcopal Church adding to the number of 
missionaries employed in the colony of Connec- 
ticut by "The Society for Propagating the Gospel 
in Foreign Parts,'' resulted in later years in the 
growth of Ejiiscopacy among the people. It was 
about thirty years after Rector Cutler was "ex- 
cused from all further services as Rector of Yale 
College," when in July, 1752, Samuel Mix, of New 
Haven, executed a deed, conveying to Enos Ailing 
and Isaac Doolittle a certain piece of land "for 
the building of a house of public worship, agree- 
able and according to the establishment of the 
Church of England." 

The history of the Protestant Ejnscopal Church 
in New Haven may be considered as commencing 
with the purchase by INIessrs. Ailing and Doolittle 
of the aforesaid land; for, though Trinity Parish was 
not yet organized, the land w-as designed for its 
benefit, and was purchased in anticipation of its or- 
ganization. Missionaries from "The Society for 
Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts" had in- 
deed sometimes conducted public worship accord- 
ing to the ritual of the Church of England, and 
one unsuccessful attempt had been made to secure 
the erection of a church. 

In March, 1736, the Rev. Jonathan Arnold, who, 
having been previously the Congregational pastor 
in West Haven, received Episcopal ordination in 
England in the year just mentioned, procured a 
written conveyance of a piece of land from Will- 



CHURCHES AND CLERGYMEN. 



131 



iam Grigson, of the City of London, in trust for 
the " building and erecting a church thereupon for 
the worship and service of Almighty God accord- 
ing to the practice of the Church of England, and 
a parsonage or dwelling-house for the incumbent 
of the said intended church for the time being, and 
also for a churchyard to be taken thereout for the 
poor, and the residue thereof to be esteemed and 
used as Glebe Land by the minister of the said 
intended church for the time being, forever." It 
is said that when Mr. Arnold went in the autumn 
of 173S to take possession and make improve- 
ment of this land, " he was opposed by a great 
number of people, being resolute that no church 
should be built there, who in a riotous and tu- 
multuous manner, being (as we have good reason 
to believe) put upon it by some in authority and 
of the chief men in the town, beat his cattle and 
abused his servants, threatening both his and their 
lives to that degree that he was obliged to quit 
the field." 

The land which William Grigson conveyed to 
Mr. Arnold, he claimed as an heir of his great- 
grandfather, Thomas Grigson, or, as the ancestor 
wrote it, Gregson, one of the original planters of 
New Haven. It had been for more than forty years 
in the possession of other descendants of Thomas 
Gregson, he having several daughters who remain- 
ed in New Haven when their brother, the father of 
William Grigson, of London, removed to England. 
These descendants of Thomas Gregson, who were 
in possession of the land, and claimed exclusive 
ownership, resisted ^Mr. Arnold's attempt to take 
possession. If it was generally known that he 
intended to build upon it an Episcopal Church, it 
is not at all unlikely that the crowd which gathered 
around the contestants made such demonstrations 
that their sympathies were with those who had been 
for a long time in possession, as Mr. Arnold would 
consider " riotous and tumultuous." The case was 
never brought into a court of law, probably because 
the conveyance from William Grigson to Jonathan 
Arnold was legally invalid for want of the acknowl- 
edgment of the grantor. 

The land which Mr. Arnold claimed and at- 
tempted to take possession of, afterward became 
the property of Trinity Church by purchase from 
those who derived their title from the daughters of 
Thomas Gregson. Having thus acquired possession 
and the inchoation of a title, the parish prudently 
obliterated whatever defect there might be in their 
title, by procuring a quit claim deed, properly e.x- 
ecuted and achwivledged, from William Gregson, 
of E.xeter, England, the son of the William Grigson, 
of London, who had thirty-two years before e.xecut- 
ed, but not acknowledged, a conveyance of similar 
purport. 

At the time when Mr. Arnold attempted to 
secure "the glebe land" for the erection of a 
church, " the members of the Church of England 
were very few in New Haven. According to the 
best information that can be obtained, there was 
then but one churchman in the town." 

In relating the history of Trinity Church, we 
shall avail ourselves of a valuable paper, read to the 



New Haven Colony Historical Society, March 30, 
1863, by Frederick Croswell, Esq., to whom we 
are indebted for the citation in the preceding 
paragraph. 

' ' The exact time of the organization of the parish 
of Trinity Church has not been ascertained. But 
the churchmen of New Haven had become suf- 
ficiently numerous in 1752 to contemplate at that 
time the building of a house of worship. On the 
28th day of July in that year, Samuel Mix executed 
a deed, conveying for the consideration of ^{"200, 
old tenor, to Enos Ailing and Isaac Doolittle, for 
the building ofa house of public worship, agreeable 
and according to the establishment of the Church 
of England, a certain piece of land containing 
twenty square rods, being four rods wide, fronting 
westerly on what is now called Church street, and 
being five rods deep. 

" Thus far a remarkable fatality seems to have 
attended the conveyances of land for the benefit of 
the Episcopal Church. This deed, like that of 
William Grigson, was not acknowledged by the 
grantor, who died shortly after its execution. But 
upon the petition of the grantees to the General 
Assembly, at the October session of 1756, that body 
confirmed their title to the land by a resolve ' That 
the petitioners have liberty to record- said deed in 
the Records of the town of New Haven, and the 
same being so recorded, shall and may be used 
and improved as the deed of said Mix for the pass- 
ing of the estate in said lands as fully and effectu- 
ally to all intents and purposes as if the same had 
been acknowledged by the said Mix.' The land 
conveyed by this deed is that upon which the first 
house of worship of Trinity Church was built. The 
edifice was completed in 1753. Stiles mentions it 
in his ' Itinerary ' and states its dimensions as being 
58 by 38 feet, according to the measurement made 
by him in 1760. From the same source it appears 
that the churchmen then residing in New Haven 
had increased to the number of twenty-four fami- 
lies, comprising eighty -seven souls." 

The first minister of the Church of England who 
resided in New Haven was Ebenezer Punderson, a 
native of New Haven, and a graduate of Yale Col- 
lege in the class of 1726. He w'as settled over the 
Second Congregational Church in Groton, as pas- 
tor, from January, 1728, to Februarv-, 1734. Soon 
afterward he conformed to the Church of England, 
and became an itinerant missionary in Connecticut. 
In 1753 he was, at his own request, appointed to 
reside in his native town, and officiate in the church 
which had been erected, in some considerable de- 
gree, by his own benefactions, he having given the 
greatest part of the timber. In 1762 he received 
an invitation from the vestry of the church in Rye 
to become their Rector, and as the church in New 
Haven was declining under his ministrations, he 
accepted the call. He died at Rye, September 22, 
1764, at 60 years of age. Dr. Samuel Johnson, 
upon whose advice the Propagation Society .seemed 
to have very much depended, wrote to the Society 
in December, 1762: 

You have herewith a letter from the Church-wardens and 
Vestrymen of Rye, praying that Mr. Punderson may be ap- 



132 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



pointed their missionary, which also I uarncstly desire, as 
they are (after much contention) happily united in him, and 
his removal from New Haven is rendered highly expedient 
by an unhappy controversy about a house with a dissenter 
of some note there, by whom he has been very injuriously 
treated, whereby liis life has been most uneondortable and 
the Church has' much suffered, but I hope it may soon be 
provideil «ith some other wortliy incumbent not liable to the 
like difficulties. The clergy thought it advisable, though he 
continues this winter in New Haven, that he shoulil as fre- 
quently as might Ix; visit the people at Rye. 

In a letter of earlier date to the Archbishop of 
Canterbury, he had written: 

Mr. Punderson seems a very honest and laborious man; 
yet the Church at New Haven appears uneasy and rather 
declining under his ministry, occasioned, 1 believe, partly by 
his want of politeness, and partly Ijy his being aljsent so 
much, having five or six places under his care. I wish he 
was again at Groton, and some politer person in his place. 

The Propagation Society, ignorant that the 
Church at Rye had invited Mr. Punderson to be- 
come their Rector, had appointed the Rev. Solomon 
Palmer, of Litchfield, to the same post. To allevi- 
ate the disappointment of the latter gentleman, it 
was arranged that he should remove to New Haven, 
and become the successor of Mr. Punderson. In 
his report of June 8, 1763, after mentioning that 
the people had purchased a glebe near the church, 
and were completing a house for his accommoda- 
tion, he adds: 

They have engaged to give me an annuity of £y:>, which 
is as much as they are at jiresent alile to do, being in numlier 
but sixty families, and more than half of them in low circum- 
stances; yet, after .all, though New Haven is a pleasant situa- 
tion and would Ix: quite agreeable to me, I should, ujion my 
own account, lie content to go to Rye; and if, all things con- 
sidered, the Society shall order me there, 1 shall be well 
suited. But then I should l)e concerned lor the Church in 
New Haven, which in the latter part of Mr. I'underson's 
time there was re.ally in a pining and languishing state; 
and should he return to them again —though he obtains a 
good character, and is really a valuable man — I fear he 
would have the mortification of seeing it expire in hishanils. 

Some months later, he wrote again from New- 
Haven, and referring to the embarrassments which 
had grown out of the action of the people at Rye, 
he said : 

As matters now stand, and as Mr. I'underson's return 
would certainly prove fatal to this church, which was even 
panting fi>r breath, and just ready to expire when he left it, 
I shall be well pleased, with the society's approbation and 
consent, to succeed him, though Rye would have suited me 
lietter. 

"The exchange of places between the two gen- 
tlemen," says Dr. Beardsley, " proved beneficial to 
the interests of the church. As vigor is added to 
the tree by transplanting it into a newer and stronger 
soil, so years and inllucnce are sometimes added to 
the life of a clergyman by changing his a.ssociations 
and permitting him to breathe in a different atmo- 
sphere. Mr. Punderson was eminently blcssetl in 
his ministry at Rye, and we leave Mr. I'almer in 
New Haven at the close of the year 1763 engaged 
in the zealous di.schargc of his pastoral ofllce, and 
toiling successfully to bring back the scattered 
members t)f the church." * 

" Mr. Palmer was born at Rranford; graduated at 
Yale College at 1729; was settled over a Congrega- 

• History of the KpUcopa) Church in Connecticut. Vol. I, p. 222. 



tional church in Cornwall, where he remained till 
1754, at which time he conformed to the Church 
of England. He died in Litchfield, November 2, 
1 77 1, having returned from New Haven to the 
place of his former residence and labor, for the rea- 
son that he could not support his large family in 
the expensive town of New Haven on his salary." 

Rev. Bela Hubbard, the successor of Mr. Palmer, 
commenced his ministry in New Haven in 1767. 
He was a native of Guilford, a graduate of Vale Col- 
lege in the Class of 1758, and had ofliciated three 
or four years in his native town before he came to 
reside in New Haven. Up to the commencement 
of his incumbency, no light is thrown upon the 
history of Trinity Church from its own records. 
Mr. Hubbard kept a register, in which is written 
with his own hand, on the first page, "Trinity 
Church, New Haven, Notiiia Parochia/is, a.d. 1767. 
Bela Hubbard, Missionary." This opening sen- 
tence shows that the parish had been organized, 
though no previous record of the event is extant. 
There is little of general interest in the volume; its 
contents consisting mainly of tlie records of mar- 
riages, baptisms and funerals, from which he made 
his periodical reports to the society of which he 
was a iTiissionary. His relation to that society as 
their minister continued till 1785, when Trinity 
parish assumed his entire support. But, though 
residing at New Haven, he had the care also of 
Christ Church, West Haven, and, as apjiears from 
this " Notitia," his field of labor extended far beyond 
these two parishes. Services are recorded by him 
which were performed in Amity, Bethany, Bran- 
ford, East Haven, Fairfield, Farmington, Foxon, 
Guilford, Hamden, Killingworth, Milford, New 
Haven, North Guilford, Stratford, Saybrook, Strat- 
field, Woodbury and West Haven. 

Mr. Hubbard wrote to the society, whose com- 
mission he held, in April, 1772 : 

I am pleased and happy in my situation, kindly treated 
and respected by my own people and the dissenters in this 
growing and populous town, many of whom occasionally 
attend our services on -Sundays; and I have the happiness 
to see the greatest unanimity reigning among us and the de- 
nominations with whom we live. My congregation in some- 
thing less than five years, h.asincreaseil one-third in number. 
The souls, white and black, belonging to the church in New 
Haven are 503, and in my church in West Haven there 
are 220. 

The first record of the choice of officers of Trin- 
ity Pari.sh found in the "Notitia" is in the follow- 
ing words: 

"At a meeting of Vestry of Trinity Church, 
New Haven, on Easter Monday, April 16, 1770. 

"Chosen: Mr. Isaac Doolittle and 

" Capt. Stephen Mansfield, 

" Chunk Wardens. 
" Mr. Enos Ailing, 

" Clerk. 
" Capt. Christopher Kilby, 
" Capt. Abiathar Camp, 
" Mr. John Miles, 

" Ves/ryinen. 



" James Powers, 



Sex/on. " 



CHURCHES AND CLERGYMEN. 



\U 



But a list of officers at an earlier date is found 
in the quit-claim deed, in which Enos Ailing con- 
veys to the parish the glebe land which he had 
purcliased of some of the heirs of Thomas Greg- 
son. The deed is dated October 31, 1765, and 
conveys the land to Timothy Conticou and Isaac 
Doolittle, Churchwardens, and Christopher Kilby 
and Stephen Mansfield, Vestrymen of Trinity 
Church. This was two years before Dr. Hubbard 
removed to New Haven. 

The "Notitia" records the annual election of 
Wardens, Vestrymen, etc., on Easter Monday of 
each succeeding year till 1777, but has no account 
of their proceedings, or those of the parish. The 
first record of the parish as a society is dated Easter 
Monday, March 31, 1777, and is commenced 
in these words: "The parishioners of Trinity 
Church convened at the usual place, and chose 
Enos Ailing, Esq., and INIr. Isaac Doolittle, Church 
Wardens for the year ensuing; Messrs. Charles 
Prindle, Benjamin Sanford, Daniel Bonticou, Eb- 
enezer Chittenden and .Samuel Nesbit, Vestry- 
men. ' 

Timothy Bonticou, Enos Ailing and Isaac Doo- 
little, the first three Wardens of Trinity Church, 
deserve especial mention as early and prominent 
advocates of Episcopacy. 

Timothy Bonticou, the son of a French Huguenot 
refugee, was born in New York City June 17, 1693, 
and was baptized in the French Church on the 2d 
of July. In his boyhood he went to France, where 
he acquired the trade of a silversmith. It is not 
known when he returned to America, but his wife 
died in New Haven November 5, 1735, at the age 
of thirl)'-three years. He again married September 
29, 1736, Mary Goodrich, of Wethersfield. Before 
the organization of Trinity Church he was a regis- 
tered communicant in the Episcopal Church at 
Stratford, and from 1741 to 1748 was a resident 
there. There is no record that shows him to have 
been an owner of real estate in Stratford, and it is 
believed that he removed thither from New Haven 
on account of greater convenience in the enjoy- 
ment of his church privileges. In 1748 he was 
again a resident in New Haven, and perhaps the 
only Episcopalian in the town, for Henry Caner, 
who came here from Boston in 1717 to build the 
first college edifice, died in 1731. Converts from 
the "Standing Order" were ready to join with 
him soon after his return to New Haven in insti- 
tuting Trinity Church, of which he was probably 
the first Warden. In the new chui-ch edifice he 
owned and occupied a large square pew, promi- 
nently located. 

"At the time of the British invasion of New Ha- 
ven, Mr. Bonticou was an old man eighty-six years 
of age, a resident of the household of his son Peter, 
on the corner of Wooster and Olive streets. On 
this occasion he was the victim of outrage by the 
British troops. A mob of soldiers visited the house 
and the old gentleman was robbed of his silver 
knee and shoe buckles, his daughter-in-law, the 
wife of Captain Peter, being ordered to pull them 
off. Personal violence was offered; and on an at- 
tempt by the soldiers to bayonet him, she inter- 



posed herself between them and saved his life. In- 
furiated at being baftled in their murderous design, 
they were ripe for any degree of iniquity, and the 
daughter of Captain Peter, unfortunately presenting 
herself at this juncture, she was seized by the soldiers, 
and her abduction attempted; but her mother, 
with great tact and courage, interfered, and while 
entertaining the soldiers with food and drink, se- 
cretly sent for assistance; which speedily arrived in 
the form of a guard of soldiers, obtained through 
the efforts of an influential Royalist neighbor. 
This put a stop to their outrageous conduct, but 
they had well-nigh succeeded in their designs on 
old Timothy, for he was found by the guard with 
a rope around his neck, the other end thrown over 
a beam of the house, and the mob evincing a dia- 
bolical disposition to pull him up, which was pre- 
vented by the officer in charge.* 

Timothy Bonticou, or else his son. Captain Peter 
Bonticou, built the large house, afterward known 
as the DeForest House, on the corner of Wooster 
and Olive streets. His home-lot, extending through 
to Chapel street, included the ground on which 
St. Paul's Church stands. Another son. Dr. Daniel 
Bonticou, graduated at Yale College in 1757, 
studied medicine in France, and commenced prac- 
tice in New Haven in 1771. He was a vestryman 
of Trinity Church in 1774-75 and 1777-78. 

Enos Ailing was a native of New Haven; be- 
came a communicant in the Church in the First 
Society, August 19, 1741, under the ministry of 
the Rev. Mr. Noyes, and was one of the seceders 
who were organized in 1742 as the Church in the 
White Haven Society. He graduated at Yale Col- 
lege in the class of 1746. Soon after his gradua- 
tion he engaged in commercial pursuits in his native 
town. 

As early as 1752, as appears from the occurrence 
of his name with that of Isaac Doolittle in the con- 
veyance from Samuel Mix, he was known and 
trusted as an Episcopalian. From that time till his 
death, which occurred September 11, 1779, he was 
an earnest friend and servant of his church. The 
earliest record shows him to have been Parish Clerk 
in 1770, and the Rector had chosen him to the 
same office at the annual meeting of the parish on 
Easter Monday next preceeding his death. As 
Clerk of the Parish, his duty was to lead the re- 
sponses of the congregation and to designate the 
psalms and hymns to be sung. Being the Clerk of 
the Parish, and withal a man of liberal education, 
he probably officiated as lay-reader in the frequent 
absences of the minister. "It is the occasion of 
much regret, "says Mr. Croswell in the paper which 
supplies most of our material, "that so little has 
been preserved concerning the personal history of 
Enos Ailing, whose zeal in the cause of the Flpis- 
copal Church obtained for him among his contem- 
poraries the honoi-ary title of ' Bishop ' Ailing; 
by which name he is better remembered, and is 
more frequently mentioned even now, than by his 
baptismal one. He left no lineal descendants, which 
may perhaps account for the absence of more per- 

* Bonticou Genealogy. By John E. Morris, Hartford, 1S85. But a 
friend suggests that Timothy Bonticou lived in Milford. 



134 



tJiSTORr OF THU CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



feet memorials of him than can now be obtained." 
He was a member of the Society for the Propagation 
of the Gospel, having been elected on the nomina- 
tion of the Rev. Solomon Palmer, who recom- 
mended him as worthy of this honor, "both for his 
liberal education and aftluent circumstances," add- 
ing: " He is truly catholic in his temper; has 
been the greatest benefactor to this church (New 
Haven); and would, I doubt not, do all he could 
for the interests of the society and the furtherance 
of their pious and charitable designs; and as he is 
childless, though a married man, would at least 
leave them a legacy." Mr. Ailing died September 
II, 1779, in the sixty-first year of his age. His 
first wife, Phebe, daughter of Joseph Whiting, diid 
December 23, 1751. His second wife was Hannah, 
daughter of Captain Samuel Miles. After the death 
of Mr. Ailing she became the wife of Hon. Jared 
IngersoU. She died December 3, 1786, in the 
fifty-forth year of her age, the wife of Captain Joseph 
Bradley, to whom she had been married in April of 
that year. 

In the volume of "Notitia" is a record of the 
death of Isaac Doolittle, February 13, 1800, age 
78. Mr. Doolittle was an enterprising citizen of 
New Haven. He was a native of Wallingford, but 
came here to reside at a very early age. The church 
of which he was so long a member was the object 
of his warm, zealous and earnest attachment. His 
contributions of the means necessary for building 
the first house of worship were more liberal than 
those of any of his contemporaries. 

He was by trade a brass-founder, and a maker of 
brass-wheel clocks, such as in the olden time stood 
in the hall or parlor of an aristocratic mansion. 
He was also engaged in the business of casting 
bells. In 1774, he advertises that, having erected 
a suitable building and prepared an apparatus con- 
venient for bell-founding, and having had good 
success in his first attempt, he intends to carry on 
that business, and will supply any that please to 
employ him with any size bell commonly used in 
this or the neighboring provinces on reasonable 
terms. His residence was on the south side of 
Chapel street, between High and York streets, and 
his bell foundry was on the same street between 
Park and Howe streets, at the plaee where Dr. 
Henry Bronson now resides. During the Revo- 
lutionary War, he, in company with Jeremiah 
Atwater and Elijah Thompson, made large quan- 
tities of gunpowder at their powder-mill in West- 
ville. Unlike most of his brethren in his church, 
he was a Whig, entering into the contest with 
Great Britain as ardently as he did into the attempt 
to establish an Episcopal Church in New Haven. 
In 1778 he was not re-elected a churchwarden; 
and from tiiat time till 1783 he was passed by at 
the annual election. The tradition is, that this 
neglect of one who had been so early and so strong 
a iriend of the church was occasioned by iiis zeal 
for the war; but as the church was dependent on 
the mother country, perhaps its action was prompt- 
ed by prudence more than by unfriendly feelings 
towards Mr. Doolittle. 

The antagonism between Whig and Tory prob- 



ably made more trouble for the Episcopal parish 
in New Haven than for any other of the ecclesias- 
tical organizations. The little society of Sande- 
manians seem to have been unanimously Tories, 
and whatever trouble they had with the civil au- 
thority, or with the committee of inspection, they 
had none with one another. So far as appears, 
both the "New Light" societies enjoyed a similar 
unanimity on the other side of the dividing line, 
there being no Tories in the White Haven or in the 
Fair Haven Society. They were all zealous in 
patriotism as they were in religion. In the First So- 
ciety there was adivision of feeling, a few of its mem- 
bers being active Tories, and many more being 
ready in the first years of the war to submit to 
King George whenever their more enterprising and, 
according to their judgment, rash countrymen 
should become convinced that the rebellion must 
be uiisuccessful. In the Episcopal Society there 
was a similar division of feeling, but the proportion 
of Tories was much greater, both of such as were 
active and of such as avoided overt demonstration. 
The loyalty of Dr. Hubbard to King George was 
well known, but he was so discreet and inoftensive 
that perhaps the most serious consequence of his 
loyalty which he suffered was the censure of the 
committee appointed to inquire and report the 
reasons why he, with others, remained in the town 
when it was invaded by the British. In other towns 
some of the Episcopal missionaries were subjected 
to indignities from mobs, and to constraint from 
the civil authorities, the measure of punishment or 
of discipline depending somewhat on the amount 
of provocation they gave, and somewhat on the sub- 
jective condition of those who administered it. 
Dr. Hubbard's position must have been a delicate 
one when a wartlen of his church was manufactur- 
ing powder for the rebels, and the persons in Lon- 
don who remitted the Rector's salary, required him 
to pray that (^lod would strengthen the King to 
"vanquish and overcome all his enemies." After 
the Declaration of Independence, the performance 
of divine service according to the ritual of the 
English Church, which before had been only an 
offense to individual Whigs, became an act of dis- 
loyalty to the United States, and very few clergy- 
men continued to use the prayers for the King and 
Royal Family according to the Liturgy. A con- 
vention of the clergy was held at New Haven, July 
23, 1 776, at which, after deliberation, it was resolved 
to suspend the public e.xercise of their ministerial 
functions. There is nothing in his "Notitia" to 
prove that Dr. Hubbard acted in accordance with 
this resolve or to indicate when he resumed his 
ministrations. But President Stiles has supplieil in 
iiis diary the information which the Rector failed to 
give. He writes under the date 011778, December 
20, Lord's Day: 

In July, 1776, immediately upon the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, the Episcopal cleri;y left in New England met, 
and decided to shut up the churches, that is, to cease the 
Liturgy and jireaching; and only occasionally on Lord's 
D.iy, at church or elsewhere, the minister was to read some 
printed sermon ami the Lord's prayer, because they might 
not pray for the King, and they might not pray forCongress. 
Mr. lieach and Mr. Newton, however, upheld the Liturgy 



CHURCHES AND CLERGYMEN. 



135 



and kept up public preaching and service, praying also for 
the King. All the rest ceased. Correspondingly with them, all 
the few clergy of Massachussetts and Providence ceased 
service except Mr. Parker, of Boston. In general, all the 
churches from Maryland to Nova Scotia have been shut up, 
while those of the Southern States have been kept open, 
particularly in Virginia, whose assembly expunged from the 
Liturgy prayers for the King, and substituted a form or 
collect for public authority. 

This fall the Bishop of London has sent over to all the 
clergy to open their churches, set up divine service, and use 
the Liturgy as usual, omitting, however, the prayers for the 
King and the Royal Family. This day, Mr. Hubbard opened 
for the lirst time his church in New Ilaven. 

The Rector at New London being inflexible in 
his loyahy, would not open his church even upon 
the Bishop's order, and the parish, longing for the 
resumption of pubUc worship, "voted that the 
Wardens call on some reverend gentleman to of- 
ficiate in the Church of St. James after the manner 
of the Rev. Mr. Jarvis or Mr. HuUkird." 

The termination of Mr. Hubbard's relation to 
the Propagation Societ}' was not voluntary on his 
part or that of his parish, as may be seen from the 
following extract from a letter of the Society's Sec- 
retary in reply to one from the Right Rev. Samuel 
Seabury, who had just been consecrated in Scot- 
land, in which the Bishop solicited for himself and 
his clergy the continuance of the Society's benefac- 
tions: 

I am directed by the Society to express their approbation 
of your service as their missionary and to acquaint you that 
they cannot, consistently with their- charter, employ any 
missionaries except in the plantations, colonies and factories 
belonging to the Kingdom of ( Ireat Britain; your case is, of 
course, comprehended under that general rule. 

In the year preceding that in which Dr. Hub- 
bard ceased to be a missionary of the Propagation 
Society and began to receive a full support from 
the parishes of which he was the Rector, an organ 
was placed in Trinity Church, and at a vestry meet- 
ing held December 29, 1784, it was 

" ]'o/ed. That those persons who have been bene- 
factors to the church by contributing for an organ, 
should, as a tribute of gratitude for their liberality, 
have their names, with the respective sums of their 
subscriptions, recorded in this book." 

At the annual parish meeting, Easter Monday, 
JNIarch 28, 1785, it was 

"Voted, That the wardens and vestrymen are the 
Society's committee according to law, and as such 
they have been held and regarded ever since — their 
powers and functions being the same as those of 
such committees of the other ecclesiastical societies.* 
It was also voted that there be no further burials 
under the body of the church, except those families 
some members of which have already been buried 
there — by which is understood the heads of those 
families and their children — only excepting any 
person leaving a legacy of thirty pounds and par- 
ticularly desiring that liberty. " 

At the regular annual meeting in 1787, IMoses 
Bates was appointed organist, and was allowed to 
occupy the house in wiiich he then lived, without 

* In 1877 an Act of the Legislature was procured, enacting tliat the 
Ecclesiastical Societies of the Protestant Ettiscopal Church in Connec- 
ticut shall be known as Parishes as well as Ecclesiastical Societies, and 
that such parishes shall conduct their affairs according to the constitu- 
tion, canons and regulations of the said Protestant Episcopal Church. 



being required to pay rent, as a compensation for 
his services. At the vestry meeting ISIarch 31, 
1 788, Moses Bates was reappointed organist, with 
the additional office of Se.xim, and for his services 
was to have his house rent free as before. At the 
same meeting it was voted that for the conveniency 
of describing the lots and boundaries of the church 
lands, the street beginning in Chapel street, between 
the houses of Robert Fairchild and Abel Buel, be 
called and known by the name of Gregson street, 
and that the street beginning in Church street, run- 
ning between the house of Levi Hubbard and the 
house at present leased to Moses Bates, westerly 
until it meets Gregson street, be called and known 
by the name of School alley." But it was a long 
time before the new name of Gregson street dis- 
placed the older name of Toddy alley, which seems 
to have been for some reason strongly fi.xed in the 
popular mind. 

At a special parish meeting November 17, 1788, 
"a proposition was received from Messrs. William 
McCracken and Josiah Burr to build an addition 
of twenty-feet to the rear of the church, and to make 
such alterations in the position of the pulpit, read- 
ing desk and chancel as the proposed addition 
might make proper, and to have the whole finished 
in two years, without expense to the church, pro- 
vided the parish would secure to them and their 
heirs the possession of all the new pews in the space 
created by the proposed addition and alterations, 
to be built and placed under the direction of a 
committee to be appointed by the parish for the 
purpose." This ofier was accepted by the parish, 
and a committee was appointed to "negotiate an 
exchange with Richard Cutler for land on the east 
end of the church lot belonging to him, for so 
much of land on the north side of said church lot 
as may be necessary for extending the rear of the 
church twenty feet." 

Some time in 1793, a bell was procured and 
hung in the belfry. It was the Puritan custom to 
ring a bell at 9 o'clock in the evening; but Saturday 
was an exception, because as holy lime had begun 
at sunset, there was no need to notify the people to 
cease from their labors and pleasure's. 

The Episcopal Church having now a bell of its 
own, some over-zealous partisan disturbed the quiet 
of the town by ringing the bell on Saturday even- 
ing, and a week later repeated the oft'ense. At a 
meeting of the vestry, September 26, 1793, the 
following record was made: "It being reported 
that, without any order or direction of the Wardens 
and Vestrymen of said Church, the bell has been 
rung on the two preceding Saturday nights by some 
person unknown, therefore, 

" Voted, That in our opinion the ringing of the 
bell at the above-mentioned dme was very improper 
and irregular, and that we do not countenance the 
same; and that no person in future be permitted to 
ring the said bell on Saturday or any other nights, 
unless ordered by the Society at large." 

"At the annual meeting, April 20, 1794, the War- 
dens were authorized to have the church painted, 
and to borrow a sum not exceeding /'50 to pay for 
it. And at a vestry meeting in the same year, I\Ir. 



136 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



Salter, an organist from England, was engaged to 
play the organ for six months, to be paid at the 
rate of twenty guineas per annum. Mr. Salter 
remained for many years in the situation to 
which he was at this time appointed. He lived to 
(|uite an advanced age, and became wholly blind 
before he died. By the exercise of his talents he 
supported his family in a respectable manner; and 
it is no disparagement to his successors to say that 
none of them have surpassed him in skillful execu- 
tion and tasteful performance upon an instrument 
which is better adapted than any other to the pur- 
poses of public worship." 

"At the annual meeting in 1795, a committee was 
raised to inquire into the expediency and probable 
cost of building a gallery in the church; but as the 
estimated cost w-as over ^100, the consideration of 
the subject was postponed, for the reason that the 
town hatl been put to great expense in consequence 
of the sickness that had prevailed the previous year." 

"A vote was passed at the annual meeting in 
1797, that ten dollars be paid out of the Society's 
treasury toward the public wells and pumps in 
this city." At a parish meeting November 27th 
in the same year, it was voted "That there be a 
contribution every Sabbath, after church at night, 
for the benefit of the poor of the Parish, the con- 
tributions to continue through the winter." " The 
custom begun at this time has been continued," 
says Mr. Croswell, " in Trinity Church to this 
day; but the collections in late years have been 
made monthly during the winter, instead of weekly, 
as then." A similar custom in the Center Church 
is probably of equal antiquity. 

In the course of the same 3'ear (1797) after 
various conferences, estimates, and votes on the 
subject, a contract was made for building side 
galleries in the church, and the Wardens and 
Vestrymen were authorized to borrow six hundred 
dollars on the credit of the parish to meet the ex- 
pense. 

In 1804, Mr. Hubbard was made a Doctor of 
Divinity by the Corporation of Yale College. 

At a vestry meeting October 20, 1 806, there was 
a vote authorizing the erection of a stove in the 
church, under the direction of the Wardens and 
Vestrymen, provided it should be done free of ex- 
pense to the Society. 

In the course of 1807, at the request of Dr. Hub- 
bard, the parish secured the services of Rev. Salmon 
Whcaton as an assistant minister, the Rector's salary 
being reduced from $700 to $650. Mr. Wheaton's 
engagement ended about October 20, 18 10, and 
he was paid at the rate of $200 per annum. At a 
special parish meeting June 9, 181 1, the Wardens 
and Vestrymen, as the Society's Committee, were 
authorized to extend a call to the Rev. Henry 
Whitlock, of Norwalk, to be the assistant minister 
of the Parish, with a salary f)f $800 a year. The 
call was accepted, and Mr. Wlntlock commenced 
his duties soon afterward. 

In the "Register," is recorded the death of Eb- 
enezer Chittenden, May i r, 181 2, at the age of 86. 
Mr. Chittenden had been one of the earliest war- 
dens of the church, having been first chosen in 1 779, 



to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Enos 
Ailing. He was also appointed Parish Clerk by 
Mr. Hubbard in 1791, which office he continued 
to hold until the time of his death, when it expired 
with him.* The year 181 2 was also made memor- 
able in the annals of Trinity Church by the death 
of its Rector. Dr. Hubbard died on the 6th day 
of December, 18 12, in the seventy-third year of his 
age, and the forty-fifth of his ministration to Trinity 
Chuich as missionary and rector. An (ibituary no- 
lice says of him: 

Dr. Hubliard possessed great vivacity of intellect and 
genuine goodness of heart. His education, his sentiments, 
and liis manners were liberal. His conversation and deport- 
ment were easy and unaffected — courteous and kind. With 
habits strongly social, he was an excellent companion, a 
warm friend, a kind brother, a tender parent, and an affec- 
tionate husband. 

His wife was Grace (Dunbar) Hill, of Fairfield. 
In a private letter, his grandson, Rev. T. C. Pitkin, 
D. D. , writes, " He was used to say that though he 
could not subscribe to the five points of Calvinism 
as a whole, yet he had always held — turning toward 
his wife — to irresistible Grace." 

The subject of building a new church to super- 
sede the old edifice erected in 1753, was first dis- 
cussed at the annual meeting in 18 10, and Elias 
Shipman, John H. Jacocks and John Hunt, Jr., 
were appointed a committee "to .set a subscription 
on foot to ascertain the minds of the members of 
the Society." In December, 1812, application was 
made to the town for permission to build on the 
Green, and the town gave its consent. The corner- 
stone was laid with appropriate solemnities, May 
17, 1814; the Rev. Samuel F. Jarvis, of New York, 
officiating in the absence of the Rev. Henry Whit- 
lock, who, by the death of Dr. Hubbard, had be- 
come rector of the parish. 

Declining health obliged Mr. Whitlock not long 
afterward to resign his office, and the Rev. Harry 
Croswell, being invited to become the rector, com- 
menced his service on the ist of January, 181 5. 
Having done duty for more than a year in the old 
wooden edifice on Church street, he was publicly 
instituted February 22, 1816, on the day after the 
new edifice, now known as Trinity Church, was con- 
secrated. 

Dr. Croswell, after forty years of service, thus ad- 
dresses his parishioners: "We look back, of course, 
to comparatively small beginnings. The church in 
which I commenced the duties of my rectorship, 
on the ist of January, 1815, was a comfortable 
wooden edifice, erected, before the Revolution, on 
the east side of Church street. But two rectors 
had preceded me in this cure, the venerable Bela 
Hubbard, D. D. , who had been a missionary, before 
the Revolution, in the employ of the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel, and the Rev. Henry 
Whitlock, who had resigned the cure on account of 
declining health. The parish consisted at this time 
of about one hundred and thirty families; but as 
this was the only church edifice, with the exception 
of those at F^ast Haven and West Haven, within a 
distance of several miles, the congregation was 

* Mr. Chittenden was the maker of the two earliest fire-engines in 
the cily. See Chapter on the Fire Department. 



CHURCHES AND CLERGYMEN. 



137 



gathered not only from the Episcopal families re- 
siding in the compact part of the town, but from 
among the sparse settlements in the neighborhood. 
In that church we continued to worship until the 
month of February in the ensuing year, when this 
building, then in progress of erection, was finished, 
and consecrated by the name of Trinity Church." 

For thirteen years after his settlement, Dr. Cros- 
well continued to discharge the entire duties of the 
parish, with only occasional and transient aid. 
But in the year 1828 it was deemed expedient to 
procure assistance; and the number of families 
having increased to about five hundred, it was soon 
perceived that the congregation required increased 
accommodations. This led to the adoption of 
measures for erecting a chapel of ease; and in the 
spring of 1829 the corner-stone was laid for such a 
chapel (now St. Paul's Church), which was finished 
and consecrated in the spring of 1830. From that 
time till 1845, divine service was performed both 
in Trinity Church and in the Chapel of Ease, Dr. 
Croswell sharing the duties of the cure with his as- 
sistant, and alternating between the church and 
chapel. The following clergymen were from time 
to time elected by the parish as assistants to Dr. 
Croswell, and are designated in the records by di- 
verse titles, such as assistant minister, assistant rector, 
or associate rector, viz.: Rev. Francis L. Hawks, 
D.D., 1828-29; Rev. John S. Stone, D.D., 1S30- 
32; Rev. William Lucas, 1832-33; Rev.W. L. Keese, 
1833-35; J^ev. L. T. Bennett, 1835-40; Rev. W. F. 
Morgan, D.D., 1841-44; Rev. J. H. Nichols, 1841 
-46; Rev. T. C. Pitkin, D.D., 1847-56; Rev. S. 
Benedict, 1856-58. 

The first named of these assistants resigned in 
1829, before the completion of the chapel, and the 
Rev. J, H.Nichols was still in ofllce when St. Paul's 
became a separate parish. As early as 1S43 some 
desire was manifested for a separation of St. Paul's 
from Trinity Church. At the Easter meeting in 
that year a committee was appointed to take the 
matter into consideration, and that committee re- 
ported, at the Easter meeting in 1844, that if there 
was a general desire for such a separation it would 
be expedient that such a .separation take place, 
and in such event there would be no insuperable 
legal difficulty. Two weeks later, at an adjourned 
meeting, the following resolution, offered by Nathan 
Smith, was passed by a vote of 37 in the affirmative 
and 32 in the negative. 

" Resolved, That the future prosperity of the 
Parish of Trinity Church would be promoted by a 
dissolution of the connection w hich at present exists 
between Trinity Church and St. Paul's Chapel, pro- 
vided that the dissolution can be legally effected. " 

The vote, though so far from being unanimous, 
availed to secure a separation; the venerable Rector 
of Trinity doing duty at St. Paul's as a chapel of 
case for the last time on the 2 7ih of April, 1845. 
So rapidly did St. Paul's, grow that some thought 
there was room for still another new piarish, and 
St. Thomas was organized in 1S48, Trinity contrib- 
uting about thirty families toward the commence- 
ment of its congregation. In 1853, chiefly by the 
liberality of a single family in 'Trinity Church, a 

18 



mission chapel was erected on land at the corner 
of Elm and Park streets, and consecrated in Janu- 
ary, 1854, by the name of Christ Church. By the 
same name it became an organized parish in 1856. 

The interval between Dr. Croswell's retirement 
from St. PauTs and his death, was about thirteen 
years. In the course of that time he had as his as- 
sociates the Rev. Messrs. Nichols, Pitkin, and Bene- 
dict. He died March 13, 1858, in the eightieth 
year of his age and the forty-fourth year of his 
ministry. Commencing in New Haven in a small 
wooden edifice, he had removed to a building of 
stone which was then "the largest Gothic structure 
in New England, if not in the country," and had 
lived to see it so crowded that more than one edifice 
of large dimensions was needed to receive the over- 
flow. 

In 1859, the Rev. Edwin Harwood was elected 
rector of Trinity Church, and remains in the office 
to this day. For almost a quarter of a century he 
had onlv occasional and temporary assistance; but 
in 1S83, the Rev. Harry P. Nichols was elected as- 
sistant minister. In 1S84, the parish having ob- 
tained permission from the city to e.xtend its church 
westward, built a spacious chancel at an expense, 
including the cost of the additional pews which the 
new arrangement permitted, of $23,000. 

This relation of the history of Trinity Church 
must not come to an end without mention of a 
charitable foundation presented to the parish by Mr. 
Joseph E. Sheffield in his life time. It comprises 
three departments: a parochial school, a home for 
aged women, and a free chapel. The buildings for 
the three departments are grouped together on a lot 
in George street. There is a resident minister who 
regularly performs divine service in the chapel. 

St. Luke's Church is a parish of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church, organized by and for persons of 
color belonging to that communion. As its organi- 
zation dates from 1844, and St. Paul's from 1845, 
it is next in age to Trinity. Divine service was 
celebrated in the chapel of Trinity parish till the 
present house of worship in Park street was pur- 
chased. 

The following clergymen have been rectors of 
the parish by election, and several others have 
officiated for long periods. Rev. Worthington 
Stokes ; Rev. Theodore Hawley, who is now 
Bishop of Hayti; Rev. Wm. F. Floyd; Rev. Alfred 
C. Brown, who is still in oflice. 

The first rector of St. Paul's Church was the 
Rev. Samuel Cooke. Elected July 22, 1845, he 
commenced duty in November of that year. The 
church edifice was closed in August and reopened 
in January 1846, having been meanwhile internally 
renovated and enlarged by the addition of a chancel 
extending to the south line of the lot. Mr. Cooke 
was formally instituted January 14, 1846, after the 
reopening of the church. On the last day of No- 
vember, 1850, he sent in his resignation, and on the 
first Sunday in January, 1851, preached his last 
sermon as Rector of St. Paul's, having accepted an 
invitation to become rector of St. Bartholomew's, 



138 



HISTORV OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



New York. During his incumbency a new organ 
was placed in the church, which is still in use, and 
is regarded as a superior instrument. The Rev. A. 
N. Littlejohn was elected rector, June i6, 185 1. 
In the first year of his ministry in St. Paul's, a 
work of church extension was begun which finally 
resulted in the organization of two independent 
parishes, St. John's Church and the Church of the 
Ascension. A voluntary association was formed 
for the prosecution of city mission work, which in 
1854 was incorporated by the name of the Mission- 
ary and Benevolent Society of St. Paul's Church. 
Meanwhile the Rev. Frederick Sill was employed as 
a missionary, and a chapel was built on the corner 
of Eld and State streets. This mission prospered so 
rapidly, that the worshipers at the chapel expressed, 
in the spring of 1857, an earnest desire to organize 
a new parish, to be called St. John's Church. 
Their request was acceded to; a parochial organi- 
zation was instituted; and the parish was represented 
in Convention in June, 1857. 

The Missionary Society being thus relieved from 
the support of St. John's, turned their attention to 
a new field, building a house of worship on Daven- 
port avenue, corner of Ward street, which they 
called St. Paul's Chapel. In creating these two 
new congregations, many families were detailed 
from St. Paul's as helpers in the work. But it was 
found to be a healthy process which took away 
members, but not life, while it added both members 
and life to the new congregations. St. Paul's had 
never been more prosperous and strong than while 
giving so many of her own people to other con- 
gregations. Dr. Littlejohn resigned in February, 
i860, to accept a call to the Church of the Holy 
Trinity, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

The Rev. Edward L. Drown was invited to the 
rectorship in June, i860, and commenced duty in 
September of that year. On Ascension Da)', 1868, 
a new parish was organized, to which the chapel 
in Davenport avenue was transferred, with prom- 
ise of aid for four years. The new parish was 
called the Church of the Ascension. Mr. Drown 
resigning in 1868, was succeeded by the Rev. 
Francis Lobdell, who preached his first sermon 
as rector September i, 1869, and was instituted 
on the 29th of the same month. At the an- 
nual meeting of the parish in 1873, a vote was 
passed authorizing the vestry to renovate the 
church and enlarge the chancel, providing no debt 
should be incurred in so doing. The previous pur- 
chase of the house and lot next south of the church, 
for a rectory, having made it possible to extend 
the church in that direction, this opportunity was 
improved to build a larger and more churchly 
chancel, extending outward in depth about twenty 
feet, and upward to the full height of the ceiling. 
At the same time a new building on the east side 
of the churcli was erected for meetings of the vestry 
and of the parish, and the whole interior of the edi- 
fice was renovated. These improvements exceeded 
in cost the amount cxi)ended by Trinity Parish in 
purchasing the land and erecting upon it St. Paul's 
Chapel of Ease. Mr. Lobdell. having been invited 
to the rectorship of St. Andrew's, New York, re- 



signed his charge of St. Paul's in 1879, and the 
present Rector, the Rev. Edwin S. Lines, suc- 
ceeded him, commencing work in October of the 
same year. 

St. Thomas' Church was organized in 1848, less 
than three years after the separation of St. Paul's 
from Trinity. Their first service was held in the 
Orange Street Lecture-room on Easter Sunday, 
April 23, 1S48, and there they continued to wor- 
ship till a temporary chapel of brick was erected in 
Elm street. This was opened for divine service 
August 12, 1849. The records of the parish and 
of the vestry for the year 1S53, detail the successive 
steps that were taken to enter upon the erection of 
a larger building- in its place. The last religious 
services were held in the temporary structure Sun- 
day, March 12, 1854, and soon the walls were 
leveled with the ground and the trenches were dug 
for the foundations of the present edifice. The 
corner-stone was laid April 24, 1854. A large 
upper room received the congregation while the 
building was in progress of erection; and when the 
year came round they returned to consecrate at 
Easter the edifice of stone which we now know as 
St. Thomas' Church. The Rev. E. Edwards Beards- 
ley, D.D., was elected rector of St. Thomas' at 
the commencement of its existence as a parish, 
and has remained in the office till the present time. 

Christ Church was organized, as has been already 
told, in 1856. It continued to worship in the 
chapel at the corner of Elm and Park till August 
14, 1859. The building was removed across Elm 
street, and added as a transept to a new building 
already in progress of construction. The first ser- 
vice in the new edifice was held on the 6th of 
January, i860. The Rev. Joseph Brewster was 
rector from July i, 1856, to January 17, 1882. 
His successor was the Rev. William G. Spencer, 
D. D., who resigned his office on Easter Monday, 
1884. The Rev. E. J. Van Deerlin is now the 
rector of this parish. 

St. John's Church originated in a mission chapel 
belonging to St. Paul's. Since its organization as 
a parish the following clergymen have been its 
rectors: Rev. John T. Huntington, Rev. Benjamin 
W. Stone, Rev. Richard Whiltingham, Rev. C. H. 
B. Tremaine, Rev. Stewart Means. 

The Church of the Ascension, originating like 
St. John's, in a mission chapel belonging to St. 
Paul's, continued to worship in the building it re- 
ceived from the mother church till July 12, 1883, 
when its present substantial edifice of stone was 
consecrated. It has enjoyed since its parish or- 
ganization was perfected the services of the follow- 
ing rectors: Rev. Charles T. Kellogg, Rev. Elisha 
S. Thomas, Rev. Arthur Mason, Rev. William W. 
Andrews, Rev. Edward W. Babcock, Rev. C. E. 
Woodcock. 

Grace Church, Blalchley avenue, corner of Ex- 
change street, was organized April 10, 1 871, to 
provide for the requirements of the rapidly growing 
village of Fair Haven, now comprehended within 



CHURCHES AND CLERGYMEN. 



139 



the city limits. Its rectors have been Rev. John W. 
Leek, Rev. Peter A. Jay, Rev. John H. Fitzgerald, 
Rev. Herbert N. Denslow, Rev. Elihu T. Sanford. 

There are, in addition to those mentioned above, 
two parishes of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
whose houses of worship are within the limits of 
the town, but outside of the limits of the city, viz., 
St, James', Westville, and St. James', Fair Haven 
East. 

SANDEMANIAN CHURCH. 

A Sandemanian Church was in existence at New- 
Haven when the Revolutionary War commenced. 
The Sandemanians are, or were, a sect of Chris- 
tians which originated in Scotland by secession 
from the Established Church, or from one of the 
Presbyterian sects which had already seceded. 
They were at first called Glassites, from the Rev. 
John Glass, a native of Dundee, who was the 
leader of the schism. The Rev. Robert Sandeman 
was his son-in-law. He was born in Perth in 1723, 
and, after officiating as a minister in Scotland for 
about twenty years, joined a party of emigrants 
and settled in Danbury, Conn., where he died in 
1 771. Under his influence churches were gathered 
in the principal cities in Scotland, in some cities of 
England, and in several towns of Massachusetts 
and Connecticut in New England. Most of these 
churches, probably all in America but one, have 
died out. 

The peculiarities of the Sandemanians are their 
construction of the word " faith," which they inter- 
pret as simple assent to the teaching and divinity 
of Christ; rejection of all mystical or double sense 
from the Scriptures; prohibition of all games of 
chance; a weekly love feast, being the dinner eaten 
by all the church together every Sunday; the kiss 
of brotherhood, which passes from one member to 
another at their solemn meetings; strict abstinence 
from all blood and things strangled; plurality of 
elders, two at least being required for all acts of 
discipline and all administration of ritual; denial 
that college training is a necessary prerequisite to 
the eldership; the absence of prayer at funerals. 
Their religious services are mostly confined to the 
reading and explanation of Scriptures; and where 
there is no house expressly set apart for worship, 
the meetings are held in the houses of the brethren, 
where, indeed, all are at home at all times. 

A correspondent in Danbury writes, under date 
of September 8, 1884, concerning the Sandeman- 
ians in that town: "They have a Church of five 
or six members (one male), and hold regular ser- 
vices in their own meeting-house and have their 
love feasts in their Sabbath-house adjoining. It 
amounts to a regular dinner together, the fimily 
who rent their Sabbath-house preparing the dinner 
for them. Formerly, some of the first families of 
the place belonged to them; but their children, 
when of age, have gradually left them, until now- 
only a very few remain. There is no Elder of the 
Church resident, and so they cannot have the Lord's 
Supper administered, which is a great grief to them. 
Now and then there is a funeral in some one of 



their families, the mode of conducting it being as 
follows: The friends and neighbors meet at the 
house at the appointed time, sit for half an hour or 
more in silence, then quietly form the procession 
to the cemetery. There is no religious service." 

Richard VVoodhull was an important and influ- 
ential member of the Sandemanian Church in New- 
Haven. He was descended from Richard Wood- 
hull, one of the first settlers of Brookhaven, Long 
Island, then under the jurisdiction of Connecticut. 
That he had qualifications for leadership appears 
in his having graduated at Yale College in 1752, 
and filled the office of a tutor in that institution 
from 1756 to 1761, and again from 1763 to 1765. 
He was afterward an attorney and a merchant in 
New Haven, where he died in 1797, the same year 
in which the Sandemanian house of worship in 
Gregson street passed into the possession of the 
Methodists. Almost all which is now known of 
the Sandemanians in New Haven comes to us 
through the record of the civil authorities in regard 
to the adhesion of the people of this sect to the 
Tory side, in the strife of the Revolutionary War. 
The town voted, November 6, 1775, that every 
person who looks upon himself bound, either in 
conscience or choice, to give intelligence to our ene- 
mies of our situation, or otherwise take an active 
part against us, or yield obedience to any command 
of his Majesty, King George III, so far as to take 
up arms against this town or the United Colonies, 
every such person be desired peaceably to depart 
from the town. A committee of fifteen was then 
appointed and desired to call before them "to- 
morrow, or as soon as may be," every person sus- 
pected of harboring the sentiments above men- 
tioned. Mr. Woodhull and his associates in the 
Church, for the vote seems to have been passed 
with reference to the Sandemanians. when exam- 
ined, gave an answer which did not satisfy them- 
selves when they had had time for reflection, and 
they sent to the committee a note in which they 
acknowledged that their answer aforesaid should 
have been plain and simple, and they should have 
made answer that "we hold ourselves bound in 
conscience to yield obedience to the commands of 
his Majesty, King George III, so far as to take up 
arms against New Haven or the United Colonies; 
and avoiding to give a plain answer to so plain a 
question at a time when the town and country w-ere 
disavowing their allegiance to the King, and were 
going into open rebellion against God and the King, 
was evidence to them that they were influenced in 
the first answer by fear of man and not of God. " 

The result of these proceedings seems to have 
been that the Sandemanians remained in town. 
The Whigs probably did not feel justified in oblig- 
ing them to leave, upon a mere statement of their 
conscientious convictions, as long as they were care- 
ful to avoid overt acts of hostility. But in 1777, 
one of their company was, for some reason which 
does not appear, imprisoned. Some of the princi- 
pal Whigs, one of whom was at that time Chairman 
of the Board of Selectmen, who were also the Com- 
mittee of Inspection, in an interview with one of 
the Sandemanians, requested a statement of their 



140 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEX. 



belief touching loyalty to the King, and received 
the following declaration in reply: 

New Haven, Septemlwr 14, 1777. 
Ta Afc'ssrs. Samuel Bishop, Davui Austin, and Timothy 
Jones, Jr. 

Geni I-EMEN, — Your ilcsire having been signified to us by 
Mr. Chamberlain, that we would make a declaration of w hat 
we jirofess touehing that subjection which we are bound by 
the word of God to yield to the higher powers, do say: w'e 
are bound to hearken to that word: " Be not afraid of them 
who kill the body, anil after that have no more that they can 
do, but I will forewarn you whom you shall fear; fear Him, 
who after he hath killed hath power to east into hell; yea 1 
say unto you, fear Him." His word and authority obliges 
us to be subject to the higher powers— the powers that be — 
which are ordained of God; to be subject to the King as 
supreme; and to governors, as those who are sent by him 
for the punishment of evil-doers and the praise of them 
who do well; to fear tlie Lord and the King, and not meddle 
with them wlio are given to change. These and such like 
words, by which we inust Iw judged at the last day, bind 
our consciences to be faithful and loyal subjects to our 
Sovereign King George the Third, whom God jjreserve, 
to whose government we are heartily attached ; to give no 
countenance, aid or assistance to any design formed against 
this government, but to conduct as loyal subjects; to obey 
his laws, his commands, and those of sutxirdinate rulers in 
all things wherein they do not interfere with the commands 
of our Maker, in which case we ought to obey God rather 
than man. That as according to the Scriptures, the king- 
doms of this world are to be defended by the sword, a com- 
mand from the Sovereign to his faithful subjects to assist in 
the defense of his government at the peril of their lives, 
when they are in a situation that admits of it, is a lawful 
command; and even in the situation in which we now are, 
we are bound to a dutiful, loyal, obedient conduct, such as 
our situation will admit of; and though we earnestly wish to 
live ill peace, and have no inclination to bear arms or be- 
come soldiers in a lawful war, yet the e.-ihortation of John 
the Baptist, and the case of Cornelius oblige us to conclude 
that the soldiers' calling is a lawful one for Christians as well 
as other men. 

This faith respecting the commands of the Lord touching 
subjection we have heretofore possessed when it appeared 
to us that we were, in the course of Providence, called to 
speak of it, and for this we have suffered ; neither can we 
conceal, or dissemble, or soften the commands betore men- 
tioned without being ashamed of Christ and his words be- 
fore men, and incurring that much-to be-dreaded conse- 
quence, the Son of Man's being ashamed of us before his 
Father and before his angels. We hold ourselves equally 
obliged, if it be possible, as much as in us lielh, to live peace- 
ably with all men; to do good to all men as we have 
opportunity; to be inoffensive among our neighbors: to 
love and pray for our enemies; never to avenge ourselves, 
nor to bear ill-will to any man; to be no busy-bodies in other 
men's matters, but with quietness to work and eat our own 
bread. How far our conduct has corresponded to this 
we must appeal to our neighbors. Suffering for these senti- 
ments, it must appear to our consciences that we suffer for 
the word of God and the testinrony of Jesus Christ; this we 
ought to esteem a great honor, t)f which we were never 
worthy. <->ur consciences do not condemn us as suffering 
for evil doing, or as having done ;tnything against men that 
will :icquit them in the righteous judgment of God for 
bringing such sufferings upon us. 

If we arc to be deprived of that liberty which we have in 
nowise forl'eited, happy shall we be if it be given to iis from 
above to sufTer with patience. We are able to get a subsist- 
ence in this place in our lawful callings without being 
a burden to our neighliors; if we are removed or confined, 
this is taken from us; we would be glad, therefore, to 
l)e permitted to continue here if we may live in (juiet 
and unmolested. We wish not to be sent ijito the country, 
or to be separated to prevent our assembling on the first 
day of the week, to continue steadfastly in the Apostle's 
doctrine and fellowship, and the breaking of bread and 
the prayers. But if we are not to l)e jiermited the free 
exercise of the Christian profession in this place, as 
Christians may lawfully wish to enjoy the protection 



and blessings of government, that merciful ordinance of God 
— and as the Lord has, in his tender mercy, permitted His 
disciples toffee from persecutions, saying: " If they persecute 
you in one city, flee ye to another"— our wish is that we 
may be suffered peaceably to retire, with our families, to 
some convenient place more immediately imder the King's 
protection, that we may seek some place whei'e we may 
sojourn in peace and worship God according to His word; 
and that this may be allowed in such a way that we may not 
be molested by the people in departing. And «e w ish that 
our dear brother, t)liver Burr, suffering in prison for 
hearkening to that command of the Lord which reipiires us 
to do good to all men as we have opportunity, may be suf- 
fered to go with us, with his family. 
We are, Cienllemen, your well-wishers, 

Joseph Pvnchon, 
Theuphilus Chamheri-.iin, 
Benjamin Smith, 
William Rh'Iimond, 
Daniel Humphries, 
Titus Smith, 
Richard Woudhuli., 
Thomas Gold. 

METHODIST CHURCHES. 

The history of Methodism in Connecticut dates 
from 1 789. According to the testimony of the Rev. 
Abel Stevens, in his " Memorials of Methodism," 
the Rev. Messrs. Cook and Black had preached in 
Connecticut a year or two previous. But they 
were only travelers passing through the State. The 
Rev. Jesse Lee spent three months in 1789, visiting 
one town after another, wherever the voice of God's 
providence seemed to call him. New Haven was 
one of the places where he tarried to preach. His 
first sermon in this town was deliveied on the 21st 
of June, in the State House, at 5 o'clock on a Sab- 
bath afternoon. He was invited to take tea with a 
Mr. Jones, and afterward "put up at Parmalee's 
Tavern.'' Four weeks later he was again in New 
Haven, and preached in one of the meeting-houses, 
the Rev. Jonathan Edwards being among his 
hearers. This time he was entertained at the house 
of David Beecher, the father of the Rev. Dr. L}man 
Beecher. In 1790 he made another preaching tour 
in New England, spending much time in Con- 
necticut. 

A communication in the Cunneclkul Journal of 
March 31, 1790, from a conservative New Havener 
probably reveals the feeling with which most of the 
town-born regarded a Methodist preacher. 

Messrs. Green, — I would beg leave through the channel 
of yom- paper to ask the serious citizens of New Haven 
whether it is consistent with reason or the word of God to 
giveencoiu'agement to the itinerant pi'eacher who frequently 
holds forth in this city ? No reffeclion is intended either 
upon his principles or abilities. The poorest talents, if 
rightly improved, are not to be despised. And in this laml 
ot freedom every one has his full liberty to think for himself 
and publish his thoughts on religion or any other subject, 
provided he does it in a projier manner. 

For his errors, if he has any, he is answerable to God 
alone. Men are not to be blamed for entertaining different 
sentiments. Yet they may be blamable for attempting an 
undue mode of propagating them. Though all denomina- 
tions are and ought to be equally protected, most certaiidy 
the Pharisaic rage of compassing sea and land to make 
proselytes ought to be discountenanced by every lover of 
order and propriety. Religious societies are apt enough to 
disagree. The friends of religion, therefore, should not un- 
necessarily multiply the occasions of disagreement. While 
they encourage freedom of inquiry on religious subjects, 
while they cultivate, and by their own example recommend. 



CHURCHES AND CLERGYMEN. 



141 



a spirit of true candor and Catholicism, they ought to frown 
upon tliiise who, under pretense of spreading a favorite sys- 
tem ol doctrine?, nui about from town to town preaching 
wherever tliey can hnil hearers, poisoning the minds of the 
Nulgar by their intemperate harangues and thus sowing the 
seetls of i-Hscortl and taction. Such conduct cannot proceed 
from tile mild temper of the Gospel. Tlie man who purposely 
promotes a difference of sentiments, merely to excite divi- 
sions and separations, to draw off a party of lollowers and 
obtain employment or fame for himself at the expense of the 
community, is, in plain English, a villain, though he wear a 
face as solemn as Sunday and pretend to as much sanctity as 
ever an apostle jiossessed. 

I am far from charging the preacher referred to with so 
foul an intention. On the contrary, I hope he is honest. No 
man slioiild lie condemned without proof. However, let me 
ask the candid readers and believers fif the Bible if his 
crowding into the congregations of other pastors withoutan 
invitation or recommendation, without producing any 
credentials of character, or any testimonials of a regular 
admission into the sacred office, and especially his offering 
his service gratis, are not Scriptural marks of a "wolf in 
sheep's clothing." False teachers have been frei|uent in the 
Church from the days of our Saviour down to the present 
time, and we are warned to beware of them. We are told 
that " He who entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, 
but climbeth up some other way, the same is a ihief and a 
robber," instead of the tiue shepherd. Does he who is not 
regularly introduced according t(5 the order of the Gospel, 
but creeps in unawares and intrudes himself as a busy-body 
in other men's matters — does he, I ask, enter by the door ? 
Does he not rather climb up some other way ? Let candor 
decide. 

St. Paul directs us to mark them who cause divisions and 
offenses, and to avoid them, for they serve not the Lord 
Christ Jesus; but with good words and fair speeches deceive 
the hearts of the simple. A common artifice ot such deceivers 
is to demand no reward for their labor at first; although as 
soon as they have once gained a sufficient jiarty they gen- 
rally find it written that the laborer is worthy of liis hire. 
Though tliat kind of preaching which can be had for nothing 
is commonly known to be good for nothing, yet this is a bait 
olten used to catch the selfish and unwary. Men of small 
abilities, but high pretensions, are sometimes able by such 
insinuations to collect a number of disciples from the tower 
ranks of people, and occasion niucli mischief. 

A zealous profession in a stranger is not indeed always 
the badge of a hypocrite or a pretender; neither is it by any 
means an infallible proof of sincerity. For vice very often 
appears dressed in the lovely garb of virtue. The worst of 
sinners may for a while assume the appearance of saints. 
Even Satan himself, to serve a turn, is sometimes transformed 
into an angel of light, and, to carry on the deception more 
effectually, can quote texts of Scripture as fluently as any 
itinerant pedlar ot peculiar tenets. Perhaps, however, 
these itinerants are really zealous and conscientious. I 
lielieve many of them are. P>ut is it a breach of Christian 
charity to suppose that their zeal is not according to knowl- 
edge and that their conscience is sometimes, at least, misin- 
formed ? This city is furnished with preachers of various 
denominations, eminent in their several ways for learning, 
eloquence and piety. We have as numerous a clergy as we 
are willing to support in a proper style. Why then, in the 
name of common sense, shall we indulge a silly itch of hear- 
ing strangers, whose characters and designs are unknown, 
and who may insensibly divide us more than we are already ? 
I am informed that some who lately attended one of the 
itinerant's 5 o'clock meetings, disgusted with the dullness 
and extravagance of his performance, left him in the midst 
of his sermon. Perhaps they had sufficient provocation for 
such a piece of rudeness. Hut it would be more decent an<l 
conformable to th:.' solemnity of the Sabbath to tarry at 
home, in the humble opinion of A Citizen. 

The same year Jesse Lee was appointed Elder 
of a Conference which covered a large part of 
New England, and included New Haven among 
its circuits. The published minutes report New 
Haven in 1790, with a membership of nine per- 
sons, and under the pastoral care of the Rev. John 



Lee; "but," says the Rev. George W. Woodruff, 
in a Historical Sermon which he preached in 1S59, 
"from all I can le;irn, these nine members were 
probably persons living in the region round about, 
since I can find no record of any IMethodis'.s in the 
City till two years afterward." The name of New 
Haven now disapjiears from the official record and 
does not reappear until 181 1. In 1792, this city 
was included in the Middletown circuit, and had 
for its preachers the Rev. Richard Swain and the 
Rev. Aaron Hunt; who gave such attention to the 
work as could be given by them to one of perhaps 
thirty preaching places, usually preaching once in 
two or three weeks in such private houses as could 
be obtained for that use. In this year, Samuel 
Pool and his wife removed from Farmington to 
New Haven, and were the fir.-,t Methodists resident 
in New Haven. They opened their dwelling in the 
new township as a regular preaching place to the 
Methodist circuit riders. In 1793, William Thatcher, 
who had been converted to God in Baltimore in 
the year 1 790, and had become a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in that city, came 
and settled in New Haven. Marrying a daughter 
of Mr. Israel Munson, he and his wife commenced 
housekeeping in York street, and the Methodist 
preaching place was soon after transferred from the 
new township to the house of Mr. Thatcher. "The 
first fruit of Methodism unto God in New Haven 
was Anna, the wife of William Thatcher, which 
happy event took place about the close of the year 
1794." In the early part of 1795, the Rev. Daniel 
Ostrander formed the first Methodist class in New 
Haven. It consisted of Samuel Pool and Martha, 
his wife, William Thatcher and Anna, his wife, and 
Anna Mi.x. In 1797, the little society purchased, 
for $90, the Sandemanian IMeeting-house in Greg- 
son street. For ten years this was their place of 
worship. Here they prayed and preached, and 
sometimes fought for the right to do so. Lewd 
fellows of the baser sort gave them much annoy- 
ance in their meetings. On one occasion, soon 
after the society had taken possession of the 
litde sanctuary, some rowdies, offended because 
they could not have their own way in Toddy alley, 
determined to put an end to the Methodist meet- 
ings bv demolishing their house. At eleven o'clock 
at night, the leader of the gang obtaining entrance 
to the building, began to hew down the pulpit with 
a broad ax, intending that the first blow should 
be a signal for the crowd outside to tear oft" the 
siding; but the brethren, getting some word of 
their design, were waiting in darkness and silence. 
No sooner had the leader struck the pulpit than a 
muscular Methodist, who perhaps before his con- 
version had been an amateur pugilist, knocked him 
on the head with a hickory cudgel, and thus 
arrested the further progress of the intended demo- 
lition, On the following day the aggressors were 
brought before a court of justice and fined. The 
prompt action of the Methodists, supported by the 
civil authority, was a lesson in behavior to their 
previously untutored antagonists. After worshiping 
several years in Gregson street, the society desired 
larger accommodations, but could find no one 



142 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



willing to sell them ground on which to build a 
house. The Methodists were themselves noisy, and 
their meetings attracted antagonists who were not 
only noisy, but disorderly and violent. No place 
for a new church would have been obtained had 
not a lover of fair play, on whom rested no sus- 
picion of Methodism, purchased a piece of ground 
on his own account and sold it to the Methodists. 
The lot thus purchased is on the east side of 
Temple street, and has been successively occupied 
by the Methodists, by the Temple street Congre- 
gational Church, and b}- a synagogue of Russian 
Jews. Here a church, forty by thirty feet, was 
erected, which was the place of worship for the 
Methodists of New Haven from 1807 to 1S22. It 
was erected, but not finished. It was inclosed and 
occupied, but stood through the whole period of 
fifteen years with unplastered walls. It had a 
scanty gallery, a very plain pulpit and the cheapest 
sittings. What was worse than all else, it was 
burdened with a debt of three or four hundred 
dollars. 

Until 1813 New Haven was only a part of a cir- 
cuit; but on the 23d of December in that year, 
under the superintendence of the Rev. N. Bangs, 
Presiding Elder of the Rhinebeck District, New 
Haven was set off as an independent station. The 
first stationed preacher in New Haven was the Rev. 
Gad .Smith. He was appointed to this new station 
at the Conference in 1814. The Rev. Truman 
Bishop was the preacher in 181 5 and 18 16. The 
Rev. Thomas Thorp succeeded him in 1817. The 
preacher in 18 18 and 1819 was the Rev. Elijah 
Hebard, so strict a disciplinarian, that at the com- 
mencement of his ministry he reduced the number 
of the society to seventy-one, of whom thirty-six 
were white and thirty-five were colored persons. 
That the discipline which reduced the society to 
so small a number was strict, may be inferred from 
the fact that one sister was removed from fellowship 
for conformity to the world in wearing a Leghorn 
bonnet. But at the end of his second year, Mr. 
Hebard carried to the Conference the names of one 
hundred and fifty-eight members, all good and 
true. In 1820, the Rev. William Thatcher, one of 
the original members of the society in New Haven, 
having become a preacher, w-as stationed in New 
Haven and remained two years. It was during his 
pastorate that the society began and completed a 
new house of worship on the Green. By a vote of 
the town in July, 1820, the Metliodist society were 
authorized to build a new church on the north- 
west corner of the Upper Green, in a line with the 
North Church and twenty feet from College street, 
provided it should be built of solid materials. On 
the i5tli of May, 1821, the cornerstone was laid, 
and tlie work went on with such rapidity that the 
roof was nearly completed by the 3(1 of .September. 
On the evening of that day the memorable Septem- 
ber Gale demolished the building. Aid being so- 
licited and obtained from abroad, it was immediately 
rebuilt, and was dedicated May 23, 1822. 

Tlie following certificate was furnished to Rev. 
Mr. Thatcher when he set out on a journey to so- 
licit aid in rebuilding the house: 



New H.wen, September 26, 1821. 
The Methoilist society which appeals to the benevolence 
of a Christian people, is respectable for numbers and char- 
acter. Its public services have been edifying and, as we 
trust, conducive to the great ends of Christian worship and 
communion. While with very laudable exertions they were 
building a new church, they met the disaster which has im- 
pelled them to seek relief. We commend them to the con- 
fidence and aid of those to whom they may .iddress them- 
selves through their pastor, the Rev. William Thatcher. 

Oliv. Wolcott, 

JoN.\THAN Ingeksoll, Licutt-iuint G<n',-rnor. 

Isaac Gilbert, 

R. I. Ingersoll, 

Lent Bishop, 

John Rowe, 

Select men of Ne^^o Haven. 
Elizur GoODKlCH, Mayor of the City. 
AnRAH.\M Bishop, Collector of Ne-M Haven. 
Wm. BkisTOL, Judge of the Superior Court. 

The size of the house was 80 by 68 feet. Hun- 
dreds of town-born men remember it, for the reason 
that they attended the Lancasterian School kept in 
its basement story by Mr. John E. Lovell. The 
building being very plain, and notat all ornamental 
to the Green, the city offered in 1848 to give the 
society five thousand dollars if they would remove 
it from the public square and buiki another church 
elsewhere. To this gift from the public treasury 
the sum of about three thousand dollars was added 
by donors not belonging to the Methodist con- 
gregation, Yale College contributing five hundred 
dollars. 

The Methodists willingly consented to the ar- 
rangement, and built upon the northeast corner of 
Elm and College streets the commodious edifice 
now known as the First Methodist Church, at a 
cost of about $30,000 for the house and lot. 

The preachers in charge while the society wor- 
shiped on the Green were Rev. William Thatcher, 
1820-22; Rev. Samuel Luckey, 1822-24: Rev. E. 
Washburn, 1S24-25; Rev. Heman Bangs, 1825-27; 
Rev. T. Spicer, 1827-29; Rev. James Young, 
1829-31; Rev. Noah Levings, 1831-33; Rev. 
William Thatcher, 1833-34; Rev. Robert Seney, 
1834-35; Rev. Heman Bangs, 1835-37; Rev. E. 
E. Griswold, 1837-39; Rev. O. V. Amerman, 
1839-40; Rev. G. L. Stillman, 1840-41; Rev. 
Joseph Law, 1841-43; Rev. Francis Hodgson, 
1843-45; Rev. A. M. Osborn, 1845-46; Rev. 
Daniel Curry, 1846-48; Rev. James Floy, 1848- 
50. 

During the administration of Rev. Dr. Floy, the 
edifice now occupied by the First Methodist So- 
ciety, on the corner of Elm and College streets, was 
erected, and in 1850 Rev. W. H. Norris was ap- 
pointed pastor of the congregation. He remained 
from 1850 to 1S52. 

His successors have been Rev. J. H. Mitchell, 
1852-54; Rev. J. Kenneday, 1854-56; Rev. M. 
L. Scudder, 1856-58; Rev. L. S. Weed, 1858-60; 
Rev. J. Kennedav, 1860-62; Rev. B. H. Nadal, 
1862-64; Rev. T.'H. Burch, 1864-67; Rev. C. 
Fletcher, 1867-69; Rev. W. F. Watkins, 1869-70; 
Rev. G. W. Woodruff, 1870-73; Rev. J.W. Beach, 
1873 75; Rev. L. S. Weed, 1875-78; Rev. B. M. 
Adams, 1878-81; Rev. C. H. Buck, 1881-84; 
Rev. D. A. Goodsell, 1884. 



CHURCHES AND CLERGYMEN. 



143 



The East Pearl Street Methodist Episcopal 
Church originated in a "class of twelve persons, 
of which Ammi Mallory was leader' 1831-32. 

The first house of worship (a building 24 by 32,) 
still standing on Exchange street was dedicated 
January 30, 1833. The ecclesiastical society was 
organized according to the requirements of the 
laws of Connecticut, April 25, 1833. A second 
church edifice was built in 1835. The corner-stone 
of the present church edifice, the third, was laid 
April 25, 1871, by Rev. Moses L. Scudder, D.D., 
and the house was dedicated by Bishop Simpson, 
May 13, 1 8 73. The pastors have been Rev. Noah 
Levings: Rev. Th. Bambridge, 1S32-33; Rev. 
Luman Andrus, 1833-34; Rev. Hart F. Pease, 
1834-35; Rev. Oliver V. Ammerman, 1835-36; 
Rev. Hart F. Pease, 1836-38; Rev. John M. 
Pease, 1838-40; Rev. F'dward S. Stout, 1S4C-41; 
Rev. J. Burton Beach, 1841-43; Rev. Ira Abbott, 
1843-45; Rev. Henry I). Lathom, 1845-46; Rev. 
Samuel W. Law, 1846-48; Rev. Charles F. Mal- 
lory, 1848-50; Rev. George A. Hubbell, 1850-52; 
Rev. George C. Creevy, 1852-54: Rev. Timothy 
C. Young, 1854-55; Rev. S. J. Stebbins, 1855- 
S6; Rev. Friend VV. Smith, 1856- 58; Rev. J. W. 
/ Home, 1858-6!; Rev. W. H. Gilder, 1860-61; 
Rev. John W. Ceek, 1861-63; Rev. George Still- 
man, 1863-65; Rev. R. H. Loomis, 1865-68; 
Rev. W. F. Collins, 1S68-70; Rev. A. S. Graves, 
1870-72; Rev. George A. Hubbell, 1872-73; Rev. 
C. W. Gallagher, 1873-76; Rev. R. H. Loomis, 
1876-79; Rev. G. A. Parkington, 1879-81; Rev. 
S. RL Hammond, 1881-84; Rev. E. Cunningham, 
1884. 

The St. John street Methodist Episcopal Church 
was organized in 1840. For seveial 3'ears it wor- 
shiped in a hall prepared for it in an edifice known 
by the name of Mi.x's Museum, situated on the east 
side of Olive street, where Court street was after- 
ward cut through to Wooster square. Its present 
edifice in St. John street was erected in 1845. 

The preachers in charge of it have been Rev- 
Mr. Wymond, 1840-42; Rev. W. W. Brewer, 
1842-44; Rev. Henian Bangs, 1844-46; Rev. He- 
man Bangs, Supernumerary, Rev. M. C. White, 
Assistant, 1846-47; Rev. J. Law, 1847-48; Rev. 
F. W. Smith, 1848-50; Rev. J. E. Searles, 1850- 
52.; Rev. J. G. Smith, 1852-54; Rev. Morris Hill, 
1854-56; Rev. J. Pegg, Jr., 1856-58; Rev. G. W. 
Woodruff, 1858-60; Rev. Benjamin Pillsbury, 
1860-62; Rev. Thomas |. Osborn, 1862-64; Rev. 
C. E. Glover, 1864-67; Rev. Arza Hill, 1867-70; 
Rev. S. H. Bray, 1870^73; Rev. C. H. Buck, 
1873-75; Rev. C. S. Wing, 1876-79; Rev. J. W. 
Barnhart, 1879-81; Rev. C. E. Harris, 1881-84; 
Rev. A. H. Wyatt, 1884-. 

The George street Methodist Episcopal Church 
is on the south side of that street, and between 
State and Meadow. Its house of worship was 
erected in 1853, but has since been enlarged to 
accommodate an increasing congregation. 

Its preachers in charge have been Rev. J. E. 
Searles, who gathered a congregation in Brewster's 



Hall as a missionary under the patronage of a soci- 
ety of ladies; Rev. William C. Hoyt, 1854-56; Rev. 
William F. Collins, 1856-58; Rev. C. B. Ford, 1858- 
60; Rev. A. S. Francis, 1860-62; Rev. J. Sim- 
mons, 1862-64; Rev. J. E. Searles, 1864-67; Rev. 
John Pegg, 1867-69; Rev. Joseph Pullman, 1869- 
71; Rev. Samuel H. Smith, 1871-73; Rev. Will- 
iam T. Hill, 1873-74: Rev. George L. Taylor, 
1874-76; Rev. George A. Parkington, 1876-79; 
Rev. William H. McAllister, 1879-81. 

Mr. McAllister removed from the city before his 
second year expired, and Rev. \\'illiam R. Webster 
filled the unexpired term; Rev. William P. Corbet, 
1881-83: Rev. C. B. Ford, 1883-85. 

The Howard avenue Methodist Episcopal 
Church was organized in 1872. Its pastors have 
been: Rev. Perry Chandler, 1872-74; Rev. Nathan 
Hubbell, 1874-77; Rev. W. W. Elder, 1877-78; 
Rev. S. W. Tolles, 1878-81: Rev. Smith A. Sands, 
1881-83; Rev. A. H. Mead, commencing in 1883, 
is still in charge. 

The Summerfield Methodist Episcopal Church 
is on Dixwell avenue, corner of Henry street. It 
began as a mission in a carriage-.shop at Newhall- 
ville in 1871. The present edifice was erected in 
1875, under the ministry of the Rev. Nathan Hub- 
bell. The Rev. Perry Chandler was the first regular 
Conference minister, and he continued in charge 
till 1874; the Rev. Nathan Hubbell, 1874-77; 
the Rev. W. W.Elder, 1877-78; the Rev. Smith 
W. Toles, 1878-81; the Rev. H. M. Livingston, 
1881-83; the Rev. W. R. Rogers, 1883. 

Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church was con- 
stituted in 1882, by the union of two churches, 
one of which worshiped in Chapel street, corner of 
Day, and the other in Davenport avenue. The 
building in Chapel street was sold to Emmanuel 
Baptist Church, and the congregation united with 
the congregation in Wesley Chapel, Davenport 
avenue. Measures were immediately taken to pro- 
cure a site for a new house of worship, suitably 
located, to accommodate all the members of the 
conjoined congregation. A lot on the corner of 
Dwight and George streets was purchased, and 
the commodious edifice which the Church now 
occupies was erected at a cost of about $50,000. 
It was dedicated February 18, 1883. The Rev. 
D. A. Goodsell was pastor 1881-84, the Rev. J. O. 
Peck, 1884. 

German Methodist Episcopal Church — After the 
George street Church had ceased to be a mission, 
the Ladies' Missionary Society turned their atten- 
tion to the Germans, and by praiseworthy exertions 
assisted in sustaining German preaching in the city 
for several years. Out of these exertions grew a 
German Methodist Society, whose house is on the 
north side of George street. 

There are in the City of New Haven three con- 
gregations of colored people who call themselves 



144 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



Methodists. It is much to be regretted that they 
are not consolidated into one. 

There is also a Methodist Episcopal Church in 
Westville; but as it is outside of the city limits, 
our plan does not require us to enumerate it among 
the churches of the city. 

BAPTIST CHURCHES. 

The First Baptist Church in New Haven was or- 
ganized October 30, I Si 6, with twelve members. 
The public services of institution, the Rev. Elisha 
Cushman preaching the sermon, were held in the 
old Episcopal Church, which stood on the east side 
of Church street, near the Cutler Corner. The 
first place of slated public worship was a lodge 
room in the house of Amos Doolittle, located on 
the west side of College street, a little north of 
Elm street. The second was the new township 
Academy, at the corner of Chapel and Academy 
streets. The first pastor, the Rev. Henry Lines, 
resigning in 1S21, was succeeded by the Rev. Ben- 
jamin M. Hill, who commencing his work in April 
of that year, was formally instituted as pastor in 
July ne.xt following. The Academy being too small 
for the increasing congregation, the State House 
on the Green, standing between Center Church and 
Trinity Church, but much nearer to the latter than 
to the former, was secured. The congregation still 
continuing to increase, it was thought best to de- 
vise ways and means for erecting a house of wor- 
ship. The first step taken was to petition the town 
for permission to build on the Green. The town 
voted that the Baptist Society might build on the 
southwest corner of the public square. But, 
although it does not appear on the Town Record 
that there was any opposition in the meeting, many 
citizens were in heart opposed to the proposal, 
having alreaidy repented of giving a similar per- 
mission to the Methodists. To avoid possible liti- 
gation and conciliate the public mind, the plan of 
building on the Green was abandoned, and a lot 
on the south side of Chapel street, between Union 
and Olive streets, was purchased. The corner-stone 
was laid September 23, 1822, and a rejoicing con- 
gregation assembled at its dedication July 27, 
1S24. It was built of East Rock stone and coated 
with stucco. Its dimensions were 50 feet in width 
and 60 feet in length. 

Mr. Hill, having resigned the pastorale, was fol- 
lowed by the Rev. John Pratt. Mr. Pratt was or- 
dained May 12, 1830, and, after a brief pastorate 
of only about one year, was succeeded by the Rev. 
Elisha Cushman, who remained here three years. 
The Rev. RoUin H. Neale, afterward a pastor in 
Boston, took the charge of this church in May, 
1834, and, like his predecessor, continued here three 
years. During his ministry a baptistry was placed 
in front of the pulpit, and the edifice was en- 
larged by the addition of 23 feet to its length. 
The Rev. Thomas C. Teasdale became pastor in 
April, 1840, about three years after Dr. Neale's re- 
moval, and remained nearly five years. During 
his ministry large numbers were added to the 
church, mainly as the result ol special efforts, in 



which he was assisted by Elder Knapp and other 
revival preachers. But there was much difference 
of feeling, interruption of concord, and scattering 
of the congregation when Mr. Teasdale's pastorate 
came to an end. 

In 1842 a second Baptist Church was formed, 
forty-nine members taking letters for that purpose. 
Their meetings were at first held in the Orange 
Street Lecture-room, and subsequently in the 
building called the Temple, on a corner of Orange 
and Court streets. In 1845 they erected a house 
of worship on the corner of Academy and Greene 
streets. In 1856 they purchased the spacious 
and elegant edifice which had recently been 
erected in Wooster place, for the Congregation- 
alists, by Mr. Jerome. Soon afterward it was 
thought desirable, if not necessary, that the two 
Baptist churches should be united in one, and, ac- 
cordingly, the property was conveyed to the First 
Baptist Society, and the two churches were united 
into one, which is sometimes called the First Bap- 
tist Church and sometimes, from the location of its 
house of worship, the Wooster Place Baptist Church. 
By this union the Second Church lost its organic 
life, being merged in the older and stronger church 
which came to unite with it. 

Returning now to the history of the First Church 
as it was after the departure of Mr. Teasdale, we 
find them inviting Mr. S. Dryden Phelps, then a 
student in the Theological Department of Yale 
College, to supply the pulpit, and inviting him after 
he had supplied the pulpit for about a year, to be- 
come their pastor. Accepting the call, he was or- 
dained January 21, 1846. In 1850 the interior 01 
the church was remodeled and beautified, the pul- 
pit being changed from the end nearest the street to 
the rear end of the building. In 1854 a chapel 
was erected in the rear. It was in 1865 that the 
union of the two churches above mentioned took 
place. Dr. Phelps becoming the pastor of the church 
and congregation formed by the union. In 1873 
Dr. Phelps resigned his pastorate and has since 
been employed in editorial and other literary 
work. 

The pastors subsequent to him have been: Rev. 
T. Ilarwood Pattison; Rev. J. M. Stifler, D.D. ; 
Rev. W. H. Butrick, who is now the pastor. 

The Calvary Baptist Church began its history as 
a mission or branch of the First Church. A small 
building in Dwight street was purchased and fitted 
up for a Sunday-school in 1865. It was soon 
overcrowded, was enlarged, and was again filled with 
pupils. 

About this time Mr. John M. Davies removed 
hither from New York, became interested in the af- 
fairs of the denomination, and was desirous of pro- 
moting such a co-operation by the churches as 
would strengthen the cause. In connection with 
Rev. B. M. Hill, who had been pastor of the 
First Church in its infancy, he held such con- 
sultation with the churches as resulted favor- 
ably to the main object in view. The First and 
Second Churches were consolidated; the house of 
worship of the Second Church was transferred to the 
First Church; that of the First Church was sold, and 



CHURCHES AXD CLERGYMEN. 



145 



with the avails of the sale all the financial obliga- 
tions of the two churches were cancelled, and by 
voluntary subscriptions their beautiful house of 
worship was thoroughly repaired and improved, 
with no debt remaining. 

Immediately after the consummation of this 
union, a movement was commenced for carrying 
out other contemplated objects. Meetings were 
held by members of the church and its friends, in 
which the subject of church extension was fully dis- 
cussed and concert of action was decided on. An 
organization called the Baptist Association, was 
formed, and a committee was appointed to co- 
operate with it. After some delay, a suitable build- 
ing lot was secured at the corner of Chapel and 
York streets, at a cost of $19,000, which was about 
double the amount originally proposed for that 
purpose. It was transferred to the association in 
the month of Januarv, 1S67. 

In the preamble to the Articles of Association, it 
was declared that, ' ' Regarding a debt upon a church 
as an unmitigated evil, it is the fi.xed purpose of 
this association to conduct the business in hand 
so that, when the house is completed, it shall be 
fully paid for before passing it over to the church 
(hereafter to be formed) for public service.'' This 
provision, though admitted as a good and necessary 
one, and unanimously adopted, caused many long 
and tedious delays. 

To insure more vigorous action, a meeting was 
held March 16, 1868, when an executive com- 
mittee of fifteen members was elected, with power 
to fill vacancies in their own number, to make con- 
tracts, raise funds, provide a pastor, and to act in 
all things necessary to the CDnsummation of the 
object in view. 

A delay of more than a year now occurred in ob- 
taining the necessary subscriptions, but finally 
ground was broken for the foundation September 
2q, 1869. The corner-stone was laid on the 30th 
of November following, by Rev. B. M. Hill, who 
had performed the same ceremony, about fortv- 
eight years previously, at the foundation of the 
First Baptist Church. The building was ready for 
its internal finish in the course of the next summer, 
when the original plan of preparing a room for 
public worship was commenced, and would have 
been followed to an early completion, but for the 
standing obstacle, the lack of funds as required by 
the constitution. Notwithstanding the delay, the 
basement-room was ready on May 14, 1871; and 
on that day it was opened for public worship, and 
occupied by a happy company of brethren and 
sisters from the First Church and its Dwight street 
branch, and numerous others, who filled it to its ut- 
most capacity. The preacher was Rev. C. E. Smith, 
who ultimately became pastor of the church. 

The monetary embarrassment having been over- 
come about the time when the basement was 
finished, work on the main audience-room was 
commenced and carried forward so thas it was 
ready for use in the following August. A church 
of loi members, dismissed by letter from the First 
Church, was formed August 7, 1S71, and the Rev. 
C. E. Smith became its pastor. 

19 



The entire cost of the lot, building and organ 
was about $100,000. The furnishing was gener- 
ously given by Mr. Davies, at a cost of $8, 500 more. 
The main audience-room was used for the first 
time in a dedication service, November 22,1871. 

In j\Iarch, 1882, a fire originating in the edifice 
destroyed its interior. The damage was appraised 
at $24,800 on the building, $4,000 on the organ, 
and $2,500 on the furniture. In repairing the 
damage, $7,000 more than the sum received from 
the insurance companies was expended, and this 
amount was subscribed by the congregation on the 
day when the restored building was first occupied 
for worship. 

German Baptist Church. — In 1865, twenty-four 
members were dismissed from the First Baptist 
Church to form a church of Germans. The church 
thus originated has grown to be an active and in- 
fluential body, with a neat house of worship of its 
own. It is at the corner of George and Broad 
streets. The Rev. William Appel is the present 
pastor. 

The Grand street Baptist Church was organized 
October 24, 1871. Rev. \V. C. Walker, missionary 
of the Connecticut Baptist Convention, was largely 
instrumental in effecting it. The church depended 
upon "supplies " for preaching until the Rev. S. 
I\I. Whiting became pastor. He entered on his 
labors July 7, 1872, and his resignation took efi"ect 
June 30, 1876. He was succeeded by the Rev. A. 
H. Ball, who was pastor from September i, 1876, 
to June 10, 1883. The Rev. T. E. Busfield was 
ordained September 12, 1883. The house of 
worship, on the corner of Grand and Poplar streets, 
cost, including the lot, about $15,000. It was 
dedicated December 29, 1874. 

Emmanuel Baptist Church. — When Trinity 
^Methodist Flpiscopal Church was formed by the 
consolidation of two small churches, the edifice at 
the corner of Chapel and Day streets, in which one 
of the two had worshiped, was purchased by a 
Baptist society of people of color, and denomi- 
nated Emmanuel Baptist Church. The parish was 
not a new organization when it began to worship 
in Chapel street, but removed thither from Webster 
street. The Rev. James G. Ross was the pastor 
at the time of the removal. 

UNIVERSALIST CHURCHES. 

The First Universalist Society erected a church 
in 1850 on the corner of State and Court streets. 
When the FirstBaptist Society removed from Chapel 
street to Wooster place, their house in Chapel street 
was purchased by the Universalist Society and oc- 
cupied by them as their place of worship for several 
years. Afterward they erected a new house of 
worship, with a parsonage attached, in Orange 
street near the Church of the Redeemer, and called 
it the Church of the Messiah. 

The Second Universalist Church, having pre- 
viously worshiped in a hall, purchased, in 1883, a 



14G 



HISTORY OF THE CTTY OF NEW HAVEN. 



chapel in Davenport avenue which had been the 
home of one of the two congregations which united 
to form Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church. The 
Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford is pastor. 

SECOND ADVENT CHURCH. 

There is a house of worship on Beers street, cor- 
ner of Elm, called Beers Street Christian Chapel 
It is occupied by a church which makes prominent 
among its articles of faith the speedy second advent 
of Christ. 

LUTHERAN CHURCHES. 

The German Evangelicaii Lutheran Trinity 
Church was organized on the 19th of December, 
1S65, and purchased its present place of worship 
in 1871. It is in Wooster street, corner of Brew- 
ery, in the same building in which the pastor re- 
sides. The Rev. C. H. Siebke has been pastor of 
this church from its beginning to the present time. 
A second German Lutheran Church was organized 
in May, 1S85. It has hitherto worshiped in Beth- 
any Chapel in Oak street. 

Swedish Lutheran Church. — A Lutheran Church 
in which the worship is conducted in the Swedish 
language meet in a chapel in Humphrey street. 
Its name is Swedish Bethesda Evangelical Lutheran 
Church. Its pastor is the Rev. J. O. Sanstrom. 

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

There is so close a resemblance between Presby- 
terianism and Congregationalism that Presb) tei ians 
residing in New Haven have usually been content 
to worship with and become members of Congre- 
gational Churches. During the year 1885, how- 
ever, a second attempt has been made to establish 
a Presbyterian Church; the first having been made 
when the South Congregational Church was rent 
by the dissensions consequent on the War of the 
Rebellion. It worships at present in the lecture- 
room of the edifice vacated by the late Third Con- 
gregational Church, and is under the pastoral care 
of the Rev. J. G. Rodger. 

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCHE.S. 

The troubles of the Revolution in France induced 
a considerable emigration of Frenchmen to Amer- 
ica, and in 179^1 there were .so many Roman Cath- 
olic Frenchmen in Connecticut that a priest came 
to administer to them the rites of their church. 
The anniiuncenient of his intention to reside in 
New Haven was published in the Coniicdicul Juiii- 
nal, and a copy of it maybe seen in the chapter on 
the periodical press. But for the restoration of 
tranquillity in France, the Roman Catholic Church 
might have ac<iuired at that time a permanent home 
in our city. I'hc construction of the Farmington 
Canal, a generation later, brought Irish laborers to 
this neighborhood, and from the time of their arri- 
val occasional missionary visits were made by 



clergymen of the Roman Catholic Church. The 
Rev. James Fitton is believed to be the first priest 
who regularly ministered to the Catholics of New 
Haven. In 1834, their first ecclesiastical edifice 
was erected on the corner of Davenport avenue and 
York street. A parish had previously been organ- 
ized and temporary accommodations obtained over 
a bakery at the corner of Wooster and Chestnut 
streets. The new edifice, named Christ Church, 
was consecrated in May, 1834, by Bishop Fenwick, 
of Boston, to whose diocese it belonged. During 
the services the organ gallery fell, antl a convert 
to the Roman Catholic Church, by the name of 
Hardyear, belonging in Derby, and his grandson, 
a boy of about twelve years, were both killed. 
This building was destroyed by fire in the year 
1848. The parish of Christ Church immediately 
purchased an edifice in Church street which had 
been vacated by a Protestant congregation, now 
known as the College street Congregational Church, 
and, giving it the name of St. Mary's Church, oc- 
cupied it as their place of worship. 

St. Mary's Church, having worshiped for several 
years in Church street, removed to the large and 
beautiful edifice which the parish erected and is 
now occupying, on Hillhouse avenue. The parish 
priests have been: Rev. James McDermott, 1832- 
40; Rev. William Willey, 1840; Rev. fames 
Smith, 1840-48; Rev. Philip O'Reilly, 184S-51; 
Rev. Edward J. O'Brien, 1851; Rev. Patrick A. 
Murphy; Rev. P. P. Lawlor; Rev. M. J. Daly; Rev. 
T. E. Whalen (Assistant Pastor). This parish has 
recendy been placed under the care of the Order 
of Dominicans. 

St. Patrick's Church is a large stone edifice situ- 
ated on the corner of Grand and Wallace streets. 
The parish to which it belongs was organized in 
1850, and in 1S53 the edifice was completed and 
consecrated by Archbishop Bedini, the Pope's 
Nuncio. 

Its parish priests have been: Rev. Malhew Hart, 
1850; Very Rev. James Lynch, 1876; Rev. Jere- 
miah S. Fitzpatrick, 1S76; Rev. John Russell, 
1883. 

St. John's Church was built on the site of the 
original Christ Church, and was consecrated in 
1858. The parish priests have been: Rev. John 
Smith; Rev. Hugh Carmoily, I). D. ; Rev. John 
Cooney. 

Uniler Father Smith's administration the school- 
house adjoining the churrh was erected. The 
fiarochial residence on Davenport avenue and 
St. Elizabeth's Convent were erected during Dr. 
Carmody's administration. St. Elizabetii's Convent 
cost $30,000, and has accommodation for 600 
pupils. St. John's Church numbers about 3,500 
members, and represents one of the most valuable 
church properties in the city. 

St. Francis' Church, on Ferry street, Fair Haven, 
is ne.xt in the age of its organization, to St. John's. 

The site on which St. Francis' Church stands 
was i)urcha.sed by the late Rev. Mathew Hart, 
then pastor of St. Patrick's Church, in 1864. In 



SCHOOLS. 



U1 



1867 the church was commenced by the late Rev. 
P. A. Gaynor, the first pastor. The corner-stone 
was laid May, 186S, and the edifice was open for 
divine service October i, 1868, though far from 
being finished. The pastor died May 29th in the 
following year. 

On the 6th of June, 1869, the present pastor, the 
Rev. Patrick Mulholland, was appointed by Bishop 
McFarland to take charge of the parish. Since that 
time a parochial residence has been built, the heavy 
debt on the church almost paid, a twenty thousand 
dollar school-house built and furnished, and the 
valuable property, corner of Ferry and Chatham 
streets, lately owned by S. N. English, secured for 
a convent, and a school erected thereon. The 
parish has increased wonderfully in fifteen years in 
numbers and strength. Eight hundred children 
are in daily attendance at the parish schools, and 
the congregation is contemplating the erection of 
another school building the coming year. "At 
present," says the pastor, "there is not room for all 
the Catholic children who are anxious to come to 
our schools." 

Church of the Sacred Heart. — The edifice of the 
Church of the Sacred Heart was erected in 1851- 
52 for a Protestant congregation. In 1875 it was 
purchased by the Catholics. 

The pastors have been: Rev. Stephen P. Shef- 
frey; Rev. J. A. Mulcahey; Rev. Michael McCune. 

St. Boniface Church(German). — This church was 
organized September 20, 1868. Services were held 
in various halls until 1873, when the present church 
edifice on George street was erected at a cost of 
$7, 500. The first pastor was the Rev. Henry 
Windelsmidt. He was succeeded in 1872 by the 
present pastor, the Rev. Joseph A. Schaele. The 
parsonage adjoining the church was erected in 1 883, 
as a cost of $3,800. This church numbers about 
500 parishioners. 



HEBREW SYNAGOGUES, 

Before the incorporation of the city, a few Hebrew 
families had resided for a time in New Haven. The 
first of them, says Prof De.xter, appeared here in 
1772. Before the end of the century they had 
disappeared, preferring to reside in New York or 
in Newport, where they had synagogues. About 
1840 some Hebrews came to New Haven, and in 
1842 they bought land for a cemetery between the 
city and the village of Westville. They then num- 
bered about 15 families and were mostly from 
Bavaria. Their first place of worship was in the 
Simpson Block, corner of State and Chapel streets. 
In 1849 they elected Samuel Zunder their first 
rabbi, and he remained with them two years. In 
1856 they bought the edifice in Court street, which 
had been vacated by the Third Congregational 
Society, and converted it into a synagogue. They 
numbered at that time about 50 iamilies. Another 
congregation was formed in 1857; the first consist- 
ing of those who call themselves Reformed Hebrews 
and admit that they have deviated somewhat from 
the customs and opinions of their fathers, and the 
second consistingof those who claim to beorthodo.x, 
and to adhere to the ancient traditions of their 
race. The proper name of the congregation in 
Court street is Mishkan-Israel. The second wor- 
ships in William street under the name of Beni 
Shulem. Both these congregations consist of Ger- 
man Hebrews. In 188 1 a congregation of Russian 
Hebrews was gathered. They are said to adhere 
to ' ' orthodoxy ' more tenaciously than either of the 
German congregations. They have purchased the 
house in Temple street vacated in 1885 by the 
Temple street Congregational Church, who remov- 
ed to Dixwell avenue. 

The entire Hebrew population of the city now 
amounts to 850 families.* 

* The editor is indebted to Mr. Maier Zunder for information con- 
cerning the advent and increase of the Hebrews. 



CHAPTER VII. 



SCHOOLS. 



THE first planters of New Haven brought with 
them an excellent schoolmaster. Ezekiel 
Cheever, born in London, January 25, 161 5, was 
twenty-three years of age when he first saw Quin- 
nipiac. Though so young, he was one of the 
twelve chosen for the foundation - work of the 
Church and State, and as soon as civil authority was 
instituted, was chosen a member of the court for 
the plantation. In 1646 he was one of the depu- 
ties to the General Court of Jurisdiction. Dis- 
senting from the judgment of the church and its 
elders in regard to some cases of discipline, he com- 
mented on their action with such severity that he 
was himself censured in 1649. Soon after this, and 
probably on account of it, he removed to Massa- 



chusetts, and became in the course of his long life 
schoolmaster at Ipswich, Charlestown and Boston, 
successively. According to Mather, he "died in 
Boston, August 21, 1708, in the ninety-fourth 
year of his age, after he had been a skillful, pain- 
ful, faithful schoolmaster for seventy years." Presi- 
dent Stiles mentions two aged clergymen of his 
acquaintance, who had been pupils of Cheever, 
one of whom said that "he wore a long white 
beard terminating in a point; that when he stroked 
his beard to the point, it was a sign to the boys to 
stand clear." Cheever, though never ordained to 
the ministry, occasionally preached when he was 
at New Haven, and was an author both in the 
field of education and the field of theology, hav- 



148 



HISTORY OF THE CITV OF NEW HA VEN. 



ing written "A Short Jnirodudion to the Latin 
Tongue," which he called an "Accidence," and a 
book on the millennium, umlerthe title, "Scripture 
Prophecies Explained." The " Accidence " passed 
through more than twenty editions; the twentieth 
being dated Salem, 1785, and a subsequent edition 
having the imprint, "Boston, 1838." Michael 
Wigglesworth, whose ''Day of Doom" passed 
through even more editions than the "Accidence,'' 
became a pupil of Cheever in the summer of 1639, 
being then in the eighth year of his age. He says, 
in his " Autobiography," " I was sent to school to 
Mr. Ezekiel Cheever, who at that time taught 
school in his own house; and under him in a year 
or two I profited so much, through the blessing 
of God, that 1 began to make Latin and to get on 
apace." 

The town record, as redacted by the committee 
of revision after the impeachment of Fugill, gives 
the following minute concerning Mr. Cheever's 
school : 

For the Ix-tter training of youth in this town, that through 
God's blessing they may be fitted for pubUc serviee here- 
after, either in church or commonweal, it is ordered that a 
free school be set uii, and the magistrates, with the teaching 
elders, are entreated to consider what rules and orders are 
meet to be observed, and what allowance may be convenient 
for the schoolmaster's care and pains, which shall lie paid 
out of the town's stock. According to which order £^zo a 
year was paid to Mr. Ezekiel Cheever, the present school- 
master, for two or three years at first; but that not proving 
a competenent maintenance, in August, 1644, it was en- 
larged to ;^30 a year and so contiuueth. 

The end chiefly in view in providing a school at 
the public expense seems to have been to qualify 
persons for public stations in the succeeding gen- 
eration. The planters had not conceived the idea 
prevalent among their posterity, that it is the duty 
of the State to provide schools for all the children 
within ils domain. Mr. Cheever's school was for 
boys only, and for such boys only as were to be 
taught to "make Latin. ' The General Court de- 
fined the work they expected of his successor " that 
his work should be to perfect male children in the 
English after they can read in their Testament or 
Bible, and to learn them to write, and to bring 
them on to Latin, as they are capable and desire 
to proceed therein. " So far as appears, no provi- 
sion was made at the public expense for the in- 
struction of girls, or of such boys as were not 
sufficiently advanced to enter the town school. 
Much to the annoyance of the teacher, such boys 
were sometimes sent by parents who wished to 
avoid the expense of a private school. ]5ut the 
teacher was authorized to "send back such schol- 
ars as he sees do not answer the first agreement 
with him; and the parents of such children were 
desired not to send them." 

After the removal of Mr. Cheever from New 
Haven, no teacher could be immediately obtained 
to whom the town was willing to pay so large a 
salary as he had received. Mr. Jeanes, one of the 
proprietors of the town, was willing to teach, but as 
he was not a thorough Latin scholar, some doubted 
the expediency of paying him a salary. "Much 
debate was about it, but nothing was ordered in it 
at present; only it was propounded to him, that if 



the town would allow him £\o a year, whether he 
would not go on to teach and take the rest, of the 
parents of the children, by the quarter; but he re- 
turned no answer. ' On further reflection, Mr. 
Jeanes concluded to accept the town's ofler; so 
that about two months afterward the town "ordered 
that he should have £\o for this year." In 1651, 
a worthy successor to Mr. Cheever was obtained in 
Mr. John Hanford, afterward settled in the minis- 
try at Norwalk. After about eight months, Mr. 
Hanford removed to Norwalk, having reserved to 
himself in his first agreement with the town, 
the right to do so. In 1653, "the Governor 
acquainted the town that Mr. Bowers, whom 
they sent for to keep school, is now come, and that 
it had been diflicult to find a place for his abode; 
but now Thomas Kimberly's house is agreed up- 
on, and he intends to begin his work next fifth 
day, if the town please; with which the town was 
satisfied, and declared that they would allow him 
as they did I\Ir. Hanford — that is, twenty pounds 
a year, and pay for his diet and chamber; and they 
expected from him that work which Mr. Hanford 
was to do; and some who had spoken with him, 
declared that upon these conditions he was con- 
tent. " 

Mr. Bowers continued to teach the town school 
for about seven years. He was at first troubled, as 
Mr. Hanford had been, with so many children sent 
to him to learn their letters and to spell, that 
others, for whom the school was chiefly intended, 
"as Latin scholars," were neglected. The town, 
hearing of this, charged two of the selectmen (as 
such ofiicers are now called, or townsmen, as they 
were then denominated) to send all such children 
home, and desired the schoolmaster not to receive 
any more such. He does not appear to have been 
hindered in his usefulness, after his first year, by 
this or any other difliculty, till the last year of his 
service. He then informed the court, April 23, 
1660, " that the number of scholars at present was 
but eighteen, and the)' are so unconstant that 
many times there are but six or eight. He desired 
to know the town's mind, whether they would have 
a school or no school; for he could not satisfy him- 
self to go on thus. The reason of it was inquired 
after, but not fully discovered. But that the school 
might be settled in some better way for the further- 
ance of learning, it was referred to the consider- 
ation of the court, elders, and townsmen, who are 
desired to prepare it for the next meeting of the 
town.'' At the next meeting " the Governor de- 
clared that the business of the school had also been 
considered by the committee, but was left to be 
further consideretl when it appears what will be 
done by the jurisdiction general Court concerning 
a colony school." The institution of a colony 
school at New Haven, a few months later, put an 
end to the town school, absorbing into itself all the 
boys in the plantation who.se parents wished them 
to " make Latin." 

The town school being chiefly intended for 
" Latin scholars," and ability to read in the Testa- 
ment being required for admission, parents were 
obliged to provide as they could for the instruction 



SCHOOLS. 



149 



of their daughters and younger sons. There are 
indications on the records that private schools were 
sometimes kept by persons resident in the planta- 
tion, for instruction in English branches. -So earlv 
as February, 1646, "Mr. Pearce desired the plan- 
tation to take notice, that if any will send their 
cliildren to him, he will instruct them in writing 
or arithmetic. " There may have been what the 
English of the olden time call " Dame schools," in 
which the teacher was of the gentler sex, but there 
are no traces of them on the records. 

Though making no provision of schools for 
teaching children the first rudiments of learning, 
the law of the New Haven Colony, even in its ear- 
liest years, required parents to take care that all 
their children, male and female, should be taught 
to read. The statute is as follows: 

It is ordered, that the deputies for the particular court in 
each plantation within this jurisdiction for the time being, 
or wliere there are no such deputies, the constaVjle or other 
officer or officers in pubHc trust, shall, from time to time, 
have a vigilant eye over their brethren and neighbors within 
the limits of the said plantation, that all parents and masters 
do duly endeavor, either by their own ability and labor, or 
by improving such schoolmaster or other help and means as 
the plantation doth afford or the family may conveniently 
provide, that all their children and apprentices, as they 
grow capable, may, through God's blessing, attain at least 
so much as to be able duly to read the Scriptures and other 
good and profitable printed books in the English tongue, 
l)eing their native language; and in some competent meas- 
ure to understand the main grounds and principles of Chris- 
tian religion necessary to salvation. 

As the colony grew in years it required of boys 
a greater minimum of scholarship; for we find the 
following minute recorded by the General Court in 
1660: "To the printed law concerning the edu- 
cation of children, it is now added that the sons of 
all the inhabitants within the jurisdiction shall, 
(under the same penalty), be learned to write a 
legible hand so soon as they are capable of it. " The 
reader should take notice, however, that the earlier 
order refers to all children and apprentices, and 
the later to boys only. The standard to which Mr. 
Davenport would have brought the people by moral 
suasion, if not by authority of law, was even higher 
than that enforced by the court; for, when he de- 
livered up all his power and interest as a trustee of 
Mr. Hopkins's bequest in aid of a college, he 
embraced the opportunity to e.xpress his desire 
" that parents will keep such of their sons con- 
stantly to learning in the schools, whom they 
intend to train up for public serviceableness; 
and that all their sons may learn, at the least, to 
write and cast up accounts competently, and may 
make some entrance into the Latin tongue." As 
this communication was made at the meeting when 
the order was passed requiring that boys should be 
taught to write, it would seem that the freemen 
were moved by Mr. Davenport's communication to 
pass the order, but did not think it expedient to 
require arithmetic and Latin. 

It was designed from the beginning that " a 
small college should be settled at New Haven," 
and at several times motion was made for the ac- 
complishment of the plan. The time was not ripe, 



however, for setting up a college and these en- 
deavors produced no substantial fruit, except a be- 
quest in aid of the intended college, which Edward 
Hopkins, formerly Governor of Connecticut, but at 
this time resident in England, made at the solicita- 
tion of Mr. Davenport. In May, 1659, Mr. Hop- 
kins being now deceased, the General Court of the 
jurisdiction took action for establishing a grammar 
school for the colony, being probably stimulated 
thereto by the desire to secure Mr. Hopkins' be- 
quest for such an institution of learning as it was 
possible for them to establish, since they could not 
compass a college. More than a year elapsed how- 
ever, before the colony school went into operation. 
Meantime, Mr. Davenport, having agreed with 
the other surviving trustees of Mr. Hopkins, 
what part of the bequest for the furtherance of 
learning in New England should inure to the bene- 
fit of New Haven, transferred to the Court of Mag- 
istrates his rights as a trustee to receive and manage 
this part of the bequest. From the colony records 
we extract the following: 

At a meeting of the committee for the school, June 28, 
1660, there were present the Governor, the Deputy -Governor, 
Mr. Treat, Mr. Davenport, Mr. Street. It was agreed 
that Mr. Peck, now at Guilford, should be schoolmaster, and 
that it should begin in October next, when his half-year e.\- 
pires there; he is to keep the school, to teach the scholars 
Latin, Greek and Hebrew, ami fit them for tlie college; and 
for the salary, he knows the allowance from the colony is 
^40 a year; and for further treaties, they must leave it to 
New Haven, where the school is; and for further orders 
concerning the school and well carrying it on, the elders will 
consider of some against the court of magistrates in October 
next, when things, as there is cause, may be further con- 
sidered. Mr. Crane and Mr. Pierson came after the business 
was concluded, and what is above written was read to them, 
and they fully approved of it; and after that, being read to 
Mr. Gilbert, he approved of it also. 

At a town-meeting in New Haven, July 25th of 
the same year, the Governor communicated the 
action of the committee as above, "and further in- 
formed that upon the nth of July, Mr. Peck 
coming over, himself with such of the court and 
townsmen as could be got together, had a treaty 
with him; who propounded that unto the ^40 per 
annum allowed by the jurisdiction, ^10 per year 
(be added), with a comfortable house for his dwell- 
ing, and a school-house, and the benefit of such 
scholars as are not of the jurisdiction, and such 
part of the accommodations belonging to the house 
lately purchased of Mr. Kitchel (at a moderate 
price), as he shall desire, with some liberty of 
commonage; all which the town now consented to, 
and by vote determined to allow to Mr. Peck, which 
the Governor now promised to give him informa- 
tion of 

According to the arrangement thus made, the 
colony school went into operation in the autumn 
of 1660. At the General Court held in !\[ay of the 
following year, there were (says the Record) sundry 
propositions presented by Mr. Peck, schoolmaster, 
to this court, as followeth : 

-RVj/.— That the master shall be assisted with the power 
and counsel of any of the honored magistrates or reverend 
elders, as he finds need or the case may require. 

Second. — That rectores scholir be now appointed and es- 
tablished. 



150 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



Third. — What is it that the jurisdiction expects from the 
master? Whether anything besides instruction in the lan- 
guat;es and oratory ? 

Foiirlh. — That two indilTerent men be appointed to jirove 
and send to the master such scholars as be fitted fur his tu- 
ition. 

Fiflh. — That two men lie appointed to take care of the 
school, to repair, and supply necessaries, as the case may 
require. 

^ixlA. — Whether the master shall have liberty to be at 
neighbors' meetings once every week ? 

Se^'iitth. — Whether it may not be permitted that the 
school may begin but at eight of the clock all the winter half- 
year? 

Eighth. — That the master shall have liberty to use any 
books that do or shall belong to the school. 

Ninth. — That the master shall have liberty to receive into 
and instruct in the school, scholars sent from other places 
out of this jurisdiction, and that he shall receive the benefit 
of them, over and above what the jurisdiction doih pay him. 

7>«M.— That the master may have a settled habitation, 
not at his own charge. 

Eleventh. — That he shall have a week's vacation in the 
year to improve as the case may require. 

Twelfth. — That his person and estate shall be rate-free in 
every plantation of this jurisdiction. 

Thirteenth. — That half the year's payment shall be made 
to, and accounts cleared witli, the master within the com- 
pass of every half year. 

Fourteenth. — That ^40 per annum be paid to the school- 
master by the juristlicti»-in treasurer an^l that £^\g per anninii 
be paid to him by New Haven treasurer. 

Fifteenth. — That the major part of the foresaid payments 
shall be made to the schoolmaster in these jiartlculars as fob 
loweth, viz., 30 bushels of wheat, 2 barrels of pork, and 2 
barrels of beef, 40 bushels of Indian corn, 30 bushels of 
pease, 2 firkins of butter, 100 pounds of flax, 30 bushels of 
oats. 

Lastly. — That the honored Court would be pleased to con- 
sider of and settle these things this court time, and to con- 
lirm the conse(]uent of them; the want of which thhigs, 
especially some of them, doth hold the master under discour- 
agement and unsettlement; yet these things being suitably 
considered and conlirmed, if it please the honored Coiu't, 
further to improve him who at present is schoolmaster, 
although unworthy of any such respect, and weak for such 
a work, yet his real intentiun is to give up himself to the 
work of a grammar school, as it shall please God to give 
opportunity and assistance. 

The Court, considering of these things, <lid grant as 
followeth; viz., to the second, they did desire and appoint 
Mr. John Davenport, Sen., Mr. Street, and Mr. I'ierson, to 
take care and trust upon them; to the third, they declared 
that liesides that which he expressed, they expected he would 
teach them to write so far as was necessary to his work; to 
the fourth, they declared that Ihey left it to those before 
mentioned; to the eighth, they declared that he should have 
the use of those books, provided a list of them bs taken; the 
ninth, they left to the committee of the school; and the rest 
they granted in general, except the i>nrk and butter, and for 
that thi-y diil order that he siiould have one barrel of pork 
and one firkin of bolter, provided by the jurisdiction treas- 
urer, though it be wiih some loss to the jurisdiction, and 
that he should have wheat for the other barrel of pork. This 
being done, Mr. Peck seemed to be very well satisfied. 

The school thus established continued only about 
two years, being discontinued partly on account of 
tiie paucity ol scholars and partly on account of 
the poverty of the colony, 'i'he vole to discon- 
tinue is thus recorded: 

At a (leneral Court lield at New Haven, for the jurisdic- 
tion, November 5, 1662, it was propounded as a thing left to 
be issued at the next (leneral Court after May last, by the 
committee f<ir the school, whether they would continue the 
colony school or lay it down. The business being debated, 
it came to this conclusion, that, considering the distr-action 
of the time, that the end is not attained lor which it was 
settled no way |iroportionable to the charges expended, and 
that the Colony is in expectation of unavoidable necessary 



charges to be expended, did conclude to lay it down, and 
the charges to cease when this half-year is up at the end of 
this month. 

How far the school came short of attaining the 
end for which it was establisheil, may be seen in 
the light of some remarks made by Mr. Davenport 
in a town-meeting held the preceding August: 

Mr. Davenport further propounded to the town something 
about the colony school, and informed them that the com- 
miltee for the school made it a great objection against the 
keeping of it up, that this town did not send scholars to it, 
only five or six; now, therefore, if you would not have that 
benefit taken away, you should send your children to it 
constantly, and not take them off so often; and further said 
that he was in the school, and it grieved him to see how few- 
scholars were there. 

The colony school being discontinued, the town 
of New Haven negotiated with George Pardee, one 
of their own people, to teach the children "En- 
glish and to carry them on in Latin so far as he 
could. The business was debated, and some e.x- 
pressed themselves to this jiurpose that it is scarce 
known in any place to have a free school for teach- 
ing English and writing, but yet showed themselves 
willing to have something allowed by the public, 
and the rest by the parents and masters of such 
that went to the school; and in the issue twenty 
pounds was propounded and put to vote, and by 
vote concluded to be allowed to George Pardee for 
this year out of the town treasury, and the rest to 
be paid by those that sent scholars to the school, 
as he and they could agree. This, George Pardee 
agreed to, to make trial for one year. He was also 
advised to be careful to instruct the youth in point 
of manners, there being a great fault in that re- 
spect, as some expressed." 

Soon after the absorption of the colony of New 
Haven into Connecticut, the town of New Haven, 
stimulated by its desire to secure to itself that part 
of Governor Hopkins' bequest, which, by agreement 
among the trustees, was in the power of Mr. 
Davenport, established "a grammar or collegiate 
school," and invited Mr. Samuel Street to be 
the schoolmaster. The town appropriated ^^30 per 
annum, and the Hopkins estate in the hands of Mr. 
Davenport yielded by this time .^^lo more. 

A few months afterward Mr. Davenport came into the 
town meeting, and desired to speak something concerning 
the school, and first propounded to the town whether they 
would send their children to school, to be taught for the 
fitling them for the service of Ciod in church antt coninion- 
wealtii. If they would, then he said that the grant of that 
part of Mr. Hopkins" estate formerly made to this town 
stands good ; but if not, then it is void, because it attains not 
the end of the donor. Therefore he desired they would ex. 
press themselves. Upon which Roger Ailing declared his 
]iurpose of bringing up one of his sons to learning; also Henry 
(.dover, om: of William Russel's. John Winston, Mr. Hod- 
son, Thomas Trowbridge, David Atwater, Thomas Mix; 
and Mr. Augur said that he intended to send for a kinsman 
from England. Mr. Samuel Street declared that there were 
eight at present in Latin, and three more would come in in 
summer, and two more before next winter. I'pon which 
Mr. 1 )avenport seemed to be satisfieil, but yet declared that 
he must always reserve a negative voice, that nothing be 
done contrary to the true intent of the donor, and that it be 
improved only for that use; and therefore, while it can be 
so improved here, it shall be settled here, but if New Haven 
will neglect their own good therein, he must improve it 
otherwise unto that end that may answer the will of the 
deail. 



SCHOOLS. 



151 



As this declaration of Mr. Davenport was made 
in February, 1668, and he removed to Boston 
some two or three months afterward, having in the 
previous September received a call to the pastorate 
of the First Church there, it maybe inferred that 
the people of New Haven had some reason at that 
time to apprehend that they might lose the benefit 
of the Hopkins beejuest. On the i8th of April, 
however, Mr. Davenport e.xecuted a deed of trust, 
in which he conveyed, with certain reservations 
and conditions, unto "William Jones, assistant of 
the colony of Connecticut, the Kev. Mr. Nicholas 
Street, teacher of the Church of Christ at New 
Haven, Mr. Matthew Gilbert, Mr. John Davenport, 
Jun., and James Bishop, commissioned magistrates, 
Deacons William Peck and Roger Ailing, and to 
their successors," his interest in the Hopkins be- 
quest. 

The Hopkins Grammar School thus established, 
has, with some intermissions which occurred very 
early in its history, afforded to the boys of New 
Haven, from that time to the present day, oppor- 
tunity to be taught " for the fitting them for the 
service of God in church and commonwealth." It 
opens its doors so indisciiminately to the children 
of all classes of people, Christian, Jewish and Pa- 
gan, that the following action of the town may per- 
haps awaken the risibles of the reader: 

At a town-meetiiii; in New Haven, December 9, 1728, 
Voted, That the land lying in the tiovernor's Quartci' in 
New Haven, calleil the Oystershell Field, be put into the 
hand of the school committee in New Ha\'en, commonly 
known by the name of Hopkins Committee, as they now be 
or hereafter shall be, according to their constitution or 
custom; by them to be improved for the upholding and 
maintaining a grammar school in the first parish in this 
town, for the educating of children of Congregational or 
I'resbyterian parents only, and no other use whatsoever for- 
ever hereafter; and if it shall hereafter be thought most ad- 
vantageous to make sale of the lands commonly called the 
Oytershell Field as aforesaid, and the major part of propri- 
etors in this town shall agree thereto, the money thereby 
produced shall be past into the hands of said committee to 
be improved as aforeraid, and to no other use whatsoever. 

New Haven, by its submission to Connecticut, 
came under school laws which differed from those 
which had before been in force. The General 
Court of Connecticut, as early as 1644, 

Ordered, That every township within this jurisdiction, 
after the Lord hath increased them to the number of fifty 
householders, shall then forthwith a|)point one « ilhin their 
town to teach all such children as shall resort to him, to 
write and read, whose wages shall be paid either by the 
]iarents or masters of such children, or by the inhabitants in 
general by way of supply, as the major part of those who 
order the prudentials of the town shall appoint: Provided 
that those who send their children be not oi>pressed by more 
than they can have theirr taught for in olher towns. .'\nd it 
is further ordered, that where any town shall increase to the 
number of one hundred families or householders, they shall 
set up a grammar school, the masters thereof being able to 
instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the university, 
and if any town neglect the ]ierformance hereof above one 
year, then every such town shall pay five pounds /t'r a«H;w( 
to the ne.\t such school till they shall perform such order. 

Under this law New Haven was complained of, 
in 1676, for not having a Grammar School. 

The facts in the case were that Mr. Samuel Street 
having taught the Hopkins Grammar School for 
several years, removed to Wallingford in 1673, ^"c^ 



the School Committee neglected to provide another 
schoolmaster till "at a town-meeting, the 18th of 
December, 1676, the County Marshal acquainted 
the town that he had a warrant to summon the 
town to the County Court, for not having a Gram- 
mar School; and therefore desired the town to 
appoint some person or persons to appear the 
next session of the said Court to answer the com- 
plaint." 

The good people of New Haven, who in former 
days, when independent of Connecticut, had under 
Mr. Davenport's influence always been zealous for 
the maintenance of a Latin school, were surprised 
to find that they were living under laws which re- 
quired them to support such a school, and that by 
their neglect to find a successor to Mr. Street they 
were law-breakers. At a subsequent town-meeting, 
July 31, 1677, the provisions of the law and the 
present state of things in regard to a school in New 
Haven were unfolded by Mr. Jones: 

When the town now lieing informed in the state of things 
about the school, they fell into a loving debate to promote 
the business that a school accoi-ding to law might be set up; 
and therefore it was desirerl that parents, or such as have 
children, would be careful to send their chililren to the school, 
and so continue them at it, that they may attain to some 
jiroficiency, whereby they may come to be fit for service to 
God in church and commoirwealth, and pressed with the 
custom of our predecessors, and the common practice of the 
English nation, to bring up their children to learning. So 
after thei'e had been a large debate of things, the town pro- 
ceedetl to vote and ordered as followeth; 

That accortling to the order of the General Court, there 
shall be a Grammar School forthwith set uji, and that they will 
allow the sum of twenty ]ioun<ls/(?- annum to be |)aid out of 
the town treasury for the encouragement and toward the 
maintenance of the Schoolmaster; and did leave it with the 
Committee for the School to provide a sufficient School 
master, who shall not only teach the grammar and the lan- 
guages, but also perfect the youth in reading B^nglish, they 
being entered in the Primer, and to teach to write a legible 
hand. 

The reader will see in the statute already cited 
that Connecticut provided in the very beginning of 
its colonial existence not only grammar schools for 
training up youth to occupy eminent positions, but 
schools in which reading and writing were taught. 
But such primary schools did not customarily fur- 
nish instruction without expense to the parents of 
the scholars, as is sometimes asserted by modern 
advocates of free schools. The law required that 
there should be schools for teaching English, and 
in this respect differed from the New Haven law, 
but permitted local option as to the payment of 
the teachers' wages; and in most cases he received 
a very small, if any part of his stipend, from a ta.x 
on the grand list. 

After the union of the two colonies, the school 
laws received from time to time, modifications, but 
none which would materially alTect the condition 
of the schools in New Haven. Early in the eight- 
eenth century seven townships in Litchfield County 
belonging to the colony were sold and the 
money distributed to the towns, to be improved 
and secured forever to the use of the schools in the 
.several towns. During the last decade of the same 
century, three millions of the three and a half mil- 
lions of acres of land in the northern counties of 
Ohio, which Connecticut had reserved when she 



152 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



ceded to the United States all her right and tide to 
the public lands, were sold, and the proceeds were 
invested in a School Fund, the annual revenue from 
which kept the illiteracy of Conneciicut at a very 
low rate for half a century without heavy taxation 
for schools. 

But the common schools of New Haven, during 
the first half of the nineteenth century, attempted 
nothing more than to teach the rudiments of learn- 
ing. Until 1822, they were, with few exceptions, 
taught by women, and in many cases, if not usually, 
in an apartment in a dwelling-house. The scholars, 
especially those of the male sex, were very young; 
private schools being the principal provision for the 
instruction of the rising generation. To the sup- 
port of such common schools, the School Society 
devoted its dividend from the State school fund, its 
income from its local school fund, the proceeds of 
tuition money, and any tax which its inhabitants 
might levy upon themselves. Such a tax was sel- 
dom levied, how-ever. for any other than extraordi- 
nary expenses. In sparselv-seltled towns, school- 
houses were necessary, and these were, of course, 
paid for by local taxation. But this expense was 
avoidable in a town where a woman could be hired 
to teach school in a chamber in her father'.s house, 
accessible to all the children in the district; and 
the number of weeks during which the school con- 
tinued was carefully adjusted to the revenue of the 
school from school funds and tuition money. 

The common school was "common" in the 
sense that it was provided b}' the public and for the 
public; but it was not a free school in the modern 
usage of that word. "The committee'' had power 
to remit the charge for tuition in case of inability to 
pay; but the common school, like the private school, 
required tuition money of parents who had estates. 
Private schooU", though demanding a larger pay- 
ment, were usually so much superior in quality, 
that in New Haven, and probably in other large 
towns, the common school was left by prosperous 
families to those less fortunate. 

In 1822, a Lancasterian School was opened in 
the basement of the Methodist Church, which had 
just been built on the northwest corner of the 
Green. The teacher, Mr. John E. Lovel, had been 
a pupil of Lancaster himself, and commenced his 
career in New Haven very soon after attaining his 
majority. While the school remained in the base- 
ment of the Methodist Church it was a school for 
boys onl_v. In 1827 the School Society erected a 
new school-house for ihc Lancasterian School on a 
lot offered by Mr. Titus Street for that purpose. 
The building was so constructed as to accommodate 
a school in two departments, male and female. 
Very soon after the removal of the school to the 
new Iniilding, Mr. Lovel left it to accept a very 
eligible position at Amherst, Mass., as a teacher of 
elocution. But after an absence of two years and 
a half, he was persuaded to return to New Haven 
and resume his former situation, for which no 
one was so well qualified as he. He remained so 
long that when he retired he had sjjcnt more than 
thirty years in the school. Town-born citizens 
remember the dramatic "exhibitions,' with which, 



at the end of the school year, his skill in teaching 
the art of elocution was illustrated. 

The peculiarity of the Lancasterian system con- 
sisted in its employment of the older pupils of a 
school as teachers of the younger. In New Haven 
the Lancasterian system under Mr. Lovel's admin- 
istration was universally considered for many years 
as a success, and the school as a great advance on 
any which had preceded it in New Haven. Visitors 
wondered at the beautiful specimens of penmanship 
and map-drawing which were shown them, and at 
the rapidity with which the pui)ils solved problems 
in mental arithmetic. But, notwithstanding its suc- 
cess, the Lancasterian system was forced to give 
place to the system of graded schools, which other 
cities had been trying, while New Haven was boast- 
ing of Lovel's School. 

The new system was introduced into New Haven 
in 1853. In that year the Webster School Building 
at the corner of George and York streets, having 
been enlarged for the purpose, was opened as a 
well-organized and well-graded school, designed to 
be a model for the entire city. Two years later, 
the Eaton School was opened, and soon rivaled the 
Webster. There being no local boundaries to the 
different schools, these two schools drew to them- 
selves the children of such parents in all parts of 
the city as appreciated the advantages of the graded 
system, and thus, having the advantage of choice 
scholars as well as choice teachers, were conspicu- 
ously excellent schools. The evident success of 
the new system caused it to be adopted for the 
whole city; and one new building after another 
has been erected with the design of supplying the 
entire city with schools equally as good as the 
Webster and the Eaton. The system of graded 
schools thus superseded the Lancasterian system; 
which, in a comparison of the two, had nothing to 
commend it but its cheapness. 

A high school was necessary to the completeness 
of the plan; and, after a few years of experiment in 
a hall hired for the purpose, the Hillhouse High 
School was erected at the corner of Orange and 
Wall streets, on the site of the Hillhouse School, 
which was demolished for that purpose. The 
name of Hillhouse was transferred, however, to the 
new edifice. The High .School Building contains 
a spacious apartment for the meetings of the Board 
of Education, which are held regularly on the first 
and third F"riday evenings of each month, and at 
such other times as the exigencies of the service may 
require. Here also is the desk of the Secretary of 
the Board, where he may be fountl every school 
day in the year at appointed office hours. The 
office of the Superintendent of .Schools is in a room 
adjoining that of the Secretary, and is connected 
by telephone with all the public schools of the 
city. 

The to\vn of New Haven is by State legislation 
divided into two school districts, viz., the City and 
Westville. Until recently the City District was 
bounded by the boundaries of the city; but the 
annexation of a part of East Haven to the town of 
New Haven in 1881 adtled to the City District, 
as defined by the Legislature of the State, two 



SCHOOLS. 



153 



school districts of P'.ast Haven. The City District 
is, for convenience, divided into eight sub-districts, 
having local boundaries. In each of these sub- 
districts is a large building with twelve or more 
rooms containing schools of twelve grades. In 
most cases this central building is supplemented 
with smaller houses, furnishing additional rooms 
for the lower grades of the school. Each sub- 
district being thus provided with its own schools, 
scholars cannot be sent to schools out of the sub- 
district in which they reside, except for special 
reasons and in consistence with the general good. 

Introduction of Music as .\ Regul.vr Branch of 
Study in the Public Scho(1ls. 
In the fall of 1864 the following petition was 
presented to the school authorities: 

To the New Haven Board of Education. 

The undersigned, conscious of the great ami growing in- 
fluence of music in every condition of hie, but more especially 
amongst the young; fully realizing the great advantages 
to be derived from a theoretical knowledge of music, as also 
the great disadvantages arising from the ordinary rote prac- 
tice in singing which our children arc daily receiving, to the 
utter neglect of that elementary study which after years may 
render impracticable; 

Believing that in order to insure the successful introduc- 
tion of congregational singing ni our churches we must first 
instruct our children in the theory of music; 

Convinced that the time has arrived when the masses 
should be educated to read music, and when an elementary 
knowledge of the science may no longer be regarded as an 
accomplishment ; 

And Ix-ing anxious, also, that the interest accorded to this 
subject in the public schools of all our principal cities outside 
of Connecticut should likewise be felt in our own community; 

We, your petitioners, would therefore respectfully recom- 
mend that the elements of vocal music be at once introduced 
as a branch of regular study in the public schools of New 
Haven, and that a competent teacher be employed at a lib- 
eral salary, who shall give his whole time to the prosecution 
of this work. 

NAMES. 
Morris Tyler, Edwin Ilarwood, 

H. M. Welch, W. \V. Boardman, 

E. K. Foster, George F. Smith, 

Alfred Blackman, Lucius (;. Peck, 

C. R. Ingcrsoll, George F. Gardiner, 

H. B. Harrison, Charles Nicoll, 

M. G. Elliott, Thomas H. Burch, 

S. D. I'ardee, D. R. Wright, 

R. Chapman, C. A. Lindsley, 

George H. Watrous, Philip Pond, 

S. W. S. Dutton, J. W. Mansfield, 

N. B. Ives, Samuel I!. Gorham, 

James Brewster, Minott A. Osborn, 

Edwin Marble, E. C. Scranton, 

Francis Wayland, Jr., George Olmstead, 

S. D. Phelps, WilliSm Fitch, 

N. D. Sperry, Edward S. Rowland, 

Cyrus Northrop, Edward L. Drown, 

Charles E. Glover, S. A. Thomas, 

C. E. Judson, E. A. Park, 

W. D. Judson, Thomas G. Osborn, 

Charles F. Hotchkiss, W. D. Bryan, 

John B. Carrington, William C. Peck, 

C. T. Grilly, E. Weston, 
H. W. Benedict, Joel S. Smith, 
W. T. Eustis, Jr., "H. P. Hoadley, 
Edward E. Atwater, Henry Lampson, 
Everard Benjamin, Edward Lampson, 
William Skinner, H. A. Gray, 
John G. North, T. R. Trowbridge, 

D. W. Lathrop, Arthur D. Osborn, 
Amos F. Barnes, D. W. Buckingham 
C. S. BushneU, R. S. Bostwick, 

20 



L. P. Smith, 

C. K. Russell, 
William O. Armstrong, 
Philander Armstrong, 
George A. Chapman, 
George F. Peterson, 
T. A. Tuttle, 

Henry G. Lewis, 
J. B. Baldwin, 
J. G. Bassett, 
Edward P. Judd, 
W. W. White, 
Paul Rocssler, 
Samuel Noyes, 
F. T. Jarman, 
Samuel A. Bassett, 
T. J. Atwater, 
J. H. Mandeville, 
O. B. Leavenworth, 
Evarts Cutler, 
Sylvanus Butler, 
William F. Dann, 
Marcus Merriman, 
Benjamin W. Stone, 
J. Ft. Kh.ck, 
J. M. Augur, 
Benjamin S. Pardee, 
J. W. Hine, 

D. E. Burritt, 
J. J. Osborn, 
Daniel Merrill, 
Jacob Gould, 
John Woodruff, 

E. H. Frisbie, 
James G. English, 
B. F. Mansfield, 
B. H. Douglass, 
W. A. Ensign, 
Edward Bromley, 
J. Halsted Carroll, 
B. Shoninger, 

R. Blair, 

H. H. Thomas, 

W. Webb, 

W. H. Stanley, 

S. E. Merwin, Jr., 

Henry Kellogg, 

K. M. Lovejoy, 

Thomas H. Pease, 

Alfred Walker, 



Samuel L. Smith, 
Peck Sperry, 
Charles J. Allen, 

B. G. Warner, 

C. E. Dudley, 
R. R. Trench, 
Gustave J. Stoeckel, 
T. D. Woolsey, 
George P. Fisher, 

C. W. Chapman, 
Noah Porter, 
Thomas A. Thatcher, 
Jean W. Freund, 
Frank D. Sloat, 
Silas Galpin, 

D. S. Cooper, 

J. Matthewman, 
\,. S. Rice, 
( ). F. Case, 
J. E. English, 
[anies Rowland, 
"W. Hooker, 
(J. F. Winchester, 
John Lvons, 

F. J. Betis, 

Frederick W. J. Sizer, 
William B. Johnson, 
IL S. Dawson, 

L. Hotchkiss, 

G. Gardner, 
J. K. Bundy, 
Leonard Bacon, 
F. R. Bliss, 
John C. Hollister, 
H. Smith, 

J. E. Searles, 

E. T. Foote, 
Mark Bailey, 

H. C. Kingsbury, 
W. D. Anderson, 
J. Rathgeber, 
H. H. Bunnell, 
( leorge N. Moses, 
Limian Cowles, 
P. S. Galpin, 
S. R. Smith, 
J. James Osborn, 
Philip A. Pinkerman, 
O. A. Bill, 
Frank Smith. 



Edward Downes, 

In accordance with the objects of this petition, 
Mr. Benjamin Jepson received the appointment of 
vocal instructor, and commenced his duties January 
3, 1865, in room 8 of what is now known as the 
Cedar street Training School. 

On the morning of July 20, 1866, a "Public 
Rehearsal " of school children took place at Music 
Hall. We quote from a morning paper: 

Hi5 Honor Mayor Sperry presided, and made a short 
opening address, as also did Mr. Parish, Superintendent of 
Schools. Then followed a scries of exercises which were 
delightful to all spectators, and which exhibited the musical 
proficiency of the scholars in a manner highly gratifying to 
all friends of progress, and com])limentary to Mr. Jepson, 
the musical instructor. 

Little folks, hardly a knee high, displayed a knowledge 
of the notes perfectly surprising, and read them from a staft' 
on the blacklSoard with the greatest ease. 

Hon. J. F. Babcock, James Brewster, Rev. Drs. Bacon, 
Carmody and others, delivered short addresses, complimen- 
tary to the work. 

The year following, a second public rehearsal 
took place, since which time there has been no 
apparent question in the public mind in reference 
to the utility of mtisic as a regular branch of in- 
struction. 



154 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



Within the past twenty years the citizens of New- 
Haven have had many opportunities to witness the 
progress of music in the schools; but, perhaps, the 
most notable occasion was the centennial celebration 
of July 4, 1876. In the afternoon of that day 
2, 800 scholars, representing every school district, 
including the Hillhouse High School, took part in 
the following programme of thirteen pieces. The 
correspondence explains itself. 

FOURTH OF JULY CONCERT. 



Invitation of Fourth of ytily Committee. 

New Haven, May 20, 1876. 
Professor B. Jepson. 

Sir, — A committee of the Court of Common Council, em- 
powered to make arrant;ements for an approjiriate celebra- 
tion of tlie Centennial Anniversary of the Declaration of In- 
dependence, to take place on the public Green of our city, 
desirous of making that occasion one not only of interest to 
all the adult people of the city, but one which the rising 
generation in our midst will carry pleasing recollections of 
for many years to come, wish to add to the other features of 
the celebration an open-air concert to be given under your 
direction, by such of the children attending the public schools 
as may be invited by you to join in the performance of so 
patriotic a work. 

The committee have therefore voted to cordially invite 
you to engage to arrange for such a concert to be given on 
the Green, and to embrace in its selections songs of a patri- 
otic and national character. The committee would be 
highly gratified to receive your assent to such a proposition, 
and they are confident the public will derive great pleasure 
from the carrying out of such a programme. 
In behalf of the committee, 

Henry G. Lewis, 

Chairman. 



To His Honor the Mayor, H. G. Lewis. 

Dear Sir, — Your communication honoring me with an 
invitation to direct an open-air concert on the Fourth of 
July, 1876, has been received and duly considered. In reply, 
I will say that I hesitate only in view of the limited time left 
for preparation. With the approval, however, of the Board 
of Education, and with the co-operation of the parents of 
such children as may be selected to take part, as also the 
assistance of such voluntary aid as I may receive in carrying 
out the details, I shall be pleased to undertake the enter- 
prise. Respectfully yours, etc., 

B. Jepson. 

New Haven, May 26, 1876. 



]''ote of the Board of Education. 

" Whereas, The city authorities of New 1 laveii have invited 
Mr. Jepson, teacher of music in New Haven public schools, 
to assemble the pu]iils on the Green, the 4th of July next, to 
take part in Ihe exercises celebrating the Centenni.d Anni- 
versary of our National Independence; it is therefore resolved 
that the Hoard assure the city authorities of their hearty co- 
operation in properly celebrating the occasion, and hereby 
direct the Committee on Schools to afford Mr. Jepson all 
necessary facililies for preparing pupils in our schools for 
their part in the celebration." 

The above resolution was unanimously passed by the 
Board of Education at a special meeting held Monday even- 
ing, May 29, 1876. Horace Day, 

Secretary. 



GRAND CENTENNIAL CONCERT 

Under the Direction of Professor />. Jepson, 

given wrrii a chorus of 2,800 singers. 

The Programme. 

1. The Glorious Fourth of July, Unison Chorus by all the 

scliools. 

2. Red, White, and Blue, Full Chorus with Solo, by the 

scholars of Woolsey School. 



3. Rally Round the Flag, Full Chorus with Solo, by the 

scholars of Dwight .School. 

4. Union Dixie, Full Chorus with Solo, by the scholars of 

Washington School. 

5. Hail Columbia, Unison Chorus by all the schools. 

Selection of Music by the Teutonia Maennerchor. 

6. Watch on the Rhine (words written for the occasion) 

Full Chorus with Solo, by the scholars of Eaton 
School. 

7. Russian National Hynui (.\merican words). Full Chorus 

with Solo, by the scholars of Webster School. 

8. Beautiful Flag, Full Chorus with Solo, by the scholars 

of Skinner School. 
6. My Country 'tis of Thee, Unison Chorus by all the 

schools. 
10. Yankee Doodle, Full Chorus with Solo, by the scholars 

of Hamilton School. 
H. Glory Hallelujah (words written for the occasion). Full 
Chorus with Solo, by the scholars of Wooster School. 
Selection of Music by the Teutoni Maennerchor. 

12. Star Spangled Banner, Solo, Duet, and Chorus — with 

Solo by the class of '76, Duet by the scholars of the 
High School, and full Chorus by all the schools. 
Original Characteristic Song by Bro. Jonathan. 

13. Old Hundredth, with " Praise God from whom all bless- 

ings How," by all the schools and assembled people. 
Let all who sing watch the Conductor s Baton 
The schools will rendezvous at points ailjacent to the 
High School, and proceed by a short march to the Green, 
under the direction of J. D. Whitmore, Chief Marshal, as 
follows: 

Scholars. Principals. 

High School 170 T. W. T. Curtis. 

Webster School 316. . . .J. G. Lewis. 

Eaton School 316. . . .J. Gile. 

Wooster School 316 R. H. Park. 

Dwight School 3 1 6 .... L. L. Camp. 

Skinner School 316. . . .H. C. Davis. 

Washington School 316. . . .G. R. Burton. 

Woolsey School 316- . . M. Pitman. 

Hamilton School 316. . . .Rev. M. Hart. 

A terrace platform, fifteen steps high, was erected 
in the shade at the southern end of the lower green, 
extending from Temple street to the Church street 
entrance. 

The children were costumed in the national 
colors, and were so arranged on the platform as to 
represent the stars and stripes of a huge American 
flag. It was said that the music and words of the 
grand chorus were distinctly heard one mile from 
the Green. The spectacle was certainly one never 
to be forgotten by the 50,000 people who witnessed 
it. Mr. Jepson was the recipient of engrossed res- 
olutions of thanks from the boards of Aldermen 
and Councilmen. 

The Centennial of the town of New Haven was 
duly celebrated on July 4, 1884. On this occasion 
the pupils of Hillhouse High .School filled the 
entire space in the galleries of Center Church, 
and under the direction of their Instructor with 
organ accompaniment by Mr. Harry Earle, inter- 
spersed the centennial exercises with choice .selec- 
tions of music. 

On the 4th of July, 1855 ('6" years prior to his 
engagement in the schools), Mr. Jepson gave a 
patriotic concert, the first oi its kind in New Haven, 
from the State House steps. Si.x hundred boys 
and girls in the costumes of ' ' ye olden times " took 
part, and thousands of people w-ereentertained. Six 
years later on the 4th of July, 1861, and while the 
reverberations from Fort Sumpter were yet echoing 



SCHOOLS. 



155 



though the land, he organized a patriotic demon- 
stration on a much larger scale. Hundreds of 
children, many of whom are now influential cit- 
izens in the varied walks of life, took part, and 
marched in procession from the Old Wigwam on 
Olive street up Chapel street to the Green. The 
streets were lined with people who crowded to 
witness the mimic representation of the Boston Tea 
Party, Daughters of Columbia, Goddess of Liberty, 
Flower Girls, Soldiers, Sailors, Fireman, etc. 

Arriving at the North Portico of the State House 
they found a vast concourse of people in waiting. 
In connection with the musical programme, ad- 
dresses were made by the War Governor William A. 
Buckingham, Ex-Governor Dutton, Judge E. K. 
Foster, Professor Daniel C. Gilman, John G. North, 
Esq., and others. 

Beginning with the two highest rooms of six 
school buildings viz.: High School (Old Lancaste- 
rian), Eaton, Wooster, Webster, Washington (now 
Cedar street), and Dwight, Mr. Jepson's labors have 
been gradually extended to 36 buildings, with an 
aggregate of 237 rooms, being an increase of about 
twenty fold during his twenty years of service. 

In 1865 each class in music consisted of one 
room, and received from Mr. Jepson two thirty-five 
minute lessons per week. 

In 1885 each class, with two or three exceptions, 
consists of two rooms, and receives from the vocal 
Instructor a twenty minute lesson once in two weeks 

A majority of the teachers having received musical 
instruction in all the various grades from room 
one to the High School, they are required to give 
fifteen minutes daily drill in the absence of the 
Vocal Instructor. Mr. Jepson is thus enabled to 
enlarge his sphere of labors and to supervise an 
ever-increasing number of pupils and schools. 

As an indication of musical progress we quote 
the following selections from the Hillhouse High 
School graduating programmes of the last fifteen 
years: 

Gently Fall the Dews of Eve II CUiirmento. 

Prayer from *'Moses in Egypt " Rossini. 

Lift Thine Eyes (" Elijah ' ) Mendelssohn. 

Protect Us Thro' the Coming Night Curschman. 

Let the People Praise Thee (" Eli ") Costa. 

Gloria (1 2th mass) Mozart. 

Blue Danube Waltz (Vocal — ladies' voices) Strauss. 

On the Sea Mendelssohn. 

The Heavens are Telling (" Creation ") Haydn. 

Phantom Chorus (" La Sonnambula ") Bellini. 

See, the Conquering Hero Comes ("Joshua ") Handel. 

Come, Gentle Spring (" Seasons ") Haydn. 

Row Us Swift ( " Ladies' voices ") Canipana. 

Grand Solfeggio Handel. 

Chorus of the Priests of Dagon (" Samson ") fLandel. 

The Curfew Bell Anderton. 

Grand Solfeggio — Arranged from Auber. 

The Soldiers' Chorus (" Faust ") Gounod. 

Achieved is the Glorious Work (" Creation ") Haydn. 

Awake! the Night is Beaming (" Elisire d'Amore")Donizetti. 

On this Day of Joy ("La Pepre Sicilian Vespers "). . .Verdi. 

1 Waited for the Lord (" Hymn of Praise ") . .Mendelssohn. 

Now Tramp o'er Moss and Fell Bishop. 

Tune your Harps (" Judas Maccabceus ") Handel. 

A Spring Song Pinsuti. 

I Mighty Jehovah Bellini. 

I Gipsy Life Schuman. 

i|. As the Hart Pants Mendelssohn. 

f Hail Bright Abode (Tannhauser March) Wagner. 



Happy and Light ( ' ' Bohemian Girl " ) Balfe . 

The Marvelous Work (" Creation ") Haydn. 

Jack and Gill (Humorous Glee) Caldicott. 

Festival Hymn Dudley Buck. 

Inflammatus (" Slabat Mater.") Rossini. 

Damascus Triumphal March (" Naaman ") Costa. 

Awake, Sweet Music("Les Huguenots ") Meyerbeer. 

Great and Marvelous (Mass) Farmer. 

Rataplan Chorus (" La Forza del Destino ") Verdi. 

Humpty Dumpty (Humorous Glee) Caldicott. 

On to Glory (" Lucia di Lammermoor ")...... Donizetti. 

He Watcheth over Israel (" Elijah ") Mendelssohn. 

Bridal Chorus ("Lohengrin ") Wagner. 

Fi.\ed in his Everlasting Seat (" Samson ") Handel. 

O, for the Wings of a Dove Mendelssohn. 

Little Jack Horner (Humorous Glee) Caldicott. 

Morning is Breaking ("La F'ille du Regiment ") . . Donozelti. 

Thanks be to God (" Elijah ") Mendelssohn. 

Joy in Spring Joachim Raff. 

Kyrie (Third Mass in D ) Haydn. 

The House that Jack Built (Humorous) Caldicott. 

ISrightly the Morning (" Euryanthe ") Von Weber. 

Arion Waltz (Vocal) Vogel. 

Hallelujah Chorus (Messiah) Handel. 

The Board of Education for the year ending 
August 31, 1885, consisted of Philip Pond, Thomas 
O'Brien, Horace H. Strong, Harmanus M. Welch, 
Maier Zunder, Henry F. Peck, Francis E. Harri- 
son, Joseph D. Plunkett, Thomas G. Bennett. 

Committees of the Bo.vrd. — Finance: Harma- 
nus M. Welch, Philip Pond, Thomas G. Bennett. 
Schools: Maier Zunder, Joseph D. Plunkett, Fran- 
cis E. Harrison. School Buildings: Henry F. 
Peck, Thomas O'Brien, Horace H. Strong. 

Superintendent of Public Schools, Samuel T. 
Dutton; Secretary of the Board, Horace Day; 
Treasurer, Harmanus M. Welch; Collector, Theo- 
dore A. Tuttle; Auditors, Richard F. Lyon, Fran- 
cis G. Anthony. 

The schools under the charge of the Board are: 

The High School, in the Hillhouse High School 
Building, corner of Orange and Wall streets. T. 
W. T. Curtis, Principal; James D. Whitmore, 
Sub-Master; Isaac Thomas, Classical Teacher; E. 
Theo. Liefeld, German Teacher; and eleven female 
teachers. 

Webster District. 

Webster School, corner of York and George 
streets, has twelve rooms. John G. Lewis, Princi- 
pal, and thirteen female teachers. 

Oak Street School, corner of Greenwood, has 
four rooms and four female teachers. 

Davenport Avenue School, corner of Asylum, 
has four rooms and four female teachers. 

Whiting Street School. Ungraded. Henry \V. 
Loomis, Teacher. 

Eaton District. 

Eaton School, JeflTerson street, has sixteen rooms 
and seventeen female teachers. Albert B. Fifield, 
Principal. 

Wooster District. 

Wooster School, corner of Wooster and Wallace 
streets, has twelve rooms and thirteen female teach- 
ers. Frederick E. Bangs, Principal. 

Hamilton street School, 155 Hamilton street 
and 156 Wallace, has sixteen rooms and eighteen 
female teachers. 



156 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW tiA VEN. 



Fair street School has four rooms and four fe- 
male teachers. 

Woodward School, Annex, has two rooms and 
two female teachers. 

German-English School, 285 Wooster street, has 
three rooms and three teachers. 

DwiGHT District. 

Dwight School, Martin street, corner of Gill, has 
twelve rooms and thirteen female teachers. Lev- 
erett L. Camp, Principal. 

Orchard street School has four rooms and ft)ur 
female teachers. 

New Haven Orphan Asylum School has three 
rooms and three female teachers. 

Winchester District. 

Winchester School, Shelton avenue, corner of 
Division, has twelve rooms and twelve female 
teachers. George B. Hurd, Principal. 

Dixwell avenue School has seven room and 
seven female teachers. 

Goffe street School has three rooms and three fe- 
male teachers. 

Skinner District. 

Skinner School, State street, corner of Summer, 
has twelve rooms and thirteen female teachers. 
Joseph R. French, Principal. 

Edwards street School has eight rooms and eight 
female teachers. 

Humphrey street School has four rooms and 
four female teachers. 

St. Francis Orphan Asylum School has three 
rooms and three female teachers. 

Washington District. 

Washington School, Howard avenue, corner of 
Putnam, has twelve rooms and thirteen female 
teachers. George R. Burton, Principal. 

West street School has four rooms and four fe- 
male teachers. 

Carlisle street School has four rooms and four 
female teachers. 

Greenwich avenue School has four rooms and 
four female teachers. 

Hallock street School has eight rooms and eight 
female teachers. 

Welch Training School, Congress avenue, corner 
of Vernon street, has ten rooms and twenty or 
more female teachers, several of whom are em- 
ployed as substitutes in other schools, 

Cedar street Training School has eight rooms 
and fourteen female teachers. 

WooLSEY District. 

Woolsey School, Woolsey street, corner of Pop- 
lar, has twelve rooms and fourteen female teachers. 
Mark Pitman, Principal. 

Grand street School has seven rooms and seven 
female teachers. 

Grand street Ungraded School. Henry A. Love- 
land, Teacher. 

Lloyd street School has four rooms and four 
female teachers. 

Ferry street School has four rooms and four 
female teachers. 



Centre street School has two rooms and two 
female teachers. 

Quinnipiac street School has two rooms and two 
female teachers. 

The above enumeration includes a High School; 
Graded Schools, in each of which are twelve grades, 
from primary to the twelfth, out of which pupils 
pass into the High School ; a German-English 
School, into which children of German parents, 
who are not sufficiently acquainted with the English 
language to enter the regular schools, are received; 
Ungraded Schools, to which are transferred pupils 
who are habitually insubordinate, or whose attend- 
ance is irregular, either from necessity or truancy; 
and Training Schools, in which graduates of the 
New Haven High School or of some other school 
of high grade are taught the art of teaching. 
Besides the schools enumerated, the Board of 
Education provides Evening Schools, in different 
parts of the city, in which illiterate young men, 
who work during the day, may in some measure 
obviate their illiteracy by a wise use of winter 
evenings. During the winter ofi833-S4 there were 
six evening schools in different parts of the city, 
most of them continuing for 76 nights. Eleven 
teachers were employed, all of whom were men. 
The total number of pupils registered was 519, and 
the number in average attendance was 209. 

The whole number of teachers in the school-year 
1883-84, including teachers of evening schools, was 
274; of whom 29 were males and 245 females. 
The whole number of pupils registered during the 
year was 13,320. Average number registered, 10,1 77. 
Average number in daily attendance, 9,54?. 

The following real estate owned by the district 
is estimated as nearly as possible at its original 
cost: 

Welister School, lot ami buililing $23,000 00 

Eaton School, lot anil building 46,300 00 

High School, lot, building and furniture 125,000 00 

Dwight School, lot and building 27,000 00 

Dixwell School, Inland buildings 8,500 00 

Cedar Street School, lot and Iniilding 7,000 00 

Whiting street School, lot and buildings 2,000 00 

Wooster School, lot and building 25,000 00 

Fair street School, lot and building 12,400 00 

Skinner School, lot and building 46,000 00 

Washington School, lot, budding and furniture 49,000 00 
Edv\ards street .School, lot, building and furni- 
ture 28,600 00 

Oak street School, lot, building and furniture . 15,200 00 
Carlisle street School, lot, building and furnilure 7,000 00 
Crand street School, lot, building ami furnitinv 22,000 00 
Winchester .School, lot, building and furniture. . 26,000 00 
Woolsey School, lot building and furniture. . . . 45,000 00 
West street School, lot, building and furniture. 18,200 00 
(Ircenwich avemie School, lot, building and 

furnitxu'e 10,350 00 

Davenport avenue School, lot, building and 

furniture ... 15,200 CO 

Humphrey street School, lot, building and 

furniture >4i35o 00 

Ilallock street School, lot, building and furniture 14,800 00 
Lloyd street School, lot, biu'lding and fur'niture 11,300 00 
Ferry street School, lot, building and furniture 22,500 00 
Woodward .School, lot, building and fiwniture . 8,000 00 
Quinnipiac street School, lot and Iniilding. . . . 3,700 00 
Center street School, lot building and furniture 2,000 00 

Orchard street School, lot and building l6,Soo CX) 

Welch School, lot, building and furniture 60,200 00 

$712,400 00 



^CWOlS. 



I6t 



The following table shows the growth of the 
school system of New Haven in fifteen years: 

No. School- ^ c^i,„ 1 No, Teachers, 
houses Owned „„ °' o,!!. < excluding 

V ^ D . ^ rooms Occupied, r- t? u I XT r> I 

Year. or Kented. *^ Lvg. School. No. Pupus. 

1S7O 21 121 I4S 5,818 

1871 22 125 155 6,060 

1872 25 150 182 7,101 

1S73 24 155 189 7.2oS' 

1874 26 159 194 7,532 

1875 25 i6j 200 7,595 

1S76 24 158 199 7,428 

1877 24 165 204 7,866 

1S7S 26 169 206 7,890 

1879 25 174 214 8,165 

18S0 26 184 225 8,356 

1881 29 192 230 8,879 

1882 34 203 252 9,392 

1883 36 217 261 9,638 
1S84 37 239 263 10,177 

And the following table exhibits a comparative 
statement of the current annual expenses, the cost 
per scholar as based on the average number regis- 
tered, and an approximate statement of the expenses 
for building and for improvements on the school 
property: 

Averaee E.vpenses for 

Year. Ordinary NumbSr ?9^',P" Building and for 

lucpenses. Registered Scholar. Improvements 

on Property. 

•870 $115,73626 5,818 $1989 813,73478 

1871 117,998 08 6,060 19 47 28,666 48 

1872 134,87463 7,101 1899 118,07403 

1873 145,100 31 7,208 20 13 33,119 60 

1*^74 '59,93007 7,532 2123 55,40505 

'^75 "65,333 31 7,595 21 77 2,332 37 

"876 162,04535 7.42S 21 81 6,83941 

1877 176,779 12 7,866 22 51 29,637 26 

1878 173.059 27 7,890 21 93 28,427 66 

1879 165,270 19 8,165 2094 3,703 88 

1880 164,019 ^i 8,356 19 03 27,874 29 

18S1 175,678 36 8,879 '9 79 '7,965 60 

'882 182,605 83 9,393 19 44 21,987 57 

1883 202,360 13 9,638 21 00 58,683 57 

1884 211,226 26 '0,177 20 75 44.672 82 

Not long before the introduction of the system 
of graded schools, a change was made in the mode 
of supporting schools, more important, perhaps, 
than It seemed to the careless observer. Until 1848, 
a term fee of a fraction of a dollar for each child 
had been demanded quarterly in all cases where 
the parents were able to pay; and poverty had sel- 
dom been pleaded as an excuse for non-payment. 
But as a statute of the State provided that " no 
children shall be denied the privilege of attending 
school in any school district on account of the in- 
ability of their parents " to pay tuition money, some 
parents resisted the demand in 1S48, and many 
more in 1S49. In such conditions, it was imprac- 
ticable to draw a line between those who must pay 
and those who might properly avail themselves of 
the statutory exemption, and no attempt has been 
made since 1849 to collect tuition money. In this 
way the principle was established in practice that 
the State will provide for all children — the children 
of the rich, as well as of the poor — schools in which 
tuition is entirely gratuitous. 

The money for the ordinary expenses of the pub- 
lic schools in New Haven now comes ( i ) from the 
State School Fund; (2) from the Town Deposit 
Fund; and (3) from school taxation, which, that it 
may be more equitable, is levied partly by the State, 



partly by the town, and partly by the School So- 
ciety, the more w^ealthy parts of the town and of 
the State being thus obliged to help the poorer. 
The extraordinary expenses are, of course, met by 
taxation within the School Society. The principle 
is now firmly established in practice, that common 
or public schools are free schools, in the sense that 
no tuition money is to be demanded. 

Of the masters of private schools in New Haven 
during the eighteenth century very little is known. 
On the Wadsworth map of 1748, the house of 
Samuel Mix, schoolmaster, is shown as standing 
where the Battell Chapel now is, at the corner of 
College and Elm streets. Mr. Mix graduated at 
Yale College in 1720, and probably inherited this 
house from his father, as on the map of 1724 it is 
inscribed Samuel Mix, seaman. In this house the 
schoolmaster dwelt, and doubtless kept his school, 
till death removed him. His widow married Will- 
iam Greenough, and continued to reside in this 
house, which came to be known as the Greenough 
House. A writer in the Cotinec/icul Herald of Sep- 
tember 25, 1835, speaks of the building as being 
at that time in progress of demolition, and says: 
"One of Mr. Mix's daughters (Elizabeth) married 
the late Colonel Jonathan Fitch, and the other, Mr. 
Richard Woodhull, whose daughter married Jehu 
Brainerd, Esq., nearly forty years ago. James Hill- 
house purchased of the heirs of Samuel Mix the 
above house and land for the use of Yale College." 
As the Hopkins Grammar School was free to the 
sons of New Haven families, it is reasonable to 
believe that Mr. Mix did not prepare bovs for col- 
lege, and as co-education was not yet in vogue, 
it is improbable that his was a school wherein boys 
and girls studied and recited together. 

The map of 1748 shows the house of Moses 
Mansfield, schoolmaster, on the home lot at the 
corner of Church and Elm streets, which had de- 
scended to him from the first of his family name in 
New Haven. Nothing is known to the writer, of 
schools in New Haven from the time of Samuel 
Mix and Moses Mansfield to the close of the Revo- 
lutionar}' War. In the autumn of 1783 a school 
for girls only, was established by Abel Morse. He 
was a book-seller, and advertised " Webster's New 
Spelling Book " in the same column with his school. 
It appears from the adxertisement that he was the 
proprietor, and not the teacher, of the school. 

A School for Young L.vdiks. — Geiillemen and Ladies 
are herel^y infornieti that a School is opened in New Haven 
for the Instruction of Young Misses in the followint; liranches 
of Female Kilucatioa, viz. : Readini;, Writing, Arithmetic, 
English Grammar, Geography, Composition, and the difier- 
ent Ijranches of Needle-Work. Said School will be taught 
by a (Gentleman and Lady well qualified to instruct in the 
various branches above mentioned. Should the Subscriber 
meet the a]iprobation of the Public in his expensive under- 
taking, they may expect that said school will be furnished 
with a suitable Library and other Accommodations, which 
may render the School profitable and respectable. For fur- 
ther particulars relative to said school, please to inquire of 
the Public's very humble servant, 

New H.vven, October 13, 1783. Abel Morse. 

In December another advertisement appears as 
follows: 

The School lately opened in New Haven for the instruc- 
tion of Young Misses, having succeeded beyond the most 



158 



HISTORV OF THE CITV OF NEW HA YEN. 



sanguine expectation of the Subscriber, the customers to 
said School, and the public are hereby informed that he is 
encouraged to prosecute the plan he has adopted, and pro- 
poses to furnish the school with a useful library and every 
other accommodation \\hich may render it advantageous to 
its members. Hoard and lodgings will be provided for 
\'oung Misses, who will be imder the immediate inspection 
of their Governess; and the pay made easy by the pulilic's 
friend and humble servant, Ahei, Morse. 

N. B. — An evening school is opened by the Master of the 
Voung Misses, to instruct young ladies in writing, arithmetic, 
geography, composition, etc. 

The master of the young misses here mentioned 
was doubtless Mr. Jedidiah Morse, afterward the 
Rev. Dr. Morse, pastor of a church in Charlestown, 
Mass., and "the father of American Geography." 
He was graduated at Yale College in 1783, about 
a month before the first appearance of the above 
advertisement. In 1784 he issued a small iSmo 
Geography, which he had prepared for the use of 
his pupils. It was the first work of the kind pub- 
lished in America. This was followed by larger 
works, in the form of systems of geography, and 
gazetteers, containing full descriptions of the coun- 
try, from materials obtained by traveling, and ex- 
tesive correspondence. Jeremy Belknap, the his- 
torian of New Hampshire, Thomas Hutchins, 
Ebenezer Hazard, and others, who had contem- 
plated the same task, gracefully yielded their pre- 
tensions in his favor, even contributing to his use 
the materials they had gathered; and for thirty years 
he remained without any important competitor in 
this department of science. From his school he 
retired in 1785, was a tutor in college for about a 
year, and in the autumn of 1786 resigned his 
tutorship, to travel through the States as far as 
Georgia, collecting material for a new edition of his 
Geography. On retiring from his school he recom- 
mends his successors, Messrs. Barnabas Bidwell and 
Jonathan Leavitt, "as gentlemen in every respect 
qualified to instruct young ladies in the above 
branches of education. " 

In 1799, Mr. Jared Mansfield was a schoolmaster 
in New Haven. His advertisement may be found 
in the Connecticul Journal oi y[d,\ 19th of that year: 

The subscriber, having resumed the business of instruc- 
tion, informs the public that he is now ready for the recep- 
tion of scholars at the place of his residence; where, besides 
reading, writing, arithmetic, and the Latin and Greek lan- 
guages, the following uselul branches of learning will be 
taught, viz.: book-keeping according to the Italian form; 
navigation according to a new and much improved plan of 
his own, whereby the whole may be learnt in a quarter of 
the time usually appropriated to it, together with the method 
of finding the latitude by observations liefore noon or after- 
noon, and the longitude by lunar distances; the doctrine of 
chances, including annuities, reversions and survivorshi\)S, 
a branch of learning very necessary to all who have any 
connection with assiu'anccs, lotteries, or tontines; mensura- 
tion, surveying and guaging, or any other branch of the 
mathematics, Irom Pike's Arithmetic to Newton's I'rincipia, 
inclusive. 

New Havkn, May 19, 1790. Jared Mansfiei,d. 

Jared Mansfield, LL. D. , was born in New Haven 
in 1759, and graduated at Yale College in 1777. 
From the tenor of liis advertisement, it would 
seem that he hail taught school in New Haven 
previous to 1 790, and that now, at the age of 
thirty-one years, he resumes his former employ- 



ment. He remained in New Haven several years, 
and then removed to Philadelphia, where he had 
charge of a Quaker Grammar School. He was 
afterward Professor of Natural and E.xperimental 
Philosophy in the United States Military Academy 
at West Point. He published, in 1802, " F^ssays: 
Mathematical and Physical." His death occurred 
in New Haven, February 3, 1830. 

In the course of the same year in which Mr. 
Mansfield resumed his occupation of teaching, 
there were at least three other private schools ad- 
vertised. As if these four schoolmasters could not 
sufficiently compete with one another, a plan was 
adopted by the citizens for establishing an institu- 
tion similar to the present grade system of the 
public schools. It was brought to the attention of 
the people by Abraham Bishop, who afterward, 
under the administration of Jefferson, was Col- 
lector of the Port of New Haven. In a series of 
si.x articles which appeared in the Connecticut 
Journal between March 10 and April 7, 1790, Mr. 
Bishop explains and advocates his plan. It was 
put into operation, but doubtless without the ad- 
vantage of such a building as the plan postulates. 
It cannot have continued many years, as measures 
were taken before the nineteenth century dawned, 
to build the Union School, which is to be presently 
described. Perhaps, however, the Union School 
may be considered as a modification of Mr. Bishop's 
system. 

The plan which he proposed is thus expounded 
in the Journal : 

CITY SCHOOLS. 

New Haven, February 28, 1790. 
At a meeting of a number of the inhabitants of this city, 
at the Dwelling-House of Mr. Abraham Bishop, in conse- 
iiuence of the following subscription, viz.: 

New Haven, February 22, 1790. 
The sul>3cril)ers, impressed with the sense of the impor- 
tance of establishing a regular system for the instruction of 
children in this city, do hereby manifest our desire that a 
plan may be pointed out and formed for that purpose — and 
do engage to afford our influence to such a one as shall 
promise to effect so desirable an object. 

Signed by the Clergy, the Magistrates, Lawyers, 

Merchants, and many of the other citizens. 
Timothy Jones, Esq., Alodera/or. 
I'l'/c'd, That a general plan for the schooling of children 
in this city would l>e beneficial, and proceed to appoint a 
Committee of seventeen gentlemen to examine a plan which 
Mr. Bishop should pro]>ose, and to make report U< them 
on March 7lh. 

At an adjourned meeting on the evening of 
March 7th, was presented the following Report, viz. : 
New Haven, March 6, 1790. 

The committee appointed by a number of the respectable 
inhabitants of this city to take into consideration a system, 
or regular plan for the schooling and instruction of children, 
beg leave to reftort, that having convened and attended on 
the business of their appointment, the following plan of the 
establishment of a general school for the more regular 
schooling and instruction of children was submitted to their 
consideration by Mr. Bishop, viz.: 

1. Convenient accommodation shall be provided for the 
instruction of as many of the children of the inhabitants of 
this city, and of those from other places, as may apply. 

2. .Suitable masters shall be provided to instruct in the 
different branches, viz., spelling, reading, writing, speaking, 
arithmetic, English grammar, reading select authors, com- 
position, geography and ethics; as also the Greek and Latin 



SCHOOLS. 



159 



languages, so far as to fit them for admission into Yale 
College or any other university. 

3. Each scholar shall, in proper rotation, be instructed in 
those several branches by the masters [larticularly em- 
ployed for that purpose, and each master shall be confined 
to the province of instruction best suited to his abilities. 

4. There shall be one apartment particularly appropriated 
to instruct the scholars in spelling, readnig, speaking En- 
glish, grammar and geography ; another to instruct in writing 
and arithmetic; another for the Latin and Greek languages. 
In each apartment a principal master, with as many assistants 
as the number may require. 

5. The school for boys shall commence, every day, pre- 
cisely at 9 o'clock A.M. and end at 12, and precisely at2 p.m. 
and end at 5. 

6. The reading and writing scholars shall be formed into 
four distinct classes, the first to consist of beginners or 
spellers, the other three to be arranged by the master, ac- 
cording to the progress and proficiency of the scholars, and 
no one to be promoted to a higher class unless he he at the 
head of the lower. 

7- From 9 o'clock a.m. till half past 10, and from 2 p. M. 
till half-past 3, the first and second classes of reading and 
writing scholars shall be employed in the writing apartment, 
and the third and fourth classes shall in the meantime be 
employed in the reading apartment; then, upon the ringing 
of a bell, all the scholars shall quit their apartments and 
change — the 3d and 4th classes to the writing apartment, 

L and the 1st and 2d to the reading apartment till school be 

I dismissed . 

' S. On the forenoon of every Saturday, instead of this 

order, all the reading and writing scholars will attend to- 
gether in the reading apartment, to receive instruction in 

k composition, reading select authors and ethics, at which 

H time the gallery will be open to accommodate the parents 
and such spectators as may wish to attend for the purpose of 
seeing the order of the school and the proficiency of the 
scholars. 

9. On Saturday forenoon of each week, the Greek and 
Latin scholars shall attend the writing apartment to receive 
instruction in writing and arithmetic. 

10. The boys and girls shall not be instructed together, 
but a different school will be opened from the first of April 
to the first of December, annually, and through the year, if 
necessary, for the insti'uction ot girls in as many of the 
specified branches as may be judged expedient, and under 
such regulations as the visitors shall appoint. 

11. Besides the schools already ))ointed out, there will be 
another provided to instruct small children, both boys and 
girls, till they are qualified to enter the reading and writing 
apartments. 

12. The price of instruction shall not exceed \os. per quar- 
ter for the last mentioned scholars; shall not exceed 15.?. for 
the reading and writing scholars; and for the scholars in 
Greek and Latin, or the higher branches, not to exceed 20^. 

13. No scholar will be received for a term less than one 
quarter. 

14. No scholar shall be dismissed from said school for a 
fault without the consent of his parent or guardian, except 
such dismission be made by the advice and in the presence 
of three or more visitors. 

15. The ministers of the four ecclesiastical societies in said 
city, for the time being, shall be visitors of said school, with 
whom shall be associated sixteen laymen, chosen from each 
of said societies, by such of the promoters of this institution 
as shall convene at their next meeting. 

16. When any vacancy shall happen by the death or res- 
ignation of any of the visitors, his place shall be supplied by 
one chosen by the remaining visitors from the same society 
to which such person belonged. 

17. Such of the visitors as can attend shall, at least once 
in every cjuarter, and oftener if they think proper, visit said 
school, and see that this plan be carried into effect accord- 
ing to its true intent and meaning. 

18. Such alterations and amendments shall, from time to 
time, by and with the advice and consent of the visitors, be 
made to this plan as may, from observation and experience, 
be found necessary or beneficial 

Which plan, having been taken into consideration, is ap- 
proved and submitted by your obedient humble servants. 
Signed, per order, Stephen Ball, Chairman. 



Which report, having been read and duly considered, was 
unanimously adopted, and the following visitors appointed: 
First Society. Sccottd Society. 

Hon. Charles Chauncey, Timothy Jones, Esq., 

Doctor Eneas Munson, David Austin, Esq., 

Thomas Howell, Esq., Hon. Pierpont Edwards, 

Hon. James Hillhouse. William Hillhouse, Esq. 

Fair Haven. Episcopalian. 

Henry Daggett, Esq., Jonathan Ingersoll, Esq. 

Doctor Levi Ives, John Heyleger, Esq., 

Mark Leavenworth, Esq., Mr. Elias Shipman, 
David Daggett, Esq. Mr. Isaac Beers. 

Attest, TiMO. Jones, Moderator. 
This plan -.i'i/l be put into operation early in April. 

This was followed on March 17th by the follow- 
ing notice: 

New Haven, March 17, 1790. 
American Academy. 

This will in future be denominated 

Orleans Academy, 
to distinguish it from other American institutions. 

It will consist of an association of schools, in which, imder 
competent masters, the youth of both sexes shall be in- 
structed in various useful branches of education. 

The city schools form an imptirtant part of the academy. 
In addition to the plan published in the last paper, it may 
be proper to add that the regular ([uarters will commence 
with the quarters of the year, vacations to be appointed by 
the visitors. The public celebration of the academy will be 
annually in the middle of October, and the quarterly exhi- 
bitions in the middle of the winter, spring and summer quar- 
ters. Though scholars may be entered on any day of the 
year, the quarter bills will be made out on the 1st of Decem- 
ber, March, June and September. It is requested that par- 
ents who design their children for the academy this spring, 
would enter them soon, as all the schools will be organized 
upon a new and most regular plan early in April. 

Abraha.m Bishop, Director. 

On Thursday evening of next week, at the Brick Meeting- 
house in this city, the scholars of Orleans Academy will 
exhibit some pieces of oratory. The occasion will be opened 
with a Lecture on School Education, and closed with an 
Oration by Mr. Bishop. 

The bell it'ill give notice of the hour. A general attend, 
ance of the inhabitants of the city is most respectfully re- 
quested . 

Appended to Mr. Bishop's communication of 
April 7th is the following notice: 

The Sandeman Meeting-house is now open for the recep- 
tion of young misses, and of boys under six years of age, to 
lie instructed by the Masters of this Academy. Applications 
made to Mr. Bishop or Mr. Kuss will be received with atten- 
tion. A woman will be employed constantly in this school 
to teach needlework. 

On the 3d of May appears this announcement: 
Orleans Academy, 

New Haven, May 30, 1 790. 

Complete provision is now made for the reception of 
scholars of both sexes. Boarding and Lodging will be pro- 
vided for those coming from abroad. Every facility in point 
of payment will be adopted; and every possible attention 
given to orders on the subject of instruction. In the Misses' 
■School is employed a Mistress very capable of teaching 
needlework of every kind. The school for instruction in the 
Greek and Latin languages will in future be kept under the 
particular intluence and appointment of 

Jere. Atwater, 
JoNAT. Fitch, 
Eneas Munson, 
TiMO. Jones, 
Tho.mas Howell, 
Hon. C. Chauncey, and 
Sam. Bishop, Esq., 
Members of Hopkins Committee. 



160 



UISTORl' OF THE CITV OF NEW HAVEN. 



This school is kept by particular permission at the Acad- 
emy, and is free to the inhabitants of New Haven as for- 
merly. In the city schools the new arrangement has taken 
place, and there is room for the admission of thirty scholars 
in addition to the present number. 

A. Bisnoi', Director. 

The Orleans Academy seems to have been a 
failure. Nothing is seen of it in the Connecticut 
Journal after its commencement in the spring of 
1790. In the autumn of that year, Mr. Russ ad- 
vertises his school for young misses and boys in the 
Sandeman Meeting-house as if it were an inde- 
pendent institution. Meantime, Mr. Mansfield had 
successfuUv resumed his old occupation as a school- 
master in New Haven, and Abijah Hart, having in 
March issued a prospectus for a new school to 
commence on the first Monday of April, gave notice 
in November of the same year that he had employed 
an instructor and provided accommodations for 
another school additional to that which he taught 
in person. From the prospectus which he issued 
in March, it may be seen what sort of a school it 
was which he taught: 

SCHOOL. 

By jiarticular desire, a school M'ill be opened on the first 
Monday in April next, at the house of Mr. John Cook, in 
Chapel street, where will be taught, reading, writini/, arith- 
metic, or any brancli in the matliematics, book-keeping, 
geography, etc. The school will open for young Misses at 
7 o'clock and continue until 9 A. M., and at half-past 4 and 
continue until 7 o'clock p. M., and for boys the usual school 
hours. Proper attention will be paid to the manners and 
morals of children. 

The character and abilities of the subscriber may be 
learned of Hon. Judge Chauncey, Captain Burritt, and 
others who have been his employers the winter past in this 
city ; or in the City of Middletown, of many gentlemen who 
for many years past have committed their children to the 
care of Akijah Hart. 

N. B.— The school will not exceed twenty scholars of 
each sex. 
New Haven, March 23, 1790. 

The next movement toward a larger school than 
those established by individuals was commenced 
in 1799. A joint-stock company was formed in 
November of that year, which, by its trustees, pur- 
chased a lot on the east side of Little Orange street, 
and built a school-house. The General Assembly, 
at its October session, upon the application of Elias 
Beers, Stephen Ailing, and Jeremiah Townsend, Jr., 
incorporated the company; and the trustees quit- 
claimed the property to the proprietors of Union 
School in New Haven. Some features of the 
Orleans Academy reappear in the Union School. 
Probably it did not teach Latin and Greek, as the 
Hopkins School was free to all the inhabitants of 
New Haven; and it does not appear that the Hop- 
kins School had any organic connection with the 
I'nion -School, as it had with the Orleans Academy. 
But the Union School was divided, as the English 
department of the Orleans Academy had been, into 
four classes. Fortunately a printed catalogue of 
the School for the year 1 804 has been preserved, 
and we transcribe it for the benefit of our readers, 
who may find in it the names of their grandfathers 
and grandmothers. 



CATALOGUE 

Of the Members of Union School in New Haven, 
November, 1 804. 

Masters Instructed by Mr. Daniel Crocker. 
First Class. 

Roger S. Baldwin, New Haven; John Barker, New Ha- 
ven; Isaac Beers, New Haven; Horace Bragg, New Haven; 
Henry Crocker, New Haven; Charles Crocker, New Haven; 
lohn Daggett, New Haven: Henry Daggett, New Haven; 
William A. Green, New Haven; Samuel B. Phelps, New 
Haven; Nathan S. Read, New Haven; George I. Tomlin- 
son. New Haven; William Townsend, New Haven; Daniel 
Trowbridge, New Haven; Robert Trowbridge, New Haven; 
William \Vard, New Haven. 

Second Class. 

William Ailing, New Haven; Ebeneier Barney, New Ha- 
ven; James Conner, St. Croix; William Forbes, New Haven; 
lohn B. Hotchkiss, New Haven; John Howell, New Haven; 
Alfred Hubbard, New Haven; Theodosius Hunt, New 
Haven; James Lyman, New Haven; Thomas Morrell, Long 
Island; Riley Nott, New Haven; Henry Oaks, New Haven; 
Thomas R. Totten, New Haven; Richard Trowbridge, 
New Haven; Timothy Trowbridge, New Haven; Winston 
Trowbridge, New Haven. 

Third Class. 

Wyllis Benedict, New Haven ; William Bills, New Haven ; 
William W. Bromham, New Haven; George L. Butler, New- 
Haven; Joseph Darling, New Haven; Kli Downs, New 
Haven; Jotham Fenn, New Haven; Harry Harrison, New 
Haven; William IngersoU, New Haven; David Norie, New 
Haven; James Peck, New Haven; Isaac Smith, New Haven; 
Charles Tomliiisoii, New Haven; Elias S. Townsend, New 
Haven; Johii Ward, New Haven; Francis Watlington, New 
Haven. 

Fourth Class. 

James W. Atwater, New Haven; William Atwater, Newf 
Haven; George Atwater, New Haven: Samuel Austin, New 
Haven; Horace Beers, New Haven; Simeon B. Chapman, 
New Haven; George Cook, New Haven; William L. Cook, 
New Haven; William Howard, New Haven; Charles Inger- 
soU, New Haven; Edward Isaacs, New Haven; George 
Isaacs, New Haven; William Miles, New Haven; Charles 
Nicol, New Haven; Benjamin Prescott, New Haven; 
Thomas Watlington, St. Croix. 

Misses Instructed by Miss Eunice Hall. 
First Class. 

Henrietta Austin, New Haven; Mary Bacon, Roxbury; 
Rebecca Baldwin, New Haven; Elizabeth Beers, New 
Haven ; Laura Boardman, Wethersfield ; Maria Booth, New 
Milford; Lydia Brintnal, New Haven; Grace Burr, New 
Haven; Julia Canlield, Sharon; Wealthy Chittendon, New 
Haven; (.irace Daggett, New Haven; Jane Gibbs, .Sharon; 
Maria Gould, Cornwall; Reliecca Hine, New Milford; Mary 
Isaacs, New Haven; Maria Lane, New Milford; Emily 
Webster, New Haven. 

Second Class. 

Charlotte Beers, New Haven; Eliza Cummings, New 
Haven; Mary Daggett, New Haven; Lucy Green, New 
Haven; Maria Hunt, New Haven; Mary IngersoU, New 
Haven; Eliza Isaacs, New Haven; Nancy Kirby, New 
Haven: Fanny Lines, New Haven; Cynthia Lyman, North- 
ampton ; Cornelia Norton, Salisbury ; Reljecca Prescott, New 
Haven; Hannah Prescott, New Haven; Grace Thompson, 
New Haven; Mary Totten, New Haven. 

Third Class. 

Jennet Ailing, New Haven; Caroline Beers, New Haven; 
Susan Bills, New Haven; Mary Bradley, New Haven; 
Nancy Hayes, New Haven; Mehitable Hughes, New 
Haven; Charlotte Isaacs, New H.iven: Eliza McCrackan, 
New Haven; Eliza Mills, Huntington; Caroline Mills, New 
Haven; Augusta Nicoll, New Haven; Rebecca Peck, New 
Haven; Sophia Staples, Canterbury; Julia Tuttle, New 
Haven: Mary Watlington, St. Croix ; Harriet Webster, 
New Haven; Mary Wyllys, Bath. 



SCHOOLS. 



161 



Fourth Class. 

Julia Atwater, Nl-w Haven; Eli/a Ilariies, New Haven; 
Mary Brayt;, New Haven; Catherine I'rown, New Haven; 
Louisa nu;4i;ins, New Haven; Adeline Lewis, New ILaven; 
Nancy Miller.New Haven; Eliza Mills, New Haven; Amelia 
Phelps, New Haven; Caroline Shipman, New Haven; Jane 
Tomlinson, New Haven; Jane Wall, Savannah; Adah 
Ward, New Haven; Mary Whittlesey, New Haven; Eliza 
Woodworth, Troy, N.V. 

It in no way appears how far the two sexes were 
educated together in the Union School. The 
building was of two stories; and probably the boys 
and the girls were in different apartments. Neither 
does il appear whether the proprietors exercised 
any supervision or established any rules for the 
guidance of the teachers. Probably the school was 
a private enterprise, for which the joint-stock com- 
pany provided apartments more commodious than 
could otherwise have been found. 

Not many years after the Union School had 
furnished these accommodations in Orange street, 
the New Township Academy was erected, at the 
corner of Chapel and Academy streets, by an 
association organized for the purpose of pro- 
viding a school in that part of the city. In 
this building a school was kept, with many inter- 
ruptions till, in 1831, the land, with the building, 
was sold to Mr. Joseph Barber, who erected the 
dwelling-house now standing thereon occupied by 
the family of the late Mr. Charles Mullock. Will- 
iam Mix, Eeriah Bradley, and Charles Bostwick 
were a committee duly authorized by a vote of 
the proprietors of New Township Academy to 
convey the jtroperty to Mr. Barber. The building 
was removed to the corner of Wooster and East 
streets, where it still stands. 

The Rev. Claudius Herrick retiring from the 
pastorate of the Congregational Church in Wood- 
bridge, Connecticut, in 1806, established in New 
Haven, soon after, a school for young ladies, in 
the house in which about sixty years before Samuel 
Mix had lived and taught. Mr. Herrick died in 
183 1 having kept school in this ancient and ven- 
erable mansion for about a quarter of a century. 
Tradition represents him as singularly Christ-like in 
his character. In an obituary notice of him it is 
said that "of the sixteen or eighteen hundred 
young ladies who have been under his instruction, 
it is believed that as many as one-third of the 
whole number have united themselves to the Great 
Head of the Church by a living faith; and to most 
of these he was immediatel}' or remotely the in- 
strument of their conversion." The Religious In- 
telligencer, in its notice of his funeral, says: " Many 
of our most respectable ladies who had at different 
times been pupils of the deceased, followed as 
mourners, and the long and solemn procession was 
composed principally of females. " Albums of the 
young ladies who attended Mr. Herrick's school 
are still extant, preserving the gushing effusions of 
young gentlemen who are now venerable octoge- 
narians. 

The Rev. John M. Garfield established a school 
for young ladies some ten or twelve years beiore 
the death of Mr. Herrick. It was kept first in the 
21 



building erected by the proprietors of the Union 
School, and afterward in a house on the east side 
of State street, between Chapel and Court streets. • 

The same number of the Religious Intelligencer 
which announces the decease of Mr. Herrick con- 
tains an advertisement that Miss Sarah Hotchkiss 
would continue the school which he taught. It is 
as follows: 

School for Young Ladies. — Miss S. Hotchkiss, of this 
city, proposes to resume, the 6lh of June next, the School for 
Voung Ladies kept by the late Mr. Herrick; to instruct in 
all the branches of education which he taught, with the ad- 
dition of languages, should it be desired. Miss Hotchkiss 
will secure the assistance of gentlemen of the iirst character 
as scholars and instructors; and from our knowledge of the 
attainments, experience and character of Miss Hotchkiss, 
we have entire confidence in her as qualified to conduct an 
institution ol this kind with respectability, efficiency and 

^"'■''^^'^'*- Simeon Baldwin, 

David Daggett, 
Jeremi.mi Day, 
Samuel Merwin, 
Eleazar T. Fitch. 

Miss Hotchkiss' school was on the south side of 
Elm street, between High and York streets. Since 
the time of Miss Hotchkiss there have been many 
schools for young ladies in New Haven, of which 
Grove Hall, in Grove street, corner of Whitney 
avenue, maintained itself in existence and in rep- 
utation for the longest period. Successive genera- 
tions of young ladies resorted to it, and not less 
than fifty classes in College felt a tender interest in 
" The Nunnery." 

Parallel with the schools for young ladies which 
have been mentioned, and with many others of 
shorter duration, were private schools for boys. 
Rev. Sereno E. Dwight retiring from the pastorate 
of the Park street Church in Boston, and associat- 
ing with himself his brother, Henry Dwight, opened 
a boarding-school, about the year 1830, in the Pa- 
vilion, which had been a cjuiet sea-side hotel, in 
East Water street. The school was called Dwight's 
Gymnasium, and was professedly conducted in 
imitation of schools of that name in Germany. It 
was for a time popular and prosperous, but did 
not long continue. 

At an earlier date than the Gymnasium, Mr. 
Charles Barney taught a day school in Elm street. 
Mr. William Jarman taught a day school in Or- 
ange street, on the first floor of a building whose 
second story was used by the First Church as a 
chapel, and called the Orange street Lecture- 
room. About the same time Leonard A. Daggett 
taught a school in the Glebe Building. Amos 
Smith had a private school in Crown street a little 
west of College street; removed to the corner of 
Chapel and Howe streets, and thence, many years 
later, to Howard avenue. From Howard avenue 
he removed to the center of Orange, where he 
taught a family boarding-school for several years. 
Returning to another house on Howard avenue, he 
continued to teach till the infirmities of age were 
so great that he relinquished the occupation. 

In 18S5 the private schools for young ladies and 
misses include the West End Institute, a boarding 
and day school for young ladies, under the §11- 



162 



HISTOUr OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



perintendence of Mrs. Sarah L. Cady; Young La- 
dies' Boarding and Day School, 33 Wall street, 
Misses Nott, Principals; Misses Bangs' school, 
136 Sherman avenue; Miss Eliza P. Hall, 95 Or- 
ange street; Miss Mary E. Bradley's school, 81 
Wall street; Young Ladies' Day School, 57 Elm 
street, Misses Orton and Nichols, Principals. 

WEST END INSTITUTE. 

West End Institute, a boarding and day school 
for young ladies and misses, situated on Howe 
street, was established by Mrs. Sarah L. Cady in 
1870. With the assistance of her two daughters, 
Mrs. Cady has imparted to the Institute a high rep- 
utation and it is to-day of its kind the leading 
school of the city. 

The building is situated so as to be on all sides 
open to the light; every room in turn receives the 
sun and it bears throughout a bright and cheerful 
aspect. 

An air of ease and refinement pervades it and 
surrounds its inmates with inlluences of culture 
and comfort. 

LTpon the right of the lower I'lall is the main 
school-room, neatly fitted with desks and appa- 
ratus, and an organ to accompany morning and 
evening devotions. Across the hall are three sep- 
arate class rooms. Upon the second floor is the 
kindergarten division, also bright and cheerful. 
As we advance along the hallway, sounds of guitar 
float out sweetly frotn the adjoining room; a pass- 
ing look discovers a music pupil at her lesson. 

Upon the other side, the young ladies' rooms 
are tastefully furnished and adorned and open 
through porticos upon the common hall. A second 
floor above is arranged in similar manner, and in 
equal style for comfort and convenience. On this 
floor is the studio and art room, amply furnished 
with appliances and well lighted from the north 
and by skylight. The Institute is furnished 
with an excellent historical and reference library, 
and has other necessary apparatus for illustration 
and technical needs. The entire house is adorned 
by original drawings and paintings, made by Miss 
C. E. Cady, who has charge of the Art dejiartment. 
Miss Cady has studied in Paris, and at the Yale Art 
School and follows its methods of teaching. 

The course of instruction consists of four grades 
and departments: the Institute, Intermetliate, Pri- 
mary and Kindergarten. The Institute department 
comprises a four years course, at the regular com- 
pletion of which graduates receives a diploma. 
The studies are the usual branches of a liberal 
education, ranging through mathematics, science, 
language, philosophy and art. The other depart- 
ments are, each in turn, made tributary to the 
Institute. A preparatory course for entrance to 
Vassar, Smith or Wellesley College is specially 
provideil; also an optional course of eclectic studies 
may be pursucil, in sjiecial cases, under the ap- 
proval of parents and guardians. Students may 
enter in advance the second, third and fourth years 
of the Institute course u[K)n certificates of qualifi- 
cations brought from other schools. Special lessons 



are given in Elocution, and Shakesjieare is used as 
the text book for the reading classes. 

The modern languages are very thoroughly 
taught. French, under a native teacher, is made 
the language of the family, being used in daily 
conversation among the pupils. Alusic is under 
the charge of an accomplished professor. Art 
instruction is given in free hand drawing, in crayon 
and in casts from the antique, as preparatory to oil 
painting. Attention is given to decorative art and 
the entire school is taught in ])encil drawing. 
Lectures upon art history are combined with tech- 
nical instruction, and are amply illustrated by speci- 
mens from the most celebrated masters. 

The corps of teachers comprises from nine to 
eleven in the various departments, the whole being 
under the direct supervision of the principal. 

The health of the school has always been excel- 
lent and is cared for by regular open-air exercise, 
thorough ventilation and an observance of sanitary 
regulations and adaptations. 

The Institute is governed by such usages as pro- 
mote good breeding, kinilly feeling and order. 
The young ladies attenil lectures and concerts at 
intervals, under the care of the teachers. Attend- 
ance at church is required in accordance with 
Christian usage. Pupils come from all parts of the 
Union, averaging yearly, inclusive of day scholars, 
not less than sixty. 

The school opens in September and closes in 
June, with a vacation of two weeks at Christmas. 

Mrs. Cady refers, by permission, to diose, who 
have personal knowledge of the Institute, among 
whom are Rev. Theodore D. Woolsey, D. D., LL. D. ; 
Prof Cyrus Northrop, President of the I'ni- 
versity of Minnesota; Ex-Ciovernor Bigelow; Ex- 
Governor Andrews; and many professors of Yale, 
whose children have been pupils; and others of 
prominence, among whom arc Senator Dawes and 
Rev. Dr. Buckingham of Massachusetts. 

Mrs. Sarah L. Cady, the principal, is a Massa- 
chusetts lady, whose ancestors originated in Con- 
necticut, James Ensign, on the paternal side, emi- 
grating from Englantl in 1636. 

She is descended from Datus Ensign, who mar- 
ried Lucretia Seymour, of Hartford, Conn., and un 
the maternal side, from Dr. i^amuel Cobb, of Tol- 
land, Conn., a well-known physician of his time, 
representing the town eight times at the General 
Assembly of Connecticut. He was also a Justice of 
the Peace and an acting IMagistrate and was so es- 
teemed by the town of I'olland that upon his death, 
it voted him a monument, which marks his resting 
place in the old graveyard of that town. 

The largest school for boys is the Collegiate and 
Commercial Institute, Woostcr place, of which 
the late General William H. Russell was the 
founder. 

Mr. Joseph Giles' school for boys is kept in tlie 
Insurance Building. 

In the Insurance Building is also a Business 
College, in which instruction is given in all 
branches of knowledge needful for an accountant. 
Mr. R, C. Loveridge is the President. There is 



~>Vli 




,^S!S!SS?^ 




^^-r^ 



SCHOOLS. 



163 



another Business College at 48 Church street, of 
which Mr. F. A. Cargill is the President. 

There is a School of Phonography at Si i Chapel 
street, of which Mr. F. H. Cogswell is the Princi- 
pal; another at 87 Church street, of which Mr. W. 
H. Brown is the Principal; and still another at 49 
Church street, of which Mr. J. F. Gaffey is the 
Principal. 

WILLIAM HUNTINGTON RUSSELL 

Was born in Middletown, Connecticut, August 12, 
1809. Mis first ancestor of the name in this coun- 
try was William Russell, who came to New Haven 
from England in 1639. He was a prominent citi- 
zen of the place, and lived here until his death. 
His son, the Rev. Noadiah Russell, was minister 
at Middletown, where many of his descendants still 
live. He was a distinguished clergyman and one 
of the founders of Yale College. William H. Rus- 
sell was in the sixth generation from the first settler; 
he received his early education at Captain Partiidge's 
Military Academy, Middletown, where the training 
gave him that military cast which was so marked a 
characteristic of his life, and which was directly 
and indirectly to contribute so much to the service 
of the country. He was graduated at Yale College 
in 1833, and was the valedictorian of his class. 
His inlluence in the college has been perpetuated 
in a senior society, known as the Skull and Bones, 
of which he was the founder. In 1S36 he estab- 
lished the school in New Haven with which his 
name was so long identified, and which is now 
known as "The Collegiate and Commercial In.sti- 
tute. " He early introduced into the school the 
military drill and discipline which afterwards made 
it famous. At a time when most men regarded 
such training as useless because of the great im- 
probability that we should become involved in any 
war of importance, he clearly saw its value, both 
as useful discipline and as a preparation for war. 
At the outbreak of the Rebellion, the value and 
truth of his views was made evident. Boys from 
the school were employed to drill the volunteer 
troops of Connecticut, before they left for the seat 
of war, and more than three hundred men who 
had been pupils of General Russell entered the 
army as officers. At the beginning of the war. 
Governor Buckingham, of Connecticut, turned to 
General Russell, as the person best fitted by his 
knowledge of military afiairs, to undertake the 
work of organizing the militia of the State of Con- 
necticut, and he held the olTice of Major-General 
for several years. He gave much thought and 
work to the subject, and the result is seen in 
the present system. The work was of the high- 
est importance during the war, for the military 
preparation of the volunteer troops was included 
in it. 

Unquestionably, Genera! Russell's greatest service 
was in the impression which he made by his char- 
acter and inlluence upon the scholars who were 



committed to his charge. His personality was a 
very remarkable one, and fitted him to train youth 
for an upright, independent, and conscientious 
manhood. The testimony of his pupils to the 
value of his example and influence is remarkable. 
Under him, they learrned habits of order and in- 
dustry which were lifelong, and his peculiarly kind 
and firm discipline was successful in teaching man- 
liness to many unpromising boys. 

Politicall}', General Russell was an independent 
thinker, and did not permit party ties to bind him, 
but from the time of its formation he commonly 
acted with the Republican party. He had certain 
well-defined views upon matters of public policy, 
and he was guided by them in all his political ac- 
tion. He was a strong abolitionist. He was a 
personal friend of John Brown, and in the will 
which Brown made before going to Kansas in 1857 
William H. Russell is named as one of the trus- 
tees. He rejiresented New Haven in the Legisla- 
ture in 1846 and 1S47, and was once narrowly 
defeated when he ran as candidate for Mayor. 
He was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue 
for the second district of Connecticut in 1868, 
and held the office until it was abolished by the 
consolidation of districts. He was always ac- 
tive in politics, and took a vigorous part in the 
presidential campaign of 1S84, when he acted with 
the Independent Republicans. 

He was married August 19, 1S36, at Clinton, 
N. Y., to Mary Elizalieth, daughter of Prof. 
Thomas Hubbard of Yale College. He had 
eleven children, of whom six survived him. 

General Russell's chosen work was to train young 
men to a useful manhood, but this work he under- 
stood in a very large sense. His mind was one of 
remarkable keenness and fertility, and his sympa- 
thies were broad. He took the strongest and most 
active interest in all the questions of the day, 
whether they were political, social, or religious, and 
he brought the best he could find anvwhere to 
help him in his educational work. He understood 
the duties of a citizen in a very profound sense, and 
thought of them as peculiarly sacred and binding. 
It was this that gave him the great influence which 
he exerted in New Llaven, and which was always 
founil on the side of what was right rather than on 
the side of what might be considered expedient. 
He was uncompromising in his dislike for anything 
which was mean or which bore the semblance of 
trickery. His independence and honesty of purpose 
always compelled the respect even of those who dif- 
fered with him. There was no citizen of New Haven, 
of his generation, who was regarded with more rev- 
erence for his perfect uprightness than General Rus- 
sell. He died IMay 19, 1885, at his home. His fune- 
ral was largely attended by his former pupils, more 
than 4,000 of whom were living at the time of his 
death. He added luster to New Haven as a cen- 
ter of sound education, and his memory will 
always be honored by those who knew him as a 
teacher or as a fellow citizen. 



164 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

YALE COLLEGE. 

'By AVir^I^TA.'M L. IvINOSIjTSY, Editor of The Yale Boole 



THE colonists who came from England to New 
Haven in 1^38, came under the inspiration of 
an idea. They had been induced to seek a home 
for themselves in the American wilderness by the 
Rev. John Davenport, who had conceived the idea 
of laying the foundation of a new and independent 
Christian State, which should rest on the sure foun- 
dations of religion and universal education. They 
had accepted his ideas, and had left England with 
the design of here making them a reality. Accord- 
ing to Mr. Davenport's plan, not only were the 
whole body of the children of each successive gen- 
eration to be taught the rudiments of education, 
but there was to be a classical school and a col- 
lege. 

On the arrival of the colonists they began at 
once to carry out the proposed educational system. 
Within the first year a free school was set up at the 
public expense "for the better training of youth in 
this town that, through God's blessing, they may be 
fitted for public service hereafter, either in church 
or commonwealth.'' But the inevitable embarrass- 
ments attending a new settlement obliged them to 
postpone the immediate setting up of a college. 
This they were the more willing to do, as they 
found that there was such an institution already in 
successful operation in Massachusetts. With no 
narrow spirit they turned at once to this, and made 
liberal contributions to its treasuiy. However, in 
1647, the tenth year after their arrival, some steps 
were taken, under the lead of Mr. Davenport, 
towards founding a college. Land was formally 
set apart, by the authorities of the colony, for its 
support. A desirable lot on the public square was 
offered by Lieutenant-Governor Goodyear; but in 
consequence of the failure of the commercial plans 
of the colonists, they were unable to proceed fur- 
ther. During the next few years new attempts were 
made on various occasions, but they all proved un- 
successful. 

At last, in 1660, in consequence of a bequest of 
Governor Hopkins, obtained through the efl'orts of 
Mr. Davenport, it was thought that the favorable 
time had arrived. Again arrangements were made 
for the establishment of a college. After a time, 
instruction was actually commenced. But new 
difficulties arose. The colony of Connecticut in- 
terfered to prevent their obtaining the avails of the 
bequest of Governor Hopkins, and a part of it had 
to be sacrificed. The spirit of the New Haven 
people was broken by the annexation of their col- 
ony to Connecticut, which was brought about con- 
trary to their wishes by means of the charter which 
Governor Winthrop obtained from Charles H. Nor 
was this all. About this time the fierce Indian war 
began, which is known as King Philip's War. Then 
came the alarm consequent upon the arbitrary 
measures of Sir Edmund Andros; antl afterwards, 



as English colonists, they were drawn into the vor- 
tex of the great European war waged by William 
HI against Louis XIV, and exposed to the incur- 
sion of the Canadians and Indians from Quebec and 
Montreal. The college was indeed set up, and in- 
struction was commenced; but in the general de- 
pression which settled down upon the people, it 
never in reality rose above the grade of a grammar 
school; but as the "Hopkins Grammar School" 
it continued to live, and has survived to this day as 
one of the most important educational institutions 
of the country. 

Towards the close of the century, the prospects 
of the people of New England brightened. The 
long war in which England had been opposed to 
France, had endeil with the Peace of Kyswick in 
1697. The hontiers were no longer exposed to 
hostile incursions. With peace returned a meas- 
ure of prosperity. 

At this time the successor of the Rev. John Da- 
venport in the church in New Haven was the Rev. 
James Pierpont, a man of far-reaching views. He 
had married the granddaughter of Mr. Davenport, 
and had thus become acquainted with, and es- 
pecially interested in, the hopes and plans of that 
remarkable man. He was settled among a people 
of unusual intelligence. The town was a small one, 
numbering scarcely more than five hundred people, 
but it had a distinctive character. The tradition was 
still cherished that their fathers had intended from 
the first that New Haven should be a college town. 
The importance of the higher education was fully 
appreciated. The Hopkins Grammar School was 
instructing young men in the rudiments of a classi- 
cal education, who were obliged to go to the dis- 
tant college in Massachusetts to complete their 
studies. So great was the love of learning among 
the people of New Haven, that it appeared that one 
in thirty of all the students who up to this time had 
graduated at Harvard College had come from this 
remote town. It was felt to be something of a 
hardship that their young men should be obliged 
to go so far from home f<ir an education. 

Under the influence of all these considerations, 
Mr. Pierpont was led to revive the idea of Mr. 
Davenport of founding a college. On broaching 
the subject to the neighboring ministers in the old 
New Haven jurisdiction, he found that they were 
in full sympalhv. There were now frequent meet- 
ings and consultations. It was felt that, in carry- 
ing out so important an undertaking, it was advis- 
able to interest the whole colony in the project. 
The co-operation of other prominent men, who 
lived at a distance, was acconlingly invited. But 
now, when it was known that a college was talked 
of, the proposition was made that it should be es- 
tablished by a synod of the churches, and be called 



FALE COLLEGE. 



165 



the " School of the Churches. " This was the plan of 
those who were desirous of having an ecclesiastical 
establishment in the colony. These persons seem 
to have been influenced b}' the consideration that 
if a college was set up by a synod, it would help 
on the plan which appeared so desirable to them. 
But the original projectors of the college in New 
Haven were opposed to an ecclesiastical establish- 
ment; and, in accordance with their views, it was 
finally resolved that the college should be founded 
by a number of ministers selected to act as trustees. 
Ten were selected: seven who were from New 
Haven or its neighborhood, and three who were 
from more remote parts of the colony. 

At a meeting of the trustees in New Haven, 
some time in the year 1700, it was agreed that the 
next meeting should be in Branford, a village 
seven miles from New Haven, and that they would 
attend the meeting prepared to become the legal 
founders of the college by making a donation of 
books. At the appointed time it was found that a 
sufficient number had assembled in Branford to 
enable them to carry out their design, and they ac- 
cordingly proceeded to found the college by the 
formality of presenting a number of books with the 
declaration, "I give these books for the founding 
of a college." The question now arose whether it 
was not advisable to procure a charter from the Leg- 
islature. There were some grave objections. It 
was understood that it was considered in England 
that the granting of a charter was a part of the 
royal prerogative. The charter of Harvard College 
had .some time before been taken away; and 
though several attempts had been made to procure 
a new charter from the king, the friends of the col- 
lege had been hitherto unsuccessful. At last the 
trustees, after due deliberation, thought it "safe 
and best " to apply for a charter; probably on the 
supposition that what they did would not be no- 
ticed by the government in England. Accordingly, 
for fear of attracting attention, in the draft of their 
charter which they submitted to the Legislature 
they assumed a very humble position. The new 
institution was not called a college, but a "colle- 
giate school.'' Its presiding officer was designated 
a "Rector,'' although the same officer at Harvard 
was called a "President." Its fellows were de- 
scribed as "tutors " or "ushers." Its degrees were 
spoken of as "licenses." The charter was granted 
by the Connecticut Legislature October 9, 1701. 

At the first meeting of the trustees, which was at 
.Saybrook, November 11, 1701, the course of study 
was determined upon, and, to propitiate the people 
of the towns on the Connecticut River, the location 
of the college was fixed in Sa}brook, "as the 
most convenient place at present, unless upon fur- 
ther consideration they should alter their minds." 
The Rev. Abraham Pierson, who had a high repu- 
tation as a scholar, and who was the author of a 
treatise on Natural Philosophy, was elected rector. 
He was the minister of the town of Kenilworth, 
ten miles to the west of Saybrook; and it was un- 
derstood that, till other arrangements could be 
made, he was to give instruction to the students at 
his own house. Before the close of the academic 



year eight voung men were admitted to the college, 
and put into classes "according to the proficiency 
they had antecedently made." The first Com- 
mencement was held at Saybrook September 13, 
1702. 

But scarcely had the college been established, 
when the state of public affairs became such as to 
threaten its destruction. In May, 1702, war was 
declared by England against France, and the war 
of the Spanish Succession began. The whole front- 
ier of New England was once more exposed to an 
attack from Canada. Connecticut was obliged to 
send troops in every direction. All business was 
at an end. The colony was taxed for men and 
money to the utmost of its ability. The royal 
governors of New York and Massachusetts took 
occasion to use their influence in England to de- 
prive the colony of its charter. It was a time of 
deep despondency. Yet the trustees managed to 
keep the college alive, and year after year instruc- 
tion went on at Kenilworth, and five successive 
Commencements were held in Saybrook, when, in 
March, 1707, the death of Rector Pierson exposed 
the institution to new dangers. 

The war which began in 1 702 was, at the time 
of the death of Rector Pierson, still going on, and 
the general depression which had settled down 
upon this colony was such that it was impossible 
to raise funds to support a resident rector in Sa)'- 
brook. Accordingly, the Rev. Samuel Andrew, 
the minister in Milford, one of the trustees, was 
chosen rector pro lempoic, and the Senior class 
came to him in Milford, where he superintended 
their studies. The other classes were left for years 
almost entirely to the care of two tutors in Say- 
brook. 

It was a time of deep discouragement. In four 
consecutive years degrees were conferred on only 
ten students. Yet the history of the college ac- 
quires an interest during this period on account of 
the efforts of those who were desirous of setting up 
an ecclesiastical establishment in Connecticut, and 
requiring of the officers of the college a subscrip- 
tion to a prescribed confession of faith. Through 
the influence of Governor Saltonstall, a synod was 
summoned by the Legislature to meet at Saybrook 
the day after the college commencement in 1 708. 
This synod was to some extent under the influence 
of those trustees of the college from the neighbor- 
hood of New Haven who did not look with favor 
upon the proposed religious establishment. How- 
ever, a general plan of ecclesiastical government 
was agreed upon, which is known as the Saybrook 
Platform. The Legislature at once established it 
as the constitution of the churches of the colony, 
and the trustees of the college required that hence- 
forth all the officers should give their assent to it. 
But the action of the synod is supposed to have 
been somewhat modified by the New Haven di- 
vines, who were among its members; and the sub- 
seijuent interpretation put upon the Platform was 
still further modified by the opinions which they 
afterwards expressed; so that, although the oflicers 
of the college were required for more than a hun- 
dred years to give their assent to it, the consolida- 



166 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



tion of the churches of the colony was never se- 
cured in any such way as to interfere with their 
iiistoric independence. 

In April, 1713, the Tory party in England hav- 
ing come into power as the party of peace, a treaty 
was concluded at Utrecht with the ministers of 
Louis XIV. At once brighter days were seen to 
dawn. The college began to revive. About this 
time Sir John Davie made a gift of 170 volumes to 
the library. Nut long after, Jeremiah Dummer, 
Esq., the agent of the colony in England, sent 800 
volumes which he had collected. 

l^ut now the institution sustained a great loss by 
the death, November 11, 1714, of the Rev. James 
I'ierpont, to whom is due the honor of being its 
fountier, and who had ever held the chief place in 
its counsels, and had never ceased to labor for its 
welfare. One of the last acts of his life was an effort 
to secure for it a benefaction from a son of one of 
the original settlers of New Haven, Governor Elihu 
Yale, who had accumulated a large estate in India 
and was then residing in England. 

After the death of Mr. Pierpont the affairs of the 
college fell into a very unsatisfactory condition. 
The students made great complaints that there were 
no proper accommodations for them in Saybrook, 
and that the instruction given by the tutors was 
very inadecpiate. Their dissatisfaction is supposed 
to have been encouraged, from interested motives, 
by persons residing in the northern part of the col- 
ony, in the hope that if the college was removed 
from .Saybrook it might be secured for Hartford or 
Wcthersfield. It had iiegun to be seen that the col- 
lege was destined to be of advantage to the place 
where it should be located. The expressions of 
dissatisfaction among the students proceeded to 
such lengths, that at last the trustees, in the sum- 
mer of 1 71 6, alloweil them to go to other places 
for instruction till Commencement. Upon this the 
larger part of them went to Wcthersfield, and put 
themselves under Mr. Elisha Williams. A petition 
frnm Hartford was now presented to the legislature 
that the college might be removed to that town, for 
tlie reason that it was "more in the center of the 
colony, " and that the greater number of scholars 
was from its neighborhood. New Haven began also 
to assert its claims, and had this advantage over 
Hartford, th.at a majority of the trustees were from 
its neighborhood. At the Commencement in 1716, 
which was the last Commencement held in Say- 
brook, the only tutor still connected with the col- 
lege resigned, and the institution was left without a 
single permanent oflicer. The trustees now dis- 
cussed the question whether it was best to remove 
the college from Saybrook, and to what place; but, 
being unable to cc^ne to any decision, they ad- 
journeil to meet the following month in New Haven. 
At this meeting it was decided to remove the col- 
lege to New Haven. 

Accordingly instruction was commenced in New 
Haven at the beginning of the academic year, 
1 716-17. This was the signal for the commence- 
ment of an inten.se excitement which spread 
throughout the whole colony. The students who 
had been at Wcthersfield under Mr. l':iisha Williams 



refused to go to New Haven; and, remaining at 
Wcthersfield, formed the nucleus of a rival college. 
Complaint was made to the Legislature that the 
resolution to fix the college at New Haven had not 
received a majority of the votes of the trustees, as 
one of those who had voted in the affirmative was 
not legally qualified. The Legislature, however, 
refused to interfere. Accordingly the first Com- 
mencement was celebrated in New Haven in 1717; 
and, shortly after, the trustees began to erect a col- 
lege hall. The excitement now redoubled; and, in 
October, the Hartford party again attempted to per- 
suade the Legislature to interfere. Under their in- 
fluence the lower house even proceeded to vote that 
in their opinion it was best that the college should 
be located in Middletown. So great was the ex- 
citement, that the college would have been hopeless- 
ly ruined, hail it not been for Governor Saltonstall, 
through whose influence the Legislature, after 
"great throes and pangs and controversy and 
mightystrugglings,"fixed the college in New Haven, 
and passed the following vote, namely: "That, 
under the present circumstances of the affairs of 
the collegiate school, the Reverend trustees be ad- 
vised to proceed * * * a,ij finish the house 
which they have built in New Haven for the enter- 
tainment of the scholars belonging to the collegiate 
school;" and to soothe the people of Hartford for 
their disappointment, they ordered that a house for 
the General Court shoukl be built at the pul)lic ex- 
pense in that town. 

Meanwhile the trustees of the college had been 
much encouraged by receiving several valuable do- 
nations, and among them one from Governor Elihu 
Yale, which was the largest which they had ever 
received from any one individual. By means of this 
they were able to complete the College Hall before 
the Commencement of 171 8. This Commence- 
ment was a memorable occasion, and was cele- 
brated in a style which far surpassed anything 
known before in the history of the college. In 
gratitude to Governor Yale, the new building just 
completed was called Yale College, and was opened 
with appropriate ceremonies. This building, which 
stood on the southeastern corner of the present 
Green, was of wood, was one hundred and seventy 
feet long, twenty-two feet wide, and three stories 
high, with dormer-windows. Besides chambers for 
students, it contained a dining-hall, library, and 
kitchen. 

The rival college at Wcthersfield still maintained 
itself, and celebrated on the .same day a Commence- 
ment, at which degrees were conferred by one of 
the Hartford trustees. But the long disagreement 
was now drawing to a close. The Legislature rec- 
ommended that the scholars who had " ]>erformed 
their exerci.ses at \\'ethersfieUl should receive de- 
grees at New Haven without further examination;" 
and ordered that the students at Wcthersfield shoulil 
go down to New Haven. The trustees at New 
Haven showed every disposition to do all that they 
could to reconcile the Hartford party, and at last 
the college was established securely in New Haven. 

But the difllculties in which the college had be- 
come involved were bv no means over. The 



VALE COLLEGE. 



107 



Wethersfield students had come to New Haven, in 
accordance with the order of the Legislature, but 
they proved "a very vicious and turbulent set of 
fellows. '' They made all the mischief they could. 

There was a difliculty also about obtaining the 
library. Lieutenant David Buckingham, in whose 
charge it had been left, refused to give it up. 
Governor Saltonstall and the Council repaired to 
Saybrook, and were at last obliged to call upon the 
sheriff of the county to take possession of the 
college property. But the excitement was such, in 
the town, that the sheriff was resisted in the exe- 
cution of his duty; and, in order to carry the books 
out of town, it became necessary "to impress men, 
carts, and oxen." Even then a mob collected in 
the night and took ofl" the wheels from the carts, 
and broke down the bridges on the road to New 
Haven, so that before the library reached its desti- 
nation, two hundred and fifty volumes and many 
valuable pajiers were lost. 

Meanwhile at the college the Wethersfield stu- 
dents were in open rebellion. They complained 
of the " insufliciency " of the instruction of Tutor 
Johnson, and at last, early in 1719, they all left 
New Haven in a body and went back to Wethers- 
field. 

The disorders at the college had now gone so 
far that it was felt to be very important that its 
government should no longer be left to the tutors; 
and that the services of some person of character 
and experience should be at once secured, who 
should reside at the college as a permanent rector. 
The Rev. Timothy Cutler, of Stratford, was accord- 
ingly elected, and entered immediately upon the 
discharge of the duties of the office. Rector Cutler 
was a man of high attainments as a scholar, and at 
the same time of commanding presence and of 
great dignity, and the students were speedily 
brought under suitable subtirdination. 

The college now seemed to be in a very pros- 
perous condition, when, in the summer of 1722, a 
rumor began to gain currency that Rector Cutler, 
Tutor Browne, and some ofUie neighboring clergy- 
men had made an important change in their re- 
ligious views. This rumor at last attracted so much 
attention, that, on the day after Commencement, 
the trustees, "with no other expectation than that 
these gentlemen might clear themselves of every 
unfavorable suspicion," invited Rector Cutler and 
his friends, whose names the rumor had associated 
with him, to meet them in the college library. 
There, it appeared, from a paper that was pre- 
sented, that some of them entertained doubts as to 
the validity of their ordination, and others of them 
were fully persuaded as to its invalidity. They 
said that this change in their views had come about 
as the result of their reading the books which had 
been lately sent over from England. They had 
been led to examine the points of difierence be- 
tween the Church of England and the Congre- 
gational churches of the colony, and some of them 
had come to the determination to apply for episco- 
pal orders. This announcement was received with 
the utmost astonishment. Governor Saltonstall, in 
order, if possible, to stop the movement, proposed 



that the matter should be discussed at a subsequent 
meeting. But the result of the discussion was what 
might have been expected. Each party claimed to 
have been victorious in the debate. However, 
some of the gentlemen were led to give up their in- 
tention of leaving the communion of the Congre- 
gational churches; but Rector Cutler, Tutor Browne, 
the Rev. Samuel Johnson of West Llaven, and the 
Rev. James Wetmore of North Haven, remained 
unconvinced; and shortly after sailed for England, 
where they were ordained by the Bishop of Nor- 
wich. 'J'he trustees thereupon voted that, " in 
faithfulness to the trust reposed in them," they 
would "excuse the Rev. Mr. Cutler from all 
further service as Rector of Yale College," and that 
they would "accept the resignation which Mr. 
Browne hath made of his office as tutor." They 
also voted, that in future all the officers of the 
college, in addition to declaring their assent to the 
Saybrook Platform, "should give satisfaction of 
the soundness of their faith in opposition to Ar- 
minian and prelatical corruptions." Notwithstand- 
ing this course, which the trustees felt obliged to 
take, it is said that none of these gentlemen ever 
showed subsequently any hostility to the college, 
and that some of them gave it signal evidence of 
abiding attachment. 

The trustees found some difficulty in filling the 
place thus made vacant, and for four years there 
was no resident rector. At last, in 1726, the Rev. 
Elisha Williams was elected to that office. He was 
the same gentleman who lunl, ten years before, 
been at the head of the rival college at Wethers- 
field; and his election may be taken as a proof that 
the old jealousies between the towns on the Con- 
necticut River and those on the Sound were now 
extinguished. Henceforth, the whole colony was 
to be united in taking an interest and pride in the 
college at New Haven. 

Rector Williams was a man who was endowed 
with great personal magnetism. He had great in- 
fluence with the students by his peculiarly genial 
manner, and soon succeeded in repressing the 
disorders which had begun to prevail in the college 
during the interval when it had been left to the care 
of the tutors. He enlarged the curriculum of the 
academic studies. He paid especial attention to 
rhetoric and oratory, and labored to cultivate 
among the students a taste for general literature. 

While he was rector, in 1732, a gift was received 
from the Rev. George Berkeley, the famous Dean 
of Derry, of a valuable collection of books and a 
farm of ninety-six acres of land situated in New- 
port, Rhode Island. The memory of this gift, 
which connected the institution in its early history 
with a European scholar of world-wide reputation, 
and one so honored for his accomplishments and 
his many virtues, has always been cherished with 
interest by the alumni of the college. About the 
time he had been made Dean of Derry he had 
come unexpectedly into possession of a fortune of 
/"4,ooo, and immediately determined to carry out 
a plan which he had been for some time revolving 
in his mind for the benefit of the red men in 



168 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



America. He had conceived the idea of founding 
a college in the " Isles of Bermuda," where young 
native Indians might be trained to be missionaries 
among their own people. And now, with money 
at his command, he began to carry out his plan 
with all the enthusiasm which characterized him. 
By the magnetism of his eloquence, he not only 
gained the sympathy and assistance of his friends, 
but he obtained a royal charter for his college, and 
a promise of a government grant of ;^20,ooo. 
Without waiting till the money should be placed 
in liis hands, he set sail for America and landed at 
Newport. Here he determined to wait for the 
promised grant. He bought a farm, liuilt a house, 
occupied himself in literary labors, wrote the 
"Minute Philosopher" and "Alciphron;" but 
still no tidings of the promised government grant. 
Nearly three years had passed, when one of his 
friends sought an interview with Sir Robert Wal- 
pole, to ascertain when the money might be looked 
for, and received the characteristic reply : "If you 
put the question to me as minister, I assure you 
the money shall be paid as soon as suits the public 
convenience, but if you ask me as a friend whether 
Mr. Berkeley shall continue in America, expecting 
the payment of ^20,000, I advise him by all 
means to return home to England, and to give up 
his expectation." It was evident that the favorite 
scheme on which he had expended so many years 
of his life had failed, and Berkeley at once acted 
upon the advice of the prime minister. But during 
ills residence at Newport, he had made the ac- 
quaintance of the Rev. Jared Eliot, one of the 
trustees of the college, anti also of the Rev. Samuel 
Johnson, the Episcopal missionary in Stratford, 
and through their representations liatl formed such 
a favorable opinion of the college at New Haven, 
that, after his return to England, in consequence 
of some suggestion from the latter gentlemen, he 
conveyed to the trustees a deed of his Newport 
farm. He also, with the assistance of some of his 
friends whom he interested in the college, sent 
over a collection of a thousand volumes for the 
library, valued at /"500; "the finest collection of 
books, ' according to President Clap, " which had 
ever been brought to America at one time. '' The 
rents of the farm were appropriated to the founda- 
tion of three scholarships, which now for nearly 
one hundred and fifty years have been held by a 
succession of some of the best classical scholars 
among the alumni. 

During the whole term of olhce of Rector Will- 
iams, the college made gratifying and constant 
progress; but, in conseiiuence of ill-health, he felt 
at last constrainetl to resign, which he did at the 
commencement of 1739. President Clap says of 
him, in the quaint language of the times, " he was a 
man of splendor." After his resignation he lived 
sixteen years, in which he held many of the high- 
est offices within the gift of the people of Connecti- 
cut 

The trustees, on the resignation of Rector Will- 
iams, csteemetl themselves fortunate in being able 
to secure, as his successor, the Rev. Thomas Clap, 



of Windham, one of the most learned men in the 
colony. It was known that he had, in addition, 
uncommon qualifications for the transaction of 
business. He was installed in April, 1740. This 
accession marks the commencement of a new era 
in the history of the college. At once, with a clear 
comprehension of what was needed, he proceeded 
to put everything in connection with the institution 
into the highest state of efficiency. Additions were 
made to the curriculum of studies, to keep the col- 
lege abreast with what were thought to be the de- 
mands of the age. A part of the time which had 
been given to Logic was now given to Natural 
Philosophy and Mathematics. The students re- 
ceived instructions in Conic Sections and Fluxions, 
in Surveying, Navigation, and the Calculation of 
Eclipses. They were exercised in "disputations," 
which were beforehand supervised and corrected by 
the tutors; and, in order to awaken an interest 
among them in the questions of the day, the Rector 
began to give "pulilic lectures uj)on all those sub- 
jects which are necessary to be understood to qual- 
ify young gentlemen for the various stations and 
employments of life.'"" At the same time. Rector 
Clap undertook a revision of the laws. He made 
a new arrangement of the books belonging to the 
college, and prepared a catalogue, that the library 
might be made of greater practical value. He in- 
duced the Legislature to increase their annual sub- 
sidy, so that an additional tutor might be employed; 
and henceforth there was a tutor for each one of the 
lower classes, while the Rector took charge himself 
of the Senior class. 

But he had hardly entered, in this energetic way, 
upon the duties of his office, when the college was 
exposed to danger from an unexpected source. 
The year had not gone by, when all New England 
was stirred by the ])reaching of the celebrated En- 
glish evangelist, Whitefiekl. (Jwing to a variety of 
causes, there had Kmg been a great declension in 
religion. There was much outward respect mani- 
fested for its ordinances, but it was the com- 
mon complaint that religion itself had lost its 
hold on the people. Now, under the preaching 
of Jonathan Edwards, and more especially of 
Whitefield, there was a wonderful reaction against 
the dead formalism which hatl reigned for so many 
years. What followed is known as the "Great 
Awakening. " Whitefield passed through the length 
and breailth of New England during the summer 
and autumn of 1740, and wherever he went his 
labors were attended with marvellous results. But, 
unfortunately, after he left the country he was fol- 
lowetl by a crowd of imitators. These self-ap- 
pointed preachers intruded themselves as a matter 
of right into the established churches, and did not 
hesitate to take upon themselves the duties of the 
settled ministers. They made their own appoint- 
ments, and adopted their own measures. To a 
great extent they professed to be governed by su- 
pernatural impulses; and, by noise and excited 
rhapsody, they sought to incite to the utmost the 
religious enthusiasm of the people. They de- 
nounced all wIk) i)pposed them as " unconverted;" 
antl their course was marked everywhere by 



VALE COLLEGE. 



169 



divisions in the churches and the setting up 
of separate religious assembhes. Their follow- 
ers, with marked exceptions, were principally 
among the less educated and more excitable 
portion of the community. To these "New 
Lights," as they were called, the greater part of 
the clergymen of the colony, together with those 
who by position had been heretofore looked upon 
as the leaders in the church and in society, strenu- 
ously opposed themselves. They in turn were 
known as "Old Lights;" and, having a decided 
majority in the Legislature, proceeded in 1742, and 
again in 1743, to pass stringent laws for the repres- 
sion of the disorderly practices which had become 
so common, and for the prevention of divisions in 
the churches. Rector Clap was not a man to re- 
main neutral or inactive at such a crisis. Eminently 
conservative as he was, he took sides with the 
"Old Lights." It was not long, as might have 
been expected, before the excitement which was 
manifesting itself everywhere in the colony spread 
to the college. There had been a division in the 
parish church in New Haven, very soon after 
Whitefield had preached in the town, and a sepa- 
rate service had been set up, which the students 
began to attend. Rector Clap at once forbade 
their leaving the regularly appointed place of 
worship, and threatened with expulsion any one 
who, in accordance with the growing habit of the 
times, should speak disparagingly of the religious 
character of the officers of the college. It was for 
disobedience of this law that, in the winter of 
1741-42, David Brainerd, now known as one of 
the most prominent of American Christians in the 
eighteenth century, was expelled. He had attended 
the "separate" church in New Haven, and had 
also been overheard to say, in the college hall, one 
evening after supper, to two or three friends, that 
one of the tutors, who had just conducted evening 
prayer, " had no more grace " than the chair near 
which he stood. It was for disobedience of this 
same law that John and Ebenezer Cleaveland were 
also expelled in 1745. They had attended, with 
their parents, while at home, in vacation, one of 
the irregular " separate " meetings which had been 
established in their native town. 

The expulsion of David Brainerd and the Cleave- 
lands was considered a very severe and arbitrary 
proceeding by the "New Lights." It created 
great excitement among them, and brought down 
upon the college the enmity of this growing party. 
But this thorough identification of Rector Clap 
with the "Old Lights" was attended also with 
some advantages. He was considered, henceforth, 
one of the pillars of the party which now held the 
political power in the Legislature, and they could 
refuse him nothing. It was owing to the popular- 
ity which he thus acquired, that in 1745 he was able 
to procure from the Legislature a new charter for 
the college, so ample in its provisions that every 
power and privilege are granted which will ever be 
needed in the future. It was at this time, also, 
that the name of Yale, which before had strictly 
belonged only to the college building, was now 
unambiguously given to the institution, 



Nor was the new charter the only advantage 
which the college derived from Rector Clap's con- 
nection with the "Old Light" party. It was the 
influence which he had with the leaders of the 
party which enabled him to induce the Legislature 
to assist in building a new dormitory, which was 
then very much needed. The times were very un- 
propitious. The war which had begun in 1739, 
and was not concluded till the peace of Aix-la- 
Chapelle, in 1748, had borne very hard on the 
colony, so that it was deeply in debt. But the 
Legislature, besides other assistance, gave over 
;^i,ooo for the new building, and it was, in con- 
sequence, on its completion named with appropri- 
ate solemnities, "Connecticut Hall." It is the 
oldest of the buildings now standing upon the col- 
lege green; the one which is popularly known as 
South Middle. 

The institution was now eminently prosperous. 
The number of the students had very much in- 
creased, and there is evidence of a vigorous intel- 
lectual life among them. It was about this time, 
in 1753, tl''*' ''^^ Linonian Society was founded by 
the undergraduates among themselves for purposes 
of debate and the cultivation of literary studies — 
a society which for more than a century exerted a 
marked influence upon the college. 

It was about the same time also that one of the 
tutors, Mr. Ezra Stiles, afterwards the president of 
the college, began to make experiments with an 
electrical machine which had been presented to the 
college by Benjamin Franklin in 1749. They are 
supposed to have been the earliest experiments of 
the kind made in New England. 

Meanwhile an important change in the feelings 
of President Clap was becoming manifest. He 
had, at the beginning of the '• Great Awakening," 
thrown himself with all his characteristic ardor into 
the ranks of the ' ' Old Lights, " in order to suppress 
what he considered fanaticism. But in the progress 
of time the " New Light" preachers had in good 
measure cleared themselves of the dangerous irreg- 
ularities which had at first marked their course; 
and, on the other hand, among the " Old Lights" 
there had been developed a laxity of opinion, and 
even a positive hostility to what had ever been 
considered in New England to be religious truth, 
which excited his alarm. They seemed to be 
drifting into all sorts of latitudinarian views; while 
the "New Lights" stood firm for the old doctrines 
of Calvinism, which, in his opinion, were the foun- 
dation of a correct theology. As far back as 1746 
he had begun to show disatisfaction with the 
preaching of Mr. Noyes, the "Old Light" 
minister, whose church the students attended. At 
that time he induced the corporation to pass a vote 
to the eflTect that they would provide a preacher 
for the academic body as soon as they could 
procure a support for him; and to this end they 
set apart a small donation, which they had just re- 
ceived from the Hon. Philip Livingston, as the 
commencement of a fund for the maintenance of a 
Professor of Divinity. Nothing more was done for 
six years, till 1752. President Clap had then 
become still further alarmed on account of the 



170 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



theological errors which were everywhere rife, and 
still more dissatisfied with the preaching of Mr. 
Noyes. This alarm was shared by many of the 
friends of the college, and the parents of the 
students began to express their dissatisfaction that 
their sons should be obliged to sit under such 
unedifying preaching. Accordingly, in 1753 he 
withdrew the students from the parish church and 
commenced public worship on Sunday on college 
ground. 

This was not all. He felt it to be so important, 
in fidelity to the trust committed to him, to secure 
the college as a bulwark for orthodoxy in all time 
to come, that he induced the corporation to re- 
quire of every oflScer of the college a subscription 
to a confession of faith more strict than that re- 
quired by their act of 1722. This excited at once 
the indignation of his former friends in the "Old 
Light " party, who were bitterly opposed to all 
authoritative formulas of doctrine; and a war of 
pamphlets commenced which lasted for years. 
The "Old Lights" were still more exasperated in 
1755, when the Rev. Napthali Daggett was secured 
as a Professor of Divinity, and a college church 
was formally established. But the enemies of the 
president were unable to interpose any obstacle to 
prevent him from carrying out all his plans, for 
they were no longer in a majority in the Legislature. 
The " New Lights," who had at first suffered per- 
secution by reason of the severe ecclesiastical laws 
passed by the Legislature in 1742 and in 1743, had 
reaped this benefit — that they had obtained, first, 
the sympathy, and then the co-operation, of the 
large class of persons who, in consequence of the 
growing antagonism of the colonies and the govern- 
ment in England, were demanding "liberty." The 
"New Lights" were now, accordingly, in the 
majority in the Legislature, as they were also among 
the ministers in the colony and in the corporation 
of the college. So, notwithstanding the enmity of 
the "Old Lights," and the war of pamphlets, which 
continued to be waged with increasing bitterness, 
the college was never in so prosperous a condition. 
In 1757 President Clap was able to build a house 
for the Professor of Divinity. 

In 1 76 1 the number of students had become so 
large, that it was felt that it was very important that 
another building should be provided which could 
be used as a chapel, and furnish accommodation 
for the library. The times, however, were more 
unpropitious than ever. It was near the close of 
the Seven Years' War. The colony was almost 
bankrupt. Connecticut had expended ^"400,000 
in the contest, besides all the losses experienced by 
individual citizens. Yet President Clap, by means 
of his popularity with the "New Lights," was able 
to induce the Legislature to assist in the erection of 
a commodious chapel, which in 1 763 was opened 
for use with suitable formalities. 

Still his enemies did not desist. In 1763 they 
made an attempt to persuade the Legislature to in- 
terfere with the government of the college against 
the consent of the corporation. It was claimed 
that great abuses existed. The case was argued 
for the petitioners by two of the most experienced 



attorneys in the colony, and it was thought that at 
last the downfall of the president was certain. But, 
to the dismay of his opposers, he proved himself 
to be fully equal to the emergency. Their action 
only gave him an opportunity of displaying his 
learning and his fearless and self-reliant character in 
a way which has excited the admiration of every 
succeeding generation. He proved to the satisfac- 
tion of the Legislature that they had no power of 
visitation or of interference with the concerns of 
the college. 

President Clap had now completely triumphed 
in what was the great contest of his life; but it is a 
question whether the very completeness of his 
success was not a disadvantage to the college in 
the end. He had proved that the corporation was 
independent of the Legislature; but the eftect 
throughout the colony was to increase the number 
of those who looked upon the institution with sus- 
picion. And now the students were encouraged 
by persons outside of the college to acts of insub- 
ordination, and it became more and more difficult 
to maintain order. Two of the tutors also adopted 
the theological views of the Rev. Robert Sandeman, 
which were at that time spreading in Connecticut, 
and President Clap insisted that they should resign, 
in accordance with the test laws of 1753. The 
new tutors who replaced them found their position 
so uncomfortable that they resigned in the summer 
of 1766, and the college was at last in a state of 
anarchy. The enemies of the president had at last 
triumphed in their turn, and at the ensuing Com- 
mencement he felt obliged to ofler his resignation. 
He did not long survive. In less than four month.s, 
after a short illness, he died, January 7, 1767, in 
the sixty-fourth year of his age. Thus ended, after 
the labors of twenty-seven years, the academic ser- 
vices of one whose reputation will be ever dear to 
the alumni of Yale. His lot was cast in troubled 
times. It was well for the college that during so 
stormy a period its presiding officer was a man of 
such fearlessness, such energy and decision, and 
such single-hearted devotion to its interests. 

On the resignation of President Clap some diffi- 
culty was experienced in finding a successor. Pro- 
fessor Daggett was accordingly elected president 
pro tempore, with the understanding that the greater 
part of his time was to be occupied with the duties 
of his professorship. The period of eleven years — 
1766 to 1777 — in which he acted as president was 
one of intense political excitement. It will be for- 
ever memorable for the opening scenes of the 
American Revolution. Yet, notwithstanding the 
distraction of the times, everything went on pros- 
perously at the college; owing in great measure to 
the fact that there was during the whole period a 
succession of remarkably able tutors, to whom the 
oversight of the students was principally intrusted. 
In 1 77 1, however, the corporation founded a pro- 
fessorship of Natural Philosophy, and placed the 
Rev. Nehemiah Strong in the new chair. , 

It is interesting to see, during Dr. Daggett's 
presidency, how the college, in common with all 
the other institutions of the country, was afTected 
by the democratic tendencies of the times. One 




^^^/zi^J'fv^/ 



YALE COLLEGE. 



171 



result was the establishment by the undergraduates 
of a new debating society among themselves. The 
Linonian Society was judged to be too aristocratic. 
Originally no Freshman could be a member. The 
"Brothers in Unity" was accordingly set up as a 
rival. Prominent among its founders was David 
Humphreys, afterwards ambassador of the United 
States in Spain. Another result of the democratic 
tendencies of the times was the publication of the 
laws of the college in English, in conformity with 
a suggestion from the Legislature. And a still more 
noticeable result was the alphabetical arrangement 
of the names of the students in the catalogue, in- 
stead of their being placed in accordance with the 
supposed respectability of their parents. 

But the most important event in the history of 
the college during the presidency of Dr. Daggett, 
was the growth among the students of a taste for 
literature. In 1771 John Trumbull and Timothy 
Dwight were elected tutors. Even before they had 
entered college they were familiar with the English 
classics. While undergraduates they had paid spe- 
cial attention to literary studies, and had exercised 
themselves in original poetical composition. In 
the first year of their tutorship, Dwight, at the age 
of nineteen, commenced "The Conquest of Ca- 
naan; " and Trumbull published the first book of 
a poem which he called the "Progress of Dull- 
ness," which was a satire written with a view to 
expose the absurdities then prevalent in the system 
of instruction in the college. He claimed that the 
learned languages, mathematics, logic, and scho- 
lastic divinity received altogether a disproportionate 
amount of the time of the students, while the pur- 
suit of literature, of equal importance, was consid- 
ered idle and worthless. In the course of the two 
years that he was tutor he continued his attack upon 
what he considered the absurdities then prevalent 
in respect to education, adding two new books to 
the " Progress of Dullness." He then commenced 
the practice of the profession of the law in New 
Haven; was, not long after, made treasurer of 
the college; and began the first part of " IMac- 
Fingal," which is said to have rapidly passed 
through thirty editions. There can be no doubt 
that to the inspiring influence and example of these 
two men is to be ascribed the commencement of 
an attention to English literature and rhetoric and 
oratory among the students. It is said that Mr. 
Dwight addressed to the Seniors at this time, at 
their request, a series of lectures on style and com- 
position, similar in plan to the lectures of Blair, 
which had not then come before the public. 

At last, with the breaking out of hostilities be- 
tween the colonists and the English government, 
the college became involved in difficulties. Some 
of the students left to join the army. In the spring 
of 1777 Dr. Daggett resigned the office of presi- 
dent; and as it was found to be impossible to pro- 
vide food for the students in New Haven, the 
trustees made arrangements for the residence of 
the Freshmen class in Farmington, and of the 
Sophomores and Seniors in Glastonbury, under 
their respective tutors. The Seniors were instructed 
by Tutor Dwight at Wethersfield; and in July they 



were dismissed without the usual public Com- 
mencement exercises. 

The prospects of the college were never more 
gloomy than at the time of the resignation of Dr. 
Daggett. In addition to the discouragements al- 
ready described, the public attention was absorbed 
by the necessity of repelling a hostile invasion from 
Canada. General Burgoyne, with a large British 
force, was aiming to secure command of the Hud- 
son, and thus to cut off New England from New 
York and the other States to the south. So serious 
was the danger, that Connecticut, with a popula- 
tion of only 200,000, had that year twenty-two full 
regiments at the front. But even this absorption of 
the public attention was not the only source of 
discouragement to the friends of the college. 
There was throughout the State a great deal of pos- 
itive hostility to the institution. Many influential 
men, to whom it ought naturally to have been able 
to look for support, were alienated from it on ac- 
count of the religious test laws of President Clap; 
while others were jealous of it because he had so 
triumphanriy vindicated its independence of any 
control by the Legislature. It was fortunate, there- 
fore, that at this critical period the corporation, at 
their meeting in September, 1777, were able to 
unite their votes on one of the alumni of the col- 
lege in whom were combined so many of those 
qualities which were needed at this time in a pre- 
siding officer. They made choice of the Rev. Ezra 
Stiles, D.D., of Newport, R. I. 

EZRA STILES 

w^as a New Haven man by birth, and was imbued 
with all the traditions of the place. Soon after his 
graduation he had received an appointment as 
tutor, and had held that position for over six years. 
During that period he had acquired a high repu- 
tation as a college officer. In 1755 he had been 
called to be pastor of a Congregational church in 
Newport, where he had become known as the 
most learned man in America. He was at this 
time in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, preaching 
on a temporary engagement, as Newport had be- 
come the theatre of military operations, and he 
had been obliged, with most of his parishioners, to 
leave the town. 

The good policy of the choice thus made by the 
corporation was at once apparent, in the satisfac- 
tion manifested even by many of those who had 
been the bitter enemies of President Clap. Dr. 
Stiles was known to be neither a religious nor an 
ecclesiastical partisan. He was attached to the 
traditional forms of church organization which had 
become common in New England from the first; 
but he cherished kindly feeling for all who gave 
evidence of Christian character, however much 
they might differ from him in their scheme of faith. 
He was also strongly opposed to the imposition of 
creeds. Accordingly he did not accept the office 
tendered to him till after he had visited New Ha- 
ven, and in a conference with the corporation ob- 
tained from them a promise to repeal the religious 



172 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



test act of 1753. He also obtained from them a 
promise to assist him in an effort to secure, as soon 
as possible, permanent professors for the college. 
In addition, he called upon several prominent 
gentlemen of the town, and satisfied himself that 
if he came to New Haven he should obtain their 
co-operation and support. 

Everything having been thus arranged to meet 
his views, he was formally inaugurated president of 
the college in July, 1778. The number of under- 
graduates at that time was one hundred and thirty- 
two; and the instructors, besides the president, 
were a Professor of Divinity, a Professor of Math- 
ematics and Natural Philosophy, and three tutors. 

The new president set himself to work with all 
his characteristic enthusiasm. But the War of the 
Revolution went on, and the unfortunate state of 
the country for the next six years effectually pre- 
vented his carrying out the enlarged views which 
he had entertained when he accepted the office. 
Just a 3'ear after his inauguration New Haven was 
visited by a detachment of three thousand British 
troops under Major-General Tryon, and for some 
hours the town was given up to the ravages of an 
intoxicated soldiery. It is said the college build- 
ings were only saved from being burned by the 
intercession of a Tory officer in the expedition who 
had received his education in the institution. As 
might have been expected, the students rendered 
important assistance in the attempt which was made 
to prevent the enemy from entering the town. 
One of the most interesting incidents of the day, 
also, was the appearance of ex-President Daggett 
on the scene of action. He was assigned a posi- 
tion on the hill which overlooks the road by which 
the troops were expected to pass. As the enemy 
advanced, he was directed to retire to the north, 
and, as he "turned down the hill to gain a little 
covert of bushes," he was fired upon by the advance- 
guard of the British, at a distance of "little more 
than twenty rods." Gaining the covert at which he 
had aimed, he imprudently returned the fire. The 
rage of the soldiers who were just at hand was such, 
that his excuse for firing that it was in "the exer- 
cise of war" had, as might be expected, no effect, 
and his petitions for quarter, although they availed 
to save his life, did not protect him from brutal in- 
dignities and injuries. 

In 1783 the War of the Revolution came to a 
close; but the diflSculties under which the college 
labored were by no means at an end. The institu- 
tion was still very unpopular in the State. The 
repeal by the corporation of the religious test law 
of 1753 had allayed the hostility of some of those 
who had become disaffected; but the success of 
President Clap in asserting the independence of the 
college of all State control had sown the seeds of 
discontent and jealousy, which had now ripened 
and borne fruit. Reports were everywhere in circu- 
lation that the affairs of the college were poorly 
managed. Complaints were made that it was con- 
trolled by a board of trustees composed entirely of 
clergymen; and that the course of instruction was 
arranged, in the spirit of bigotry, with special refer- 
ence to the education of those who were to become 



clergymen. So strong was the opposition to the 
college, that it was even proposed to establish a 
rival institution. 

President Stiles had labored from the first to allay 
this feeling of hostiiit)'. Additional funds were 
absolutely necessary to enable him to carry out his 
views with regard to the improvement of the col- 
lege. But as long as there was such a want of 
confidence in its management among the leading 
men in the State and in the Legislature, it was idle 
to expect any assistance from the public treasury. 
He had, accordingly, repeated conferences with 
individuals, and with committees of the Legislature, 
in which he sought to allay their prejudices and to 
excite their interest in the college. But during 
nearly the whole term of his presidency he was un- 
successful. At last, however, his long-continued 
efforts were crowned with success. In May, 1792, 
a committee of the Legislature, after a conference 
with the corporation, and a full examination of the 
condition of the college, made a favorable report, 
in which they commended in high terms the effici- 
ency with which all the interests of the institution 
were administered. In connection with this report 
a plan which had been prepared by the treasurer of 
the college, Hon. James Hillhouse, was submitted 
to the Legislature, which was at once adopted. 
According to this plan, the balances of certain taxes, 
not yet collected, which were not needed for the 
original object for which they were imposed, were 
to be paid into the hands of commissioners and 
applied to the improvement of the college; and the 
trustees of the college, in compensation for what 
was thus done by the State, were to receive into the 
corporation the Governor, the Lieutenant-Governor, 
and "six senior assistants in the council of the 
State for the time being," who were to constitute, 
with the President and fellows, and their successors, 
one corporation. 

It was in this way that President Stiles succeeded 
at last in bringing to an end the long estrange- 
ment which had existed between the college and 
the Legislature. A part of the funds thus secured 
were at once appropriated to the proper endow- 
ment of the professorship of Mathematics and Na- 
tural Philosophy; and in December, 1794, Mr. 
Josiah Meigs was inducted into the chair. A new 
dormitory, which was much needed, was also 
commenced, and was finished in July, 1794, and 
received the name of "Union Hall," in commem- 
oration of the "union," now so happily com- 
pleted, of civilians with the old Board of Trustees. 
But it was not permitted to President Stiles to carry 
out further the plan which he had proposed to 
himself when he accepted the presidency. In less 
than a year from the completion of the building 
now called "South College" he was seized with a 
malignant fever, and died after an illness of only 
four days, on the 12th of May, 1795, at the age of 
sixty-eight. 

The college, during his administration, had been, 
on the whole, very prosperous, notwithstanding the 
difficulties with which it had to contend in conse- 
quence of the War of the Revolution, and the de- 
pression of business which lasted many years after 



VALE COLLEGE. 



173 



peace was secured. But the special claim of Presi- 
dent Stiles on the gratitude of the alumni, is his 
success in bringing the college back into the line 
of its traditions, and to its historic place in har- 
mony with the Legislature and with all classes of 
people in the State. It ought also to be stated that 
his character as a scholar gave the college reputa- 
tion and dignity at home and abroad. He was an 
ardent patriot during the Revolutionary War. He 
took special interest in contemporary history; and 
the voluminous journals in which he wrote ex- 
tended accounts of current events, and which are 
now in the possession of the college, have been a 
treasure-house from which subsequent historians 
of the period in which he lived have drawn valu- 
able material. He was ardently attached to the 
college. He was a truly academic man, thor- 
oughly imbued with the spirit of the place, and 
diposed to maintain all its traditions. No officer 
of the institution ever labored with more zeal for 
its prosperity. 

When the corporation met, after the death of 
Dr. Stiles, they at once proceeded to the choice of 
the Rev. Timothy D wight, D. D., as president. 

TIMOTHY DWIGHT 

was the grandson of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, 
the most illustrious graduate of the college. He 
had filled the office of tutor with distinguished 
honor for si.x years, from 1771 to 1777. He was 
now pastor of the church in Greenfield Hill, in 
which town he had established a school of a high 
standard, which had been in successful operation 
for several years. 

On entering upon the duties of his office, he as- 
sumed an amount of labor of which few men would 
have been capable. The Rev. Dr. Sprague says of 
him: " He continued, through his whole presiden- 
tial life, to discharge the appropriate duties of four 
distinct offices, each of which might have furnished 
ample employment for an individual." A great 
variety of public duties unconnected with the col- 
lege were also intrusted to him, and the admirable 
manner in which he acquitted himself in all spread 
his reputation widely through the country, and gave 
an importance and a character to the institution 
over which he presided which it had never enjoyed 
before. 

President Dwight came to the presidency at a 
fortunate moment. The ill-will which had been 
felt towards it by so many persons in the State, ever 
since the days of President Clap, had in a measure 
been removed by the politic course pursued by 
President Stiles. It had just received a consider- 
able addition to its funds; by no means all it needed, 
but sufficient to revive the hopes of its friends. 
The country, too, was just beginning to recover 
from the prostration which had affected all business 
operations during the Revolutionary War, and a new 
era of material prosperity was just about to dawn. 

The college, however, though it had been in ex- 
istence nearly a centurj', and was one of the most 
considerable institutions of learning in the country, 
was still little more than a collegiate school. Its 



corps of instructors, besides the president, consisted 
only of a single professor and three tutors. The in- 
struction, as it would be regarded at the present 
time, was very meager and defective. The number 
of the students had fallen off", so that there were little 
more than a hundred in attendance. The buildings, 
with the exception of the new dormitory just fin- 
ished, were in a dilapidated condition; and the 
funds, notwithstanding the recent addition made to 
them, did not yield a sufficient sum to meet the 
general expenses of the college; so that the institu- 
tion was still dependent in great measure on the 
fees which the students paid for tuition. 

Limited as were the resources which Dr. Dwight 
had at command when he came to New Haven, he 
early conceived the idea, and began intelligently to 
plan to make of the institution which had been 
placed under his care a true university, where every 
branch of knowledge should be taught and studied. 
For some years he was not able to begin to carry 
his plans into execution. The want of sufficient 
funds proved an obstacle in his way, as it had been 
before in the way of his predecessor. But at last 
this difficulty was in part removed, and he was able 
to make a commencement. The first need of the 
college, that which had been so strenuously insisted 
upon by President Stiles, was a corps of permanent 
instructors. President Dwight proposed, instead of 
calling men to be professors who had already 
achieved distinction in other spheres of labor, to 
select from the recent graduates of the college those 
who gave promise of unusual ability, and to place 
them in the different chairs of instruction. It 
seemed to him that, in the existing state of the 
country, it was the best thing that could be done 
for the cause of education, to induce such young 
men, before they had entered upon the practice of 
any other profession, to direct their attention early 
to the business of instruction in a single branch of 
knowledge as the occupation of their lives. In this 
way they would be led to make higher attainments 
themselves, and to render more valuable service to 
the institution with which the interests of their 
whole career would be from the first identified. 

In accordance with this plan, early in the present 
century he had the satisfaction of being able to es- 
tablish in the college, as his permanent assistants in 
the work of instruction, three of the recent gradu- 
ates of the college, whom he had selected as best 
fitted for the work he proposed for them. These 
three young men, who were for more than half a 
century associated with one another in the service 
of the college, were Jeremiah Day, Benjamin Silli- 
man, and James L. Kingsley. 

Mr. Day became Professor of Mathematics and 
Natural Philosophy, and entered upon the duties 
of his office in 1803. At that time the great want 
of the country in the pure mathematics was ade- 
quate text-books. Accordingly Professor Day set 
himself to work to supply this want, and in a few 
years brought out a series of mathematical works 
which were everywhere received with eagerness. 
For a period of fifty years they held their place in 
most of the higher institutions of learning in the 
country, with little diminution of their popularity. 



174 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



The value of what their author did, by means of 
them, for the college and for the cause of educa- 
tion, while holding the position of professor from 
1803 to 181 7, the time when he succeeded Dr. 
Dwight, was not surpassed by anything in science 
or literature which he did subsequently during his 
long term of office as president. 

IMr. .Silliman was induced by Dr. Dwight, just 
as he was about to enter upon the practice of the 
profession of the law, to take the new chair of 
chemistry, mineralogy, and geology which had 
been founded by the corporation. At the time 
little was known of either of these sciences, and 
there were no text-books. After two years spent 
in study, he gave his first course of lectures in 
1804; and it thus fell to him to introduce the stu- 
dents who came under his teaching to a field of 
knowledge which was before entirely unknown. 
By his labors, continued for over sixty years, in the 
service of the college; by \\\q American Journal of 
Science and Art which he established; and by 
his brilliant public lectures in many of the larger 
cities, he will always be remembered as the pioneer 
who did more than any one else in his day to 
awaken for science a general interest throughout 
the whole country. 

Mr. Kingsley was appointed to the Professorship 
of Languages in 1805. Professor Thatcher says that 
he brought to this ofiice "a love of thorough, 
substantial learning, united with a habit of great 
accuracy and exactness in its acquisition, a genuine 
appetite for the nutrinuntum spirilus, which emi- 
nently fitted him for an academic life." According 
to the same authority, "he was destined to ac- 
complish as great a work, so far as the literary ad- 
vancement of the institution is concerned, as has 
been accomplished by any other person who has 
ever been connected with it." From the first, his 
influence was directed to the introduction of im- 
provements in the method of teaching, and in at- 
tempts to advance the standard of scholarship. 
Through a long life he was known as the advocate 
of thorough work in all departments of instruction; 
and if the college gained during all that period any 
distinction for its determined and persistent hos- 
tility to all shams in education, and its earnest 
efforts in behalf of what is exact and elegant in 
scholarship, to no one person is the honor more 
properly due than to him. 

Thus these three men were not only superior, 
each in his own department, but through the whole 
life of President Dwight they ever remained in 
cordial sympathy with him in ail his views respect- 
ing education, and gave him their hearty support. 
After his death, for more than a quarter of a cen- 
tury, they continued to work together liarmoniously 
for the advancement of a true learning. In this 
way, by their united labors, they built up still 
higher the reputation of the college, which Presi- 
dent Dwight had extemied throughout the whole 
country. Students resorted to New Haven from 
every .State in the Union, and the college became a 
truly national institution. 

The broad views of Presitient Dwight were also 
manifested in the plans which he adopted for the 



material development of the college. On coming 
to New Haven, one of the first things which he ac- 
complished was the purchase of the whole front of 
what is now the college square, that there might 
be ample room for the erection of new buildings, 
when in the progress of time they should be needed. 
In 1800, the number of undergraduates having 
nearly doubled in the five years which had elapsed 
since he became president, he secured the erection 
of a new dormitory, now known as North Middle; 
and of a building to be used for recitation-rooms 
and other public purposes, to which the name was 
given of the "Lyceum." A new house was also 




President Dwight's House, 1795. 

provided for the use of the president; and all the 
older buildings were put in thorough repair. The 
library was also enlarged. Additions were made to 
the philosophical apparatus and to the chemical 
apparatus. A collection of mineralogical specimens 
was purchased; and in 18 10 Colonel George Gibbs, 
of Rhode Island, was induced to place on exhi- 
bition in one of the college halls a very valuable 
collection of minerals which he had brought from 
Europe. 

The laws of the college were also revised; and 
the system of pecuniary fines, on which dependence 
had been placed in earlier times for securing good 
order among the students was abolished. The 
Freshmen were at the same time relieved from the 
necessity of going on errands, and of rendering 
other menial services at the bidding of the mem- 
bers of the two upper classes. 

Dr. Dwight's efforts for the religious welfare of 
the students are also deserving of special mention. 
At the time of his entering upon the duties of his 
office the whole country was infected with a spirit 
of unbelief in the divine authority of the Christian 
religion, which was the result in great measure of 
the wide spread introduction of the contemporary 
literature of France at the time of the Revolutionary 
War. The bold and fearless manner in which lie 
invited the students to state to him their doubts, 
and the triumphant manner in which he refuted 
the common infidel arguments of the time, forms 
one of the most interesting episodes of his presi- 
dency. It was also at this time, in connection with 
his efforts, that those seasons of religious interest 




KEY, .IK.UKMlAiniai S 1 II II, II 

TR&SUtENT Of TALE COLLKCE 




f ' c :^r'y*^^fy^'' 




VALE COLLEGE. 



175 



commenced among the students which have been 
one of the marked features in the history of the 
college ever since the commencement of the cen- 
tury. 

But the views of Dr. Dwight extended beyond 
the enlargement of the curriculum of study in the 
institution as already organized. He contemplated 
the establishment, in connection with it, of pro- 
fessional schools with distinct faculties of instruc- 
tion. From the foundation of the college, one of 
the special objects kept in view has been the train- 
ing of " suitable youth" for the work of the ministry. 
From the time of the appointment of a Professor of 
Divinity, in 1755, there had been a class of resident 
graduates who had remained in New Haven for the 
purpose of pursuing regular theological study under 
his direction. The teaching of these students had 
been a part of the recognized special duty of Pro- 
fessor Daggett and Professor Wales. Dr. Dwight, 
holding as he did the office of Professor of Divinity 
in connection with that of president, continued to 
give instruction of this kind. But he early saw the 
importance of having a separate school, in which 
a more thorough and systematic course of theolog- 
. ical instruction might be given. He made public 
announcement that, as soon as possible, he should 
attempt to carry out this original design of the 
founders of the college by establishing such a 
school. The want of funds prevented him from 
seeing his plans realized during his life; but he in- 
duced one of his sons to set apart a sum of money 
for the purpose, which in 1824 became the nucleus 
of the foundation of the " Theological Department 
of the College," which was then formally estab- 
lished. 

A medical school, also, with an able corps of in- 
structors, he had the pleasure of seeing in active 
operation as the result of his labors. The first 
course of lectures was given in 1813, and the 
school at once took a high rank. 

It was a part of his plan also, to make provision 
for the study of the law. In 1801 a professo'rship of 
law was established, and the Hon. ElizurGoodrich 
was elected to fill the chair. He was expected, 
however, to read lectures, for the benefit only of 
the undergraduates, on the leading principles of the 
science. It does not seem to have been intended 
at this time to establish a separate department for 
the purpose of qualifying students for the bar. There 
was a law school of high character already estab- 
lished in the State, in the town of Litchfield, and 
in full operation under the charge of Judge Reeve. 
In process of time, however, the action taken in 
1801 was supplemented by the foundation of a dis- 
tinct department of the college for professional study 
in legal science. 

It was in the midst of efforts for developing and 
carrying out plans of this far-reaching character that 
Dr. Dwight was seized, in 18 16, with a disease from 
which he partially recovered, but which, after a few 
months, resulted in the termination of his life, 
January 11, 18 17, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, 
while he was still in the maturity of his powers. 

As president of the college. Dr. Dwight will al- 
ways be remembered by the alumni as the organizer 



under whose wise guidance the institution, which 
at the time of his coming to New Haven was little 
more than a collegiate school, began to be devel- 
oped into a true university. He will be remem- 
bered, also, for the remarkable power which he had 
of inspiring those who came under his instruction 
to all noble endeavor. Those of their number who 
survive — few indeed they are ! — still speak of him 
not only with warm affection, but with an enthusi- 
asm which is revealed at once in the eye and in the 
voice. After the lapse of more than half a century 
since his death, the institution whose interests he 
administered so successfully, still owes much of its 
renown to the association of his name with its his- 
tory. The limits of this sketch do not permit us 
to speak of him except as president of the college. 
But he was more than this. As a man, as a citizen, 
as a scholar, as a theologian, as a benefactor of his 
own and succeeding generations, he is to be ranked 
among the foremost men of the century in which 
he lived. 

JEREMIAH DAY 

was born August 3, 1773; he died August 22, 
1867, or at the age of over ninety-four vears. 
On his graduation, in 1795, at the instance of 
Dr. Dwight, he took charge of the large and 
flourishing academy at Greenfield Hill, which Dr. 
Dwight had just left to assume the office of Presi- 
dent of the College. Here he spent nearly one 
year, w-hen he received an invitation to a tutorship 
in Williams College, which he accepted. After two 
years of service there, he removed to take the same 
position in Yale College. In this office he ser\'ed 
three years, receiving in the meanwhile license to 
preach from the Association of New Haven West 
in 1800. On the Sunday before the Fourth of 
July, in 1 801, after having preached twice in West 
Haven, he suff"ered a slight hemorrhage, which was 
followed by such debilitation that under medical ad- 
vice, from apprehension of tuberculous consumption 
supervening, he went for trial of a warmer climate 
to Bermuda, where he remained till the following 
April. He then returned, without indication of 
any improvement in health, and spent the follow- 
ing year in his father's house in New Preston, 
having abandoned all expectation of recovery. 
Under judicious medical treatment, however, he 
regained his health to such a degree, that, in the 
summer term of 1803, he ventured to assume the 
duties of the Professorship of Mathematics and 
Natural Philosophy in Yale College, to which he 
had been appointed just after his departure to 
Bermuda two years before. On the nth of Feb- 
ruary, 181 7, about one month after the death of 
Dr. Dwight, he was elected by the Corporation to the 
Presidency of the College, and on the 23d of July 
following, he was inaugurated in that office and 
ordained to the ministry of the Gospel. This office 
he held till 1846, when after having held it for 
nearly thirty years, and at the age of 73, he ten- 
dered his resignation. This step, he had prepared 
to take at the age of 70, but he delayed in def- 
erence to the urgent solicitation of his colleagues. 



176 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



He was at once elected as a member of the Cor- 
poration of the College, and in this office, and also 
as a member of the Prudential Committee, he con- 
tinued in efficient service of the institution, till, on 
the nth of June, 1867, a little over two months 
before his death, he asked permission to resign 
the position he had held in the board for fifty years. 
The resignation w.i.s accepted by the Corporation 
at the following Commencement in July in resolu- 
tions, in which with expressions of sorrow, they 
recognized ' ' the goodness of God in giving this col- 
lege for the space of seventy years, first as tutor 
and professor, then as president, and for just half 
a century as a member of this corporation, the 
services and counsels of a man, such as President 
Day; so pure, so calm, so wise, so universally be- 
loved and honored.'' 

It was understood, on the death of President 
Dwight, that it had been his wish that Professor 
Jeremiah Day should be his successor. But it was 
found that this gentleman was very reluctant to as- 
sume the responsibilities of the office; and he was 
only led finally to consent to undertake them by 
the urgent solicitations of his colleagues, and with 
the understanding that he was to be relieved of 
some part of the various duties that had been dis- 
charged by Dr. Dwight. Accordingly, having been 
ordained to the ministry of the gospel, July 23, 18 17, 
he was, on the same day, inaugurated president of 
the college. It was not long, also, before the cor- 
poration, in accordance with his wishes, proceeded 
to elect two new professors, to fill the chairs of Di- 
vinity and of Rhetoric and Oratory. For the first, 
they made choice of Mr. Eleazar T. Fitch, and for 
the second, the Rev. Chauncey A. Goodrich; both 
of the class of 18 10. They also elected Mr. Alex- 
ander M. Fisher to the chair of ^Mathematics and 
Natural Philosophy, which had now become vacant 
by the elevation of Professor Day to the presidency. 

A new era now commenced in the history of the 
college. For more than a hundred years the gov- 
ernment and administration of discipline had been 
almost entirely in the hands of the President. Even 
Dr. Dwight had depended, for the preservation of 
order among the students, for the most part upon 
his own views of what was advisable, and upon his 
personal influence and powers of persuasion. It 
was more in accordance with the character of Dr. 
Day to consult the other officers of the institution. 
It was his desire to have all questions with regard to 
the policy to be pursued discussed and decided in 
a meeting of the whole faculty of instructors. It 
seemed to him that such a course would be attended 
with manifest advantages. Greater harmony would 
be thus secured among the different officers; and 
all would be more likely to feel an individual re- 
sponsibility to assist in carrying out measures which 
had been adopted after they had themselves been 
personally consulted, and had an opportunity of 
expressing freely their opinion and casting their 
vote. Accordingly, from this time the responsi- 
bility for the government of the college rested with 
the faculty. Henceforth it was understood that no 
important action of any kind was ever to be taken, 



even by the corporation, without the recommenda- 
tion or assent of the corps of instructors; in partic- 
ular, that no professor or other officer was to be 
appointed without the consent of those who were 
devoting their lives to the daily instruction and 
government, and with whom any new officer would 
be associated. 

•In other respects the administration of the college 
under President Day was, in general, in accordance 
with the views of President Dwight, and in the line 
of the traditions of the institution from the begin- 
ning. An effort was made, however, at once to 
introduce more of regularity and system into every 
department, and special pains was taken to raise 
the standard of scholarship among the students. To 
this end more prolonged and careful work was re- 
quired of them than ever before in the preparation 
of daily appointed tasks. These efforts of the faculty 
for the improvement of the college afforded great 
satisfaction to its friends, and the institution gave 
evidence of greater prosperity than ever before. 
The number of students so increased that it became 
necessary to build immediately a new Commons 
Hall in 1819; and an additional dormitory, which 
was completed in 1821, and which from its location 
in reference to those erected before, was called 
North College. 

It was not long before the corporation was en- 
couraged to make an effort to carry out the design 
of Dr. Dwight of establishing a separate department 
of the college for special theological instruction. In 
1822 fifteen students, who were about to graduate, 
presented a petition that they might be organized 
as a theological class. Professor Fitch warmly sup- 
ported their petition, stating that it was a part of 
his duty as Professor of Divinity to give instruction 
to graduate students who were preparing for the 
ministry; but that the demands of theological educa- 
tion were now so much greater than formerly, that 
it was impossible for him, while discharging his 
other duties, to give students that superintendence 
which they needed. He urged, therefore, upon 
the corporation, and upon his colleagues, the im- 
portance of making at once more ample provision 
for theological instruction. The subject received 
immediate attention. The fact was recognized that 
one of the prominent objects of the founders of the 
college had been to provide for the education of 
ministers; and that the corporation, in fidelity to 
the trust committed to them, ought not to neglect 
to provide for proper theological instruction. It 
was seen, if a foundation for an additional profes- 
sorship could be secured, that, with the help of the 
officers already connected with the college, an able 
corps of instructors could at once be arranged for 
a separate theological department. An appeal was 
accordingly made for the endowment of a profes- 
sorship of Didactic Theology. This appeal re- 
ceived an immediate response from the friends of 
the college. Mr. Timothy Dwight, the son of Dr. 
Dwight, made a subscription towards it of $5,000, 
and the required sum was soon made up; and the 
Rev. Nathaniel W. Taylor, who had been pastor 
of the First Church in New^ Haven for ten years, 
was chosen to fill the chair. At first assistance was 



VALE COLLEGE. 



177 



given by some of the academical professors; but in 
1826 arrangements were made to secure, as Pro- 
fessor of Sacred Literature, Mr. Tosiah W. Gibbs, 
who had been already for two years giving instruc- 
tion in Hebrew and Greek. Professor Goodrich 
was from the first closely identified with the de- 
partment; but it was not until 1839 that he became 
formally connected with it as Professor of the Pas- 
toral Charge. 

The influence of the body of enthusiastic stu- 
dents who were now attracted by the reputation of 
Dr. Taylor, had its effect upon the whole college 
community. The corporation were encouraged to 
take measures for replacing the old chapel, which 
had long been found to be insufficient in its ac- 
commodations, by a new edifice, which was so 
constructed as to provide not only a large room 
for the college library, but also study-rooms for the 
use of the theological students. The old chapel 
was remodeled so as to furnish recitation-rooms and 
rooms for the libraries belonging to the different 
societies. There were now three of these large de- 
bating societies. In 1819 some difficulty had 
arisen in the Linonian Society, in which was a 
large number of students from the Southern States, 
witli regard to the election of a president. The 
candidate of the "Southern party" being defeated, 
the Southern students in "Linonia" and "The 
Brothers" withdrew, and formed a society of the 
same general character, to which they gave the 
name of "Calliope." 

About this time also a marked improvement in 
the literary taste of the students was brought about 
by the formation of a society called the "Chi Delta 
Theta, '' which was composed of about a third of 
the members of the Senior class, who were ad- 
mitted annually by election, and thus honorably 
distinguished as having displayed special literary 
ability. The society owed its existence to the ef- 
forts of Professor Kingsley, who was for many years 
its president, and regularly attended its meetings. 

In 1825, through the exertions of Professor Silli- 
man, funds were raised for the purchase of the 
"Gibbs Cabinet of Minerals," which had been de- 
posited in the college some years before, and which 
was found to be of great value in creating an in- 
terest among the students in scientific study. 

In 1826 the Hon. David Daggett, a judge of the 
Superior Court of the State, was appointed Pro- 
fessor of Law. He was at that time associated 
with Samuel J. Hitchcock, Esq., an eminent coun- 
selor-at-law, in the conduct of a private school in 
New Haven, which had been commenced some 
years before by Seth P. Staples, Esq. From this 
time may be dated the practical commencement of 
a new department of the college for instruction in 
law. The connection, as Dr. Woolsey says, was 
at first "somewhat vague," but the names of the 
professors and students, and the prospectus of the 
curriculum of studies pursued, appeared hence- 
forth in the official catalogues of the institution. 

The years from 181 7, when President Day en- 
tered upon the duties of his office, to 1831 will 
ever be memorable in the history of the college. 
It has already been said that, early in this period, 
23 



persistent and systematic efforts were commenced 
to raise the standard of scholarship among the stu- 
dents. Every year was marked by the introduction 
of improved methods of recitation and instruction. 
It was a time when complaints were becoming 
general throughout the country of the unprofitable 
nature of the usual college studies. Many of the 
so-called reformers in education were decrying in 
newspapers and in pamphlets the study of the 
"dead languages." Demands were being made 
that the course of study should be altered to suit 
what was called "the practical wants of the time." 
Such pressure was brought to bear upon some of 
the younger and weaker institutions of learning, 
that there was danger of their yielding to the 
clamor. In such a state of public feeling it is not 
surprising that there was a class of students within 
the college walls who were led to look with great dis- 
satisfaction upon the attempts which were making to 
exact from them day by day more and more of the 
laborious study which we have described. A feel- 
ing of antagonism also to the faculty began to gain 
currency among them. This feeling went so far 
that on two occasions there was a combination 
among the students to resist the government of the 
college. The first was in 1828, known as the. 
"Bread and Butter Rebellion," the immediate 
cause of which was a complaint of the food fur- 
nished in the college commons; and the second, 
in 1830, known as the "Conic Sections Rebel- 
lion," which was a refusal by a part of the Sopho- 
more class to recite in the manner prescribed by 
college rules. It was owing to the firmness of Presi- 
dent Day, and his colleagues in the faculty, in this 
crisis, that the question was decided that the au- 
thorities of the college were not to be overawed by 
any combination of students, however large, and 
that the traditions of the institution were to be 
maintained, that the college was a seat of learning 
where the highest practical attainment in all liberal 
studies was to be sought. President Day gave ex- 
pression to the views which were held by all his 
colleagues with regard to the character of the edu- 
cation to be given in the college in a report which 
he made to the corporation on the subject. He 
stated that the object of the system of instruction 
in the college is "to lay the foundation of a supe- 
rior education. It is not to give a partial educa- 
tion, consisting of a few branches only, nor, on the 
other hand, to give a superficial education, con- 
taining a little of almost everything, nor to finish 
the details of either a professional or practical edu- 
cation; but to commence a thorough course, and 
to carry it as far as the time of the student's resi- 
dence will allow." 

The enthusiasm which was manifested by the 
students in the theological department of the col- 
lege, during all this period, deserves special men- 
tion. Dr. Sturtevant, the President of Illinois 
College, who was one of their number, says: "A 
more fervent faith in the truth and certain triumph 
of the Gospel has seldom existed in modern times 
than in the young men under Dr. Taylor's instruc- 
tion. Those who distrusted Dr. Taylor's teachings 
feared that he was undermining fundamental Chris- 



178 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



tianity. The impression he made on his pupils 
was exactly the reverse of this. The enlightened 
and thoughtful that were feeling the influence of 
his teaching found themselves happily relieved 
from many philosophical difficulties with which 
the Gospel had before seemed to them embarrassed 
and impeded. They were raised to a fervent and 
undoubting faith — which they had not before ex- 
perienced — in its truth, its capability of being suc- 
cessfully defended, and its power to overcome and 
save our country and the world." This was at a 
time when the interest of Christian people in the 
Eastern States was especially awakened to the im- 
portance of missionary operations in the new States 
of the West. Nowhere was greater zeal felt for 
this object than among the theological students of 
the college. In 1828 an association was formed 
among them, consisting of fourteen members, who 
proposed to establish themselves near one another 
in the State of Illinois, that they might have the 
benefit in their new homes of mutual co-operation 
and assistance in laying the foundations of civili- 
zation. One of the results accomplished by this 
" Illinois Association," as it was called, was the 
foundation of Illinois College. In addition they 
founded churches; they advocated popular educa- 
tion; they exerted no small influence in bringing 
into being the public-school system of the State. 
The results of their labors at the West can hardly 
be too highly estimated. But the influence of this 
" Illinois Association" was long felt, also, among 
the students of the Theological School. During the 
whole life of Dr. Taylor a large proportion of every 
class, moved by the example of these pioneers in 
home missions, continued to follow in the path 
which they had marked out. These students, with 
the other alumni of the college who had established 
themselves throughout the States of the Northwest, 
make a constituency whose enthusiastic and grate- 
ful loyalty to their Alma Mater has helped to make 
Yale a truly national institution of learning. 

In 1 83 1 it was found that the financial condition 
of the college was truly alarming. As has been 
shown, the institution with all its departments, had 
been making gratifying progress. But its perma- 
nent productive funds were less than $20,000. and 
now, for some years, the college, owing in great 
measure to its very prosperity, had been running 
in debt. It was felt to be important that an eflfort 
should be made to raise at once the sum of $100,- 
000, the interest of which might be applied to the 
general expenses of the institution; and in course 
of two or three years this sum was obtained. 

Now commenced a new era in the history of the 
college. In 1831, Mr. Theodore D. Woolsey, of 
the class of 1820, who had been spending three 
years in Europe — from 1827 to 1830— engaged in 
various studies, was appointed Professor of the 
Greek language. Under his teaching a fresh in- 
terest was awakened among the students in classical 
literature. In the same year an arrangement was 
made by the corporation with Colonel John Trum- 
bull for the purchase of his series of historical 
paintings, illustrative of the American Revolution; 
and a suitable building, called the Trumbull Gal- 



lery, was erected, where they were deposited, to- 
gether with the other art collections of the college. 
In 1836 a building was erected for the accommo- 
dation of the theological students. In 1843 Mr. 
Edward E. Salisbury, an eminent Oriental scholar, 
was appointed to the chair of Arabic and Sanscrit. 
In 1844 a building was erected for the library. In 
the same year. Professor Thomas A. Thacher, who 
had been appointed assistant-professor of Latin in 
1842, returned from German}', where he had been 
pursuing his studies for two years, and introduced 
some marked changes in the method of conducting 
the recitations in his department. 

The whole period of fifteen years, from 1S31 to 
1846 — the year in which Dr. Day resigned the pres- 
idency — was a brilliant period in the history of 
the college. Never before had the students as a 
body manifested such an interest in study, such 
esprit de corps, such pride in the ability and reputa- 
tion of their instructors, such affection for their 
Alma Mater. It was a period marked also by a 
great degree of literary activity among the students 
themselves. Magazines of various names were pub- 
lished by them; the best known of which, the Yide 
Literary Magazine, was commenced in 1836, and 
edited by a committee of the Senior class. It still 
survives having completed its fifty-first year. The 
three great debating societies were maintained with 
great enthusiasm, ^'arious elective societies were 
formed; prominent among which were the associa- 
tions known as "Skull and Bones," and "Scroll 
and Key." Boating began, also, to attract atten- 
tion, and the first boat club was formed in 1843. 

Dr. Day resigned in 1846, after having been 
president for a longer period than any of his prede- 
cessors. He had conferred degrees on thirty suc- 
cessive classes. Professor Kingsley says: "Yale 
College is thought to have been particularly fortu- 
nate in its presidents, and it may be said with 
truth that it has at no time flourished more than 
under the administration of President Day." 

THEODORE D. WOOLSEY. 

On the resignation of Dr. Day, the corporation 
proceeded at once to make choice of Professor 
Theodore D. Woolsey to be his successor; but it 
was only with difficulty that he was persuaded to 
accept the office that was tendered to him. He 
yielded, however, at last to the solicitations of the 
friends of the college, and was inaugurated October 
21, 1846. 

The feeling was very general that President Wool- 
sey was eminently fitted for the position which he 
was now called upon to fill. After his graduation 
in 1820 he had first pursued in Philadelphia a 
course of study in legal science. He had then 
studied theology for a time at Princeton. The years 
1825 and 1826 he had spent in the service of his 
Alma Mater as a tutor; and had then passed three 
years in Europe for the purpose of prosecuting his 
studies still further in various directions. In 1831 
he had been appointed to the chair of the Greek 
Language and Literature, in which he had won 
distinction as a ripe and finished scholar, and done 



YALE COLLEGE. 



179 



good service, not only to the college, but to the 
cause of classical education throughout the coun- 
try, by the publication of carefully prepared editions 
of the works of some of the best writers of the 
Greek language which had not before been gener- 
ally accessible. 

The anticipations of what would be accomplished 
by President VVooIsey in behalf of the college were 
fully realized. Its affairs were administered by him 
for twenty-five years — from 1846 to 1871 — with 
distinguished ability. The period was one of uni- 
form prosperity, and marked b)' the steady growth 
of the institution in all its departments. 

On entering upon the duties of his position, he 
assumed at once, in accordance with the custom 
followed by his predecessors, a prominent part in 
the instruction of the Senior class. He introduced 
some important changes in the studies of that )'ear, 
and made it one of the most laborious and one of 
the most profitable of the whole college course. 
The Seniors were carried, under his special direc- 
tion, through a severe course of study in history, 
philosophy, and political science; but one of the 
special advantages which they obtained from being 
under his immediate instruction was a higher con- 
ception of the nature of true scholarship. In fact, 
one of the things which particularly distinguished 
his administration, was the adxantage to the whole 
college community of his example as a laborious 
and conscientious scholar. At the time of his res- 
ignation in 1 87 1, a writer in the Nation said: "The 
atmosphere of his presence was a place where su- 
perficial acquisitions, conceit of knowledge, and 
the mere ability to use the tongue glibly when there 
is nothing valuable to communicate, could not 
flourish." 

One of the methods which he adopted for the 
purpose of raising the standard of scholarship in 
the college, which proved very effective, was the in- 
troduction, at the end of the Sophomore and of the 
Senior year, of examinations on the studies of the 
two preceding years, which were known as the 
Sophomore and Senior "Biennials." These were in 
addition to the usual examinations at the close of 
the college terms, were conducted with great strict- 
ness, and became a very marked feature in the col- 
lege life. He also commenced a system according 
to which ' ' scholarships " were to be conferred 
upon those persons in each Freshman class who 
showed special ability. The emoluments of these 
scholarships were to be held during the four years 
of the undergraduate course. Four of these scholar- 
ships he founded himself by the gift of a sum of 
money. 

Besides the older officers of the faculty, who still 
remained for some years at their posts, a number 
of new professors were appointed from time to time 
during the administration of President Woolsey, to 
assist in giving completeness to the work of instruc- 
tion; and efforts were made to bring the whole 
body of students under the influences which pro- 
ceed from a broader culture than any to which they 
had been subjected before. 

The whole period of the administration of Presi- 
dent Woolsey was distinguished not only by the 



great prosperity of the academical department of 
the college, but especially by the addition of new 
departments of instruction, and the expansion of 
those already established. For some years before 
he became president he had himself, with others of 
the faculty, been in the habit of encouraging grad- 
uate students to remain in New Haven for the pur- 
pose of prosecuting their studies further than they 
had as yet been able ' to do as undergraduates. 
There had been besides, from time to time, students 
who had entered the laboratory of the elder Pro- 
fessor Silliman, for the purpose of studying chem- 
istry under his direction. In 1842 Professor Silli-' 
man, Jr., opened a private school in the laboratory 
of his father for the instruction of students of this 
latter class. One of the students of this school, 
Mr. John P. Norton, had afterwards gone to Europe 
for the purpose of continuing his chemical studies 
in Edinburgh and other cities. In 1846 he had re- 
turned to this country, and it seemed desirable to 
secure his services as a teacher of those students 
who desired special instruction in the applications 
of chemistry to agriculture. Professor Silliman ac- 
cordingly proposed to the corporation that a new 
department of the college should be established for 
the purpose of giving instruction in the physical 
sciences; and that Mr. Silliman, Jr., and Mr. John 
P. Norton should be assigned to it as professors. 
The plan of the proposed department was, however, 
so extended by the corporation as to embrace in- 
struction for graduate students in all descriptions 
of knowledge not already taught in the existing 
professional schools, and in 1847 "the Department 
of Philosophy and the Arts " was organized in two 
sections, one a "School of Applied Chemistry," 
and the other a school for advanced instruction in 
philosophy, philology, and mathematics. The 
" School of Applied Chemistry " was from the first 
very successful: although in 1849 Professor Silli- 
man, Jr., received an appointment as professor in 
the Medical College of EouisviUe, Kentucky; and 
in 1852 a great loss was sustained by the death of 
Professor John P. Norton. The school was, how- 
ever, reorganized under Professors W. A. Norton 
and John A. Porter. Several new professors were 
appointed, and in 1854 it received the name of 
"The Yale Scientific School." In i860 Mr. Joseph 
E. Sheffield, who had already assisted it by liberal 
gifts, provided it with a building and a permanent 
fund. In recognition of his bounty the corporation 
at this time gave his name to the school, and it was 
again reorganized on a more liberal scale. A 
greater degree of uniformity was now given to the 
pursuits of the students by arrangements which as- 
signed three years of regular and systematic study 
to every candidate for a degree; the whole body of 
students being required to unite in the same studies 
during the first year of their connection with it. So 
it came about that this school, which owed its 
origin to an effort that was put forth in the first 
place to provide instruction for graduate students, 
now included not only instruction for them, but also 
an undergraduate department, which was co-ordi- 
nate with the academical department. Mr. Shef- 
field meanwhile continued his liberal gifts to the 



180 



HISTOID r OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



school from time to time, providing still another 
building, furnishing apparatus and books, and as- 
sisting in defraying even current expenses, till his 
gifts have now exceeded $350,000. 

The expansion of the Theological Department 
has been scarcely less remarkable. A crisis oc- 
curred in its history between 1858 and 1861. In 
this period all the original professors of the school 
were removed by death; but as the result of efforts 
which were made the school was recorganized, a 
new corps of professors was secured, now buildings 
were erected at the cost of nearly $300,000, and 
the number of students was increased to over a 
hundred. 

The Law Department was also reorganized. The 
system of law training was enlarged and broadened 
to a greater degree than ever before. Dr. Wool- 
sey said in 1874: " It is believed that nowhere in 
the United States are the subsidiary branches of 
knowledge, of which the special pleader or the 
drawer of legal formulas can afford to be ignorant, 
but which, when known, broaden and elevate legal 
study, bringing it out of the dull routine and dry- 
ness of common practice as well as supplying food 
for thought — I say that nowhere in the United 
States are these hand-maids to a finished legal edu- 
cation brought more effectually into the service of 
legal studies, and made more useful than in the 
Yale Law School, in the latest stage of its develop- 
ment. " 

The ]\Iedical Department, also, as the other pro- 
fessors were removed by death, was supplied with a 
new corps of instructors. 

In 1866 still another department was added to 
the college, which received the name of the "Yale 
School of the Fine Arts." At this time Mr. Augus- 
tus R. Street, of New Haven, presented to the cor- 
poration, for the use of the school, a large and 
commodious building on the College Green, which 
he had erected at an expense of about $200,000. 
The faciliites which this department offers to special 
art students, with its professors and its art collec- 
tions, are unsurpassed for system and variety by 
any art school in the country. 

During the same year, Mr. George Pcabody, of 
London, gave $150,000 for founding " in connec- 
tion with Yale College " a Museum of Natural His- 
tory, especially of the departments of Zoology, Ge- 
ology, and Mineralogy, which added still another 
institution to the group of institutions which had 
now clustered around the original college. 

In 1870 the Hon. O. F. Winchester purchased a 
tract of land for astronomical purposes, and com- 
menced a foundation for the Winchester Observa- 
tory. 

During the administration of President Woolsey 
several important buildings were also erected for 
the academical department, which were so arranged 
around the College Green as to form the com- 
mencement of a large quadrangle, which it is ex- 
pected will in time embrace the whole college 
square. In 1853 Alumni Hall was built. In 1870 
a dormitory was erected at an expense of $1 25,000, 
which was called Farnam Hall, in honor of the 
Hon. Henry Farnam, a generous contributor to 



the fund for its erection, and in other ways a liberal 
benefactor of the college. In 1871 another dormi- 
tory was built, at an expense of $130,000, by Mr. 
Bradford M. C. Durfee, and named by the corpora- 
tion Durfee College. In 1869 a large gymnasium 
was built on Library street, at a cost of about $13,- 
000. 

With the increase of the number of the depart- 
ments connected with college, and the number of 
students, there was a corresponding increase in the 
number of subjects of general interest to the whole 
academic body; but the number of these subjects is 
so large that it is impossible within these limits even 
to mention them. It may be stated, however, that 
it was during the period of the administration of 
President Woolsey that the first intercollegiate boat- 
race occurred. It was between crews composed of 
the students of Harvard and Yale, and was rowed 
on Lake Winnipiseogee. It resulted in the victory 
of the Harvard crew; but in subsequent years the 
rewards of victory were not very unequally divided 
between the two colleges. From the time of the 
first race, however, is to be dated a great increase 
in the attention given by the students not only to 
boating, but also to ball-playing, and to all athletic 
games. 

In 1 86 1 commenced the great Civil War, which 
for four years absorbed the thoughts of the whole 
nation. Among no class of persons was greater 
sympathy felt in the efforts which were put forth to 
maintain the national existence than among the 
alumni of the college. The names of seven hundred 
and fifty-eight of them, graduates and undergrad- 
uates, were enrolled in the armies of the Union, of 
whom one hundred and six laid down their lives in 
the service of their country. 

President Woolsey resigned the office which he 
had held for twenty-five years, in 1871. His last 
service to the college as president was to secure a 
change in its charter. This charter had been so 
amended in 18 18, by an act of the Legislature, that 
the places of the "six senior assistants," who, ac- 
cording to the act of 1792, were to become eA" q^c/o 
members of the corporation, were now filled by 
"six senior senators." But for many years these 
"six senior senators" had rarely attended the 
meetings of the corporation, and had shown little 
interest in their proceedings. Accordingly, in 
1866, President Woolsey proposed, in an article 
published in the Xav E?!g/ander, another change; 
according to which the Legislature should relin- 
quish its right to be thus represented in the cor- 
poration, in favor of six graduates who should 
be elected by their fellow-graduates. This pro- 
position of President Woolsey was taken up in 
1 87 1 by Governor Marshall Jewell, and the change 
recommended to the consideration of the Legisla- 
ture. It at once received their sanction, and was 
accepted by the corporation of the college. The 
arrangement for the terms of office of these six 
members was so made that there is every year an 
election of one graduate who is to serve for six 
years. 

These representative graduates at the present time 
(1886) are Hon. William M. Evarts, Chief Justice 














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Engraved (or "The Book Buyei 



VALE COLLEGE. 



181 



Morrison R. Waite, Hon. Frederick J. Kingsbury, 
Hon. William Walter Phelps, Mr. William W. 
Farnam and Mr. Thomas G. Bennett. 

NOAH PORTER, 

who succeeded Dr. Woolsey, in the presidency, 
was graduated in the class of 1S31. He had 
all his life been intimately acquainted with the 
history of the college, and was in full sympathy 
with its traditions. At the time that he was elected 
president he had filled the chair of Metaphysics 
and Moral Philosophy for twenty-five years. He 
had during the whole period of his life been known 
as a voluminous writer, especially on philosophical 
and literary subjects. He was the author of several 
volumes, prominent among which was a treatise on 
the "Human Intellect.'' He was also the prin- 
cipal editor of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 
which was published in 1864. His election was 
a guaranty that the college was still to maintain its 
conservative attitude in respect to all the educa- 
tional questions which were attracting attention; 
that it was still to maintain its character as a bul- 
wark of the Christian religion and of all sound 
learning. He w^as inaugurated October 11, 1871. 
The College enjoyed unprecedented prosperity 
during the presidency of Dr. Porter. Large ad- 
ditions were made to the corps of instructors, who 
at the time of his resignation numbered consider- 
ably over one hundred. Additional buildings were 
erected, at a cost of over half a million of dollars — ■ 
the Battell Chapel, West Divinity Flail, Peabody 
Museum, North Sheffield Hall, the Observatory, the 
Sloan Laboratory, Marquand Chapel, Lawrance 
Hall, and Dwight Hall. 

The number of students in attendance in 1885- 
86 was as follows: Department of theology, no; 
department of medicine, 28; department of law, 
62; department of philosophy and the arts (gradu- 
ate instruction, 42; undergraduate academical de- 
partment, 563; Shefiield Scientific School, 251; 
School of the Fine Arts, 48), 904; deduct for 
names inserted twice, 28. Total, 1,076. 

Over 13,500 degrees have been conferred by the 
corporation since the foundation of the college, of 
which about 1,000 have been pro honoris causa. 
There have been, besides, several thousand stu- 
dents in the academical department who received 
no degree. The students of the law department 
before 1843, and of the theological department 
before 1867, are not included in the catalogue of 
the Alumni, as till those years degrees w-ere not 
conferred in law or theology. 

According to the report of the Treasurer in 1 884, 
the invested funds were $1,833,983.47. The 
annual income from tuition was $138,815.43. 
The number of volumes in the several libraries 
which are open to the students is about 150,000. 

It is not proposed to give a particular account 
of the events which took place during the presi- 
dency of Dr. Porter. Mention should be made, 
however, of the action of the Corporation in the 
first year of his administration, when recogniz- 
ing that the College already comprised all the 



courses of instruction which are usually found in 
an institution of the highest rank, they formally 
organized the University, with the departments of 
theology, medicine, law, and philosophy and the 
arts; which last was made to consist of four sec- 
tions, viz.: (i) for graduates; (2) for academical 
undergraduates; (3) for undergraduates of the 
Shefiield Scientific School; (4) for students of the 
fine arts; each section having a separate organiza- 
tion. In the section for graduates, or those who have 
already taken a bachelor's degree, there are forty 
instructors, and the course of instruction occupies 
two years. In the section for academical under- 
graduates, there are thirty-two instructors, and the 
instruction occupies four years. In the Sheffield 
Scientific School there are three instructors and the 
course occupies three years. The Street School of 
the Fine Arts, which is open both to young women 
and young men, has seven instructors. The course 
occupies three years. The Faculty of Theology con- 
sists of seven instructors, and there are besides eight 
special lecturers. The course of instruction occupies 
three years; an additional course for two years is 
also arranged for graduates. The Faculty of Medi- 
cine consists of eight professors and nine special 
lecturers. The course is arranged for three year.s. 
The Faculty of Law consists of six professors and 
ten special lecturers. The course occupies two 
years, with a graduate course of two additional 
years for those who have taken the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts. The department of astronomy 
was enlarged in its organization in 1871, when, to 
the former facilities for instruction in the science, 
were added ample means of original investiga- 
tion and research. At present there is a corps 
of eight astronomers connected with the observa- 
tory. 

So at last the ancient institution of learning, 
which, as we have shown, owes its origin to the 
efforts ot the first minister of New Haven, John 
Davenport, and of his successor in the First Church, 
James Pierpont, and which w-as constituted a "col- 
legiate school " by the Legislature of Connecticut in 
1 701, has become in reality a Universitv. The 
dream of the exiled Puritan minister of St. Stephen's, 
Colman Street (London), of planting a "Christian 
state" in the New World, which should be adorned 
with all the institudons demanded by the highest 
civilization — the dream which two hundred and 
forty years before had roused his enthusiasm in 
Amsterdam — is fully realized. John Davenport was 
only the pioneer who prepared the way for those 
who came after him; but as long as the College 
stands it will stand as the monument of his far- 
reaching views and of his heroic courage. 



In May, 1886, while these pages were passing 
through the press. Dr. Porter resigned his office, 
and the Corporation at once elected as his suc- 
cessor Professor Timothy Dwight, a grandson of 
the Dr. Timothy Dwight who was President of the 
College from 1795 to 181 7, and whose services 
in its behalf were conspicuous. It is expected that 
the inauguration will take place during the coming 



182 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



Commencement week (1886). Professor Timothy 
Dwight graduated in the class of 1849, and, after 
having been a tutor for two years in the academical 
department, was elected in 1858 Buckingham Pro- 
fessor of Sacred Literature in the Theological De- 
partment. The devotion which he has always shown 
to the interests of the college, his high attainments 
as a scholar, his reputation as a teacher, and the 
marked success which has attended his efforts for 
the advancement of the interests of the Theological 
Seminary, awaken high hopes for the results of his 
administration. 






BIOGRAPHIES. 

PROFESSOR WILLIAM A. NORTON. 

No institution connected with Yale College has 
won a more general and cordial appreciation from 
the surrounding community than the Sheffield 
Scientific School, and it is safe to say that the ver- 
dict of popular approval must be ascribed no more 
to the character of the department as a practical 
training school, than to the fidelity, eminent worth, 
and liberal, far-seeing views of the men who have 
graced its chairs of instruction. One of these hon- 
ored mentors, whose mature years were all de- 
voted to the service of the Sheffield School, and 
whose memory is fresh in the hearts of a generation 
of its graduates, was William Augustus Norton. 

He was born in East Bloomfield, N. Y., on 
he 25 th of October, 18 10. When about seven- 
teen years of age he entered the U. S. Military 
Academy at West Point, from whence he graduated 
with high honors. 

In 1831 he was commissioned Second Lieutenant 
of the Fourth Artillery, and was assigned to duty 
as Acting Assistant-Professor of Natural Philosophy 
in the Military Academy. This position he occu- 
pied for two years, w'ith the exception of a few 
months, when he served with his regiment in the 
"Black Hawk War." Resigning his commission in 
1833, he abandoned forever the military life, and 
devoted himself to the study of natural science and 
to a scholastic career. He was immediately ap- 
pointed Professor of Natural Philosophy and As- 
tronomy in the University of the City of New York, 
and remained at that post for five years. 

In November, 1839, he was chosen to the chair 
of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Dela- 
ware College in Newark, Del. Here he taught 
for ten years, serving in the last year (1849) 
as the President of the College. Thence he was 
called to Brown University, and for three years he 
conducted in that institution the Departments of 
Natural Philosophy and Civil F'ngineering. In 
1852 he was elected Professor of Civil Engineering 
in Yale College, and in the autumn of that year he 
began the connection which terminated only with 
his life. A class of twenty-six students followed 
him from Brown University to Yale. Yale drew 
heavily upon Brown in 1852, receiving thence Pro- 
fessor Norton and his pupils, and also his lamented 
colleague, the late Professor John A. Porter, who had 



also been at one time connected with the faculty of 
Delaware College. 

Professor Norton was both a student and a teacher. 
He pursued closely various lines of investigation, 
and made numerous and important contributions 
to scientific literature. His earliest elaborate book 
was a "Treatise on Astronomy, Spherical and 
Physical," published in 1839. In 1858 appeared 
another one of his more elaborate works, a " First 
Book of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy." 
Among the more noteworthy of his many scientific 
memoirs, which were published in magazines and 
in reports of associations, is a series of essays which 
appeared in the America?i Journal of Science be- 
tween 1852 and 1876. The first article developed 
at length a theory of the action of solar repulsion 
in producing the tails of comets. From this sub- 
ject he advanced to the consideration of the phe- 
nomena of magnetism, discussing not only terres- 
trial magnetism, but also, as he argued, a similar 
force in the body of the sun and in the structure 
of comets. 

Subsequently the investigation broadened out to 
include the whole subject of molecular physics. 
Many of his views differed from theories of wide 
acceptation, but whatever the final verdict of 
science may be concerning their truth, his most 
daring conceptions were based upon patient, sincere, 
and laborious investigation, and were formulated 
with painstaking care and logical completeness. 
Clearness and conciseness characterized all of 
Professor Norton's work, whether on the printed page 
or in the class-room. His experiments upon the 
set and transverse strength and deflection of bars 
of wood, iron, and steel, were of great permanent 
value to the science of engineering. The tests 
which he applied were most searching, and the 
results obtained have been incorporated in the 
standard text-books upon the subject. In 1853 he 
made a searching and discriminating study of 
Ericsson's caloric engine, an invention concerning 
which, at that time, the most extravagant expecta- 
tions were entertained. So true was Professor Nor- 
ton's analysis, that his conclusions are quoted to-day 
as among the best expositions of the actual nature 
and probable future of the hot-air engine. 

In 1859 Professor Norton was appointed to repre- 
sent this State on a Commission to determine the 
long-vexed question of the boundary line between 
Connecticut and New York. The labors of his later 
years were mainly devoted to the preparation of a 
work which was intended to embody in systematic 
form, his views and conclusions about molecular 
agencies. He was enthusiastic in his task and 
earnesdy desired that he might live to see its com- 
pletion. It is the cause of profound regret to his 
friends and co-laborers that his hope was not real- 
ized. 

Professor Norton married, in 1839, Miss 
Elizabeth Emery Stevens, of Exeter, N. H., 
and his home was a nook of peace and pleasure 
to the many pupils who found him there. With a 
disposition peculiarly cheerful and sympathetic, a 
manner in which frankness, courtesy and dignity 
were blended, and a spirit guided by simple faith 




Jf-^J^^^^ 



fc 



M' 



TALE COLLEGE. 



183 



towards lofty aims, Professor Norton, whether by his 
own fireside or in the instructor's chair, was to each 
and every one of his scholars a patient, gentle 
teacher, a guide inspiring to thorough research, 
and a cordial, judicious friend. Better than all his 
precepts in science was his example of manly char- 
acter shaped by worthy ideals. No higher praise 
can be given him than this tribute from one of his 
pupils: "No student, however trying or dull, ever 
heard from him an impatient or sarcastic word." 
At the services of his funeral, held in the College 
Chapel, September 24, 1883, President Porter de- 
livered an address, in the course of which he said: 
" In all his investigations Mr. Norton was animated 
by the faith and strong in the assurance that scien- 
tific conclusions more than admit, that they demand 
the assumption that man the thinker and God the 
creator are spiritual forces, superior to the material 
creation which they interpret and explain. His 
Christian faith was, like himself, firm, unostentatious, 
peaceful, charitable, and sweet. It was known 
and read of all men through his upright and loving 
life; crowned and finished by a peaceful death; and 
consummated, as we all believe, by the open vision 
which is vouchsafed to the consistent and faithful 
believer." 

PROFESSOR JOHN A. PORTER 

was born at Catskill, N. Y., March 15, 1822. 
His father, Addison Porter, was the eldest son of 
Rev. Dr. David Porter, a well-known and widely- 
respected clergyman, for twenty-eight years pastor 
of the Presbyterian Church at Catskill. His mother, 
Ann Porter, was the daughter of John C. Hoge- 
boom, a prominent citizen of Columbia County, 
N. Y. The early education of the lad was ob- 
tained at Catskill, New York City, and Kinder- 
hook. In the academy at the latter place he was 
noted for excellence in mathematics, and for the 
promise of rare oratorical powers. 

In 1S36 the family removed to Philadelphia, and 
in that city Mr. Porter prepared himself, under pri- 
vate tuition, to enter Yale College with the Class of 
1842. Throughout his college course he sought 
not so much the attainment of scholastic honors as 
the acquisition of a broad culture and positive 
knowledge of philosophical truth. With partial 
accomplishment he was never contented; in 
thought, as in act, he was conscientious and sin- 
cere. With literature he gained a wide acquaint- 
ance, and developed within himself a fine poetic 
faculty, which, like his gift of elocution, remained 
throughout his life a source of relaxation to him- 
self and of pleasure to his friends. 

His class-mates, who knew and admired his com- 
manding qualities, chose him to deliver the vale- 
dictory poem upon the "Class Day" of 1842. 
Mr. Porter had hoped to enter the Christian minis- 
try, and during his senior year he read extensively 
in metaphysics; but after two years he felt con- 
strained to abandon his cherished purpose, with 
many regrets on his own part and on the part of 
his friends. In 1844 he joined the faculty of Del- 
aware College, at Newark, Del., first in the capa- 



city of tutor of mathematics, afterwards as profes- 
sor of Rhetoric. 

In the autumn of 1847, after the death of his 
father, Professor Porter decided to relinquish the 
study of literature, and to devote himself to the 
science of chemistry. The labors and influence of 
Baron Liebig were then investing that science with 
unusual interest to the student, and in his labora- 
tory at Giessen, Professor Porter spent the latter 
half of his two years study in Germany. Returning 
home in January, 1850, he was immediately em- 
ployed in the Lawrence Scientific School at Har- 
vard, and in the ensuing autumn Brown University 
elected him Professor of Chemistry as Applied to 
the Arts. From this position he was called in 1852 
to fill the Professorship of Agricultural Chemistry 
in his own Alma Mater. His unremitting indus- 
try soon bore tangible fruit. In 1856 he published 
his " Principles of Chemistry," a lucid and admir- 
able statement of those fundamental laws which 
are often deemed so difficult of exposition. 

In July, 1855, Professor Porter married a daugh- 
ter of Joseph Earle Sheffield, of New Haven. His 
intimate relations with Mr. Sheffield, and his suc- 
cessful zeal in the conduct of the analytical labora- 
tory, for which he was directly responsible, both 
contributed materially to the establishment and 
rapid advancement of the Sheffield Scientific School. 
In the organization of that school, under a respon- 
sible Faculty in the determination of a general 
course of study, Professor Porter was actively and 
efficiently engaged. In the future of Yale's scien- 
tific department. Professor Porter never lost faith, 
and he was untiring in the arduous work of its suc- 
cessful inception. To his energy and directive skill 
was due the course of lectures upon agriculture and 
cognate subjects which was delivered in the winter 
of 1860. These lectures attracted people from va- 
rious parts of the country, and to this convention 
much of the late interest in scientific agriculture 
throughout the land must be attributed. 

Professor Porter joined the Republican party at 
an early day, and labored earnestly for the election 
of President Lincoln. Into the struggle to sa\e the 
Union for freedom, he threw himself with all the 
ardor of his nature. Nothing but his ill-health 
prevented his personal participation in the perils 
of the battle-field. His discriminating perceptions 
of right and wrong made him keenly alive to the 
fundamental issues of the war, and with voice and 
pen he strove to educate and elevate the patriotic 
sentiment of the community around him. He 
established, and, while health permitted, edited a 
monthly publication, called The Coiinectkut War 
Record, which was intended to preserve the story 
of sacrifices and achievements by the volunteers 
from this State. Professor Porter's connection 
with the Scientific School, so honorable to himself, 
so fortunate for that institution, was severed in 
1864, on account of failing health. 

A trip to Europe in quest of surgical counsel 
and aid afforded only a temporary relief With 
quiet courage and Christian resignation, he pre- 
pared to face death. Although subjected frequent- 
ly to the severest suffering, his mind was triumph- 



]S4 



HIS 2 OR r OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



ant over bodily weakness. He delighted especially 
in literary labor, and rendered into English verse, 
selected portions of the "Kalevala," the national 
epic of Finland. His version of this poem was after- 
wards published. He also made translations of 
Swedish poetr)-, and wrote verses of his own — often 
humorous, always sympathetic and cheerful. 

But the progress of his disease was very rapid. 
On the 25th of August, 1S66, the summons for 
which he waited came, and peacefully he fell 
asleep. 

Professor Porter was richly endowed in mind 
and body. His presence was commanding, his 
face attractive, his head remarkably large and well- 



molded. His fluent utterance, graceful delivery, 
courteous manners, and warm heart, made him 
popular and beloved, not only in the class-room, 
but also in the larger public assemblies of his fel- 
low-men. To scientific pursuits, he brought subtle 
analytical powers, strong perceptions, and close 
observation. To the foundation and management 
of the Scientific School he brought unflagging en- 
thusiasm and boundless energy. 

To all men his catholic sympathies went forth, 
and he preached powerfully the necessity of justice, 
the beauty of love. His life work is a part of the 
history of Yale College and of New Haven. His 
life itself is a fragrant memory to all who knew him. 



CHAPTER IX. 



LIBRARIES OF NEW HAVEN. 



I. — The College LinRARV and its Auxillvries. 

IN any account of the libraries of New Haven, the 
College Library, which is first in the order of 
time as well as of importance, naturally claims 
the first place. It is also, if we may trust the au- 
thority of President Clap, the senior department of 
the college, the first formal act of the founders hav- 
ing been a gift of books for the library. According 
to the familiar story, preserved in his "Annals of 
Yale College," the ten ministers who had been 
chosen by common consent to act as trustees, met 
at Branford, and bringing each a number of books 
and laying them on the table, said these words, or 
to this effect: " I give these books for the founding 
of a college in this colony." Doubt has been 
thrown upon some of the details of this transaction, 
but the essential facts of the gift, and its legal 
purpose, are generally conceded. This meeting, 
which is placed in the "Annals" in 1700, is 
thought by Professor F. B. De.xter, on other evi- 
dence, to have taken place in 1701, shortly before 
the October session of the General Court at which 
the charter of the college was granted, the first of 
the regular sessions held at New Haven after the 
union with the Connecticut colony. 

The books thus given, estimated by President 
Clap at forty folio volumes, and some others sub- 
sequently added, remained at Branford in the 
keeping of Rev. Samuel Russell in whose house 
the trustees had met, three years. They were then 
carried to Killingworth (now Clinton), the home 
of Rector Pierson, where the few students under 
his care received instruction. On his death in 
1707, they were removed to Saybrook, which had 
been fi.xed upon at the outset as the seat of the 
" Collegiate .School," the name which the college 
then bore. Here, in 17 14, was received the first 
considerable gift, a collection of books sent over 
by Jeremiah Dummer, the colony's agent in Lon- 
don. Of the seven hundred volumes, nearly one- 
half folios and (]uartos, ninety-two were his own gift 
and the rest obtained by his solicitation. The value 
of the gift was still further enhanced by the emi- 
nence of the donors, among whom were Sir Isaac 



Newton, Sir Richard Steele, Sir Richard Black- 
more, Dr. Halley, Dr. Bentley, Dr. Calamy, 
Matthew Henry, Sir Edmund Andros and Sir 
Francis Nicholson. Governor Yale added thirty or 
forty volumes, the forerunner of larger gifts to fol- 
low. Shortly afterward, two hundred volumes were 
received from Sir John Davie, of New London, who 
a few years before had fallen heir to an estate and 
a title in England. The original lists which accom- 
panied these gifts are preserved among the papers 
of the college, and some of the books, Sir Isaac 
Newton's among the number, can still be identified. 

The final settlement in 1717 of the vexed ques- 
tion of the location of the college in favor of New 
Haven, was not reached without opposition from 
other parts of the colony, and it was hardly to be 
expected that Saybrook would submit quietly to 
the removal. When in October, 171 8, on the 
completion of the new college building in New 
Haven, the trustees demanded possession of the 
books, which up to this time had been left behind 
in Saybrook, they were met by a refusal. The aid 
of the sherifi" was finally called in, but his writ was 
also disobeyed, and he was compelled to force an 
entrance into the house where the library was ke|it. 
The opposition did not slop here. The carts which 
had been impressed to transport the books, were 
broken by night, the oxen driven off, and some of 
the bridges broken down. " In this Tumult and 
Confusion, " says President Clap, "about 250 of 
the most valuable Books and sundry Papers of 
Importance were conveyed away by unknown 
Hands, and never could be found again." The re- 
maining books, about one thousand volumes, 
reached New Haven in December, 1718, and were 
here reinforced by seventy-six volumes from Mr. 
Dummer, and three hundred from Governor Yale, 
which had arrived some months before. With this 
date, 1718, properly begins the history of the library 
as a New Haven institution, anil with it the history 
of New Haven libraries. 

More important than any gift that preceded or 
that followed for many 3-ears, was that received in 
'733 Irum Dean Berkeley. This choice collec- 
tion, pronounced by President Clap, "the finest 



LIBRARIES. 



185 



that ever came together at one time into America, " 
and judged by him to have cost at least ^"400 ster- 
ling, comprised about nine hundred volumes, of 
which two hundred and sixty were folios. A list of 
the books was printed from the original manuscript 
in 1865, in the Papers of the New Haven Colony 
Historical Society, Vol. I. During the remainder 
of the eighteenth century, the library made on the 
whole no great advance, though down to the time 
of the Revolution there was a gradual increase. In 
the first printed catalogue of the library, published 
by President Clap in 1743, the number of volumes 
is placed at twenty-six hundred, and in the edition 
of 1755 at three thousand. In his "Annals" 
(1766), he says: "We have a good Library, con- 
sisting of about 4,000 Volumes, well furnished with 
ancient Authors, such as the Fathers, Historians 
and Classicks, many modern valuable Books of 
Divinity, History, Philosophy, and Mathematicks, 
but not many Authors who have wrote within these 
30 Years." During the War of the Revolution, the 
library was removed for greater security to the in- 
terior of the State, a precaution which was itself 
not free from danger, as is shown by the catalogue 
of 1791, in which only twenty-seven hundred vol- 
umes appear. 

The first contribution toward a permanent fund 
for the increase of the library, was a bequest of 
£_\o from Rev. Jared Eliot, of Killingworth, in 
1763. A like amount was received from Rev. 
Thomas Ruggles, of Guilford, in 1777, and $1,122 
from Rev. Samuel Lock wood, D. D., ofAndover, 
Conn., in 1791. Hon. Oliver Wolcott gave $2,000 
in 1807; Eli Whitney in 1822 and Daniel Wads- 
worth, in 1824, $500 each; Rev. John Elliott, 
of Guilford, a gradually increasing fund which 
now amounts to $1,500; John T. Norton, of Al- 
bany, N. v., $5,000, in 1832. In 1836 the library 
received, by bequest of Dr. Alfred E. Perkins, of 
Norwich, Conn., $10,000, the largest gift which 
up to that time had been made to the college, and 
still the largest contribution to the library fund. 
A legacy of $5,000 was received from Addin Lewis, 
of New Haven, in 1849, and a gift of $500 from 
Professor James L. Kingsley, in 1850. Mrs. Will- 
iam A. Lamed gave, in 1861, $i,ioq for a music 
fund, and on her death, in 1877, left a bequest of 
$5,000 for the department of English language and 
literature. Dr. Jared Linsly, of New York, gave, 
in 1867-76, $5,000 for the department of modern 
European languages, and in connection with this 
gift a bequest of $3,000, made to the college by 
Noah Linsly, of Wheeling, Va. , in 18 14, was by 
vote of the Corporation permanently assigned to 
the library. A gift of $1,000 was received from 
Hon. Alphonso Taft, of Cincinnati, in 1869, and 
the like sum from an anonymous donor in 1870. 
Charles H. Board, of Edenville, N. Y., who died 
in 1871, shortly after graduation, left to the library 
$2, 500 for the department of political and social 
science. In the same year, Henry W.Scott, of South- 
bury,Conn., left an accumulating fund, which must 
reach $5,000 (it is now $3,600) before the income 
can be used. The Class of 1872 gave at graduation 
and subsequently, $2,100, and Thomas Hooker, 
21 



of New Haven, $1,000 in 1875. The latest addi- 
tion to the fund are bequests of $3,000 from 
Clarence Campbell, of Bath, N. Y. , and $2,500 from 
Joshua Coit, of New Haven, both received in 1885. 
These various gifts, amounting together to about 
$57,000, constitute the whole of the permanent 
fund. Since 1874, Hon William Walter Phelps 
has assigned to the library the income of a fund of 
$50,000 left in trust for the college by his father, 
the late John J. Phelps, of New York. 

Of gifts, other than contributions to the library 
fund, during the same period, the following are the 
more noteworthy. 

In 1834 the publications of the Record Com- 
mission, in seventy-four folio volumes, were re- 
ceived Irom the government of Great Britain; and in 
1847 a copy of the " Description de I'Egypte" in 
twenty-three folio volumes, from Dr. William Hill- 
house, of New Haven. President Woolsey gave, 
in 1 86 1, his Greek library of nearly one thousand 
volumes, and his later gifts have been both frequent 
and valuable. 

The largest benefactor of the library has been 
Professor Edward E. Salisbury, who, in 1870, in 
addition to his already precious collection of Ori- 
ental books and manuscripts, gave $6,000 for in- 
creasing it, and has since contributed $2,000 for 
the same object. The collection, which numbers 
about four thousand volumes, is especially rich in 
Arabic and Sanskrit literature, and contains also 
many large and costly illustrated works and com- 
plete sets of the leading Oriental journals. 

For special purchases of books the library re- 
ceived in 1 87 1 from Charles Astor Bristed, $500; 
in 1873 from Hon. George Peabody Wetmore, of 
Newport, $700; from Frederick W. Stevens, of New 
York, and Professor O. C. Marsh, $500 each; from 
Hon. Henry Farnam at various times, $2,500; 
from the Class of 1S32, at its fiftieth anniversary, 
$400. 

Hon. James E. English purchased and presented 
to the library, in 1875, a bound set of the Parlia- 
mentary Papers of Great Britain, from 1865 to 
1873. They are in seven hundred and forty-two 
volumes. 

The late George Brinley, of Hartford, directed 
that at the sale of his collection of books relating 
to America, the most valuable ever disposed of by 
auction in this country, the library should receive, 
against purchases which it might make, a credit of 
$10,000. By this generous provision the library 
has been able to secure many useful books, and 
some rare ones, which but for this opportunity it 
could never have hoped to possess. A similar 
credit of $5,000 at the sale of the library of the 
late Joseph J. Cooke, of Providence, R. I., in 

1883, brought also a very important accession of 
books. 

Yung Wing, late Chinese Minister to the Lfnited 
States, gave in 1S78 a valuable collection of Chinese 
books, in seventeen hundred volumes, to which in 

1884, Frederick W. Williams added a thousand 
volumes from the library of his father, the late 
Professor -S. Wells Williams. To Professor Henry 
W. Farnam, the library was, in 1882, mainly 



186 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



II 



indebted for the means of securing a rare collec- 
tion of Philadelphia newspapers during the Revo- 
lutionar)' War, in twenty-six volumes; further 
for several important series of economical and 
statistical publications, amounting together to not 
less than four hundred volumes, for the continu- 
ation of which he still provides. Two important 
bequests of books were received in 1884: sixteen 
hundred volumes from the library of Rev. James 
T. Dickinson, of jMiddlcfield, Conn., and Professor 
Lewis R. Packard's Greek library of six hundred 
volumes. Professor James D. Dana's gifts in re- 
cent years have been unusually large and valuable, 
amounting in the aggregate to fully one thousand 
volumes. To Rev. Edgar L. Heermance, of White 
Plains, N. Y., to Henry Holt, of New York, to 
the late Richard S. Fellowes, to John Davenport 
Wheeler, and to Professor George J. Brush, the 
library is also indebted for gifts of especial value. 

William L. Andrews, of New York, established 
in 1882, as a memorial of his son, Loring W. 
Andrews, who met his death by accident when just 
about to graduate, a loan library of text-books, to 
which he has thus far given $1,850. 

Acknowledgment should also be made of the 
important contributions which the library receives 
from the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. 
Since the Academy resumed, in 1 866, the separate 
publication of papers read before it, it has entered 
into exchange of publications with three hundred 
publishing societies, more than two-thirds of them 
foreign. The exchanges received, which are of 
great value, and amount on the average to t\vo 
hundred and fifty volumes a year, are deposited by 
vote of the Academy in the College library. 

Thanks to an increased, though still quite in- 
sufficient, income, and to more frequent gifts, the 
recent progress of the library is in striking contrast 
with the former slow rate of growth. The statistics 
of the last century we have already given. In 
1808 the whole extent of the library was four thou- 
sand seven hundred volumes; in 1823, six thou- 
sand five hundred; in 1830, ten thousand. The 
expenditure for books, in 1845, of $8,000 of ac- 
cumulated income, the approaching completion ot 
the new library building, and the fact that the 
librarianship, hitherto attached to some other more 
engrossing college duty, then became an inde- 
pendent office, make that an important era in the 
history of the library. In 1850 the number of 
volumes had risen to twenty-one thousand; in i860 
to thirty-five thousand; in 1870 to fifty-five thou- 
sand; in 1880 to ninety-eight thousand. It is now 
about one hundred and thirty thousand, to which 
must be added many thousands of unbound pam- 
phlets. For some years past the average annual 
increase has exceeded the entire growth of the first 
hundred years. What the number will be a hun- 
dred years hence it would be rash to predict. 

For a qualitative analysis of the library we have 
here not the space, but in general it may be said 
that, while it is not complete, nor nearly complete, 
in any department, it is reasonably good in a few, 
and respectable in more. The directions in which 
jt is strongest are the publications of learned 



societies and scientific journals, of which it has 
many complete series, and an unusually large 
number of current issues; Oriental, classical and 
comparative philology; American history, both 
general and local; English and French dramatic 
literature; the too much neglected English litera- 
ture of the eighteenth century; literary periodicals; 
newspapers, of which the library has more than two 
thousand bound volumes and many unbound files. 

Important material for American history be- 
tween 1755 and 1795 is contained in the manu- 
scripts of President Stiles. They have been freely 
used by Mr. Bancroft the historian, and others, 
and it is now proposed to print, under the auspices 
of the New Haven Colony Historical Society, in 
a series of volumes, whatever they contain of 
permanent interest. Contemporary records, twenty- 
six hundred years earlier, are found on four slabs 
covered with Assyrian sculptures and inscriptions, 
obtained from Nimrud in 1855, through the kind 
offices of Rev. W. F. Williams, of Mosul, brother 
of the late Dr. S. Wells Williams. 

Here also is deposited the numismatic collec- 
tion of the college. It contains about eleven 
thousand pieces, and has been formed chiefly by 
gifts, among which those of Dr. Andrew T. Pratt, 
of Constantinople, in ancient coins, and of Henry 
Champion, of New Haven, in modern coins, have 
been especially large and valuable. A very full and 
careful catalogue of the Greek and Roman coins, 
thirty-three hundred in number, was published by 
the curator. Dr. Jonathan Edwards, in 1880. 

The library, when first removed to New Haven, 
in 1718, was placed in the building erected in part 
by the bounty of Governor Yale, and named in 
his honor. It was transferred in 1763 to the 
Athena:^um; in 1804 to the Lyceum; in 1825 to the 
old chapel (then the new chapel), occupying in 
each a room on the upper floor. The present 
building was commenced in 1843, and though not 
completed till 1846, one room was made ready, 
and the library removed to it in 1844. The cost of 
the building was about $34,000, toward which 
Professor Salisbury gave $6,000, President Woolsey, 
$3,000, and other subscribers, in smaller sums, 
$9,000. It is hardl)' a matter of surprise that a 
building erected forty years ago, when the rate of 
library growth everywhere was so different from 
that of to-day, should now be overcrowded, and 
that the most urgent need of the library at present 
should be more room. 

Of the various special libraries grouped about 
the general one, the Linonian and Brothers' Library 
stands to it in the closest relation. It perpetuates 
the name and continues an important part of the 
work of the once famous public societies of the 
college. The Linonian library, younger by sixteen 
years than the society itself, was commenced in 
1769. Timothy Dwight, Nathan Hale, and James 
Hillhouse, the first just graduating, and the others 
just entering college, made the first contribution of 
books. The example was soon followed by the 
Brothers in Unity, but for half a century the growth 
of both libraries was slow. About 1825 the ad- 
vance became more rapid, but slackened again 



t 



i 



LIBRARIES. 



187 



after 1850, when the interest in the societies de- 
clined. The Linonian hbrary contained in 1800, 
four hundred and seventy-five volumes; in 181 1, 
seven hundred; in 1822, twelve hundred; in 1831, 
three thousand five hundred; in 1841, seven 
thousand five hundred; in 1846, ten thousand; in 
i860, eleven thousand; in 1870, thirteen thousand. 
The Brothers' library ran an almost parallel course, 
the mutual rivalry suff"ering neither to get far in 
advance of the other. In 1870, by vote of the 
societies, their libraries were placed under the care 
of the college library, though still sustained by a 
ta.\ included in the term bills of the undergraduate 
students. The following year, from considerations 
of convenience, no less than of economy, the 
libraries of the two societies were united. A few 
hundred volumes were transferred to the college 
library, and several thousand duplicates set aside 
for sale and exchange. The number of volumes 
was reduced thereby to seventeen thousand, but 
subsequent additions have raised it to twenty-eight 
thousand. Even before the closer union was 
formed, these libraries were not merely useful, but 
indispensable au.xiliaries of the college library, 
which, enabled thereby to employ its slender 
resources in other directions, scarcely attempted to 
enter the field, that of general literature, which 
they occupied. They now form practically one de- 
partment of the college library, under a common 
administration, though separately catalogued. So 
far as the character of their contents is concerned, 
the relation between the two is not unlike that 
between the reference and lending departments of 
some public libraries. 

The Calliopean Society, mainly composed of 
southern students, was organized in 1819, and 
dissolved m 1854. Its library of six thousand 
volumes was sold to an association in Bridgeport. 
The three libraries, before they were removed to the 
present library building, occupied together the 
second floor of the Athenajum. 

In 1867, a reading room, well furnished with 
newspapers and periodicals, was opened in South 
Middle College, four rooms having been thrown 
into one for this purpose. In 1877, the more 
suitable room left vacant by the removal of the 
cabinet to Peabody museum, was occupied. One 
hundred newspapers, of which forty-five are dailies, 
and sixty periodicals (in addition to a much larger 
number at the college liberary) are received. 

The several departments of the University have 
each a separate library, confined in some cases to 
the most needful books of reference, in others sur- 
passing in the special department the college library 
m fullness. In order of age they are: 

I. The Medical Library. — The Medical School, 
organized in 1813, has never possessed a library 
fund and has received few important gifts of books. 
The most valuable was the bequest, in 1881, of the 
medical library of the late Professor David P. 
Smith, M. D. , consisting of upwards of four hun- 
dred volumes, mostly recent works. A similar, but 
smaller, bequest was received in 1882 from Profes- 
sor Lucian S. Wilcox, M. D. Worthy of mention 
also is a like gift from Dr. Lewis Hermann, of the 



United States Navy, about 1830. A little more 
than twenty years ago, the library, which had 
hitherto been kept in the medical college, was trans- 
ferred to the college library, and such medical 
books as the latter possesses are united with it. 
Together they amount to about three thousand 
volumes. 

2. The Law Library. — The Yale Law School 
was the outgrowth of a private law school, which 
in 1843 was formally adopted by the college. It 
was dependent on the private libraries of its in- 
structors until 1845, when, on the death of Judge 
Samuel J. Hitchcock, his library was purchased 
and enlarged at a total cost of $5,000. One-half 
of the expense was borne by the college, and the 
rest met by contributions, chiefly from members of 
the New Haven Bar. The history of the library 
down to 1S73 ^^'T^s one rather of decline than of 
growth, the additions being insufficient to make 
good the losses arising from the want of proper 
supervision. In 1873 a successful effort was made 
to place the library on a secure foundation. More 
than $20,000, contributed mainly by friends of the 
school in New Haven and New York, was ex- 
pended on books, and a library fund of $10,000 
was established by Hon. James E. English. The 
number of volumes in 1873 was eighteen hundred; 
it is now nearly nine thousand, and the annual 
rate of growth about two hundred. In 1873, the 
library, which had been hitherto kept in the old 
lecture-room, was removed with the Law School, to 
more commodious rooms in the New County 
Court House, where the services which it renders 
to the Courts and the Bar are regarded as a full 
return for the hospitality which it receives. 

3. The Library of the Sheffield .Scientific School. 
— In the enlargement of the Sheffield Scientific 
School building in 1866, Mr. Joseph E. Sheffield 
provided a room for the library and gave a fund of 
$10, GOD, which he afterwards raised to $12,000. 
At the same time, further sums, amounting to 
$2,000, were contributed by friends of the school 
for immediate purchases of books. In 1869, Mr. 
Sheffield purchased, at a cost of $4,000, the valu- 
able mathematical library collected by Dr. William 
Hillhouse, and presented it to the school. Dr. 
HiUhouse also not only refused a larger offer from 
another quarter, but gave $500 for the needed bind- 
ing. From Professor Wolcott Gibbs, of Harvard 
University, also a valuable gift of books has been 
received. For some years past the fund has been 
unproductive and the growth of the library in con- 
sequence less rapid. The present number of vol- 
umes is about six thousand. 

4. The Library of the Divinity School. — The 
Trowbridge Reference Library of the Divinity 
School was established mainly by the liberality of 
the late Henry Trowbridge, who, on the completion 
of East Divinity Hall in 1870, gave $r,ooo for the 
fitting up of the-library room and $3,000 to pro- 
vide the most necessary books. This he after- 
wards supplemented by gifts of $200 and $300 
from year to year for the purchasing of new the- 
logical works. In 1881, a new building was erect- 
ed for the better accommodation of the library, 



188 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



by the late Frederick Marquand, ofSouthport, at 
a cost of $io, 500. Mr. Trowbridge again assumed 
the expense of furnishing the room and at his 
death, in 1883, bequeathed $5,000 for a library 
fund. Other gifts deserving of mention are a 
legacy of $500 from Mrs. Clarissa B. Butterfield, 
of New Haven, in 1870; and from Rev. E. Good- 
rich Smith, of Washington, D. C, at his death, in 
1873 and previously, more than one thousand 
volumes of theological books. The whole num- 
ber of volumes is about three thousand. 

The Lowell Mason Library of Church Music, 
presented to the Divinity School in 1873 by the 
family of the late Dr. Mason, occupies a room 
specially prepared for it in West Divinity Hall. It 
consists of about eight thousand separate works, 
many of them in manuscript, about equally divided 
between sacred and secular music, and is of great 
value. In it is included the library of the eminent 
composer Dr. C. H. Rinck, of Darmstadt. The 
book-cases which hold the library were the gift of 
the late Atwater Treat. 

5. The Library of the Art School. — Hon. Henry 
Farnam in 1875, at an expense of $900, furnished 
the library-room, and about five hundred volumes 
of books on art have since been gathered, partly 
by gift and partly by purchase. Among them are 
included complete sets of the important journals, 
Gazelle Jcs Beaux-Arts (the gift of Hon. Charles 
L. Mitchell) and L Art. 

6. The Peabody Museum. — The museum has 
only a small collection of about six hundred vol- 
umes. The want of a separate library is, however, 
in part supplied by the valuable private collection 
of Professor Marsh deposited in the building. 

8, The Observatory. — The library of the observa- 
tory is barely commenced, consisting of only about 
two hundred and fifty volumes. 

9. The Sloane Physical Laboratory, the joint 
gift of Henry T. Sloane and Thomas C. Sloane, 
has just received from the latter $1,000 to be ex- 
pended in books for a working library. 

Together the libraries of the University contain 
upwards of one hundred and eighty thousand vol- 
umes, of which one hundred and sixty thousand 
are in the College Library Building. 

Mention should be made in this place of the li- 
brary of tiie American Oriental Society, which, for 
the past thirty years, has found a home under the 
roof of the College Library. The society was or- 
ganized in 1842 in Boston, where, until 1855, the 
library remained. New Haven members have al- 
ways taken a leading part in the direction and 
active work of the society, and the library is held 
iierc by still another tie. Hon. Charles William 
Bradley, of New Haven, who made large and val- 
uable gifts, amounting to several hundred volumes, 
attached to a portion of them the condition that, 
in case of the removal of the library from New Ha- 
ven, they should become the property of the col- 
lege. Next to Mr. Bradley, the library of the society 
is most indebted to Rev. Joseph P. Thompson, 
D. D., who, in 1879, bequeathed about three hun- 
dred volumes relating to F.gypt and the Last. By 
these and other gifts, and by the exchanges received 



for the Journal of the Society, the library has be- 
come respectable in size and more than respectable 
in value. The number of volumes is not far from 
four thousand, including one hundred and sixty 
manuscripts. , 

II. — CiTv Libraries. 

The Mechanic Library Society, a body which 
met for the first time in the State House, February 
5, 1793, is the earliest of the city library organiza- 
tions which has come to our notice. The pream- 
ble of the constitution then adopted, " Whereas, 
the establishment of a Public Library in the City of 
New Haven would advance useful knowledge and 
literature " is still serviceable, and no less applicable 
to a city of eighty thousand inhabitants than to one - 
of eight thousand. The library society evidently 1 1 
stood in the relation of parent or offspring (we ' 
have been unable to ascertain which) to the Me- 
chanic Society. In the call for the annual meeting 
in January, 1798, the proprietors of the library are 
summoned to meet at six o'clock and the mem- 
bers of the society at eight o'clock at the same 
place. From the slender resources of the library, 
which consisted of an entrance fee of one dollar 
and a half, and an annual tax of fifty cents for the 
first five years, and twenty-five cents thereafter, a . 

rapid growth was not to be expected. In the , 1 
printed catalogue of 1801, seven hundred volumes ' 
are entered; in a later edition, without date, nine 
hundred. At the annual meeting in January, 1809, 
" a punctual attendance is requested, as it is prob- 
able that the constitution will receive material al- 
terations, or that the society will be dissolved and 
the library sold." Another library had been re- 
cently established, and danger may have been 
apprehended from that source. This crisis, how- 
ever, was safely passed, and we find from an ad- 
vertisement in the Connecticut yuurnal of March 19, 
181 2, that the number of volumes was then seven 
hundred, the entrance fee five dollars, and the an- 
nual tax twenty-five cents and such further sum as 
should be agreed upon at the annual meeting. In 
1815 it surrendered its name and was united with 
the Social Library. 

The Social Library Company, though not incor- 
porated till 1 8 10, issued in 1808, probably not 
long after the date of the first organization, a cata- 
logue of two hunilred and fifty volumes. In 181 2, 
when another catalogue was printed, the number had 
increased to five hundred, and in the list of members 
apjjcnded are the names of man}- prominent citizens. 
It was provided in the constitution that "no novels, 
romances, tales or plays shall be admitted into 
the library, unless by a vote of two-thirds of the 
members present at any legal meeting." And we 
find that only Shakespeare among dramatists, and 
a dozen volumes of fiction, had been able to pass 
this strict censorship. The Mechanic Library had 
been more liberal on this point. At the annual 
meeting in 1794, the directors were given authority 
to purchase such books as they should judge 
proper, and a somewhat larger, though by no 
means dangerous, amount of fiction was admitted. 



LIBRARIES. 



1S9 



In 1815 the libraries were united under the name, 
charter and constitution of the Social Library, with 
seventeen hundred volumss and one hundred and 
sixty-six members. From this point it slowly ad- 
vanced to eighteen hundred volumes in 1S22, nine- 
teen hundred in 1826, and two thousand in 1833. 
Here the growth stopped and the membership de- 
clined, until the library came to be practically un- 
used, and passed, in 1840, into the possession of 
a younger and more vigorous organization. In 
1826, and for some years previously, the library 
occupied, free of expense, a room in the Eagle 
Block. It afterward enjoyed for some time similar 
hospitality in the store of George Gabriel in the 
Exchange Building. 

The Young Men's Institute traces its origin to 
the Young Apprentices' Association, formed August 
I, 1826, by eight young men, who met weekly for 
practice in writing and speaking. In addition to 
these exercises, in the following year a teacher was 
engaged to direct them in some branch of study. 
The association was reorganized, with twenty-four 
members, November 21, 1828, under the name of 
the Young Mechanics' Institute, the object of 
which, as defined by the constitution, was "mu- 
tual assistance in the attainment of useful knowl- 
edge." Although the gathering of a library was 
one of the means proposed to this end, the interest 
of the institute centered chiefly in its lectures and 
schools or classes. In 1829 the number of vol- 
umes reported was only sixty-five; in 1833, two 
hundred and twenty-five; in 1840, four hunnred 
and twenty-six. The membership was never much 
above one hundred, and usually below that number. 
The meetings were held at first in the Glebe Build- 
ing, later in the room of the General Society of 
Mechanics. This was a charitable association (ap- 
parently the successor of the Mechanic Society 
mentioned above), incorporated in 1807 and dis- 
solved in 1840. A notice of a library opened by 
this society for the gratuitous use of apprentices, 
appears in the newspapers for July, 1827. 

Overtures were first made by the Young Me- 
chanics' Institute for the purchase of the Social 
Library in 1838, but the price demanded was 
thought too high. They were renewed in 1 840, 
and the agreement reached was that the institute 
should pay $500 (which was much less than the 
estimated value, even at a forced sale) and give to 
the stockholders of the Social Library, then re- 
duced to thirty-five, the perpetual use of the library 
for themselves and their representatives. As a part 
of the plan the institute was reorganized August 5, 
1840, on a broader foundation, under the name of 
the New Haven Young Men's Institute; and in the 
following May an act of incorporation was pro- 
cured. These changes, and the increase of mem- 
bership which followed, gave it not only a new 
impulse, but also a new direction. From a private 
it became a public institution. The free public 
library was then practically unknown. The sub- 
scription library was the common substitute for it. 
From twenty-four hundred volumes, the number 
after the purchase, the library increased in 1842 to 
thirty-five hundred. Three hundred volumes, 



chiefly periodicals, were received from the New 
Haven Athenajum, discontinued in 1841. The 
era of the popular lecture, then just commencing, 
had a powerful influence in the same direction. 
The annual courses of lectures were not at first, as 
they came to be afterward, conducted as a source 
of revenue, but in the line of the regular work of 
the institute, to which, being free to the members, 
they usually brought no profit, but rather a loss. 
Evening schools were maintained for a number of 
years, with the attendance in the various classes at 
times as large as three hundred. 

As early as 1852, efforts began to be made to se- 
cure a building for the Institute. Among the plans 
proposed was this, that a lot having been obtamed, 
the city should loan to the Institute its bonds for 
an amount sufficient to erect on the front part a 
block of stores with rooms for the Institute above, 
and in the rear a building to contain city offices 
and a large hall for the common use of both. The 
rent paid by the city would gradually extinguish 
the bonds, the interest on which in the meantime 
would be met by the rents received from other por- 
tions of the building. This proposition was sub- 
mitted to vote in a city meeting held April 17, 
1854, and was carried, but was defeated at a 
town-meeting the same day and the project aban- 
doned. The lot which it was then proposed to 
purchase was that where the Third Church now 
stands, which has recently been urged as a site 
for the public library. The friends of the Insti- 
tute thereupon set to work to obtain, by sub- 
scription, the funds for building. The whole 
amount secured was $12,000, of which Leverett 
Candee gave $2,000; Joseph E. Sheffield and 
Oliver F. Winchester $1,000 each, and others 
smaller sums. Mr. Sheffield likewise sold to 
the Institute, for less than the market value, a lot for 
the building, and in 1856 gave a library fund of 
$5,000. The building (now occupied by the Pal- 
ladium) was commenced in July, 1855, and com- 
pleted the followed year, at a cost, including the 
lot, of $34,000. It was formally opened October 
13, 1856, the library having taken possession in 
July. During the first year it increased from five 
thousand to seven thousand seven hundred vol- 
umes, two-thirds of the accessions being gifts, and 
the membership rose to six hundred. But this pros- 
perity did not continue. The building on its com- 
pletion was burdened with a debt of $22,000. Ad- 
ditional subscriptions had been counted upon, but 
none came, and the financial depression of 1857 
made the prospect still more gloomy. In 1864 
the burden was found too heavy to be longer borne, 
and the building was sold for $30,000, leaving, 
after the payment of the debt, $1 1,000 to accumu- 
late for a future building. During the ten years 
from 1869 to 1878, the lecture courses yielded an 
average annual profit of $1,100, against a uniform 
deficit in the receipts of the library and reading- 
room. At length this resource failed. The Sheffield 
fund also, alter yielding dividends amounting in 
the aggregate to $3,600, became unproductive, and 
the membership steadily sank. 

The migrations of the Institute have been as va- 



IdO 



HISTORY OF THE CITV OF NEW HA VEN. 



rious as its fortunes. In 1840, after the purchase 
of the Social library, it occupied rooms in the 
Street Builtiing, corner Chapel and State; in 1841 
it was removed to the Saunders Building, corner 
Chapel and Orange; in 184510 the Temple on 
Orange street; in 1847 to the Phoenix Building 
on Chapel street; in 1856 to the Institute Building 
on Orange street; in 1864 to the Phoenix Building 
again; in 1871 back to the Institute Building; in 
1875 to the State House. In 1878 the fund having 
reached a sufficient amount, the present lot was 
purchased at a cost of $23,000, and the building 
erected at a further cost of $8,000. When the 
Institute took possession, October i, 1878, it was 
encumbered by a debt of $3, 500. During the past 
eight years this debt has been paid, and about four 
thousand volumes have been added to the library. 
Compared with the years immediately preceding, 
which were a hard struggle for existence, the pres- 
ent situation of the Institute — with an income from 
rents and membership fees of $3,000, and a library 
of twelve thousand volumes — is full of encourage- 
ment. It must not, however, be overlooked that 
in the meantime the character and work of the 
Institute have undergone an important change. 
The lectures, which were once so prominent a fea- 
ture, were practically abandoned ten years ago, and 
there is little likelihood that they will be resumed. 
The evening schools were discontinued still earlier. 
The Institute has in fact ceased to be a lyceum and 
has become a library only. Though its position 
thirty years ago was far less stable than now, it 
may be questioned whether it was not one of 
greater influence and importance. This change has, 
however, come about through no fault of the In- 
stitute; it is a result of the changed circumstances 
of the times. 

The New Haven County Bar Association, or- 
ganized May 18, 1880, under the provisions of an 
act of the General Assembl)' approved March 7, 
1877, possesses a library of about eleven hundred 
volumes. The library was commenced as early as 
1848, by a subscription from members of the Bar. 
Another subscription was made .some years later, 
and more recently the County Commissioners made 
an appropriation of $300. The law library of Hon. 
Alfreol Blackman was received by bequest in 1 880. 
At present the library is dependent for increase on 
the fees for admission to the Bar, and is deposited 
in the County Court House. 

The New Haven C(.)lony Historical Society, which 
was organized November 14, 1862, has gathered 
by gift and exchange a library of nineteen hundred 
volumes and six thousand pamphlets. The col- 
lections of the society were transferred from the City 
Hall, wliere they had hitherto been kept, to the 
present rooms in the State House, in January, 1881. 

The Hillhouse High School has expended, since 
the erection of the present buikling in 1871, about 
$500 annually upon its library, the State and the 
city each approjirialing an equal sum. The num- 
ber of volumes is about twenty-five hundred, con- 
sisting in part of valuable books of reference, in 
part of works of a miscellaneous character. 

We regret that we cannot bring this sketch to a 



close with an account of the Free Public Library of 
New Haven. That an institution which is becoming 
almost as familiar a feature of New England scen- 
ery as the church and the school-house should 
be wanting here, demands at least an explanation. 
Many of these libraries planted around us have 
been established by the generous act of some one 
person as a free gift to the place of his birth or his 
residence. This good fortune has not fallen to the 
lot of New Haven, though few greater opportu- 
nities of good, we may safely say, are placed within 
the reach of the possessors of large wealth. A 
noble contribution toward this object ha.s, it is 
true, been made by one, the later years only of 
whose life were passed in New Haven. The late 
Philip Marett, who died in 1S69, besides other 
large bequests to the College and the charities of 
the city, left one-tenth part of his estate on the 
death of his wife and of his daughter, who is still 
living, "to the City of New Haven in trust, the 
income to be applied by the proper authorities for 
the purchase of books for the Young Men's In- 
stitute, or any public library which may from time 
to time exist in said city. '' The value of this bequest 
is estimated at $70,000. 

The College Library is often assigned as the 
cause — the innocent cause — of the absence of a 
public library, and it is no doubt true that had not 
the wants of a portion of the community been thus 
supplied, the popular demand would have gathered 
such force as to compel the city to take action. 
While the College Library contains little of a 
popular character, and aims to satisfy the demands 
of the scholar and investigator rather than the 
general reader, its resources are freely placed at 
the service of the public. Nor will its value to the 
city cease with the establishment of a public library. 
With that the College Library can co-operate 
heartily and effectively. Of many costly books, 
indispensable, and yet not often wanted, the one 
copy in the College Library will be sufficient for 
the needs of the city, and the public library, spared 
this expense, can extend itself in other directions to 
the general advantage. 

There are now indications that this reproach on 
the fair fame of our city will soon be taken away. 
The past three years have been fruitful in discus- 
sions and plans, out of which doubtless in some 
shape, possibly not the fairest, will come a public 
library. In 1883 a Committee of the Common 
Council, appointed to consider the subject of a 
public library, reported favorably a plan arranged 
in concert with the Young Men's Institute. It 
was proposed to raise by subscription the sum of 
$75,000, at least, for a literary building, which which 
it was hoped that the $50,000 voted by the city 
for a Soldiers' Memorial, miglit in some way be 
combined. In this would be placed the Institute 
library, and the income of the other property of 
the Institute would be devoted to its increase. An 
elaborate scheme for a general subscription was 
prepared, but before the time arrived for putting it 
into execution, the gloomy financial outlook in the 
summer of 1884, and later the excitement of the 
Presidental election, caused it to be indefinitely post- 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO LITERATURE. 



191 



poned. Thereupon a few gentlemen, who thought 
longer delay unwise, and believed that a public 
library once started would quickly draw to itself 
support, resolved to make the experiment. Within a 
kw days subscriptions amounting to $i,8oo, and 
many offers of books, were obtained, and in Janu- 
ary, 1S85, they presented a petition to the City 
Government, praying for the establishment of a pub- 
lic library under the provisions of the Act of 1881, 
and for the assignment of rooms in the State House; 
the memorialists engaging to maintain, for one 
year, free of expense to the city, a reading-room 
furnished with periodicals and books of reference. 
The proposal met with opposition from two quar- 
ters: from those who wished the State House re- 
moved, and feared this would be an additional 
obstacle to the removal; and from the friends of 
the Institute, who thought the public library should 



be built on that foundation. The Board of Council- 
men voted to grant the petition, the Board of Alder- 
men to grant merely the use of the State House, 
without giving recognition to the library. Both 
Boards afterwards reconsidered their action, in order 
to enter into further conference with the Institute. 
During the last session of the Legislature, special 
legislation was procured, authorizing the city to 
issue bonds to the amount of Jioo,ooo to provide 
a building and establish a library; to expend 
$10,000 a year for its maintenance; and to enter 
into a contract with the Institute. Whether the 
city will avail itself of the power thus granted, and 
in what way, is yet to be seen. In the present 
division of sentiment on this question, it will be a 
matter of sincere congratulation if a plan can be 
found which shall deserve and receive the loyal 
support of the whole city. 



CHAPTER X. 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO LITERATURE. 



NEW HAVEN began early to make contribu- 
tions to literature. Before John Davenport 
had provided himself with a permanent dwelhng- 
house, he had written out "A Discourse about 
Civil Government in a New Plantation, whose De- 
sign is Religion." Three years after the author's 
death it was "published by some undertakers of a 
new plantation, for general direction and informa- 
tion," and bears the imprint, "Cambridge, printed 
by Samuel Green and Marmaduke Johnson, 1673." 
It is a small quarto of twenty-four pages. On its 
title-page, the name of Mr. Cotton is by mistake 
put for that of Mr. Davenport; as Cotton Mather, 
whose father was a son-in-law of Mr. Cotton, testi- 
fies. The internal evidence confirms the testimony 
of Mather. The same year his pen produced "A 
Profession of Faith, made at his Admission into 
one of the Churches of God in New England." 
This treatise having been sent to England in 
manuscript, was printed by Congregationalists, 
to vindicate their orthodoxy by exhibiting the 
views of one of their representative men. Edi- 
tions printed in London in 1641, 1642, and 1645 
are extant. It was reprinted in New Haven in 1853, 
with a preface by Dr. Leonard Bacon. In 1656, or 
earlier, Davenport and his assistant in the ministry 
prepared "A Catechism containing the Chief Heads 
of Christian Religion," which was printed in Lon- 
don in 1659, and reprinted in New Haven in 1853. 
"The Saints' Anchor-Hold" was printed in London 
in 1 66 1, with a preface by William Hooke and 
Joseph Caryl. It is a small duodecimo of 231 
pages, and professes to have been originally 
preached in sundry sermons. In one of the dis- 
courses which were printed in "The Saints' 
Anchor-Hold, " occurs the passage in which it is 
believed that Davenport appealed to his congrega- 
tion to sympathize with and help the regicides, 
Whalley and Goffe. 

Brethren, it is a weijjhty matter to read letters and re- 
ceive intelligence in them concerning the state of the 



churches. You need to lift up your hearts to God when you 
are about to read your letters from our native country, to 
give you wisdom and hearts duly afiecled, that you may 
receive such intelligences as you ought; for Ood looks upon 
every man in such cases, with a jealous eye, observing with 
what workings of bowels they read or speak of the con- 
cernments of his church. • * • • The Christian He- 
brews are exhorted to call to remembrance the former days, 
in which, after they were illuminated, they endured a great 
fight of afflictions, partly whilst they were made a gazing 
stock both by reproaciies and alflictions, and partly whilst 
they Ix'camc companions of them that were so used. Let 
us do likewise, and own the reproached and persecuted 
people and cause of Christ in suffering times. 

VVithhold not confidence, entertainment and protection 
from such, if they come to us from other countries, as from 
France, or England, or any other place. Be not forgetful 
to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained 
angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds, as 
bound with them, and them who suffer ailversity, as being 
yourselves also in the body. The Lord required this of 
Moab, saying, " Make thy shadow as the night, in the midst 
of the noonday," that is, provide safe and comfortable shel- 
ter and refreshment for my people in the heat of persecution 
and opposition raised against them; "hide the outcasts, be- 
wray not him that wandereth; let my outcasts dwell with 
thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them from the face of the 
spoiler!" Is it objected, but so I may expose myself to be 
spoiled or troubled? He therefore, to remove this objection, 
addeth, " For the danger is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth; 
the treaders down are consumed out of the land." While 
we are attending to our duty in owning and harboring 
Christ's witnesses, God will be providing for their and our 
safety by destroying those that would destroy his people. 

Both in the field of education and in the field of 
theology, Ezekiel Cheever, the first schoolmaster 
of New Haven, was an author, having written "A 
Short Introduction to the Latin Tongue, " which 
he called an " Accidence," and a book on the 
millenium under the title "Scripture Prophecies 
Explained." President Quincy, of Harvard Uni- 
versity, says of the "Accidence." 

A work which was used for more than a century in the 
schools of New England, as the first elementary book for 
learners of the Latin language; which held its place in 
some of the most eminent of those schools nearly, if not 
quite, to the end of the last century; which has passed 
through at least twenty editions in this country; which was 



192 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



the subject of the successive labor and improvement of a 
man who spent seventy years in the business of instruction, 
and whose fame is second to that of no schoolmaster New 
Eni^laiid has ever produced, requires no additional testimony 
to its worth. 

The eighteenth edition bears the following title- 
page : 

A SHORT 

INTRODUCTION 



LATIN TONGUE: 

for the use of the 

Lower Forms in the Latin School. 

being the 

ACCIDENCE, 

ABRIDGED AND COMPILED IN THAT MOST EASY AND 
ACCURATE METHOD, WHEREIN THE FAMOUS 
MR. EZEKIEL CHEEVER TAUGHT, AND 
WHICH HE FOUND THE MOST AD- 
VANTAGEOUS, BV SEVENTY 
YEARS EXPERIENCE. 

TO WHICH IS ADDED 

A CATALOGUE OF 
IRREGULAR NOUNS and VERBS, 

DISPOSED ALPHABETICALLY. 



the kiohtbrnth kditioic. 

Printed by John Mvcall, for E. Battellr, 

and sold by tbbu at thkir shops im 

BOSTON AND NEWBURY-PORT. 

M.DCC.LXXXV. 

The last edition was published in Boston in 
1838, and had the following title-page: 

C HEEVER'S 

LATIN ACCIDENCE. 

AN 

ELEMENTARY GRAMMAR 

FOR 
BEGINNERS IN THE STUDY 

OF THE 

LATIN LANGUAGE; 

COMPILED nV 

EZEKIEL CHEEVEK, 

WHO WAB ftXVSNTV VIAUS A TRACHRR t>F LATIN; 

AND USHD 

IN THE SCHOOLS OF THIS COUNTRY FOR MORE THAN A 

HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS PREVIOUS 

TO THE CLOSE OF THE LAST 

CENTURY. 



CARHFULLV REVISED, CORRECTED, AND STEREOTYPED, 

From the EigMeeBth Sditioa. 



Slultum in Tarvo. 



FOR SALE UY THE PRINCIPAL ItoOKSELLERS IN THE 
UNITED STATES. 



BOSTON: 
1838. 



It is believe J that the "Accidence" was written 
while he was schoolmaster at New Haven. The 
other book came from his pen at a later date. 



Probably it did not attain to so many editions as 
the Accidence, but it continued to be issued after 
the death of the author. So late as i 757 an edition 
was printed with this title-page; 

Scripture Prophaifs Explained. 
In three Short 

ESSAYS. 

I. On the RESTITUrlON OF ALL THINGS. 

II. On St. JOHN'S FIRST RESURRECTION. 

HI. On the PERSONAL Coming of JESUS 
C H R I S T, as commencing at the beginning of the 
MILLENNIUM, described in the Apocalypse. 



By EzEKiEL Cheever, 

In former Days Master of the Grammar School 
in Boston. 



fVc have a more sureWord of Prophecy, ivhereunto 
ye do 7vetl that ye take heed, as unto a Light that 

shincth in a dark Plaice. For the prophecy 

came not in old Time hy tite IVilt of Man: but 
holy Men of GOD spake as they were moved by 
the Holy Ghost. 

Apostle Peter. 



BOSTON: 

Printed and sold by G R E E N and R u s s E L L, at their 
Printing-office in (,)ueen-street. M.DCC. LTll. 



The next author with whom we would make our 
readers acquainted is Michael Wiggleswonh. He 
came with his parents to (^uinnipiac in the autumn 
of 1638, being then about seven years of age, from 
Hedon, a village in the East Riding of Yorkshire. 
The next summer he was sent to school to Mr. 
Cheever, and in a year or two "began to make 
Latin," perhaps with the help of the Accidence in 
manuscript. In 1651 he graduated at Harvard 
College, and after serving for some years as a tutor 
in that institution, became the teacher of the church 
in Maiden, Mass. 

Soon after his settlement at Maiden, his mother 
and sister, the only remaining members of his 
father's family, removed from New Haven, so 
that as he was not born here and did not reside 
here after leaving college, New Haven has but 
a feeble claim to number him among her sons. 
However, as it was not his fault that he was 
born seven years before his parents came to Quin- 
nipiac, we are dispt)sed to claim him. He is the 
only one in this catalogue of contributors to litera- 
ture who was not either a native of New Haven or 
a resident here during some of the productive 
years of his life. 

Feeble health had delaved Wigglesworth's ac- 
ceptance of the call to Maiden; ami in a few years 
feeble health compelled him to sus])end his minis- 
terial work. He studied and practiced medicine, 
and applied himself to literary work. For the 
benefit of his health he made a voyage to Bermu- 
da. During his absence the church called and set- 
tled a pastor, the Rev. Benjamin Bunkers, who re- 
mained in office till his death, more than six vears 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO LITERATURE. 



193 



afterward. Two other pastors were successively 
settled, and then the pulpit being vacant by the 
retirement of Rev. Thomas Cheever, a son of 
Wigglesworth's teacher at New Haven, and the 
church being in a state of discouragement, Wig- 
glesworth resumed the functions of an office which 
he had never demitted, though for almost twenty 
years he had rested from its labors. From this 
time onward he was active in the work of the 
ministry for as many years as he had been at rest — 
so active, that in the sermon at his funeral we 
read: 

It was a surprise unto us to see a little feeVjle shadow of a 
man, beyond seventy, preaching usually twice or Ihricc in 
a week, visiting and comforting the afflicted; encouraging 
the private meetings; catechising the children of the flock, 
managing the government of the church; and attending the 
sick, not only as a pastor, but as a physician too, and this 
not only in his own town, but also in all those of the vicin- 
ity. 

While he was laid aside from the work of the 
ministry he wrote, "The Day of Doom; or, A 
Poetical Description of the Great and Last Judg- 
ment, with a Short Discourse about Eternity." 
The first edition "consisted of 1800 copies, which 
were sold within a year w-ith some profit to the 
author." Copies of ten different editions are ex- 
tant ; two of which were printed in the seventeenth 
century ; three in the eighteenth and two in the 
nineteenth. The other three have lost a part or 
the whole of the title-page ; but one of them was 
probably of the first edition. "The Bicentennial 
Book of Maiden" cites the following e-xtract from 
"The Short Discourse on Eternity:" 

What mortal can with a span 

mete out Eternity? 
Or fathom it by depth or wit, 

or strength of memory? 

The lofty sky is not so high, 

Hell's depth to this is small; 
The world so wide is but a stride, 

compared therewithal. 

It is a main great Ocean, 

withouten bank or bound ; 
A deep .\by55, wherein there is 

no bottom to be found. 



Nought joined to nought can ne'er make ought 

nor cyphers make a sum ; 
Nor things finite to Infinite 

by multiplying come; 
A cockle-shell may serve as well 

to lade the ocean dry. 
As finite things and Reckonings 

to bound eternity. 

The title of another book by Wigglesworth, ts 
" Meat out of the Eater ; or. Meditations concern- 
ing the Necessity, End and Usefulness of Afflic- 
tions unto God's Children. All tending to prepare 
them for and comfort them under the cross." The 
first edition was published in 1669, and three more 
appeared before the end of the century. At least 
three editions were printed in the course of the 
eighteenth century. For a hundred — perhaps for 
a hundred and fifty years, no poetry was more pop- 
ular in New England than that of Wigglesworth. 
"The Day of Doom," however, was more exten- 
ds 



sively circulated than "Meat out of the Eater. " 
Picturing in lively colors the terrors of the Judg- 
ment Day, it appealed to the imagination of the 
young as well as the piety of their parents, and 
therefore was welcome in every pious household. 
A writer in the Christian Examiner for November, 
1828, speaks of it as- — 

A work which was taught our fathers with their cate- 
chisms, and which many an aged person with whom we are 
acquamted can still repeat, though they may not have met 
with a copy since they were in leading strings; a work that 
was hawked about the country, printed on sheets like com- 
mon ballads: and, in fine, a work which fairly represents 
the prevailing theology of New England at the time it was 
written, and which Mather thought might "perhaps find 
our children till the Day itself arrives." 

In the Bicentennial Book of Maiden it is said 
that the following epitaph is still legible on an an- 
cient gravestone in the old burial ground. 

Memento Mori; Fugit Hora. 

Here lyes Buried y" Body of 
That Faithful Servant of 
Jesus Christ, y« Reverend 
Mr. Michael Wigglesworth, 
Pastour of y« Church of Christ 

at Maulden, years, who 

Finished his Work and Entered 
Upon an Eternal Sabbath 
Of Rest on y« Lord's Day, June 

y" 10, 1705, in y» 74 year of his age. 



Here lyes Interd in Silent Grave Below 
Maulden's Physician of Soul and Body too. 

For some reason the number of the years of his 
pastorate was omitted on the stone; neither does 
the epitaph recognize that distinction between the 
pastor and the teacher which obtained when Wig- 
glesworth was ordained. 

The first half of the eighteenth century was an 
unfavorable time for literature, and we cannot point 
to anything of permanent value which was pro- 
duced at New Haven till the time of President 
Clap. His administration of the college covers the 
period between 1740 and 1767. His first publica- 
tion was a code of laws for the college; the sub- 
stance of which he gathered from several sources. 
This having been adopted by the corporation and 
translated into Latin, was published in 1748. The 
first book ever printed in New Haven was an edition 
of this work, which appeared in 1755.* 

His subsequent publications were "An Essay 
on the Religious Constitution of Colleges," 1754; 
"A Vindication of the Doctrines of the New 
England Churches," 1755; " Essay on the Nature 
and Foundation of Moral Virtue and Obligation," 
1765; "The Annals or History of Yale College, 
in New Haven, from the first founding thereof in 
the year 1700, to the year 1766; with an Appendix, 
containing the present state of the College, the 
Method of Instruction and Government, with the 
Officers, Benefactors and Graduates," 1766. His 
"Conjectures on the Nature and Motion of Me- 
teors above the Atmosphere " was issued posthu- 
mously in 1781. He made collections for a history 

* President Clap's Code of Laws is said to have been printed in 
1748; but the college possesses no copy of any edition earlier than 
that printed in New Haven ip 1755. 



194 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



of Connecticut, but his manuscripts, then in the 
possession of his daughter, the widow of Gen. David 
Wooster, were carried away by the British when 
they plundered New Haven in 1779, and thrown 
into Long Island Sound. A few were picked up 
some days after by boatmen; but the greater part 
were lost. 

In 1766, when President Clap retired from the 
administration of the college, the Presidency was 
offered to the Rev. Ezra Stiles, who had been for 
more than ten years pastor of a church in Newport, 
Rhode Island; but as he declined to be a candi- 
date the Rev. Napthali Daggett was appointed 
president //v) /c«/o/'e. During his administration 
several young men were in college who in early life 
attained celebrity in literature. Among them were 
John Trumbull, who graduated in 1767; Timothy 
Dwight, who graduated in 1769; David Hum- 
phreys, who graduated in 1771; and Joel Barlow, 
who graduated in 1778. Selecting these four as 
having some further connection with New Haven 
than a residence of four years as undergraduates, 
we propose to write a few lines concerning the lit- 
erary work of each. 

But before we do so, it is opportune to mention 
again the Rev. Ezra Stiles, who, though he was un- 
willing to remove from Newport to New Haven in 
1766, accepted the presidency of the college in 
1777, being then exiled from Newport in conse- 
quence of the British occupation of the city, and 
the use of his church by the enemy, who had " put 
up a chimney in the middle of it and demolished 
all the pews and seats below, and in the galleries, 
but had left the pulpit standing." From 1777 till 
his death in 1795, Stiles was the president of the 
college, and during this time was, as he had been 
before, a voluminous writer. His diary and bound 
manuscripts preserved in the college library fill 
lorty-five volumes. Of these, fifteen are occupied 
with his literary diary, embracing the narrative of 
daily occurrences, public and private notices of the 
books he read and the sermons he preached and 
heard. A meteorological record occupies five vol- 
umes ; an itinerary of his tours, notices of town 
and church records, tombstone inscriptions and 
such matters occupy five more; while the remainder 
arc filled with letters and miscellaneous extracts. 
The following citations illustrate the quality of the 
diary: 

1777. Sep. 19. Received the following letter from the Rev. 
Mr. Whittlesey. [Here follows the letter announcing that he 
had been chosen President of Yale College.] My election 
to the Presidency of Yale College is an unexpected and 
wonderful ordering of Divine Providence. An hundred and 
fifty or iSo young giMitlemen students is a bundle of wild 
fire, not easily controlled and governed ; and at best, the 
diadem of a President is a crown of thorns. 

1779. Nov. I. Mr. Guild, Tutor of Harvard College, 
visited us this day. He has been to Philadelphia, and is 
planning an Academy of Sciences for Massachusetts. I had 
much conversation with him upon this as well as upon an 
Academy of Sciences which I am meditating for Connecti- 
cut. 

1780. Dec. 19. Mr. Doolittle tells me there has been made 
at his Powder Mill in New Haven, eighty thousand pounds 
of powder since the commencement ot this war. 

1784. June 21. This evening Mr. Whittlesey told me that 



he dined here in town with Gen. Washington and his suite 
in June, 1775, on his way to take command of the army at 
Boston; when observing to him that he must have been 
young at the Ohio action in 1753 or '4, Gen. Washington 
then told Mr. Whittlesey that at that action he was only 
twenty two years old. 

1784. June 28. Before the war, or A. D. 1775, there were 
forty sail of vessels belonging to the town of New Haven. 
They were reduced by the war to a single sloop of 75 tons, 
belonging to Capt. Fairchild and no coaster left, a. d. 
1 78 1. They are so increased that now, June 28, 1784, there 
belong to this city thirty-three sea vessels using the West 
India and foreign trade: one of which a ship of 300 tons; 
four square-rigged vessels or brigs; the rest sloops of 60 to 
1 10 tons. There are four coasters and seven vessels on the 
stocks. There were seven or eight shops in the war: three 
of which traded considerably and might have £(xx or ;f 800 
sterling worth of goods in each. Now, 1784, June, they 
have counted fifty-six shops in the city: half a dozen of 
which have ^^2,000 to ^3,000 sterling worth of goods; and 
the rest /'5CX) down to ^200 or £1^0. 

The collection of the 5 per cent, impost began last week. 

This day Mr. Tutor Channing brought a piece of ice 
seven miles, from North Branford, and showed it to all the 
classes at College. 

1786. July, 26. This day Mr. Tutor Russell resigned the 
tutorship, bade farewell to his class, and left college in the 
fourth year of his tutorship; in which he has done worthily. 
Tutor Channing and myself rode out and accompanied him 
five miles. Returning I introduced Mr. Morse, who was 
elected tutor at Hartford on Election Day, and gave him the 
tuition of the freshmen. 

1786. June 29. The spirit for raising silkworms is great 
in this town, Northford, Worthington, Mansfield, etc. 

1786. July 8. The German or wheat insects have got into 
and destroyed Squire Smith's harvest of rye and wheat at 
West Haven, and that of several of his neighbors, but are not 
general there. These animalcules, which fix in the joints of 
wheat, and if no wheat, in rye, have come from the west- 
ward and got into Litchfield and New Haven counties. 

1786. October 25. Mr. Tutor Morse, desiring to he absent 
[until] spring in order to make the tour of the States to 
Georgia, for perfecting a new edition of his Geography — we 
elected the Rev. Abiel Holmes, Tutor. 

1787. July 2. The Rev. Manasseh Cutler, of Ipswich, visited 
us. He is a great botanist, and is traveling on to Philadel. 
phia to inspect all vegetables and plants in their state of 
tlinvering, with the view of perfecting his publication upon 
indigenous American plants, ranged into classes, genera and 
species, according to the sexual or Linn.-ean system. 

1787. August 27. Heb. Recita. Finished the first psalm. 
Judge Ellsworth, a member of the Federal Convention, just 
returned from Philadelphia, visited me and tells me the con. 
vention will not rise under three weeks. He there saw a 
steam engine for rowing boats against the stream, invented 
by Mr. Fitch, of Windsor, in Connecticut. He was on board 
the boat and saw the experiment succeed. 

1788. January 7. This evening I gave permission to the 
Freshman class to wear their hats in the college yard after 
the ensuing vacation. Formerly they kept off their hats the 
whole Freshman year. About 1775 they were jiermitted to 
wear them after May vacation. We now permit them after 
January vacation. 

1794. — Mr. Whitney brought to my house and showed us 
his machine, by him invented, for cleaning cotton of its seeds. 
He showed us the model which he has finished to lodge at 
Philadelphia, in the Secretary of State's office, when he 
takes out his patent. A curious and very ingenious piece of 
mechanism. 

1794. July 17. This day I was visited by M. Talleyrand 
Perigord, Bishop of Autun, etc., and M. Beaumez, Member 
for the District of Arras. • * • Both men of informa- 
tion, literature, calmness and candor: and very inquisitive. 
* * • The Bisho]) has written a piece on education and 
originated the bill or act in the National Assembly for setting 
up schools all over France, for diffusing education and letters 
among the plebians. I desired them to estimate the propor- 
tion of those who could not read in France. M. Beaumez 
said, of twenty-five millions, he judged twenty millions could 
not read. The Bishop corrected it, and said eighteen mil- 
lions. They were very in<)uisitive alK)utour mode of diffus- 



CONTklBUTIONS TO LITERATURE. 



195 



ing knowledge. I told them of our parochial schools from 
the beginning, and that I had not reason to think there was 
a single person of the natives in New Haven that could not 
read. 

Dr. Channing, who was a native of Newport, says 
of Stiles: "In my earliest years I regarded no hu- 
man being with equal reverence." Chancellor Kent, 
who graduated at Yale four years after Stiles com- 
menced his administration of the college, says in 
his Phi Beta Kappa oration: "Take him for all in 
all, this extraordinary man was undoubtedly one 
of the purest and best gifted men of his age. In 
addition to his other eminent attainments, he was 
clothed with humility, with tenderness of heart, 
with disinterested kindness, and with the most art- 
less simplicity. He was distinguished for the dig- 
nity of his deportment, the politeness of his address, 
and the urbanity of his manners. Though he was 
uncompromising in his belief and vindication of 
the great fundamental doctrines of the Protestant 
faith, he was nevertheless of a most charitable and 
catholic temper, resulting equally from the benevo- 
lence of his disposition and the spirit of the Gos- 
pel." 

Stiles' chief literary publication was, "A History 
of Three of the Judges of King Charles I: Major- 
General VVhalley, Major-General Goffe, and Colonel 
Dixwell; who, at the Restoration, 1660, fled to 
America, and were secreted and concealed in Mas- 
sachusetts and Connecticut for near thirty years. 
With an account of Mr.Theophilus Whale, of Nar- 
ragansett, supposed to have been also one of the 
Judges." 

Of the literary quartette who have been mentioned 
as in college when Daggett was President pro tem- 
pore, the youngest graduated one year after Stiles 
came to the college, and all the four were at New 
Haven for a longer or shorter period, either a little 
before or during his administration. 

Trumbull and Dwight were appointed tutors in 
1771, and during the next two years were very much 
associated together in literary work, as well as in 
college duty. John Trumbull, the poet, is to be 
distinguished from his kinsman, John Trumbull, 
the painter. John Trumbull, the poet, was born 
in Watertown, Conn., where his father was the set- 
tled minister. He was admitted a member of Yale 
College at the early age of seven years, having suc- 
cessfully passed the required examination, though 
his residence at college was postponed for six years. 

During this period, the precocious child became 
acquainted with some of the best English classics. 
During his college course he became intimate with 
Timothy Dwight, and the two wrote essays in the 
style of the Spectator, which they published in the 
newspapers. 

During the two years of his tutorship, Trumbull 
wrote his " Progress of Dullness," a satirical poem 
in which he indirectly advocates the study of En- 
glish literature and belles leltres, by depicting the 
career of Tom Brainless, who, having passed 
through college and stuffed himself with the an- 
cient languages, mathematics and theology.'ascends 
the pulpit. 



Now in the desk, with solemn air. 
Our hero makes his audience stare ; 
Asserts with all dogmatic boldness, 
Where impudence is yoked with dullness; 
Reads o'er his notes with halting pace 
Masked in the stiffness of his face, 
With gestures such as might become 
Those statues once that spoke at Rome, 
Or Livy's ox, that to the State 
Declared the oracles of fate. 
In awkward tones, nor said, nor sung, 
Slowly rumbling o'er the faltering tongue, 
Two hours his drawling speech hokls on. 
And names it preaching, when he's done. 

Dick Hairbrain is then introduced. His college 
course was as dull in point of learning as that of 
Brainless, but differs in morals to represent the 
dullness of those students who went to profligacy 
and French infidelity rather than to the pulpit. 

What though in algebra, his station 
Was negative in each equation ; 
Though in astionomy surveyed. 
His constant course was retrograde; 
O'er Newton's system though he sleeps 
And finds his wits in dark eclipse. 
His talents proved of highest price 
At all the arts of card and dice; 
His genius turned with greatest skill, 
To whist, loo, cribbage and quadrille, 
And taught, to every rival's shame. 
Each nice distinction of the game. 

Not to neglect the ladies and the faults of the 
system of female education in vogue, he introduces 
to his readers Miss Simper, who, after vainly laying 
snares for Hairbrain, accepts the proposals of Brain- 
less. 

The parish vote him five pomids clear, 

T' increase his salary every year. 

Then swift the tag-rag gentry come 

To welcome Madame Brainless home; 

Wish their good parson joy; with pride 

In order round salute the bride: 

At home, at visits and at meetings, 

To Madam all allow precedence ; 

Greet her at church with rev'rence due. 

And next the pulpit fix her pew. 

The first edition of "The Progress of Dullness" 
was published in New Haven, and is thus an- 
nounced in the columns of the Connecticut Journal 
and New Haven Post Boy of Friday, January 8, 

1773: 
Just published, and to be sold by the printers hereof, 

THE PROGRESS OF DULLNESS. 

Part First. 

Or, The Rare Adventures of Tom Brainless; 

Showing what his father and mother said of him; how he 

went to college, and what he learned there; how he took 

his degree and went to keeping school; how he afterward 

became a great man and wore a wig; and how anybody 

else may do the same. 

The like never before published. Very proper to be 
kept in all families. 

Nffiu in the Press. 

THE PROGRESS OF DULLNESS. 

Part Second. 

Or, The Adventures of Dick Hairbrain, of Finical 

Memory. 

Having studied some law during the two years 
of his tutorship, Trumbull was admitted to the 



196 



HISTORY OF THE CITV OF NEW HA VEN. 



bar in 1773, and went to Boston to pursue the 
study still further in the office of John Adams, af- 
terward President of the United States. He re- 
mained in Boston, however, but one year, and 
seems to have been too much interested in politics 
and literary work to make the greatest possible ad- 
vancement in the knowledge of law. During this 
year he wrote "An Elegy on the Times," a poem 
of si.xty-eight stanzas, which celebrates the Boston 
Port Bill, the non-consumption of foreign luxuries, 
and the strength of the colonies. At the end of 
1774 he returned to New Haven, and in 1776, in 
consequence of the resignation of Roger Sherman 
as Treasurer of Yale College, Trumbull was ap- 
pointed his successor in that office, and retained it 
till 1782. In New Haven our poet wrote the 
greater part of "McFingal," on which his fame 
chiefly rests. At the end of the war he added a 
fourth canto, and published the completed work. 
It is a poem in the style of Butler's " Hudibras," 
in which the author relates the history of the Amer- 
ican struggle for independence, with a particular 
description of the character and manners of the 
times, satirizing, as he declares, "the follies and 
extravagances of my countrymen, as well as of 
their enemies." The chief butt of his wit is, how- 
ever, a Tory squire, whom he calls McFingal, 
and makes as ridiculous as Butler does his " Hudi- 
bras." Being a tract for the times, its popularity 
was very great. There were more than thirty dif- 
ferent pirated impressions in pamphlet and other 
forms. Neither the "Progress of Dullness" nor 
" McFingal " is without interest to the reader of the 
present day. The first deserves the attention of 
those who believe that the curriculum of college 
studies should include more of modern literature; 
and the student of history will find in "McFingal" 
a lively and realistic description of revolutionary 
days. In 1801 Trumbull was appointed a Judge 
of the Superior Court, and in i8o8 received the 
additional appointment of a Judge of the Supreme 
Court of Errors, which he retained till he retired 
from public life in 1819. 

Timothy Dwight entered upon his duties as tu- 
tor in Yale College at the same time with his friend 
Trumbull, but continued in that office four years 
after Trumbull had laid it down. He immedi- 
ately commenced his "Conquest of Canaan," and 
worked upon it till it was finished in 1774. But 
the war coming on, it was not published till 1785. 
Retiring from his office as tutor in 1777, he was 
licensed to preach, and became a chaplain in the 
army, and at the beginning of his military career 
wrote the national hymn, 

Columbia, Coliimbi.!, to glory arise, 

Tlie (lucen of the world and child of the skies. 

While he was a settled clergyman at Greenfield 
Hill, he wrote a poem called "Greenfield Hill." 
It was in seven parts: I. The Prospect. II. The 
Flourishing Village. III. The Burning of Fair- 
field. IV. The Destruction of the Pequots. V. 
The Clergyman's Advice to the Villagers. VI. The 
Farmer's Advice to the Villagers. VII. The Vis- 



ion; or, Prospect of the Future Happiness of 
America. In 1795 he succeeded Ezra Stiles in 
the presidency of Yale College, to which was 
united the Professorship of Theology. One fruit 
of his work in the chair of Theology was the well- 
known series of sermons published after his death, 
under the title, "Theology Explained and De- 
fended." In 1797 the General Association of Con- 
gregational Ministers in Connecticut requested 
President Dwight " to revise Dr. Watts' ' Imitation 
of the Psalms of David,' so as to accommodate 
them to the state of the American churches, and to 
supply the deficiency of those psilms which Dr. 
Watts had omitted." After Dwight had completed 
his task, the Association appointed a committee to 
examine his alterations and additions; and the 
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church 
learning what had been done, appointed some of 
its members to act with the committee of the asso- 
ciation. The joint committee approved and rec- 
ommended the book which Dwight had prepared, 
and recommended to him "to select such hymns 
from Dr. Watts, Dr. Doddridge and others, and 
annex them to his addition of the psalms, as shall 
furnish the churches with a more extensive system 
of psalmody." The book appeared in 1800, and 
immediately displaced a similar psalter prepared 
by Joel Barlow, which the churches had been 
using for about fifteen years. 

President Dwight spent his vacations in traveling 
through the country in a chaise with some chosen 
companion; and, keeping notes of what he saw and 
heard, he wrote them out in the form of letters to 
a friend in England. After his death these letters 
were published in four volumes, entitled, "Travels 
in New England and New York.'' Southey was 
so much pleased with the description of the New* 
World contained in this series of letters, that in an 
article in the Qujiicrlv Revieiv for October, 1823, 
he pronounces it the most important of Dwight's 
writings, "a work which will derive additional 
value from time, whatever may become of his poetry 
or his sermons." 

Those who are curious to know what New Eng- 
land was when the eighteenth gave place to the 
nineteenth century, find these volumes very enter- 
taining. Two volumes entitled, "Sermons on Mis- 
cellaneous Subjects," were also issued after Dr. 
Dwight's death. The description of New Haven, 
which the reader has seen in a previous chapter of 
this history, was copied from the first volume of 
the Travels. In concluding this brief notice of 
Dwight's contributions to literature, we transcribe 
in full his familiar version of the 137th Psalm, 
that the reader may compare it with the equally 
poetic, but less lyric, version of the same psalm by 
his friend Barlow, which will be found a few pages 
further on: 

I love Thy kingdom, Lord, 

The house of Thine abode. 
The Church our blest Redeemer saved 

With His own precious blood. 

I love Thy Church, O God! 
Her walls iiefore Thee stand, 

Dear as tl)e apple of Thine eye, 
And graven on Thy hand. 






CONTRIBUTIONS TO LITERATURE. 



19? 



If e'er to bless Thy sons, 
My voice or hands deny, 

These hands let useful skill forsake, 
This voice in silence die. 

If e'er my heart forget 
Her welfare or her woe. 

Let every joy this heart forsake, 
And every grief o'erflow. 

For her my tears shall fall; 
For her my prayers ascend; 

To her my toils and cares li^* given. 
Till toils and cares shall end. 

Beyond my highest joy 
I prize her heavenly ways. 

Her sweet communion, solemn vows. 
Her hymns of love and praise. 

Jesus, Thou Friend divine, 
Our Saviour and our King, 

Thy hand from every snare and foe 
Shall great deliverance bring. 

Sure as Thy truth shall last. 
To Zion shall be given 

The brightest glories earth can yield. 
And brighter bliss of heaven. 

David Himphreys went to Cambridge with one 
of the four Connecticut regiments that were sent 
thither after the battle of Lexington; and being on 
the staff of Putnam, was soon sought by Wash- 
ington, and appointed aiJc-de-camp with the rank 
of colonel. He was so much beloved by the com- 
mander-in-chief, that he was invited at the close of 
the war to reside at Mount Vernon. Accompany- 
ing Washington on his journey, he remained in 
his family more than a year. That he was an 
agreeable inmate is evident, when we learn that 
having accompanied Jeflerson to Europe in 1784, 
as Secretary of Legation, he was invited on his 
return to America, to reside again at Mount Ver- 
non, and continued there till Washington went to 
New York to be inaugurated as President, when 
Humphreys was again his traveling companion. In 
1794 Humphreys was appointed Ambassador to 
Lisbon; whence, after several years residence, he 
was tranferred to Madrid, where he remained till 
1802. He then returned to America, and resided 
for the rest of his life at New Haven, or at the 
village of Humphreysville, in his native town of 
Derby. He died at New Haven February 21, 
1 818, and was buried in the Grove street Cemetery. 
Humphreys' earliest publication was his "Ad- 
dress to the Armies of the United States of America." 
It was written in 1782, when the enemy were in 
possession of New York and Charleston. In it he 
alludes to the famous passage in a sermon, which 
President Davies preached in 1755, predicting the 
future serviceableness of " that heroic youth. Col- 
onel Washington, whom I cannot but hope Prov- 
idence has hitherto preserved in so signal a manner 
for some important service to his country." 

" Oh! raised by heaven to save th' invaded state," 
So spake the sage, long since, thy future fate. 

The address was translated into French by his 
companion in arms, the Marquis de Chastellu.x, 
who writes to Franklin in 1786; 

When you were in France, there was no need of praising 
the AmericaEis, we had only to say. Look, liere is their 
representalive. But, however worthily your place may have 



since been filled, it is not unreasonable to arouse .anew the in- 
terest of a kind-hearted but thoughtless nation, and to fix from 
time to time its attention upon the great event to which it has 
hail the happiness of contributing. Such has been my 
motive in translating Colonel Humphreys' poem. My suc- 
cess has fully equaled and even surpassed my expectation. 
Not only has the public received the work with favor, but it 
has succeeded perfectly at Court, especially with the king 
and queen, who have praised it highly. 

While Humphreys was abroad on his first visit to 
Europe, he wrote "A Poem on the Happiness of 
America, Addressed to the Citizens of the United 
States," which in 1804 reached its tenth edition. 
Returning to America in 1 786, he was chosen to 
represent his native town in the Legislature of 
Connecticut, and soon became associated with Dr. 
Samuel Hopkins, and his old frientls Trumbull and 
Barlow, in a literary club, by whose joint labors a 
series of papers called " The Anarchiad " were writ- 
ten and printed in the newspapers of Hartford and 
New Haven, designed to influence public opinion 
in favor of a new Constitution for the United States, 
in place of the Articles of Confederation. The plan 
of the series assumed the discovery of an ancient 
heroic poem in the English language, of which the 
papers were fragments. The plan was suggested 
by Humphreys, who had seen in F^ngland a series 
of essays produced by the joint efforts of Fox, 
Sheridan, and others, and called "The Rolliad." 
While on his second visit to Mount Vernon, 
Humphreys produced a memoir of Putnam, which 
he entitled "An Essay on the Life of the Honor- 
able Major-General Israel Putnam, Addressed to 
the State Society of the Cincinnati in Connecticut." 
Other writings of Humphreys are; "The Widow 
of Malabar; or, the Tyranny of Custom: A Tragedy;" 
"A Poem on the Future Glory of the United 
States of America; " "A Poem on the Industry of 
the United States of America; " " A Poem on the 
Love of Country; " and "A Poem on the Death 
of General Washington. " 

When Humphreys was in Spain, he conceived a 
design of importing the merino sheep of that coun- 
try into America. 

Oh! might my guidance from the downs of Spain, 
Lead a white flock across the western main; 
Famed like the bark that bore the Argonaut, 
Should be the vessel with the burden fraught! 
Like Cincinnatus, fed from my own field. 
Far from ambition, grandeur, care and strife. 
In sweet fruition of domestic life. 
There would I pass with friends, beneath my trees. 
What rests from public life, in lettered ease. 

His wish was fulfilled. He imported a flock 
and engaged in the manufacture of cloth. So 
much importance was attached to Humphreys' en- 
deavor to introduce a new industry, that President 
Jeffer.son wrote to the Collector of New Haven to 
purchase for him ' ' as much of his best as would 
make me a coat;" adding in a subsequent letter, 
dated December 8, 1808, that "a great desideratum 
will be lost if not received in time to be made up 
for our New Year's Day exhibition, when we ex- 
pect every one will endeavor to be in home- 
spun, and I should be sorry to be marked as being 
in default." Hildreth, in his "History of the 
United States,'' mentions that President Madison 



198 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



was inaugurated March 4, 1809, in a coat inade 
from the fleeces of Humphreys' "white flock. 

Joel Barlow, the youngest of the Yale literary 
quartette, was in college when hostilities com- 
menced at Lexington. His h*me being m Read- 
ino- Fairfield County, he was out with the mditia 
in^vacations, and fought bravely in the battle of 
Wiiite Plains. His first published poem was "The 
Prospect of Peace," which he delivered on Com- 
mencement Day in 177S, when he took his degree 
It was published at New Haven the same year, and 
was afterward reprinted in a collection ot "Ameri- 
can Poems," by Elihu H. Smith. From college. 
Barlow went to the study of law, but the army 
needing chaplains, he turned to theology, and in 
six weeks crammed himself sufficiently to obtain a 
license to preach and a chaplain's commission. 
Like his friend Dwight, he wrote patriotic songs 
for the soldiers, to cheer them in camp and batde. 
He retained his chaplaincy till the end of the war, 
faithfully and successfully performing its duties, 
but employing his leisure in the composition of 
his "Vision of Columbus." At the end of the war 
he returned to the profession of law. He was ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1785; and during the same 
year he was commissioned by the Congregational 
ministers of Connecticut in their General Asso- 
ciation to prepare a revised edition of Dr. Watts' 
Psalms. Some of the psalms had been adapted by 
Dr. Watts to the history and constitution of the 
British empire, and the clergy desired that the 
book should be purged of these inaptitudes, and 
fitted to the condition of churches in the free and 
independent States of America. For some reason, 
not plainly stated, Barlow's Psalm Book did not 
give permanent satisfaction, for in 1797 the 
General Association requested President Dwight to 
prepare another revision. As Barlow had mean- 
while lost his religious faith, perhaps, the eyes of 
the clergy were more keen to discover in the 
Psalter defects of unction or of orthodoxy. It does 
not ai)pear that his volume was submitted to the in- 
spection of a committee of clergymen as Dwight's 
was, when the association had learned to be wary. 
Barlow's version of the 137th Psalm is as follows: 

Along the t)iiiks where Bibel's current flows, 
Our captive bands in deep despondence strayed, 

Wliile Zion's fall in sad remembrance rose. 
Her friends, her children mingled with the dead. 

The tuneless harp, that once with joy we sti'ung. 
When praise employed and mirth inspired the lay, 

In mournful silence on the willows hung; 
And growing grief prolonged the tedious day. 

The barbarous tyrants, to increase the woe. 
With taunting smiles a song of /-ion claim; 

Bid sacred praise in strains melodious How, 

While they lilaspheme the great Jehovah's name. 

But how, in heathen chains and lands unknown. 
Shall Israel's sons a song of Zion raise ? 

Oh hapless Salem, God's terrestrial throne, 
Thou land of glory, sacred mount of Praise ! 

If e'er my memory lose thy lovely name. 
If my cold heart neglect my kindred race. 

Let dire destruction seize this guilty frame; 
My hand shall perish and my voice shall cease. 



Yet shall the Lord, who hears when Zion calls, 
O'ertake her foes with terror and dismay, 

His arm avenge her desolated walls. 
And raise her children to eternal day. 



nar- 
who 



Miss Calkins, in her " History of Norwich, 
rates the following anecdote of Oliver Arnold 
had some celebrity in Norwich for extempore 
verses. "In a bookseller's shop in New Haven, 
he was introduced to Joel Barlow, who had just 
then acquired considerable notoriety by the publi- 
cation of an altered edition of Watts' Psalms. Bar- 
low asked for a specimen of his talents : upon 
which the wandering poet immediately repeated the 
following stanza: 

You've proved yourself a sinful cre'tur; 
You've murdered Watts, and spoilt the meter; 
You've tried the Word of Clod to alter, 
And for your pains deserve a halter. 

From 1788 to 1805 Barlow was in Europe, ^yhere 
his pen was active in French politics. As an inter- 
lude between such writings as "Advice to the Priv- 
ileged Orders;" "The Conspiracy of Kings; or. 
The Alliance against France;" "Letter to the Na- 
tional Convention of France ;" "A Letter addressed 
to the People of Piedmont, on the Advantages of 
the French Revolution, and the Necessity of adopt- 
ing its Principles in Italy," he wrote "The Hasty 
Pudding: a Poem in three cantos," which was first 
published in New Haven in 1796. The design of 
the writer is set forth in the first sentence of a let- 
ter to Martha Washington, with which he prefaces 
his poem. 

"Madam— A simplicity in diet, whether it be con- 
sidered with reference to the happiness of individ- 
uals or the prosperity of a nation, is of more con- 
sequence than we are apt to imagine." 

"The Columbiad," the great work of Barlow, 
appeared in 1807. It is an amplification of his 
earlier work, "The Vision of Columbus." 'The 
discoverer of America beholds, passing before him, 
the course of events on the new continent. Those 
who love simplicity of style, who believe that hu- 
man history is the history of redemption, and is to 
terminate in the Kingdom of God, will prefer the 
earlier work to the more elaborate. Barlow having 
been appointed Minister to France, went abroad a 
second time, in 181 1, and died while on an excur- 
sion into Poland, December 22, 1812. 

From the heights of poetry to which we have 
been conducted by Trumbull, Dwight, Humphreys 
and Barlow we must descend to the prose of " the 
father of geography," Jedidiah Morse. 

Graduating in 1783, Morse immediately became 
a teacher in a school for young ladies in New 
Haven. In the Connecticut Journal for December 
22, 1784, is this advertisement: 

On Tuesday next will be published and ready for sale by 
the author and at the Book Store of Abel Morse, next door to 
Mr. Scot's Tavern: Gtographv Made Easy: Being a short hut 
comprelunsive Systan of that useful and agreeable Science: 
E xhilnting in an easy and concise view an account of the 
Solar System: a general description of the Earth; the Bound- 
aries, Extent, Climate, Soil, Produce, ilc, oj the several 
Empires, Kingdoms and States in the World; m which ■' - 
particular Description of the United States. Taken fr 



in which is a 
am a 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO LITERATURE. 



199 



Variety of the best Authors. Illustrated with two correct 
Maps; one of the World, the other of the United States, togeth- 
er with a number of newly constructed Maps, showing the situ- 
ation of the Places with regard to each other. Adapted to the 
Capacities and Understanding of Children. Calculated par- 
ticularly for the Use and Improvement of Schools in the 
United States. By Jedidiah Morse, A. B. 

This little iSmowas the first book on geography 
published in America. Retiring from his school 
in 1785, he was a tutor in the College for a year. 
We have already read in Stiles' Diary that in Octo- 
ber, 1786, he was about to travel through the 
States to Georgia, "for perfecting a new edition of 
his geography." Edition followed edition, so that 
geography became the author's specialty. He 
was settled in the ministry at Charlestown, Mass., 
from 1789 to 1820, and suffered many things 
in defense of orthodoxy during the theological 
wars of that period. His health becoming en- 
feebled, he resigned his pastorate in 1820 and spent 
the remainder of his life in New Haven, residing in 
the house in Temple street, now occupied by John 
S. Beach, Esq. 

Jonathan Edwards, 2d, was pastor of the White 
Haven Church and Society in New Haven from 
1769 to 1795. He was born in Northampton, 
Mass., May 26, 1745, and died in Schenectady, 
N. Y., August I, 1 801. At the age of si.x years he 
went with his parents to reside at Stockbridge, 
where there was but one school, and that common 
to the children of both the Indian and the white in- 
habitants; of the latter of whom there were so few 
that he was in danger of forgetting the English 
tongue. He so thoroughly learned the language 
of the Stockbridge Indians, that, as he tells us, all 
his thoughts ran in their dialect; and though its 
pronunciation was extremely difficult, the natives 
acknowledged that he had acquired it perfectly; 
which, they said, had never before been done by 
any Anglo-American. He published in his later 
years a treatise on this language, which led Hum- 
boldt to say that if he had not been the greatest 
theologian, he would have been the greatest philol- 
ogist of his age. His "Complete Works," with 
a memoir of his life, were published in two volumes 
at Andover in 1842, under the superintendence of 
his grandson, the Rev. Tryon Edwards, D. D. 
With the exception of the philological treatise men- 
tioned above, they consist of theological treatises 
and sermons. 

Benjamin Trumbull was pastor of a church in 
North Haven from 1760 to his death in 1820. As 
North Haven belonged to and was a part of New 
Haven till it was constituted a separate town in 
1786, wemay claim Dr. Trumbull asm some sense 
a New Haven man. His principal contribution 
to literature was his "History of Connecticut." 
The first volume was published in 1797, and re- 
published in 1818 with the second volume. Be- 
tween these dates he published one volume of a 
" General History of the United States of America." 
The plan of this work required two additional vol- 
umes, which have never appeared. Another book 
by Trumbull was entitled, "Twelve Discourses on 



the Divine Origin of the Scriptures. " Besides these 
volumes many brochures appeared containing ser- 
mons and other products of his pen. His History 
of Connecticut is a valuable storehouse of mate- 
rial for future historians. He was an ardent patriot 
in the War of the Revolution. Serving in the army 
as a chaplain, he went into the ranks to use a musket 
at the battle of White Plains. Among those who 
went out to defend New Haven on the 5th of July, 
1779, was Benjamin Trumbull. Continuing on 
horseback, as the enemy marched from AUingtown 
to Hotchkisstown he annoyed them on their left 
flank, firing at their skirmishers as opportunity of- 
fered, and galloping forward to some new position. 
He was equally prompt in the defense of New 
Haven in 1S14, when, as we have recorded in a 
previous chapter, "one hundred men came from 
the town of North Haven, under the direction of 
their reverend pastor, the venerable historian of 
Connecticut, eighty years of age, volunteered their 
services," and spent a day throwing up an earth- 
work on Beacon Hill. 

Jared Mansfield was born at New Haven in 
1759, graduated at Yale College in 1777, and died 
at New Haven February 3, 1830. He was for 
several years a schoolmaster in New Haven, and 
afterward Professor of Natural and Experimental 
Philosophy at West Point. In 1802 he published 
"Essays: Mathematical and Physical." 

NOAH WEBSTER 

graduated at Yale College in 1778, in the same 
class with Joel Barlow. He became a resident in 
New Haven in 1798 and was quite active in public 
affairs, being chosen an Alderman of the city, a 
representative of the town in the General Assembly, 
and appointed a Judge of one of the State Courts. 
Very early in his career he had begun to issue 
school books, the need of which he had himself 
felt when teaching. In New Haven he commenced 
in 1807 the great work of his life, his "American 
Dictionary of the English Language." Finding 
his resources inadequate to the support of his 
family in New Haven, he removed in 181 2 to 
Amherst, Massachusetts, and remained there ten 
years while working on the dictionary. He re- 
turned to New Haven in 1822, went to Europe 
in 1824 with a view to perfect the dictionary by 
consulting literary men abroad, and by examining 
some standard works to which he could not gain 
access in this country, and carried the book 
through the press in 1828. Another edition of 
the "Great Unabridged " was published in 1840, 
and numerous abridgements of varying bulk pre- 
pared by Dr. Webster, or by some of his family, ap- 
peared in the interval between 1828 and 1840. 
The later years of Dr. Webster were occupied in 
literary work of another kind. In the beginning 
of 1843 he published "A Collection of Papers on 
Political, Literary and Moral Subjects." This was 
a reproduction of political essays which he had 
given to the press at different times before he came 
to New Haven; and of an elaborate treatise " On 



200 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



the Supposed Change in the Temperature of 
Winter," which he had read before the Connecticut 
Acaileniy of Arts and Sciences in 1799. 

The |iiiilo!ogical works of Noah Webster have 
had a hirger sale than those of any other author. 
Of the " Elementary Spelling Book," in its various 
editions and revisions, not fewer than 41,000,000 
copies had been sold before January, 1862, and 
during the preparation of the dictionary the entire 
sujjport of the author and his family was derived 
from his copyright on this little book. In the earlier 
years of his residence in New Haven, Dr. Webster 
occupied the Arnold House in East Water street, 
but the memory of living citizens does not extend 
back beyond the time when his home was at the 
corner of Temple and Grove streets in the house 
now occupied by the family of the late Henry 
Trowbridge. Dr. Webster died in that house May 
28, 1843. 

Abraham Bishop, graduating at Yale College in 
1778, became an active politician in New Haven, 
where he was made Collector of the Port by ap- 
pointment of President Jefferson. He published 
in 1802 an octavo volume of 166 pages, entitled 
" Proofs of a Conspiracy Against Christianity and 
the Government of the United Slates: Exhibited in 
Several Views of the Union of Church and Slate in 
New England." 

Jeremiah Day, graduating at Yale College in 
1795, became a tutor in 1798, and was chosen Pro- 
fessor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in 
1801. On the death of Dr. Dwight, in 1817, he 
was elected President of the College. While in the 
|)rofessorship he prepared a series of text-books, 
his " Algebra," appearing in 1814; his "Mensu- 
ration of Superficies and Solids," in the same year 
as the Algebra; his " Plane Trigonometry," in 
18 1 5; and his "Navigation and Surveying," in 
1817. In 1838 he published an "Inquiry on the 
Self-Determining Power of the Will; or, Contingent 
Volition," and a second edition in 1849. In 1841 
he published an " Examination of President Ed- 
wards' Inquiry as to the Freedom of the Will." 

Benjamin Sili.iman, graduating at Yale in 1796, 
and serving as tutor from 1799 to 1802, was in- 
duced by President Dwight to relinquish the pro- 
fession of law, to which he was looking forward, 
and accept a professorship of Chemistry, Mineral- 
ogy and Geology. These sciences were then in 
their infancy, and .Silliman accepted the appoint- 
ment with the stipulation that time should be 
allowed him for preparation. In 1804, he gave a 
partial cour.sc of lectures on chemistry. As soon as 
he had completed his first full course, in 1805, he 
sailed for Europe to prosecute his studies in the 
sciences which he was expected to teach. His 
earliest publication was a " Journal of Travels in 
England, Holland and Scotland in 1805-6." This 
work was in two volumes, and in a subsequent 
edition, Lssued in 1820, was enlarged into three 
volumes. Being one of the earliest accounts of 
Great Britain by an educated American, it attracted 



much attention on both sides of the Atlantic. In 
18 1 8, Professor Silliman commenced the American 
Journal of Science am] Arts, better known as Silli- 
man s Journal. This periodical, which at first was 
a quarterly, is now issued six times in a year, and 
shows no abatement of its excellence. In 1820, he 
jHiblished "A Journal of a Journey between Hart- 
ford and (Quebec," which, like President Dwight's 
"Travels," increases in interest as the times change 
and the world changes with them. In 1829 he 
edited, with notes and appendices, an edition of 
" Bakewell's Geology," which in the course of ten 
years passed to a third edition. In 1830 he pub- 
lished a text-book on Chemistry in two large 
volumes. In 1851 he again visited Europe, after 
an interval of forty-five years, and spent six months 
there. The narrative of this journey, replete with 
scientific observations, was published in 1853, 
under the title of "A Visit to Europe in 1S51," and 
has passed through several editions. 

Lyman Beecher was born at New Haven Sep- 
tember 12, 1775; graduated at Yale College in the 
class of 1797; and studied theology under the di- 
rection of President Dwight. His publications 
consisted of a work on "Political Atheism," and 
numerous sermons and addresses. A collection of 
his writings in four volumes was made in Boston 
in 1852. 

James Murdock was born at Westbrook, Conn., 
February 16, 1716, and graduated at Yale College 
in the same class with Lyman Beecher. After being 
a pastor for thirteen years at Princeton, Mass., he 
was appointed Professor of Ancient Languages in 
the University of Vermont at Burlington, whence 
he removed to Andover, Mass, having accepted 
the Brown Professorship of Sacred Rhetoric and 
Ecclesiastical History in the Theological Seminary. 
In 1828 he removed to New Haven and devoted 
the rest of his life to study. His principal works 
are a translation from the German of Munscher's 
" Elements of Dogmatic History; " a translation of 
"Mosheim's Institutes of Ecclesiastical History;" 
an edition' of Milman's "History of Christianity," 
with a preface and notes; "Specimens of Modern 
Philosophy, especially among the Germans; " a 
" Literal Translation of the whole New Testament 
from the Ancient Syriac Version," with a prefiice 
and marginal notes; and a translation from the 
Latin of Mosheim's "Commentaries on the Aflairs 
of the Christians before the Time of Constantine 
the Great." 

He died in 1856, while visiting his son in Co- 
lumbus, Miss. 

JAMES L. KiNGSLEV, bom in Windham, Conn., 
August 28, 1778, died at New Haven, August 31, 
1852. After having been for a short time a student 
in Williams College, he removed to ^'ale College, 
where he graduated in 1799. During the two years 
following he was occupied in teaching, first in Weth- 
erslieki, and afterward in his native town. In 1805, 
after being a tutor in Yale College for four years, he 
was appointed to the newly established professorship 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO LITERATURE. 



201 



of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin Languages. He 
was relieved from giving instruction in Hebrew 
when a professorship of sacred Hterature was estab- 
lished in 1824, and in 1831 was further reHeved by 
the establishment of a professorship of the Greek 
language and literature. In Latin he continued 
to instruct till he became Emeritus in 1851. Pro- 
fessor Kingsley is celebrated in college history for 
the exactness of his knowledge and the keenness of 
his wit. His publications, besides text-books, were 
"A Historical Discourse Delivered by Request 
before the Citizens of New Haven April 23, 1838. 
The Two Hundredth Anniversary of the First Settle- 
ment of the Town and Colony;" "A History of 
Yale College " in the American Quarterly Register ; 
and a "Life of Ezra Stiles" in "Sparks' American 
Biography. " 

Sereno E. Dwight, born in Greenfield, Conn., 
May 18, 1786, died in Philadelphia, November 30, 
1850. When between nine and ten years of age, 
he removed with his parents to New Haven, his 
father having become President of Yale College in 
1795. Graduating at that institution in 1803, he 
was a tutor from 1806 to iSio. Studying law dur- 
ing the period of his tutorship, he was admitted to 
the bar and practiced his profession in New Haven 
from 1810 to 1815. Having in that year exper- 
ienced, as he believed, a change in the governing- 
purpose of his life, he consecrated himself to the 
work of the Christian ministry. In 1817 he became 
pastor of the Park street Church in Boston, where he 
labored with great zeal and success till 1826, when 
he was obliged to resign on account of ill-health. 
Returning to New Haven, he occupied himself in 
writing the life and editing the works of the elder 
President Edwards, which were published in 1829. 
In 1828, he and his brother Henry commenced in 
New Haven a large school for bojs on the plan of 
the German gymnasium. Afterward Sereno was 
for a short time President of Hamilton College. He 
published, besides his " Life of Edwards," a volume 
on "The Atonement;" a "Life of Brainerd;" and 
"The Hebrew Wife." A volume of his "Select 
Discourses, " with a memoir of his life, was publish- 
ed after his death by his brother. Rev. W. T. 
Dwight, D.D., of Portland, Maine. 

Nathaniel W. Taylor, a native of New Milford, 
Conn., graduated at Yale College in 1807, and 
spent the remainder of his days in New Haven — 
five years in the study of theology under Dr. 
Dwight (with whom he resided for two of those 
years as an amanuensis); ten years as pastor of the 
First Church and society; and thirty-six years as 
Dwight Professor of Didactic Theology in Yale Col- 
lege. Dr. Taylor contributed many articles to the 
periodicals of his day, but was so averse to publica- 
tion, that with the exception of these contributions 
and some occasional sermons, he gave nothing to the 
press during his long life. Since his death four 8vo 
volumes of his works have been issued; one a vol- 
ume of " Practical Sermons; " one of " Essays and 
Discourses upon Select Topics in Revealed Theolo- 
gy;" and two on "The Moral Government of God." 



James A. Hillhouse was a son of that James 
Hillhouse who nobly resigned his seat in the Sen- 
ate of the United States to devote his life to the 
preservation of the School Fund of Connecticut, 
and a grandson of that William Hillhouse whom 
he thus pictures with his graphic pen. "William 
Hillhouse, of Montville, who, in the days of steady 
habits, came up on his Narragansett pacer and 
took his seat in one hundred and six legislatures 
(then semi-annual) was a tall, spare man, as dark 
as the Black Douglass himself, and did not partic- 
ularly fancy being hit upon his reputed Mohegan 
cross. Being the Patriarch of the eastern section 
of the State, and with a relish of wit, he usually 
had a circle round him at his lodgings. On a cer- 
tain occasion the Sachem, who had often in the 
State Legislature been opposed in argument to his 
father, but was then a young member of Congress, 
happened to call on the old gentleman during the 
Hartford session, at a moment when he was read- 
ing with great glee to the whole mess a squib upon 
the Congressmen from a Philadelphia newspaper. 
It was at the time a library was talked of for Con- 
gress. The gist of the pleasantry lay in the adap- 
tation of a book to the private history of each of 
the prominent members. The old man read on, 
chuckling, for some time. At last, looking up, he 
said drily, ' Why, Jemmy, they don't notice you 
at all.' 'Read on, father.' He did so, and soon 
came to the volume to be ordered for his son, 
namely, 'A History of the Aborigines, to aid him 
in tracing his pedigree.' For a rarity, the old gen- 
tleman was floored. Venerable image of the elder 
day! well do I remember those stupendous shoe- 
buckles; that long gold-headed cane (kept in mad- 
am's, thy sister's, best closet, for thy sole annual 
use); that steel watch-chain and silver pendants, 
yea, and the streak of holland, like the slash in an 
antique doublet, commonly seen betwixt thy waist- 
coat and small clothes, as thou passedst daily, at 
nine o'clock a. iM., during the autumnal session. 
One of his little granddaughters took it into her 
head to watch for her dear 'Black Grandpapa,' 
and insist on kissing him in the street as he passed. 
He condescended once or twice to stoop for her 
salute; but anon we missed him. He passed us 
no more, having adopted Church street instead of 
Temple street on his way to the Council Chamber. 
One of the earliest recollections of our boyhood is 
the appearance of that Council Chamber, as we 
used to peep into it. Trumbull sat facing the 
door — clarum et venerabile nomen — and round the 
table, besides his Excellency and his Honor, were 
twelve noble looking men, whom our juvenile eyes 
regarded as scarcely inferior to the gods. And 
compared with many who floated up afterward on 
the spume of party, not a man of them but was a 
Capitolinus. As the oldest councillor, at the Gov- 
ernor's right hand sat ever the Patriarch of Mont- 
ville (a study for Spagnoletto), with half his body, 
in addition to his legs, under the table, a huge pair 
of depending eyebrows concealing all the eyes he 
had till called upon for an opinion, when he lifted 
them up long enough to speak briefly, and then 
they immediately relapsed. He resigned his seat 



202 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



at the age of eighty, in the full possession of his 
mental powers. The language of the letter before 
me is: ' He has withdrawn from public life with 
cheerfulness and dignity.' He was able at that 
age to ride his Narragansett from New Haven to 
New London in a day, abhorring ' wheel car- 
riages.' At his leave-taking, I have been told, 
there was not a dry eye at the Council Board." 

The reader will doubtless be pleased to make 
acquaintance with William Hillhouse, but we pre- 
sent this picture of him rather for the purpose of 
introducing the grandson, by whose skillful pen 
the picture was drawn. James Abraham Hill- 
house, the poet, is to be distinguished from James 
Abraham Hillhouse, a brother of the poet's grand- 
father, who was a law3'er in New Haven before the 
Revolution. The poet was born at New Haven, 
September 26, 1789, and graduated at Yale Col- 
lege in 1808. Upon taking his Master's degree in 
regular course, he delivered an oration on "The 
Education of a Poet," which was so much ad- 
mired that it obtained him an invitation to deliver 
a poem at the next anniversary of the Phi Beta 
Kappa Society. In fulfillment of this appointment, 
he delivered at the College Commencement in 
i8i2,a poem entitled "The Judgment: A Vision," 
descriptive of the last evening of the expiring 
world. It was immediately published in New 
York, and secured the commendation of both 
American and English critics. After leaving col- 
lege, Hillhouse spent three years in Boston in prep- 
aration for a mercantile career; butthe War of 1812 
interrupting his plans, he employed his enforced 
leisure in writing " Demetria, ' "Percy's Masque," 
and other dramatic compositions. After the war 
was ended, he engaged in commerce in the City of 
New York, and in 1819 visited England, where he 
published "Percy's Masque." It was at once re- 
printed in this country and received with great 
favor on this, as it had been on the other side of 
the Atlantic. Soon after his marriage in 1822 he 
retired to a country-seat in New Haven singular- 
ly combining rural beauty with proximity to the 
city, and here spent the remainder of his life in 
literary labor. Here " Hadad: A Dramatic Poem," 
was written in 1824, and from this appropriate 
birthplace it was sent forth into the world in 1825. 
In 1 839, having carefully revised his previously 
published poems, and added to them "Sachem's 
Wood ' and "The Hermit of Wark worth: A 
Northumberland Ballad,'' he published the poems, 
and three prose compositions with them, in two 
volumes, entitled "Dramas, Discourses and Other 
Pieces." The prose compositions were a Phi Beta 
Kappa oration delivered at New Haven in 1826 on 
"Some of the Considerations which should Influ- 
ence an Epic or a Tragic Writer in the Choice of an 
Era;" a discourse before the Brooklyn Lyceum on 
"Tlic Relations of Literature to a Republican 
Government; " and a discourse pronounced at 
New Haven, by request of the Common Council, 
August 19, 1834, in "Commemoration of the 
Life and Services of General Lafayette. " 

" Sachem's Wood " having the scene of its ac- 
tion laid in the author's native town, claims the 



attention of those whose home is in New Haven, 
not only for its poetic merit, but for its description 
of the landscape in the midst of which it was pro- 
duced. 

Hillhouse first named his home Highwood, 
but finding that the name had been j)reviously ap- 
propriated, he called it Sachem's Wood in al- 
lusion to the soubriquet by which his father was 
known among his associates in Congress. 

His little poem announcing the change, begins: 

Farewell to Hiylnvontl! name made dear 
By lips we never more can hear! 
That came, unsought for, as I lay. 
Musing o'er landsca|5es far away; 
Expressive just of what one sees, 
The upland slope, the stately trees; 
Oaks, prouder that beneath their shade 
I lis lair, the valiant Petjuot made, 
Whose name, whose goryon lock alone, 
Turned timid hearts to demi-stone. 
Within this green pavilion stood. 
Oft, the dark princes of the wood. 
Debating whether Philip's cause 
Were paramount to Nature's laws; — 
Whether the tomahawk and knife 
Should, at his bidding, smoke with life; — 
Or pact endure, with guileless hands, 
Pipes lit for peace, and paid-for lands. 
With men, who slighted frowns from kings, 
Yet kept their laith in hinnblest things, 
The Pillars of our infant state 
Shafts, now, in Zion's upper gate. 

It closes with these lines: — 

The Sachem's day is o'er, is o'er! 
His hatchet, buried oft before. 
In earnest rusts; while he has found 
Far oft', a choicer hunting ground. 
Here, where in life's aspiring stage, 
He planned a wigwam for his age, 
Vowing the woodman's murderous steel 
These noble trunks should never fee!; 
Here where the objects of his care, 
Waved grateful o'er his silver hair; 
Here, where as silent moons roll by. 
We think of Him beyond the sky. 
Resting among the wise and good. 
Our hearts decide for Sachkm's Wood. 

In Sachem's Wood the poet does not attempt 
to rise higher than the two rocks, which guard 
our city on the east and the west, which he calls 
respectively Sassacus and The Regicide, but in 
" Hadad" he soars to the clouds. It is a highly- 
wrought dramatic poem employing the agency of 
the supernatural. The fallen angel who in the 
imagination of Milton wages war with God and the 
hosts of heaven, here hides himself in a heathen 
prince, who seeks the love of a Hebrew maiden, 
Tamar, daughter of Absalom and granddaughter 
of David. Hillhouse died January 4, 1841, less 
than two years after the publication of his collected 
works. 

JosiAH W. GiBBS, born in Salem, Mass., April 
30, 1790, graduated at Yale College in 1809 and 
was tutor from 1811 to 1815. In 1824 he was 
appointed Professor of Sacred Literature and as- 
signed to the theological department of the col- 
lege. His principal publications are a translation 
of "Storr's Essay on the Historical Sense of the 
New Testament;" a translation of " Gesenius' 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO LITERATURE. 



203 



Hebrew Lexicon of the Old Testament;" " Man- 
ual Hebrew Lexicon," abridged from Gesenius ; 
" Philological Studies ; " " Latin Analyst." 

Professor Gibbs also contributed to periodicals 
many important papers on philology and criticism. 

Chauncey a. Goodrich, born in New Haven, 
October 23, 1790, graduated at Yale College in 
1 8 10, and was tutor from 1812 to 1814. He was 
ordained pastor of a church in Middletown in 
1816, but resigned the office in 1817 to accept the 
Professorship of Rhetoric and Oratory in Yale Col- 
lege. He continued in this position till 1839, when 
he was transferred to the chair of Pastoral Theology 
in the Theological Department. While a tutor he 
translated the "Greek Grammar" of Hachenberg, 
which was published in 1814. This he subse- 
quently revised and enlarged with much original 
material, and published under his own name. It 
was often reprinted, and for many years was ex- 
tensively used. About the year 1832 he published 
" Latin Lessons and Greek Lessons " in which the 
precepts of grammar are throughout accompanied 
with practical exercises — a method afterward applied 
by Ollendorf to modern tongues. He wrote many 
articles for the Chiislian Spectator, and was editor of 
the Quarterly Series of that periodical for several 
years. He was also the editor of several editions 
of the Dictionaries of Noah Webster, who was his 
father-in-law. In 1852 he published a large 
octavo volume entitled "Select British Eloquence: 
embracing the best Speeches entire of the most 
eminent Orators of Great Britain for the last two 
Centuries, with Sketches of their Lives, an Esti- 
mate of their Genius, and Notes critical and ex- 
planatory. " 

Denison Olmsted graduated at Yale College 
in 1813, and was appointed tutor in 1815. In 1817 
he received the appointment to a professorship in 
the University of North Carolina, where he dis- 
tinguished himself by proposing and executing the 
first State geological survey ever attempted in this 
country. In 1825 he was appointed Professor of 
Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in Yale Col- 
lege, and from that time, till his death in 1859, he 
was a resident of New Haven. In 1831 he pub- 
lished the first volume of a treatise on "Natural 
Philosophy," which in the next year was followed 
by the second volume. This work, which was de- 
signed as a college text-book, and a ' ' School Philos- 
ophy " abridged from it, had a very large sale. In 
1839 he published "An Introduction to Astron- 
omy," designed as a text-book for the students of 
Yale College, and in 1840 a "School Astronomy." 
In 1842 appeared his "Rudiments of Natural 
Philosophy and Astronomy," and not long after 
his " Letters on Astronomy." Professor Olmsted 
also contributed many articles to Sillimati s Journal 
and other scientific journals. 

Henry E. Dwight, born in New Haven in 1797, 
died in 1832. He published, in 1824, "Journal 
of a Tour in Italy in 1821;" and in 1829, "Travels 
in the North of Germany in 1825-6. ' 



I-ouiSA Caroline (Huggins) Tuthill, a native 
of New Haven, was born in 1799, and was mar- 
ried to Cornelius Tuthill (Y. C, 1814) in 1817. 
Her husband was a person of literary taste, and 
editor for two years of a periodical called The Mi- 
croscope, in which the poet Percival was first intro- 
duced to the reading public. After the death of 
her husband in 1825, Mrs. Tuthill became an 
anonymous contributor to magazines. She first 
appeared under her own name in a volume of se- 
lections entitled "The Young Lady's Reader," 
published in 1839, and soon followed by a collec- 
lection of tales and essays under the title of "The 
Young Lady's Home." Her next production con- 
sisted of a series of tales for juvenile readers. They 
are entitled "I will be a Gentleman ; " "I will be 
a Lady ; " " Onward! right Onward; " " Boarding- 
school Girl;'' Anything for Sport; " " A Strike for 
Freedom; or. Law and Order; " each occupying a 
volume of about one hundred and fifty pages. They 
were published at different times between 1 844 and 
1850. In 1852 Mrs. Tuthill commenced a new 
series for the same class of readers with a tale en- 
titled "Braggadocio," which was followed by 
"Queer Bonnets," "Tip Top," and "Beautiful 
Bertha." Her third series, with the running title 
"Success in Life," included "The Merchant;" 
" The Lawyer; " " The Mechanic; " " The Artist; " 
" The Farmer; " and " The Physician," in six vol- 
umes. These were followed by many other stories 
for the young. Mrs. Tuthill's books of this kind 
are admirably adapted to their purpose and have 
had a very large circulation, two of them having 
reached the fortieth edition. Besides her books for 
the young, Mrs. Tuthill wrote a novel entitled 
"My Wife;" " The History of Architecture;" "The 
Nursery Book, " a volume of counsel to mothers 
on the care of infants; and many others. She com- 
piled a volume of selections from De Quincey and 
three volumes of selections from Ruskin. It is 
said that the appellation. City of Elms, was first 
given to her native city by this writer. She spent 
the later years of her life in Princeton, New 
Jersey, but was buried with her kindred in New 
Haven. 

James G. Percival, a native of Berlin, Connec- 
ticut, having graduated at Yale College in 181 5, 
studied medicine and received the degree of M. D. 
in 1820. In 1821 he published at New Haven a 
duodecimo volume of 346 pages entitled "Poems," 
containing the first part of " Prometheus " and a 
few minor pieces. In 1822 he published an 
"Oration delivered before the Connecticut Alpha of 
the Phi Beta Kappa Society; " and the second part 
of "Prometheus." In the same year he issued at 
Charleston, S. C, the first number of " Clio," con- 
sisting principally of verse; soon afterward the sec- 
ond number, all verse; and later in the same year 
the first and second numbers of "Clio" in one 
issue (New Haven, 1822), a miscellany of prose 
and verse. In 1823 a collection of his "Poems" 
appeared in New York in one octavo volume, which 
was republished in London in 1824 in two vol- 
umes. In 1824 he received the appointment of 



204 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



assistant surgeon in the United States Army, and 
was detailed to West Point as Professor of Chemis- 
try in the Military Academy. In a few months he 
resigned and was' appointed surgeon in connection 
with the recruiting service at Boston. In 1826 he 
published at Boston his poem, "The Mind, ' de- 
livered before the Connecticut Alpha of the Phi 
Beta Kappa Society. In 1827 he removed to New 
Haven, which continued to be his residence till his 
death. In the same year he published the third 
part of "Clio: a Poem," and commenced a revision, 
by a comparison with the original French of the 
English version— adding notes of his own— of 
Malte-Brun's geography, which was completed in 
1832. In 1827-28 he assisted in the preparation of 
the first half, more especially of the scientific words, 
of the first quarto edition of Webster's Dictionary. 
Having been appointed in 1835 to make, in con- 
junction with Prof. Charles U. Shepard, a mincral- 
ogical and geological survey of the State of Con- 
necticut, he published in 1842 his " Report on the 
Geology of Connecticut." In 1843 he published 
in New Haven "The Dream of a Day: and other 
Poems." In 1853 he was engaged by the American 
Mining Company to survey their lead-mining region 
in Wisconsin. In 1854 he was appointed by the 
Governor of Wisconsin, State Geologist, and con- 
tinued in this office till his death. His first re- 
port was published in 1855, and the second was 
left nearly ready for the press. He died at Hazle 
Green, Wisconsin, May 2, 1856. 

He accumulated more than 10,000 books in a 
library building in Park place, south of George 
street, more unique than elegant in its appearance. 
They were offered en masse by his executor for 
$20,000, but finally were sold by Messrs. Leonard 
& Co., at Boston, in April, i860, and scattered to 
the corners of the earth. 

Edward Deerino Mansfield was born at New 
Haven, in 1801. Professor of Constitutional Law 
in Cincinnati College, Ohio. Author of "Political 
Grammar," 1835; "Legal Rights of Women," 
1845; "Life of General Scott," 1846; "History 
of the Mexican War," 1848; "American Edu- 
cation," 1850; "Treatise on Constitutional Law," 
1835; "Memoirs of Daniel Drake," 1855, with 
B. Drake; "Cincinnati in 1826." 

Leonard Bacon, having graduated at Yale in 
1820, and spent the following four years at Andover 
Theological Seminary, was installed pastor of the 
First Church in New Haven, March 9, 1825, in 
which office he remained till his death, December 
24, 1881, though released from service in 1866. 
A catalogue of his publications, to the number of 
eighty-seven, may be found in the Congregational 
Year Book for 1882. Some of his more bulky 
productions are: "Select Practical Writings of 
Richard Baxter, with a Life of the Author," 1831; 
" Manual for Young Church Members," 1833; 
"Thirteen Historical Discourses on the Completion 
of Two Hundred Years from the Beginning of the 
First Church in New Haven," 1839; "Slavery 
Discussed in Occasional Essays from 1833 to 



1846," 1846;* "Christian Self-Culture," 1862; 
"Genesis of the New England Churches," 1874. 

David Francis Bacon, graduating at Yale Col- 
lege in 1831, published in New Haven in 1833, 
" Memoirs of Eminently Pious Women of Britain 
and America." In 1836 he sent to the pre.ss 
"The Lives of the Apostles of Jesus Christ, Drawn 
from the Writings of the Early Christian Fathers, 
and Embracing the New Testament History. Illus- 
trated with Ample Notes, Historical, Topographical, 
and Exegetical." In 1836 he received the degree 
of M.D. Though some smaller publications were 
given to the public, he does not seem to have 
devoted himself to literature in the later years of 
his life with as much diligence as in the first four 
years after he received his first degree. 

Delia Bacon, a sister of the preceding, and of 
Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon, issued in 1S31: "Tales 
of the Puritans," a volume of 300 pages, containing 
three stories, "The Regicides," "The Fair 
Pilgrim," and " Castine; ' and in 1839, "The 
Britle of Fort Edward: a Dramatic Story, Founded 
on an Incident of the Revolution." The incident 
referred to is the murder of Jane McCrae by a 
party of Indians, who were commissioned by her 
betrothed lover, a British officer, to bring her safely 
within the British lines. In 1857, Miss Bacon 
issued in London, "Philosophy of the Plays of 
Shakspeare Unfolded. With a Preface by Na- 
thaniel Hawthorne." In i\\z Atianlic Monthly of 
January, 1863, Hawthorne relates the story of 
his own connection with this work, which he had 
never read either before or after he had kindly 
aided Miss Bacon to bring it before the public. 
He knew her as a woman of genius, but did not 
know that her intellect had became disordered. 
The publication of this book revealed the condition 
of the author, and she spent the short remainder of 
life in an asylum. 

loHN S. C. Abbott, a native of Brunswick, 
Maine, and a graduate of Bowdoin College, in its 
celebrated class of 1825, became a resident of New 
Haven in 1861, being installed pastor of Howe 
street Church in June of that year. He retired 
from that pastorate in 1866 to devote himself en- 
tirely to literary work. Some years later he became 
acting pastor of the Congregational Church in Fair 
Haven East. Before his removal to New Haven, 
he had written many books, of which the earliest 
was "The Mother at Home," which has been 
translated into nearly all the languages of Europe, 
and printed in all of the four quarters of the globe. 
His " History of Napoleon Bonaparte" has been 
much criticized and much read. His series en- 
titled "Kings and Oueens; or. Life in the Palace" 
has also had a large sale. During his residence in 
New Haven he wrote his " History of the Civil 
War in America," and a series of American Biog- 
raphies. 

* It was to the above collection of ttacls. entitled Slavtry Discussed 
in Occasional Essays, that President Lincoln attributed his " first con- 
victions of the enormity of slavery." 



I 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO LITERATURE. 



205 



Martha Day, daughter of President Day, of Yale 
College, was born in 1813 and died in 1S33. She 
attained great proficiency in mathematics and the 
languages, and wrote poetry of uncommon merit. 
In compliance with the wishes of many friends, a 
collection of her "Literary Remains," with me- 
morials of her life and character, was published at 
New Haven in 1834. 

William T. Bacon, a native of Woodbury, Con- 
necticut, resided in New Haven several years be- 
fore he entered college, and again several years at 
a later period of life. He graduated in 1837, and 
after a course of theological study, was ordained to 
the ministry. After a few years, ill-health compelled 
him to retire from the pulpit. At this period of 
his life he came to New Haven and engaged in 
literary and chiefly editorial work. While editor 
of the Niv Enghmdcr, he established the Moimtig 
Journal, and continued in it three years. He after- 
ward removed to Derby, where he became propri- 
etor and editor of the Derby Transcript. There he 
spent the last years of his life, and there he died 
May 18, 1881. His grave is in the Grove street 
Cemetery in New Haven. His literary tastes 
were marked while he was in college, and soon 
after his graduation, he issued a collection of 
poems, which was received with so much favor 
that it reached a third edition in 1840. 

From one of the minor pieces in this volume, 
entitled " East Rock in Autumn," we give a single 
stanza: 

There spreads the forest silent as the dead ! 
There rolls the ocean solemn and sublime ! 
There lies the city in the distance spread; 
So distant that the ear hears not the chime. 
Which from the steeples all the valley fills. 
And sometimes rolls out here to these far hills. 

In 1880, he printed for distribution among his 
college class-mates, but not for publication, another 
collection of poems, which he entitled "Dawn 
and Sunset." As a companion to the piece, writ- 
ten by him, which was sung at the Centennial 
Celebration in 1838, the following is copied from 
" Dawn and Sunset: " 

How peaceful smiled that Sabbath's sun, 
How holy was that day betjun — 
When here, amid the dark woods dim, 
Went up the Pilgrim's first low hymn ! 

Hushed was the stormy forest's roar, 
The forest eagle screamed no more; 
And far along the blue wave's tide, 
The billow murmured where it died. 

The young bird cradled by its nest, 
Its matin symphony repressed, 
And nothing broke the stillness there 
Save the low hymn or humbler prayer. 

The red man, as the blue wave broke 
Before his dipping paddle's stroke, 
Paused, and hung listening on his oar, 
As the hymn came from off the shore. 

Look now upon the same still scene, 
The wave is lilue, the turf is green; 
But where are now the wood and wild, 
The pilgrim and the forest child ? 



The wood and wild have passed away, 
Pilgrim and forest child are clay; 
And here upon their graves we stand, 
The children of that Christian liand. 

O ! while upon this spot we stand. 
The children of that Christian band — 
Be ours the thoughts we owe this day, 
To our great fathers passed away. 

By prayer antl ctintemplation led, 
Be ours by their brave spirits fed; 
Be ours their etforts, and their aim. 
Their truth, their glory, and their name ! 

Ebenf.zer R Mason, a native of Washington, 
Litchfield County, Conn. , graduated at Yale College 
in 1839. He was a young man of extraordinary 
promise, and but for his speedy death would have 
distinguished himself in both science and literature. 
He was the author of " An Introduction to Practi- 
cal Astronomy; " and after his death Professor 
Olmsted published, in 1842, "Life and Writings 
of Ebenezer Porter Mason," in which the editor 
speaks of Mason as uniting in the finest proportions 
the qualities of the artist, the mathematician, and 
the poet." Some of the poetry in the volume jus- 
tifies the epithet of poet applied to him by his bi- 
ographer. 

James Hadley, graduating at Yale College in 
1842, became tutor in 1845; assistant professor of 
Greek in 1848; and, when President Woolsey re- 
signed the professorship of Greek in 185 1, Hadley 
was appointed to succeed him. He died in New 
Haven November 14, 1872, aged 51 years. He 
published a Greek Grammar in 1866, and an abridg- 
ment of the same in 1869. After Professor Had- 
ley 's death, two productions of his pen were pub- 
lished — one with a preface by President Woolsey, 
and the other with an introduction by Professor 
Whitney. The first is entitled "Introduction to 
Roman Law." It is commended by President 
Woolsey as admirably fitted to initiate the student 
into the mysteries of that store-house of legal learn- 
ing, to impart great precision and accuracy of defi- 
nition, and to broaden the foundation of legal 
studies generally. The other is entitled "Essays, 
Philological and Critical. Selected from the Papers 
of James Hadley, LL. D. " In the preface to the 
essays. Professor Whitney bears this testimony: 
"In extent and accuracy of knowledge, in retent- 
iveness and readiness of memory, in penetration 
and justness of judgment, I have never met his 
equal. Wliatever others may have done, he was, 
in the opinion of all who knew him most fully, 
America's best and soundest philologist; and his 
death in the maturity and highest activity of his 
pnwers is a national calamity — a calamity to the 
world of scholars. " 

New Haven has many contributors to literature 
who have not yet finished their work; but those 
whose names have been mentioned are all among 
the dead. Many more might be mentioned who 
have wrought in periodicals and pamphlets; but 
these have produced bound volumes of greater or 
less magnitude and in various departments of liter- 
ature. 



206 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE FINE ARTS. 

BY PROFESSOR J. M. HOPPIN. 



IF the situation of a place have anything to do 
with its artistic development, the site of New 
Haven cannot be without its influence. There is 
something striking to the eye of a traveler as he 
approaches New Haven from almost any direction. 
The wide plain on which the town is built, opening 
to the sea, and backed by the wall of East and West 
Rocks, not indeed lofty, but boldly abrupt, like 
Salisbury Crags at Edinboro; the winding streams 
which flow through the plain; the tall elms fairly 
embowering the city itself in foliage; the avenues 
of maples, which in autumn are arrayed in scarlet 
and gold — this scenery calls for whatever is fit in 
architectural adornment. Strangers from the Old 
World, and from the university towns of England, 
have frequently praised the quiet and half rural 
beauty of our Puritan city seated amid its elms. 

Art, as well as wealth, centers in cities. New 
Haven and Hartford, up to within a short period 
the capitals of Connecticut, have been the chief 
seats of whatever of art cultivation there has been 
in so industrial a State; but as Hartford has 
absorbed the civil power, in all probability New 
Haven will become more and more the home of 
art, as it is already of learning. Here is the 
College, where the arts and sciences are supposed 
to flourish, and, in the views of higher education 
that now prevail, comprehending not only the 
education of the reasoning powers but of the imagi- 
nation and taste, forming the soil of a genuine ar- 
tistic culture which shall e.\ert its influence for 
good upon national character. 

The architecture of New Haven in past times 
mingled the sober colonial with a more ambitious 
classic style. But there is a change, and in some 
respects an improvement going on, in the intro- 
duction of more picturesque types of architecture. 
The first attempt at public building was the old 
College Hall, erected in 171 8 by an English 
architect, with its prim dormer-windows and bel- 
fry and its conspicuous clock-face, as if to re- 
mind students of the words of an Italian scholar, 
"Time is my estate." Then followed South 
Middle and the other college buildings, now some- 
what venerable for age, but remarkable for nothing 
else than a parsimonious economy of space and 
ornament. The new college edifices, especially 
Durfee, have more claims to academic architecture, 
and when all the contemplated buildings are com- 
pleted, the college inclosure will resemble an 
Oxford quadrangle on a larger scale. 

The State House on the Green, characteristic as 
a feature of New Haven for the last half century, 
though its occupation be now gone, was designed by 
Ithiel Towne, an architect of learning and taste, 
after the plan, it is said, of the Temple of Theseus 
at Athens; and though a windowed edifice com- 



posed of brick and stucco, and without peristyle, is 
a good classic model. New Haven church archi- 
tecture, varied by ecclesiastical tastes, and rang- 
ing from plain Puritanic to modern florid styles, 
is not of a marked character. The general orna- 
mentation of the city owes much to Mr. Aaron 
N. Skinner, a former mayor (1850-54), who left 
the impress of his taste — particularly upon the 
Green, the old cemetery, and Hillhouse avenue — 
not perhaps so much in what he himself did, as 
in giving an impulse to the spirit of improvement, 
and awakening a desire in the people to harmonize 
the outward aspect of their city with its intellectual 
reputation. 

In regard to the arts of painting and sculpture, 
the first gleam of anything like art that visited New 
Haven was through the influence of Bishop 
Berkeley, who, following out his dream of found- 
ing a seat of learning in the Western World, 
brought with him, among others, to America a 
young artist named John Smybert, who had 
studied under Vandyke, and from whom Benjamin 
West first received an impulse in his career as a 
painter. Smybert lived for a while in New Haven, 
and his large picture of " Dean Berkeley's Family," 
painted in 1750, came, in 1807, into the posses- 
sion of Yale College — which work, if not of the high- 
est merit, is respectable, and strong in its portrait- 
ure ; and, at the time, was undoubtedly the best 
work of art in America. It was painted while the 
Dean was living at Newport, R. I., and rejjresents 
him standing in his clerical dress holding a volume 
of Plato ; his wife, with a child, in her arms ; a 
young lady. Miss Handcock; Sir James Dalton 
writing at a table. Mr. James, Mr. Moffat, and 
the artist compose the remaining figures. 

But Smybert was the forerunner of greater Amer- 
ican-born painters, such as Trumbull, Copley, 
Leslie, Stuart, and Allston. The name of Trum- 
bull, among the foremost of American artists of 
any time, belongs in a peculiar manner to Con- 
necticut and New Haven. 

Colonel John Trumbull was the son of Gov- 
ernor Jonathan Trumbull, the " Brother Jonathan ' 
of revolutionary memory. He derived his ardent 
patriotism, it may be, from his father, but his ar- 
tistic instincts seem to have been peculiarly his 
own. He was graduated at Harvard in 1773, and 
early manifested a decided bent for art; and it is 
worthy of note that, as an artist, he was superior 
to the poets of that day of struggle and privation, 
showing that art is a hardy plant and can grow in 
any soil. Trumbull joined the army and served 
for two years, 1775-76, as aide-de-camp of Washing- 
ton; and during the war he went to London, 



- 

I 



THE FIXE ARTS. 



207 



where, though suffering imprisonment for a while 
as a spy, he pursued his art studies under Benjamin 
West. Before he was twenty-five he had painted 
sixt)'-eight portraits and small miscellaneous pict- 
ures. He was smitten with the idea of becoming 
the painter of the Revolution — of the heroic period 
of our history — an idea that Polygnotos had, who 
painted the Battle of Marathon in the Pcecile at 
Athens, and the Siege of Troy in the Lesche at 
Delphi. "My son, Connecticut is not Athens," 
his father said to him. in order to repress his ar- 
tistic enthusiasm, but he determined to make it so. 
While in London he produced his first historical 
picture: "The Death of General Warren at the 
battle of Bunkers Hill." Many of the portraits 
for other historical pictures were studied while 
abroad in England and Paris. In 1 789 he re- 
turned to America, where he completed his series 
of portraits and his preparation for further achieve- 
ments. He spent a great deal of time and effort 
in traveling through the country, where journeying 
was slow and laborious, in order to secure correct 
likenesses from life of distinguished revolutionary 
characters. In 1816, thirty years after he had 
painted the "Battle of Bunker's Hill, " he was 
authorized by Congress to execute for the Gov- 
ernment other historical pieces. Those which he 
completed were: "The Death of General Mont- 
gomery at Quebec," "The Capture of the Hes- 
sians at Trenton,'' "The Declaration of Independ- 
ence," "The Death of General Mercer at the 
Battle of Princeton," "The .Surrender of General 
Burgoyne,'' " The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis," 
and " The Resignation of General Washington." 
These valuable paintings, made familiar now 
through good engravings, put him at the head of 
American historical painters, and made for him a 
European reputation. He became a witness of no 
mean authoritv in historic events. He himself saw 
the battle of Bunker's Hill, while an adjutant of 
the first regiment of Connecticut troops stationed 
at Roxbury; and in his picture he gives to General 
Putnam that leading prominence in the fight that 
rightly belongs to him. This painting is justly 
celebrated. It has unity of motive, dramatic power, 
and, above all, the stamp of truth and reality. 
There is also a touch of moral heroism and pathos 
in the act of the English officer in warding off the 
bayonet stroke from Warren. ' ' The Death of 
Montgomery", is a still better painting, and has 
wonderful fire and action, though perhaps the 
criticism that was made by Canova of Benjamin 
West's historical pictures, might be made of his 
pupil Trumbull's pictures, that "he groups, but not 
composes." The drawing of these pictures is good 
(for the time, excellently so), and though their tone 
is a little hard and flat, there is immense spirit and 
vigorous life in them. They are well-balanced and 
harmonious in their coloring. The smaller por- 
traits in the gallery of the New Haven Art School 
— where Trumbull is far better seen than in the 
Capitol at Washington, just as Delacroix, the French 
painter, is best appreciated in the recent colloca- 
tion of his pictures at the Ecole des Beaux Ar/s — 
are invaluable, not only in their historic worth, 



but from vividness of expression and their clear 
light caught from life. They are more than 
miniatures, having, like Greek cut gems, marks 
of greatness in a small compass. The portrait of 
Alexander Hamilton, of a larger size, might be 
particularly mentioned for the life and mind that 
shine in the countenance. Trumbull's full-length 
portrait of Washington is undoubtedly the best 
military portrait of Washington; and the writer, 
when a school-boy, once heard the old artist in his 
sharp way, say in explaining this picture: "There 
you have Washington not in his town-clothes and 
a set of false teeth, but as he looked on the battle- 
field in his regimentals. Don't be deceived by 
other portraits of General Washington, this looks 
just like him." In the picture of the "Declara- 
tion of Independence, " the monotony of its com- 
position has been criticised in the popular name of 
" shin piece," but it has its peculiar merits also: 
truth, dignity and earnestness; the solemnity of a 
great occasion; and the portraits of illustrious Amer- 
icans with the costume of the time realistically ren- 
dered. Trumbull began late in life a new series 
of copies of his historical paintings on a reduced 
scale, and these, with many other pictures — original 
portraits, ideal figure-pieces, and copies from the 
old masters — that remained unsold, amounting in 
all to fifty-four, he gave in 1831 to Yale College, 
as partly a gift and partly as the source of a life- 
annuity. It might be called a priceless gift, since 
the money that he received by no means repre- 
sents their value. He did this while living with 
his friend and relative. Professor Silliman, in 
New Haven where he spent his last days, and 
where he was buried, linking his artistic name and 
fame with our city. His pictures, removed from 
the small building erected for them to the gallery 
of the new Yale Art School building, form the 
most interesting feature of that collection, illustra- 
tive of the beginnings and history of American art. 

As to other New Haven artists, it may be said 
that some who have attained eminence, like Ken- 
sett and Huntington, though they did not reside long 
in New Haven, were either born or educated here; 
in fact touched New Haven on their way to fame. 

Professor S. F. B. Morse's brilliant success as an 
inventor has outshone his artistic career, but while 
a student of Washington Allston, he promised well 
and did some good work as a portrait painter. 
When he was living in New Haven, a young artist 
struggling for his livelihood, he gave Yale College 
five hundred dollars, a princely gift, considering 
the circumstances, and one in harmony with his 
liberality later in life, when he presented to the 
college seven thousand dollars, to secure for it 
Washington Allston's painting of "Jeremiah in 
Prison." Daniel Huntington was his pupil. 

John F. Kensett studied the engraver's trade at 
New Haven, which town, it may be said, has al- 
ways been noted for good engravers. Kensett was 
a special friend of Thomas P. Rossiter, who was 
born in New Haven, and who, though deficient in 
some points, especially color, and, while an in- 
dustrious painter, was careless and hasty, yet had 
genius, and had he been able to concentrate his 



208 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



effort, might have won renown. Nathaniel Jocelyn 
is more truly a New Haven artist than any of 
these, having been born and lived here all his life. 
He was much of his life involved in business 
troubles and real-estate difficulties, being led into 
them by his public spirit and desire to beautify 
his native city. But he left many paintings, espec- 
ially portraits, of merit, once receiving a gold palette 
for the best jjortrait exhibited in the State. Colonel 
Trumbull, who was usually curtly critical, gave 
him praise as a young painter. His works are 
marked by refinement, and he will be remembered 
for his enthusiasm, his simplicity of character, his 
graphic power in conversation, made racy by his 
long e.xperience of art and artists and his love of 
freedom. He is closely identified with the ear- 
liest beginnings of the Yale Art School. 

The name of Flagg is another thoroughly New 
Haven artistic name. Mayor Flagg, of New Haven, 
was the brother-in-law of Washington Allston, and 
the artistic instinct seems to have descended to his 
children and children's children. His oldest son, 
Henry C Flagg, was born in New Haven in 1812. 
He showed skill as a painter of marine views and 
also of animals; but his life was chielly devoted to 
the naval service. George W. Flagg, the second 
son, began his career as a painter with extraordin- 
ary promise of success. He was a pupil of 
Washington Allston in Boston, and it was thought 
that he would eclipse his famous relative, and 
stand at the head of American art. His portrait 
of Dr. Channing is, even now, the classical like- 
ness of that great man. He also painted an ideal 
head of " Hester Prynne," and other pieces, more 
purely of the imagination, in which the coloring 
aims after that tif the ^'enetian school. 

Jared B. Flagg, another brother, has been known 
chielly as a portrait painter. But as an active cler- 
gyman of the Episcopal Church, his whole mind 
has not been given to art, although he has taken a 
deep interest in art matters, and particularly in the 
formation of the Yale Art School Picture Gallery. 
His own painting of " Angelo and Isabella " won 
him an election to the National Academy. His 
son, Montagu Flagg, born in 1843, and educated 
in Paris, continues the artistic prestige of this highly 
gifted family. Charles Noel Flagg, his younger 
brother, educated also at Paris, is a painter who 
promises not to let the family reputation, that 
seems to belong specially to New Haven, die 
out 

The brothers John and George H. Durrie should 
also be mentioned as New Haven artists, pupils of 
Jocelyn, the last of whom has distinguished him- 
self as a painter of farm scenes, and his well-known 
picture of " Winter in the Country," hangs now in 
the Yale Art Gallery. 

George Edward Candee, the water-colorist; 
Wales Hotchkiss, pupil of George Flagg, and his 
friend, Charles Hine, who died in 1871; J. E. 
Wylie the flower painter, S. S. Osgood the portrait 
painter and others who might i)e noticed, have 
claims to be considered New Haven artists, and 
as belonging to a group of painters who here re- 
ceived professional impulse and education. And 



although a New Haven school of painting can 
hardly be claimed to have been founded, yet it 
may be seen that New Haven has heretofore 
proved to be a fruitful soil for painters, has at least 
not been unpropitious to creative art; and that 
though science has overshadowed art, yet as the 
seat of the Yale School of Fine Arts, New Haven 
may be expected to become one of the country's 
chief art centers. 

Before speaking of the Art School, I would say a 
word upon the much less developed branch of 
sculpture. There is not indeed very much to be 
said of New Haven art in this form, though there 
are some pieces of modern sculpture in the city, 
like the "Abdiel,"by Greenough, belonging to 
Professor Salisbury, and the "Ruth, "by Lombardi 
of Rome, presented by W. S. Thompson, F"sq., of 
New Haven, in the alcove of the Art School gallery, 
Launt Thompson's bronze statue of Abraham Peir- 
son (^ fortunately, perhaps, an ideal portrait, as no 
authentic likeness of the first Yale College President 
exists), standing in the college grounds,a fine work 
by a man of genius, was the first of such public 
monuments that will, it may be hoped, adorn the 
city where so many men of mark, not only in letters, 
but science and industry, have lived. 

There is however, one rude group in the same al- 
cove with the "Ruth" which shows that the instinct 
of sculpture has not been wholly wanting. Hezekiah 
Augur, son of a New Haven carpenter, and born 
1 79 1, grew up a mild-tempered and shy boy, much 
given to "carving and cutting," and not at all to 
the dry-goods business, or any other in which his 
careful father wished him to engage. Harrassed 
and wearied out by trying to be what he could not 
be, he passed his life in small business ill-successes 
and struggles with fortune. Sensitive and timid, he 
shrank from men, and his sole amusement was in 
carving. Professor Morse urged him to change 
his wood for marble carving; and he made a mar- 
ble head of Washington, a figure of Sappho, and a 
bust ot Chief Justice Ellsworth that is now in the room 
of the Supreme Court at Washington; but his most 
elaborate work was the statuette group of ' 'Jephthah 
and his Daughter, " which I spoke of as standing in 
the alcove of the south gallery of the Yale Art School. 
These figures were carved without model, and are 
quite rough in techniijue, but are remarkable con- 
sidering the circumstances under which they were 
made, and that their author had received no ar- 
tistic education, and only practiced wood-carving. 
They are not mechanical figures or copies of other 
statues, but are wrought from an original con- 
ception. They have expression, and both in the 
subject and its treatment show that the artistic 
faculty was present, which might, if rightly culti- 
vated, have produced greater works. In 1833, 
Mr. Augur was made an honorary member of the 
Alumni of the college, and died in 1858. He 
may be called the first Connecticut sculptor in 
point of time, though far excelled by Bartholomew 
of Hartford, whose story had also in it something 
of the pathetic, but who was more heroic in nature 
and fruitful in execution. 



\ 



THE FINE ARTS. 



200 



I have now but to speak of the art of music, to 
which some critical attention has been paid of 

late years in New Haven. 

As to New Haven musical societies, there have 
been several, which, if not all of them entirely suc- 
cessful, have contributed to the better culture of the 
people in this noble art. 

In 1847 the Musical Association was formed, 
continuing four seasons with varying fortune, artist- 
ically and financialh'. 

In 1858 the Mendelssohn Society was instituted, 
and lasted ten years. Dr. Gustave J. Stoeckel, the 
instructor of music in Yale College, became its 
president and conductor, and the greatest musical 
achievements of the city were undoubtedly made 
by it. Besides the great oratorios, the " Seasons," 
by Haydn, was brought out twice in 1863, and 
once in 1865, with splendid success. The society 
falling into other hands, attempted one new 
oratorio in the next four years, viz.: "Eli," by 
Costa, an inferior work, after which it gradually 
died out. 

In 1867, the Philharmonic concerts were estab- 
lished, which were well sustained for one season, 
but were given up after the first concert of the 
second season for want of support. 

Several futile efforts have since been made to 
create a new society such as the Mendelssohn was 
or promised to be. It might be stated that, in 
1877, the New Haven Oratorio Society brought 
out the " Elijah." 

A new enterprise of Philharmonic concerts has 
met with unexpected encouragement for one 
season (18S5), and there is much hope for it in 
the future. 

The Beethoven Society in Yale College was 
established in 1850, and the Yale College Glee 
Club in 1869. The arrangements for male voices 
in the college choir, introduced by Dr. Stoeckel in 
1853, h^^'6 been used ever since. The new college 
chapel was finished in 1876, and its magnificent 
organ, remarkable both for power and sweetness, 
which was largely the gift of Mrs. Professor Earned, 
has aided to make the organ service of Battell 
Chapel a beautiful one. It might be added here 
as an historical item, that the first organ in New 
Haven was placed in Trinity Church soon after the 
close of the Revolutionary War; and an English- 
man by the name of Salter was employed as organ- 
ist at a yearly stipend of ten guineas. Soon after 
the erection of the North Church an organ was 
placed in it, chiefly by the exertions of Daniel Read, 
a musician of remarkable talent, who had charge 
of the music of that church as his friend Salter had 
at Trinity. 

The names of Dr. Anderson, Mr. Ensign, Mr. 
J. Hubbard, Professor Wehner, Mr. Charles 
Elliott, and Mr. J. Sumner Smith deserve honor- 
able mention with others, in the history of efforts 
to develop a musical standard of taste in our city. 

Dr. Stoeckel, to whom a prominent place is due 
in any account of the progress of the musical art in 
New Haven, has kindly furnished me with the 
following brief remarks, which, coming from an 

27 



accomplished and learned teacher, will be read 
with pleasure and profit: 

" Once it was supposed that music was merely a 
combination of sounds for the purpose of pleasing 
our sensibilities. No thought or sentiment to dictate 
these combinations was deemed necessary. Attempts 
were made to imitate the phenomena of nature, 
like the lightning and thunder; the musicians de- 
lighted also in descriptions of battles and other 
questionable practices. On such foundations 
music could never stand. Happily now music is 
almost universally acknowledged to be the language 
of the soul; and in the expression of its feelings, 
sentiments and passions, no other art affords so ap- 
propriate a medium. 

" Defining music in this latter sense, a careful ob- 
server must acknowledge the great progress New 
Haven has made in this art during the last forty 
years. Particularly is this true in the appreciation 
of good classical concerts, and in the cultivation 
of the best music in the home circle in piano and 
organ-playing. By these means our community 
can justly be proud of having acquired that refined 
taste without which classical symphonic concerts 
could never be enjoyed. 

"Church music has not obtained so high a de- 
gree in the scale, although it has risen somewhat 
from the musical zero where it stood forty years ago. 
Organ-playing and organ music make a favorable 
exception. A fine voice is still mistaken for fine 
singing, or even for fine music, and it may safely 
be asserted that the modern quartette choir is at the 
bottom of all the delay in the advancement of 
church music. The choir should, of course, be 
the leader in religious musical exercises, but the 
congregation must take part in it if it shall become 
worship. The particular desires of the singers, or 
even of the leader, must be subordinated to the de- 
votional demands of the service; and only when 
that is done will the congregation be apt to join in 
worship in the musical portion of it. 

" There are two reasons, besides the one already 
named, why congregational music does not make 
progress in our churches. The first is the ever-re- 
curring repetition of the very few really good tunes 
with which everybody is familiar; and the second 
is bringing into the Lord's house tunes and music 
with secular and even often immoral associa- 
tions. 

"The remedy is simple. When the large ora- 
torio societies were in prosperous existence, they 
owed their life and success to true enthusiasm and 
faithful training, aided by the practice of the best 
music and much time given to the study of music. 
Singing by the people in the churches can be intro- 
duced successfully only by equally earnest means. 
When musical committees of the bodies ecclesiastic 
can be made to see and understand this, then, and 
then only, will church music make real improve- 
ment. 

" When all the musical capacities in our city 
shall be again united under competent manage- 
ment and leadership, then may New Haven regain 
the position she once had in the day of the Men- 
delssohn Society." 



210 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



It remains for me to say a word respecting the 
Yale Art School, which constitutes, and in the 
future will probably more and more form, the center 
of whatever development of art there may be in 
New Haven. And, judging from the past, the 
promise is both rich and sure. 

Various influences, small when viewed separately, 
but important in their combination, tended to the 
final establishment of this institution. 

This school may be regarded as the first regu- 
lar art school ever founded in this country, certainly 
in connection with a university of learning; and it 
antedates the School of Art iit Oxford, England, 
which has been made illustrious by the name of 
John Ruskin. Singularly enough the influence of 
Trumbull, and more directly of the Trumbull gal- 
lery belonging to the college, formed the germ of 
the Yale Art School. The Trumbull gallery had 
already given a name and place to the idea of art 
in the college and the community. In 1858 there 
was a loan exhibition of pictures at the Trumbull 
gallery, largely attended, that awakened great en- 
thusiasm, and brought in a considerable sum of 
money; and a course of art lectures was given by 
gentlemen of culture, among them Professor Salis- 
bury and Donald G. Mitchell, of New Haven, which 
also served to strengthen the desire that there should 
be a distinct school of art established; the way for 
this, however, was not opened until the year 1863, 
when Mr. Augustus Russell Street, a citizen of 
New Haven, made the munificent off"er to build an 
art building at his sole expense. This structure, 
now an ornament to the college and city, was com- 
pleted in 1866, its architect being Mr. P. B. 
Wight, who was the architect of the Academy of 
Design edifice in New York. The building, which 
cost originally $175,000 (but a fraction of what 
Mr. Street gave to the college), is in the style of 
revived Gothic and is built of Portland stone, with 
yellow Ohio-stone ornamentations. Its principal 
entrance is upon Chapel street, and this is signifi- 
cant of the fact that Mr. Street intended to have 
his gift, and the Art School which was soon after- 
wards formally constituted as a department and 
faculty of the college, to be also a source of educa- 
tion to the community and the people of New 
Haven. The terms of his gift, which embraced 
something more than a gallery or museum of art 
for the college, should not be lost sight of: 

' * * and should any portion of said avails remain 
unexpended for the aforesaid purposes, to apply the same 
to the furnishing of suitable appliances and instruction in 
connection with the said building, for a .School of Art in 
Yale College, for the purpose of providing instrviction in, 
and of diffusing a knowledge of, the arts of drawing, 
designing, painting, sculpture, and other of the tine arts, 
under such regulations for the admission of pupils of both 
sexes, and for the method and course of instruction, as said 
Corporation from time to time shall prescribe, it Ijeing 
among the objects of this gift to provide for those desiring 
to pursue either of the fine arts as a iirofession, the means 
of niatruction and improvement, and to awaken a taste for, 
and appreciation of, the fine arts, among the under-grad- 
uales of the college and others. 

Tiie Yale Art School was thus designed by its 
real founder to have ■i. popular side, to open to the 
town its door of whatever privilege ami refining 



influence it has to bestow. And this fact has not 
been unappreciated. Numbers of the youth of both 
sexes from outside the college walls have received 
artistic instruction; the regular and incidental lec- 
tures at the school have been largely attended by 
the people of New Haven; and the galleries of 
casts and pictures have afi"orded a constant source 
of mental cultivation and enjoyment to the com- 
munity, keeping before them right standards of art 
and taste. And this is important for art's sake, 
which can make little progress in a community or 
a State where there is no appreciation for it, and 
where the public taste is still unformed. 

It is not within the scope of this paper to give a 
detailed description of the New Haven Art School, 
of its collections, and especially of the unique 
Jarves gallery of Italian painting, numbering one 
hundred and twenty pictures, in which many 
characteristic copies, and perhaps some originals, 
of the early masters from the eleventh to the seven- 
teenth centuries are to be found, and which is so 
important in an historical point of view; nor to 
speak of its methods of instruction that pertain 
more exclusively to that department of college 
education to which it belongs; but only to bring out 
this one fact, that here is opened a spring of higher 
culture to all the people of New Haven, widening 
ever in its influence through the State and nation, 
and which is of the greatest value in this formative 
period of the country's history, when nothing is 
more needed than to build up a spiritual kingdom 
in opposition to a kingdom of mere materialism; 
and every influence which counts on the side of 
intellectual life, which, like art or science, takes us 
out of self, and is refining and elevating, is a bless- 
ing. The roots of true art are spiritual, even if it 
require science and severe study to perfect it. 
Though belonging to the more attractive and 
pleasing side of the mind, art is as indestructible an 
expression of the human mind as is science or 
literature. 

I will not speak of the industrial arts, which 
blend with and draw aid from the fine arts — for 
art has its useful as well as poetic side, and, as is 
well known, among the Greeks, all works that 
called for skill of hand were held to be works of 
art, and their makers artists — these industries in 
which New Haven, beyond most cities in the 
country, is notably rich; but would only say in 
conclusion that the opening of the new Park upon 
East Rock promises to summon into use the labor 
of various kinds of skilled artisans. And as in- 
dustry has been called a main spring of art, here 
Art may combine with Nature to create one of the 
finest public parks connected with any city in the 
land, and, from its commanding site, reminding of 
a bit of the Cornici road, or the steep drive and 
view of San Miniato at Florence. 

Why indeed, should not we in this country, 
wiiere the skies are as blue as those in Italy and 
the forms of nature as beautiful, have also the wis- 
dom to draw from this Nature kindly and ennobling 
lessons. The names of Hilihouse and Percival in 
the field of poetry, combined with the names of 
those New Haven artists that have been mention- 




^^ / J T y / ^rp cr< C^ 



THE FINE ARTS. 



311 



ed, show us that here a school of American art may 
exist which shall complete the circle of academic 
education, and lend to learning a mellower tone 
and deeper humanity. 

So build we up the l)eing that we are; 
Thus deeply drinking in the soul of things, 
We shall be wise perforce; and, while inspired 
By choice, and conscious that the will is tree. 
Shall move unswerving, even as if impelled 
By strict necessity, along the path 
Of order and of good. W'hate'er we see, 
Or feel, shall tend to quicken and refine; 
Shall fix, in calmer seats of moral strength, 
Karthly desires; and raise, to loftier heights 
Of divine love, our intellectual soul.* 



DANIEL READ. 

Early in this century there was standing in 
Attleborough, Mass., at a distance from the main 
road on a high hill, an ancient farm-house known 
as the old Read Place. It had originally been 
painted red, but had grown dingy with the years. 
A noble oak shaded the doorway, and there was 
an old-fashioned well-sweep in the side 3'ard with 
a watering trough for the use of the faithful animals. 
On this goodly spot Daniel Read was born Novem- 
ber 16, 1757. When Daniel was thirteen years of 
age, his father yoked the o.\en to take a load of 
wood to Providence, some 15 miles distant, and 
gave Daniel permission to go with him. In asking 
permission, the boy had a long cherished object 
in view, of which he said nothing, for he ever had 
a silent tongue. He had long worked and secretly 
saved money to buy a singing book. This pro- 
cured, he rode back in the empty cart happier 
than a monarch in a golden chariot. 

Before he was twenty years of age, Daniel was on 
the east bank of the Hudson teaching the Dutch 
lads and lasses psalmody. This was in the region 
of Sleepy Hollow, the scene of Irving's amusing 
legend. Early in the Revolutionary War he came 
to New Haven, and lived in Broadway the re- 
mainder of his life. He began business as a 
comb maker, but soon got into trade, opening a 
country store, first alone, then in company with 
his son, George Frederic Handel. About the year 
1785, Mr. Read married Jerusha Sherman, called 
. "the Beauty of Stratford. " The portrait of her by 
Jocelyn shows that the appellation was well deserved. 
The store of the Reads — father, son, George Fred- 
eric Handel, son-in-law, Jonathan Nicholson, and 
grandson, Theodore — continued for many decades 
a noted trading place for the fitrming people of the 
outlying western and northern towns at Wood- 
bridge, Hamden, Cheshire, etc. 

In his later years Mr. Read gave up trade 
entirely. All through life music absorbed him 
greatly, and it was as a teacher of psalmody, 
leader of a choir, organist, composer of music, and 
compiler of music books, that he acquired fame. 
One of his most intimate friends was Daniel Salter, 
an Englishman, who, like Handel, was totally 
blind. Mr. Salter played on the first organ that 

* Wordsworth's Excursion. 



was introduced into a church in this city, viz., 
that of the old Episcopal Church on Church street. 

Mr. Read was organist and leader of the choir 
of the United Society. He got up the subscription 
for its organ, the second organ introduced into 
New Haven. 

In an old ledger of Mr. Read's, date 1794, is a 
charge against the "Singing-School Committee of 
the United Society for 5 1 days' teaching Singing 
School." The charge is 6 shillings a day, or 15 
pounds and 6 shillings in all. It was in New Eng- 
land currency, not sterling, and was ^^-H per 
pound. He credits the committee in full, all in cash, 
but " half of a cow " at "$io, or 3 pounds currency." 
In 1799 he charges the committee "for teaching 
singing 12 evenings at 6 shillings an evening," and 
' ' for room and candles 1 2 shillings. " These charges 
show that church societies then paid for teaching 
their people congregational singing. Six shillings 
currency was $1.00, so it seems he obtained a 
dollar an evening for his services. These old- 
time singing schools were social institutions with 
the young people; and what began in music often 
ended in matrimony. 

Mr. Read's singing books were highly popular, 
and ran through many editions. A copy of the 
second edition is before us, entitled 

" The American Singing Book; or, a Sure and 
Easy Guide to the Art of Psalmody. Designed 
for the Use of Singing Schools in America. Com- 
posed by Daniel Read, Philo-Music. New Haven: 
Printed for and sold by the Author, MDCC- 
LXXXVI." Another of his books was the "Colum- 
bian Harmonist." Printed by Manning & Loring, 
Boston, 1810. It contains 103 tunes, of which 
23 are of his own composition; one of the latter is a 
funeral anthem, which is a fair specimen of the 
old fugue tunes. Of Mr. Read's own composi- 
tion the most noted were "Winter" and " VVind- 
ham,"both written in 1785. "Winter" opened 
with 

His hoary frost, his fleecy snow. 
Descend and clothe the ground; 
The liquid streams forbear to flow. 
In icy fetters bound. 

" Windham," named like most old psalm tunes from 
a town, soon became famous everywhere; for the 
music, so sad, so mournful, exactly fitted the 
opening verse: 

Broad is the road that leads to death. 
And thousands walk together there; 
While wisdom shows a narrow path 
With here and there a traveler." 

Jonathan Nicholson, born in England August 
6, 1 796, came to this country when a youth, served 
his time in Mr. Read's store, married his daughter, 
MaryW., and about 1820, with Mr. Read's son, 
succeeded to the business. Mrs. Nicholson, who 
survives her husband, has in her possession the 
first family organ which came to New Haven. She 
inherits her father's musical tastes, and the organ 
was a present to her from him in 181 6, when she 
was 14 years of age, on her return from New York, 
whither she had gone to learn its use of its maker. 
Urban. 



212 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



She relates an incident complimentary to the 
reputation of her father, which occurred when she, 
a young woman, was at a wedding feast, seated by 
the side of the elder Professor Silliman, to whom 
she was personally a stranger. Attracted, as we 
fain must think, to his conclusion by the full bloom 
upon her countenance, where one can see as yet, 
at the ripe age of 83 years, the faint lingering tints 
of what in its prime must have been strongly and 
pleasingly pronounced, he turned and exclaimed: 

" You are an P^nglish lady, I presume ? " " No, 
sir," she replied. "1 was born here." " Who 
was your fiither.' " " Daniel Read." Whereupon 
the Professor, who never neglected to say a kindly 
word or perform a noble act, to her pride and joy 
finished with: " One of our best citizens — univer- 
sally esteemed." 

Mr. Read had his i)rivate study room, and at 
one period for two years was engaged there upon 
some great labor of love; but no one would ask 
what it was. At the end of that time he produced 
for their inspection the result; it was a large manu- 
script book of choice music which he had copied 
from the old masters, a perfect marvel of beauty 
from its elegant penmanship. It is still preserved, 
a most choicely-valued memento. 

The modesty and originality of Mr. Read is 
illustrated by the dedication prefixed to his first 
publication, ' ' The American Singing Book, " issued 
just after the close of the Revolutionary War. 



TO THE TEACHERS OF MUSIC IN THE UNITED 
STATES. 

Gentlemen, — This little Book is presented for your 
candid Perusal and Acceptance. If at your Bar it should 
be judged unworthy of your Patronage, let it suffer either 
Death or Banishment. It carries with it, however, one 
Request, a request no one will presume to say is unreason- 
able, viz.: That it may not be condemned without an im- 
partial Examination and a fair Trial. Not doubting your 
Inclination to do it Justice, I submit it, and am happy in 
writing myself. 

Gentlemen, 

Your most Obedient 

And very humble Servant, 

THE AUTHOR. 

Daniel Read is remembered by the writer, who 
often, in his boyhood, saw him in the North Church, 
where both attended. He was of ordinary stature, 
full, broad figure, with a venerable gray head, mild 
blue eyes, and a face fresh, healthy, and beaming 
with benignity. He always supposed Mr. Read 
was a deacon of the church, because he looked so 
grave and good. Lately he asked a friend, who 
not only knew him well, but knew also all the 
requisites for a deacon, as he himself had been for 
many years a preacher of ' ' the everlasting Gospel. " 
A slight twinkle lighted his eye as he answered, 
"No, Daniel Read was too modest a man for 
deacon. " 



CHAPTER XII 



THE PERIODICAL PRESS. 



THE first newspaper published in New Haven 
was The Connecticut Gazette. It was com- 
menced by James Parker & Co. in April, 1755, 
and its publication by that firm was suspended 
April 14, 1764. James Parker had been tor 
many years a printer in New York, as his friend 
Benjamin Franklin had been in Philadelphia. He 
had taken Benjanun Mecom, Franklin's nephew, 
as an apprentice, and though he found him way- 
ward, had borne with the faults of the boy for the 
sake of his friend, the boy's uncle. It was not an 
unprecedented thing for a printer who had capital, 
to set up a branch at a distance from his principal 
office, for Franklin already had an ofiice in Charles- 
ton, South Carolina, antl another in the Island of 
Antigua, the profits of which were in each case 
shared by him with the managing printer. Indeed 
Parker's printing-office in New York was a branch, 
Parker himself residing in Woodbridge, New Jersey, 
where he personally managed a printing office. His 
New York office was managed by William Weyman, 
who was associated witli Parker in a copartnership, 
under the name of Parker & Weyman. The estab- 
lishment of the printing-office in New Haven 
was intimately connected with the establishment of 



a post-office. Isaiah Thomas, in his History 0/ 
Printing in America, says: 

At the commencement of the war between England and 
France in 1754, Benjamin Franklin and James Hunter were 
joint Deputy Postmasters-General for America. As the 
principal scat of the war with France in this country was to 
the noilh\\'ard, the establishment of a" post-office in New 
Haven became an object of some consequence. James 
Parker, in 1754, obtained from Franklin the first appoint- 
ment of postmaster in this place. Associated with him was 
John Holt (a brother-in-law of Hunter), who had been un- 
fortunate in commercial business. Having secured the post- 
oftice, Parker, who was then the principal printer in New 
York, sent a press to New Haven at the close of the year 
1754. The first work from his press was Tht Laws of Yalt 
tollegu, in Latin. Holt directed the concerns of the print- 
ing-house and post-ofiice in behalf of James Parker & 
Co. Parker remained in New York. Post-riders were 
established for the army, and considerable business was 
done at the post-office and printing-house during the war. 
Parker had a partner, named Weyman, in New York, who 
managed their affairs in that city until the year 1759, when 
the partnership was dissolved. 'I'his event made it necessary 
that a new arrangement should take place. Holt went to 
New York in 1760; took the direction of Parker's printing- 
house in that city, and conducted its concerns. The press 
and post-otfice in this place were left to the agency of 
Thomas Green; Parker S: Company still remaining pro- 
prietors and continuing their tirm name to the Gazette till 
1764, when they resigned the business to Benjamin Mecom. 



i 



THE PERIODICAL PRESS. 



213 



In the chapter in The Yale Book, where Mr. 
Henry White traces the titles of the land comprised 
in the College Campus, from the first planters of 
New Haven to the corporation of the College, Mr. 
White says: 

There had been a correspondence between President Clap 
and Franklin on the subject of a printing-office in New 
Haven, and Franklin, in the hope of making an opening for 
his nephew, Benjamin Mecom, had procured printing mater- 
ials from England, which were received in the fall of 1754. 
But Mecom declined to come at that time, and Parker was 
induced to undertake the printingoftice. He accordingly 
purchased the piinting materials of Franklin, for which he 
gave his bond, and also purchased this lot of Franklin (a 
lot bought by Franklin of Samuel Mix for 94 Spanish pieces 
of eight, having a front of 50 feet on the street by the market- 
place and a depth of 100 feet, and described as being near 
the Court House), for which he jiaid 90 dollars in cash. There 
appears to have been no building on this lot while Parker 
owned it. He devised the lot to his daughter Jane, the wife 
of Gunnmg liedford, of Wilmington, Delaware. In 17S5, 
Bedford and his wile sold the lot to Jonathan IngersoU, 
State Attorney for New Haven County, for the use of the 
county for a jail, and in 1791, IngersoU conveyed the lot to 
the County of New Haven, with the jail which had been 
erected on it. 

In 1790, the heirs of Samuel Mix sold to the county a strip 
of land eight feet wide on College street, adjoining the 
county lot, to be used for setting on it a jail and jailer's 
house. 

Before 1799 the town of New Haven had acquired a small 
piece of land in the rear or west part of this county lot and 
had erected on it an almshouse. In 1799 the county of New 
Haven sold to the College for Si,oco, and the building of 
a new jail, the lot on which the jail and jailer's house stood, 
bounding it on the west by land of the town of New Haven; 
and in 1800 the town sold this rear lot and almshouse to the 
College, describing it as bounded on all sides by the land of 
the College. 

So careful a man as Henry White did not make 
these statements in regard to the sale of the print- 
ing materials and the lot of land without sufficient 
warrant; so that we may conclude that Franklin had 
been promised by President Clap the job of print- 
ing the laws of Yale College, and had e.xpected that 
his nephew would, with these materials, do the first 
printing in New Haven.* 

Till recently New Haven had no file of the 
numbers of The Connecliciil Gazette preceding No. 
130, which bears the date October i, 1757. But in 
that portion of the Brinley collection which recendy 
came into the possession of Yale College, is a 
well preserved volume containing the early num- 
bers, and thus supplying what was wanting in the 
collection belonging to the estate of Colonel Will- 
iam Lyon. 

As has been already said, in the quotation from 
Mr. Henry White, there was no building on the 
lot owned by Mr. Parker. The Gazette was printed 
at first "near the hay-market." The hay-scales 
and the hay-market were on an open piece of ground 
at the corner of State and St. John streets. Before 
No. 130 was printed, the office had been removed 
to what is now called Custom-house square, that 
number bearing the imprint: " Printed by J. Parker 

* Mr. White found authority for his statements respecting the cor- 
respondence between Franklin and President Clap in two manuscript let- 
tersof James Parker to J. IngersoU, dated February 19, 1767, and iClarch 
14, 176S. Those letters are extant, but so carefuUy put away by Gov- 
ernor Charles R. IngersoU that, after dUigent search, he has not been 
able to find them. He testifies, however, that Mr. White borrowed and 
returned the letters. 



and Company at the Post Office near Capt. Peck's 
at the Long Wharf" The tradition is that the 
post-office and the printing-house were in a build- 
on the east side of Custom-house square, the lot 
on which it stood being bounded on the north by 
East Water street. 

Perhaps Mr. Holt, when he became personally 
acquainted with the town, thought a location near 
the Haymarket or at the Long Wharf would be 
more convenient for the business of the printing 
press and of the post-office than the site purchased 
of Franklin; or perhaps the setting up of the press 
elsewhere was a temporary e.xperiment, to be super- 
seded by the erection of a house as soon as the 
success of the enterprise became assured. 

The removal of Mr. Holt to New York is thus 
noticed in the Gazette of June 21, 1760: "The 
printer of this paper being about to remove to New 
York, desires all persons whose accounts have 
been unpaid above the usual and limited time of 
credit, immediately to discharge them; else he shall 
be obliged to leave them in other hands to collect; 
and he hopes they will not be against allowing in- 
terest. The business will be carried on as usual 
by Mr. Thomas Green in New Haven." 

John Holt, says Mr. Thomas, was born in Virginia. He 
received a good education and was instructed in the business 
of a merchant. He commenced his active life with com- 
mercial concerns, which he followed for several years, during 
which time he was elected Mayor of Williamsburgh, in 
his native province. 

In his pursuits as a merchant he was unsuccessful; and, 
in consequence, he left Virginia, came to New York, and 
formed a connection with James Parker, who was then about 
setting up a press in New Haven. Holt went to New Haven 
and conducted their affairs in that place under the firm of 
James Parker & Co., as has been related. 

After the business at New Haven was discontinued. Holt, 
in the summer of 1760, returned to New York, and here, as 
a partner, had the direction of Parker's Gazelle about two 
years. During the four succeeding years he hired Parker's 
printing materials and managed Tlie Ne-^iiYorl; Gazelle and 
Post Boy as his own concern. In 1765 he kept a book store, 
and in 1766 he left Parker's printing-house, opened another, 
began the publication of Tlie Nnv York Journal in the 
October following, and retained a large number of the 
subscribers to the Gazelle. 

Holt was a man of ardent feelings, and a high church- 
man, but a firm Whig; a good writer and a warm advocate 
for the cause of his country. A short time before the Brit- 
ish army took possession of New York he removed to 
Esopus and thence to Poughkeepsie, where he remained and 
published his Journal during the war. He left at New York 
a considerable" part of his effects, which he totally lost. An- 
other portion of his property, which had been sent to Dan- 
bury, was pillaged or burnt in that place by a detachment 
of the British army: and a part of his types, etc., were de- 
stroyed by the enemy at Esopus. In the autumn of 1783 he 
returned to New York, and there continued the publication 
of the Journal. He was printer to the State iluring the 
war; and his widow, at his decease, was appointed to that 
office. Holt was brother-in-law to Robert Hunter, who 
w.as Deputy Postmaster-General with F'ranklin. Soon after 
his death his widow printed the following memorial of him 
on cards, which she dispersed among his friends and ac- 
quaintances, viz. : 

A due Iribiile to the Memory of 

JOHN HOLT, 

Printer to this SrATE, 

a native of Virginia, who patiently obeyed Death's awful 
summons on the 30th of January, 1784, in the 64th year of 
his age. To say that his family lament him, is needless; that 



214 



HISTORY OF THU CITY OF NEW HA VFN. 



his friends bewail him, useless; that all regret him, unneces- 
sary; For that he merited every esteem, is certain. The 
tonyue of slander can't say less, though justice might say 
more. In token of sincere afl'ection, his disconsolate widow 
hath caused this memorial to be erected. 

After the departure of Holt from New Haven in 
1760, the pubHcation of the Gazette in the name 
of James Parker it Co. was continued by Thomas 
Green till April 14, 1764, when No. 471 made 
this announcement: " As the encouragement for 
the continuation of this paper is so very small, the 
printers are determined to discontinue it after this 
week. They request all those that are indebted to 
make speedy payment. " 

The printing of the Gazette, thus suspended in 
April, 1764, was resumed July 5, 1765 by Benjamin 
Mecom, the nephew of Franklin, who had learned 
his trade of James Parker. iMecom had been sent 
out by his uncle to Antigua, to manage the printing- 
office there of which Franklin was the owner, and 
had annoyed his uncle, first by refusing to work for 
a share of the profits, as his predecessor had done, 
and requiring that he should have the right to pur- 
chase; and afterward by selling out what Franklin 
regarded as an office remarkably well situated for a 
profitable business having a good run of custom 
and no competition. He returned from Antigua 
too late to be associated in the New Haven adven- 
ture at its inception. After an interval of nine 
years spent in Boston, he was ready to come to 
New Haven and undertake the publication of the 
newspaper which James Parker & Co. had relin- 
quished. He advertised to do so immediately after 
its suspension, but it was fifteen months before he 
was able to issue his first number, on the 5th of July, 
1765. In it he says: "A year is passed since the 
printer of this paper published proposals for reviv- 
ing the Cuntiecticut Gazette. It is needless to men- 
tion the reasons why it did not appear sooner." 

The Mecom family were as different from Ben- 
jamin Franklin in capacity for successful business 
as if there had been no consanguinity. Franklin 
never ceased to be helpful to his sister, but he 
could not teach her children the art of success. A 
glance at the portrait of Benjamin Mecom, as 
sketched by the pen of Isaiah Thomas, will illustrate 
the difference between the uncle and the nephew. 

Henjamin Mecom was a native of Boston. His mother 
was the sister of James and of the celebrated Benjamin 
Franklin. Mecom served his apprenticeship with his uncle, 
1!. Franklin, in I'liiladelphia.' When of age, having re- 
ceived some assistance from his uncle, he went to Antigua 
and there printed a newspaper; but in 1758 he (piitted that 
Island and returned to Boston. In 1757 he opened a print- 
mg-house in Cornhili, nearly opposite the Old Brick Church. 
At the same place he kept a shop and sold books. Ilis 
first work was a large edition, thirty thousand copies, of the 
Psalter, for the booksellers. This edition was two years 
worrying through his press. After the Psalter, Mecom began 
to print and publish on his own account, a periodical work, 
which he intended should appear monthly. It was entitled 
TV/i- Nr.u EngtanJ Magiiziiii' of KncnLiledge and Pleasure. 
It contained about 50 pages, i2mo, but he published only 
three or four nundjers. These were issued in 1778, but no 
date either of the month or year appeared on the title-page 
or in the imprint. In this magazine were inserted several 

• I know not how to reconcile this statement with .-» letter of Franklin 
to his sister, in which he speaks of "Benny" as aD apprentice to James 
Parker. Probably Mr. Thomas was mistaken. 



articles under the head of " Queer Notions." Each num- 
ber, when published, was sent about town for sale by hawk- 
ers; but few copies were vended, and the work of course 
was discontinued. His business was not extensive; he print- 
ed several pamphlets for his own sale and a few for that of 
others. He remained in Boston for a number of years; but 
when James Parker & Co., who printed at New Haven, re- 
moved to New York, Mecom succeeded them. Soon after. 
Dr. Franklin procured Mecom the office of postmaster at 
New Haven. He married in New Jersey, before he set up his 
press in Boston. He possessed good printing materials; but 
there was something singular in his work as well as in him- 
self He was in Boston several months before the arrival 
of his press and type from Antigua, and had much leisure. 
During this interval he frequently came to the house where 
I was an apprentice. He was handsomely dressed, wore a 
powdered bob-wig, ruffles and gloves, gentlemanlike ap- 
pendages which the printers of that day did not assume 
and, thus appareled, would often assist for an hour at the 
press. 

An edition of " The New England Primer " being wanted 
by the booksellers, Z. Fowle consulted with Mecom on the 
subject, who consented to assist in the impression, on con- 
dition that he might print a certain number for himself. To 
this proposal F'owle consented, and made his contract with 
the booksellers. Fowle had no help but myself, then a lad 
in my eighth year. The impression consisted of ten thou- 
sand copies. The form was a small sixteens on foolscap 
paper. The first form of the Primer being set up, while it 
was worked at the press, I was put to case to set the types 
for the second. Having completed this, and set up the 
whole cast of types employed in the work, and the first form 
being still at press, I was employed as a fly; that is, to 
take off the sheets from the tympan as they were printed 
and pile them in a heaji; this expedited the work. While I 
was engaged in this business, I viewed Mecom at the press 
with admiration. He indeed put on an apron to save his 
clothes from blacking, and guarded his ruffles; but he wore 
his coat, his wig, his hat and his gloves, whilst working at 
the press; and at case, laid aside his apron. When he 
published his Magazine with " (^iueer Notions," this sin- 
gularity, and some addenda known to the trade, induced 
them to give him the appellation of " flueer Notions." 

Mecom was, however, a gentleman in his appearance and 
manners; had been well educated to his business; and, it 
" queer," was honest and sensible; and called a correct and 
good printer. 

Mr. Thomas elsewhere thus testifies to the same 
effect: 

Mecom, though singular in his manners and deficient in 
the art of managing business to profit, was a man of in- 
genuity and integrity; and as a printer he was correct and 
skillful. He was the first person in this country, so far as I 
know, who attempted stereotype printing. He actually 
cast plates for several pages of the New Testament, and made 
considerable progress toward the completion of them, but 
he never effected it. 

Such was the man who on the 5th of July, 1765, 
resumed the publication in New Haven of the 
Connecticut Gazette, which fifteen months before 
had been relinquished by James Parker iS: Co. 
It came to a stop again February 19, 1768, and 
was never resumed. Under the date mentioned 
is this announcement: "The printer of this paper 
now informs the public that he is preparing to 
remove from this place with his family; and that 
he chiefly depends on his debtors for something to 
pay the expense. Since he now discontinues this 
Gazette, it may not be improper to say that all 
pensons may be supplied with a newspaper by 
Messrs Thomas and Samuel Green, at the Old 
State House, where other printing work is done 
and books bound." 

The older paper yields to its younger rival so 



THE PERIODICAL PRESS. 



215 



gracefully, that one may believe that its proprietor 
received some consideration for retiring from the 
race. 

The Gazette had four pages, and at first each 
page measured nine inches by six and a half inches 
exclusive of margin. The page was afterward en- 
larged to measure fourteen inches by nine and a 
quarter inches; but sometimes paper of the normal 
measure not being obtainable, a smaller size was 
used for one, two or three numbers. There were 
two columns on a page. 

The first number bears the imprint — "New Haven, 
in Connecticut: Printed by James Parker, at the 
Post Office, near the sign of the White Horse." 
It contains also an advertisement of books to be 
sold " at the Printing Office, near the Ha3-market, 
in New Haven." 

Of the following extracts, all but the first are to 
be found in Barber's " History and Antiquities of 
New Haven," and were doubtless taken from the 
copy belonging to the estate of Colonel William 
Lyon, which is on deposit in the Library of Yale 
College. 

New Maven, May 17, 1755. 

We are credibly informed that on the 16th of ^Iarch last, 
the wife of Mr. James Pierpont, of New Haven, was hap- 
pily delivered of a fine, well-featured son, who the same 
day was christened by the name of P^velyn, which is the 
Christian name of the present Duke of Kingston; and as it 
is said that this child is descended from the eldest branch 
of the Pierpont family, excepting that of the present Duke, 
and as the present Duke is far advanced in years and has 
no heirs of his body, it is possible this young Evelyn may 
in lime succeed to the honors and estate of that ancient 
and honorable family of Great Britain. 

New Haven: Printed by J. Parker and Company, at the 
Post Office, near Captain Peck's at the Long Wharf, where 
this paper may be had at 2s. 6d. Lawjiil Money, per 
Quarter, if sent by the special post; or Is. lod. Half Penny 
without postage; the first quarter to be paid at entrance. 
Note. Thirteen Papers go to the Quarter; none to stop 
but at the end of the (Quarter. Stttiirday, Uclobcr ist, 1757. 



New Haven, June i6th, 1758. 
Ne.\t week will be published Proposals for sending, by 
subscription, a Post to Albany during the summer, and for 
paying the postage of all letters to the Connecticut soldiers 
in the army. Toward which the printers of this paper will 
advance Five Pounds, lawful money. This is mentioned 
now, that gentlemen may be as expeditious as possible in 
sending in subscriptions. 

New Haven, January 22, 1761. 

His Honor, the Governor, having received despatches con- 
firming the accounts of the death of our late most Gracious 
Sovereign, King George the Second, on the 25th day of Oc- 
tober, 1760 — and other despatches also, for proclaiming his 
present Majesty — in pursuance thereof, yesterday issued 
orders for the Militia to appear under arms. 

Whereupon (though many of tliem from considerable dis- 
tances), two troops of horse and four companies of foot, with 
great despatch and alertness, were this day before noon 
drawn up on the (Ireat Square, before the Town House, on 
notice whereof, his Honor the Governor,with the Gentlemen 
of the Council on this occasion convened, with many other 
Gentlemen of character and distinction, were escorted by 
Captain Peck's company of foot from the Council Chamber 
to the place of parade; where in the audience of a nmner- 
ous concourse, (the severity of the season notwithstanding), 
with great alaerily convened. His Sacred Majesty was pro- 
claimed by reading and proclaiming aloud the following 
Proclamation. 

Whereas it hath pleased Almighty God to call in his 
mercy our late Sovereign Lord King George the Second, of 



blessed and glorious memory, by whose decease the im- 
perial crown of Great Britain, France and Ireland, as also 
the supreme dominion and sovereign right of the colony of 
Connecticut in New England, and all other his late Majesty's 
dominions in America are solely and rightfully come to the 
high and mighty Prince George, Prince of Wales — We 
therefore, the Governor and Company, assisted with num- 
bers of the principal inhabitants of this colony, do now here- 
by with one full voice and consent of tongue and heart, 
publish and proclaim that the high and mighty P'rince 
George, Prince of Wales, is now, by the death of our late 
Sovereign of happy and glorious memory, become our only 
lawful and rightful liege Lord George the Third, by the 
grace of God, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, 
Defender of the faith. Supreme Lord of the said colony of 
Connecticut in New' England, and all other his late Majesty's 
dominions and territories in America, t<.» whom we do ac- 
knowledge all faith and constant obedience, with all hearty 
and humble afi'ection; beseeching God, by whom Kings and 
Queens do reign, to bless the royal King George the Third, 
with long and happy years to reign over us. 

Given at the Council Chamber at New Haven, the twenty- 
second day of January, in the first year of the reign of our 
Sovereign Lord, George the Third, King of Great Britain, 
France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc., anno que 
Domini 1761. GOD SAVE THE KING! 
Which proclamation was subscribed by his Honor the Gover- 
nor, the Deputy Governor and the Gentlemen of the Coun- 
cil, and many other Gentlemen of a Civil, Military, and 
Ecclesiastical Character. Which was followed by three 
general huzzas and a royal salute of 21 cannon. The 
Governor, Deputy Governor, and Council, with memljers of 
clergy and other Gentlemen of distinction were again es- 
corted to Mr. Beers; where an elegant entertainment was 
provided on the occasion; and his Majesty's, the Royal 
F'amily's, the King of Prussia's, and other loyal healths were 
drunk; and the Militia, after pro])er refreshments, were dis- 
charged; and the whole conducted and concluded with great 
decency and order, and great demonstrations of joy. 



To be sold, several likely Negro Boys and Girls arrived 
from the Coast of Africa. 

Sami'EL Willis, at Middletown. 



Whereas on last Tuesday evening, a number of persons 
gathered together near the College, and there, and rouiid 
the town, fired a great number of guns, to the great disturb- 
ance and terror o( his Majesty's subjects, and broke the 
College windows and fences, and several of them had gowns 
on with a design to bring a scandal upon the College; these 
may certify that I and the tutors several times walked among 
and near the rioters, and could not see any scholars among 
them ; but they appeared to be principally the people of the 
town with some few strangers. T. Clap. 

September 12, 1761. 



New Haven, March 5, 1762. 
Last Saturday afternoon, David Slusher and James Daley 
were cropt, branded with the letter B on their foreheads, and 
received each of them fifteen stripes on their naked bodies, 
pursuant to their sentences for some time since breaking 
open and robbing the shop of Mr. Philo Mills, of Derby. 



A Likely Negro Wench and Child to be sold. — Inquire of 
the Printer. 

To be sold by the subscriber, of Branford, a likely negro 
wench, 18 years of age. Is acquainted with all sorts of 
housework ; is sold for no fault. 

June 15, 1763. 



New Haven, July 4, 1763. 
We, the subscribers. Selectmen of the town of New Haven, 
do hereby give notice to the inhabiiants of said town, that 
there will be a Vendue on the 2nd Monday of August next, 
at the State House in said town, at four of the clock in the 
afternoon, when those persons which are maintained by the 
Town will be set up, and those persons who will keep them 
at the cheapest rate, may have them. Also, a number of 



216 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



children will be bound out until they are either 14 or 21 
years of age, if any persons appear to take them. 

William Greenough, 
Amos Hitchcock, 
John Mix, 
Thomas Howkll, 

Seleitmen. 



Just Imtokted from Duulin, in the Brig Derby. — A 
parcel of Irish Servanis, both Men and Women, and to be 
soid cheap i)y Israel Boardman, at Stamford. 

5th January, 1764. 

A year is passed since the printer of this paper published 
proposals for reviving the Connecticut Gazette. 'Tis need- 
less to mention the reasons why it did not appear sooner. 
He returns thanks to all those who favored him at that 
time, and hopes they are yet willing to try how far he is 
able to give them satisfaction. A sample of it is now sent 
abroad in order to collect a sufficient mnnber of subscribers 
barely to pay the charge of carrying it on. When such a 
numl)er aii])ears it shall be printed weekly, antl delivered to 
subscribers in town and country at the rate oi two-firnce for 
each paper, which is Eight Shillir.gs and Eight Pence for one 
year. And no additions shall be made to the price when 
the Stamp Act takes effect, if it is then encouraged so as to 
be afforded at that rate. 

Subscribers are not desired to engage for any parlicular 
time, so that they can stop it when they please. 

A special post is appointed to carry it out of the common 
post-roads. 

Advertisements shall be printed at a moderate price, ac- 
cording to their length. 

All kinds of provision, firewood and other suitable coun- 
try produce, will be taken as pay of those who cannot spare 
money, if delivered at the printer's dwelling-house, or at 
any other place which may accidentally suit him. 

The printer hereby invites the benevolent of all parties to 
send him an account of whatever novelties they think may 
be useful to their countrymen. The shortest hints on such 
subjects, however written, will be gracefully received and 
faithfully communicated to the public, if convenient. 

Besides the help he hopes to receive from different corre- 
spondents in this colony and elsewhere, the printer has sent 
for three sorts of English Magazines, the Monthly Review 
of New Books, and one of the best London newspapers. 
These, together with American intelligence from Nova 
Scotia to Georgia inclusive, and also from Canada, cannot 
fail to furnish him with a constant stock of momentous ma- 
terials and fresh advices to fill this (Jazette. 

Jnly 5. '765. Benjamin Mecom. 

At the Post Office, Ntm JIaven. 



BENEDICT ARNOLD 
wants to buy a nnmber of genteel fat Horses, Pork, Oats 
and Hay. — And has to sell choice Cotton and Salt, by quan- 
tity or retail; and other goods as usual. 
New Haven, January 24, 1766. 

Mr. Printer: Sir,— As I was a party concerned in 
whipping the Informer the other day, and unluckily out of 
town when the Court sat, and finding the afl'air misrepre- 
sented much to my disadvantage, and many animadversions 
thereon, especially in one of your last by a very fair, candid 
gentleman indeed, as he prelcnds; who, after he had insin- 
uated all that malice could, adds that he will say nothing 
to prejudice the minds of the i)eople. He is clearly seen 
through the gr.ass; but the weather is too cold for him to 
bile. To satisfy the public, and and in justice to myself and 
those concerned, I beg you would insert in your next the 
following detail of the affair: 

The Informer having been on a voyage with me, in which 
he was used with the greatest humanity, on our return was 
paid his wages to his full satisfaction, and informed me of his 
intention to leave town that day, wished me well, and de- 
parted the town, as I imagined. But he, two days after, 
endeavored to make information to a Custom House officer; 
but it being holy time, he was desired to call on Monday, 
early on which day I heard of his intention and gave him a 
little chastisement, on which he left the town, and on 
Wednesday returned to Mr. Beecher's, where I saw the fel- 



low, who agreed to and signed the following acknowledg- 
ment and oath: 

I, Peter Boole, not having the fear of God before my 
eyes, but being instigated by the Devil, did, on the 24th 
instant, make information, or endeavor to do the same, to 
one of the Custom House Officers for the port of New Ha- 
ven, against Benedict Arnold for importing contraband 
goods, do hereby acknowledge I justly deserve a halter for 
my malicious, wicked and cruel intentions. 

I do now solemnly swear I will never hereafter make in- 
formation, directly or indirectly, or cause the same to be 
done against any person or persons whatever, for importing 
contraband or any other goods into this colony or any port 
of America; and that I will immediately leave New Haven 
and never enter the same again, So help me God. 

New Haven, 29th January, 1766. 

This was done precisely at seven o'clock, on which I en- 
gaged not to inform the sailors of his being in town, pro- 
vided he would leave it immediately according to our 
agreement. Near four hours after I heard a noise in the 
street, and a person informed me the sailors were at Mr. 
Beecher's. On inquiry, I found the fellow had not left 
town. 1 then made one of the party, and took him to the 
whipping-post, wheie he received near forty lashes with a 
small cord, and was conducted out of town; since which on 
his return, the affair was submitted to Colonel David Woos- 
ter and Enos Ailing, gentlemen of reputed good judgment 
and understanding, who were of opinion that the fellow was 
not whipped too much, and gave him 50s. damages only. 

Query. — Is it good policy, or would so great a numlier of 
people in any trading town on the continent. New Haven 
excepted, vindicate, protect and caress an informer— a char- 
acter, particularly at this alarming time, so justly odious to 
the public? Every such information tends to suppress our 
trade, so advantageous to the colony and to almost every in- 
dividual both here and in (ireat Britian, and which is nearly 
ruined by the late detestable Stamp and other oppressive 
act; acts which we have so severely felt and so loudly com- 
plained of, and so earnestly remonstrated against, that one 
would imagine every sensible man would strive to encour- 
age trade, and discountenance such useless, such infamous 
informers. I am, Sir, your humble servant, 

Benedict Arnold. 

The narrative which Jared Ingersol, the stamp- 
master, gave of the treatment he received at the 
hands of the company of horsemen coming from 
the eastern counties of Connecticut, and meeting 
him at Wethersfield on his way to Hartford, was 
pubhshed by him in this newspaper, and from the 
columns of the Gazette was copied into our chapter 
on the Revohitionary War. 

In that chapter we alkided to an article on the 
Stamp Act, communicated to the Gazette by Naph- 
tali Daggett, Professor of Theology in Vale College, 
That short communication to a weekly newspaper 
exerted so much influence, that it has seemed worth 
while to reprint it in a chapter which recounts the 
history of the periodical press in New Haven, It 
appeared in the Gazette, August 9, 1 765. Before 
the month of August came to an end it had been 
printed in at least nine other newspapers in difier- 
ent places from Portsmouth to Philadelphia. A 
correspondent of the Ni-iv York Gazette of August 
29th, says : "The piece published, first in the 
New Haven paper, and since in most of the other 
papers in America, signed 'Cato, ' is universally 
approved, and contains the tinanimous sentiments 
of all the British colonies on that subject." 
NEW HAVEN. 
— Quid non mortalia pectora cogis, nuri sacra fames ?- - 
Virgil. 

Since the late impositions on the American Colonies by 
the Parliament of Great Britain, our papers have been filled 



THE PERIODICAL PRESS. 



217 



with woful exclamations against slavery and arbitrary 
power. One would have thought, by this mighty outcry, 
that all America to a man had a noble sense of freedom, 
and would risk their lives and fortunes in the defense of it. 
Had this been really the spirit of the colonies, they would 
have deserved commiseration and relief. Nothing can fill 
a generous breast with greater indignation than to see a free, 
brave, and virtuous people unjustly sunk and debased by 
tyranny and oppression. But who can pity the heartless 
wretches whose only fortitude is in the tongue and pen ? If 
we may judge of the whole by those who have been already 
tampered with, the colonies are now ripe for slavery and in- 
capable of freedom. 

Have three hundred pounds a year, or even a more 
trifling consideration, been found sufficient to debauch 
from their interest those who have been entrusted with 
the most important concerns by the colonies ? If so, O 
Britain, heap on your burdens without fear of disturb- 
ance ! We shall bear your yoke as tamely as the overloaded 
ass. If we bray with the pain, we shall not have the heart 
to throw oft' the load or spurn the rider. Have many al- 
ready become the tools of your oppression, and are numbers 
now cringing to become the tools of those tools to flay their 
wretched brethren ? 'Tis impossible ! But, alas ! if so, 
who could have thought it ! Those who lately set them- 
selves up for patriots, and boasted a generous love for their 
country— are they now suing (O Disgrace to Humanity I), 
are they now creeping after the profits of collecting the Un- 
righteous American Stamp Duty ! If this is credible, what 
may we not believe? Where are the mercenary publicans 
who delight in nothing so much as the dearest blood of their 
country ? Will the cries of your despairing, dying brethren 
be music pleasing to your ears ? If so, go on ! bend the 
knee to your master horseleach, and beg a share in the pil- 
lage of your country. No, you'll say, 1 doiil dilight in Ihe 
ruin of my country, but since 'tis decreed she must fall, loho 
can blame me for taking a part in the plunder ' Tenderly 
said! why did you not rather say. If my father must die, who 
can accuse me as defective in filial duty in becoming his exe- 
cutioner, that so much of the estate, at least, as goes to the 
hangman may be retained in the family ? 

Never pretend, whoever you are that freely undertake 
to put in execution a law prejudicial to your country, that 
you have the least spark of affection for her. Rather own 
you would gladly see her in flames, if you might be al- 
lowed to pillage with impunity. But had you not rather 
these duties should be collected by your brethren than by 
foreigners ' No! vile miscreant! Indeed we had not. That 
same rapacious and base spirit which prompted you to 
undertake the ignominious task will urge you on to every 
cruel and oppressive measure. Vou will serve to put us 
continually in mind of our abject condition. A foreigner 
we could more cheerfully endure, because he might be sup- 
posed not to feel our distresses; but for one of our Fellow- 
Slaves, who equally shares in our pains, to rise up and beg 
the favor of inflicting them, is intolerable. The only ad- 
vantage that can be hoped for from this is that it will rouse 
the most indolent of us to a sense of our slavery and make 
us use our strongest efforts to be free. Some, I hope there 
are, notwithstanding your base defection, that feel the pat- 
riotic flame glowing in their bosoms, and would esteem it 
glorious to die for their country. From such as these you 
are to expect perpetual opposition. There are men whose 
existence and importance does not depend on gold. When, 
therefore, you have pillaged from their estates they will still 
live and blast your wicked designs by all lauful means. 
You are to look for nothing but the hatred and detestation of 
all the good and virtuous. And as you live on the distresses, 
you will inherit the curses of widows and orphans. The 
present generation will treat you as the authors of their 
misery, and posterity will pursue your memory with the 
most terrible imprecations. Cato. 

We subjoin to the above notice of the first news- 
paper in New Haven, a list of newspapers and other 
periodicals copied from Barber's " History and 
Antiquities of New Haven," page i66. It is said 
to have been prepared by Mr. Edward C. Herrick, 
Librarian of Yale College. 

The Connecticut Gazette. Printed by James Parker 

28 



& Co. Begun in April, 1755; suspended April 
14, 1764; revived ]uly 5, 1765, by Benjamin 
Mecom; and ended "with No. 596, February 19, 
1768. 

The Connecticut Journal and Nerv Haven Post 
Boy. Begun October 23, 1767, by Thomas & 
Samuel Green. It passed through the hands of 
manv publishers and ended with No. 3,517. April 
7. 1835. 

The New Haven Gazette. By Meigs, Bo wen & 
Dana. Begun May 13, 1784; ended February 9, 
1786. Weekly. 

The ^\1V Haven Gazette and the Connecticut Mag- ^ 
asine. By Meigs & Dana. Begun February 16, ^^ 
1 786. Weekly. 

American Musical Magazine. Monthly, 4to. 
Published by Amos Doolitlle and Daniel Read. 
Ten numbers. About 17S8. 

77/4? Neiv Haven Gazette. Begun January 5, 1790; / 
ended June 29, 1791. Weekly. 

Federal Gazeteer. Begun in February, 1796; 
ended August 9, 1802. Weekly. 

The Messenger. Begun January i, 1800; ended 
August 9, 1802. Weekly. 

The Sun of Libertw Begun in 1800. 

The Visitor. Begun October 30, 1802; and be- 
came the Connecticut Post and Neiv Haven Visitor, 
November 3, 1803. Supposed to have ended No- 
vember 8, 1804, Weekly. 

The Churchman's Monthly Magazine. Begun Jan- 
uary, 1804. Four volumes published. 

Comiecticut Herald. Begun 1804 by Comstock, 
Griswold & Co. Weekly. 

The Literary Cabinet. Begun November 15, 1806; 
ended October 31, 1807. Edited by members of 
the senior class in Yale College, 

Belles Lettres Repository. Edited and published 
by Samuel Wadsworth. Begun and ended in 1808. 

Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and 
Sciences. Begun 1810; ended 181 3. 

Columbian Register. Begun December i, 1812. 
Weekly. 

The Atheneum. Begun February 12, 18 14; ended 
August 6, 1 814. Edited by students of Yale Col- 
lege. 

" Religious Intelligencer. Begun June i, 1816. 

The Guardian.'^ Commenced 18 18; ended De- 
cember, 1828. Monthly. 

The Christian Spectator. Begun January, 1819; 
ended in this form 1829; but continued as a quar- 
terly. Monthly. 

The American Journal of Science and Arts. Con- 
ducted by Benjaiiiin Sillinian. Begun in 1818. 

The Microscope. Edited by a Fraternity of Gen- 
tlemen. Begun March 21, 1820; ended Septem- 
ber 8, 1820. Semi-weekly. 

The National Pilot. Begun October, 1 821; ended 
in 1824. 

United States Law Journal and Civilian's Mag- 
azine. Begun June, 1822; ended 1823. Quarterly. 

American Eagle. Begun 1826. 

Neiv Haven Chronicle. Begun February, 1827; 
ended about June, 1832. 

Neiv Haven Advertiser. Begun May i, 1829; 
ended October 20, 1832. Semi-weekly. 



218 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



Neiv Haven Palladium. Begun November 7, 
1829. Weekly. 

The Si/ting-Rnom. Edited by members of Yale 
College. 1830. 

N(iv Haven City Gazette. Begun April i, 1830; 
ended May 7, 1831. Weekly. 

The Miscellany. Begun November 12, 1830. 
Semi-monlhly. 

Th^ Student's Companion. By the Knights of the 
Round Table. Begun January, 1831; ended May, 
1 83 1. Monthly. 

The Little Gentleman. Begun January i, 1831; 
ended April 29, 183 1. 

National Republican. Begun June 26, 1 831; 
ended March, 1832. 

7X6- Boys' Saturday Journal. Begun December 
3, 1 831; ended February 18, 1832. 

The Literary Tablet. Begun March 3, 1832; 
ended March 29, 1834. Semi-monthly. 

The Sabbath-School Record. Begun January, 
1832; ended December, 1833. Monthly. 

The Child's Cabinet. Begun April, 1832. Monthly. 

Daily Herald. Begun November 26, 1832 

Wa'tchto-wer of Freedom. Begun October 20, 
1832. 

Morninq Register. Begun November, 1833. 
Daily. 

Morning Palladium. Begun November 15, 1833. 
Daily, and thrice a week. 

The Medley. Conducted by an association of the 
students of Yale College. Begun in March and 
ended in June, 1833. 

Journal of Freedom. Begun in May, 1834; end- 
ed about May, 1835. Weekly. 

Jeffersonian Democrat. Begun June 7, 1834, 
and continued about six weeks. Weekly. 

The Microcosm; or, the Little World of Home. 
Begun July, 1834. Monthl}-. 

Tfie Perfectionist. Begun August 20, 1834; 
ended March 15, 1836. The last four numbers 
bore the title of The New Covenant Record. 
Monthly. 

Literary Emporium. Begun June 16, 1835. 

Religious Intelligencer and Neiv Haven Journal. 
Begun January 2, 1836. 

The American Historical Magazine and Lilerarv 
Record. Begun January, 1836. Monthly. 

Yale Literary Magazine. Conducted by the 
students of Yale College. Begun February, 1836. 

Chronicle of the Church. Begun January 6, 

1837- 

The above catalogue is probably nearly complete 
from the time of the Connecticut Gazette to the 
year 1837. The Neiv Havener, however, was in 
existence in 1837. It would be difficult, perhaps 
impossible, to fill the gap between 1837 and 1884 
with the names of newspapers which between those 
dates were born to die. A bound volume in the 
college library contains the numbers of a tri-weekly 
called The A'eiv Haven Democrat. It was com- 
menced in April, 1845, and was continued to 
April, 1847, when its publication came to an end, 
for the reason that so many subscribers failed to 
pay. 

Not attempting to furnish a complete list of 



periodicals that have been begun, we mention 
some whose names have been communicated by 
Mr. Henry Peck, a gentleman long connected with 
the periodical press of New Haven. 

Loomis's Musical and Alasonic Journal ; The 
Home World; The Sea World and Packer's Journal; 
The Educator, changed to Home Cheer, now ex- 
tinct; The Shore Line Times. Four of these are 
still extant. 

The following are extinct: A^utmeg Gratings; 
The Daily Lever, started by R. W. Wright and 
Edwin A. Tucker. (Its name was changed more 
than once, and was at one time The Elm City 
Press.) The Outsider was a little sheet originated 
by the late Frederick Croswell. The Observer, a 
weekly, and for a short time a daily, was the en- 
terprise of Principal Loomis of the public schools. 
The Sunday Times was started by Henry W. Vail, 
but did not long survive. Very many College peri- 
odicals — too many to be catalogued — were also 
begun during the last half-century. 

We now pass on to present some selections from 
the paper which followed next after the Connecticut 
Gazette, viz.. The Connecticut Journal and Nnv Ha- 
ven Post Boy. The latter part of this title was 
omitted about the time when our first extract is 
dated. The Journal was started by Thomas & 
Samuel Green, October 23, 1767, about four 
months before the publication of the Gazette 
ceased. The name of Thomas Green will be rec- 
ognized as the youngest partner in the firm of 
James Parker & Co. Our extracts are from num- 
bers printed before the expiration of the eighteenth 
century. 

The first number contains this announcement: 

Friday, October 23, 1767. 
To Ihc inhabitants of the Colony of Connecticut, especially 
in the town of New Haven: 

Jlfy Respected Friends, 

The kind treatment I have received during a residence of 
seven or eight years in this place has particularly endeared 
it to me. And though I was induced, from the prospect of 
affairs two or three years ago, to change my situation, which 
I did with reluctance, it was with singular pleasure and 
gratitude that I have received repeated solicitations and en- 
couragement to return to a beloved acquaintance and neigh- 
borhood; the separation from which my heart has often felt 
with sincere regret. Thomas Green. 



Friday, January 6, 1769. 
The Senior Class in Yale College have unanimously 
agreed to make their appearance at the next public com- 
mencement, when they are to take their first degree, wholly 
dressed in the manuf.actures of our own country; and de- 
sire this public notice may be given of their resolution, that 
so their parents and friends may have sufficient lime to be 
providing homespun clothes for them, that none of them 
may be obliged to the hard necessity of unfashionable sin- 
gularity by wearing imported cloth. 



September I, 1769. 
To lie sold by the subscriber, of East Haven, a likely Ne- 
gro Wench, aged about 23 years, strong and healthy, and 
well skilled in all business suitable for a wench. As also a 
Negro Girl betw een two and three years of age. 

Nicholas Street. 



THE PERIODICAL PRESS. 



219 



October l8, 1771. 
STAGE COACH. 

The subscriber, having at great expense furnished himself 
with an elegant and convenient Stage Coach and four horses, 
proposes for a low and moderate price, upon suitable en- 
couragement, to drive between Hartford and New Haven 
once in each week, and to return to Hartford the day after 
becomes down to New Haven; and as it may greatly tend 
to increase the intercourse between the two towns of Hart- 
ford and New Haven and (if another coach should proceed 
from Hartford to Boston, as is probable will be the case if 
that takes place) encourage gentlemen from the Southern 
Provinces traveling to Boston to pass through this colony, 
who now generally go by watt^r from New York to Prov- 
idence. ' And as he must, for a long time at least, be 
money out of pocket and risk imposing on himself consider- 
able loss, he humbly desires all gentlemen disposed to 
countenance the undertaking to leave their names at the 
Post Office in New Haven, adding such sum for him as 
their generosity shall dictate. If any gentlemen are dis- 
posed to share with him the loss or gain of the undertaking, 
he is ready to admit them into partnership. 

Nicholas Brown. 



June 26, 1772. 
The public are hereby notified that the Hartford stage 
Coach will be in New Haven on Thursday evening, the gth 
of July next, on its way to New York, when any gentle- 
men or ladies that may want a conveyance there, or to any 
place on the road between this town and that city, may be 
accommodated in said coach by their humble servant, 

J. Brown. 
N. B. — The coach stops at Mr. Beers' Tavern. 



March I, 1775. 
Wanted to purchase, sixty muskets and bayonets, as soon 
as they can be made in this colony. Any person who will 
engage for part or the whole will meet with proper encourage- 
ment by applying to Benedict Arnold. 



New Haven, March i, 1775. 

Yesterday the ladies belonging to Fair Haven Parish in 
this town met at the Rev. Allyn Mather's, and presented 
Mrs. Mather with 109 skeins of well-spun linen. And after 
having drunk tea as usual upon such occasion, they unani- 
mously came into this resolution (as recommended in the 
Third Article of the Association of the Continental Con- 
gress), that they would drink no more of that pernicious 
weed till the late oppressive acts of the British Parliament 

are dissolved. 

New Haven, April 12, 1775. 

We are informed from the parish of East Haven that last 
week the women of that parish, in imitation of the generous 
and laudable example of the societies in the town of New 
Haven, presented the Rev. Mr. Street, of said parish, with 
upwards of one hundred and thirty run of well-spun linen 
yarn, which was gratefully received by the family; and the 
generous guests, after some refreshment and taking a few 
dishes of coffee, agreeable to the plan of the Continental 
Congress, to which that society unanimously and fixedly 
adheres, dispersed with a cheerfulness that bespoke that 
they could be well pleased without a sip from that baneful 
and exotic herb (tea), which ought not to be so much as 
once more named among the friends of American Liberty. 



New Haven, April 26, 1775. 
As the alarming situation of affairs is such as to gain the 
most anxious attention of the public, who are desirous to 
have the freshest intelligence, we intend to publish this 
paper twice a week. The next paper will be published on 
Saturday next. 



New Haven, May 10, 1775. 
The subscriber informs the public that he has entered 
into the business of making bayonets oT any size, and will 
warrant them to be equal in goodness to any ever imported 
into this country. Any gentleman may be supplied with a 
bayonet fitted to his gun on the shortest notice; and all 
favors will be gratefully acknowledged by their humble 
servant, Samuel Huggins. 



New Haven, December 6, 1775. 
Last evening the Lady of his Excellency, General Wash- 
ington, and the Lady of Adjutant-General Gales, arrived in 
town from Virginia, being on their way to Cambridge. 

New Haven, April 17, 1776. 
Thursday morning last, came to town from Boston, via 
New London, his Excellency General Washington, accom- 
panied by Adjutant-General Gates and some other officers, 
who, after tarrying in town a few hours, set oft" for New 
York. And last Saturday evening, came to town from the 
same place, via Hartford, the Lady of his Excellency, and 
the next morning she set off for New York. 

Francis Vandale, from Old France, intends to open a 
Dancing School in this town, and also teach the French 
Language on very reasonable terms. As he gave entire 
satisfaction to his pupils, of both sexes, at Cambridge, 
Boston and Newport (Rhode Island) in these necessary arts, 
he will acquit himself of his duty in the same manner. He 
is a Protestant, and provided with good certificates. For 
further particulars, inquire at Mr. Gould Sherman's, where 
he lives, in New Haven. 

Decemlier 13, 1775. 



We are very sorry that we cannot procure a sufficiency of 
paper to publish a whole sheet; but as there is now a paper- 
mill erecting in this town, we expect, after a few weeks, to 
be supplied with such a quantity as to publish the journal 
regularly, on a uniform-sized paper, and to be able to make 
ample amends for past deficiencies. 

July 3, 1776. 



To whom it may concern. 

An express having arrived in this town, on Monday even- 
ing last, from GeneralWashington, on his way to Providence, 
with despatches to Governor Cook and General Spencer; 
and being in great want of a horse to proceed, application 
was made to a Justice of Peace for a warrant to impress 
one, which he absolutely refused granting. 

New Haven, 8th April, 1777. 

N.B. — The printers are at liberty to mention the author's 
name whenever the Justice pleases to call upon them; like- 
wise the names of the persons ready to testify to the above 
charge. 



September 10, 1 777. 
The printers of the Connecticut Journal are very 
sorry to inform their customers that the necessity of the 
times obliges them to advance its price to twelve shillings a 
year. Those who have paid in advance will have their 
papers continued to the time they paid for, at the old price; 
and those who pay in country produce or manufactures at 
their old prices, may be supplied with the papers as hereto- 
fore. The Printers. 

February 18, 1778. 
The price of this paper till further notice will be at the 
rate of eighteen shillings per annum. 

Any gentlemen, farmers or others, that have any juice 
extracted from corn-stalks, which they are desirous of hav- 
ing distilled into rum, are hereby notified that the sub- 
scribers, distillers in the town of New Haven, will distill the 
same on shares, or otherwise as they can agree. And tfiose 
who will please to favor them with their employ, may de- 
pend on having the strictest justice done them and their liquor 
distilled to the fullest proof. Or any person that would 
rather dispose of said juice of corn-stalks, on delivering it 
at the distillery, will receive the market price; and every 
favor will be most gratefully acknowledged by the public's 
very obedient servants. 

September 24, 1777. Jacobs & Israel. 

N.B. — Private families may have cider distilled for their 
own use by Jacobs & Israel. 

New Haven, May 6, 1778. 
Monday last came to town, Major-General Benedict 
Arnold. He was met on the road by, several Continental 
and Militia Officers, the Cadet company and a number of re- 



220 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



spectable inhabitants from this place, to testify their esteem 
for one who has by his bravery rendered his country many 
important services. On his arrival in town he was saluted 
by a discharge of thirteen cannon. 

New Haven, July 15th, 1778. 

On Wednesday, the 8th inst., the Rev. Ezra Stiles, D.D., 
was inducted and inaugurated into the presidency of Vale 
College, m this town. 

The formalities of this installation were conducted in the 
following manner: 

At half after ten in the forenoon, the students were 
assembled into the Chapel, whence the procession was 
formed, consisting of the Undergraduates and Bachelors. 
At the tolling of the bell they moved forward to the Presi- 
dent's house to receive and escort the Rev. Corporation and 
President elect, by whom being joined, the procession re- 
turned to the Chapel in the following order: 

The four classes ot Undergraduates, consisting of 

1 16 students, present. 

Bachelors of Arts. 

The Beadle and Butler, 

carrying 

The College Charter, J<ecords, Key and Seal. 

The Senior Presiding Fellow. 

One of the Hon. Council, and the President-Elect. 

The Reverend Corporation. 

The Professors of Divinity and Natural Philosophy. 

The Tutors. 

The Reverend Ministers. 

Masters of Art. 
Respectable Gentlemen. 
The Rev. Eliphalet Williams, Senior and Presiding 
Fellow, began the solemnity with prayer. The oath of 
fidelity to this State was then administered to the President- 
elect by the Hon. Jabez Hamlin, Esq., one of the Council 
of the State; which being done, the President-elect publicly 
gave his assent to the Ecclesiastical Constitution of this 
Government, and thereupon the Presiding Fellow delivered 
a Lalin oration well adapted to the occasion; in which he 
committed the care, instruction, and government of the 
college to the President-elect, and in the name and by the 
authority of the Rev. Corporation, constituted him President 
of Yale College in Neio Haven, auit Professor 0/ Ecclesiastical 
History, and delivered to him the charter, records, key and 
seal of the college. The President being seated in the chair. 
Sir Dana, one of the Senior Bachelors, addressed him in the 
Auditory, in a beautiful Latin oration, delivered in a graceful 
manner. Then the President arose and politely addressed 
the andience in an elegant, learned and animated oration in 
Latm, upon the Cychpadia or general system of universal 
literature; which for the teauty of classical diction, elevation 
of thought, and importance to the cause of learning in 
general, was worthy its author. After which an anthem, 
the 122nd Psalm set to music, was sung by the students; and 
the President closed the solemnity with a blessing. 

The Rev. Corporation, Ofticers of institution. Ministers, 
and other respectable gentlemen, after a short recess in 
the Library, dmed together in the College Hall; an enter- 
tainment having been provided for the occasion. 



All gentlemen volunteers who are desirous of making their 
fortune in eight weeks' time, are hereby informed that the 
fine new privateer called the New Broome, mounting sixteen 
sixes and four pounders, besides swivels, Israel Bishop, com- 
mander, is now completely fitted for an eight weeks' cruise 
near Sandy Hook and in the Sound, where she will be under 
the protection of his Most Christian Majesty's fleet, and will 
have the tM:st chance there has been this war of taking 
prizes; she only waits for a few more men and then will 
immediately sail on her cruise. All those who are desirous 
of entering for the cruise are requested to apply soon on 
board said lirig, now lying in Connecticut River, or on Iward 
her in New London harbor, where she will be on the first of 
August. 

Wethersfieli), July 25, 177S. 



New Haven, November 18, 1788. 
The privateer New Broome, from Connecticut River, 
commanded by Israel Bishop of this town, is taken and car- 



ried into New York. We are told that several of her crew 
were prisoners on board the Somerset man of-war, lately 
stranded on Cape Cod. 



Yale College, January 29, 1779. 
The students of Vale College are hereby notified that the 
present winter vacation is e.\tended a fortnight from the 4lh 
of next month. As this is occasioned by the difficulty which 
the steward finds in procuring flour or bread, it is earnestly 
requested of the parents that they would assist in furnishing 
the necessary supplies. Ezra Stiles, President. 



New Haven, May 9, 1779. 
Wanted to purchase immediately. — Two negro or mulatto 
boys, or men, from 14 to 24 years of age. Also wanted, a 
second-hand Sulkey. Inquire of the printers, 

New Haven, August 18, 1779. 
Yesterday a Cartel Ship sailed from this port with a num- 
ber of prisoners, to be exchanged for those who were taken 
by the enemy from this town, and by them considered as 
prisoners of war. 



The Steward of Yale College wants to purchase a quan- 
tity of butter and cheese, for which he will pay the best 
kind of Rock Salt, Molasses, Continental or State's Money, 
or part in hard money. 

November 2, 1780. 



We, the subscribers, being, by the Court of Probate for 
the District of New Haven, Conn., appointed Commission- 
ers to receive and examine the claims of the several creditors 
of Benedict Arnold, late of New Haven, in New Haven 
County, now joined with the enemies of the United States 
of America, whose estate hath been in due form of law con- 
fiscated, give notice to all concerned, that we shall attend to 
the business of our said appointment at the dwelling-house 
of Pierpont Edwards, Esq.. in said New Haven, on the 
second Monday of December next, at 2 o'clock in the after- 
noon; on the second Monday of January next, at the same 
time of day; and on the third Monday of February next, 
also at the same time of day. Isaac Jones, 

Michael Todd, 

Commissioners. 

New Haven, November 29, 1781. 
All persons who were indebted to the said Arnold at the 
time he joined said enemies, are requested by the subscriber, 
who is by said Court of Probate appointed Administrator on 
said Arnold's estate that was the property of said Arnold at 
the time he joined as aforesaid, are requested to deliver the 
same to the subscriber, or account with him therefor. 

Pierpont Edwards. 
New Haven, November 29, 1781. 

New Haven, February 16, 1791. 
Number of inhabitants in New Haven, 4,510; of whom 
3,471 are within the limits of the city. The number of fam- 
ilies, 860; of which 665 within the city. In the town and 
city are 129 free negroes and 78 slaves included in the above. 



New Haven, December 21, 1791. 
A Xmas ox will be distributed on Saturday next, and Ihe 
needy are requested to apply. William Hillhouse. 

New Haven, January 28, 1796. 

The Roman Catholics of Connecticut are informed that 
a Priest is now in New Haven, where he will reside for some 
time. Those who wish to make use of his ministry will find 
him by inquiring at Mr. Azel Kimberly's, Chapel street. 

The printers of this State are desired to insert this adver- 
tisement: 

Les Francois sont avertisqu'il y a un Preire Catholiqueen 
ville On le demandera chez Monsieur Kimberly, Rue de 
la Chapclle, New Haven. 



THE PERIODICAL PRESS. 



221 



We now take leave of these periodicals of the 
olden time to enumerate those of the present day. 

There are in New Haven, five dailies, viz. : The 
Journal and Courier ; The Evening Register; The 
Daily Palladium; The Daily Union; and The Morn- 
ing Neics. 

The history of The Journal and Courier extends 
back to October 23, 1767, when The Connecticul 
Journal and Neiv Haven Post Boy was begun by 
Thomas and Samuel Green. The latter part of 
the title was omitted in 1775, and the paper was pub- 
lished as the Ciinneclicul Journal till 1799, when 
for a few months Weekly Advertiser was added to 
the title. Afterward for a few months in 1809 the 
word Advertiser was again added. From this 
newspaper we have given above copious extracts 
illustrative of the history of New Haven. After 
passing through many changes of ownership, it be- 
came the property of Woodward & Carrington, 
who were already proprietors of The Connecticut 
Herald, a weekly, commenced by Comstock, 
Griswold & Co. in 1804. Thomas Green Wood- 
ward had long been connected with the Herald, 
and while its sole proprietor he started The Daily 
Herald, November 26, 1832. John B. Carrington, 
who had learned the printer's art in the office of 
Mr. Woodward, was received into partnership with 
him January i, 1835. It was not long after the 
formation of this partnership that the subscription 
list and the name of the Journal passed into the 
hands of this firm. In 1846 the name of the 
Journal was attached to their daily issue. Mr. 
William T. Bacon came into the firm in 1846, 
Mr. Woodward being now deceased, and edited 
The Morning Journal and Courier till 1849. The 
name had its origin partly in the Connecticut Journal 
first published in 1767 and partly in the Morning 
Courier, a paper originated by Winthrop Atwell, a 
few years before, and now purchased by the pro- 
prietors of the y<«//vw/ and Herald. Mr. John B. 
Hotchkiss was the successor of Mr. Bacon, and 
until his death the firm bore the name Carrington 
& Hotchkiss. By the death of Mr. Carrington, 
February 11, 1881, the paper passed into the 
management of his sons, l\Ir. John B. Carrington, 
Jun., and Mr. Edward Carrington. The younger 
of the two sons dying soon after the decease of his 
father, \.\\& Journal and Courier came into the hands 
of Mr. John B. Carrington, the present manager 
and chief proprietor. It has always been conserv- 
ative in tone and has aimed to be the family paper 
of the city. It has given a steady and consistent 
support to the principles of the Republican party, 
but is not illiberal or unduly partisan. Its present 
editor is William G. Pratt. 

Besides the daily, a weekly is issued, bearing 
the name. The Connecticut Herald, which it has 
borne since 1804; to which Weekly Journal m now 
added. 

JOHN B. CARRINGTON. 

The local history of New Haven for half a cen- 
tury brings prominently into view no single name 
of greater influence in the wealth and prosperity of 



the city than that of John B. Carrington. He was 
born in the village of Bethany, in ihis State, in 1 8 1 1 , 
and at the lime of his death was in the seventieth 
year of his age. In youth he was studiously in- 
clined, and it was expected that he would enter the 
profession of the ministry; but, being of an active 
temperament, he left his home in 1824 and came to 
New Haven, where, with the exception of a shoit 
period, his useful life was spent. PZntered as an 
apprentice in the newspaper oflice managed by 
Thomas G. Woodward, one of the ablest Whig 
editors of New England, he served his full time in 
the mechanical department of the business, finding 
time however to write for publication various 
articles on the topics of the day. His long and 
honorable connection with the Press may be dated 
from this happy choice of a career which was 
eminently successful in a moral as well as pecuni- 
ary sense. 

While a young man Mr. Carrington spent about 
two years in Macon, Georgia, engaged in a news- 
paper enterprise, but liking his New Haven asso- 
ciations better, he returned to this city, and, in con- 
nection with Mr. Woodward, commenced publish- 
ing the Daily Herald, the first daily newspaper in 
Connecticut. He was the sole publisher in 1845. 
No newspaper enterprise ever had more difficulties 
to overcome than the Journal and Courier, the 
outgrowth of the Herald, at particular seasons of 
competition and general depression in business, and 
it was owing to the personal popularity of Mr. Car- 
rington, and to his energy and foresight, that it is 
to-day more firmly established than any of the four 
principal cotemporary daily papers. 

In 1849 a partnership was formed by Mr. Car- 
rington and John B. Hotchkiss, who published the 
Journal and Courier. The partnership ceased by 
the retirement of Mr. Hotchkiss, when a company 
was formed, with John B. Carrington as manager 
and the largest owner; and Abner L. Train; Presi- 
dent E. C. Scranton, of the New York and New 
Haven Railroad; Hon. N. D. Sperry, formerly 
Secretary of the State of Connecticut and post- 
master at New Haven for twenty-five years ; Hon. 
William W. Boardman, an ex-congressman ; and 
the late Morris Tyler, as stockholders. In 1875 
Mr. Carrington purchased the interest of all the 
other owners and admitted his two sons — Edward 
T. and John B. Carrington, Jr. — into partnership. 
By the death of the eldest son further change be- 
came necessary, and the paper is now published by 
a company, of which John B. Carrington. son of 
the subject of this sketch, is the president and 
treasurer. 

Fifty years ago the acrimony engendered by 
political differences was reflected in the organs of 
party, and too often the editorial article was simply 
an instrument favoring personal discord. Mr. 
Carrington introduced into New Haven journalism 
a spirit of forbearance and courtesy toward men 
and newspapers of differing political faith or ad- 
verse views in all measures of public interest. 
The personal affability of Mr. Carrington, his con- 
siderate treatment of all agitating matters, and his 
fair presentation of all sides of a question in dispute 



222 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



made the Journal and Courier acceptable in the 
homes of different classes of people. He recog- 
nized that while "all men have their foibles " it 
was no part of a high-minded newspaper to expose 
them, except in the extreme necessity of some great 
public good. His editorial letters while in Europe 
in 1871 and 1872, were characterized by a rare 
blending of polished diction and an agreeable 
faculty of telling in a straightforward manner all 
those things which came 'under his trained obser- 
vation. 

In politics, from being a supporter of Henry 
Clay, he became a member of the American party 
which succumbed under the assaults first made by 
William II. Seward, and from that time he was a 
Republican. In 1849 and for some years he pub- 
lished the Xeiv Englamkr, then edited by Theo- 
dore D. Woolsey, of Yale College, and Rev. Leon- 
ard Bacon, having some interest in that publication 
as late as 1856. 

Editor, manager and publisher of one of the 
most successful and respected journals in Con- 
necticut, Mr. Carrington, who had acquired more 
than a competence invested, in 1848, in the manu- 
facture of malleable iron, being among the first to 
see the value of this material. When the war broke 
out, Xhn Journal and Courier was constant and un- 
flinching in its vigorous support of the Government, 
and its editorials, written without passion, were 
permeated with loyalty to the American union. 
There was hardly an enterprise started in New 
Haven, either a few years before or after the war, 
that Mr. Carrington was not asked to assist with 
his money and advice. He was never afraid of a 
business project because of its novelty or in the 
hands of young, rather than older and more ex- 
perienced business men. He was a member of the 
Bigelow Manufacturing Company, and a director 
of the first horse railroad company in the city and 
State; of the New Haven County National Bank, 
the Grilley Screw Company, the Mansfield Elastic 
Frog Company, the New Haven Gas-Light and 
Water Companies, the New Haven Palladium, and 
other companies. There were many instances when 
he lent his money to promote some business afiFair 
in which he had no other interest than its success. 

Mr. Carrington made the most use of the pleas- 
ant things ol life consistent with temperance and 
good principle. He was always fond of travel and 
of seeing nature in every aspect. From Europe, 
the West Indies and Utah, his letters to his news- 
paper were filled with the best spirit of journalistic 
correspondence, and in the city of his adoption he 
was ever alert and .sympathetic in every public 
improvement. 

The C^arrington homestead on Elm street, one of 
those fine old-fashioned houses, such as suggest 
the New England thanksgiving, has been for years 
the home of elegant refinment and true hospitality. 
Mr. Carrington was a member of the Society's com- 
mittee of the First Congregational Church. At 
the time of his death the city newspapers united in 
paying honors to his memory, printing many trib- 
utes to his good qualities as a citizen, neighbor 
and friend. 



He was married in 1838 to Miss Harriet Hayes 
Trowbridge. Eight children were born to them. 
The wife did not long survive her husband and 
there have seldom been married lives more united 
in affection than theirs. 

The publication of The Columbian Register was 
begun December i, 181 2, by Joseph Barber, and 
until now it has been issued without interruption. 
The history of New England, and particularly of 
Connecticut, during more than seventy years, has 
been told in its successive numbers, and the in- 
fluence it has exerted is beyond computation. Mr. 
Barber was an earnest Democrat, and a strong sup- 
porter of the course of President Jackson, during 
the troubles of the old United States Bank, which 
led to a removal of the Government deposits from 
this institution. The Register was started for the 
purpose of giving the earliest and most reliable 
news regarding the proceedings of Congress and 
the course of events in the Old World. It also 
gave attention to matters affecting the interest of 
the city and the commonwealth where it was pub- 
lished. In its columns were freely discussed 
whatever subjects were at the time of public inter- 
est or importance. Those were days when obedi- 
ence to constituted authority partook largely of 
subservience to the dominating class of citizens, and 
liberty in political discussion was oftentimes con- 
strued as a sort of impiety. New Haven was a 
village of less than 7,000 inhabitants, the local 
government being generally in the hands of Con- 
gregationalists. In 18 18 the Democratic party 
secured an ascendancy in the State and the adop- 
tion of a new constitution. 

The Register was then printed at the rate of 
250 sheets an hour, the ink being applied to the 
types by means of cushions or balls manipulated 
by boys. There were two other papers in the 
city — The Connecticut Herald and The Connecticut 
Journal — both devoted to the policy of the Fede- 
ralists. 

In 1817 the paper was published on Church 
street, below Chapel street. In 1826 it was re- 
moved to Chapel, below Orange. In 1884 a 
large brick building was erected in Crown street, 
where the Register is provided with every con- 
venience and is permanently located. 

Minott A. Osborn, who entered into the service 
of the Register in youth, had written many articles 
for its columns while in subordinate positions, and 
in accordance with the wish of leading men in the 
city, became a partner with Mr. Barber in 1834, 
and so continued till 1838, when Mr. Barber dis- 
posed of his interest, Mr. Osborn becoming the 
sole editor. He had for a partner the late William 
B. Baldwin, who supervised the mechanical de- 
partment. In 1842 the Register was firmly estab- 
lished in a large daily and semi-weekly edition, 
its weekly edition reaching every town in the 
western part of the State. The first stenographic 
reports were published in 1840, and in 1848 news 
was received by telegraph from the large cities. 

The firm of Osborn & Baldwin was dissolved in 
1866, Mr. Osborn and one of his sons thenceforth 



THE PERIODICAL PRESS. 



223 



managing the business. After the death of Minott 
A. Osborn, in 1877, the paper was conducted by 
two of his sons, one of whom, Colonel Norris G. 
Osborn, is the present editor, and has been for 
some time in entire charge. Daily, weekly, and 
.Sunday editions are published, the latter having a 
large circulation in many other States besides Con- 
necticut. 

MINOTT AUGUR OSBORN. 

The editor of an influential newspaper occupies 
in these days a position comparable only to that 
formerly held by the village parson. Daily the 
editor mounts his pulpit; every day the worship- 
ers assemble to hear him. To the public, which 
grows up around him, he becomes in politics a 
teacher and an oracle; in society a mentor; in re- 
ligion a critic; in business matters an indispensable 
assistant and adviser. If, in addition to all this, he 
, is gifted with graces of body and of mind, which 
i fit him to become a genial comrade, a sympathetic 
counselor, esteemed by the community, beloved 
in his home — his character is such as New Haven 
knew and delighted to honor in the person of Mi- 
nott Augur Osborn, for forty-three years an editor 
of the Neiv Haven Register. 

He was born in this city, April 21, 18 11, in a 
house in Cherry (now Wooster) street, near the 
corner of Union street. His father, Eli Osborn, 
was a merchant tailor, whose place of business was 
on State street, near the store now occupied by E. 
G. Stoddard. His family had been identified with 
the fortunes of the New Haven settlement from the 
beginning. During all the years of Mr. Osborn's 
life, he was rarely away from his native city for 
more than a week at a time, and he ever rejoiced 
to return to it rather than to leave it. He was un- 
able to obtain more than the ordinary advantages 
j of education, and at the age of fourteen quitted 
Mr. John E. Lovell's famous Lancasterian School, 
in order to learn the art of printing. For this 
purpose he entered the office of the Columbian 
Weekly Register, which was owned and edited by 
his uncle, Joseph Barber. At the type-setter's case 
his receptive mind developed rapidly, and his fit- 
ness to do better, higher work was speedily recog- 
nized by his uncle, who admitted him to full 
partnership in 1834. The infusion of young blood 
and quick wit into the editorial columns of the 
Register, gave new life to the paper. Bright, 
sharp paragraphs began to attract wide attention, 
and gave rise to many apolitical tilt. Mr. Osborn's 
lance was keen, and his thrust severe, but he ever 
tried to heal the wounds that he had made, by a 
generous touch of kindly humor. 

In the course of lime, some differences of polit- 
ical opinion sprang up between Mr. Barber, who 
was a staunch old-school Jeff"ersonian, and the 
nephew, who was a zealous adherent of President 
Jackson. The disagreement culminated in the 
winter of 1837-38, over the Sub-Treasury scheme, 
which Mr. Barber opposed, but which Mr. Osborn 
as strongly favored. The senior editor found that 
the majority of his party in this neighborhood was 
opposed to him and sided with Mr. Osborn. Fi- 



nally the latter proposed that one or the other should 
retire from the paper. Mr. Barber thereupon de- 
termined to withdraw, and, about the ist of 
January, 1838, Mr. Osborn and Mr. W. B. Bald- 
win, under the firm name of Osborn A: Baldwin, 
succeeded to the control of the paper. Mr. Barber 
published a sort of farewell address on Saturday, 
December 30, 1837, in which he introduced his 
successors as follows: 

"The young men named above are well quali- 
fied for the responsible position which they have 
assumed — so much so, that if the whole printing 
fraternity of the country had been presented to us 
from which to make the selections of our succes- 
sors, we should have named the two who have 
purchased the establishment. " 

Osborn & Baldwin conducted the Register for 
twenty-eight years with unvarying success. The 
Register nailed its colors to the masthead, and, 
if it was strongly partisan, was always frankly and 
honestly so. It grew with the city. The weekly 
was supplemented by a tri-weekly edition, and 
finally a daily evening paper was issued. The 
subscription list increased, and the enterprise yield- 
ed a handsome income to its proprietors. 

In 1866 Mr. Baldwin retired. Mr. Osborn as- 
sociated with him his eldest son, and the business 
was continued under the firm name of M. A. Os- 
born & Co. But in 1875 'he company was trans- 
formed into a joint-stock corporation, bearing the 
name of "The Register Publishing Co.," and such 
it still remains. 

When a young man, Mr. Osborn was a popular 
member of the New Haven Grays, and he was a 
non-commissioned officer of that company when 
he was elected Major of the 2d Regiment, at the 
same time that Gardner Morse was chosen Colonel. 
He served in the militia for about two years, and 
thus obtained that military title by which he was 
popularly known throughout the State. 

In the councils of the Democratic party in State 
and nation, Mr. Osborn held naturally a promi- 
nent place. He did not desire office for himself, 
preferring to support the candidature of other good 
men rather than to join personally in the race for 
office. He was once a member of the Common 
Council; was Collector of the Port of New Haven 
under Presidents Pierce and Buchanan; was ap- 
pointed Railroad Commissioner by Governor Inger- 
soll, and Road Commissioner of this city by 
Mayor Lewis. He was among the first to advocate 
the introduction of water into the city, and did 
more than any other man to organize the present 
Water Company. At the time of his death he was 
treasurer of that company, and also a director in 
the New Haven Gas Light Co., and in the Con- 
necticut Savings Bank. 

In the domestic circle was his greatest joy. He 
was twice married. His first wife, Caroline Mc- 
Neil, of this city, died in 1838, after bearing him two 
children, one of whom, a daughter, survives. In 
1 84 1 he married Catherine Gilbert, daughter of 
the late Ezekiel Gilbert, of Humphreysville (now 
Seymour). Nine children, of whom seven are 
now living, were the fruit of this marriage. Among 



224 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



his children and grandchildren he spent his last 
days, cheered by the ministrations of a devoted 
wife. For some months the grasp of disease upon 
him slowly tightened, until, on the 24th of October, 
1877, in the 67th year ot his age, the end came, 
and the tireless worker, the good citizen, the be- 
loved husband and father, was no more on earth. 

The New Hiwen Palhulhim was founded by 
Charles Adams, and was first published as a 
weekly, its initial number bearing date of Novem- 
ber 7, 1829. Late in 1830, James F. Babcock 
assumed the editorship and general management, 
beginning a connection with the paper which con- 
tinued uninterrupted for nearly thirty-two years. 
It was largely due to Mr. Babcock's vigorous 
personality that the Palladmm early achieved a 
leading position among the newspapers of New 
England, a position which it has steadily main- 
tained. In 1839 Mr. Babcock began the publica- 
tion of a tri-weekly edition, which at that time was 
looked upon as a rash venture for New Haven. 
It proved a success, however, and paved the way 
for the Diii/y Palladium, the first number of which 
was issued February 23, 1841. Mr. Babcock bade 
a final adieu to journalism in 1862, and was suc- 
ceeded in the editorial chair by Cyrus Northrop, 
who retired a year later to accept an appointment 
to the Professorship of Rhetoric and English Litera- 
ture in Yale College. Among the more prominent 
journalists who have since been connected with the 
Palladium 2,K \. H. Byington, Colonel William M. 
Grosvenor, Abner L. Train, and Herbert E. Ben- 
ton. The Palladium was originally Whig in poli- 
tics, but was among the first newspapers of the 
country to espouse the principles of the Republi- 
can party, to which it has steadfastly remained 
true. While largely devoted to the dissemination 
of local news, it is well equipped as a general 
family newspaper in all its departments, and the 
best evidence of its success lies in the factthat it 
has had a continuous and prosperous existence for 
more than half a century. 

The New Haven Union was established July 23, 
1871, in the Stafford Building on State street, and 
was the outcome of a movement made by a number 
of printers to have an organ for the promulgation 
of the interests of working men. There had been 
a strike of compositors in the office of the Journal 
and Courier, and among the speakers who in public 
meetings addressed the working men on the rights 
of labor was Alexander Troup, then a practical 
printer working in New York. He, together with 
James A. Peck and Jefferson J. Young, issued the 
first number of the paper, publishing it on Sunday 
mornings, it being the first Sunday newspaper in 
Connecticut. Mr. Troup was the editor and 
manager from the outset, and he so continues. 
He has been recognized as a power in politics, and 
has represented the town in the Connecticut Legis- 
lature. In the earliest numbers of the paper were 
printed, as a declaration of principles, the platform 
of the National Labor party. 

Efforts were made to discourage the enterprise, 



and an early failure was generally predicted. In 
October the Union was issued Saturday afternoon 
instead of Sunday, the name being changed to 
The Saturday Evening Union. 

On July I, 1873, the paper took its place as a 
daily, in competition with the three other dailies 
of the city, and a stock company was formed with 
a capital stock of $20,000. The first president 
was George W. Goodsell. Charles Atwater was 
treasurer, and Horace Day was a director. The 
paper was thereafter issued six evenings of the 
week and Sunday morning, and was a four-page 
sheet. In January, 1876, it was published with 
eight pages. In 1874 the Potter drum press was 
e.xchanged for a Hoe double-cylinder. The office 
for several years was at 263 and 265 Chapel street, 
but on May i, 1883, it was moved into a new 
building on Chapel, below Union street, built 
expressly. A Hoe web printing^ pasting and fold- 
ing machine was purchased. 

The Union never printed less than 2,000 copies 
for a daily edition, and has sometimes printed 
12,000 in seasons of special excitement. Under 
the editorial management of Mr. Troup, the paper 
for some years advocated the principles of the 
Greenback reformers, and upon the decline of in- 
terest in the greenback financial theories, the Union 
became a Democratic organ. It has a uniform and 
satisfactory circulation, and has been a profitable 
institution since its foundation. 

The Neiv Haven Morning Nenvs first saw the light 
on the 4th of December, 1882. It was stated in 
the prospectus that the new paper was a continu- 
ation of the Observer — a small sheet which had 
been issued since October 12th of that year. The 
Morning A^e7vs was, however, to all intents and 
purposes an entirely new journal, it having simply 
bought out, for a small sum, the subscription list 
and the few other assets of the Observer. 

The Neivs was conducted at that time, and in 
the main owned, by Mr. Reuben B. Davenport, of 
New York; Mr. Henry AUaway, of New York; and 
Mr. James Craig, of New Haven. Mr. Davenport 
was editor-in-chief; Mr. Allaway, news editor; and 
Mr. Craig, business manager. It was established 
distinctly as an independent newspaper, not con- 
nected with either of the political parties, but aim- 
ing to give all the news in a condensed form; to 
discuss public events impartially; and finally, in the 
words of the prospectus, to "identify itself unmis- 
takably with the best interests of New Haven, and 
in every way possible to promote the growth and 
prosperity of the city." 

The new paper seemed to meet with public 
favor from the start, and grew rapidly. Its original 
five columns were increased to six on the ist of 
January, 1883, and these again to seven in March 
of the same year. The dimensions of the sheet 
thus became 23 x 1 7f inches — a size which has 
been maintained ever since. 

In the spring of 1883 a number of new stock- 
holders took an interest in the paper, and the 
capital was at the same time increased. The in- 
tention of those who thus lent their support to the 



THE PERIODICAL PRESS. 



225 



paper was to insure it a character and stability 
wliich it might not otherwise have maintained. 

The circulation of the Morning Neivs grew rap- 
idly during the year 1883, and amounted to over 
9,000 a day at the beginning of the year 1S84. On 
the 5th of November, 1 8S4, the day after the elec- 
tion, its edition was over 16,000, a figure unpre- 
cedented in the history of journalism in New Haven. 

At the beginning of 1S84 a change took place in 
the editorial management, Mr. Davenport selling 
his stock to Messrs. Baldwin & Farnam, and 
withdrawing from the paper. In February, 18S4, 
Mr. Clarence Deming, formerly of the New York 
Evening Post, was apijointed to take his place, and 
under his management the Morning Navs has con- 
tinued the independent policy which characterized 
it at the beginning. In July, 1884, the telegraphic 
service of the piper was strengthened by the dis- 
patches of the New England Associated Press. In 
l\Iay, 1885, Mr. Craig retired from the position of 
business manager, and Mr. John .S. Fowler, of New 
Haven, was appointed to take his place. 

The Morning News, though independent of polit- 
ical parties, is always outspoken on public ques- 
tions, and never hesitates to advocate the sitle that 
it believes to be for the interest of New Haven. 
During the legislative campaign of 1883, for in- 
stance, it advocated the election of Mr. William H. 
Law of the Democratic ticket, and the Hon. Henry 
B. Harrison of the Republican ticket, and had the 
gratification of seeing both its candidates elected, 
though in a town which usually gives a clear 
majority to the Democratic party. Again, in 18S4 
the paper strongly advocated the nomination of the 
Hon. Henry B. Harrison as Governor. Tlie Re- 
publican convention actually did nominate him, 
and the Morning News strongly supported him 
during the campaign that followed, and had the 
satisfaction of seeing him installed in office, tliough 
he did not gain a majority of the popular vote. 
During the presidential campaign of 1884 the Xeivs 
advocated the election of Air. Cleveland, and sup- 
ported him vigorously, though being careful to 
avoid abuse or unjust criticism of his opponent. 

At the close of the Legislative session of 1884, 
the Morning Xcivs required its reporter to return 
to the State the sum of $200, which he, together 
with the other newspaper reporters, had received 
for doing the Legislative work. It also returned 
two sums of $50 each, voted to its reporter by the 
Selectmen and the Court of Common Council of 
New Haven, and from that time has waged a vigor- 
ous warfare upon the whole system of subsidies to 
reporters. This had in the course of time proved 
to be an abuse of considerable magnitude in Con- 
necticut, the newspapers practically sending their 
reporters to Hartford at the public e.xpense, and 
duis causing an annual drain upon the treasury of 
several thousand dollars. At the beginning of the 
Legislative session of 1885, the Morning Xeivs 
carried on its attack upon this abuse with renewed 
vigor, and though the whole movement was treated 
with silence by the other New Haven papers, and 
received very little journalistic support throughout 
the State, the Legislature voted to repeal the act 



providing for the subsidy. In 1885 the Court of 
Common Council and the Selectmen of New Haven 
refused to make an appropriation for the subsidies 
to their reporters. It is believed that this action of 
the Legislature and of the Local Boards was due 
entirely to the efforts of the Morning Neivs, as the 
system had been unassailed before its time, and as 
none of the other papers gave any real support to 
the agitation for repeal. 

These facts from the history of the paper indicate 
its aims and policy. It endeavors to attack and 
expose all abuses in the administration of the 
Government, regardless of the interests that may 
be affected thereby. It advocates economy and 
purity in politics, and a reform of the civil service. 
It tries, in particular, to further the special interests 
of New Haven without making itself the organ of 
any party, corporation, or clique. In its news de- 
partment it aims to neglect nothmg, though present- 
ing everything in a concise form, and it endeavors, 
whenever it has occasion to attack any person, 
system, or party, to carry on the fight in a dignified 
and fair manner, without malice or misrepresen- 
tation. 

The price of the ISIorning Nezvs has always been 
two cents, which has thus made it the popular 
paper of New Haven and made its street sales very 
large. It has endeavored to benefit, as far as 
possible, the working classes, and for that purpose 
has, from the very start, printed without charge the 
advertisements of those who were seeking employ- 
ment. The other morning papers followed its 
example as regards price in 1884, and one of them 
has also adopted its plan of giving free advertise- 
ments to people who are out of work. 

Besides the five daily papers which have been 
enumerated, there is one in German, called Der 
Repuhlikauer, edited by Paul Gebhard. It has also 
a weekly edition. Two other weekly papers are 
issued in German entitled respectively Der Volks- 
blalt and Der Dotscha/ter. 

The Shore Line Times is a weekly published in 
Fair Haven. 

Other periodicals are: The American Journal of 
Science, established in 1818, by the first Professor 
Silliman. It is a bi-monthly, and maintains the 
high reputation of its early years. 

The Ntio Englander, established in 1843, is also 
a bi-monthly. 

Loomis' 3Iiisical and Masonic Journal, established 
in 1867, is published monthly. 

Among the College periodicals are The Vale 
Z/fe/-a/;v 7l/i?^(/3/«6', established in 1836; The Vale 
Courant, established in 1865; and The Vale Neius. 

The pupils of the Hopkins Grammar School 
have a paper called The Critic, and the pupils of 
the Hillhouse High School publish The Crescent. 

Members of Trinity ]\I, E. Church publish a 
paper called The Lyceum. 

Among papers recently, but not now, published 
in New Haven may be mentioned The Gospel 
Union N'tivs. which has been merged in a paper 
printed in New York, and Der Anzeiger, a German 
paper established in 1877. 



226 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE BENCH AND BAR OF NEW HAVEN. 

BY LYNDE HARRISON, ESQ. 



The Period from 1639 to 1664. 

WHILE New Haven existed as an independent 
colony, and for many years after, there was 
neither a Bench nor a Bar in the sense that these 
words are taken to-day. In the hard struggle for 
existence which the early colonists went through, 
there was no room for a small body of men devoted 
to the study and practice of the law who could form 
a Bar. Controversies between the people concern- 
ing personal rights and wrongs were of such a sim- 
ple character that they could be easily heard and 
determined by and before magistrates chosen (rem 
year to year from the body of the people. The com- 
plicated system of tenure under which real estate 
was held in England never existed in Connecticut. 
The land, as it was purchased from the Indians, 
was allotted to the different settlers, passed by in- 
heritance to their children, or was conveyed by a 
simple form of deed and record. Personal prop- 
erty, except live stock, was scarce, and the time of 
the magistrates was generally occupied in disposing 
of petty questions concerning trespass or debt, and 
punishing minor offenses, many of which are rarely 
noticed by the prosecuting ofiicers of to-day. 

On the 4th day of June, 1639, the free planters 
of New Haven assembled, and all legislative and 
judicial powers were vested in a Court consisting 
of twelve Free Burgesses. None but church mem- 
bers were eligible. To this Court was given the 
power of appointing magistrates. On the 25th of 
(October, 1639, the Court proceeded to the choice 
of a magistrate and four deputies, " to assist in the 
public affairs of the plantations." At this time the 
first legislative caucus for the appointment of ju- 
dicial officers was held in New Haven, and the 
Rev. IMr. Davenport, who was one of the Free Bur- 
gesses, began by reading the 13th verse of the 1st 
chapter of Deuteronomy, and the 2d verse of the 
1 8th chapter of Exodus, because in these verses 
there is a description of magistrates " according to 
the mind of God." After this reading, Mr. Thco- 
philus Eaton was unanimously appointed Magis- 
trate for the term of one year. Mr. Robert New- 
man, Mr. Malhew Gilbert, Mr. Nathaniel Turner 
and Mr. Thomas Fugill were appointed De])uties, 
or Assistant Magistrates. Mr. Thomas Fugill was 
at the same time apjjointed a Notary Public and 
Clerk of the Court. Mr. Robert Seeley was ap- 
pointed Marshal or Sheriff, and he was given power 
to appoint a tleputy. 

The first reported case before this Court was that 
of the Colony against Ncpaupuck.who was charged 
with the murder of Abraham Finch at Wethersfield, 
a year or more before tliat time. Nepaupuck had 
been accused of murdering the Englishman, and 
came into the town voluntarily. A warrant was is- 



sued, and the Marshal arrested him. He attempted 
an escape, but was recaptured on the 26th of Oc- 
tober, 1639. The evidence against him consisted 
of the testimony of several Indians, and Nepau])uck 
finally, on the 2Sth of October, confessed his guilt, 
and on the 29th of October was sentenced to be 
executed. The following day his head was cut oft", 
and pitched upon a pole in the Market Place. 

The Court of Magistrates held sessions as occa- 
sion demanded, either once or twice a month, for 
several years. They exercised advisory powers in 
many instances, and endeavored to bring about 
agreements between parties without going through 
the formalities of a trial. The following illustrations 
show their methods of dispensing simple justice 
according to their lights. On the 4th of December, 
1639, Thomas Saule and Goodman Spinage were 
ordered to agree with each other before the next 
Court, " or else the Court will determine the dif- 
ference between them." It does not appear from 
the records what was the nature of the disagree- 
ment, but on the 5th of February, 1640, as they 
had not agreed together, the Court ordered Thomas 
Saule to pay five shillings in every week to Mr. 
Evance, who was instructed to hold the same for 
the benefit of Goodman Spinage. Roger Duhurst 
and James Stewart stole five pounds and seventeen 
shillings out of the chest of their master, John Cock- 
erill, on the Lord's Da}', and in the meeting-time; 
doubtless Mr. Cockerill had gone to the meeting 
and had left the servants at home. For this offense 
they were whipped and ordered to make double 
restitution to their master. Mr. Perry had two ser- 
vants, Thomas Manchester and Nicholas Tanner. 
Both of them having become intoxicated, used un- 
comely language to their master, who administered 
personal correction to Manchester, but for some 
reason failed to serve Tanner in the same way. 
Both the servants were brought before the magis- 
trates, and these ficts all appearing, upon the charge 
of drunkenness and using abusive language, the 
Court ordered Tanner to be whipped, but as Man- 
chester had already received his wliijiping from his 
master, they only caused him to be set in the 
stcjcks. 

The principle of the foreign attachment process 
was practiced quite early in New Haven. On the 
5lh of February, 1639, the Court having found that 
one Robert Campian was indebted to Mr.MulIiner, 
ordered Brother Andrews to detain so much of 
Campian's wages in his hands as might be neces- 
sary to secure the debt of three pounds due from 
him to IMulliner. 

Indemnification in kind was sometimes ordered. 
Mr. Wilkes owned some hogs; Thomas Bucking- 
ham had a corn-field. Mr. Wilkes' hogs trespassed 
in the corn-field, and upon complaint before the 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 



237 



Court made by Mr. Buckingham, Mr. Wilkes was 
ordered to pay him five bushels and a half of Indian 
corn. 

Intoxication upon the Sabbath was considered at 
that early day a more aggravated offense than upon 
other occasions. Isaiah, the servant of Captain 
Turner, was fined five pounds for being drunk on 
the Lord's Day. But William Broomfield, for a 
similar offense was set in the stocks; and David 
Anderson for being drunk was whipped. 

These old Puritan magistrates did not convict ex- 
cept upon clear proof, for Mr. Mulliner, who was 
accused before the Court of being drunk, was re- 
spited because the offense was "not clearly proved." 
Nor did they fail on some occasions to temper 
justice with mercy. John Jenner was accused of 
being drunk "with strong waters," but he was 
acquitted because it appeared to be on account "of 
his infirmity, and was occasioned by the extremity 
of the cold." 

The Court knew how to dispose of those who 
set a bad example. Goodman Love was whipped 
and sent out of the plantation, not only becau.se 
he was disorderly himself, but because he encour- 
aged others to gather at disorderly drinking meet- 
ings. George Spencer, who was profane and 
disorderly in his whole conversation, and " abetted 
others to sin," was also whipped and sent out of 
the plantation. 

The General Court of Magistrates exercised pro- 
bate jurisdiction. Mrs. Higginson died intestate 
in February, 1640, and left eight children. An 
inventory of her estate was taken, and the Court 
made the distribution with the consent and appro- 
bation of the oldest son, saving a bill for adminis- 
trator's and probate fees. 

Committees were sometimes appointed by this 
Court to hear the evidence between parties in con- 
troversy, and to certify to the Court the facts in the 
case, unless they could bring about a settlement 
"on the grounds of difference betwixt the par- 
ties. " 

These Magistrates were properly jealous of the 
dignity of their Court. Edward Banister was fined 
twenty shillings " for contempt of the Court, and 
therein the Ordinance of God." 

The Court had a summary way of disposing of 
gossipeis and scandal-mongers which might be 
effective in modern times. Edward Woodcliff was 
whipped severely for slandering his master's wife 
and sent out of the plantation, "being a pestilent 
fellow and a corrupter of others." 

The time of the Court was frequently occupied 
in controversies between masters and servants. One 
of the principal cases reported was between Mr. 
Wilkes and his servant, John Davis. Wilkes seems 
to have been a man of a grasping disposition and 
somewhat quick-tempered. He was accused by 
his apprentice, Davis, with endeavoring to hold 
him for a longer time than he, Davis, had been 
bound by his father. John thereupon became 
stubborn and refused to work faithfully, and Mr. 
Wilkes struck him upon the head with a hammer. 
The jiarties coming before the Court, it was ordered 
that [ohn should be whipped for his stubborn 



carriage, and that Mr. Wilkes forfeit two months 
of the time for which John had been bound to 
him. Several months later the parties were again 
before the Court, on account of the same contro- 
versv about the length of time for which Davis had 
been apprenticed. Neither Davis nor Wilkes could 
satisfy the Court, and the case was continued for a 
year, upon an order that if Mr. Wilkes should fail 
to prove the contract to be as he alleged, that he 
should pay Davis twenty shillings a month for every 
month he should work for him beyond the time 
claimed by Davis to be the correct period. 

In 1 64 1 the business of the Court had increased 
to such an extent that it became necessary to choose 
two Magistrates, with four Deputies, as above. 
Although there was no society for the prevention 
of cruelty to animals, Matthew Wilson was fined 
twenty shillings for killing a dog belonging to Mr. 
Perry, and he was also ordered to pay Mr. Perry 
twenty shillings for the loss of the dog. As Wilson 
was unable to pay the fine and jiulgnient, Edward 
Copperfield gave bonds for its payment within three 
months. 

In February, 1641, one George Spencer, a ser- 
vant of Henry Browning, was charged with the 
unnatural crime of bestiality. After many inter- 
views with the Rev. Mr. Davenport, Marshal Seele}', 
and others, in prison, he confessed the crime. 
Upon his own confession he was convicted in 
March, 1642, and sentenced to be executed. This 
sentence being approved by some of the Massa- 
chusetts authorities, Spencer was hanged upon a 
gallows April 8, 1642. 

The first record of the appearance of a member 
of the Bar in the Colony is on the 7 th of Septem- 
ber, 1642, when one Thomas Pell, as attorney for 
the executor of Richard Jewell, demanded the re- 
mainder of the term of nine years which Thomas 
Tobey was under covenant by indenture to serve 
the said Jewell. The matter was referred to a com- 
mittee, consisting of Captain Turner and Mr. 
Evance, to set down what damage should be paid 
the estate of Richard Jewell out of the wages of said 
Thomas Tobey. This Mr. Pell did not continue 
long in the colony. About two years later, Richard 
Malbon, of New Haven, who was one of the princi- 
pal first settlers, practiced before the Court as 
attorney for Richard Bellingham, of Boston, in a 
suit against Owen Rowe, of London. The Court 
in New Haven took jurisdiction of the case, be- 
cause goods of the defendant were attached within 
the New Haven jurisdiction. The process of at- 
taching goods before trial seems to have been 
practiced from the very first within the New Haven 
jurisdiction. 

Business before this simple Magistrate's Court 
increased so rapidly, that in 1643 •' became neces- 
sary to make a reorganization of the Courts in 
New Haven and the towns adjacent that were under 
the same jurisdiction. It was provided that magis- 
trates should be appointed in each town by the res- 
ident church members, who should have civil 
jurisdiction in all cases where the matter in dispute 
did not exceed in value twenty pounds, and in all 
criminal matters "according to the mind of God, 



228 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



revealed in His Word, touching such offenses, that 
do not exceed stocking, whipping, or, if the fine be 
pecuniary, that it exceed not five pounds." From 
all decisions of this local Magistrate of the Plan- 
tation Court, or Particular Court as it was called, an 
ajipeal could be taken, by any party aggrieved, to 
the Court of Magistrates for the whole jurisdiction. 
This latter consisted of the magistrates of all the 
towns, and they held two sessions annually at New 
Haven. It had power in all matters above the 
jurisdiction of the Plantation Courts, but an appeal 
could be taken from it to the General Court for the 
jurisdiction, which met at New Haven on the first 
Wednesday in April and last Wednesday in October. 
The General Court consisted of the Governor, the 
Deputy Governor, all the Magistrates within the 
jurisdiction, and two Deputies for every plantation 
or town in the jurisdiction. It had conferred upon 
it all the legislative power for the whole colony, 
which before that time had been vested in the Court 
of Free Burgesses.' Taxes were assessed and col- 
lected under its authorit)-. For the next few years 
many of the controversies before the General Court 
grew out of the division of lands and disputes about 
the boundaries of the same. In 1646 it became 
the common practice for plaintiffs and defendants 
to employ some friend to appear as counsel or 
attorney for them, to present the testimony to the 
Court, but the parties so employed were not skilled 
in the intricacies of the law, and in the next century 
were not recognized as attorneys or lawyers were. 

At a meeting of the General Court held on the 
3d of April, 1644, it was ordered " that the judicial 
laws of God, as they were delivered by Moses, and 
as they are a fence to the moral law, being neither 
typical nor ceremonial, nor had any reference to 
Canaan, shall be accounted of moral equity and 
generally binding on all offenders, and be a rule to 
all the Courts in this jurisdiction in their proceed- 
ings against offenders, until they be branched out 
into particulars hereafter." Notwithstanding this 
rule as to the method of proceeding against offend- 
ers, the magistrates generally followed the practice 
and customs of which they had acquired more or 
less familiarity in England. To protect the colo- 
nists from the Indians, stringent rules were made 
for the keeping of arms and ammunition in good 
order; but frequent complaints were made against 
parties who were not properly equipped, and fines 
were imposed very rigorously against delinquents 
in this respect. 

At the Magistrates' Court held in New Haven on 
the 2d of October, 1644, Mrs. Stollion brought an 
action against Goodman Chapman upon a note 
given by him for three pounds eight shillings and 
six-pence. Several witnesses were examined and 
judgment was finally given for the plaintiff. In 
1645, Kichard Catchman practiced before the 
Magistrates' Court as attorney for several parties. 

Before the same Court, in October, 1645, James 
Russell brought a complaint against John Walker 
for damage done to his corn by hogs; but John 
Walker pleailed that the fences were defective, 
whereupon he was advised '.' to warn those whose 
fences were defective. " At the same session of the 



Court, Joseph Brewster and Joseph Cox were com- 
plained against for drinking to excess. Brewster 
confessed that they had drunk sack out of his 
father's cellar, through the bung with a tobacco 
pipe, and after that they went to the Ordinary and 
drank a quart of beer. Sister Linge testified that 
she saw them, and she asked whether Cox were 
drunk, whereupon Brewster let him go, and then 
she saw him stagger and reel, and he sit down upon 
a block, but could not sit like a sober man, where- 
upon she concluded, "because he could neither 
go nor stand, that he was drunk." Other witnesses 
testified that when they saw Cox they perceived 
nothing that ailed him. The Court found, upon 
the testimony of Sister Linge, that they were drunk, 
and that they had told numerous lies and deserved 
to be severely whipped, but referred them to their 
masters for correction. 

On the 4th of November, 1645, Banfield Bell 
was singing profane songs, and being reproved by 
William Paine for doing so. Bell said to Paine, 
" You are one of the holy brethren that will lie for 
advantage." Bell was brought before the Court 
and several witnesses testified to the facts. Mr. 
Evance said that it was the constant practice of 
Bell to reproach those that walked in the ways of 
God. Bell was thereupon sentenced to be severely 
whipped. Before the same Court, John Beach and 
Ambrose Sutton, being set forth to walk the watch 
at night, and having gone into a house and laid 
down to sleep, were fined five shillings apiece for 
their neglect of duty. 

On the 3d of December, 1645, the Court im- 
posed a fine of forty shillings upon James Robinson 
for removing landmarks from the meadows of Mr. 
Hooks and Mr. William Fowler. Before the same 
Court, at the same time, Mrs. Stollion was heard 
upon the complaint of Captain Turner, that, she 
had made uncomplimentary remarks about a bar- 
gain they had, in which he had bought cloth of 
her in consideration of two cows. The trial soon 
drifted into an inquiry concerning the prices Mrs. 
Stollion had charged other customers for cloth. 
Mrs. Stollion had sold cloth to William Bradley at 
twenty shillings a yard for which she had paid only 
twelve shillings; she had sold English mohair at 
six shillings per yard in silver which could be 
bought in England for three shillings and two- 
pence per yard at the utmost; she had sold thread 
at the rate of twelve shillings per pound which cost 
not over two shillings and two-pence in England. 
For this, and divers other in.stances of overcharg- 
ing, the case of Mrs. Stollion was referred to the 
General Court of Magistrates at the next se,ssion. 

On the Sth of December, 1645, George Ward 
was arrested and brought before the Court for 
slandering the Rev. Mr. Davenport in New Haven 
and other places in connection with the trade with 
Delaware. The slanderous words being proved 
against Ward, the magistrates found that it was of 
"So high a nature, considering the person slan- 
dered," that it should be referred to the Court of 
Magistrates to be held in April next. 

Mr. Thomas Fugills, after being Secretary of the 
Court for five or six years, was charged with making 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 



229 



false entries in the Book of Records in the allot- 
ment of land to himself, and after a full investi- 
gation by the members of the General Court and a 
feeble defense, he was removed and a new Secre- 
tary was chosen. Four months later he was 
ordered to come before the Court of Magistrates 
for the several miscarriages and offenses committed 
by him, but from time to time he made the excuse 
that he was suffering from severe indisposition of 
body. He finally put in an appearance on the 7th 
of July, 1646, but his defense was so weak and 
frivolous he was fined twenty pounds for falsifying 
the records and for contempt of Court. Fugill 
soon after turned over lands of his in payment of 
his fine and left the town. 

On the 2d of June, 1646, the Particular Court 
was occupied with a very long hearing, growing 
out of the slanders by Mrs. Brewster, Mrs. Moore, 
and Mrs. Leach, and about certain gossip concerning 
Mrs. F,aton's trouble with the church and the sermon 
of the Rev. Mr. Davenport. The gist of the charge 
against Mrs. Brewster was that she said the sermon 
and prayer had made her sick at the stomach, and 
that when she went home she told her son to make 
waste paper of it. The well known controversy of 
Mrs. Faton with the church concerning the validity 
of baptism by sprinkling had evidently affected the 
mind of Mrs. Brewster. After hearing all the 
witnesses, the Particular Court referred it to the 
General Court of Magistrates at its next session. 
One of the witnesses at that hearing testified that 
Mrs. Brewster's son had said that he would rather 
fall into the hands of the Turks or be hung, than 
be whipped as persons had been whipped in New 
Haven for sundry offenses. In addition to criticis- 
ing her pastor, by using improper language, Mrs. 
Brewster was in disfavor on account of her famili- 
arity with Widow Potter, who had been excom- 
municated from the church. Mrs. Brewster denied 
any familiarity, whereupon the Widow Potter testi- 
fied that Mrs. Brewster drank with her. Mrs. 
Brewster then answered that she only put the cup 
to her mouth, but that "none of the sap went 
down." To this Widow Potter replied that from 
the carriage and outward appearance of Mrs. 
Brewster she apprehended she drank, but could not 
say whit quintity went down. Mr. Edward 
Parker testified at that trial that Mrs. Brewster said 
Mr. Malborn, who was one of the magistrates, was 
a liar, " which being spoken against the magistrate 
in a whispering way, besides the reference to the 
ninth commandment, is an offensive and sinful 
miscarriage against the fifth commandment." One 
of the complaints against Mrs. Moore at this same 
trial was sustained by the evidence of Job Hall, 
who testified that Mrs. Moore in prayer had said 
"Lord, thou hast brought us indeed into the 
wilderness, the wilderness of Sinai, where we are in 
bondage with Hagar and her children, but let never 
a soul of us have any fellowship with them. ' 

On the 7th of July, 1646, Pawquash, an Indian, 
was brought before the magistrates charged with 
two offenses. The first was that he had left open the 
oyster-shell field gate, so that damage had been 
done. The second complaint was that about four 



years prior to that time he came into Mr. Crane's 

house and did blaspheme the name of Christ, and 
said that an Indian in Mantoifes' plantation had 
ascended into heaven. The sentence of the Court 
was that he should be severely whipped for blas- 
phemy, and informed that if he should do so here- 
after, or now, as it had been against the law, it 
would hazard his life; and for the damage by 
means of the gate being left open, he was to pay 
five shillings to Thomas Knowles. 

On the 4th of August, 1646, William Ball was 
arrested for not having his gun charged with 
powder as well as bullets, and for informing the 
watch that the gun was properly loaded, ' ' for 
which direful carriage of his and untruthfulness 
unto the watch," Ball was fined forty shillings, and 
to pay the charges of those that had attended upon 
the Court. This addition to the fine imposed 
seems to have been the first record of "costs." 
The controversy between Mrs. Eaton and the 
church produced further business for the magis- 
trates. On the 1st of September, 1646, Richard 
Perry was fined ten shillings for being mixed up 
with Goody Ball and Mrs. Brewster in scandalous 
gossip about Governor and Mrs. Eaton. On the 
2d of February, 1646, George King was whipped 
for profane swearing. 

Ofl'enses against cleanliness, decency and mo- 
rality were frequently brought before the Court, and 
received lectures as well as punishment. James 
Hayward, a man of some standing in the town, 
was called to answer for the sin of drunkenness. 
The charge against him being that he went aboard 
a Dutch ves.sel, and did there drink strong waters 
in such excess that he made himself drunk by it, 
" so that he had not the use of his reason, nor his 
tongue, hands or feet, and so that there was all 
the character of a drunken man about it." This 
was so fully proved that he was cast out of the 
church. The Governor, when he was brought 
before the Court, declared to him how greatly his 
sin was aggravated with many circumstances, es- 
pecially that he being a member of the church, 
with whom the Lord had dealt so kindly, and that 
he to so regard the Lord was a sinful, foolish 
thing. 

Hayward answered the Governor, "I own my 
sin, and take the shame and do confess the name 
of God hath been dishonored and blasphemed 
through me, for my sin hath many circumstances 
which makes it grievous, for which the liand of the 
Lord is justly out against me, so that I have noth- 
ing to say, but do justify the proceedings of the 
Court in what God shall guide their hearts to do." 
Upon this answer being given, the Governor opened 
the case to the Court as follows: " Drunkenness is 
among the fruits of the flesh, to be witnessed against 
both in the church and in the civil court, and it is 
a brutish sin and so to be witnessed against. A 
whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod 
for the fool's back. And his sin is more heinous 
as he was a member of the church. But it hath 
not been brought to me that this man hath been 
given to drunkenness, nor is it found that it was at 
an appointed meeting for drinking, but he being 



230 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



called (invited), did drink an excessive quantity 
which caused these effects. I leave it therefore to 
the Court's judgment whether they shall find it a 
disposition to drunkenness, or an act only." After 
this address, which was in the nature of a charge of 
a judge to the jury, the Court considered what had 
been said, and found that it was not a disposition to 
drunkenness in Hayward, nor was it at a match or 
meeting appointed for the purpose of drinking. 
They therefore thought it not fit to punish him 
with corporal punishment, but only with a fine. The 
sentence of the Court therefore w-as that Hayward 
pay fifty shillings to the town for this one act of 
drunkenness. 

One Thomas Osborne was employed to drive the 
cows to the public pasture, and upon one occasion, 
it being a rainy day, Osborne protected himself for 
some time in a wigwam for shelter. When night 
came, the cow of Edward Banister had disappeared, 
and Osborne vainly searching for her, but failing to 
find lier, was brought before the Court upon com- 
plaint of Edward Banister, for negligently losing 
his cow. Several witnesses being examined, it was 
found by the Court, that as Osborne only sought 
shelter for three-quarters of an hour, and as the 
day was exceedingly wet, and as the cows were not 
far from the house at the time, and as Osborne, 
with the help of Seely and George Smith and Richard 
Osborne, sought for the cow in the swamp, there- 
fore Osborne was not guilty of gross neglect, and 
that Osborne should be free from payment of dam- 
age, and that Goodman Banister must bear it as an 
afflicting providence of God cast upon him. 

All men capable of bearing arms were required 
to be at the Meeting-house on the Lord's day with 
their guns in good order, and duly charged with 
powder and bullet, so that there might be military 
inspection for protection against the Indians, and 
at the same time a strict attendance upon religious 
worship. William Blayden was arrested upon a 
complaint for getting late to the meeting on two 
Lord's days. The defense of Blayden was that on 
the first day he did not hear the drum, and on the 
other day he having been wet the day before, in 
the evening, when it rained, was not able to make a 
fire to dry his clothes, therefore was forced to lie 
abed on the Lord's day. These excuses were not 
satisfactory to the Court, and he was fined two 
shillings and ordered to appear before the next 
Court, "to hold forth the sight of his sin in pro- 
fanely neglecting the ordinances. " Before the next 
Court, one of the magistrates made an examination 
into the truth of Blaytlen's defense, and at the next 
session it was found that the truth appeared to be 
no other than a proflmc neglecting on the part of 
Blayden, and the despising of the ordinances of 
Christ through slothfulness, whereupon the judg- 
ment of the Court was that he be publicly whipped 
for profanely breaking the Sabbath, worshiping not 
God, nor watching for the blessing of God on him- 
self. 

In September, 1647, William Pert was before the 
Court charged with taking watermelons on the 
Lord's day out of the lot of Mr. Hooks. Pert made 
answer that liis master sent him into the cpiarter to 



see if any hogs had got within the fence, and he 
was bid by his master to go that way through Mr. 
Hook's lot and bring home a watermelon with him 
after the Sabbath. It is probable that his master 
intended that he should do it after sunset. Pert 
said it was the first act of this kind and he hoped it 
would be the last. The Court decided that for his 
unrighteousness of spirit to do it so soon after sun- 
set he should be pubUcly corrected, but yet moder- 
ately, because his repentance had appeared. 

Governor Eaton had a negro servant named An- 
thony. Mr. Evance had a negro servant named 
Matthew. Anthony having been sent to the house 
of Mr. Evance for some sugar, Matthew asked him 
to drink, and gave him some strong water in a 
beer pot, and Anthony drank much and became 
intoxicated publicly. Governor Eaton having had 
him brought before the Court, stated that because 
it was openly known he thought the matter should 
be heard by the Court, as if it had been kept within 
the compass of his own family he might have given 
him family correction for it. Anthony's defense 
before the Court seemed to be that he did not know 
it was strong water, that he disliked liquor, and 
thought from the look of the vessel in which the 
liquor was oftered to him that it might be beer. 
The Court considered that as this was the first time 
they had heard anything of this kind of Anthony, 
and that possibly he might not know what he was 
drinking, it being given to him in such a vessel as 
he used to drink beer from, and hoping it will be a 
warning to him, thought it fit not to inflict any 
public corporal punishment on him; but as the 
Governor's zeal and faithfulness hath appeared in 
not conniving at sin in his own family, the Court 
leaves it to the Governor to give Anthony such 
correction which he in his wisdom should judge 
meet. 

The magistrates were very strict in enforcing the 
observances of the Lord's day. Stephen Reekes 
was the master of a vessel that came from the Bar- 
badoes. He was brought before the Court charged 
that he did, contrary to the law of God and of this 
place, haul up his ship toward the Neck bridge 
upon the Sabbath, which is a labor proper for the 
six days, and not to be undertaken on the Lord's 
day. Captain Reekes answered that his ship lay 
on the ground and did not float for several days 
before, but on that day the wind came up at the 
southeast and brought in a great tide and the ship 
floated, and all that he did with his crew was to 
keep her from running on the bank or driving 
upon her anchor. The Court told him tliat he 
should have provided for that before, for it was 
the duty of all men to remember the Sabbath, and 
to provide so beforehand that nothing may disturb 
them upon the Sabbath, unless it be in cases of 
mercy or works of such necessity as could not be 
provided for the day before, nor set aside until the 
day after. 

Mr. Larehe, a seaman on the Phoinix, w-as 
before the Court chargetl that he with others 
went aboard that vessel on the Sabbath, and did 
haul the vessel up and empty some stones out of a 
canoe, to which Larehe answered that he conceived 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 



231 



the work was a work of charity, to preserve the 
vessel that it might not perish, for there was some 
danger of her oversetting; and beside Mr. Perry 
came to him and said it was proper somebody 
should go down for that purpose. At this state of 
the hearing, Mr. Malbon, one of the magi.strates, 
said that Mr. Perry was at his house and he was 
speaking of some danger the vessel might be in, 
whereupon he advised Mr. Perry to go to Mr. 
Davenport and ask his advice. This was done, 
and Mr. Davenport told him he should leave it to 
God's mercy, the Sabbath was a day of rest and 
therefore he ought to rest. Then Mr. Malbon told 
him that he should give orders that nothing should 
be done, only he might go down and look at the 
vessel to see what state she was in; but that noth- 
ing should be done without apparent necessity, 
yet Mr. Larehe, with others, went and worked, 
contrary to the law of the Sabbath. The Court 
having considered both the cases of Reekes and 
Larehe, found them to be much alike, but consider- 
ing that they were strangers, and thinking that 
they did not do it out of contempt, but ignorantly, 
" and they acknowledging their failing and promis- 
ing amendment for the time to come," concluded 
to pass it by, but the Court said ; "If any of our 
own take liberty hereby, the sentence will be heav- 
ier on them." 

A case which created much feeling in the colony 
was the somewhat fully reported shoe and leather 
case of John Meigs against Henry Gregory, Meigs 
was a trader and shop-keeper. Gregory was a 
shoemaker. Meigs furnished Gregory leather and 
made a contract by which Gregory was to make 
for him fourteen dozen pairs of shoes, for which 
Gregory was to receive twelve-pence a pair for mak- 
ing and IMeigs was to furnish the leather ready cut 
out. Gregory made thirteen dozen pairs and Meigs 
complained that they were so badly made that the 
shoes fell in pieces, some in a week and some in 
fourteen days' time, and that he, Meigs, had been 
damaged in his good name as a merchant through- 
out the colony, and he had been unable to furnish 
others with merchantable shoes as he had agreed. 
The plaintiff further complained that Gregory not 
only made the shoes badly, but spoiled the leather 
by leaving it in the sun, and further, that he had 
not put on wooden heels to the shoes as he had 
promised, and also that he had marked some of 
them with an X when the size was only IX. 
Gregory, the defendant, said that Meigs furnished 
him with poor leather, and when he called his at- 
tention to it, promised to furnish better leather, and 
that he agreed to furnish hemp from Connecticut 
to sew the shoes with, but he had not furnished 
the hemp, and so the defendant was forced to buy 
lla.\ and sew them with that. From time to time 
he told him the leather he furnished for the shoes 
was worse than the first, and that the tanner who 
tanned it ought to be hung for it, because he 
cheated the country; and that when he told Meigs 
this, the plaintiff replied that they were obliged to 
take the leather out before it was tanned enough, 
because people were in haste for their shoes. 
When the defendant said to the plaintiff he ought 



to have hemp, the plaintiff replied "the thread 
would last as long as the leather. " As for marking the 
IX with an X, Gregory said he marked them in that 
way because the plaintiff told him to, and the 
plaintiff had not cut them long enough to make 
X's. After the parties had told their stories, wit- 
nesses were called and examined, first for the 
plaintiff and then for the defendant. Among the 
witnesses for the plaintiff was Jonathan Sargent, 
who testified that he bought a pair of russet shoes 
of Goodman IMeigs, and that he wore them two or 
three times to a neighbor's house and twice to 
meeting, and then he walked about si.xty rods to 
the waterside, and brought home the soles of the 
shoes in his hand. Afterwards he got them sewed 
again and wore them now and then, but not con- 
stantly, for a week or a fortnight, and then the 
insoles and outsoles all fell from the upper leather, 
and he could not remember that he wore them 
any more after that. Thomas Whiteway testified 
that he bought a pair of russet shoes of Meigs, of 
New Haven; that he wore them three or four days 
and the outsoles ripped; then he sewed them agam 
and wore them three or four days more, and then 
the insoles and welts all came oft' and he sewed 
them together again; and shortly after the ujiper 
leather, seams, heels and sides all ripped, so that 
they would not hang upon his feet, and to such an 
e.xtent that he thought Goodman Meigs should be 
put in prison. John Parmelee, of Guilford, 
testified by a deposition taken before Mr. Dis- 
browe, that he bought a pair of shoes which came 
from Goodman Meigs, of New Haven, and that 
in six or seven days the soles ripped from the 
upper leather. Samuel Nettleton, of Totoket, 
testified, upon deposition taken before the Gover- 
nor, that he bought a pair of shoes of Goodman 
Meigs, of New Haven, for his wife; that she put 
them on on the Lord's Day and the next Thursday 
morning they were ripped, but that the soles were 
together as he thought. Mark Meigs testified 
that he saw the shoes made by Henry Gregory 
lying in the sand by Gregory's house; that he saw 
the old man working on them with a very great 
awl, a small thread, and with very little wax, and 
he blamed him for it. Witnesses for the defend- 
ant were called to prove that it was the badness 
of the leather that made the shoes so unmerchant- 
able. Mrs. Blackman said that after two or 
three days' wearing the leather was like the flaps 
of a shoulder of mutton. Mr. Blackman testified 
that his son had a pair of the shoes which lasted 
two or three weeks and then the leather broke 
through. Judah Gregory testified that he saw his 
father at work upon the shoes, and the leather was 
so horny that no man could make shoes of it. 
Moses Wheeler testified that he saw some of the 
leather, and his wife took it up and tore it between 
her hands with ease. Mrs. Crocker testified that 
she heard Goodman Meigs say that he would go 
to Connecticut (the colony at Hartford) and get 
some hemp, but he thought the fiax would last as 
long as the leather; and further slie said that Meigs 
told her father he could not blame the tanner so 
much, for he was obliged to take it out before it 



232 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



was tanned, and that she saw the leather tear in 
pieces when Gregory put it on the last. At this 
stage of the trial the Court found there was fault on 
both sides and that the country was much wronged, 
therefore it was concluded to have some expert 
testimony. Some of the shoes were sent for and 
they were delivered to Lieutenant Seeley and 
Goodman Dayton and Grove, who were shoe- 
makers, and to GooJmen Osborne and Sergeant 
Jeffrey, who were tanners, to examine and report 
their opinions to the Court. These experts, after 
examination, made this report: "We apprehend 
this, that the leather is very bad, not tanned nor fit 
to be sold for serviceable leather, but it wrongs the 
countr}', nor can a man make good work of a 
great deal of it. And we find the workmanship 
bad also. First, there is not suflicient stuflf put in 
the thread, and instead of hemp it is flax; and the 
slitciies are too long and the threads not drawn 
home; and there wants wax on the thread; and 
the awl is too big for the thread. We ordinarily 
put in seven threads, and here is but five, so that, 
according to our best light, we lay the cause both 
upon the workmanship and the badness of the 
leather. "' 

After this report of the experts, additional wit- 
nesses were heard. Goodman Gregory testified 
diat while he had not done his part of the work, 
the fault was with Goodman Meigs, who said to 
him, "Flop them up, they are to go far enough." 
William Hook testified that he heard Meigs say to 
Gregory, " Flop them up together, they are to go 
far enough.'' John Gregory corroborated Hook, 
and said that he told Goodman Meigs to be cau- 
tious, because his father was old and his eyesight 
faileti him, and he durst not employ him himself, 
for he could not do as he had done. The Court 
decided, after hearing all the evidence, that both 
the parties were faulty. "Goodman Gregory had 
transgressed rules of righteousness, both in refer- 
ence to the country and to Goodman Meigs, though 
his fault to Goodman Meigs is the more excusable, 
because of the encouragement Goodman Meigs 
gave him to be slight in his workmanship, though 
he should not have taken any encouragement to do 
evil, and should have complained to some magis- 
trate, and not have wrought such leather in such a 
manner into shoes, by which the country, or who- 
soever wears them, must be deceived. But the 
greater guilt and fault lies upon Goodman Meigs 
for putting such unlanned, horny, unserviceable 
leather into shoes, and for encouraging Goodman 
Gregory to slight workmanship, upon motive that 
llie shoes were to go far enough, as if rules of 
righteousness reached not into other places and 
countries." The Court then ordered Meigs to pay 
a fine of teai pounds to the jurisdiction, with satis- 
faction to every particular person as damage shall 
be required and proved; and that none of the 
faulty shoes be carried out of the jurisdiction, but 
sold within it, if they were sold with information 
to the buyer that they were deceitful ware. They 
ordered Goodman Gregory, for his bail workman- 
siiip and fellowship in the deceit, to pay a fine of 
five pounds and the charges of the Court, and that 



he require nothing of Meigs for his loss of time in 
the work, whether it were more or less. It will be 
noticed that the judgment of the Court went be- 
yond the issues raised by the original pleadings, 
and this is a fair illustration of the summary way 
with which the Courts of New Haven Colony 
rendered justice to all parties interested. 

Several persons appeared from time to time as 
attorneys for parties who had civil causes before 
the Court, but it does not appear that there was 
any rule regulating the right to appear, nor that 
any of them ever appeared to defend persons 
charged with crime. Mr. Abraham Frost, of Stam- 
ford, appeared as attorney for some people of that 
town. John Cowper, Anthony Waters, Joseph 
Mead, Joseph Alsop, Sergeant Fowler, Joseph 
Gunner, James Bishop, William Leat and Mr. 
Gordon were among those who appeared, at one 
time and another, between 1645 and 1664, as at- 
torneys for parties having civil causes, and some of 
them had more or less knowledge of the English 
common law. The two last named appeared on 
two or three occasions as attorneys for the town 
of Guilford, to collect from Mr. John Ceffinch, of 
New Haven, certain rates due upon a lot held by 
Mr. Cellinch in Guilford. Mr. Ceffinch claimed 
that he had settled the matter witii I\Ir. Disburowe, 
the minister of Guilford, but after a continuance 
in Court for about two years, the town of Guilford 
succeeded in collecting the rates from Mr. Ceffinch. 

In 1649 Lancelot Fuller brought complaint 
against Francis Newman and his wife for defama- 
tion. In the absence of Mr. Fuller from town, 
iVIrs. Newman had said that Mrs. Fuller had en- 
tertained a young man by the name of Stone and 
made a feast or breakfast for him. Thereupon 
Mrs. Fuller went to I\Irs. Newman for private 
satisfaction. Mrs. Newman said she was sorry for 
it, and Mrs. Fuller requested her to go and cor- 
rect her statement where it had been spoken and 
to go to her husband when he came home. Mrs. 
Newman said she did not know how to do it, and 
Mrs. Fuller then told her she must learn. Upon 
this Mrs. Newman told her she would best hold 
her tongue and say no more about it, for if she 
did not it would bring out worse. Lancelot Ful- 
ler, when he came home, desired to know what 
that worse is which it will bring out. The witness 
before the Court testified to much gossip that had 
been going on among the good wives of the town 
concerning Mrs. Fuller, and as there seemed to be 
no foundation for it, they ordered Mr. Newman to 
pay Lancelot Fuller and wife five pounds, ami they 
also found that Mr. Newman fell short of his duty 
in not keeping the tongue of his wife under better 
control. 

WnciicKAi'T IN THE Nkw Haven Colony. 

The first settlers of New Haven believed in 
witchcraft and its punishment by law. Goodwife 
Knapp had been hung at Fairfield in the New 
Haven jurisdiction, and Mrs. Brewster, who had 
married Lawyer I'ell, had made herself quite busy 
with others in trying to induce Goodwife Knapp to 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 



333 



charge other women in the colony as witches. 
Several were suspected, inchiding Goodwife Staples 
and Mistress Elizabeth Goodman. Goodwife Lara- 
more reported that on one occasion when she saw 
Mistress Goodman come into the house of Good- 
man Whitnells, as soon as she saw her she thought 
of a witch. This being reported through the town, 
Mistress Goodman brought Goodwife Laramore 
before the Court for defamation of character. 
Goodwife Laramore denied having said this at the 
house of Whitnells, but admitted that she had so 
spoken at the house of Mr. Hooke, and that her 
ground was because Mr. Davenport about that 
time had occasion in his ministry to speak of 
witches, and said that a froward, discontented 
frame of spirit was a subject fit for the devil to 
work upon in that way, and that she, Goodwife 
Laramore looked upon Mistress Goodman to be of 
such a frame of spirit. Goodwife Laramore fur- 
ther said that Mistress Goodman had had a hear- 
ing once before the Governor for this, and the 
Governor asked her if she thought Mistress Good- 
man was a witch, and she answered no. Mistress 
Goodman was then asked what she had warned 
other persons to the Court for, and she said that 
they had given out speeches that made folks think 
that she was a witch, and she believed Mistress At- 
water was the cause of it all, and she desired that 
a certain e.xamination, put in writing three months 
ago before the Governor, might be read. She said 
that Mrs. Atwater had stated that she thought she 
was a witch, and that " Habbamocke " was her 
husband, but that she, Mrs Atwater, could not 
prove it. The evidence taken before the Governor 
was then read, and it appeared that several persons 
had testified before the Governor that Mistress 
Bishop and others had been taken suddenly sick 
after Mrs. Goodman had been in their houses. 
Children had heard Mistress Goodman talking 
softly to herself in her bed. Mrs. Goodyear testi- 
fied that she told Mrs. Goodman that if there were 
any such persons as witches she was persuaded 
God would find them out and discover them, 
"for," said she, "I never knew a witch died 
in their bed." Mrs. Goodman answered, "you 
mistake, for a great many die and go to the grave 
in an orderly way." After hearing several witnesses 
called by Mrs. Goodman on this occasion, the sen- 
tence of the Court was that she had unjustly called 
Goodwife Laramore and other persons before the 
Court, because she could not prove anything 
against them, and that her carriage doth justly ren- 
der her suspicious of witchcraft, "which she her- 
self, in so many words, confesseih, " therefore the 
Court advised her to look to her carriage there- 
after, "for the further proof these things will not 
be forgotten;" and she was charged not to go in 
an offensive way to folks' houses in the railing 
manner, as it seemed she had done, but that she 
keep her place and meddle with her own business. 
About a year later, in May, 1654, Thomas 
Staples, of Fairfield, brought complaint against 
Roger Ludlow, of Fairfield, declaring that Ludlow 
had defamed the wife of Staples, by reporting to 
Mr. and Mrs. Davenport that Mrs. Staples had laid 

30 



herself under the suspicion of being a witch, 
because she had caused the body of Mrs. Knapp to 
be new searched after she was hung, and when she 
saw the breast, she said, " if them were the marks 
of a witch then she was one, for she had such 
marks; " and further, Mr. Ludlow said, Knapp 
told him that Goodwife Staples was a witch, and 
also that Ludlow had said that Mrs. Staples made a 
trade of lying. Mr. Byrne, as attorney for Mr. 
Ludlow, desired the charge to be first proved to 
him. Mr. Davenp«rt being called, said he hoped 
what he had written in the letter would be received 
as evidence. But as the Court required his oath, 
and as he " looks at an oath in a case of necessity 
having confirmation of truth to end strife among 
men as an ordinance of God, according to He- 
brews 6, 16," he decided to take the oath and tes- 
tify. Mr. and Mrs. Davenport said Mr. Ludlow had 
in substance told them that Knapp'swife, the witch, 
came down from the ladder at the time of her ex- 
ecution and told them Goodwife Staples was a 
witch. Other witnesses testified that Mr. Ludlow 
had charged Goodwife Staples with getting on the 
track of lying. At this stage of the trial the attorney 
of Mr. Ludlow presented several depositions, some 
of which were taken before IMr. Ludlow himself. 
The plaintiff objected that the deposition taken by 
Mr. Ludlow ought not to be read, as he was an in- 
terested party, and they were not attested by the 
hands of any public officer. The Court admitted 
them however, to be read for such use as they 
should think proper. These depositions were of 
some length, and while they tended to show that 
Mrs. Staples had been under suspicion, and had 
made unfortunate remarks about Goodwife Knapp 
not being a witch, the defendant failed to prove 
that ;\rrs. Knapp ever charged Goodwife Staples 
with being a witch, and after hearing all that the 
witnesses for the plaintiff had to say, the Court 
found " that they see no cause to lay any blemish of 
the witch upon Goodwife Staples, but must judge 
that Mr. Ludlow hath done her wrong." The 
defendant was therefore ordered to pay ten pounds 
for reparation and five pounds more for costs. 

Punishment for Theft. 

The Deputy Governor, Mr. Goodyear, had a 
very troublesome servant, George Wood. He stole 
a knife and two silver spoons, and erased the gold- 
smith's marks from the spoons by filing them off. 
When charged with the offense he hid the knife and 
spoons in one place and another, and desperately 
denied that he had taken them, even cursing him- 
self if he had. When he was arrested he threatened 
to kill himself and refused to go to prison; then he 
broke the prison at night, but was caught by the 
watch before he escaped. When he was brought 
before the Court, however, he seemed sorrowful, 
and confessed all that was charged upon him to be 
true, and said that his sin had been very great, and 
he blessed God that he had thus discovered him and 
afflicted him, for by it he saw his condition and 
hoped it would be a warning to him. His penitence 
and confession had but little effect upon the Court. 



234 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



He was sentenced to be first set in the pillory for an 
hour, with a paper fixed to it declaring his offenses, 
after that he was to be severely whipped and then 
banished out of the jurisdiction, and if he is found 
within ita^aiu, " death is to be executed upon him 
without any further sentence," but as Mr. Goodyear 
had laid out some money on him which should be 
repaid, Wood was put in the prison in irons for four- 
teen days and the Deputy Governor was authorized 
during 'that time to sell him into any of the other 
colonies. 

Quakers. 

At the meeting of the General Court held in 
April, 1657, it was ordered "That no Quaker, 
Ranter, or other heretic of that nature be suffered 
to come into or abide in this jurisdiction, and if 
any such be raised up among ourselves, that they 
be speedily suppressed and secured for the better 
prevention of such dangers." 

One of the first persons to suffer after the pas- 
sage of this law was Edmond Barnes, a sailor and 
Quaker, who, being found ashore, was called be- 
fore the Court and examined. The Court, how- 
ever, found that he was weak in his way, and it was 
not proved that he had preached tenets of the 
()uakers on shore, and he was committed to the 
Marshal to be carried aboard the vessel, and not to 
come again on shore without license. The Marshal 
was also ordered to search for and seize any Quaker 
books he should find and bring them to the Court. 
It was also demanded of the master of the ship, why 
he brought (Quakers amongst us contrary to the 
law. The master, having pleaded his ignorance, and 
promising to endeavor to keep Barnes on board the 
vessel and to carry him out of the jurisdiction, was 
not further jiroceeded against at this time. The 
town of Southhold, on Long Island, was in 1659 
within the jurisdiction of New Haven Colony, and 
Arthur Smith, of that place, was sent over to New 
Haven to be tried on the charge of being corrupted 
with notions of the Quakers. Smith answered that 
he knew not that he was corrupted. To satisfy 
Smith that he was mistaken in relation to this, the 
Court then read to him several depositions which 
had been taken at Southhold. 

Joseph Horton, Jr., deposed that Arthur Smith 
told him if man would attend to the light that is 
within him, it would lead or bring him to heaven; 
and second, that there was neither devil there be- 
fore nor in Adam's time; and third, that either 
infants had no sin or were charged with no sin till 
they had sinned actually; and fourth, that he had 
no governor or teacher but God. 

Thomas Mapes deposed that Smith asserted he 
had no governor or teacher but God, and that 
men's laws were corrupt, and that the seven 
churches in Asia were the seven vials, and that 
there was no such thing as seven churches in Asia. 
Mapes further deposecl that having demanded of 
Smith why the <,)uakcrs looked into the faces of 
men and women, he answered him that by looking 
on men they could tell whether they had the mark 
of the beast, to be seen on the foreliead and right 
hand, and that he himself could discern it. Charles 



Grover deposed to the same statements as Mapes, 
and Philemon Dickerson testified to similar declar- 
ations made by Smith. Barnabas Winds deposed 
that Arthur Smith said in his hearing that the three 
friends of Job which came to visit him were the 
three persons in the Trinity. 

After these depositions, Arthur Smith was re- 
quired to give answer to these peculiarities. The 
Court found his answers to be profane, absurd, 
conceited and ridiculous. He was warned to take 
heed of dealing with the fundamental truths of 
God, and was told that the Court looked upon 
him as a man of profane spirit and disorderly way, 
that would overthrow the order and government 
God had established; and as he was one that had 
spoken profanely at the best, and blasphemously 
as testified by one witness, it was ordered that he 
be whipped and be bound in a bond of fifty 
pounds for his good behavior, and if he did not, 
he should be removed out of the jurisdiction. 

Divorce. 

The first code of laws passed by the General 
Court was compiled by Governor Eaton, and printed 
in London in 1656. By that code divorces were 
allowed, first for violation of the seventh com- 
mandment, secondly for fraudulent contract, and 
thirdly for desertion long continued, and after due 
means had been used to convince and reclaim the 
deserter. To justify divorce for desertion, the code 
made the reference to the fifteenth verse of the sev- 
enth chapter of the first Corinthians. When di- 
vorce was granted for violation of the seventh 
commandment, the innocent party had liberty to 
marry again. The first application for divorce 
seems to have come in 1658 from John Bartram, 
who sought to obtain a divorce from a wife which 
he said he had in the Barbadoes. While making this 
statement to the Court he was caught in a lie, for 
which he was fined ten shillings, and the Court 
then told him that it would not meddle with the 
business of his divorce, but advised him to prose- 
cute the matter, if he should see cause, "Where the 
state of the question had been understood." 

In 1 66 1, Mary Andrews, the wife of William 
Andrews, Jr., came into Court and asked for a di- 
vorce, because her husband was married to another 
woman that lived in Ireland. Witnesses were pro- 
duced to testify that Andrews had admitted to them 
in the Barbadoes that he had married a woman in 
Ireland. Some letters written from England cor- 
roborated this testimony, and the Court granted 
Mary Andrews a divorce with full liberty to marry 
again. 

In 1665, the Court amended the divorce law of 
1663, so as to permit a divorce after seven years' 
desertion and absence unheard of, and in such 
cases authorized the deserted party to marry again 
in the same manner as in cases of willful desertion. 

Ministers as Suitors in Court. 

The ministers were frequently witnesses in law- 
suits, and on some occasions were parties to them. 
In 165S, Rev. Abraham Pierson brought a case 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 



235 



against John Cowper and Matthew Moulthrop to 
recover a dun mare and her colt, which he alleged 
had been taken up from the common fields and 
kept by them, and which mare he believed to be 
his. It was the practice with the early settlers to 
brand their horses and stock and let them run at 
large through the summer in the common fields. 
Sometimes by mistake, and sometimes from base 
motives, parties would take up in the fall of the 
year stock which did not belong to them, and suits 
on account of such mistakes were not uncommon. 
When this case was first called in October, 1658, 
Mr. Pierson opened it by stating that he did not 
deem it unlawful for a minister of the Word to pre- 
sent his case to the judgment of the magistrate for 
the determination of such civil controversies as 
may arise betwixt themselves and others, for were it 
so then they would be in worse case in that respect 
than other men; but he had not been forward this 
way, but had offered to those two brothers to put 
the matter in question to arbitration and not be 
brought to public trial, but they told him it con- 
cerned an absent man, therefore they thought it 
needful to be determined by the Court. In the 
prosecution of the action the plaintiff' found himself 
not prepared in point of testimony, and at his de- 
sire it was continued. At the session of the Court 
in May, 1659, Mr. Pierson produced his witnesses. 
Richard Harrison upon oath stated that as he was 
seeking a mare that winter, when the iron work 
began, he saw a brown mare with a small colt of 
the same color, and on the same day he saw going 
to the water-side another brown mare with a colt. 
Thomas Harrison said when he came to Mrs. 
Gregson's Farm, that mare had a bay colt with her, 
and that mare with another mare and colt he drove 
to South End. Josiah Colt affirmed that he saw 
the same mare that Thomas Harrison saw.and other 
witnesses were of opinion that this mare was Mr. 
Pierson 's mare. Mr. Pierson swore to the mare as 
his own, and said that he had known the colt from 
the first year that he saw it with the mare. Several 
witnesses testified to matter which was irrelevant. 
Mr. Cowper testified that when Mr. Pierson saw 
this mare on one occasion he said, " what mare is 
this .'" as if he had not as much knowledge of her 
as he now speaks of To this Mr. Pierson answer- 
ed it was his great desire to see this mare, because 
they had said theirs was marked. After more con- 
tradictory evidence of this character, the Court 
found that after what had been alleged by both 
parties, and what had been testified to by the wit- 
nesses, the question who owned this mare remains 
doubtful, and the Court desired them to choose a 
man who might examine the mare and more fully 
inform the Court, or else bring the mare so as it 
might be seen by the Court, and that the issue might 
be put to this business. The case was then con- 
tinued one year and the mare was presented to the 
Court, at which time additional contradictory testi- 
mony was off^ered concerning what the parties and 
the witnesses had said at different times about the 
color of Mr. Pierson's mare and another mare. 
The Court then viewed the mare, and after waiting 
until the defendant declared that he had nothing 



more to say unless he should ask for a review, the 
Court decided "that they do not apprehend any 
clear evidence by either party presented," but the 
case -had been pending long and they hoped the 
matter might have been issued betwixt themselves, 
or by the help of some friends with them in way of 
arbitration; but the defendant apprehending him- 
self not in a fit capacity to so end it, the Court ac- 
cording to evidence presented and compared, de- 
cided that the mare now she hath been viewed, 
"they do at present judge that the most probable 
right falls on the plaintiff's side, and that he shall 
have the mare and what increase she hath in his 
possession." As for the costs which have been ex- 
pended about this business, the Court ordered them 
to be divided between them. It does not appear 
in this case that the Court paid much attention to 
the rule concerning the burden of proof, but as the 
plaintiff" was a minister, and the case was a "horse 
controversy," probably the prejudices of the Court 
inclined it toward the plaintiff". 

An action was brought at the October term of 
the Court, 1659, by Joseph Alsop against John 
Thompson, in an action of debt upon the forfeiture 
of a bond for the payment of sixty pounds, the sum 
named in the bond being one hundred and twenty 
pounds. The plaintiff" seemed to have a good case, 
and the Court by way of sentence declared that 
they looked upon the obligation as formed for one 
hundred and twenty pounds, but they would not 
be for extremities but for furtherance of righteous- 
ness, and they therefore gave judgment for only 
sixty pounds. 

At this early day the Courts of New Haven united 
equity and law jurisdiction and administered both 
from the same Bench without much regard to the 
form of the action. The simple, sometimes rude, 
system of procedure in the days when New Haven 
existed as an independent colony seemed to give 
general satisfaction to the people, although on 
many occasions the decisions were somewhat arbi- 
trary, and evidence was received contrary to the 
usual rules. The magistrates, whether sitting alone 
or together in the General Court, were honest God- 
fearing men, who intended to do what they con- 
sidered the right thing between the parties. 

After The Charter of 1660 .\nd the Union of 
THE Two Colonies. 

After the union with Connecticut in 1664, the 
Plaintiff or Justice Courts were continued in the 
several- towns with about the same jurisdiction they 
had exercised before. The County Court was es- 
tablished by the General Assembly of Connecticut at 
New Haven in October, 1665. This Court was the 
only Court at New Haven until October, 1 701, when 
a Superior Court was held at New Haven for the first 
time. With the establishment of the County Court 
in October, 1665, the practice of the English Courts 
was introduced, and then for the first time a jury was 
impaneled in New Haven. In 1^73 a new Code of 
Laws was approved, and printed at Cambridge, for 
the united colony. All of the judicial powers ne- 
cessary for the management of the affairs of the 



336 



HISTORV OF THE CITV OF NEW HA VEN. 



colonists, inchuiing all probate business, was tran- 
sacted by the County Court until 1716, when 
special Probate Courts were authorized for each 
county. By subsequent legislation, many of the 
towns of New Haven County were cut off from New 
Haven for probate purposes, and only a few towns 
of the county arc now attached to the New Haven 
Probate District. During a period of i5oyears after 
1 70 1, all the civil and criminal business of New 
Haven was disposed of in the County and Superior 
Courts. In 1784, when New Haven became a city, 
the charter granted at that time provided for the 
establishment of a City Court. Very little civil 
business was transacted in that Court until a recent 
period, and criminal jurisdiction was not conferred 
upon it until 1865. For many years the City Court 
of New Haven consisted of the Mayor of the City 
and the two Aldermen first chosen at the annual 
city meeting, the Mayor being the Chief Judge and 
the Aldermen being the Assistant Judges of the 
Court. The Mayor or the Senior Assistant Judge 
could hold a special City Court alone on motion of 
any party interested. At a later period however, 
the charter was so amended as to provide for the 
appointment of the City Court Judge, or Recorder, 
by the Common Council of the City, who was the 
sole Judge of the City Court. 

Soon after the union of the colonies had been 
perfected, the General Assembly provided for the 
Courts regular Judges and assistants in the various 
counties. The General Assembly also appointed 
for the several counties. Justices of the Peace, who 
held their Courts in the several towns, performing 
the work done in the old Plantation Courts by 
the Magistrates. In 1704, the County Courts were 
directed to appoint in each county and separate 
district a religious person to be attorney for the 
Queen, to prosecute all criminal offenses and to do 
all other things necessary or convenient, as an at- 
torney, to suppress vice and immorality. The 
Judges and Magistrates appointed by the General 
Assembly were men of mtelligence and character, 
and always had more or less knowledge of the 
common law of England. The population of New 
Haven was only about one thousand as late as 
1724. Trade had been dull; the commercial en- 
terprises in New Haven in the preceding century 
had resulted generally in failure; and there was 
neither the wealth, the business, nor the population 
in New Haven to encourage or suj)port a body of 
men devoted to the business of the legal profession. 
Therefore during the eighteenth century there were 
few regular lawyers in New Haven; only a few 
names appeared upon the records, and a still smaller 
number made any reputation for themselves as 
students or lawyers. A sufficient number of men 
learned in the law were found upon the Bench or 
practiced at the Bar to maintain a practice in con- 
formity to the common law of England, e.xcept as 
far as it was modified by the statutes of the 
General Assembly. Among those whose names 
stand foremost as regular practitioners in the 
last century may be especially mentioned Jared 
Ingersol, James Abraham Hillhouse, and Roger 
Sherman. 



Jared Ingersol was born in Milford in the year 
1722. He graduated at Yale College in 1742. 
Soon after graduation he commenced the practice 
of law in New Haven and early acquired a reputa- 
tion as an advocate. His eloquence was remark- 
able; he made the cause of his client clear to the 
jury by his power of explicit statement, and his 
logical method of reasoning. He was a man of 
open, frank and engaging manner, and in those 
days, when nearly all causes were tried by the jury 
rather than the Court, his eloquence and skill made 
him very successful in the management of the busi- 
ness of his clients. In 1757 he went to Great 
Britain as the agent of the colony, receiving the 
special appointment from the General Assembly. 
He went again to England in 1764, and while there 
was appointed to the office of Stamp-master. 

There is little doubt that he accepted this of- 
fice for the purpose of making the law as easy in 
its operation to his fellow countrymen as possible. 
Party feeling ran so high however, that he did not 
receive credit for the good motives that actuated 
him, and it made him personally unpopular through- 
out the colony. It was not a wise act on his part, 
and he gladly laid down the office after taking the 
famous ride from Wethersfield into Hartford, when he 
is reported to have said that he felt like the Angel 
of Death described in the Book of Revelations. 

In 1770, Mr. Ingersol was appointed by the 
Crown, Judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court in the 
Middle District of the Colonies. Having accepted 
this office, he went to Philadelphia to reside, and 
continued to live there until the office was abol- 
ished by the beginning of the Revolution, when he 
returned to New Haven, where he lived quietly 
until his death. 

James Abraham Hillhouse was born at New 
London. He graduated in 1749, was a tutor in 
Yale College, and soon after that time opened a law 
office in New Haven. He was very successful as 
an advocate and jury lawyer, and was for many 
years a member of the Legislative Council of the 
colony. He died in 1775. 

Roger Sherman was born at Newtown, Mas.s. , 
April 19, 1721. He received a common school 
education, and in 1743 settled at New Milford, 
Conn. Here he studied law and was admitted to 
the Bar in 1754. In 1761 he came to New Haven, 
opened an office in the town, and continued to 
reside in the home of his adoption until his death 
in 1793. He was a member of the lower branch 
of the General Assembly before the Revolution. 

In 1776 he was appointetl a Judge of the Super- 
ior Court and continued on that Bench for many 
years. While he held this office he was also chosen 
a member of the Continental Congress, and as such 
he was one of the committee that drew up the 
Declaration of Independence, He was also a 
member of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, 
and was immediately chosen a representative to the 
first Congress. In 1791 he was elected to the 
United States Senate. Mr. Sherman was in many 
respects the strongest man in public life New 




JMP 



J^. 



/ 



i 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 



237 



Haven had during the last century. His mind 
was powerful and his habits of industry were re- 
markable. He not only studied the books of his 
profession closely and carefully, but he ranged over 
the whole field of natural, moral and metaphysical 
philosophy, and history, logic and theology. He 
was a broad-minded, far-seeing statesman, and had 
great influence in the convention which framed the 
Federal Constitution. 

When the Federal Courts were established, after 
the adoption of the Constitution, the Circuit and 
District Courts for Connecticut were directed to be 
held alternately at New Haven and Hartford. For 
many years one term of the Circuit Court and two 
of the District Court in each year have been held 
in New Haven. Until the completion of the Fed- 
eral Building on Church street, about 1858, the 
United States Courts were always held in such 
rooms as were from time to time occupied by the 
Superior Court for New Haven County. Since 1858 
the Circuit and District Courts of the United States 
have been held in the third story of the Post Office 
Building on Church street. 

In 1855, the County Courts, which had been 
held continuously for nearly two centuries at New 
Haven, were abolished, and all the civil and crimi- 
nal jurisdiction of these Courts was given to the 
Superior Court. This Court has always been a 
Circuit Court, and to provide a force that could 
dispose of the addidonal business, four additional 
Judges of the Superior Court were appointed by the 
General Assembly of 1855. The Judges of the 
County Courts had been appointed annually, but 
the Judges of the Superior Court, prior to 1855, 
were appointed until they arrived at the age of 70 
years. Those appointed in 1855, and since that 
time, hold office for the term of eight years only. 
In 1869 a County Court was re-established in New 
Haven, under the title of the Court of Common 
Pleas, but with jurisdiction only in civil causes 
where the matter in demand does not exceed five 
hundred dollars. At the present time there are in 
New Haven — First, Justice of the Peace Courts, 
with jurisdiction in civil causes only where the 
matter in demand does not exceed one hundred 
dollars and with the right of appeal to the Court of 
Common Pleas; second, the City Court, with un- 
limited jurisdiction within the City of New Haven 
in civil causes, subject to a right of appeal to the 
Superior Court where the matter in demand ex- 
ceeds five hundred dollars, and with a criminal 
jurisdiction, without a jury, to the extent of im- 
prisonment for six months or a fine of two hundred 
dollars, but subject to appeal to the Superior 
Court; third, a Court of Common Pleas, with juris- 
diction as stated; and fourth, the Superior Court, 
which is in session almost continuously from Sep- 
tember until June and having unlimited jurisdiction 
in civil and criminal causes. Appeals may be 
taken from the City Court, the Court of Common 
Pleas and the Superior Court, upon all questions 
of law that may arise, to the Supreme Court of 
Errors, which holds a session at New Haven in 
June and December of each year. 



Court Buildings. 

No regular place was provided for the location 
of the Courts of New Haven until 171 7. It is 
believed from references in some of the colonial 
records, that on some occasions the Meeting-house 
was used for Court purposes, but generally the par- 
ticular Courts were held in convenient rooms in the 
houses of the magistrates. 

The first State House at New Haven was built in 
1717, andwas located near the northwest corner 
of the Green. A room in this State House was 
used for the sessions of the County and Superior 
Courts until 1763, when a fine brick building was 
erected for the State House. This building was 
located between the location of Trinity Church and 
the Centre Church, the entrance facing upon Temple 
street. The Court and Jury-rooms for the County 
of New Haven were on the first iloor of this 
building. 

When the Courts were removed from the old 
timber building on the corner of Elm and College 
streets to the New State House in 1761, the busi- 
ness had so increased, owing to the increase of 
population and wealth, that the docket of the 
April term of the County Court for 1765 contained 
757 cases, but many of them must have been causes 
of little importance. The jurisdiction of Justices of 
the Peace was at that time more limited than now. 
The old brick State House was used during the 
Revolution, and also during the first third of this 
century, for all Court and legislative purposes in 
New Haven. Many of the older inhabitants of 
New Haven at this time remember the substantial 
looking building as it stood just south of the then 
cemetery grounds upon the Green. 

At the June term of the County Court in the year 
1827, the following vote was put upon the record: 

" Whereas, 'Y\\& General Assembly of the State of 
Connecticut, at its session in May, 1827, resolved 
that it is expedient and necessary that a new State 
House for the accommodation of the General 
Assembly should be built in the City of New Haven, 
and that the same building contain accommo- 
dations for the various Courts which by law are to 
be held at New Haven, provided one-third of the 
expense is paid by the City, Town and County of 
New Haven; it is by this Court ordered that the 
Clerk forthwith issue notices to the several repre- 
sentatives last chosen to attend the General As- 
sembly belonging to the respective towns in this 
county, to assemble with the Judges of this Court 
at the State House in said New Haven, on the fifth 
day of July, 1827, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, for 
the purpose of taking into consideration the subject 
of said resolve, and, if deemed expedient, to lay a 
tax upon the inhabitants of said county to carry 
the same into eff"ect." 

On the 5th day of July, 1827, the Judges of the 
County Court, Hon. Bennet Bronson, Noyes Dar- 
ling, and Hon. Jared Bassett, together with Repre- 
sentatives Denis Kimberly, Charles A. Ingersoll, of 
New Haven; Jonathan Rose, of Branford; William 
Todd, of Guilford; John B. Reynolds, ofWalling- 
ford; Erastus Welton, of Waterbury; Abijah Car- 



238 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



rington, of Milford; and the other representatives 
of New Haven County, met at the old Brick State 
House and passed the following vote: 

"ToAy/, That it is expedient for the County of 
New Haven to unite with the State and with the 
City and Town of New Haven in erecting a State 
House, pursuant to the resolve of the General 
Assembly in May last, and that said State House 
contain a suitable Court-room, Jury-room and two 
Lobbies for the accommodation of the Courts and 
of the Bar, and also a room and a fire-proof vault 
for the use of the Clerk of the County and Superior 
Courts; and to effect said object, this county will 
assume and agree to raise and pay such a sum as 
shall accrue from the taxes of one cent on the 
dollar on the list of the polls and ratable estate of 
the inhabitants of the county and no more." 

Tliis State House, which was soon after erected, 
continued to be used as a Court House until 1861, 
and as a State House by the Legislature until 1874. 
Since 1874 it has been the jiropertyof New Haven, 
but it has not been used for public purposes to 
any great extent. The Court-room was on the 
first floor, and upon the east side. In this room 
the celebrated Amistad slaver case was tried before 
Judge Judson, of the United States District Court. 
The notorious divorce case of Bennett vs. Bennett 
was also tried in this room. In i860 the City and 
Town of New Haven erected the present City Hall 
on Church street, upon the site of- the old county 
jail, which had been purchased for that purpose, 
and, upon motion of the Bar of New Haven County, 
steps were taken to remove the Courls from the 
State House to the City Hall. 

At a Bar meeting held in April, 1861, Messrs. 
Alfred Blackman, John S. Beach, Charles R. Inger- 
soll, Norton J. Buel, Dexter R.Wright and William 
B. Wooster were appointed a Committee of the 
Bar to act with the County Commissioners of New 
Haven County in the selection of suitable rooms for 
Court purposes. A contract was made by these 
gentlemen with the city authorities to use these 
rooms at an annual rental of five hundred dollars. 
In 1870 the city authorities notified the County 
Commissioners that the lease expired May i, 1872, 
and would not be renewed by the city. The 
Court-rooms in the City Hall were used by the 
county, however, from December, 1862, until 
January, 1873. They were convenient, well 
lighted, and well ventilated, and, except in the 
summer months, were used almost continuously 
for Court purposes by the Superior Court and the 
Court of Errors. In these rooms the divorce case 
of Judd vs. Judd, and the case of the State vs. Mr.s. 
Lydia Sherman were tried ; and the investigation 
into the election frauds of 1871, by the Legislative 
Committee on Contested Elections, was held. 

The representatives of New Haven County met 
in the Superior Court-room of New Haven on the 
2d of June, 1 87 1, and authorized the Commis- 
sioners to purchase a lot and erect a Court House 
in New Haven, and laid a tax of two mills upon 
the dollar for that purpose. The Committee of the 
Bar, consisting of Messrs. Alfred Blackman, Dexter 
R. Wright, Arthur D. Osborne, John S. Beach 



and Luzon B. Morris, was appointed to confer 
with the County Commissioners on the subject of 
providing the new Court House. The Commis- 
sioners at that time were Messrs. Rice, Dibble and 
Brocket. Messrs. James E. English and Morris 
Tyler acted with the other committees in the selec- 
tion of the site. After the examination of several 
proposed locations on Church, Elm and Orange 
streets, it was unanimously agreed to purchase the 
lot next north of the City Hall, then belonging to 
the heirs of the late Dr. Jonathan Knight. The 
sum of forty-eight thousand dollars was paid for 
the site. The contracts were immediately entered 
into for the erection of the present County Court 
House, which was completed in January, 1873. 
The cost of this building, with its furniture, was 
about one hundred and thirty-four thousand dol- 
lars. The lower floor has upon it the oflices of 
the County Commissioners and the rooms for the 
Court of Common Pleas. Upon the second floor 
are the Bar Library and the Superior Court-room. 
The Superior Court-room on this floor is also used 
for the Sessions of the Supreme Court of Errors. 
In it there have been tried a large number of civil 
cases of magnitude. The case of the State against 
Herbert H. Hayden was tried in this room from 
October, 1879, to January, 1880, and here also 
was tried the cass of the State against Walter and 
James Malley, which was begun in May and con- 
cluded in July, 1882. On the third floor of this 
building are the rooms of the Yale Law .School, 
the use of which is given by the county, and in 
consideration of that use, the valuable Law Library 
of this school is free for the use of the Bar and 
Courts of New Haven County. This library is one 
of the finest in the country, and it will continue to 
be kept well supplied with all the valuable text- 
books and reports in the English language, be- 
cause of the permanent endowment fund of ten 
thousand dollars, which was given in 1873 by Ex- 
Governor James E. English. 

The increasing business of the Superior Court 
in this county, and the separation of the criminal 
business from the civil side by the establishment of 
separate criminal quarterly terms, required addi- 
tional accommodation. In 1883 the Bar appointed 
a Committee, consisting of Messrs. Lynde Har- 
rison, Simeon E. Baldwin, John W. Ailing, Jona- 
than Ingersoll and William A. Wright, to confer 
with the County Commissioners and Representa- 
tives with reference to an extension of the County 
Court House. At a meeting of the County Com- 
missioners and Representatives, called for the pur- 
pose, the Commissioners were authorized to pur- 
chase the property of the late George Hoatiley 
next north of the County Building. The lot and 
house were purchased and the erection of the pres- 
ent Criminal Court accommodations was at once 
commenced. This building was first occupied at 
the October Term, 1884. It contains upon the first 
floor offices for the Sherift', a Grand Jury-room, a 
lock-up for prisoners, rooms for male and female 
witnesses, and a room connected by a private stair- 
way directly wath the Superior Court-room, for the 
use of the petit jury. This floor is especially ar- 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 



239 



ranged for the seclusion and lodging of a petit 
jury during the whole of a criminal trial if it 
shall be deemed necessary at any time. Upon the 
second floor of this building are the offices of the 
State Attorney and Clerk, and a Court-room with 
a well-ventilated gallery for the accommodation of 
spectators. The Hoadley House, now standing 
upon the front portion of the lot, is the property 
of the county, is rented for law offices, and will be 
ready for the erection of additional Court accom- 
modation when it is needed. This property, with 
the building and furniture, cost the county about 
one hundred thousand dollars. The City Court of 
New Haven occupied a small Court-room on the 
first lloor of the City Hall from 1863 until 1874. 
In 1S72 the City of New Haven erected on Court 
street the building known as the Police Court 
Building. On the first lloor are the headquarters 
of the Police Force and the City Lock-up. On 
the second lloor there are the Court-rooms of the 
City Court and the offices of the City Attorney and 
the Clerk of that Court. On the third floor are 
additional accommodations for the use of the Po- 
lice Force. The second floor of the City Hall, the 
two County Court Buildings, and the Police Court 
Building arc connected in the rear by external iron 
bridges. There are also open drive-ways passing 
round the rear of these buildings for the ingress 
and egress of prisoners in vans, without carrying 
them in or out of public entrances. In the 
City Hall, on the first floor, are the vaults and 
rooms of the Probate Court for the District of 
New Plaven, and on the second floor all of the 
city and town records are kept, together with all 
the oflices connected with the management of the 
town and city government. It is doubtful whether 
any city in the country has such a convenient ar- 
rangement of all its public offices as the City and 
County of New Haven. The buildings are well 
arranged, no taint of jobbery has been connected 
with the erection of any of them, and the prop- 
erty is worth to-day far more than it cost. 

Celebrated Cases in New Haven. 

It would be impossible to enumerate within the 
limits of this article the important cases that have 
been tried in New Haven during this century. 
Many of them, involving important principles of 
law or large sums of money, naturally attracted 
public attention at the time. But several, by the 
peculiarity of the circumstances surrounding them, 
had a wide newspaper celebrity at the time of their 
trials. The most important of all, and the one 
attracting attention throughout the world, was the 
Amistad case, which was tried in 1840 in the United 
States District Court. The first acts of this drama 
were in the wilds of Africa, in the Island of Cuba, 
and upon the Atlantic Ocean, The last act was 
performed in the quiet town of New Haven. The 
republic of the United States and the monarchy 
of Spain were interested in the result. The 
friends of humanity and liberty all over the w'orld, 
and the advocates of slavery in this country and the 
Spanish colonies, were deeply interested spectators. 



The slave trade was prohibited by the laws of 
Spain, and Africans introduced into Spanish terri- 
tory in violation of those laws were declared to be 
free. A slaver sailing under Portuguese colors, in 
June, 1839, landed a cargo of kidnapped Africans 
upon the coast of Cuba, near Havana, and they 
were soon afterward sold as slaves. All this was 
done upon Spanish soil, in violation of the laws that 
made them free; but these laws were seldom en- 
forced. Fifty-two of these slaves w-ere purchased 
by two Spaniards, named Ruiz and Monies, who 
obtained a license to transport them on a vessel, the 
Amistad, from Havana to Principe. They had no 
opportunity to present their case to the Captain- 
General of Cuba, to vindicate their claims to free- 
dom. Failing to secure their liberty by legal pro- 
cess, after they had been out at sea for five days, the 
Africans arose upon the captain and crew, under 
the lead of Cinque, a stalwart and intelligent ne- 
gro. They all belonged to a warlike tribe in Africa, 
and after succeeding in killing the captain and cook 
of the vessel, they spared the lives of the other 
whites upon the vessel, including those of their so- 
called masters, Ruiz and Monies. They then or- 
dered the vessel to be steered for Africa, and during 
the daytime compelled the crew to sail easterly by 
the sun. In the night season, however, Ruiz and 
Monies sailed the vessel toward the north. After 
pursuing this zig-zag course for about two months, 
they reached the easterly end of Long Island Sound, 
and on the 26th of August, 1839, the vessel was 
boarded by Lieutenant Gedney, of the United 
States brig Washington, and taken into New Lon- 
don, Conn. Here the Africans were seized and 
committed to the jail in New Haven by the United 
States Marshal, on a warrant issued from the Dis- 
trict Court of the United States for Connecticut, to 
answer the charge of murder upon the high seas. 
A libel was brought, as in Admiralty proceedings, 
by Lieutenant Gedney and some Long Islanders 
who assisted him in arresting some of the negroes 
who had gone ashore for water, against the vessel, 
and also against the negroes themselves, as if they 
were so many bales of goods, claiming them as sal- 
vage. Ruiz and Montes also brought a libel in 
the District Court against the negroes, as their 
owners. The Spanish minister at Washington, 
seemingly oblivious of the violation of Spanish laws, 
demanded the vessel and cargo under the treaty of 
1795, and claimed that the negroes should be sent 
to Havana to be tried for the murders they had 
committed. LTpon this claim of the Spanish min- 
ister, the LInited States intervened in behalf of the 
Spanish government, and also suggested that if his 
claim was not well founded, the Africans should be 
delivered up to the President of the United States 
to be transported back to Africa. The District At- 
torney of the United States for Connecticut at that 
time was Mr. Holabird.ofVVinsted; the United States 
Gc)vernment authorized him to employ counsel to 
assist him, and he retained Hon. Ralph I. Ingersoll. 
All of these formidable legal preparations in the in- 
terest of slavery, and against the poor friendless 
Africans, aroused a profound feeling among humane 
and generous men in the North. The Abolitionists 



240 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



took hold of the case, and a committee, consisting 
of Lewis Tappan, Joshua Leavitt and S. S. Jocelyn, 
was appointed in New York to solicit funds, em- 
ploy counsel, and see that the rights of the Africans 
were faithfully protected. This committee imme- 
diately retained Hon. Roger S. Baldwin and Seth 
P. Staples, of New Haven; and Theodore Sedg- 
wick, Jr., of New York. Mr. Baldwin took up 
die case with his accustomed zeal and industry. 
The Africans were confined in the New Haven Jail, 
but were daily taken out on to the New Haven 
Green, under guard, for exercise. They could not 
speak the English language, and no one in New 
Haven could speak theirs. Mr. Baldwin sought 
the assistance of his friend and kinsman. Professor 
(iibbs, of Yale College, the eminent linguist and 
philanthropist. He obtained from the Africans 
something of their vo'cabulary. Taking these words 
and sounds he went to New York, and by visiting 
the crews of the foreign ships in that city he at 
length found a young man by the name of James 
Coley, who was acquainted with both the English 
language and the dialect of these Africans. He 
brought him to New Haven, and valuable commu- 
nication was at once begun between the Africans 
and their counsel. On the 17th of September, 
1839, they were taken before the Circuit Court of 
the United States to be tried for murder, but Judge 
Thompson decided that the Africans could not be 
held for trial in the United States for a murder 
committed on the high seas on board a Spanish 
vessel. Judge Thompson however refused to dis- 
charge them, on the ground that they were held in 
custody by the District Court as merchandise, in 
consequence of the libels against them. The Span- 
ish minister now complained to the Secretary of 
State that the Courts of the United States should 
not take cognizance of the libels, but give up the 
negroes at once to the Spanish authorities, not as 
slaves, but as assassins. The Secretary of State in- 
formed him that when the District Court should 
meet on the 7th of January, 1840, it might order 
the restitution of the vessel, cargo and negroes, and 
that it would be necessary for the Spanish govern- 
ment to take charge of them as soon as the Court 
should announce its decision. This minister also 
requested the President to order the transportation 
of the negroes in a government vessel to Cuba on 
their release. Accorilingly, such a vessel was an- 
chored off the harbor in New Haven three days 
after the District Court assembled, to be in readiness 
for that purpose. In the meantime Lewis Tappan 
and other friends of the negroes had arranged with 
the authorities of the underground railroad to 
run them off to Canada, if, after release, any effort 
should be made by the Government to send them 
to Cuba. The case was tliroughly tried before the 
District Court by the eminent counsel engaged, 
and the fact that Judge Judson had no political 
sympathy with the anti-slavery party of that day, 
encouraged the ho|)es of the Spanish claimants, but 
the Court decided that the papers of Ruiz ami 
Monies were fraudulent; that the negroes were 
native Africans illegally imported into the United 
States; that they were not slaves, but free men; 



that no libels could lie against them as merchan- 
dise; and that they should be sent back to Africa 
according to the provisions of the treaty of 18 19. 
The Secretary of State then ordered the District 
Attorney to take an appeal to the Circuit Court and 
this was done, but Justice Thompson of that Court 
affirmed the decision of the District Court. An 
appeal was then taken to the Supreme Court of the 
United States. Ample preparations were made for the 
trial before the Supreme Court, and the Hon. John 
Quincy Adams, the venerable ex-President, " the 
old man eloquent," was retained as senior counsel. 
The arguments in behalf of the Africans before 
the Supreme Court were made by Mr. Adams and 
Mr. Baldwin. Mr. Baldwin as junior counsel made 
the first argument. The laboring oar in the prep- 
aration of this case naturally fell upon Mr. Bald- 
win. Mr. Adams had not practiced law for many 
years. As he stated in opening his argument, it 
was thirty-two years since he had appeared in any 
case in the Supreme Court, and he said pathetic- 
ally in his closing words, " Not one of the Judges of 
th.it day now remains." The case is fully reported 
in the 15th Pelers Reports, page 579. When Mr. 
Adams rose to present the case, he said "The 
rights of my clients to their lives and liberties have 
already been defended by my learned friend and 
colleague [meaning Hon. Roger S. Baldwin, of 
New Haven] in so able and complete a manner as 
leaves me scarcely anything to say, and I feel that 
such full justice has been done to their interests, 
that any fault or imperfection of mine will merely 
beattributed to this cause." Mr. Baldwin argued the 
case exhaustively, and upon broad principles. He 
said: "This case is not only one of deep interest 
in itself — it affects the destiny of the unfortunate 
Africans whom I represent, contending for freedom 
and for life, with two powerful governments arrayed 
against them — but it involves considerations deeply 
aflfecting our national character in the eyes of the 
whole civilized world, as well as questions of power 
of the Government of the United States, which are 
regarded with interest and alarm by a large portion 
of our citizens; it presents for the first time the 
question whether that Government which was es- 
tablished for the promotion of justice, which was 
founded on the great principles of the Revolution, 
as proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, 
can, consistently with the genius of our institutions, 
become a party to proceedings for the enslavement 
of human beings cast upon our shores, and found 
in the condition of freemen within the territory and 
limits of a free and sovereign state." Chancellor 
Kent said of the argument of Mr. Baldwin: "It is 
very logical, and absolutely unanswerable in all the 
points taken. His forensic performance alone would 
give its author high professional eminence." The 
Court-room was crowded during the arguments, 
and the argument for the United State was made 
by Hon. John (iilpin. The excitement was intense. 
Mr. Adams sjtoke for two days. On the night 
following, Mr. Justice Barbour, of Virginia, one of 
the members of the Court, was stricken down and 
suddenly died. A week later the opinion of the 
Court was delivered by Justice Storey. So much of 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 



241 



the decision of the District Court as allowed salvage 
to Gedney and others for the vessel and cargo was 
allowed; but the Court held that the Africans were 
kidnapped and unlawfully transported to Cuba; 
that they were purchased by Ruiz and Monies with 
a knowledge of the fact that they were free men; 
that they did not become pirates and robbers in 
taking possession of the Araistad and attempting to 
regain their native country; that there was nothing 
in the Treaty of 1819 that justified the claim for 
their surrender; and that theUnited States was bound 
to respect their rights as much as those of Spanish 
subjects. The decree of the Circuit Court affirming 
that of the District Court was affirmed by the Su- 
preme Court, except that so much of the decree as 
directed the negroes to be transported to Africa was 
reversed, and the negroes were declared "to be 
free, and to be dismissed from the custody of the 
Court, and to go without day." The Africans were 
then released. Mr. Tappan and his friends had 
most of them reconveyed to Africa, where they be- 
came the center of theMendi Mission of the Amer- 
ican Missionary Society. 

One of the most important murder cases ever tried 
in Connecticut was that of the State against Willard 
Clark. Clark was a small storekeeper in New 
Haven, and had been in love with a young girl 
named Henrietta Bogert, who had married a young 
man named Wight. In 1854, and a short time 
after her marriage, Clark who had brooded over his 
disappointment, went to the house where the young 
man lived, and shot him with a pistol through the 
head. He was indicted for murder in the first 
degree, and soon retained for his defense Hon. 
Charles Chapman, of Hartford, and Hon. Henry 
B. Harrison, of New Haven. The State Attorney 
at that time was Hon. E. K. Foster. The defense 
was insanity, caused by undue brooding over this 
and other love affairs. Depositions were taken for 
Clark in various parts of the country showing his 
conduct with women on other occasions. No 
one had suspected before that time that Clark was 
an insane man within the ordinary meaning of 
the word. As junior counsel, Mr. Harrison went 
into the preparation of the case with his usual 
thoroughness and abilit}'. The young woman 
was about seventeen years of age, and Clark was 
past thirty. He had courted her with assiduity, 
and she had repulsed most of his attentions with 
disdain and disgust. Clark insisted that, notwith- 
standing her apparent want of affection for him, 
she was deeply in love with him, and that her 
negatives were intended to be understood by him 
as affirmatives. He seemed to believe that after 
her marriage with Wight she was dumbly pleading 
with him to rid her from a hateful alliance. At 
that time the defense of insanity upon a single 
subject, monomania, had not received the general 
favor with juries which it has since acquired. The 
eloquence of his counsel, and the careful prepara- 
tion of the evidence, convinced the jury that he 
was not legally responsible for the crime he had 
committed, and he was acquitted on the ground 
of insanity. The verdict was not generally ap- 



proved at the time, but the subsequent conduct of 
Clark in prison satisfied all who studied his case, 
that while this was one of the first of the so-called 
cases of emotional insanity, Clark was fairly en- 
titled to the benefit of the doubt concerning his 
legal or moral responsibility. Judge Ellsworth, 
who presided over the Court, did not approve the 
verdict, and, as the law authorized him to provide 
proper custody for prisoners acquitted on such 
grounds, he ordered him to be confined in the 
county jail, and subsequently in the State's prison. 
Clark remained there for more than twenty years, 
when he was transferred to the State Insane 
Asylum, and died there about 1880. 

In the year 1859, the celebrated divorce case of 
Mary A. Bennett against Dr. George Bennett was 
tried in the Superior Court-room of the old State 
House. A divorce was sought for under what 
was known as the omnibus clause of the old 
statute, that is, on account of "such misconduct 
as permanently destro3'S the happiness of the peti- 
tioner, and defeats the purposes of the marriage 
relation." Dr. Bennett had made a large fortune 
by the manufacture of pills. He occupied a very 
handsome house, and drove his horses and carriage 
about the streets. Mrs. Bennett was a very hand- 
some lady, many years younger than her husband. 
The Counsel for Mrs. Bennett were Messrs. 
Alfred Blackman, Ralph I. Ingersoll and Joseph 
Sheldon. The Counsel for Dr. Bennett were E.x- 
Governors Roger Baldwin and Henry Dutton and 
Mr. George H. Watrous. The case was care- 
fully prepared and thoroughly tried by both sides. 
Witnesses were examined for nineteen days. The 
newspapers of New Haven and other places served 
up the gossip of the trial for the entertainment of 
thousands of readers. Mrs. Bennett was granted a 
divorce, the custody of her children, and obtained 
by way of alimony about fifteen thousand dollars. 

A similarly interesting divorce case was tried in 
the Superior Court-room in the City Hall about 
1866, being the case of Elizabeth Judd against 
Rev. O. B. Judd, Jr. Rev. Mr. Judd was the 
somewhat popular pastor of a young church in 
this city, but he combined with his theological 
teachings the business of a New York speculator 
during the week. Mrs. Judd was a bright and 
intelligent lady, fond of society. Misconduct and 
several other causes were alleged and a cross bill 
was filed by the respondent alleging the same 
grounds for divorce as those in the petition. The 
Counsel for Mrs. Judd were Messrs. Dutton and 
Watrous, and Alfred Blackman and Henry B. 
Harrison appeared for Rev. Mr. Judd. The case 
was fully reported in the newspapers in the same 
manner as had been the case of Bennett vs. Bennett. 
The divorce was finally granted to the respondent 
on his cross bill. 

One of the most remarkable poisoners in the 
country w^as Mrs. Lydia M. Sherman, of Derby. 
She killed two husbands and several children by 
arsenic. The number of sudden deaths in her 



242 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



family finally produced so much suspicion that her 
last husband was disinterred, and after a post 
7>wiiem examination she was arrested and indicted 
for murder in the first degree. There was great 
excitement over the case in the Naugatuck Valley, 
and she was advertised throughout the country as 
the Lucrezia Borgia of the century. She was 
prosecuted by State Attorney E. K. Foster and 
Mr. William B. Wooster, who was retained by the 
people of that town. She was defended by Mr. 
George H. Watrous and Mr. William C. Robinson. 
Professor George Barker, of the SheflTield Scientific 
School, made a decided reputation for himself by 
his testimony as an e.xpert, he having made the 
chemical examination of the stomach of Mr. Sher- 
man. Mrs. Sherman was convicted of murder in 
the second degree, and was sentenced to State's 
prison for life, where she died a few years later. 
The feeling against hanging a woman in Con- 
necticut probably saved her from a conviction of 
murder in the first degree. 

In May, 1871, a Legislative Committee of the 
General Assembly sat in the Superior Court-room 
for the purpose of determining what frauds, if any, 
had been perpetrated in the preceding State elec- 
tion in the Fourth Ward of New Haven. When 
the box was opened only about four hundred bal- 
lots were found for Marshall Jewell in the box. It 
was claimed by the Republicans that one hundred 
Republican ballots had been abstracted from the 
box after the election, for the purpose of making 
the number of ballots tally with the check list, and 
thereby prevent the discovery of the manipulation 
of the box in the interest of the Democratic candi- 
date. For the purpose of proving that over five hun- 
dred Republicans had voted for Marshall Jewell for 
Governor, the managers of that candidate's case pro- 
duced within two or three days in the Court-room 
five hundred qualified voters of the Fourth Ward, 
who testified that they voted on the first Monday of 
April, 1 87 1, for Marshall Jewell for Governor. 
This was considered at the time a novel method of 
inquiry into a disputed election, but the evidence 
was admitted by men of both parties to be unan- 
swerable. It produced much interest and excite- 
ment at the time. 

On the 2d of September, 1878, Mary Stannard 
was found in North Madison in a piece of woods 
near her father's house, dead, with her throat cut. 
Suspicion pointed to Herbert H. Hayden, a lay 
preacher of the Methodist Church. He was ar- 
rested, and in October was indicted by the Grand 
Jury for murder in the first degree, k pusl morlem 
examination of the body of the girl showed that a 
short lime before her throat was cut she had had a 
large dose of arsenic administered to her. An ex- 
amination into Ilaydcn's movements showed that 
the girl had formerly been a servant in his house; 
that lie had had two or three secret interviews with 
her just before the murder; and that on the morn- 
ing of her death he went to Middlclown and pur- 
chased an ounce of arsenic. Hayden accounted 
/or the arsenic he purchased, by producing, through 



one of his friends, an ounce of that poison which 
he said he put upon the beam in his barn on the 
noon of the day of the murder. The accused ac- 
counted for his disappearance on the afternoon of 
the murder, by stating that he was at work in a 
secluded wood lot near his house. The claim of 
the State in relation to the arsenic produced was 
that some person in the interest of Hayden had 
put an ounce of arsenic in his barn several days 
after his arrest, and after Hayden knew that the 
body had been disinterred for the purpose of hav- 
ing the stomach examined for poison. The Sheriff 
of the county obtained possession of the substituted 
arsenic, and the State authorities afterwards pro- 
cured samples of arsenic from the jar in Middle- 
town whence Hayden purchased his on the day of 
the murder. The trial of Hayden began in the 
present Superior Court-room in October, 1879, 
Chief-Justice Park presiding. Hayden was de- 
fended by Mr. George H. Watrous, Mr. Samuel 
Jones and Mr. L. M. Hubbard. The State was rep- 
resented by its Attorney for New London County, 
Mr. T. M. Waller, Mr. Lynde Harrison, who was 
appointed Special State Attorney at the time of the 
resignation of the former Attorney for New Haven 
County, Hon. O. H. Piatt, and Mr. Edmund 
Zacher. The special feature of this case which at- 
tracted attention, was the evidence of Professors 
Dana and Brewer, of Yale College, and Professor 
Wormley, of the University of Pennsylvania, all 
of whom were eminent microscopists, and author- 
ities in chemistry and crystallography. These gen- 
tlemen examined specimens of the arsenic in Mary 
Stannard's stomach and from the jar from which 
Hayden purchased the arsenic in Middletown, and 
from the substituted or barn arsenic. Their testi- 
mony occupied several days, and they all agreed 
that the arsenic produced by Hayden in his barn 
was not the arsenic which he purchased on the 
2d of September, and further that the speci- 
mens of undissolved arsenic in the girl's stomach 
were precisely like those which he purchased. 
Hon George Watrous cross-examined these gentle- 
men at great length and with great shrewdness, 
and by his ability in this cross-examination so con- 
fused the minds of the jury that he probably saved 
his client from conviction. The case was given to 
the jury in January, 1880, and resulted in a dis- 
agreement. It was one of the most remarkable 
cases of circumstantial evidence reported in recent 
yeans. The State proved clearly that Hayden had 
had the time, the opportunity and the means in 
his possession to commit this murder, and Hayden 
was the only person in the vicinity who could not 
account for himself during the hour when the mur- 
der was committed. But the State was unable to 
show clearly the motive that caused the deed. 

Upon a Saturday morning in August, 1S81, 
Jennie Cramer, of New Haven, was found fioating 
in the water at Savin Rock, not far from there. 
On the preceding Wednesday night she had been 
in close companionship with Walter and James 
Malley, of New Haven, and Blanche Douglass, of 
New 'Vork. The relations between them had been 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 



243 



of a criminal nature and they were together beyond 
doubt on part of Thursday. It was not certain 
that they were together after tliat time, nor was it 
certain that Jennie Cramer was ever seen alive 
after Thursday evening. The Malley boys and 
Blanche Douglass were arrested, and a few months 
later they were indicted for murder in the first de- 
gree. A post mortem e.xamination revealed some 
traces of arsenic in her body. It was claimed by 
the accused that she had taken arsenic for her 
complexion, and that the cause of her death was 
accidental drowning, and that they knew nothing 
of her movements after Thursday noon. The 
theory of the State was that she had been killed by 
the accused for the purpose of covering the evi- 
dence of a violent crime. The theory of the de- 
fense was suicide by drowning. The trial was 
commenced in the present Superior Court-room in 
May, 1882, and concluded in July. Judge Granger 
presided. State-Attorney Doolittle and Mr. C. K. 
Bush conducted the case for the State. The defend- 
ants had several Counsel, including Mr. William C. 
Case and Mr. L. M. Blydenburgh for Walter Mal- 
ley, Mr. William B. Stoddard and Mr. Dow for 
Blanche Douglass, and Mr. Eugene Cassidy, of 
Philadelphia, for James Malley. As in the case of 
Hayden, the trial was reported by representatives 
of New York as well as New Haven papers. There 
was no evidence to show that the accused had 
arsenic in their possession, but the State showed 
clearly that the accused had time and opportunity 
to commit the murder. But, as in the Hayden 
case, the evidence of motive was not strong and 
clear, nor could the jury or public be satisfied it 
was not a case of suicide. The prisoners were 
acquitted after a short deliberation by the jury, 
and the mystery whether Jennie Cramer's death 
was caused by the administration of arsenic to hide 
the felonies perpetrated, or by accidental drowning 
or suicide, will never be solved. 

Noted Lawyers of this Century. 

No city of the Union has furnished, in proportion 
to its population, a larger number of industrious, 
well-read, able lawyers of integrity and learning 
than New Haven. In the ranks of the Bar of New 
Haven there is to-day a body of lawyers devoted to 
their profession, who would take leading positions 
in the largest cities of the country if they had com- 
menced the practice of the law in those places. 
Many of them are men noted for their ability, in- 
tegrity, faithfulness, and that becoming modesty 
which is so often associated with culture and learn- 
ing. These men are the trusted counselors of 
families and corporations. INIuch of their best 
work is done in leading their clients into the paths 
of peace and settlement, rather than into ways of 
litigation, yet they are men who do not fear pro- 
longed contests in the Courts when they find the in- 
terests of their clients require it. Many of them 
have taken but little, if any, part in public affairs, 
and when they are gone their names will only be 
found in the body of the Connecticut Reports. 
But those they leave behind them will cherish as 



their best inheritance the reputation of a father's 
work in life faithfully and well done. The local 
historian of the future will name them with pride, 
and the City of New Haven will mourn their loss. 

New Haven has not furnished from its Bar so 
large a number of its members to the Bench of the 
higher Courts as some other cities of the State, but 
this is partially due to the fact that the emoluments 
of the profession have been greater than the salaries 
offered by the State to its judges. David Daggett 
and Henry Dutton became Judges of the Supreme 
Court of Errors while residents of New Haven. 
Charles I. Ingersollwas made a Judge of the United 
States District Court. Clark Bissell and Joel Hin- 
man became residents of New Haven after they 
were made Judges of the Supreme and Superior 
Courts. Edward I. Sanford and Henry Stoddard, 
who now grace and adorn the Bench of the Superior 
Court, were appointed to that Bench while residents 
of New Haven. The Bar of New Haven has 
furnished from its ranks several judges for the 
County Court, the Probate Court and the City Court 
of New Haven, most of whom have given general 
satisfaction to the public and the profession. 

It is obviously impracticable to furnish within 
the limits of this article suitable biographical notices 
of those judges and lawyers who are now living in 
New Haven. 

Among the able lawyers who have practiced at 
the New Haven Bar since the adoption of the Fed- 
eral Constitution, but who are now deceased, there 
stand more or less prominently the names of Pier- 
pont Edwards, Roger Sherman, Nathaniel Smith, 
David Daggett, Dyer White, Jonathan IngersoU, 
Simeon Baldwin, Eleazer Foster, John Hart Lynde, 
Seth Staples, Samuel Hitchcock, Isaac H. Towns- 
end, William W. Boardman, Dennis Kimberly, 
Roger S. Baldwin, Alfred Blackman, Ralph I. 
Ingersol, Charles IngersoU, Clark Bissell, Henry 
Dutton, Jonathan Stoddard, Henry White, Eleazer 
K. Foster, William Bristol, John Beach, Charles 
Ives, Thomas B. Osborne, and Dexter R. Wright. 

PIERREPONT EDWARDS. 

For more than thirty years, no man took a 
higher rank at the Bar of New Haven County than 
Pierrepont Edwards, who began his professional 
life in New Haven in 1771. He was the third son 
and youngest child of the celebrated theologian, 
Jonathan Edwards. His father was for many years 
a resident of Northampton, Mass., and in that 
place all his children were born. The subject of 
this sketch was born April 8, 1750, and graduated 
at Princeton College in 1768. The following year 
he married Frances Ogden, of New Jersey, and 
soon afterward moved to New Haven. Like all 
the active young men of New Haven, he took 
an efficient part in favor of the movements 
which led to our National Independence, and 
was for a short time a member of the army, taking 
part in two battles, including that of Danbury. 
After the War of the Revolution he became 
earnestly interested in political affairs, and rep- 
resented New Haven several times in the General 



244 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



assembly, holding the office of Speaker of the 
House at the May Sessions of 1789 and 1790, and 
also at the October Session of 1789. He was a 
member of the Connecticut Convention held at 
Hartford, January, 1788, which ratified the Consti- 
tution of the United States. After the formation of 
the Republican party, he became one of its leaders 
with Abraham Bishop and others, and a few years 
later he took great interest in the work of the Tol- 
eration party, as it was called, which carried the 
Slate for the first time in 1817. It is to this party 
that the State owes its present Constitution, and Mr. 
Edwards was a member of the convention which 
assembled at Hartford on the fourth Wednesday of 
August, 181 8, as a representative at that time from 
the town of Stratford. As a lawyer, Mr. Edwards 
was especially successful before juries. In 1806 
President Jefferson appointed him Judge of the 
United States District Court of Connecticut, which 
position he held until his death on the 5th of April, 
1826. While Judge of the District Court he at- 
tempted to revive the old Federal doctrine of the 
common law jurisdiction of the United States Courts. 
Under his instructions a grand jury found bills of 
indictment against sundry obnoxious persons, and 
among them against the publisher of the Connecticut 
Courant, for having charged Jefferson with sending 
two millions to Paris as a bribe to France. This 
case went to the Supreme Court of the United 
States, and in 181 1 that Court held that the Courts 
of the United States have no criminal jurisdiction 
not expressly conferred upon them by statute. 
Judge Edwards in this matter held views as a 
jurist which were not entertained by his fellow- 
members of the Republican, or Democratic, party, 
as it was called a few years later. Among the de- 
scendants of Judge Edwards there are living to-day 
in New Haven, Mr. Eli Whitney and Mr. Eli Whit- 
ne)', Jr. 

DAVID DAGGETT. 

Hon. David Daggett was born in Attleborough, 
Mass., December 31, 1764, and died in New Ha- 
ven, April 12, 185 1, at the age of 86. 

When sixteen years old he came to Yale College, 
and graduated in 1783 in the same class with 
John Cotton Smith. He studied law in the office 
of Charles Chauncey, and was admitted to the Bar 
at the age of twenty-one. For many years he en- 
joyed an extensive practice, not only in New Haven, 
but throughout the State, and because of his -high 
character as a citizen and ability as a lawyer, in 
1826 he was chosen a Judge of the Superior Court, 
which office he held until 1832, when he was elect- 
ed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He held 
the latter office until December 31, 1834, when he 
retired by reason of the constitutional limitation of 
age. His success as a lawyer was due to his innate 
knowledge of human nature, his sound judgment, 
and his strong common sense. He abounded in 
wit and humor, and had at command a fund of 
anecdotes to illustrate his positions and arguments. 
His manner of speaking was calm and deliberate. 
His knowledge of the law was thorough and emi- 
nently practical. He had no patience with hair- 



splitting tehnicalities, which were the delight of 
many lawyers in the days of the older common law 
practice. His punctuality was extraordinary, and 
his integrity was thorough, stern and exact. He 
was very familiar with the Bible, and frequently 
used its strong and popular language in his argu- 
ments, and even in his charges to the jury when he 
was a Judge. Early in life he took deep interest in 
public affairs, and became an active member of the 
Federal party. He represented New Haven in the 
General Assembly for several years, and was Speaker 
of the House in 1794. For many years he was 
a Member of the Upper House of the General As- 
sembly, which under the old charter corresponded 
with the Senate of to-day. In 18 13 he was elected 
a Senator in the Congress of the United States, and 
he held that office until 1819, when he gladly left 
public life to attend to the practice of his profes- 
sion. For a few years he was one of the instructors 
in the Law School of New Haven, as an associate 
with Judge Hitchcock. 

JOHN HART LYNDE 

was born in Saybrook in 1777, and graduated at 
Yale College in 1796. He studied law in New 
Haven, and commenced its practice in the year 
1800. During the same year he married Elizabeth 
D. Nicoll, of New Haven. 

For several years he devoted himself to the prac- 
tice of probate law, and was a trusted counselor in 
the settlement of estates and family affairs. Soon 
after his admission to the Bar he was appointed 
Clerk of the County and Superior Courts, which 
office he filled to the satisfaction of the Bar until 
his death in 181 7. In those early days of this cen- 
tury the lawyers of New Haven generally had their 
offices in their houses. The office of Mr. Lynde 
was in the house which he built on the corner of 
Temple and Wall streets, which is now the parson- 
age of the Centre Church. Mr. Lynde was an 
active member of the Federal party, and was 
deeply interested in the principles of Freemasonry, 
of which order he was a prominent member. 

ELEAZER FOSTER. 

The subject of this sketch was born in the little 
town of Union, in Tolland County, in 1778, and 
graduated at Yale College in 1802. Soon after 
graduation he was admitted to the Bar of New 
Haven County, and early acquired a prominent 
position in the profession. He especially devoted 
himself to probate law and occupied the position of 
a counselor in family matters requiring integrity 
and discretion. He was frequently selected to be 
an executor of wills, an admmistrator of the estates 
of deceased persons, an assignee of insolvent debt- 
ors, and to fill other positions of trust requiring 
industry and capacity. He was a Federalist in 
politics, and in April, 18 17, was elected from New 
Haven as a representative in the Legislature. In 
that capacity he devoted himself to die best interests 
of his constituents. He was ever kind, attentive 
and generous to the poor, the humble, and the 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 



245 



helpless. As a friend he was sincere, and to those 
intimately associated with him he was invariably af- 
fectionate and faithful. He was an e.'cemplary and 
useful member of the Church, and always lived 
under the steady influence of religous principles. 
Before he reached middle life however, he was at- 
tacked by a fatal disease, which terminated his use- 
ful life in May, 1819. One of his sons was Eleazer 
K.Foster, a sketch of whom is given elsewhere. An- 
other, Pierpont B. Foster, is still a resident of New 
Haven. A grandson. Dr. J. P. C. Foster, grad- 
uated at Yale College, and now practices medicine 
in New Haven. Another grandson, William Law 
Foster, son of Mr. P. B. Foster, was a member of 
the New Haven County Bar for several years, and 
was also a Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas. 
He died at an early age in May 1881, leaving one 
son and a widow. 

Hon. E. K. Foster, Jr., of Sanford, Fla., a Judge 
of the Circuit Court of that State, is another of his 
grandsons. 

JONATHAN INGERSOLL. 

The Hon. Jonathan Ingersoll, who died at New 
Haven on the i 2th of January, 1823, in the seventy- 
sixth year of his age, was one of the purest statesmen 
Connecticut has ever seen. He was born at Ridge- 
field, in the county of Fairfield, and graduated at 
Yale College in 1 766. For many years he prac- 
ticed law in New Haven with industry, fidelity, and 
success. He always enjoyed the friendship, esteem, 
and confidence of his professional brethren. Be- 
fore he had reached middle life, by the unsolicited 
suffrages of his fellow citizens he entered public 
life. For years he was a Member of the General 
Assembly, and was then appointed a Judge of the 
Superior Court and of the Supreme Court of Errors. 
He was once elected to the Congress of the United 
States, but declined to accept the position. In the 
latter years of his life he became a prominent leader 
in the Toleration movement, and in 181 7 was elect- 
ed by that party Lieutenant-Governor of the State, 
upon the same ticket with Oliver Wolcott, of Litch- 
field. Judge Ingersoll held this office, after the 
adoption of the present Constitution, till his death. 
He was the father of Hon. Ralph I. Ingersoll and 
Judge Charles A. Ingersoll. 

SIMEON BALDWIN. 

Judge Simeon Baldwin was born in Norwich, 
December 14, 1761. His ancestors were all of 
Puritan Connecticut stock from the first settlement 
of the colony. His great-grandfather, John Bald- 
win, was one of the first planters of Guilford, in 
1646, and removed from that plantation to Nor- 
wich in 1660. During the Revolutionary War, al- 
though but a boy, young Simeon Baldwin was 
deeply interested, in connection with his brother. 
Rev. Ebenezer Baldwin, in ministering to the sick 
and suffering soldiers, and in conveying intelligence 
from the army to friends at home. He entered 
Yale College in the year 1777, and graduated with 
honor in 1781. During his college life he was one 
of a company of students who resisted the attack 



upon New Haven by the British troops under Gen- 
eral Tryon. In 1 786 he was admitted to the Bar 
of New Haven County and entered on the practice 
of his profession. In 1790 he was appointed Clerk 
of the United States Courts, and performed the 
duties of that office' until 1803, when he was elect- 
ed a representative from Connecticut to the Eighth 
Congress of the United States. In 1806 he was ap- 
pointed a Judge of the Superior Court, and he held 
that office under the charter, by successive annual 
elections, until 181 7, when the Federal party went 
out of power. The intellectual qualities of Judge 
Baldwin were such as eminently fitted him for the 
duties of that office. His judgment was uncom- 
monly sound, thorough, and well balanced. He 
had a power of clear and exact statement which 
enabled him to communicate his opinions accu- 
rately to others. His memory was ready, capacious, 
and retentive. He was candid, impartial and un- 
influenced by prejudice to a degree rarely witness- 
ed. Except for the violence of party feeling he 
would have continued upon the Bench which he 
adorned for many years. He died in New Haven 
on the 26th of May, 185 1. One of his sons was 
the Hon. Roger Sherman Baldwin. 

Judge Baldwin was a man of public spirit, and 
during the years that followed his retirement from 
the Bench, while he enjoyed a large practice, he 
devoted much of his time to the construction of the 
Farmington Canal and other matters in the inter- 
ests of the commerce of New Haven. In 1826 he 
was chosen Mayor of the City of New Haven. After 
1830 he declined to hold public office, and confined 
his practice to that of a counselor and adviser in 
his own office. 

ISAAC H. TOWNSEND. 

Professor Isaac Henry Townsend was born in 
New Haven April 25, 1803. He graduated at Yale 
College in 1822, and immediately afterward com- 
menced the study of the law under Judge Hitch- 
cock. In due time he was admitted to the Bar and 
commenced the practice of the law in his native 
city. In 1834 he represented the town of New 
Haven in the General Assembly, but thereafter 
declined to hold political office. In 1842 he became 
connected with the Law School as an instructor, 
and in August, 1846, was formally elected a Profes- 
sor of Law in Yale College. He was an earnest, 
faithful student, zealously devoted to his profession. ' 
His mind was discriminating, accurate and exact. 

His cases were always thoroughly prepared, and 
his arguments were exhaustive. He was particu- 
larly strong in the presentation of questions of law 
before the Court of Errors, and his opinions upon 
intricate legal questions were often sought by men 
older than himself He died on the 1 1 th of January, 
1847, at the early age of 44. 

DENNIS KIMBERLY. 

General Dennis Kimberly was born in that part 
of New Haven which is now a portion of the town 
of Orange, on the 23d day of October, 1790. He 
graduated at Yale College in 181 2, and com- 



246 



HIS TOR y OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



menced the practice of law in the City of New 
Haven in 1814. For more than forty years he was 
engaged in an extensive and lucrative practice, to 
which he devoted himself with but little interrup- 
tion. He was well read in his profession and a 
master of its principles, and also had a thorough 
knowledge of human nature. His insight into 
character gave him a great advantage in the e.x- 
amination of witnesses, and made him especially 
strong in the trial of cases before court or jury. He 
was a graceful speaker, with an easy command of 
chaste language. He had a decided taste for mili- 
tary aflairs, and was one of the first Captains of the 
New Haven Grays. He was repeatedly promoted, 
and in 1824 was appointed Major-General of the 
Slate. He represented New Haven in the General 
Assembly on several occasions between 1826 and 

1835- 

In 1838 he was chosen by the General Assembly 
United States Senator, but, preferring to devote 
himself to his profession and his personal affairs, he 
declined the great honor. He also held the offices 
of Mayor of New Haven and State Attorney for 
New Haven County. He died on the 14th of 
December, 1862. 

ROGER S. BALDWIN. 

Hon. Roger Sherman Baldwin was born in New 
Haven January 4, 1793. He was the second son of 
Judge Simeon and Rebecca (Sherman) Baldwin. His 
mother was the daughter of Roger Sherman, one of 
the signers of the Declaration of Independence and 
one of the members of the convention which framed 
the Constitution of the United States. The subject 
of this sketch graduated at Yale College in 181 1, 
and was admitted to the Bar in 1814. From that 
time until his death he was devoted with unremit- 
ting energy to the pursuit of his profession, except 
for those periods when he was engaged in the ser- 
vice of the public. Asa lawyer he was earnestly de- 
voted to the right, and when convinced the cause 
of his client was that of justice, nothing could shake 
his confidence in the righteousness of the claims he 
presented to the court. He was bound to present 
the strongest view of his client's case as an advocate, 
yet nothing could cause him to violate what he be- 
lieved to be the truth. He had a remarkable power 
in the use of words and the construction of senten- 
ces, and his language was always pertinent. While 
his practice brought him many cases of importance, 
he would frequently for the sake of justice devote his 
great knowledge to the management of compara- 
tively small cases. This was especially true when 
his sympathies were aroused. He espoused warmly 
the cause of fugitive slaves, and on one occasion 
procured by habeas corpus the release of a colored 
man claimed to belong to Henry Clay. The suc- 
cessful termination of the cause of the Africans in 
the .Vmistad case was due to his great industry and 
devotion. In 1826 he was a member of the Common 
Council of New Haven, and in 1837 and 1838 he 
was a member of the State .Senate; in 1840 and 
1 84 1 he was elected a representative from New 
Haven to the General Assembly, and in 1844 was 



chosen Governor of Connecticut. In 1845 he was 
re-elected, and from 1847 to 1851 was a member 
of the United States Senate. He would have been 
elected for the full term, ending in 1857, had it not 
been for the defection of three or four pro-slavery 
Whigs, who did not like the strong anti-slavery 
feelings of Governor Baldwin. While in the 
United States Senate he took an active part in the 
discussions growing out of the admission of Cal- 
ifornia. 

On the 26th of September, 1850, he made a 
caustic speach in the Senate of the United States 
in reply to Mr. Mason, of Virginia, who had at- 
tacked Connecticut for her course in relation to 
the cession of her claims in the northwest ter- 
ritory. Mr. Mason had reflected upon the motives 
of Connecticut in reserving a portion of the west- 
ern domain, and in reply, Mr. Baldwin said: 

"Sir : This reservation was not made for any 
mere private objects; it was not made to aid her 
in the discharge of her revolutionary responsibilities 
or the payment of her civil expenditures; but for 
the noble purpose of providing for the education 
of every child within her limits, and of peopling, 
as well, the magnificent territory which she ceded, 
as that which she reserved, with an educated, en- 
lightened, and enterprising population." 

Governor Baldwin was an earnest Federalist and 
Whig until the formation of the Republican party 
in 1856. He was deeply interested in the anti- 
slavery movement, and was one of the early and 
trusted counselors in the organization of the party 
which elected Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Baldwin 
was a presidential elector in i860, and in the winter 
of 1861 was appointed by Governor Buckingham 
a member of the celebrated "Peace Congresss," in 
which he occupied a prominent and influential 
position. He died at New Haven on the 19th of 
February, 1863. 

HENRY DUTTON. 

Governor Henry Dutton was born at Plymouth, 
in Litchfield County, February 12, 1796. He grad- 
uated at Yale College in 181 8, and commenced 
the practice of law in Fairfield County, where he 
remained until 1847. In that year he was appointed 
Professor in the Yale Law School, and opened a 
law office in this city, where he lived till his death 
in 1869. He was a very successful corporation 
lawyer, and had a lucrative practice, till he was 
elected a Judge of the Supreme Court of Errors 
in 1861. In 1854 he was elected the last Whig 
Governor of the State, by a coalition in the Legis- 
lature of the Whigs, Free Soilers, and Mame Law 
representatives. His only son, Henry M. Dutton, 
was a Lieutenant in the Fifth Connecticut Regi- 
ment, and was killed at the battle of Cedar Mount- 
ain. His grandson, George Dutton Watrous, a 
son of Hon. George H. Watrous, is now practic- 
ing law in the office occupied for many years by 
his grandfather. 

A more extended notice of the services and 
ability of Governor Dutton will be found in another 
part of this volume. 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 



247 



RALPH I. INGERSOLL. 

Hon. Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll was born in New 
Haven February 8, 1789. He belonged to a family 
of lawyers, many of whom have achieved distinc- 
tion in the walks of the profession. His father, 
Jonathan Ingersoll, and his uncle Jared Ingersoll, 
have been mentioned in this chapter. A junior 
brother was Hon. Charles A. Ingersoll, who prac- 
ticed law in New Haven for many years and was 
Judge of the United States District Court at the 
time of his decease. Two of his sons, Hon. Colin 
M. Ingersoll and Governor Charles R. Ingersoll, 
are members of the New Haven County Bar. His 
nephew, Jonathan Ingersoll, is Clerk of the Super- 
ior Court for New Haven County. Another nephew, 
Charles D. Ingersoll, has been a judge in the City 
of New York, and now practices law there. 

Mr. Ingersoll graduated at Yale College in 1808, 
and in 1810 opened a law ofllce in New Haven. 
For many years he was leader of the Bar of the 
State, and devoted nearly all of his time to the pro- 
fession he loved and honored. He had a vigorous, 
well-balanced intellect, equipped with everything 
needed to adorn it. He was a hard student and 
had a profound practical knowledge of human 
nature. He was a graceful, agreeable speaker, 
earnest, clear, logical and complete. Upon public 
questions he was impetuous, eloquent and convinc- 
ing. In his early years Mr. Ingersoll was a Feder- 
alist, but when his father took up the cause of the 
Toleration party in 1817, he joined him, and for 
several years was actively interested in the success 
of that party, which became, in process of time, 
after the second election of President Jackson, the 
Democratic party of Connecticut. From the organ- 
ization of the Democratic party, Mr. Ingersoll was 
one of its shrewdest and most trusted leaders. He 
represented New Haven in the General Assembly 
for several years, and was Speaker of the House of 
Representatives in 1824. From 1825 to 1833 he 
was a representative in Congress. For the first four 
years he was a follower of Henry Clay, and sup- 
ported the administration of Mr. Adams. In Con- 
gress he afterwards became a supporter of the 
administration of President Jackson. In 1835 he 
was offered the position of Senator from Connecti- 
cut, but declined. While in Congress he became 
an intimate friend of Mr. Polk, and when that 
gentleman was elected President of the United 
States he appointed Mr. Ingersoll minister to Russia. 
He held this office for two years and then gladly 
returned to his profession, and practiced it for 
twenty years with unabated vigor. He died in New 
Haven on the 26th of August, 1872. 

HENRY WHITE 

was born in New Haven in 1803. He was a son 
of Hon. Dyer White, who was for years a promi- 
nent lawyer in New Haven and Judge of the County 
Court. Mr. White graduated at Yale College in 
1821, and in 1828 was admitted to the New Haven 
County Bar. In this city he practiced law from 
that time till his death, on the 7th of October, 1880. 
During the fifty years that he was a member of the 



Bar, he probably tried more cases, as a Committee 
or Arbitrator, than any other member of the Bar. 
He devoted himself to probate and real estate prac- 
tice, and in a few years was an acknowledged 
authority in this part of the State on all matters 
pertaining to these specialties of the profession. 
But few lawyers in Connecticut have ever succeeded 
so well as Mr. White in deliberately selecting a 
special line of professional practice. His knowl- 
edge of probate law led to his selection as 
executor, administrator, guardian and trustee of 
estates, and his opinion in all such cases was in 
demand by the profession of the whole State. 
Several of his sons studied law, and four of them 
now practice the profession in the building where 
their father had an office for many years; they arc 
Henry D., Charles A., Oliver and Roger White. 

ELEAZER K. FOSTER. 

Hon. Eleazer Kingsbury Foster was born in 
New Haven May 20, 18 13. He was the son of 
Eleazer Foster, at that time a practicing lawyer in 
New Haven. He graduated at Yale College in 
1834, and commenced the practice of his profession 
in New Haven in March, 1S37. He was State 
Attorney of New Haven County for more than 
twenty years, and filled that office in a remarkably 
successful manner. His tact, his ready wit, his 
quick perception, his knowledge of men, made 
him a formidable antagonist before the jury. As a 
cross-examiner he was remarkably skillful. In the 
administration of his office he sought to do justice 
rather than to exact the extreme penalty of the law. 
His management of causes was honorable and 
manly, and he always remembered that the public 
prosecutor should temper justice with mercy. In 
politics he was a Whig until 1854, and then became 
one of the founders of the Republican party. 
From 1845 to 1849 he was Judge of Probate for 
the district of New Haven. In i860 he was a del- 
egate to the Republican National Convention 
which nominated Abraham Lincoln. He repre- 
sented New Haven several times in the General 
Assembly, and was Speaker of the House in 1865. 
In 1 86 1 he would have been nominated and 
elected Governor of Connecticut, but he appeared 
before the convention and declined the honor in 
favor of the renomination of William A. Bucking- 
ham. From 1867 till his death, June 13, 1877, 
he was the Registrar in Bankruptcy for the Second 
Congressional District. 

ALFRED BLACKMAN. 

For thirty years no more smiling face or courtly 
figure was seen upon the streets and in the Courts 
of New Haven than the subject of this sketch. 

Hon. Alfred Blackman was born in Newtown, 
Fairfield County, Connecticut, on the 28th of De- 
cember, 1807. In that town he received a good 
common-school education and grew in health and 
sturdiness. He graduated in the Class of 1828 at 
Yale College. About two years after graduation 
he was admitted to the Bar of New Haven County, 
and opened an office in that part of Derby which 



248 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



is now the town of Seymour. Here he began the 
work of his profession, and his rare quaHfications 
for its successful practice soon brought him clients 
from the several towns of the Naugatuck Valley. 
In the year 1842 he moved his office to Waterbury 
and became intimate with such lawyers as Joel 
Hinman and Norton J. Buel. 

Mr. Blackman was warmly attached to the 
principles of the Democratic party, and for many 
years took an active part in the contests between 
the Wiiig and Democratic parties. The Naugatuck 
Valley strongly supported the Whig principles of 
protection, but Mr. Blackman's personal popularity 
was so great, that in the year 1S42 he was nomi- 
nated and elected as a Democrat to the State Senate 
from the Fifth Senatorial District. The General 
Assembly held its session in New Haven that year. 
The Judges of the Superior and Supreme Court of 
Errors were at that time elected by the General 
Assembly and held their offices until the age of 
seventy. The Whig party was then suffering from 
Tylerism. Chauncey F. Cleveland had been elected 
Governor by the Democrats, and that party had 
control of both branches of the Legislature. Joel 
Hinman was a Democratic representative from 
Waterbury. 

There was a vacancy upon the Bench of the 
Superior Court caused by the resignation of Judge 
Roger ]Minott Sherman. Joel Hinman was a friend 
of Alfred Blackman, and the influence of the latter 
was so great with the Democratic party, that he 
succeeded in securing the election of Mr. Hinman 
to the vacant judicial position. 

Soon after the adjournment of the General As- 
sembly, Mr. Blackman opened an office in New 
Haven, and continued to practice there until he 
retired from the active work of his profession in 
1871. 

In 1853, Mr. Blackman was appointed Clerk of 
the United States District Court, which office he 
filled with marked courtesy and ability for about 
twenty yeans, serving under Judges Ingersoll and 
W. B. Shipman. He also held for two or three 
years the office of Judge of Probate and Judge of 
the County Court. In 1855 he was elected, with 
James E. English, a representative from New 
Haven. This was the year of the Know-Nothing 
success in Connecticut; but, notwithstanding the 
fact that he was in a small minority in the House, 
Mr. Blackman was a leader in all matters of general 
legislation. A year later he was elected Mayor of 
the City of New Haven, and at that time, as always, 
took a deep interest in the growth and prosperity 
of New Haven. During the last nine years of his 
life he did not api)ear as a practitioner in the 
Courts, but his valuable advice and counsel was 
sought by many of his old clients. 

Mr. Blackman was never known as a case lawyer, 
but was thoroughly grounded in the general 
principles of the common law, and knew almost 
by intuition its modifications as made by the 
decisions of the American Courts. His command 
of plain Anglo-Saxon was remarkable. He never 
failed to make himself understood by clear and 
concise language. His knowledge of human 



nature was remarkable, and in the cross-examina- 
tion of witnesses he frequently showed his deep 
penetration into human motives. His arguments 
before the jury, or a Committee of the Superior 
Court in a highway case, were convincing, adroit, 
and generally successful. He was a man of large 
heart and kind impulses; had a keen sympathy 
with his fellow men in all walks of life; and was 
loved and respected by his brothers of the pro- 
fession. His death occurred in New Haven on 
the 28th of April, 1880. His portrait is one of 
the few, with those of Judge E. K. Foster and 
Governor Baldwin, that grace the walls of the 
Superior Court-room in New Haven. He left a 
widow and one son, Mr. Charles Blackman, who 
reside in Judge Blackman's old residence on 
Church street. 

E.x-Governor Charles R. Ingersoll, at a Bar 
meeting held upon the occasion of ;\Ir. Blackman's 
death, paid an eloquent tribute to the services and 
legal abilities of his deceased friend, by saying: 
"It is not easy for me, Mr. Chairman, to dis- 
criminate between the professional and the moral 
personal character of Judge Blackman. He had 
such a strong individuality, that, to those who 
knew him well, he was the same man whether 
within or without his office. But he had a 
large acquaintance and many associations in this 
community that were not professional. I need not 
speak of the respect which his sterling qualities 
command as a citizen, and which led him, with- 
out his seeking, into many positions of public 
trust. No one was better known upon our streets, 
and his affable presence, companionable ways, and 
shrewd and lively conversation, brought to him 
from all pursuits warm personal friends. It was 
my good fortune to be among them. He came to 
New Haven about the time I came to the Bar, and 
we happened to become oflice neighbors, and so 
continued as long as he practiced. The associa- 
tion soon brought us into relations of friendship. 
It led me to see much of him since his infirm 
health compelled him some years ago to lay aside 
his armor and retire to the quiet of his home and 
library. The shades of life's evening have been 
slowly, but very surely, clouding about him for 
much of this time, and he has suffered much, 
occasionally very much. But it has brought no 
gloom to his clear conscience and cheerful spirit. 
And the same bright disposition, kind air, and 
buo3'ant temper that distinguished him in the heat 
of life's battle, have in mercy attended him as he has 
drawn the drapery of his couch about him." 

JOHN BEACH. 

Among the lawyers of sterling worth who prac- 
ticed at the New Haven County Bar in the first 
half of the century was John Beach. 

He was a grand,son of the Rev. John Beach, of 
Newtown, who was one of the founders of the 
Episcopal Church of Connecticut, and famous for 
his brave and unflinching loyalty to the crown 
during the War of the Revolution. 

Mr. Beach was admitted to the New Haven 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 



349 



County Bar in 1814, and continued in the practice of 
the law until age and infirmity prevented him. He 
was City Attorney of New Haven from 1821 to 
1824, and Clerk of the Superior Court, which 
office he filled with ability and satisfaction to the 
Bar, from 1824 to 1844. For several years after 
that date he was Judge of the City Court of New 
Haven. One of his sons, Daniel B. Beach, prac- 
ticed his father's profession in New Haven for 
several years, and is now living in Rochester, N. Y. 
Another son, John S. Beach, is, and has been for 
several years, a leading member of the Connecticut 
Bar, especially noted for his skill and ability in the 
conduct of patent causes. Two of his grandsons, 
John K. Beach and Francis G. Beach, are mem- 
bers of the New Haven Bar. Mr. Beach died in 
New Haven in 1869, at the age of eighty. 

At a meeting of the New Haven County Bar, 
held on Tuesday, April 13, 1869, the following 
resolution was unanimously adopted. 

' ' Resolved, That we have heard with deep regret 
of the death of John Beach, Esq., formerly and 
for many years Clerk of the Superior and County 
Courts; and though latterly, from his advanced 
age and bodily infirmities, retired from active busi- 
ness, yet universally and deservedly honored and 
respected as one of the most upright and exemplary 
of our professional brethren, and for his Christian 
virtues and private worth as a citizen." 

THOMAS BURR OSBORNE. 

Judge Thomas B. Osborne was born in Easton, 
Fairfield County, July 8, 179S. He graduated at 
Yale College in 181 7, and was admitted to the 
Bar at New Haven in 1820. From that day until 
1854, he practiced law in Fairfield County, but in 
the latter year he returned to New Haven, and for 
several years was Professor of Law in Yale College. 
He died here on the 2d of September, 1869. 
While his practice was never extensive, he was 
widely known for his admirable personal and social 
qualities. As an instructor in the law, no one 
could have served with greater fidelity and accept- 
ance to the College and the students. He was a 
Whig and Republican in politics. He represented 
Fairfield in the General Assembly for several years, 
and was its representative in Congress from 1839 
to 1843. He was for several years Judge of the 
County Court of Fairfield County, which office he 
filled with great ability. His son, Arthur D. 
Osborne, was for many years Clerk of the Superior 
Court in New Haven County, and is now President 
of the Second National Bank. A grandson is a 
member of the New Haven County Bar, and is 
Executive Secretary to the son-in-law of Judge 
Osborne, Governor Henry B. Harrison. 

CHARLES IVES. 

Hon. Charles Ives was born on the iSth of 
September, 18 15. He commenced the practice of 
law in New Haven in 1846, and continued it un- 
remittingly and successfully till his decease on the 
31st of December, 1880. For many of the earlier 
years of his life he suffered from rheumatic and 



other troubles, against which he struggled with 
determination and nervous energy, and by his in- 
domitable will and courage partially recovered 
his health, and then built up a successful and 
lucrative practice. He had a large clientage in 
New Haven and vicinity, and devoted himself with 
untiring faithfulness to the interests of all of them. 
His mind was active and clear, and he had an in- 
cisive use of the English language which made him 
a strong antagonist. His literary taste was excellent, 
and his extensive reading furnished him with a 
large store of illustrations and arguments to add to 
the eftectiveness and strength of his arguments, 
which were always listened to with interest by the 
court or jury. In early life he was a Democrat, 
but his strong anti-slavery views led him early into 
the Republican party, of which he was a member 
until his decease. He represented New Haven in 
the General Assembly of 1853, and East Haven in 
1865, 1867, 1868. In the latter year he was 
speaker of the House of Representatives. He had 
one son, Charles Ives, who studied law with his 
father and gave promise of equal success, but he 
died in 1883, leaving no one to bear his father's 
name. 

DEXTER R. WRIGHT. 

A sketch of the life and services of Colonel D. R. 
Wright will be found on another page of this 
work. 

Since its preparation, and on the 23d of July, 
1886, Mr. Wright died in New Haven, after an 
illness of a few weeks, aged sixty-five. 

A largely attended meeting of the Bar of New 
Haven County was held on the afternoon of his 
death in the Superior Court-room. 

Judge Lynde Harrison presented the following 
resolutions, which were unanimously adopted. 

"Resolved, That members of the Bar of New 
Haven County have received with profound sorrow 
the intelligence of the death of their brother, Dex- 
ter R. Wright, who for forty years has been conspicu- 
ously associated with that Bar in honorable and 
faithful practice; and who, by the ability, industry 
and courtesy which have characterized his profes- 
sional life, now leaves a memory to be esteemed 
and cherished by his brethren. 

' ' Resolved, That in token of our regard for his 
memory, this Bar will attend the funeral of the de- 
ceased in a body. 

"Resolved, That the Superior Court be requested 
to cause a statement of these proceedings to be 
entered on its record and that the Clerk be re- 
quested to transmit a copy of the resolutions to the 
family of the deceased." 

After speaking of Mr. Wright's life and success- 
ful practice, Mr. Harrison said: 

"Colonel Wright was a man of commanding 
presence and extremely courteous manners, deeply 
impressing all who saw him in the Court-room or 
on public occasions. 

" Always faithful to the interests of his clients, he 
was a man of very great industry. Because of that 
constant industry, I fear he has gone from us be- 



250 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



fore the allotted years of the Psalmist had passed 
over his head. 

" During the thirteen years I was associated with 
him in business, I never heard an angry or impatient 
word escape from his lips. If injured he never per- 
mitted the sun to go down upon his wrath. 

•' He was slow to anger, ready to forgive, and he 
had that rarer gift of charity, the ability to forget." 

Honorable T. E. Doolittle, the State Attorney 
for New Haven County, said: " I was associated 
w^ith Colonel Wright during the first quarter of a 
century of our practice in Meriden, where we tried 
about every case that came up before the Courts. On 
all these occasions he was either associated with me 
or ojiposed to me, but never did any words drop 
from his lips or from mine that either of us had 
any occasion to regret. I feel his loss as that of a 
life-long friend. The wound is too deep and fresh 
to allow me to discourse on his manifold good 
qualities, and yet I may say that his most notable 
characteristic was his fidelity to his clients. The 
doors of the court of justice were opened by him 
to the poor as well as the rich. I am confident he 
will be kindly remembered, not only by those who 
came to the Bar at the same time with him, but by 
all who have had the pleasure of knowing him." 

The funeral of Mr. Wright was attended from 
Trinity Church, on Monday, July 26th, by the Bar, 
Admiral 1-oote Post, of the G. A. R., and many 
citizens. The bearers were Chief-Justice Park, of 
the Supreme Court; Governor Henry B. Harrison; 
ludge Carpenter, of the Supreme Bench; Judge 
Sanford.of the Superior Court; State Attorney Doo- 
little, Aithur D. Osborne, Judge John C. Hollister, 
I,uzon B. Morris, Henry D. White, Judge Lynde 
Harrison, Judge W. B. Stoddard, and Jonathan In- 
gersoll. 



Memhers of the New Haven County Bar having 
OkI'Tces in New Haven. 



John \V, Allini;, 
S. VV. K. Andic-ws, 
Edward A. Anketcll, 
l". 1'. .\rvine, 
Harry W. .'\slK'r, 
William W. IJailcy, 
Simoon \\. lialdvvin, 
I'lokTick \V. Babcock, 
Jiihii K. Beach, 
John S. IVach, 
William I,. Bennett, 
Stuart I'.iiUvcll, 
Curtiss S. Bushnell, 
James Bishop, 
Henry T. Blake, 
C. C. Blatchley, 
I.cvi N. Klydenburg, 
Charles F. Bollman, 
John W. Bristol, 
I^jiiis 1 1. Bristol, 
Samuel L. Bronson, 
Charles K. Bush, 
Julius C. Cable, 



William C. Case, 
Wilson H. Clark, 
James G. Clark, 
L. W. Cleaveland, 
James F. Colby, 
Cicort^e R. Cooley, 
Hugh Dailey, 
Lucius P. Deminp;, 
George L. Dickerman, 
T. E. Doolittle, 
Edwin (". Dow, 
Cornelius T. Driscoll, 
Jacob E. Emery, 
Charles H. Fowler, 
John S. Fowler, 
Timothy J. Pox, 
John C. Gallagher, 
I'harlcs K. Gorham, 
I'.ilward B. (Jraves, 
George M. Girnn, 
E. Edwin Hall, 
Charles S. Hamilton, 
Henry B. Harrison, 



Lynde Harrison, 
Charles A. Harrison, 
James \. Hayes, 
John C. Hollister, 
llobart L. Hotchkiss, 
L. M. Hirbbard, 
Savillian K. Hull, 
Charles R. Ingersoll, 
Francis G. Ingersoll, 
Jonathan Ingersoll, 
Alwl B. Jacocks, 
William H. Kenyon, 
I'atrick F. Kiernan, 
Charles Kleiner, 
William H. Law, 
Edward L. Linsley, 
Seymour C. Loomis, 
Burton Mansfield, 
Charles B. Matthewman, 
lohn B. Mills, 
William 1. Mills, 
Eli Mix," 
Luzon B. Morris, 
Charles T. Morse, 
Joseph B. Morse, 
Albert H. Moulton, 
Lyman E. Munson, 
Henry G. Newton, 
William P. Niles, 
Arthur U. Osborne, 
Arthur S. Osborne, 
Henry E. Pardee, 
William S. Pardee, 
Alliert D. Penney, 
L. L. Phelps, 
(ohn P. Phillips, 
KufusS. Pickett, 
James P. Pigott, 
Henry C. Piatt, 
Johnson T. Piatt, 
Joseph 1). Plunkett, 
Walter Pond, 
Edwin Purrington, 
A. Heaton Robertson, 
William C. Robinson, 



John A. Robinson, 
Edward H. Rogers, 
Henry Rogers, 
Henry D. Russell, 
Talcott H. Russell, 
Bernard J. Shanley, 
Joseph Sheldon, 
Siegwart Spier, 
David Strouse, 
William W. Stone, 
John P. Studley, 
Charles L. Swan, 
William E. Talcott, 
Jason P. Thomson, 
James S. Thompson, 
William K. Townsend, 
Dwight W. Tuttle, 
Grove J. Tuttle, 
John Pi. Tuttle, 
Julius Twiss, 
Morris F. Tyler, 
George A. Tyler, 
Charles L. Ullnian, 
S. Harrison Wagner, 
John B. Ward, 
George M. Wallace, 
George 1). Watroiis, 
George H. Watrous, 
Francis Wayland, 
James H. Webb, 
Charles R. Whcdon, 
Alfred N. Wheeler, 
Charles A. White, 
Henry C. While, 
Henry I). White, 
Roger S. White, 
Oliver S. White, 
John H. Whiting, 
Charles W. Willett, 
James A. Wood, 
Arthur B. Wright, 
William A. Wright, 
Samuel A. York, 
Edmund Zacher. 



Addenda et Corrigenda. 

Page 232, line 27. Mr. Disburowe was not "minister of 
(juilfoid," but a lawyer. 

Page 232, line 4 from bottom of page. For New Haven 
read Connecticut . 

Page 233, line 6 from bottom of page. Mrs. Goodman's 
case: 

Dr. Leonard Bacon, commenting in his Historical Lee 
turcs on this case, attributes Mrs. Goodman's escape, as he 
does the fact that there was " never any execution or con- 
demnation for witchcraft within the bounds of the New 
H.iven jurisdiction," to the peculiarities of its civil constitu- 
tion. He says (Hist. Lect., p. gg): "Under almost any 
other jurisdiction of that age, this woman, instead of dying 
as she did in her bed, would have died u|)on the gallows or 
have been burned alive. The reason ot her escaping here 
must be founil, 1 apprehend, in the fact that here, according 
to their interpretation of the 'judicial laws of God,' nothing 
was considered as proved but l)y the testimony of two or 
more witnesses to the same particular, and in the fact that 
there was no jury here to determine the (|uestion of guilt or 
innocence according to their im|iressions received from the 
testimony as a whole. The trial by jury is invaluable as a 
security for liberty against a strong government, but it is 
not the surest way of excluding popular prejudices and pas- 
sions from the administration of justice." — Editor. 



m 



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« 





t>(ym,. tyt-e^^ l^c/l/ I'^^i- 





,.^?*Z^ <^tt.A^ /^iC^ 



2-v. 






THE BENCH AND BAR. 



251 



BIOGRAPHIES OF PROMINENT LAWYERS OF NEW HAVEN. 



HON. SAMUEL MILLER * 

wasbornat Williston, Vt., March 9, 1801 (thesixly- 
ninth day of the nineteenth century), and graduated 
from Middlebury College in 1822. In 1823 he 
went to Rochester, N. Y. (then a village of 2,000 
inhabitants) to study law in the office of Ashley 
Sampson, the first Judge of the new County of 
Monroe, in which Rochester is situated. He was 
honored by his fellow citizens by choice to several 
elective offices, and while practicing at the Bar was 
appointed Judge of Monroe County Courts, which 
office he held for five years. Subsequently he was 
elected to the Senate of the State of New York, 
from the district embracing Rochester. In i860 
he removed to the City of New Haven to superin- 
tend the education of his children, occupying a 
furnished house as a temporary residence. After 
three years' enjoyment and appreciation of its ad- 
vantages as a residential city, and being engaged 
in no active business which demanded his presence 
elsewhere, he sold his home in Rochester and pur- 
chased another here, where he has since resided. 

MRS. SAMUEL MILLER, 
Founder 0/ the First Fellowship in Vale College. 

The Douglas Fellowship, with an income of si.\ 
hundred dollars a year, was founded in 1873 by 
Mrs. Samuel Miller, of New Haven, and named in 
memory of her brothers, Rev. Sutherland Douglas 
(Yale College, Class of 182 2) and George H. Doug- 
las (Yale College, Classof 1828). The incumbent, 
who must be a recent graduate of the Academical 
Department, pursuing non-professional studies in 
New Haven, is elected annually, but no person 
shall hold the fellowship for more than three years. 

Mrs. Miller was born in 1807, married Hon. 
Samuel Miller in 1833, and died in 1882. 

JOSEPH SHELDON 

was born January 7, 18 28, at Watertown, Jeflferson 
County, N. Y., the fourth son of Colonel Joseph 
Sheldon. He worked on a farm and attended a 
country district school until he was fourteen years 
old. For three successive winters (1842-45) he 
taught school himself with flattering success. In 
the spring of 1845 he began to prepare for college, 
intending then to enter Hamilton College at Clinton, 
N. Y. He studied at the Union Academy in Rod- 
man, N. Y., and afterwards at the Black River 
Literary and Religious Institute at Watertown, 
then under the principalship of Rev. J. R. Boyd, 
a Presbyterian clergyman. His health failing, Mr. 
Sheldon abandoned his plan of going to college, 
but continued to study at the Union Academy in 
Belleville, N. Y. During the years 1S46-47 he 
alternated study and teaching at various places in 

* Judge Miller has resided so long in New Haven, that, though he 
has retired from the practice of his profession, we include him among 
the lawyers of New Haven. 



New York State. In May, 1848, much against the 
wishes of his patrons, he relinquished the charge 
of his large school in Watertown, and started for 
New York, New Haven and Cambridge, intending 
to learn what help the newly-established scientific 
and agricultural schools could possibly bring to 
practical agriculture and to the position of farm- 
ers. He found the expense of the proposed 
course of study too great for him to undertake. 
Accidentally meeting the late Dr. Taylor on the 
street, Mr. Sheldon engaged in conversation with 
the good Doctor, who persuaded him to enter the 
untlergraduate department of Yale College. In 
the fall of 1848 he entered the Sophomore Class, 
and graduated in 1851, having distinguished him- 
self in debate and in English composition. He at 
once began legal studies, first in Watertown, N. 
Y., but afterwards in the Yale Law School, where 
he graduated in 1853. Yale has also bestowed 
upon him the Master's degree. In the winter of 
1852 Kossuth visited this country. Mr. Sheldon, 
by invitation, prepared the address which the stu- 
dents of all departments of the University sent to 
the Hungarian patriot. Both before and after grad- 
uation from the Law School, Mr. Sheldon was an 
inmate of the law office of Hon. E. K. Foster, 
and he soon found a considerable business on his 
hands. In 1854 he was employed as a teacher in 
the schools of the late Mayor Skinner and Gen- 
eral Russell. At the same time he instituted, and 
conducted very successfully for two years, "The 
People's Lectures," chiefly with a view to aid the 
anti-slavery agitation, but partly to excite among 
the people a more stirring intellectual life. 

In the presidential campaign of 1856 he took an 
active part in behalf of Fremont. For two or 
three years afterwards, invitations to lecture mul- 
tiplied upon him, till he found that he must abandon 
either his public speaking or his profession, and 
thereafter he declined all invitations to lecture. 

Mr. Sheldon speedily won professional reputa- 
tion and a remunerative practice. He formed a 
law partnership with Mr. Lyman E. Munson, 
which endured until the latter was appointed by 
President Lincoln a District Judge of Montana. 
During all of Mr. Sheldon's professional work, the 
ordinary chivalry of the profession in regard to mer- 
itorious cases for the friendless and hopelessly poor 
was rather specially emphasized, particularly in re- 
gard to people of color. Among the active aboli- 
tionists of the city, Mr. Sheldon was one of the 
few who never shrank from assisting the fugitive 
slaves. In several cases Dr. Dutton, of the North 
Church, was his most efficient coadjutor. Soon 
after Lincoln's election, for which Mr. Sheldon 
labored zealously, the latter was employed by 
several of the leading carriage-makers of New 
Haven upon the perilous undertaking of settling 
their claims in the Southern States. Mr. Sheldon 
went South by way of Baltimore, Norfolk and 
Weldon. At the little town of Wilson, forty miles 



^52 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEK 



below Weldon, he was finally compelled to turn 
back by a drunken mob, a guard being placed 
over him to make sure that he actually did leave 
the State. On his return to New Haven, he ad- 
dressed, by invitation, a large audience in Music 
Hall in regard to his Southern experiences, which 
had an amusing as well as a more serious side. 
During the war, Mr. Sheldon assisted in sustaining 
an advanced public sentiment and in procuring en- 
listments. He believed that the negro must even- 
tually be employed as a soldier, and at a time 
when negro orphan asylums were being sacked in 
New York, Mr. Sheldon quietly got together a 
company of thirty or forty colored men, and at 
midnight, in the basement of Music Hall, instructed 
them in the military drill, all hands being pledged to 
secresy. When the negroes were called for, almost 
every man of this company became a non-commis- 
sioned officer in the 29th or 30th Regiments, and 
inspired confidence by his military knowledge and 
aptness. 

Mr. Sheldon was connected with several bus- 
iness enterprises, particularly in the Grilley Com- 
pany, and he devoted a great deal of time, care and 
capital to the development of real estate. He be- 
came the owner of the foreign patents for a sin- 
gularly ingenious machine for the manufacture of 
brushes. The perfecting of this and the other 
requisite machinery, and the establishment in Lon- 
don of the business of manufacturing and selling 
machine-made brushes, occupied most of his time 
for si.x year.s. In 1S74 he sold out to a joint- 
stock corporation, which has continued and en- 
larged the business on the lines originally laid out 
by him, till it has become the largest, most perfect, 
and profitable brush-making establishment in the 
world. 

On his return to the United States, Mr. Sheldon 
vigorously opposed the financial policy of our 
Government, which was leading towards the "re- 
sumption," that finally prevailed. In the fall of 
1875 he began a series of public meeting in New 
Haven to resist the destruction of the greenbacks, 
and to favor the demonetization of silver. In 
May, 1876, by invitation of the New Haven 
Chamber of Commerce, he delivered before that 
body an address on " The Currency," which was 
published. Judge Sheldon served the municipal- 
ity through two terms as an Alderman (1879-82). 
He was chairman of the committees to which were 
referred the project of the Western Boulevard 
sewer and the retention and repair of the State 
House. The reports of the committees upon those 
subjects were drawn by him. In 1881 -83 he held 
the judgeship of the City Court. In the year 1881 
(Jovernor Bigelow appointed him to represent the 
State in the Tariff Convention in New York, where 
he delivered an address. In 1884 Judge Sheldon 
was delegated by the Government of the United 
States, and also by the National Association of the 
Red Cro.ss, to a conference of the treaty nations 
of the societies of the Red Cross held at Geneva. 
He drew up antl delivered the address of the 
American delegation on one of the most impor- 
tant controverted questions before the conference, 



and the question was carried unanimously, in ac- 
cordance with the views urged in that address. 

In September, 1861, Judge Sheldon married 
Miss Abby Barker, daughter of Samuel Elbridge 
Barker, of Onondaga County, N. Y. , who was a 
grand-nephew and namesake of Hon. Elbridge 
Gerry, of Massachusetts. Mrs. Sheldon, as well 
as her father, was a co-worker, on terms of special 
friendship with the early abolitionists of Central 
New York, Gerrit Smith, Samuel J. May, and 
Frederic Douglass. To Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon two 
daughters have been born. 

Judge Sheldon has long been known as an effi- 
cient advocate of temperance and of woman 
suffrage. He has commonly acted with the Re- 
publican party, but has frankly differed from that 
party on several important questions of public 
polic)', and he heartily supported Horace Greely 
for the Presidency. He joined the Masonic order 
in 1883, and, in the ensuing year became a mem- 
ber of the Connecticut Society of Arts and Sciences. 
As a public speaker, aside from his political efforts, 
he is best known by his Fourth of July and Me- 
morial Day addresses, and by his oration upon the 
death of President Garfield, which was delivered 
upon the invitation of certain citizens of New 
Haven, and was afterwards repeated by request. 
He has always been a Unitarian; has been long 
associated with the Universalist Society of New 
Haven; and for some years has taken an active 
part in its Sunday-school and conference meetings, 
and has supported all its ministrations. 

Every department of thought or action to which 
Judge Sheldon has turned his attention has felt the 
power of searching criticism and of a vigorous 
personality. He has attained a good position as a 
lawyer; has been remarkably successful as a man- 
ager of business enterprises; but, above all, as a 
thinker he is far-sighted and consistent, and an un- 
daunted opponent of evil. F^ery great reform of 
the century has found in Judge Sheldon a zealous 
and able champion. In all stages of the unceas- 
ing contest against oppression ; against hypocrisy 
and sham ; against the stubborn inertia ot stolid 
conservatism; Judge Sheldon has openly pleaded 
for true independence of thought and action, and 
at times when men's hearts were failing them for 
fear, he has stood firm. 

LUZON B. MORRIS. 

Judge Luzon B. Morris is a type of that class of 
manhood which the people especially delight to 
honor, for he has.made his way to honorable dis- 
tinction unaided, save by the strength of his own 
hands and the resources of his own mind. On 
the i6th of April, 1827, Luzon liurritt Morris was 
born at Newtown, in Fairfield County, Conn. His 
early years were years of toil and of struggles with 
poverty, but he was determined to acquire an edu- 
cation, and persevered against all obstacles. He 
attended the Connecticut Literary Institute at 
Suffield until the preparatory classical education 
was obtained, and he entered Yale with the Class 
of 1854. After graduation he chose the profession 




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i 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 



353 



of law, and pursued the study of that calling 
partly in the Law School and partly in an office. 
in 1856 he was admitted to the Bar, and two years 
later received the degree of A. M. from Yale Col- 
lege. Every step in his educational pathway was 
made possible by his own labors and sacrifices. 
He studied and worked alternately, being em- 
ployed a part of the time as superintendent in a 
lactory at Seymour. In the latter town he began 
the practice of his profession, but after a short in- 
terval he removed to New Haven, where he has 
since remained. He engaged at once in political 
life, identifying himself with the Democratic party, 
and from the outset was ranked among the leaders. 
He represented the town of Seymour through two 
sessions of the General Assembly (1855-56), and 
was elected Judge of Probate in the New Haven 
district for si.x successive terms (1857-63). The 
town of New Haven has four times chosen him as 
its representative in the Legislature (1870, 1876, 
1880-81), and in 1874 he served a term in the 
State Senate. Throughout this long period of 
public service he has gained a thorough knowledge 
of our legislation and administration. His ex- 
perience, probity, and faithfulness to trust have 
commanded for him an influential place in his pro- 
fession and in the public councils, and have 
assured to him the esteem of his fellow-citizens 
without regard to partisan differences. He filled 
the chairmanships of the Judiciary Committee, of 
Committees on Corporations and on Railways, and 
was chosen President, pro km., of the Upper 
House. A most beneficial service to the Com- 
monwealth was the part that he took in 1880 
towards settling the controversy about the bound- 
ary line between New York and Connecticut. 

The commission to which the dispute was refer- 
red, agreed to fi.x the line in the middle of the 
Sound, a decision which preserved to this State 
lands of immense value to the oyster producers 
along our coast. In the Legislature of 1884, 
Judge Morris was made chairman of a Committee 
to revise the Probate Laws of the State. His re- 
port was accepted by the Legislature of 1885, and 
is now embodied in our statutes. His interest in 
the schools has been active and productive of 
good. He has served one term on the New Haven 
Board of Education, and two tenns on the similar 
Board at Westville. In each Board he held the 
office of President. He was influential in securing 
for Westville the erection of the present graded 
school building. 

As the agent of Mr. Daniel Hand he has also 
been instrumental in the building of the Hand 
Academy at Madison, Conn. 

Among his many important business trusts is the 
office of Vice-President of the Connecticut Savings' 
Bank, which he has held for about twelve years. 

In view of these meritorious services and varied 
interests, it is not surprising that his name was 
prominently mentioned a few years ago as a desira- 
ble candidate for Governor. No member of his 
party would fill the gubernatorial chair more satis- 
factory to all classes of our citizens than Judge 
Morris. 



Judge Morris married, in 1856, Miss Eugenia 
L. Tuttle, of Seymour. Their six children are 
all living. One son, Robert T. Morris, is now a 
surgeon in New York City. He is quite noted for 
his aptitude for natural history and for his attain- 
ments therein. He studied at the Hopkins Gram- 
mar School, took a natural history course at Cor- 
nell, then entered the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons in New York City ; was in Bellevue 
Hospital for a time, and also served in an hospital 
at Hamburg, Germany. Two of Judge Morris's 
daughters have graduated from Vassar, and the 
elder of them is married to Charles M. Pratt, of 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Judge Morris has risen to eminence by sheer 
force of character. He is known as a clear-minded 
and conscientious lawyer. The story of his mu- 
nicipal services reveals him as an honored citizen; 
and even those who are numbered in the ranks of 
his political opponents are among the first to ac- 
knowledge his honesty and ability as a politician 
and a statesman. 

HON. LYNDE HARRISON. 

To the public service of his native town and 
State, Judge Lynde Harrison has devoted, for 
nearly a generation, the best efforts of an active 
and honored life. 

He was born in New Haven on the 15th of 
December, 1837. His education was obtained in 
New Haven at the Hopkins Grammar School and 
at General Russell's Collegiate and Commercial 
Institute. Having chosen the vocation of the law, 
he entered the Yale Law School and graduated 
therefrom with the Class of i860. For a short 
time afterward he taught school, but in December, 
1863, he opened a law office in New Haven, and 
has ever since remained in the practice of his pro- 
fession at this place. 

Mr. Harrison's first step in political life had 
already been taken. In 1862-63 he served as 
Clerk of the House of Representatives, and was 
promoted in 1864 to be Clerk of the Senate. In 
the following year he returned to the Senate, not 
as its Clerk, but as a member. He sat in that 
body for two years (1865-66), being especially in- 
strumental in assisting the project for the Shore 
Line Railway Bridge across the Connecticut River 
at Saybrook. After a short interval of private pro- 
fessional labor, Mr. Harrison re-entered public life 
and has scarcely quitted it until this day. In 1871 
he was chosen by the State Legislature to be Judge 
of the recently established City Court of New 
Haven. He left the Bench in 1874, and took his 
place in the House of Representatives as a delegate 
from the town of Guilford, at which place he had 
a residence from 1871 to 1883. 

To this position he continued to be chosen by 
the suffrages of his fellow-townsmen from 1874 to 
1877, and in the latter year he occupied the Speak- 
er's chair, discharging ably and faithfully the diffi- 
cult duties of that position. From July, 1877, to 
July, 1 88 1, he sat upon the Bench again as Judge 
of the Court of Common Pleas for New Haven 
County. 



254 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



In the latter year he returned to the House once 
nn)re, and was the leader of his pirty upon the 
floor and the Chairman of the Judiciary Com- 
mittee. 

In the councils of his party his voice has been 
potent alike in State and Nation. For several 
years he has been a member of the Republican 
State Central Committee, was its chairman in 
1875-76, again in 1S84 to 1886, and, therefore, 
now holds that office. He was a delegate to the 
Republican National Conventions in 1876 and in 
1880. Uunng this long and varied political, ju- 
dicial, and legislative career, Judge Harrison has 
been even more than a prominent, influential man 
and public leader. As ajurist and a statesman he has 
been enabled to leave a deep impression upon the 
statute and fundamental laws of Connecticut. Of 
the existing twenty-seven amendments to the Con- 
stitution of this State, thirteen have been added 
within the last twelve years, and for these Judge 
Harrison is largely responsible. He is the author 
of the amendment changing the time of the State 
elections from the spring to the fall; of the amend- 
ment forbidding the representation of new towns in 
the General Assembly unless the new and the 
parent town shall each have at least 2,500 inhabit- 
ants; of the amendment e.xtending the terms of 
judges; of the amendment prohibiting any county 
or municipality from incurring debt in aid of any 
railway corporation, and from subscribing to the 
capital stock of such corporations; and of the 
amendment forbidding any extra compensation or 
increase of s.dary for any public officer, to take 
effect during the term of an existing incumbent. 
Judge Harrison also drafted the Biennial Session 
Amendment of 1884; the present State Election 
Law; and the well-know Specific Appropriations 
Bill, by virtue of which specific estimates must be 
made for every appropriation, and dirough which 
many thousand dollars are annually saved to the 
State. 

In 1877, Judge Harrison took a vigorous and 
decisive stand in favor of the bill allowing to mar- 
ried women equal rights with men in the disposi- 
tion and ownership of property. This measure had 
been proposed in previous sessions, but had been 
defeated: Judge Harrison left the Speaker's chair to 
deliver an address in advocacy of the proposed law, 
and the bill was adopted. 

No question of public importance fails to arrest 
his attention and to enlist his energies upon the one 
side or the other. Not the least among his good 
works have been his services in thwarting the various 
schetnes for building "straw" railways for specu- 
lative purposes through our State. 

May 2, 1867, Judge Harrison married Miss Sara 
F. Plant, of Branford. They have had three chil- 
dren, William L., Paul W. , and Gertrude, all of 
whom are now living; but Mrs. Harrison died on 
the loth of March, 1879. 

DEXTER R. WRIGHT. 

Among the granite hills of Vermont and New 
Hampshire, on either side of old Dartmouth and 



of the Connecticut River, lies the region which once 
aspired to the name of" New Connecticut." Clear- 
ed and settled by many sturdy pilgrims from the 
land of steady habits. New Connecticut preserved 
the purest strain of our English Puritan bk)otl, and 
has been no whit behind the rest of the Green 
Mountain country in the production of its best ex- 
ports, brawn and brains. 

Prominent among the strong men with whom 
New Connecticut has paid back its debt to C)ld 
Connecticut, is Dexter Russell Wright. His ances- 
tors were among the pioneers of Vermont, and the 
ready zeal with which Colonel Wright has joined 
tleeds to woi'ds is a quality partly due perhaps to 
the perilous border-life of his sires. One of them 
met death during some bloody struggle in the 
French and Indian Wars. Colonel Wright's own 
father, Alpheus Wright, was engaged in the War of 
1 8 1 2, held an officer's commission, and was severely 
wounded at the battle of Plattsburg. Alpheus 
Wright married Miss Anna B. Loveland of Rock- 
ingham, Vt. , and their son Dexter was born to 
them in the flourishing town of Windsor, Vt., June 
27, 1 82 1. Within a few years the family removed 
to the northern part of New York State, where Mr. 
Wright established a milling and lumber business, 
together with a woolen factory. All of his sons 
were employed in these various branches of busi- 
ness, and each learned some useful trade. But the 
youthful Dexter displayed a predilection for books 
and study, and desired a collegiate education. 
With characteristic independence and energy, he 
prepared himself for the preliminary examinations. 
He chose as his Alma Mater the Wesleyan Uni- 
versity at Middletown, then uniler the personal in- 
spiration of President Stephen Olin. From that 
institution he graduated in 1845, in a class com- 
prising several eminent names besides his own, 
such as Judge R. C. Pitman, of Massachusetts; Pro- 
fessor M. C. White, of the Yale Medical School; 
the Rev. Dr. J. W. Beach, now President of the 
Wesleyan University; and the late Rev. Dr. D. A. 
Whedon. 

In the year of his graduation, Mr. Wright be- 
came Principal of the Academy at Meriden, Conn., 
and taught there with marked success for nearly a 
year and a half But the law was the vocation to 
which he had destined himself, and in 1846 he be- 
gan his legal studies in the Yale Law School ami 
in the oflice of E. K. Foster, a prominent lawyer 
of New Haven. For two years he devoted himself 
faithfully to the arduous labor of familiarizing him- 
self with both the theory and the practice of law. 
Throughout all this period of preparation he gave 
great promise of the eminence which he has since 
attained in his profession, and especially in that 
branch of it pertaining to advocacy. 

In 1848 he received from Yale the degree of 
LL. B., and commenced the practice of his profes- 
sion at Meriden. In February of that year he 
married Miss Maria H. Phelps, daughter of Colo- 
nel Ejjaphras L. Phelps, of .East Windsor, Conn. 
The years 1848-49 mark the beginning of a period 
of unparalleled development in our country's history 
— -development of ways and means of transporta- 





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The bench and bar. 



255 



tion, of our vast Western territory, and of intense 
political strife. Mr. Wright's versatile and well-dis- 
ciplined mind readily appreciated the various ex- 
igencies of the hour. His fellow-citizens were as 
ready to recognize his worth, and he became known 
at once as a leader among men. Political honor 
sought him in 1849, and he was elected to the 
State Senate by the Si.xth District, being the young- 
est man who had ever been chosen Senator from 
that district. The gold discoveries in California 
were just then introducing us to a new world 
beyond the Rockies, and IMr. Wright, always 
marching in the van, determined to visit the new 
El Dorado. Relinquishing the prospect of political 
distinctions that awaited him, he turned his face 
toward the setting sun, and for two years practiced 
law in the Territorial Courts of California, engaged 
in land specuhition, and aided in shaping the plas- 
tic materials of the future State. 

]n 1 85 1 he returned to IMeriden, and during the 
next eleven years continued singly in the practice 
of his profession, which soon became large and 
lucrative. Ills honesty, legal ability, and warm 
public spirit won for him the esteem of all classes 
in the community. Active in every good work, 
he led the way in efibrts for local public improve- 
ments, and to him the people of jMeriden are largely 
indebted for the tasteful beauty of their city. 

Mr. Wright's earliest political affiliations were 
with the Democratic party, but he was always the 
master, never the slave, of his opinions. When the 
arm of revolt was raised to destroy the national ex- 
istence, Mr. Wright promptly cast in his lot with 
the Republican party and with supporters of the 
Government. His name became a tower of strength 
to the loyal cause in Connecticut. At a meeting 
of Meriden citizens in April, 1861, immediately 
after the attack upon Fort Sumter, he was one of 
the principal speakers, and he declared the neces- 
sity of speedy and vigorous action. The Meriden 
company was the first that reported to the Governor. 
Mr. Wright obeyed his own precepts, and labored 
continually in the work of recruiting and organiz- 
ing regiments. He spoke in different parts of the 
State, kindling the fire of patriotic feeling, and re- 
cruiting companies for every regiment that Con- 
necticut raised during the years 1861 and 1862. 

In the summer of 1862 he was commissioned 
Lieutenant-Colonel of the 14th Regiment. On 
the istof July, President Lincoln issued his call 
for three hundred thousand more volunteers, and 
in forty-five days Connecticut was putting seven 
additional regiments into the field. Of the first of 
these, the 15th Connecticut Volunteers, Lieutenant- 
Colonel Wright was made Colonel by Governor 
Buckingham. The commission was bestowed upon 
Colonel Wright without his previous knowledge, 
and on account of his superior fitness and ardent 
patriotism. In a very short time his personal 
exertions, aided by his great influence and popu- 
larity, had recruited his regiment to its full number 
and six hundred in excess. In August, 1862, 
Colonel Wright went with his regiment to Virginia, 
where for several months he commanded a brigade. 
The regiment receivetl its baptism of fire in the 



terrible battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 
1862. 

After about a year's service in the field. Colonel 
Wright's health gave way, and he was granted an 
honorable discharge upon the surgeon's certificate 
of disability. 

He returned home, but he had only shifted his 
battle-field; for, by Governor Buckingham's special 
request, he was appointed Commissioner on the 
Board of Enrollment for the Second Congressional 
District. In 1863, also, he was elected to represent 
Meriden in the Connecticut General Assembly, 
where he was at once recognized as the Republican 
leader. As chairman of the Committee on Military 
Aft"airs he waged eftective warfare against those 
who desired to assert State sovereignty against the 
national supremac)'. In the summer of 1863 he 
was one of those who stood quietly ready to strike 
down with armed foi'ce any riotous resistance to 
the draft. In the autumn session of the Legislature, 
Colonel Wright was the author and sponsor of the 
bill which authorized the Governor to organize 
regiments of colored infantry in Connecticut. 

Having served the Government in the field and 
at home at a great pecuniary cost to himself. 
Colonel Wright removed to New Haven near the 
close of the war, and resumed there the practice of 
law, in which he has continued to the present 
time. The people, however, have not been will- 
ing to leave him free from public trusts. The 
municipality in which he lives has frequently 
profited by his ripe experience. In 1868, and in 
1872-73, he was a member of the Council, and in 
the latter years was President of the Board. From 
1872 to 1874 he was a Police Commissioner of the 
City of New Haven, and during the same time 
he held for a year the responsible post of Corpo- 
ration Council. From 1877 to 1881 he was an 
Alderman of the city. Also for a term of four 
years (1865-69) he served as Assistant United 
States District Attorney for Connecticut. Finally, 
in the legislative session of 1879 he represented 
the town of New Haven, and was elected Speaker 
of the House of Representatives, which position he 
filled with signal courtesy, ability, and success. 

Colonel Wright's forceful character has made 
his life an eventful one. A wide range of activities 
is included within the career of a California " Forty- 
niner," a colonel in the civil war, a leader of polit- 
ical parties, and a successful and influential lawyer. 
Yet, although he has responded manfully to so 
many calls upon his energies, and although his 
devotion to the law has been for so long a period 
conscientious and unremitting, he has found time 
to acquaint himself with literature and science. 
With medical studies he is so familiar, that the 
honorary degree of M. D. has been given to him 
by a medical college. He has also received the 
degree of Master of the Arts from his Alma Mater, 
and Trinity College has bestowed upon him the 
degree of A. M. Causa Honoris. 

Of the six children who have been born to him, 
four survive. Holding the first rank among his 
professional brethren, honored in society and in 
the State, distinguished as a sincere patriot and as 



256 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



a public-spirited citizen, Colonel Wright adorns, 
while he enjoys, the eminent position that he has 
so honorably won.* 

CHARLES ROBERTS INGERSOLL 

is the son of Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll and Margaret 
Vandenheuvel, and was born in New Haven Sep- 
tember 1 6, 1 82 1. He was educated at the Hop- 
kins Grammar School in New Haven, and Yale 
College, where he was graduated in the Class of 
1840. Subsequently he studied law in the Yale 
Law School, and in 1845 was admitted to the Bar 
of New Haven County and has ever since been 
actively engaged in New Haven in the practice of 
his profession, having been for several years associ- 
ated in such practice with his father. 

In 1856-58, 1866 and 1871, he was a represent- 
ative of New Haven in the General Assembly of 
Connecticut, and in 1873 was chosen by popular 
vote, as the candidate of the Democratic party, 
Governor of the State. He was re-elected in 1874 
-76, declining a renomination at the next election. 
He was a presidential (Tilden) elector of Connect- 
icut in 1876. 

His wife is the daughter of Rear-Admiral Francis 
H. Gregory, U. S. N., of New Haven, and four chil- 
dren of the marriage are now living. 

HENRY BUTTON 

was born in Plymouth, Conn., February 12, 1796. 
He died at his residence in New Haven, April 26, 
1 869. He was the son of Thomas Button, a soldier 
of the Revolution (his mother was from New 
Haven), a lineal descendant from John Punderson, 
one of the ' ' seven pillars " of the church first estab- 
lished in New Haven. 

The lamily home had been in Watertown, and, 
after a siiort period in Plymouth, was removed to 
Northfield. His early life was spent on his father's 
farm. At the age of twenty he entered the Junior 
Class in Yale College and graduated with honor in 
18 18. He supported himself in his educational 
course by his own efforts, aided only by a legacy 
of one hundred dollars left him by his mother's 
brother. On leaving college he took charge of the 
Academy in Fairfield, pursuing in his unoccupied 
hours legal studies under the direction of Hon. 
Roger Minot Sherman. In 1821 he accepted an 
a])pointment to a tutorship in Yale College. 

After a service of two years as tutor, he com- 
menced practice at the Bar in Newtown. Here he 
remained fourteen years, and in 1837 removed to 
Bridgeport. In 1847 'le was appointed Professor 
of Law in Yale College and took up his residence 
in New Haven, continuing the practice of his pro- 
fession and also discharging from time to time 
divers public trusts. He was elected representative 
to the General Assembly from each of the towns of 
Newtown, Bridgeport, and New Haven, five times 
in all, and was once elected a member of the State 
-Senate. He was appointed by the Legislature a 
Commissioner for the Revision and Compilation of 

• Colonel Wright died while these pages were going througli the press. 
See page 249, Hon. Lynde Harrison's cliaptcr on the Bench and Bar. 



the Statutes of Connecticut in 1849, 1854, and 
1866. In 1854 he was elected Governor of the 
State, which office he filled for one term. In this 
year he received the honorary degree of Boctor of 
Laws from Yale College. 

In 1 86 1 he was elected Judge of the Supreme 
Court of Errors and of the Superior Court, having 
previously served one year as Judge of the County 
Court for New Haven County. He remained on 
the Bench of the Supreme Court till February 12, 
1866, when he reached the constitutional limit of 
seventy years of age. He now resumed his legal 
practice, continuing also his connection with the 
Law School, in which, on the retirement of Judge 
Bis.sell in 1855, he was the senior Professor. 
Besides these official and professional labors, he 
prepared an Analytical Bigest of the State Reports, 
which was published in 1833, and in 1848 he pub- 
lished a revision of Swift's Bigest of the Laws of 
Connecticut. After about three years from his leav- 
ing the Bench his health began to fail, and in a few 
months a severe access of lung fever terminated his 
long life of useful and honored service, at the age 
of a little over seventy-three years. 

Mr. Button married Miss Elizabeth E. Joy, 
daughter of Captain Melzor Joy, of Boston, INIass. 
Their children were three daughters and one son. 
The eldest daughter, Ann Eliza, became the wife 
of William F. Keeler, of Plymouth. The second 
daughter, Mary Eliot, married Henry B. Graves, of 
Plymouth, afterwards of Litchfield; she died Febru- 
ary 6, 1865. The third, Harriet Joy, married 
George H. Watrous, of New Haven, and died 
January 2, 1873. The only son, Henry Melzor 
Button, born September 9, 1838, graduated at 
Yale College in 1857, and entered upon the prac- 
tice of the law in Middletown. He enlisted as a 
private on the first call for volunteers in the Civil 
VVar, and rose by gradual promotion to the first 
lieutenantcy in his company. In the hotly con- 
tested battle of Cedar Mountain, August 9, 1862, 
he was pierced by a ball through the heart, and was 
buried on the field. 

In person Judge Button was in stature tall, 
somewhat above the average, spare in body, bold 
in feature. A slight stoop in posture betokened a 
man of modest spirit, of thoughtful habit, and of 
earnest purpose. He was aflfable, gentle, and 
courteous in manner, both in private and official 
life, and of a kind and generous disposition. His 
intellect was naturally bright and active, and be- 
came strong by diligent and careful culture. He 
took an active interest in all social matters. His 
professional life was characterized by unsparing 
devotion to the interests of his clients. 

His keen, discriminating intellect, which enabled 
him at once to seize the principle involved in a com- 
plexity of facts and relations, gave him great power as 
an advocate, and made him a formidable opponent 
in argument As a judge he was courteous and ac- 
commodating, while careful to insure all reasonable 
dispatch of business. He was largely instrumental 
in elTecting, besides other improvements, that 
change in the law of evidence which permitted 
parties in interest to testify. He attained a high 




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THE BENCH AND BAR. 



257 



rank in his profession as an able and sound ex- 
pounder of the law, and a successful practitioner. 
His more private life was in all relations exem- 
plary. Pure and upright in all morality; of thor- 
ough-going integrity; loyal to every principle of 
truth and duty; yet gentle and kind, he won to an 
unusual degree the confidence, the respect, the af- 
fectionate esteem of all with whom he became 
associated. His name stands deservedly high 
among the honored ones of New Haven. 

CHARLES IVES 

was born in New Haven September i8, 1815. Be- 
reft of his father at the age of one and a half years, 
he fortunately possessed a mother of rare character. 
Her uncommon qualities of mind and heart well 
fitted her for the training of her gifted son, and 
won from him an appreciation and reverent affec- 
tion which he cherished throughout his life. At 
an early age he was sent to Mr. Lovell's famous 
Lancasterian School, where he remained until he 
was sixteen years old, passing from grade to grade 
until he attained the highest rank, and became 
"monitor general of order, time and place." 

After leaving school he entered a printing-office, 
expecting to fit himself in time for an editor. All 
his tastes and ambition led him towards a literary 
life. While in the printing-office he often worked 
over hours in order to be better able to assist his 
mother, whose means were limited. During this 
time he also read and studied in all leisure hours, 
self-improvement being ever his watchword. 

On attaining his majority, life looked bright be- 
fore him. He was in perfect health; tall, hand- 
some, with a frame as lithe and wiry as an athlete's; 
a cultivated mind, and a determined purpose to be 
a success in the world. While on a visit to the 
country he took a severe cold, and rheumatism, 
combined with unskillful medical treatment, caused 
a long illness. As he was recovering, he went for 
a drive, was thrown from the carriage, seriously 
injured, and carried home with but few chances of 
ever again going forth into the sunlight. Rheu- 
matism resumed its sway, and for nearly seven 
years he was bedridden. Friends despaired, and 
the mother's heart often failed her as she saw the 
apparent shattering of all her proud hopes, but his 
sunny courage never failed. He knew he should 
live; he knew he should yet act his part among 
the world's busy workers, and he began to prepare 
himself for that time. He read much and widely, 
laying the foundations for that broad knowledge 
on many topics which he had in later life. He 
took up stenography and made himself master of 
it at a period when its acquisition was rare. He 
began the study of law. Meanwhile his pen was 
not idle. He wrote articles for different literary 
societies of which he was a member, contributed 
largely, under different signatures, to newspapers 
and magazines, and in 1843 published a volume of 
poems, entided "Chips from the Workshop." 
This little book had a large sale, and realized for 
the author a good profit. Still, although many of 
the poems were of real merit, he did not value the 
33 



worlc highly in later life, knowing that he was then 
able, if time could have been commanded, to pro- 
duce something of more lasting fame. 

After the long weary years of illness, he at length 
gained sufficient strength to leave his sick room, 
walking with crutches. He visited Sharon Springs, 
White Sulphur Springs, and other places in search 
of health, and returned to New Haven somewhat 
improved, but appearing to all observers as though 
holding on to a very slender thread of life. His 
own courage, however, was still undaunted, and 
his wonderful will nerved him on to fresh effiarts. 
He entered the Yale Law School, from which he 
was graduated in 1846. 

In the same year he was admitted to the Bar, 
opened an office, and commenced at once that ca- 
reer of successful achievement which ever widened 
with each added year. It was always a source of 
great gratification to him that his mother's life was 
spared long enough to see him in the midst of busy 
professional work, and to be a little repaid for all 
her self-sacrificing efforts in his behalf. It was not 
his intention at first to devote his whole life to the 
practice of law, his inclinations leading him towards 
literary pursuits. Once in the harness, however, 
he found it difficult to break away, and continued 
in full practice until his death, a period of thirty- 
four 3-ears, during the latter part of which time he 
was President of the New Haven County Bar. Of 
his career as a lawyer, John W. Ailing, who was in 
his office for many years,. speaks as follows in a 
memorial sketch he prepared for the Connecticut 
Reports: 

"The cases in which Mr. Ives was engaged in 
the Supreme Court, scattered through more than 
twenty-five volumes of the Connecticut Reports, and 
the public positions he held, have already made 
him known to the Bar of the State as a man of 
professional ability, and but few words are needed 
on this point. It must go without question that 
no man in the legal profession can greatly succeed 
unless he greatly work, and Mr. Ives' success fur- 
nished no excepdon to this rule. It may be well, 
however, to notice briefly the special qualities of 
mind and character which largely contributed to 
his special success. 

" First should be mentioned his natural fitness 
for literary work. From the outset of his profes- 
sional career Mr. Ives could always readily and 
apUy express his ideas, whether to his client at the 
office, or to the court or jury. Facility of expres- 
sion, an easy command of language, sometimes so 
difficult for others to attain, was with Mr. Ives his 
birthright. 

"In the next place he was thoroughly honest 
and candid in dealing with his clients. He never 
encouraged the litigious spirit. He w-as not always 
able to control or restrain it, but he always made 
a client feel that he was as truly working for him as 
if he himself had been the client. 

"Again, ]Mr. Ives was a very confident man in 
the advocacy of his opinions. He thoroughly be- 
lieved his client to have the right of the cause, and 
that the right would prevail. He could hardly 
argue any interlocutory motion without adverting 



258 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



•I 



to the merits of the case. No judge or jury was 
ever in doubt about the sincerity of his opinions. 

"He also possessed great versatility of mind. 
He was quick to see the answer to the arguments 
from the other side, quick to see the mental reser- 
vations of a reluctant witness, and to detect the in- 
consistencies of a swift witness. After the profes- 
sional labors of the day he could readily apply his 
mind to other subjects, especially those of a literary 
character, which were his delight. 

" Mr. Ives was always very kind and generous to 
the junior members of the Bar, especially to those 
who had been compelled to rely upon themselves 
for their education. No such young lawyer went 
to his oflice in vain. At the Bar meeting called to 
do honor to his memory, the most touching pro- 
fessional tribute there paid was the ready and hearty 
utterance from many young lawyers who had had 
occasion to appreciate liis kindness, of their feeling 
of personal affection and gratitude." 

Not only to young lawyers was he kind, but to 
all who needed assistance or counsel. During the 
latter part of his life especially he gave his time and 
strength freely to a large number of the poor and 
oppressed, sometimes charging a small pittance to 
save wounding pride. His family have received 
since his death many testimonies, uttered in falter- 
ing tones, of the friend he had been to numerous 
troubled souls whose gratitude was all they had to 
give in return. 

In his law practice he found the knowledge of 
shorthand, which he had acquired during his ill- 
ness, to be of invaluable assistance to him. He was 
about the only expert stenographer in the city for 
a long time, and could not be excelled in the rapid- 
ity and ease with which he wrote, even when new 
improved systems were introduced and students of 
the att were numerous. By its aid he reproduced, 
for the entertainment and instruction of the mem- 
bers of his home circle, any anecdotes or interesting 
facts which lie heard elsewhere, or abstracts of 
speeches or lectures which would have otherwise 
been lost to them. He was not contented to simply 
absorb knowledge for his own mental growth, he 
delighted to learn in order that he might impart it 
again for the enrichment of other minds. His con- 
versation was never idle, one always heard what 
was worth hearing, and learned almost without 
realizing it, charmed by his pleasant manner and 
the graceful flow of words which brightly clothed 
even humble facts. 

His command of language was truly remarkable, 
and came partly as a natural gift, partly from con- 
stant reading of the best authors, both of ancient 
and modern times, and partly from a habit he 
formed in early life of always expressing his thoughts 
in the best language he knew. He often tried to 
impress on young people the importance of forming 
this habit, urging that though at first it might be 
more trouble to choose fitting words than to take 
those which carelessly presented themselves, in time 
a vocabulary would be gained which, ever enlarg- 
ing, would alwa}s be ready for use, not stored away 
to be unpacked with great effort on holiday occa- 
sions. 



His love of debate and happy faculty for extem- 
poraneous speaking served him well aside from his 
profession, more especially in the General Assembly, 
of which he was an active member at different times. 
He first represented the town of New Haven in that 
body in 1S53. Afterwards, when he had moved 
with his family (he had married Catharine M. Os- 
born, of New Haven, in 1852) to his beautiful 
home at Iveston on Fair Haven Heights, he was 
sent to represent the town of East Haven in 1865, 
1867 and 1868. In 1867 he was Chairman of the 
Judiciary Committee, and in 1868 was Speaker of 
the House. He was fond of politics, and doubt- 
less would have entered into them more extensively 
had it not been for his lameness. This trial, mod- 
ified somewhat from its first severity, in that for 
many years he was able to discard crutches and 
use a cane, was rarely mentioned by him, and all 
the many inconveniences and deprivations to which 
it subjected him were borne with uncomplaining 
patience. Indeed his long illness seemed to have 
refined and purified his whole nature, and the re- 
sult was a character so noble and unselfish as to be 
most appreciated by those who knew him best and 
saw him in the beauty of his daily home life. In 
his home he found his chief enjoyment. Here it 
was he rested after his toilsome days of professional 
work; rested, not in inaction, but in change of 
occupation. Throwing off business cares when he 
entered the home circle he loved, he gave to it the 
best of himself. Happy were the evenings when 
he read aloud from the old poets and essayists in 
whom he delighted; gave his children lessons in 
shorthand and elocution; explained to them knotty 
problems; gave them in concise, clear form the 
gist of his scientific readings; or charmed with his 
genial wit the friends who sought him by his fire- 
side. Almost the only occasions on which he was 
ever away from home evenings were when he at- 
tended the monthly meetings of the Connecticut 
Academy of Arts and Sciences, of which he was a 
member, and the fortnightly gatherings of a literary 
club to which he had belonged for over twenty 
years. This literary club met at the houses of its 
members, who assembled between five and six 
o'clock, had supper, and then discussed topics of 
interest. One person was appointed each time to 
open the subject, and a general debate followed, 
always ending by ten o'clock. This club numbered 
among its members such men as Rev. Dr. Bacon, 
Professor S. Wells Williams, Professor Twining, 
Ex-President Woolsey, President Porter, Professor 
Fisher, Professor Dwight, and many others. He 
enjoyed this club thoroughly; always attended, 
unless absolutely impossible; and took an active 
part in its discussions. 

In 1874, Yale College conferred upon him the 
honorary degree of M.A. 

During the winters of 1 878-79, 1879-S0, he went, 
accompanied by his wife, to Nassau, N. P., Bahama 
Islands, partly for health and rest, partly for pleas- 
ure. There, strengthened by the mild climate and 
the soft winds which were wafted to the island from 
those Southern waters, and enchanted by the trop- 
ical beauty of land, sea and sky, he wrote a long 



THE BENCH AND BAR. 



259 



series of letters to the Nav Haven Journal and 
Courier. When remonstrated with for worlcing 
and taxing himself instead of resting, he replied 
with his usual unselfishness, "It seems a pity to 
enjoy all this and not give the benefit of it to those 
who cannot come. " 

The letters were received with delight by all who 
read them, and were written in the author's happiest 
vein, having the same bright sparkle which charac- 
terized his conversation: and under the sparkle, 
and along with it, flowed the deep stream of com- 
plete and accurate information. On his return 
home from his second visit to Nassau, late in the 
spring of 1880, he was met on all sides by the re- 
quests of those who had read his letters that he 
would publish them in book form. Therefore, in 
the fall of that year, in addition to his professional 
labors, he undertook the task of revising, rewriting, 
adding to, and arranging the letters in book form. 
Besides this labor, he assumed the cares of publish- 
ing the book himself, and was worried by the de- 
lays caused by printers, engravers and binders. All 
promised it should be ready for the holiday trade, 
all broke their promises, and the author never saw 
his book. 

Overworked, he was stricken down with paral- 
ysis of the brain, and after a two days' illness he 
was at rest. He died on the morning of December 
31, 1880. He left a wife, a son, who bore his 
name, and two daughters, Kate M. Ives, wife of 
Otis H. Waldo, of Chicago, 111., and Marie E. Ives. 
The son, Charles Ives, also a lawyer, in whom 
were centered the hopes and love of his family, and 
who, for a young man, had already attained a high 
position at the Bar, died of typhoid fever August 31, 
1883. 

"Isles of Summer" or " Nassau and the Baha- 
mas," the book for which its author spent his last 
strength, arrived the day after his death. It has 
become too well known to need any words of de- 
scription. It will continue to be considered by all 
who read it, worthy to have been the final work in 
Charles Ives' life of endeavor and achievement. 

HENRY BALDWIN HARRISON, 
Governor of the State of Connecticut. 

No citizen of New Haven is more closely associ- 
ated with its daily business life than Henry B. Har- 
rison. Upon all of its thoroughfares his slight active 
figure is a familiar one. For sixty-five years, as boy 
and man, he has lived in the community and grown 
with it, yet one who sees only the elastic step and 
vigorous look, would almost deny to the Governor 
his first half-century, and would count him (where 
indeed he belongs in feeling) among the young men 
of New Haven. 

Nevertheless he first saw the light so long ago as 
September 11, 1821, in this city. He was among 
the pupils of John E. Lovell at the famous Lancas- 
terian School, and while, continuing his studies in 
the Academic Department of Yale College, he was 
Mr. Lovell's assistant. Many residents of New Haven 
are now fond of recalling memories of attendance 
at that old-time school when the present Governor 



conducted its classes. It is certain that the tuition 
was of good quality, for Henry B. Harrison gradu- 
ated from Yale at the head of the Class of 1846. 
He entered upon the study of law and began its 
practice with Lucius G. Peck, Esq. Mr. Peck was 
a prominent Whig, and Mr. Harrison engaged ac- 
tively in politics upon the same side. In 1854, the 
Whig party elected him State Senator from the 
Fourth District by a vote of 2,597 against 1,718 
for Charles Atwater, Jr., who was the Democratic 
candidate. Mr. Harrison was now fairly embarked 
upon the political sea, and he shaped his course 
fearlessly. Northern anti-slavery sentiment was then 
seeking to devise means for evading the duties im- 
posed by the recent Fugitive Slave Law, and Mr. 
Harrison framed the personal liberty bill, which 
tended to nullify that law in Connecuticut. 

The penalty for pretending that a free person was 
a slave, was fixed at a five thousand dollar fine and 
a term of five years in State's prison. There were 
severe punishments for perjury and ample provis- 
ions for the rigorous enforcement of the new law. 

After the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was enacted, 
Mr. Harrison joined the Free Soil party, and re- 
mained with it until it was merged in the Republi- 
can host. Of the latter party in Connecticut he is 
one of the fathers. In the winter of 1855-56, he 
was one of the handful of men who organized the 
Republican party, and in the following spring he 
was its nominee for the office of Lieutenant-Gover- 
nor. Gideon Welles was the candidate for the Gover- 
norship. When finally victory rested upon the 
Republican banners, Mr. Harrison refused to take 
office, and turned to his law practice. To that he 
devoted himself with unremitting attention, and 
his efforts were crowned with fortune and fame. 

His legal reputadon is second to none in the State. 
He is conscientious in his methods, clear in his 
statements of fact, and tireless in clearing away the 
rubbish which rhetoric and subde cunning may have 
piled up to conceal fact. One of the most noted 
cases with which his name is connected was the trial 
of Willard Clark, at New Haven, for murder. Messrs. 
Harrison and Charles R. Chapman were associated 
together in the defense. The plea was insanity, 
and Clark was acquitted upon that ground. During 
the Civil War, Mr. Harrison was a zealous supporter 
of Lincoln's administration and gave continual aid to 
the loyal cause. In 1865 he was elected, together 
with Eleazer K. Foster, to represent New Haven in 
the Lower House of the Legislature. The latter be- 
came Speaker of the House, and the former Chair- 
man of the House Committees on Railroads and 
Federal Relations. Chairman Harrison offered a 
bill to insure low rates of commutation on railways, 
which was successful in the house, but was defeated 
in the Senate. 

In the same session he won distinguished honor 
by a magnificent speech in favor of amending the 
State Constitution by erasing the word "white" 
from the eighth amendment and thus opening the 
ballot box to the colored man.* In the ensuing 
political campaign (1866) he might have received 

*The amendment which authorizud the erasure of this objectionable 
word was not actually adopted until 1876, 



^60 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



the Gubernatorial nomination but the friends of 
General Hawley urged the latter's claim to recogni- 
tion on account of service in the field. Mr. Har- 
rison was ever ready to do honor to the loyal 
soldier, and, without solicitation, of his own 
motion, wrote a letter positively withdrawing in 
General Hawley s favor. 

In 1873 he was again a representative from 
New Haven to the Legislature, and was a member 
of the Judiciary Committee. He was also chair- 
man of the Committee on the Constitutional Con- 
vention, and in that capacity reported a bill which 
called such a body together. He supported the 
proposal with an elaborate argument, but the bill 
was defeated in the House. 

In the next year Messrs. Harrison and John T. 
Wait were the Republican candidates for Governor 
and Lieutenant-Governor respectively, but the ticket 
was defeated by sectional animosities within the 
party. Again in 1883 New Haven chose him as 
its representative by over eleven hundred majority. 
He was at once, by a unanimous public opinion, 
designated for the -Speakership. He was elected 
to that office, and presided with marked ability and 
to the general satisfaction. In the campaign of 
1884 he became again the standard-bearer of the 
Republican party in Connecticut under peculiar 
adverse circumstances. His immediate opponent. 
Governor Waller, was a very popular man, and was 
supported by the moral force of a previous 
triumphant election and of a not unsuccessful ad- 



ministration. It seemed probable also that the 
Presidential campaign would assist the Democratic 
rather than the Republican forces. Governor Har- 
rison threw himself into the contest with character- 
istic zeal and indomitable persistence. The Cleve- 
land electoral ticket was indeed successful, but 
Governor Harrison had the satisfaction of seeing the 
opposing majorities of two years before wiped out, 
the most of his State ticket elected, and the rest 
practically tied with their Democratic competitors, 
so that election by a Republican legislature was 
certain. 

In all political contests Governor Harrison has 
been found in the front ranks of his part)-. One of 
its founders, he has never failed to be its champion 
and leader, yet his political foes have always been 
ready to acknowledge his fairness, his sincerity, his 
unimpeachable honesty, and they have rejoiced, as 
neighbors and fellow-citizens, in his many honors. 
What services Henry B. Harrison has rendered to 
New Haven, to his acquaintances and friends, 
there is no room here to tell. The evidences of 
his public spirit, of his interest in private and pub- 
lic enterprises, of his charity and courtesy, of his 
activity in behalf of New Haven's institutions, of 
Yale College, in whose corporation he has been 
enrolled since 1872 — all these should be rehearsed. 

But all these must be implied in the description 
of him as a citizen worthy in every way of the 
community which esteems and respects him, and of 
the State which honors him. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 

BY FRANCIS BACON, M.D. 



[Dr. Henry Bronson, by his personal recollections, ex- 
tending over many years, by his familiarity with local 
traditions, by his careful study of such documents as sur- 
vive, as well as by his literary facility, is better ([ualified 
than any one else to write a history of the meilical ]3rofes- 
sion in New Haven. That he could not be persuaded to 
undertake the business is a cause of sincere regret to the 
writer of the followint; pages, and must be so to all who 
read them, esiiecially if they are familiar with the work 
Dr. Bronson has already done in that direction in his 
" History of tlie Intermittent Fever in the New Haven 
Region," and in the numerous biographical sketches he has 
contributed to the publications of the New Haven Historical 
Society and the Connecticut Medical Society. 

These productions show everywhere a conscientious 
industry in the collection of oliscure materials, an intel- 
ligent skill in the use of them, and an unswerving justice in 
estimates of character that make them models for that kind 
of work. 

The writer of this chapter will have constant need to 
help himself from these historical sketches, and will do it 
with the less scruple in that the quality of Dr. Bronson's 
work cheapens that of any successor lie is likely to have in 
the same field.} 

IT must be counted as a somewhat exceptional 
thing in the history of New Haven, that at no 
time, even during the early days of the colony, 
did the ministers of religion add the practice of 
medicine to their function of spiritual guides and 
instructors. Doubtless in those days of hardship 



there was sharp and frequent need of medical help. 
For a while the people were ill sheltered from a 
climate new and untried, and often inclement. 
Some of them were lodged in poor huts, some in 
half subterranean burrows.* The perilous change 
of old habits for new and unfamiliar modes of life, 
and the stress of such manifold privations as are 
inevitable in the subduing of a wilderness, must 
certainly have made themselves felt as the cause of 
unusual sickness. No such terrible mortality as 
that which disheartened the first pilgrims at Ply- 
mouth, or later ravaged the companies of Endi- 
cott and Winthrop in " the Massachusetts," ever 
afflicted the New Haven colonists. But very early 
certainly, and probably from the outset, they felt 
the withering touch of that morbific cause to which 
our later ignorance gives the name malaria. 

There is nothing however to show that either 

*Likc the "cellar" wherein poor little Mich.iel Wigglesworlh so 
nearly caught his death, when the " great rain brake in upon us and 
drencht me so in my bed, being asleep, that I fell sick upon it." The 
first trace of sanitary legislation to be found in the Records (it was 
probably in the mterest of health as well as of moralityl is directed 
against these " cellars." " 2<t Dec', 1640. Itt was ordered yt all thalt 
iive in cellars and have famylyes, shall have liberty for thr^e months 
to provide for themselves, butt all single persons are to betake them- 
selves forthwith to some famylyes except the magistrate see cause to 
respite them for a time." 

I'his were a wholesome order still, if it could be enforced in some 
neighborhoods which might be pointed out. 



ttiE PkACTICE OP MEDICINE AND SURCERy. 



2G1 



the Rev. John Davenport, or the Rev. Samuel 
Eaton, or the Rev. \Mniam Hooke, learned men 
and university-trained scholars as they were, ever 
were credited with any more medical skill than 
their fellow adventurers possessed. Had they not 
been town-bred gentlemen, accustomed to live 
within easy call of physicians, or had they very 
long anticipated the emergencies of an abode in 
the wilderness, it is probable that they, like many 
English clergymen of their time, and many New 
England clergymen after them through the follow- 
ing century, might have studied medicine as a part 
of their education, and practiced it as a useful and 
acceptable adjunct to their spiritual vocation. The 
essential elements of medical science in those days 
were not so bulky but that they might be tacked 
on as an ornamental and, in case of emergency, a 
useful appendage to that more sacred learning 
which was to vanijuish the spiritual enemy of man- 
kind. The first American contribution to medical 
literature was " A Brief Rule to Guide the Com- 
mon People in Small-pox and Measles, 1674," 
by the Rev. Thomas Thacher, first minister of the 
Old South Church in Boston. "He that for his 
lively ministry was justly reckoned among 'the 
Angels of the Churches,' might for his medical 
acquaintances, experiences and performances, be 
truly called a Raphael," says Cotton Mather, who 
lets not his reader escape without much more 
about ..'Kgidius Atheniensis and Constantinus Afer, 
and other like practicers of " the angelical conjunc- 
tion" of physics and divinity, in the style so sadly 
familiar in the pages of the '' Magnalia.'' 

The physicians themselves of that day, if they 
were learned, as some of them were, found their 
learning for the most part in a certain debatable 
ground outside of the strict limits of medical litera- 
ture. The admirable Sir Thomas Browne, for 
instance, was a learned physician, and so, in less 
degree and in a difl'erent line, was his son, Edward. 
Sir Thomas was copious in Latin and Greek, and 
had more Hebrew than most theologians of this day 
have time to get or need to use. Their natural 
science was that of Aristotle and Pliny, with some 
recent additions in chemistry from Paracelsus and 
Van Helmont. Doubtless it was well for them to be 
learned. What more comforting for a patient roar- 
ing in a fit of the gout than that his doctor should 
have the " Encomium Podagriv " of Cardanus at his 
tongue's end .■' How tranquilizing in the delirium 
of fever to show the mystical correspondence of the 
signs of the zodiac with those of the twelve tribes 
of Israel I But with all our admiration for the 
devout eloquence of the Rcligw MeJici, we must 
admit that it is less likely to be helpful to the sick 
man than to soothe the grief of his surviving 
friends. 

Though the most skillful physician of that period 
would cut but a poor figure among the average of 
his brethren of this day for the paucity of his re- 
sources, yet the seventeenth century was one of 
gieit progress in medical science and art. 

My Lord of Verulam's pregnant suggestions were 
quickening inquiry in every branch of knowledge, 
and thoughtful men were asking of every fact if it 



were not a key that might unlock some never yet 
opened door. 

The great epoch-making discovery of the circu- 
lation of the blood, which had stopped short of 
completeness seventy-five years before in Geneva, 
owing to the irresistible warmth of John Calvin's 
argument with poor Miciiael .Scrvetus, was carried 
to its inevitable result by William Harvey. 

The century through the first third of which 
Van Helmont dreamily groped after truth, was able 
to show at its close the work of Thomas Sydenham 
as its gain in the way of accurate observation, sa- 
gacious experiment and sound reasoning. 

New Haven Colony managed to be born and to 
pass some years of life without the help of any 
doctor of its own. Neither was there a conve- 
niently neighboring practitioner who could run in 
upon occasion or periodically and do a compen- 
dious stroke of medication and phlebotomy, as good 
Dr. Samuel Fuller, of Plymouth, Mayflower pil- 
grim and deacon in John Robinson's church, and 
"the first regularly educated physician that visited 
New England," used to do. "I have been to 
Matapan," he writes to Governor Bradford, "and 
let some twenty of those people blood. " " What 
disease prevailed among those people that required 
the loss of blood in the warm season of June, we 
are unable to determine, " says the judicious Dr. 
Thacher ("Medical Biography") in recounting this 
incident. Probably it was a proceeding nunc pro 
lutic, like some of the discipline in Dotheboys Hall. 
Matapan was an outlying corner of the Doctor's 
field, and who could tell what distemper might 
get afoot and make headway before his next visit. 

In sore straits as our ancestors often found them- 
selves, it is certain that they never thought of avail- 
ing themselves of the .skill of those Indian "medi- 
cine men " who could nt)t have been far to seek, 
and concerning whose powers the unlearned in 
these later days have entertained such strange 
conceits. To receive the ministrations of a " medi- 
cine man," with his somewhat crude and limited 
resources in the way of ma/eria medica, and his un- 
limited armamentaiiiim diabolicum, whooping, rat- 
tling, dancing, steaming and stenchful, by all ac- 
counts could have been little short of a personal 
interviesv with Hobbamocke himself, a personage 
between whom and the old orthodox Apollyon 
there was no greater room for choice than is afl'ord- 
ed by the eccentricities of individual taste. And 
yet, frankly admits William Wood ("New England's 
Prospect, " 1634), "sometimes the Devill for re- 
quitall of their worship, recovers the partie, to 
nuzzle them up in their divellish Religion."* 



* If these simple thaumiiturgists were now to reappear in the pomp 
of bears* claws, catamounts' heads, eagles' talons, raltlcsnaUes* skins, 
anti the like, which served instead of diploma'^ to establish their claims 
to the confiilence of the public, and were to take their place with their 
legitimate successors among the irregular practitioners of the present 
day, their special S.»tanophany would at least add a picturesque vivac- 
ity to a somewhat monotonous waste of ignorance and imposture. 
And, as there is absolutely nothing in the existiiig statutes of Connecti- 
cut, and less than one could wish in the state of public opinion, to pre- 
vent it, it is probable that they would secure a share of that imperishable 
clientele which is not for a day but for at] time, and which, believing 
that recovei^ from disease or injury is due not to natural law, but to 
supernatural interference, consequently prefers that its physician shall 
be ignorant, and msists that he shall be irrational, sometimes withal 
reckoning it a crowning grace if he is tipsy at off times. 



262 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



The earliest allusion to any medical matter in 
the New Haven Records is of date December 3, 
1645, when Mr. Pell appeared to testify to the 
Court concerning a wound which he had treated, 
inflicted by the bursting of a gun, whereby Stephen 
Medcalf, a cutler, had one of his eyes destroyed. 
He speaks of " the great chardge of the cure, affirm- 
ing it was worth £\o." From this time, until 
about 1654, Mr. Pell is occasionally mentioned in 
the Records as engaged in medical practice. He 
was in New Haven as early as 1642. It is prob- 
able that he had some qualifications, according to 
the standard of that time, to be a physician, both 
by education, for he was a gentleman by birth, of 
a good English family,* and by experience, for 
he had been surgeon to the Saybrook Fort in 1636, 
and had gone in the same capacity with Captain 
Underhili to the Pequot War in 1637. Mr. Pell's 
name, however, appears much oftener in connec- 
tion with various business affairs than with medical 
matters, and it seems probable that he did not de- 
vote himself thoroughly to the work of a physician. 
He was a man of enterprise, not to say intrepidity, 
for not only did he engage in that risky Pequot 
War, but he married the Widow Brewster. After 
this latter event it is perhaps not surprising that in 
a matter of certain accountings he should have 
persisted in maintaining a contumacious attitude 
towards the New Haven Court, with which his 
bride had, during her previous widowhood, waged 
so lively a controversy. There are domestic exper- 
iences in the light of which the terrors of the law 
grow pale. 

Mr. Pell removed from New Haven about 1654, 
and became, by purchase, the first proprietor of 
that estate in Westchester County, N. Y. , which 
has ever since borne the name of Pelham Manor. 
He died in Fairfield in 1669. The inventory of 
his property shows nothing of a medical character, 
except ' ' Culpeper's Dispensatory, '' which was rather 
a work for popular use than a scientific authority. 

The name of Nicholas Auger first appears in the 
Records in 1643, as grantee of that desirable lot 
"reserved for an Elder, " which is now occupied 
by the St. John Block on the corner of Church and 
Elm streets. Mr. Auger (his name is always ac- 
companied with that respectful prefix) seems to 
have followed the practice of medicine with more 
assiduity than Mr. Pell, and to have prospered 
correspondingly less in his worldly affairs. Al- 
though, like Mr, Pell, Mr. Auger was much occu- 
pied in other business, probably the main depend- 
ence of New Haven in medical matters was upon 
him, except at some intervals when other help was 
at hand, until 1676, when he sailed upon a voyage 
from which he never returned. There is some 
reason to suppose that his medical career was not 
wholly satisfactory either to himself or to the pub- 
lic. He experienced great ditliculty in collecting 
his dues, a difliculty not entirely peculiar to him- 
self or to the time in which he lived. He was dis- 
couraged nearly to the point of throwing up his 

* His brother, the kev. John Pell, D. D-, eminent as a mathemati- 
cian, was appoinleti by the Lord Protector, in April, 1654, ambassador 
to the Swiss Cantons, and resided at Zurich in that capacity. 



practice, or at least of threatening to do so. It is 
interesting to his successors of the present day to 
find that the General Court took the trials of this 
ill-starred pioneer seriously to heart, and gave him 
what comfort they could by " witnessing against ' 
the deliniiuency of his patients "as an act of un- 
righteousness," on one occasion. And again, Jan- 
uary 29, 1660: "Mr. Auger declared that (it hav- 
ing pleased God to visit the town sorely by sickness 
the two last years) his stock of physic is gone, and 
how to procure more out of his returns he saw not, 
being disabled by the non-payment of some and 
the unsuitable payment of others. To get supplies, 
those that were Mr. Auger's debtors were called 
upon to attend their duty. It was also declared 
that if Mr. Auger see cause to bring any of them 
to the Court it will be witnessed against as a wrong 
to the public that a physician should be discour- 
aged," 

Earlier than this, February 4, 1650, the Court 
ordered "that Mr. Auger should be paid his 
claim of 44s. lod. for physic to Mr. Malbon's ser- 
vants, and for something to a man that was bitten 
by a rattlesnake." 

It does not clearly appear from the Records that 
the rattlesnake bit the man by way of warning for his 
share in the prevailing slackness of Mr. Auger's 
debtors; but if, as the medical mind is fain to believe, 
that is the true explanation of the matter, it is 
much to be deplored that this reptile, so useful as 
a persuader to pecuniary punctuality, has long 
since disappeared from this region, 

June 17, 1650, the Governor mentions to the 
General Court that one Mr. Besthup, " a surgeon 
or physician that was lately passed through the 
town to the Dutch," "had lived some time in 
Plymouth patent, and hath been of good use 
there." And the Governor suggests that as "Mr. 
Pell is now going away, whether it may not be 
good for this town to use some means that he may 
be staid here." "The Court liked well of what 
was done, and by vote declared that they desire he 
should stay here. Mr. Besthup, on this encourage- 
ment, staid." In a few days he and Mr. Auger had 
a surgical case on their hands. Wash, an Indian, 
had been beaten and had his arm broken by a 
sailor " that went in Michael Taynter's vessel," 
and he appealed for justice to the Court, and would 
not be bought off with wampum, which was urged 
upon him, "but said he desired it might be healed 
at the man's charge. " It is pleasant to read that 
the Court sustained this very reasonable tlemand. 
Poor Wash was turned over to the care of the sur- 
geons, and the arm-breaker was sent to mend his 
ways in prison.* Mr. Besthup's stay in New Ha- 
ven seems to have been brief, for he makes no fur- 
ther appearance upon the Records. 

In the next year, November 14, 1651, "The 



*That the early New England authorities did not hold the belief re- 
cently formulated in the statement, " No good Indian but a dead In- 
dian," there are numerous instances to show. 

*' There is /28 charged to accoimt which is for an Indian whose 
skull and jawfTone was broken by the (all of a piece of timber as he 
was sawing for the meeting-house [this was John Eliot's meeting- 
housej. sorely bruised and wounded, lying senseless many days; for 
wiiich cure the chirurgeon halh ^20, and his diet and attendance j^8." 
— Records of the United Colonies, September 10, 1652. 



THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



^63 



Governor acquainted the Court that there is a 
physician come to the town, who, he thinks, is 
willing to stay here, if he may have encour- 
agement. He is a Frenchman, but hath lived 
in England and in Holland a great while, and 
hath good testimonials from both places." This 
was Dr. Chais, a real Doctor "from the Uni- 
versity of Franeker," and the earliest person 
in New Haven to bear that title, which in those 
days had some significance, and was used with 
scrupulousness accordingly. Mr. Davenport had 
examined him and said "that his abilities answer 
the testimony given,'' and the townspeople were 
moved to extraordinary efforts to secure so valuable 
an accession to their community. £10 in money 
was voted him, together with a house, and he was 
to be "encouraged in provisions. ' 

Thereupon Dr. Chais remained, but it soon ap- 
peared that he was not satisfied with his subsid)*. 
He wanted more money and a better house. 
March 11, 1652, the Court was informed what 
" sundry of the Brethren of the Church have pro- 
posed to do concerning the Doctor, namely, to 
give him £2'^ to provide him of Physical things 
necessary for his calling." "After much debate 
they agree to let him have Mr. Malbon's house if 
it can be got." This must have been one of the 
better sort of houses. It was afterward offered by 
the town to John Winthrop as a gift, and became 
his home while he abode here. 

Poor Mr. Auger must have felt himself suffering 
eclipse. At the same Court he sought to know on 
what terms his house was given him, if he can 
dispose of it if he goes away. To whom the Court 
soothingly replies; "It was given him freely as 
other mens lots were given them at first," and 
" The Town would not have him discouraged in 
his way." The French Doctor did not discourage 
him very long. After about a year, during which 
time there was some chaft'ering between him and 
the authorities, they complaining of his high 
charges "for his visiting of sick folk," the graduate 
of Franeker betook his skill and his title elsewhere, 
and Mr. Auger was left in possession of the field. 

In 1654, when '"the undertaking against the 
Dutch " was on foot, Mr. Auger and John Brocket 
were appointed surgeons to the New Haven con- 
tingent They were afterward remunerated for the 
trouble and expense they were at "in providing 
things for the soldiers if they had gone out to war. " 
This John Brocket was a surveyor, and probably his 
medical qualifications were of the slightest. At 
any rate, in 1647, when Mr. Pell and Mr. Auger* 
were freed from watching and warding, an immu- 
nity due to them as practicing medicine, "John 
Brocket propounded that he might be freed," "but 
the Court saw no cause to grant it." 

The story of Mr. Auger's death, as told at length 
by Cotton IMalher (" Magnalia," vi, i), is a tragic 
one. He sailed from New Haven August 25, 
1676, with Ephraim How and his two sons "in a 



•And Mr. William Weslerhoiise, the Dutch merchant, who also at 
another time had a fine for selling *■ stronge water " remitted, ** the 
courts considering how useful! hee hath bine in the towne by giving 
physicke to many persons, and to some of them freely." 



small ketch of about seventeen tons " for Boston. 
Attempting to return in September, they were 
driven far out of their course and, after drifting 
helplessly about for seven weeks, were wrecked 
upon "a dismal, doleful, rocky island" near Cape 
Sable, and Mr. How, Mr. Auger and a lad (the 
rest of the party having perished), got ashore and 
prepared for starvation with "a barrel of wine and 
half a barrel of moUossa's." Mr. Auger died after 
twelve weeks of this wretchedness, the lad some 
months later, and solitary Mr. How was at last 
rescued and made his way home to New Haven 
the next summer. 

Mr. Auger's small property went mainly to his 
sister, Mrs. Ellen Coslar, and that explains why 
Guilford held a special town-meeting "July 3, 
1679, to consider whether the inhabitants would 
buy Mrs. Cosster's Physic and Physical! drugs," 
which by that time, it may be feared, had grown 
musty enough to make it a dubious bargain for 
"the inhabitants" to give all the beef and peas for 
them which they unanimously voted in payment. 

When, in 1655 or 1656, the worshipful John 
Winthrop, Esq., came to live in New Haven, it 
was the fulfillment of hopes which had often been 
urgently expressed by Governor Eaton and Mr. 
Davenport, and which had long been entertained by 
many other people. Beside all the other admirable 
qualities which made him so desirable a citizen, 
Mr. Winthrop was very widely known as unusually 
learned and skillful in medical affairs, and, at his 
home in Pequot, his advice and medicines had for 
years been sought for by patients from long dis- 
tances on every side. It seems likely, from his 
education and from his pursuits, that he was more 
familiar with the chemistry of that day, such as it 
was, than any other man on this side of the ocean. 
He kept eyes of observation open for important 
facts in the New ^\'orld around him, gathering in- 
teresting specimens for the Royal Society, of w^hich 
he was one of the earliest Fellows. He sent them 
stones and shells and silk-weed pods and "a hum- 
ming-bird's nest with two eggs in it" upon which 
the sacred eyes of the King's Majesty rested with 
gracious approval. He sent them a horse-foot 
crab, which seems to have filled them with mingled 
emotions of perplexity and delight, for the com- 
bined force of the Society was brought to bear upon 
the humble crustacean, with the result of misinter- 
preting his tail and accusing him of strabismus.* 

He searched diligently for mines among the 
rocky hills of Connecticut, and set iron-works afoot; 
he invented a wind-mill which he hoped would 
help out the short-handed 3'oung colony in its 
work. 

He corresponded with philosophers in the old 
country; with the great Robert Boyle and with Sir 
Kenelme Digby, from the latter of whom he got 
that dainty device ior curing agues which, in the 
dearth of Jesuit's bark, he had opportunity enough 

* " What you cnll the sharp tail of the horse-foot, is rather the fore- 
part and nose of the fish: * * * having also found that two of the 
knobs on the shell, now dried up. had been the places of the eyes, and 
did still by the manner of their ductuss express that they had looked 
towards the said nose when the animal was living." — Henry Oldenburg 
to John Winthrop, Jr., Mass. Hist. Coll., 3d Series, Vol. X. 



264 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



to test in those days at New Haven had he been 
so minded.* 

It is to be regretted that he never put hand to 
that work which was repeatedly urged upon him 
by some of his learned correspondents in England 
as "an undertaking worthy of Mr. Winthrop and 
a member of the Royal Society " — the writing of a 
natural and political history of his adopted country. 
An intelligent and authentic account, such as he 
would have given, of the first acquaintance made 
by the white men with the wild nature which sur- 
rounded them in their new homes, would have 
possessed an interest constantly increasing as the 
experience it recorded recedes into the past.f 

The Winthrop Papers, published by the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society, contain numerous al- 
lusions to the medical practice of Mr. Winthrop. 
There is also extant, in his own manuscript, a col- 
lection of cases treated by him, mostly while he was 
Governor of Connecticut and living at Hartford. 
From these materials Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes 
("Medical Essays — 'The Medical Profession in 
Massachusetts' ") has produced a sketch of the 
therapeutics of Mr. Winthrop and of his contem- 
poraries, to which all who desire to see that subject 
presented in the most charming way may be refer- 
red. 

He seems to have had a fair command of the 
materia medica of the period, showing special favor 
to two or three articles, as most doctors fall into 
the habit of doing after a few years of trial. Nitre 
he dispensed with a free hand, sharing herein the 
preference of so illustrious a valetudinarian as Lord 
Bacon, who dosed himself almost daily for many 
years with that salt. Antimony he prescribed very 
often, in a combination to which he gave the allur- 
ing name of "rubila, "and which seems to have 
been an imitation of the old "Jovial Diaphoretic" 
or " Antihectic of Poterius, " and to have been 
potent by virtue of at least one of its ingredients. 
" i?«(5//(7, " forsooth ! But "Look you, the worm 
will do his kind." Governor Newman tried it once 
and was shy of it afterward, and the Rev. Nicholas 



* " Pare the patient's nayles when the fitt is coming on and put the 
paringes into a little bagge of fine linen or sarsenet, and tye that about 
a live eele's necke in a tubbe o( water. The eele will dye and the 
patient will recover. And if a dog or a hog eate that eele, they will 
also dye." — Kenelme Digby to John Winthrop, Jr. 

t No important knowledge of the medicinal properties of indigen- 
ous plants appears to have been gained by the earliest settlers. The 
simples which had been familiar in their mouths in England, they held 
in higher esteem than any that the American forest had to offer them. 
They rejoiced to see that many of those old friends migrated in their 
company, and. taking kindly to the new soil, "prospered notably " and 
"flourished exceedingly," Mr. Johnjosselyn who, in 1673, made the 
first C-ssay toward a medical botany of the country (" New England's 
Rarities Uiscovercd ") gives at that early date a long list of such intro- 
duced plants, and, making a single venture into the realm of metaphysics, 
inquires, " What became of the influence of the planets that produce and 
govern these plants before this time ?" What indeed ! Mr. Winthrop, 
skilled in occult lore, and having the advantage of being on the ground 
at the time, might have been able to answer this wi'ighty question, but, 
as he failed to do so, it must perhaps be let drop into that comprehensive 
category of my Lord Dundreary's, " 'I'hings that no fellow can find 
out . " 

There is this entry in the New Haven Records May 23. 1653; " It is 
agreed that every man shall cut up the great, stinking, poisonous weed 
wtiich grows against his own ground, and for that whicn grows in the 
Market-place or other common place about the Town, that it be cut by 
some man appointed at the Town's charge." This weed can scarcely 
be else than that undesirable daiura (stramonium) which has from an 
early date shown such unaccountable persistence in linking its fortunes 
with those of the white man upon this continent, winning the name of 
"Jimson " (Jamestown) weed, in the South, from its prompt appearance 
in the earliest English settlement in Virginia. 



Street, in his quotidian ague, would not so much 
as hear of it.* 

Beside these, and some other chemical substances 
which were then comparatively new in the list of 
medicines, Mr. Winthrop often used some of the 
old Galenical preparations, theriaca, mithridate and 
the like, which were then universally regarded with 
the respect due to their ancient origin and long 
renown. And whatever help there was to be got 
from a unicorn's horn, he was able to afford his 
patients. That picturesque article he seems to have 
tried for Mrs. Eaton, the Governor's wife, or widow, 
with what success is not recorded; judging from 
the story of her contentions at home and in the 
church, there were times when nothing short of 
" the voyage to Anticyra " would have helped the 
poor lady. 

Though Mr. Winthrop did not leave to us that 
history so greatly desiderated by the Royal Society, 
there is at least one bit of his manuscript e.xtant 
that reflects credit upon him, to wit, a broad line 
of erasure which he drew through the name of a 
brother medical practitioner mentioned with expres- 
sions of distrust by Mr. Davenport in one of his 
letters. Mr. Winthrop was a gentleman conspicu- 
ously amiable and noble, and it is probably due to 
his early example that from that day to this there 
are no traces of that unhappy vice, the odium 
medicum, among the physicians of New Haven. 
This is the more remarkable in that he dwelt 
here only about two years, removing then to Hart- 
ford, where, for the rest of his life, as Governor of 
the commonwealth and as physician, he more than 
justified the old saying applied to him by the ven- 
erable Cotton Mather, " Magistratus est Civitatis 
Medicus. " 

Mention is made in the early records of New 
Haven of Widow Potter and Goodwife Beecherthe 
midwives, and of other women following the same 
calling, indicating that an important function affect- 
ing the indigenous growth of the colony was con- 
fided to their hands, which, in later days, by a 
change in manners of questionable advantage, has 
passed over to practitioners of the opposite sex. 
Those worthy women are commonly spoken of in 
connection with some abatement of taxes or other 
easement, implying the esteem in which their ser- 
vices were held by the town. The frequency with 
which their fences are recorded to have been re- 
paired at the public expense, suggests the idea that 
these frail barriers of the temple of Lucina may 
have been sometimes overthrown by the too im- 
petuous onset of marital anxiety at critical moments 
and in the darkness of the night. 

It is probable that for some time after the de- 
parture of Mr. Auger, New Haven was destitute of 
a resident physician. The town records make no 
mention of any for several years. At several town- 
meetings during the winter of 1687-88, "the need 
of the town being great" there was debate concern- 



• "Once he [Governor Newman] took the Rubila, but finding himself 
sundries times ready to faint away, hath not been willing to take it 
again, nor his wife that he should, though we persuaded and encour- 
aged him thereunto. * * * j persuaded him [Mr. Street] what 
I could, to take the Rubila. but doe not find him inclinable.'* — Letter 
uf Rev. John Davenport, Winthrop Papers, 



THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



2C5 



ing the inducements to be oflfered to Dr. Richard 
Williams, then living at Hartford, to remove to 
New Haven. 

He was said to be "an able or licensed phy- 
sician, * a man of very good report, and one that 
might be of good use in the place." The Rev. Mr. 
Pierpont and Mr. Hudson were joined with the 
authority and townsmen to consider of the matter. 
They "reported that they would allow him £^. 
for his house rent for five years to come." Small as 
this subsidy was, the town, after "much debate in 
confusion " voted " that they did not see it in their 
way to grant any yearly allowance or salary in the 
case, yet by a full vote {ncmine contradicciite) did 
declare that if Dr. Williams pleased to remove and 
come to New Haven, he shall be welcome and well 
accepted in the place." Dr. Williams thereupon 
came and took up his abode here. He makes no 
further appearance in the records, except as res- 
olutely upholding " the dignity of the profession " 
from the profane touch of local politics. Decem- 
ber 26, 1692, he was chosen constable, "but re- 
fused the choice, counting it an affront, and alledg- 
ing that he knew neither law nor custom to justify 
the choosing him." " His return not satisfying the 
Town left him to the law and pay as others in like 
case; ' a decision which, however imperfect in its 
grammar, indicated clearly enough an intention to 
get 40s. out of Dr. Williams' pocket and into the 
town treasury. But once more, and for the last time, 
nearly two years later, in 1694, the eye of the his- 
torian rests admiringly upon the figure of the in- 
fle.xible doctor receding into the dim inane of 
oblivion, with "the dignity of the profession" un- 
impaired and the forfeited 40s. still somewhere 
about him. "Voted," the record stands, with a 
perceptible tinge of hopelessness, " That the 
Townsmen on the Town's behalf manage the case 
respecting Dr. Williams' fine for refusing to stand 
Constable, and that they see the law attended as 
much as in them lies. " 

After Dr. Williams, the instructive and entertain- 
ing old Town Records shed no further light upon 
the practice of medicine in New Haven. The 
government became constantly less paternal and 
more democratic, and the law of demand and 
supply was left to regulate the relations between 
physicians and patients. Practitioners of the heal- 
ing art undoubtedly multiplied with the growth of 
the town and improved with the advance of 
science, but so little record survives of them, or 
of their doings, that even the microscopic research 
of Dr. Bronson has discovered little of interest 
until toward the last quarter of the following cen- 
tury. 

'The names, and little more than the names, of 
two physicians of that intermediate period are pre- 
served in the Connecticut Juurnal and Neiv Haven 
Post Boy. There is a foreign flavor about them 
which must have distinguished them at that time, 
when the first great wave of immigration was spent 

* An "able," "licensed " or "allowed" physician was one whose 
qualifications had been examined and approved by the General Court. 
The government of this State was actually solicitous then to protect the 
lives of its citizens from the ignorance of worthless pretenders — a 
curious example of the simplicity of that uncultured age ! 



and the second had not begun, more than it would 
at present. 

Dr. Johann Rohde, a native of Heiligenbad, 
Prussia, was in New Haven as early as September 
23, 1756, for on that auspicious day he married 
the Widow Rebecca Tyler. A very desirable 

widow she, four times a widow, ultimately . 

Traditions of her comeliness survive among her 
posterity yet. 

Nothing more concerning the Doctor until Jan- 
uary 25, 1775, '^^'hen the Connecticut Journal re- 
marks: "Yesterday afternoon, departed this life, 
Dr. John Rhode [name anglicized by this time], 
for many years a noted physician and surgeon in 
this town." Benighted times were those, when 
"a noted physician and surgeon " could go for 
nineteen years without having his achievements 
and the sufferings of his patients trumpeted from 
week to week in the local newspaper. 

In the Connecticut Journal and Ntiv Haven Post 
Boy o[ February i, 1771, "The subscriber takes 
this method of informing the Public that he pro- 
poses to pursue the practice of Physick in this 
Place. Likewise Surgery in all its branches, as 
Bone Setting, etc., and Midwifery. Daniel Bonti- 
cou." 

Dr. Bonticou was of the good old Huguenot 
family so well known in New Haven, and was 
born there in 1737. After his graduation at Yale 
College, in 1757, he went to France to study medi- 
cine. He staid abroad several years, and is said 
to have been a surgeon in the French army. 

With such advantages, unusual in that day, it 
would seem that he should have become eminent 
among the less favored physicians around him. 
His early death, in 1778, gave but brief opportu- 
nity for that. 

He married the widow of his predecessor. Dr. 
Rohde. She became in turn the Widow Bonticou, 
and ultimately, surviving her fourth husband, died 
a different widow still. 

It is worthy of remark, as an illustration of the 
social changes that have been wrought, and especi- 
ally of the relative decline in importance of rural 
pursuits in Connecticut, that, until about the begin- 
ning of the present century, the most renowned 
physicians were as likely to be found in little farming 
neighborhoods as in either of the two chief towns 
of the State. 

During a period, from 1686 to 1713, when 
neither New Haven nor Hartford had a physician 
who left any striking impress upon local history, 
the little cluster of farms which is now Glastonbury, 
was the home of Dr. Gershom Bulkeley, whose 
medical learning and reputation, and probably 
whose skill, surpassed that of any other man in 
Connecticut. After him came Dr. Jared Eliot, 
"unquestionably the first physician of his day in 
Connecticut," as well as an uncommonly useful 
and distinguished citizen in many other ways. 
From 1709 to 1763 he lived in Killingworth, his in- 
fluence and activity radiating thence over the whole 
State. 

Still later, his son-in-law. Dr. Benjamin Gale, 
not less eminent as a physician, had his home in 



266 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



the same little village, until his death in 1790. In 
his turn Dr. Jared Potter, in Waliingford, from 
1772 to 1810, kept up the succession of great 
country doctors, being regarded for much of that 
time as the leading practitioner in the State. He 
put society still further in his debt by teaching in 
medicine a succession of pupils who resorted to 
him, the earliest and perhaps the most noted among 
them being Dr. Lemuel Hopkins, of Hartford. 

It may fairly be taken as showing a remarkably 
good condition of the profession in this region, that 
in December, 1 783, there should have been a con- 
certed public movement to organize a Medical 
Society in New Haven County.* 

At that time there were very few such societies 
in the United States. The Massachusetts Medical 
Society was formed in 1781, and it would appear 
from an advertisement in the Connecticut Cmirant 
that in the same year there was a similar body in 
Dutchess County, N. Y. In 1783 the New Jersey 
Medical Society had its beginning. And re- 
markably enough, as early as 1767, there was a 
Medical Society in Litchfield County, which was 
probably the oldest in this country by at least 
fourteen years. But this completes the list of 
those which antedated the New Haven County 
Society. 

It was, from the outset, the plan of the New 
Haven physicians to make their voluntary associ- 
ation the starting point of a chartered organization 
which should cover the Slate and include all quali- 
fied and reputable medical practitioners. How 
they labored to this end and how, in 1792, they 
attained it, merging their local society in the larger 
body, has been so fully told by Dr. Bronson 
(Papers of the New Haven Historical Society, Vol. 
II) that nothing can here be added to his account. 
During the eight years of the independent existence 
of the New Haven County Medical Society it ex- 
hibited a creditable show of vitality. Beside hold- 
ing its regular and occasional meetings and tran- 
sacting its routine business, it published, in 1788, 
a collection of Cases and Observations, containing 
eighty-six pages, which is still not without value. 

Among the sixty-one original members of the 
society, the best remembered names are those of 
Dr. Jared Potter, of Waliingford, already spoken of; 
Dr. Eneas Munson, and Dr. Levi Ives, who will be 
more fully mentioned in another connection; and 
Drs. Leverelt Hubbard and Ebenezer Beardsley, 
who, both as physicians and as citizens, were of 
high local repute and influence. 

Dr. Hubbard was the first president of the So- 
ciety and afterward the first president of the Con- 



* In 1763 a memori.-iI was presented to the General Assembly by 
physicians of Norwich, praying for the estabhshment of a State Medical 
Society. It is a (]iiaint Itut well-meaning document, equally bewilder- 
ing by its indiscriminate profusion of capital letters and its absolute in- 
difience of all punctuation. Although it begins with the impressive 
statement that " Life is the most Desirable of all Sublunary- Enjoyments 
and Health so Invaluable a HlessinK that without it in some r)egree 
Life is little Worth," and ends with the names of eleven physicians 
" who as in duty bound shall ever pray," yel nothing ever came of it 
except the disappoititmcnt of the respectable petitioners. 

If they escaped without much contumelious eloqut-nce to boot from 
some politician of the period, their fate was milder than that of some 
petitioners of later date, who meekly hoping for the discouragement 
of some specially pestilent fraud, have discovered all too late that they 
were "attempting to establish a chartered and grasping monopoly and 
to trample upon the sacred rights of the individual. 



necticut Medical Society. By all accounts he was 
a type of the energetic, self-reliant, successful phy- 
sician and man of affairs, rejoicing in the double 
title of Doctor and Colonel, tarn Marti (juam Jlcr- 
curio, driving a multiplicity of horses in his large 
practice ("four good horses !" exclaimed the ad- 
miring public); building for his dwelling the square 
hammered stone-house which, though fallen upon 
evil days of exotic squalor and lager beer, is still 
a land-mark at the head of Meadow street; and 
finally leaving a handsome estate to his heirs. He 
died in his seventieth year, October i, 1794, being 
one of the latest victims of that yellow-fever epi- 
demic, which combined with one of "putrid sore 
throat " to make that year a gloomy one in the 
city's annals. 

Dr. Ebenezer Beardsley was one of the younger 
members of the society at its foundation, but he 
had already won a high rank among the New 
Haven physicians. He was a clear-headed and 
thoughtful man, with more literary accomplish- 
ments than most of his professional brethren. Dr. 
Bronson is "inclined to think that in natural and 
valuable gifts, and perhaps in the knowledge which 
comes from observation and study, he stood at the 
head of the profession in New Haven." At any 
rate, before his much-lamented death in 1 791, at 
the age of forty-five, he had come to be " con- 
sidered as the most popular physician in the place, 
particularly among fashionable people." It Is prob- 
able that the "fashionable people" of that day, in 
the little city of 3,000 souls, were not so wholly 
given to frivolity as to make it utterly disgraceful for 
a doctor to be popular among them. 

One thing at least deserves to be recorded of Dr. 
Beardsley — that he had in his oftice, as his pupil in 
medicine, an uncommonly bright and attractive 
young man, recently graduated from Yale College 
at the age of eighteen years, who must even then 
have given to the observant eye of his teacher in- 
dications of the excellent qualities which twenty 
years later made him not only one of the leading 
physicians, but also one of the most influential 
and widely-known citizens of Hartford. 

EH Todd proved to be one of that sort of men 
who not only lay in a good working stock of ac- 
complishments for ordinary use, but who, beyond 
and better than that, by force of character compel 
trust and helpfulness and, more or less, obedience 
from other men. Had he not been a doctor — he 
was not a man to run to waste — those good ser- 
viceable traits of his would surely have inured to 
the benefit of society in some other distinguished 
way. As it was, more than any other man he was 
the founder of that noble institution, the Hartford 
Retreat for the Insane. He was its first superin- 
tendent, and during his remarkably wise and suc- 
cessful atlmlnistratlon often years, the most critical 
period of its history, he established its hold upon 
the confidence of the public as one of the best 
places of its kind in this country. To this dav Dr. 
Todd's memory Is recalled with respect and grati- 
tude by the friends of the Retreat anti of that un- 
happy class for whose benefit it was intended, and 
it is meet that New Haven, the city of his birth 



THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND SUHGERF. 



26t 



and education, should take pride in the good work 
he accomplished. 

In January, 1803, the physicians of the City of 
New Haven, for various reasons (the medical care 
of the town poor being one of the more impor- 
tant) feeling that a closer professional organization 
other than the Connecticut Medical Society was 
desirable among themselves, met together and 
formed the New Haven Medical Association. 

The thirteen names which stand upon the 
record of the Association as its original members,* 
represent probably all the reputable practitioners 
in the city in 1803. If there were any who failed 
to be attracted by the formall}' declared purpose 
of the Association "to establish the practice of 
physic in this city on a respectable footing; to 
enable ourselves to live by the profession; to pro- 
mote a good understanding and harmonious in- 
tercourse with each other," it is possible that to 
such, another clause in the articles of agreement 
may have proved more cogent, which, with its 
threat of non-intercourse, conveys to the reader 
of to-day a distinct flavor of trades-unionism and 
even of the boycott. 

A brief tariff of charges in the original agree- 
ment contains some items which illustrate certain 
changes that have come to pass in the four-score 
years since they were written: "two shillings for 
a day visit in the city; four shillings for a night 
visit; one shilling for a puke; one do. for a purge; 
one do. for bleeding; one do. for a mile travel; 
three do. for a visit to the hospital [pest-housej 
for common cases, and four do. for small-pox 
and yellow fever." Changes in the public health. 
— Of the two diseases mentioned one was then 
an ever-present terror, now by the mild potency of 
vaccination shrunk into insignificance in every en- 
lightened and well-ordered community, and the 
other was a periodical menace, whose malign fury 
as an invader of this and neighboring cities was 
then fresh in the memory of all, though now, 
thanks to quarantine and improved sanitation, it 
ranks with such far-away and dimly imagined 
horrors of the tropics as slave-ships, crocodiles 
and typhoons. Changes in the values of money 
and personal services. — He would be but a hum- 
ble laborer who would now be content with such 
day's wages as he would earn on such a scale of 
prices. Changes in medical practice. — Blood-let- 
ting, which was then a deed of daily commission, 
inflicted upon the unresisting public by the shillings- 
worth, has become a surgical operation rarer than 
some which would then have been regarded as im- 
practicable. Changes in the English language as 
well. — Nothing short of historic fidelity justifies 
to-day the writing of those two medical monosyl- 
lables which were so familiar in the mouths of our 
forefathers, but which are now condemned to a 
deeper ignominy than small-pox and yellow fever, 
and superseded by seemly Greek derivatives. 

The New Haven Medical Association has fairly 
maintained to the present day the character and 

* Eneas Munson, Levi Ives, Obadiah Hotchkiss, Elisha Chapman, 
Joel Norlhrop, John Barker, John Skinner, Elijah Munson, EH Ives, 
Nathaniel Hubbard, John Spalding, Thomas Goodsell, James Gilbert. 



purposes with which it began. Its intention is to 
include in its membership the reputable regular 
practitioners of the city. Whenever it has found 
itself harboring an undesirable member it has com- 
monly relieved itself of his presence with little delay 
or ado; fortunately this necessity has been rare. 
Its meetings are semi-monthly, except during the 
heat of summer, when feeling the partial torpor 
which overtakes civic life at that season, it meets 
but once a month. These gatherings are partly 
scientific and partly social, but wholly practical. 
For many years they were held from house to house 
of the members, but with the increasing size of the 
association, which now numbers about sixty, it is 
sometimes found more convenient to resort to a 
public room. The observations and experiences 
of members form a mass of material constantly in- 
creasing in extent and variety, and the discussions 
growing out of them are often of much interest 
and importance. 

The establishment of the Medical Institution of 
Yale College marked, at least, if it did not create, 
an advance in the standing of the medical profes- 
sion in Connecticut. There were already six 
medical colleges in the United States,* one in 
Philadelphia, one in New York, one in Boston, 
one in Baltimore, and the remaining two, oddly 
enough, it would seem at first sight, were strictly 
" fresh-water colleges," in small and somewhat inac- 
cessible villages, one of them the Medical Depart- 
ment of Dartmouth College, in Hanover, N. H. , and 
the other the College of Physicians and Surgeons 
of the Western District of the State of New York, 
in Fairfield, Herkimer County, N.Y. The difficult- 
ies of travel at that time made all these places too 
remote for most students in Connecticut. 

"The greater portion of students," says Dr. 
Knight, f " contented themselves with the means of 
instruction which were afforded them by some 
neighboring physician. These means were for the 
most part inconsiderable." The criticism does not 
err by over-statement. Too many of this "greater 
portion of students " got their science less by sys- 
tematic effort than by an occult absorptive or 
osmotic process, continued in the mysteriously 
scented precincts of a "respectable physician or 
surgeon" for two years "if the student had a 
college education," and for three years if he were 
not thus favored; after which a brief and usually not 
formidable interview, called an examination, with 
a committee of three members of the Connecticut 
Medical Society, entitled him to a license to practice 
medicine. "The pupils of Dr. Whistlewind were 
rather accustomed to ruie into medical skill than 
to attain it by the harder course of study. "J 

* Dr. Knight, in two different printed addresses (1838 and 1853) 
counts his own college as the fifth in the United States in order of 
seniority. In enumerating its elders he omits the Baltimore school, a 
large and flourishing one from almost its beginning, and the school at 
Fairfield, which " was organized " in 1812, though whether it was in a 
prolific state before the New Haven school is uncertain. 

t Introductory Lecture, 1838. 

X The Life and Adventures of Dr. Dodimus Duckworth. By Dr. 
Asa Greene, 1833. The book has passed into unmerited oblivion. It is an 
unmistakable study from life in rural New England in the early part 
of the present century, and although drawn with too broadly farcical a 
touch, exhibits keen observation and genuine humor. 



2(3g 



HisTokr OF THE cirr of new ha ven. 



Those were bright and resolute spirits who rose 
above the poverty of their educational opportunities, 
and qualitied themselves for really good service in 
their day and generation, and ultimately for the mild 
apotheosis of Thacher's Medical Biography. Fit 
praise of them can be spoken only by the teacher 
who, with all the appliances of to-day at his com- 
mand, too often finds uhmi maler no match for the 
impervious dura maler of some crass student. 

In the year iSoi, the corporation of Yale Col- 
lege, upon the motion of the Rev. Dr. Nathan 
Strong, of Hartford, voted to establish a medical 
professorship.* Nothing further appears to have 
been done in this direction until 1810, when "the 
Legislature of the State, " upon the joint application 
of the Corporation of the College and of the Presi- 
dent and Fellows of the Connecticut Medical 
Society, passed an act to establish the Medical 
Institution of Yale College. Under this law the 
institution went into operation, and the first course 
of lectures was delivered in the winter of 1813-14. 

At that time an unfinished building, square, 
massive, stuccoed and whitewashed, standing e.x- 
actly across the head of College street, looked 
down the whole length of that thoroughfare. To- 
day it is recognizable by its old acquaintances as 
the nucleus around which have gathered, by suc- 
cessive accretions, the laboratories, lecture-rooms 
and observatory of the Sheffield Scientific School. 

It was the property of the Hon. James Hill- 
house, and had been intended by him, it is said, 
for an hotel. If such was his original purpose 
in building so large and expensive a structure 
at what was then the unfrequented verge of the 
city, it is likely that by the time the Medical School 
proposed to take it off his hands, he was in a state 
of mind and purse to listen without excessive coy- 
ness to the offer. Here, at any rate, with a large 
and almost tenantless cemetery on its right as a 
stimulus to unremitting activity in its labors, and 
on its left a convenient field to be used as a botanic 
garden, the Medical School found its first home. 

There were thirty-three pupils in attendance upon 
the first course of lectures; two years later the num- 
ber had increased to sixty-three; in 1822 there 
were ninety-three. This was the high water-mark. 
At this time, certainly, the school showed in its cata- 
logue a valid raison d'etre, but from that period 
until now, owing largely to the superior attractions 
of schools and hospitals in the greater cities, and 
sometimes because of the shameful ease with which 
di|)lomas could be procured elsewhere, the number 
of students has, with some fluctuation, ])retty con- 
tinuously ebbed to the present list of some twenty 
odd. The painful exiguity of their numbers for 
the last few years is hardly compensated by the 
large numerical growth of the force of instructors 
during the same period. If both these movements 
are to continue, it can be but a short time before 
the much-instructed last pupil, contemplating the 
subdivision of his intellectual powers among some 
dozens of teachers, will be in a position to exclaim: 
" How are they increased that trouble me; many 
are they that rise up against me !" 

* Dr. Knight's Introductory Lecture, 1838. 



There have been some critical moments when 
this institution has seemed ready to add one to the 
long list of defunct American medical colleges, but 
its possession of a small fund and something of the 
necessary plant, in the way of apparatus and build- 
ing, has served not so much to make continuance 
in life satisfactory, as to make dying inconvenient. 
So it has outlived many of its more youthful rivals, 
though the activity of its later years has sometimes 
appeared not unlike that of "the pensive exile" 
of the poet 

To stop too fearful and too faint to go. 

To one familiar with the manners and customs 
of medical students of a later date, and especially 
in the less favored parts of our country, there is a 
sense of quaintness in the fact that, for a number 
of its early years, the pupils of this institution lived 
beneath a government more paternal than any that i 
the most rigid of college dons would now venture ' 
to apply to a class of medical students. 

" According to this plan, as many of the students 
as would be thus accommodated had rooms in the 
college building, while others took rooms in the 
immediate neighborhood; commons were estab- 
lished at which they took their meals, and morning 
and evening prayers were regularly attended. A 
code of laws similar to those of the academical de- 
partment was enacted by the corporation for the 
regulation of their conduct, with suitable penalties 
annexed, and to the observance of these laws every 
student was required to give his assent. * * * 
This was done in accordance with the strongly ex- 
pressed wishes of the late President Dwight. He 
urged its adoption upon the ground that in this 
way the character of the young men who came 
here, in morals and good conduct, could be more 
efliciently preserved and improved than in any 
other."* An acquaintance with some medical 
schools of the present day might have moved the 
great theologian to feel less solicitude for the pres- 
ervation, and correspondingly more for the im- 
provement, of "the character in morals and good 
conduct " of the ingenuous youth who resort to 
them. 

This plan continued in effect for several years. 
" It was found to be too cumbersome," says Dr. 
Knight, "and one portion of it after another fell 
into disuse, until the system itself gradually disap- 
peared. " "f" 

"The principal projectors of this enterprise were 
Dr. Eneas Munson, President Dwight, Professor 
Silliman and Dr. Eli Ives. They were aided by 
their medical friends in various parts of the State, 
and the project received the official sanction of the 
State Medical Society, and the hearty co-operation 
and support of a great portion of its members. " 

* Dr. Knight, Introductory Lecture, 1853. 

t A distinct sensation of cumbersomeness was felt one day, as tra- 
dition goes, by Dr. Nathan Smith as he was taking his turn in conduct- 
ing the public devotions of the class. Great surgeon a. d teacher as he 
was, his command of the conventional phrases used in such service 
was; for this time at least, inadequate. After a hesitation, a pause, and 
a moment of embarrassing silence, the professor opened his eyes to en- 
counter the sympathetic ga2e of his pupils. Finally he solved the 
quandary with, "Sit down, sit down, sit down I" enforcing the words 
with an energetic gesticulation, and, to the relief of his audience, 
plunged abruptly into surgery. 



THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



2C9 



"A degree of reluctance was felt on the part of 
some of the members of the Connecticut Medical 
Society to relinquish to this school the power of 
granting licenses and degrees, which had been en- 
joyed by the society for many years. To allay this, 
it was agreed that the Board of Examiners should 
consist, in addition to the professors, of an equal 
number appointed by the Connecticut Medical So- 
ciety, of whom the president of the society should 
be one, with a vote at all times and a casting vote 
if there should be a tie; thus virtually placing the 
power of granting the degree in the hands of the 
societ)'."* The society also reserved to itself the 
power to nominate professors in the school, and to 
appoint yearly two deserving indigent students from 
each county, who were to receive their lecture 
tickets gratis. On this basis harmonious relations 
between the medical society and the new school 
were established and long maintained. 

The hold of the society upon the school was vis- 
ibly, though gradually, relaxing during successive 
years, pretty nearly corresponding with the waning 
market value of medical degrees, one may infer, 
until in 1885 the last connection between the two, 
a sort of marsupial semi-attachment, was divided 
by act of Legislature. 

The issuing of licenses, which were in the gift of 
the society alone, and which were granted after a 
shorter period of study than was required for the 
doctor's degree, went on at such a rate during the 
first twenty-four years, that at the end of that time 
there were about 300 licentiates to 400 graduates. 
Then, as now, the general public was more confid- 
ing than critical, and did not too curiously con- 
sider the diflerence between the vernacular on the 
paper of the medical society and the Latin on the 
college parchment. After that time the license was 
less frequently sought from year to year. The last 
one issued, a solitary one for many years before, 
seems to have been in 1877. 

At the outset the institution was entirely destitute 
of funds. To meet some urgent needs, a loan of a 
few hundred dollars was made from the academic 
treasury, which was soon refunded. But in 1814, 
"by the personal exertions of Dr. Nathan Smith," 
says Dr. Knight, " funds to the amount of $20.coo 
were obtained by a grant from the Legislature of 
the State, "f The sum was large for that day, and 
the object of its bestowal unusual. That it should 
have been secured by Dr. Smith, then a new-comer 
and nearly a stranger in the State, is an evidence of 
the energy and "personal magnetism " which char- 
acterized him. 

The body of teachers with which the medical 
school began life, when compared with the usual 
faculty of similar institutions at the present time, 
appears numerically inadequate. But its personnel 
is noteworthy. 

In the order of age they were as follows: Eneas 
Munson, Professor of Materia Medica and Botany; 
Nathan Smith, Professor of Medicine and Surgery; 

* Dr. Knight, /afji>«. 

t This was the only public gift ever bestowed upon the institution. 
It was a portion of that causa teterrima belli, the Phcenix Bank bonus. 



Benjamin Silliman, Professor of Chemistry and 
Pharmacy; Eli Ives, Adjunct Professor of Materia 
Medica and Botany; Jonathan Knight, Professor of 
Anatomy and Physiology. 

Dr. Eneas Munson* was at this time in his eightieth 
year, but so unimpaired were his mental powers 
and so active was he in matters of professional in- 
terest, that it was hoped that he would be able to 
perform, in part at least, the duties of the office to 
which he was appointed. At any rate he was a 
person of such reputation and influence throughout 
the State, that it was both wise and graceful formally 
to recognize it by counting him as a member of the 
faculty. " It is generally believed," says Dr. Bron- 
son, "that, up to the early p.irt of the present cen- 
tury. Dr. Munson was the ablest physician that ever 
practiced for a long time in New Haven." Coming 
of an ancient New Haven family, the only one of 
his parent's children surviving early childhood, he 
was educated in Yale College, graduating in 1753. 
Subsequently, by the study of divinity, having for 
his teacher Ezra Stiles, then tutor, afterward the 
renowned president of the college, he qualified 
himself to be licensed to preach as a Congregational 
clergyman. Considering the aptitude he afterward 
showed for natural science, and the excellent qual- 
ities he developed as a physician, it would seem as 
if he should have added another to the instances so 
common in earlier days of Cotton Mather's "An- 
gelical Conjunction " of physic and divinity. But 
there were impediments in the way of his success 
as a minister. Ill-health, dyspepsia, hypochondria, 
fear "of being struck by lightning if he rode out," 
these were bad enough, yet against such foes as 
these saintly ministers have victoriously striven and 
come otT the better for the fight. But there was an 
innate, probably hereditary, oddity of the man, 
which, like a sixth sense or a divining rod, showed 
him a vein of fun in situations where ordinary men 
did not suspect its existence. He called this his 
infirmity, and regretted it, "but said he could not 
help it." His portrait, an engraving from which 
adorns the pages of Thacher's Medical Biography, 
certainly looks very much as if such were the 
case. 

However much this quality may afterward have 
enlivened his daily walk and conversation as a phy- 
sician, it appears from certain legends still extant 
to have been not always to the edification of those 
who "sat under" him as a preacher. To have a 
strange young minister read out all the old "no- 
tices " that he found left over from previous years 
beneath the pulpit cushion, possibly including " in- 
tentions of marriage" between parties who may 
have spent later years in regretting that they ever 
entertained them, and appointments of Dorcas so- 
cieties to meet with matrons long since withdrawn 
from earthly labors, must have impaired the eftect 
of any sermon that might follow. 

Many of Dr. Munson's witticisms, chiefly in the 
way of repartee, have come fluttering down through 
a century to this day, some of them with little 

* Eneas Munson. born in New Haven June 13, 1734. Son of Ben- 
jamin and Abigail (Punderson) Munson. Died in New Haven June 
16, 1826. 



2t0 



HISTORY OF THE ClTV OF NEW HAVEN. 



stings in their tails.* If traditions are to be trusted, 
it is clear that he was a man to have made some 
entirely new jokes, if all the jokes had not been 
made in the dawn of history before he had a 
chance. 

When, after a very few years, he turned from 
divinity to physic, it became clear that he was in 
the right way to use his good natural endowments 
to the best advantage. " His instructors w-ere Dr. 
John Darby, of East Hampton, L. I., and Dr. 
Townsend, of Gardiner's Island. The advantages 
which were afforded him for gaining a knowledge 
of his profession were probably very limited; for 
many years afterwards he remarked that no one 
ought to enter upon the profession with so little 
knowledge of it as he had obtained, or as he could 
obtain when he was a student." "He entered 
upon the practice of his profession at Bedford, N.Y., 
where he remained about two years." Then he 
removed to New Haven, where he continued until 
his death, at the age of 92. He was a practicing 
physician for seventy years. There is a good deal 
of a history in that statement alone. When a doctor 
ceases to learn he very soon shrivels up and be- 
comes, as a doctor, quite intolerable, and the 
people at large "see to it that the republic takes 
no detriment" from him. We have good evidence 
that, however imperfect Dr. Munson's early medical 
instruction was, he kept on strengthening its weak 
spots during the rest of that long life of his. Botany, 
such as it was after Ray and before Linnaeus, less 
like to the modern science bearing that name than 
to the old English wort-cunning, and busying itself 
not so much in the pursuit of new species as in 
trying to find out what the known ones were good 
for, he mastered. "To Dr. Munson the faculty of 
this country were more indebted for the introduc- 
tion of new articles and valuable modes of practice 
than to any other individual.' (Dr. Eli Ives' His- 
torical Sketches, passim. ) From his correspondent 
Baron Storck, of Vienna, who resuscitated from ob- 
livion and restored to medical activity the famous 
old poison that assisted at the euthanasia of 
Socrates, he received some of its seeds in a letter, 
by which means Conium macidaliun, having taken 
the Munson garden for its port of entry, still takes 
the opportunity of loafing along our road-sides, 
graceful, lurid and malodorous, resembling in 
these particulars another importation from the 
sunny south — the Italian tramp. 

Dr. Munson's attainments in chemistry and 
mineralogy added to his local renown. "Upon 
these subjects he was the oracle of all this portion 
of the country," says Dr. Knight, much sought 
after by bucolic finders of iron pyrites and other 
showy stones. It gives an agreeable flavor of an- 
ticjuity to the Medical College to say that its oldest 
professor was an e.xperiniental alchemist, and that 

* A single typical specimen, culled from many, shows that neither 
personal nor otticial majesty were always safe from his thrust. " He 
was once dining with the corporation at Commencement dinner, when 
President Dwight, who was a good trencherman, remarked, prepara- 
tory to some observation on diet: 'You observe, gentlemen, that I 
eat a great deal of bread with my meat.' ' Yes.' said the doctor in- 
stantly, and ' we notice that you eat much meat with your bread.' " 
{Dr. Bronson's Biographical Sketch.) 

It is impossible for didactic eloquence to prosper when such ribaldry 
as this is allowed. 



the "powder of projection, " effecting the transmu- 
tation of metals, that acme of the black art, was a 
matter of earnest interest to him.* 

Dr. Munson was as active and influential as any 
other man in founding the New Haven County 
Medical Society, and eight years later the Connecti- 
cut Medical Society. Of this latter body he was the 
first vice-president and the second president, hold- 
ing the highest office by annual election for seven 
successive years. In those days the society had 
not yet learned from politicians the two mischievous 
notions of periodical rotation in ofiice and "geo- 
graphical claims " of candidates, and so there was 
nothing to prevent its holding itself in honor and 
dignity in the choosing and keeping of its officers. 
In spite of Dr. Munson's invalidism in early life 
and frequent sicknesses in later years, his vitality 
was of a tough fiber, so that it took a long time for 
an old man's malady to weary him out at the age 
of ninety-two — the oldest inhabitant then of the 
city. 

There is no indication that his researches touch- 
ing the transmutation of metals were successful. 
"About $4,000, net value, was the whole amount 
of his estate, " says Dr. Bronson, " showing that his 
large and long practice and a plain way of living 
were in his case not profitable, or else that he 
lacked the usual dollar-hoarding instinct." But if 
a man lives a long life of integrity and eminent 
usefulness, and supports and educates creditably a 
large family, and dies in his old age in nobody's 
debt and with the universal esteem of his neighbors, 
and having gained that approbation of his life's 
work that only those can give who are specially 
qualified to judge of it, he may be called a success- 
ful man. There is little need for him to leave a 
large estate. 

A distinguished medical ancestor is very apt to 
beget doctors. Since Dr. Eneas the vocation has 
been hereditary in the Munson stock. New Haven 
has never been without some of his lineal descend- 
ants maintaining the family reputation in the 
medical profession, and the old saw, dat Galenus 
opes, has been less set at naught than it was by the 
experience Of the first of the line. 

It was at first the design of the promoters of the 
Medical College that the chair of surgery should 
be filled by a gentleman who, at that time, was 
probably the most distinguished surgeon living in 
Connecticut. Dr. Mason Fitch Cogswell, of Hart- 
ford, was then in his fifty-third year. He was in 
the enjoyment of a large and lucrative practice in 

* Dr. Bronson quotes from President Stiles' Diary the following 
passages, which he believes refer to Dr. Munson. 

"1789. March second. — This afternoon Dr. visited me to dis- 
course on Chemistry and inquire concerning the hermetic Philosophy. 

March third. — Dr. visited me again to-day to converse about the 

transmutation of metals, which he says Dr. Koon [Kuhn perhaps, a 
fellow-countryman may be of the celebrated Dousterswivel] per- 
formed at Walliugford last Iteceinber- He is itifatuated with the 
notion that 1 know something about it. 1 told him that I knew nothing 
but what is in the books; that I had never possessed the secret, if there 
was any; that 1 never saw or conversed w ith any one that 1 thought had 
it; that I had never made or seen the preparation, if that thing was pos- 
sible; that 1 had never performed transmutation nor seen it performed; 
and that 1 held the whole to be a vain and illusory pursuit." 

" Eriuiitioitis cujttszns gefwris scinftcr stutiiosissimus " though he 
was, the President was evidently bored before the second visit was 
ended. 



THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND SURGERV. 



271 



all branches of his profession, and his social and 
professional relations were altogether of the most 
satisfactory nature. He seems to have presented 
a rare and happy combination of all the moral, 
intellectual and physical qualities that should go 
to the making of a good surgeon. He was the 
first in America, it is said, to tie the carotid artery. 
This he did in November, 1803, without the 
knowledge that the same operation had shortly be- 
fore been done once by Abernethy in England, 
and once by a less famous surgeon in Germany. 
"He possessed, in a greater degree than any 
surgeon whom I have ever known, that happy 
dexterity in the use of instruments which gave 
him the power of operating with great accuracy, 
neatness and rapidity. 1 have been told that he 
amputated the thigh in forty seconds," says Dr. 
Knight. Laiidaii a lauihito. Dr. Knight was ever 
careful and discriminating whether in praise or 
in censure. 

As "an assiduous and successful cultivator of 
polite literature, especially of poetry," Dr. Cogs- 
well was reckoned one of that famous circle of 
" Hartford wits " which had for one of its brightest 
ornaments another member of the same profession, 
Dr. Lemuel Hopkins. 

Not only for his excellence as a physician, but 
for his noble personal character and his admirable 
social qualities, he was held in uncommon affec- 
tion by the people among whom he lived, and 
among whose descendants his memory is still 
fragrant. He listened, somewhat reluctantly it 
may be believed, to the call made on behalf of the 
new college, and was appointed professor of 
surgery. There can be no doubt that had he 
entered upon the duties of that office he would 
have performed them well. New Haven would 
have made in him a more valuable acquisition 
than it has been her wont to gain at the expense of 
her sister city, and with him in all probability she 
would have won that noble fruit of his enterprising 
benevolence, the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb. 

But when, shortly after this appointment had 
been made, it was found that Professor Nathan 
Smith, of Dartmouth College, would accept the 
place if it were offered to him, Dr. Cogswell 
readily relinquished it in his favor, and Hartford 
was the gainer thereby. The name of Nathan 
Smith,* Professor of Medicine and Surgery, fol- 
lows that of Dr. Munson, by right of age, on the 
early catalogues of the college. 

There was no hesitation at that time, there can 
be none now, in reckoning Dr. Smith as the most 
eminent man whom the medical profession in 
New Haven has ever counted among its members. 
The wide popular celebrity which he enjoyed kept 
only an even pace with the confidence and esteem 
in which he was held by his professional con- 
temporaries, while the contributions which he made 
to advance the art of medicine in both its principal 
branches, were such that his name deserves lo be 
a lasting one. 

The history of his life is remarkable and inspir- 

* Nathan Smith, born in Rehoboth, Mass., September 30, 1762. Died 
in New Haven, December 26, 1828. 



ing. " Truly American" as we are apt complac- 
ently to say, as if genius were of one nationality! 

To be born poor, in an obscure farming town, 
as farming towns were in Massachusetts a century 
and a quarter ago; to be taken in early childhood 
into the mountain wilderness of Vermont, there to 
grow up to manhood working with his own hands 
in the rough agriculture and woodcraft of that 
time and region, with episodical hunting of Indians 
and being hunted by them, and starvation into the 
scurvy — this seems an unlikely training to bring 
up the first surgeon and medical teacher of his day 
in New England. 

But when he was twenty-four years old, " almost 
without design on his pait, " he saw Dr. Josiah 
Goodhue, of Putney, Vt., do a surgical operation. 

What the operation was is not recorded, nor 
what became of the patient; the important fact is, 
the keen-eyed, quick-witted young farmer who 
stood by was having his genius awakened. Genuine 
love at first-sight it was for that beneficent skill — 
an unmistakable vocation to bear a hand in that 
particular way of helpfulness; so that with brief 
delay he asked Dr. Goodhue to take him for a 
student. Judicious Goodhue, sadly mindful of 
the rude and bushwhacking warfare with disease 
waged by the generality of his medical neighbors, 
asks the young enthusiast as to his previous course 
of life and his acquirements. The reply is, " Until 
last night I have labored with my hands during 
my life." Honest and modest, but not otherwise 
an encouraging statement for the teacher, surely, 
and perhaps he meant to discourage the aspirant, 
when he told him, " Fit yourself to enter Harvard 
College and then I will receive you as a student." 
No discouragement in that for the resolute young 
man, only a wholesome stimulus. He takes his 
prescribed dose of litei\c huinaruoies from a neigh- 
boring minister, laboring with his hands to pay his 
way, and in due time presents himself again, quali- 
fied as a medical student, lo Dr. Goodhue. For 
three years he continued a pupil in the office of 
that gentleman to their mutual satisfaction, and 
then removed to Cornish, N. H., to practice his 
profession. 

Two or three years later he found himself by 
his earnings able to enter the Medical School of 
Harvard University, where he was graduated Bach- 
elor of Medicine. Returning thence to Cornish, 
with much improvement of his scientific equip- 
ment for work, he soon found his practice growing 
large and himself rising to the rank of an author- 
ity in the profession. 

If 1797, being then thirty-five years old, and a 
practitioner of about seven years standing proba- 
bly, he organized a school which has ever since 
been known as the Medical Department of Dart- 
mouth College. It was a truly missionary under- 
taking. In that then remote region the jjractice of 
medicine and surgery was for the most part in the 
hands of men who, by no fault of their own, were 
destitute of the education needful to fit them for 
their work. The country was poor and thinly 
populated, travel was difficult and costly, the 
nearest schools of medicine, at Boston and New 



272 



HISTORl' OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



York, were practically inaccessible to most of them. 
In this state of things Dr. Smith's enterprise de- 
served and gained a measure of immediate success. 
For several successive years he was the sole pro- 
fessor of the new college, lecturing more or less on 
all the branches of science then usually taught in 
medical schools.. 

That one man, however competent and zealous, 
could do this, is a striking illustration of the state 
of medical education at that time. Beside this 
he rode far and wide over rough roads, pursuing an 
extensive practice among the sparse population of 
a half wilderness. After some years of this work, 
his finances having improved and his labors in 
teaching having been lightened by the association 
of other professors with him, he crossed the At- 
lantic and spent about a year abroad, dividing the 
time between attendance upon a full course of 
lectures in the ever famous Medical School of 
Edinburgh and in '' walking " the hospitals of 
London. 

It was a rare and precious privilege for an 
American physician in those days, and probably 
not one could have been found to profit more by 
it than did Nathan Smith. 

Dartmouth Medical School, when he returned 
'to it with the accomplishments and the prestige of 
his foreign pupilage, flourished apace. It seems 
never to have lost the headway it got under its 
founder, but to this day has maintained its repu- 
tation as a practical, productive institution. Dr. 
Smith continued to be its mainstay until he left it 
to come to New Haven. After that he returned 
one year to Dartmonth and delivered a course of 
lectures there, and in other years did a similar 
service once for the school in Burlington, Vt., and 
twice for that in Brunswick, Me. These peripa- 
tetic professorships have been more common since 
Nathan Smith's day. Perhaps he was the first to 
practice such itineracy. But what would he have 
said if he had been told that a grandson of his 
would practice medicine in Springfield and make 
a daily visit to New Haven to lecture, doing half 
his day's work before leaving home and the other 
half after finishing his lecture and his journey of 
126 miles ! 

While the reputation which Nathan Smith 
brought with him to New Haven as an e.xpert 
teacher, was most helpful to the nascent college, 
his renown as a successful surgeon was more di- 
rectly useful to himself, soon giving him his hands 
full of work, especially as a consultant and 
operator, in all parts of (.'onnecticut. In a neigh- 
boring town he tied the e.xternal iliac artery, an 
important operation and at that time, 1820, an ex- 
tremely rare one. 

Very largely we owe it to his thoughtful inge- 
nuity that dislocations of the hip-joint are now 
reduced arte, non vi, by dexterous manipulation 
rather than by the irresistible and dangerous force 
of machinery. 

The greatest triumph of operative surgery for 
several centuries is that ovariotomy has been es- 
tablished in the rank of the most beneficent and 
successful operations. By it, during the last thirty 



years, thousands of women have been saved from 
a death of peculiar misery. Nathan Smith per- 
formed this operation in 1821, supposing himself 
to be the first to do it, and actuated by all the 
courage of a discoverer. It was unknown to him 
and to the medical world at large, so slow was the 
spread of such intelligence at that time, that several 
years before, another American, Dr. Ephraim Mc- 
Dowell, had done the same operation in Kentucky. 
But it must be said that in Dr. Smith's case for the 
first time, in the most important detail, the man- 
agement of the pedicle, that method was applied 
which later surgeons, after the experience of thou- 
sands of cases, have fi-xed upon as the best. 

Dr. Smith's contributions to medical literature 
were not large nor numerous — smaller and fewer, 
indeed, than every reader of them would wish. 
The most important of them, "A Practical Essay 
on Typhus Fever," is still consulted with profit by 
the studious. It is the work of one capable of 
making original observations and of reasoning 
soundly upon them. 

Dr. Smith was just the sort of strong-featured 
character to have a small anthology of anecdotes 
grow up about him. Among those which have 
floated down to us, not one can be found to cast 
discredit upon him, unless we call such those 
which refer to his carelessness of money, which 
kept him, and at his death left his family, destitute 
of one of the just rewards of his skill and industry. 
Most of them go to show him a man of inexhaustible 
resources, of admirable tact in the management of 
patients and their friends, of a shrewd and kindly 
humor, and of a tender generosity. It is late enough 
now to put into print, without oft'ense, the story, 
long current, of a consultation to which Dr. Smith 
was called in another town. The patient, a valuable 
and well-know n citizen, his physician a very learned 
and very positive doctor, big with unfavorable prog- 
nosis. The disease duly labeled, with Greek gen- 
eric and dative specific. Typhus syncopalis, a name 
fashionable in these parts about those days, deeply 
impressive to the popular ear, and apt to be inter- 
preted by the laity as meaning " sit up with him 
so many nights and then come to his funeral. " 
" Humph" remarks the consultant, after an atten- 
tive inquiry into the symptoms and the do.ses 
given. "I would give him an emetic." "In Ty- 
phus syncopalis an emetic is certain death." re- 
sponds the attendant doctor, " the only safety, if 
there be any safety, is in brandy and opium." 
Dead-lock in the consultation; leave it to the 
family. What comes, alas, to despondent's learning, 
however positive when pitted against hopeful tact.' 
Learning retires in indignant sorrow, radiating the 
visible darkness of hfs unfavorable prognosis all about 
him. Tact, bearing the potent draught, enters the 
darkened chamber of the sick man and shuts the 
door. Soon there are sounds familiar to those who 
go down to the sea in ships. Then there is a long, 
long period of perfect silence and an.xious suspense 
for the waiting family outside. Then — do our ears 
deceive us, or do we hear chuckles from the Ty- 
phus syncopalis subject .' It is even so; stupor and 
delirium have gone with opium and brandy, and 



1 



THE PRACTICE OF MEDICJNE AND SURGERY. 



173 



the old doctor from New Haven is telling lively 
stories to the reviving patient. 

The Medical College possesses a fine portrait of 
Dr. Smith in his latter years by Professor S. F. B. 
Morse. It is full of character and is considered an 
accurate likeness. It shows that one of the best 
American portrait painters of that day had to be 
sacrificed that the world might be the richer by the 
electric telegraph. 

The venerable Dr. S. C. Johnson, of Seymour, 
relates that, being a medical student at the time, he 
was one of a committee to present the portrait on 
its completion to Dr. Smith. "Set it down, gentle- 
men,'' said the great surgeon, rather grimly, "it's 
an excellent likeness." And then, with a twinkle, 
" It's as ugly as the witch of Endor. " Another rem- 
iniscence of Dr. Johnson relates to the " dissec- 
tion riot ' of January, 1824, one of the most threat- 
ening disturbances orderly New Haven has known, 
and which for a while menaced the destruction of 
the Medical College. 

There was a dramatic scene when the outraged 
and indignant neighbors of the poor girl whose body 
had been stolen from a rural cemetery, made their 
way at last into the cellar of the college. There 
had been nothing to reward their search through 
the upper part of the building, except such shreds 
and tatters of mortality as such places always can 
show, to feed the fury of suspicion, and here in the 
empty cellar they had apparently come to the end 
of their clue. But there was a persistent man with 
a crow-bar, whose manners must have been most 
unpleasant to any guilty observer, if such an one 
was there, for he went about trying the flag-stones 
in the pavement, and at last found one that was 
loose. This was quickly torn up, and there in the 
freshly disturbed earth lay the ghastly object of the 
quest, fortunately not yet mutilated by the scalpel. 
Drs. Smith and Knight were both there, honestly 
and anxiously aiding in the search. " Dr. Knight 
looked as if he would die, he was so faint and pale 
[he was a man of great sensitiveness], but Dr. 
Smith looked like a roused lion," said Dr. Johnson. 

Of course there was intense popular feeling, which 
was increased by an exposure of the body to the 
public view in the streets; there were threats against 
the college and against individuals connected with 
it, necessitating a military guard under arms for 
two days. The rescued body was reinterred in 
West Haven, in a garden for greater security, and 
within three weeks, one of the guilty parties was 
tried, convicted and sentenced to sharp punish- 
ment in the Superior Court. 

A stringent law grew out of this incident, exacting 
sureties of the Professor of Anatomy against any 
similar occurrence, and it still continues in force. 

The name of Benjamin Silliman, Professor of 
Chemistry and Pharmacy, which stood third in the 
list of the original faculty of the Medical College, 
certainly added much to the renown and prosperity 
of the institution in its early days. He had great 
celebrity as an impressive and most agreeable lec- 
turer. It is impossible to conceive of a more deft 
and painless insinuation of the elementary facts of 



chemistry into minds not specially avid of that sci- 
ence, than was exhibited in his lectures to the 
senior classes of the academical department. The 
medical classes shared the entertaining privilege of 
listening to their somewhat florid and discursive 
oratory, as did also numerous joung ladies pursu- 
ing the more strictly feminine accomplishments in 
various schools in the city. Laboratory work for 
students was as yet undreamed of. Ph3^siological 
chemistry did not invade those peaceful precincts, 
and the "Loves of the Triangles" could not have 
been more blameless than the matriage of acids 
and bases beneath the dexterous hands of the Pro- 
fessor. The medical section of the mixed audi- 
ence, occupying front seats next the retorts and 
bell-glasses, were commonly distinguished by their 
closer attention to the chemistry and their less 
boisterous hilarity at the jokes which were daily 
served to them in well-studied proportions. The 
praises with which the courtly Professor was wont 
to reward any appearance of proficiency at his 
weekly review of the progress of the medical class 
were none the less gratifying in that they were largely 
at the expense of ' ' the young gentlemen yonder 
[the academical students] who cannot or will 
not learn anything." 

The family name borne by the Adjunct Professor 
of Materia Medica and Botany has been uninter- 
ruptedly one of the chief ornaments of the medi- 
cal profession in New Haven for more than a cen- 
tury. Beginning with Dr. Levi Ives,* who entered 
upon practice in 1773, down to the present day, 
there has been in the direct line of descent a strik- 
ing perpetuation of those qualities which most in- 
sure professional success and attract and retain the 
popular esteem. During that time there has al- 
ways been a Dr. Ives, and since 1801 there has 
always been an "old Dr. Ives," f the qualifying 
prefix passing into popular use as each successive 
member of the family took up the professional 
title. 

The first Dr. Ives, in his day, which was a long 
one, was a laborious and successful physician who 
won the reputation of a public-spirited and patriotic 
citizen in troublous times when that title was no 
unmeaning phrase. Repeatedly during the Revo- 
lutionary War he was in active service as a surgeon 
to the forces in the field. Once he bore a lieuten- 
ant's commission in the line, in a campaign against 
(ieneral Burgoyne, and on that eventful 5th of 
July when His Britannic Majesty's forces made so 
weary and unprofitable an expedition from Savin 



* Levi Ives, son of Samuel and Mary (Gilbert) Ives, Born in North 
Haven, Conn., June 4, 1750. Died in New Haven October 17, 1826. 

t A legend runs: One day, when Dr. N. B. Ives (of the third genera- 
tion) had been but a short time in practice, a man came to his father's 
{Dr. Eli Ives') house and insisted upon seeing "the old Doctor." 
" Why, dear me," responded the mother of the young doctor, her 
thoughts reverting to her departed fiither-in law, "didn't you know 
old Dr. Ives has l^een dead these four years ! " 

The late Dr. Charles L. Ives had for a patient an old gentleman who 
had previously enjoyed the services of his father, his grandfather and 
his great. grandfather. It is an obvious and ine.\pensive witticism to 
infer an extraordinary toughness in this patient, who nearly survived 
four generations of doctors; but it is quite as wise to accept the hale 
nonagenarian as evidence that pretty sound notions of practice pre- 
vailed in the family 10 whose skill ana fidelity he confided himself for 
so long. 



274 



HISTORV OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



Rock to New Haven, he was one of the hardy 
guerilla band who kept up a waspish resistance to 
the slow advance, acting that day apparently in 
the double capacity of sharpshooter and surgeon. 

Kli Ives * had, as his father before him. Dr. Eneas 
Munson as his teacher in medicine, but he came 
vastly better prepared than his father did for his 
studies in that science. Other things being equal, 
the medical student whose father is a doctor has the 
advantage of him who is the son of a farmer. In- 
herited mental habit is a cumulative force. Beside 
this, Eli Ives had got the teaching that Yale Col- 
lege could give a diligent and conscientious stu- 
dent. He was a fair Latinist and Grecian, though 
not an ostentatious one, and for fifteen months fol- 
lowing his graduation in arts he was Rector of the 
Hopkins Grammar School. He was offered a tu- 
torship in Yale College, and as early as 1S02, being 
twenty- three years old, he had such certificate of 
immortal fame as inheres in the appointment of 
Phi Beta Kappa orator. He did not take the tutor- 
ship, which must be regarded as fortunate, though 
instances are not wholly wanting of recovery from 
that condition and subsequent growth to usefulness 
in the medical profession. He did deliver the Phi 
Beta Kappa oration, and as he chose that it should 
be on botany and chemistry, that august audience 
for once was exposed to the singular chance of 
hearing some useful facts plainly stated. 

The best instruction which this country could 
offer to a medical student at the time of Eli Ives' 
pupilage was in the University of Pennsylvania. 
" It was the golden time''ofRush and Shippen and 
Wistar and Barton, and twice the young student re- 
paired thither for their teaching, being probably 
one of the earliest alumni furnished by Connecticut 
to that great school. He was not, however, grad- 
uated there, but after having been some ten years 
in practice received the degree of M. D. causa ho- 
noris from the Connecticut Medical Society in 
181 1. He was a slender, delicate young man when 
he began practice, but he had the temperament of 
an enthusiast, and this, happily combined with a 
tender generosity of disposition, served at once to 
impel him to and sustain him in a life of more than 
common labor for many years, for so long indeed, 
that for the last quarter century of his life he was 
regarded as the patriarch of the profession. 

Speedily, almost in his youth, his practice be- 
came a very large one, and it continued large as 
long as he would have it so. It was fairly pro- 
ductive too, pecuniarily, though not in proportion 
to the labor performed. He was not an exemplary 
collector of his dues, having an easy temper about 
such matters, for which his heirs must have been 
the poorer, and being intensely averse to anything 
savoring of greed or over-reaching. 

To a sharp practitioner who was bragging of 
the heavy fees he had exacted in a certain case, 
ending with a knowing wink and a "we must 
live, you know," Dr. Ives replied, "Yes, and 
we've got to die too." He might have used the 
trite repartee of the French wit, "I do not see 

♦Eli Ives, son of Levi and Lydi.-i (AuRer) Ives. Born al New Haven 
February 7, 1778. Died October 8, 1861. 



the necessity." But there is a distinct eschatological 
twang in the Doctor's retort — ^" subacid," as he 
used to say in criticising one of his own seedling 
pears; a flavor not wholly distasteful to a sound 
Calvinistic palate. 

Dr. Ives must have received his first bent toward 
the study of botany and the indigenous materia 
medica from his teacher. Dr. Munson, but he greatly 
improved upon the teachings of that worthy, and 
became, as indeed the times required, a more 
scientific botanist than Dr. Munson ever was, and 
gained a knowledge of the medical uses of native 
plants which was believed to be unequaled in his 
day. Not to him could the reproach apply due to 
them who 

Love not the plant they pluck, .and know it not. 
And all their botany is Latin names. 

He loved botany much — he loved plants more, 
for their own sakes and for the good he could do 
with them in 

Driving the foe and 'stabli.shing the friend. 

" Isn't the old Doctor great on habitats } " ad- 
miringly exclaimed a profound botanist one day 
after listening to his talk; and indeed he seemed in- 
capable of forgetting a place which he had found 
to be the home of a rare plant. He liked to main- 
tain the claim of New Haven to be the abode of 
more adventive naturalized plants than any other 
region of equal extent in this country.* 

When Dr. Ives began his work in the Medical 
College, he meant that a garden, what old Gerard 
calls "a phisike-garden," should be a part of the 
means of teaching in his department. It was 
mainly, if not wholly, at his private expense that 
he started and maintained such a garden on the 
east side of the college, stocking it well with in- 
teresting and important hardy plants, and building 
a green-house as accessory to it. His enterprise 
was not properly seconded; after a few years the 
college sold the ground; the garden disappeared, to 
the permanent regret of its founder. Many years 
after, in that spot, a few shy but persistent tril- 
liums, arums, sanguinarias and the like, annually 
entered a vernal protest against their being crowded 
out of the medical curriculum, but in vain. Botany 
is no more to be sought for than Sanskrit among 
the medical students of the present day. Dr. Ives 
removed some of his more intimate vegetable 
friends to the spacious garden, which then half sur- 
rounded his house on Temple street, where they 
nourished during the life of their protector. 

It was a pleasant sight, impressing one with a 
sense of the bounty of nature, to see the good iloc- 
tor lead a patient into this garden and dispense 
his medicine to him with a spade. 

The eagerness of rare plants in that garden to 
show their appreciation of the care of a medical 
botanist, and especially the determination of seed- 



• This opinion was derived, it is believed, from the distingnishud 
botanist, Kafinesque. Dr. Ives used to mention several introduced 
plants wiiich perhaps are less common now than they were fifty years 
ago. Dr. Munson's pet hemlock is one of them, and if the henbane 
{Ilyoscyamus nigi-r) ever shows its unamialjle head novv-a-days after 
the turning up ot lonj; luibroken soil, .is Dr. Ives said it used to, it must 
be very rarely. 



THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND StlRGERY. 



275 



ling pears to prove themselves worthy of his atten- 
tion, were enough to convert one to the Manichean 
doctrine of vegetable souls. 

It is not to be inferred, from his fondness for 
using indigenous simples in many cases, that Dr. 
Eli Ives' practice was wanting in vigor when in the 
presence of real danger. His skill in the use of 
the most energetic articles of the materia mciUca 
was quite as remarkable as his minute acquaint- 
ance with drugs not commonly known. 

In his hands and in those of his eldest son. Dr. 
N. B. Ives, in 1832, that potent agent, chloroform, 
discovered a year before by Samuel Guthrie, of 
Sackett's Harbor, was first applied to medical use. 
In \h& Journal 0/ Science oi that year, he describes 
its valuable qualities, and recommends its employ- 
ment as well by inhalation as by the stomach. 
What a little step further he need have taken to have 
made New Haven, instead of Hartford, the birth- 
place at once of anaesthesia and of an anaesthetic so 
convenient and so efficient that no one would have 
dared to try, as in the case of Horace Welles, poor 
waylaid and plundered messenger of the gods, to 
filch the glory of bringing such a gift to men! 
Boston would then have been saved the cost of that 
curious monument, crowned with an appropriate 
group setting forth the sad plight of him that fell 
among thieves, and beneath bearing an inscription 
which perpetuates the perplexity felt by their con- 
temporaries in deciding which of two Bostonians 
had shown the greatest alacrity in appropriating to 
himself the credit of Welles' discovery. 

A favorite doctrine with Dr. Eli Ives, one upon 
which he bestowed much thought, and which largely 
influenced his practice, was that of epidemic con- 
stitutions, changes of diathesis, and the recurrence 
of certain diseases in wide cycles. In accordance 
with this, he used confidently to predict, at a 
time when New Haven had long been free from 
any prevalence of intermittent fevers, that they 
would again widely infest this region. He did not 
live to see how abundantly his prophecy was fulfilled 
in the latter half of the seventh and during the eighth 
decade of this century, but during the latter years 
of his life he watched the progress of those diseases 
along the coast eastward from the New York frontier 
with a philanthropic regret which may have been 
gently tempered with scientific satisfaction. 

Of Dr. Ives' activity outside of his strictly pro- 
fessional work as a teacher and practitioner, some 
indication is given by the facts that he was President 
both of the Horticultural and Pomological Societies 
of New Haven, and that of his own seedling pears, 
five sorts have been deemed worthy of description 
in " Thomas' Fruit Culturist; " that he was a mem- 
ber of the Convention which framed the first U. S. 
Pharmacopoeia in 1820, and ten years later, at the 
next meeting of the convention, he was its presi- 
dent; that for three years running from 1824 he was 
Vice-President of the Connecticut Medical Society; 
that he was President of the American Medical As- 
sociation in 1 86 1 ; and that (a reminder of a curious 
passage in the politics of more than a half century 
ago) he was the Anti-Masonic candidate for Lieu- 
tenant-Governor of Connecticut in 1831. 



Dr. Eli Ives' face was a clear index of his char- 
acter, showing a charming combination of benevo- 
lence, shrewdness and simplicity, and often lighted 
with mirthfulness. He was plain in his style of 
living, after the wholesome conscientious old Con- 
necticut way. Apparently his only luxuries were his 
many quiet charities: his books, which, during the 
period of his activity always represented the ad- 
vance of those branches of science in which he was 
most interested; and his suburban farm, sloping 
west from "the Gravel Hill road," now Prospect 
street, which presumably was as great a source of 
revenue to him as a farm usually is to a non-resident 
amateur with his head well busied with other mat- 
ters. 

It was a large part of the happiness of Dr. Eli 
Ives' serene and beautiful old age, that he was 
closely surrounded by his two sons and one of his 
grandsons, all engaged, with conspicuous success, 
in the calling to which his own life had been so 
faithfully devoted, and all firmly bound to him not 
only by ties of family affection, but also by that 
other regard and veneration due to the teacher and 
guide in professional matters. Of the surviving 
son, who is still, as he has been for nearly half a 
century, active, eminent and beloved among the 
physicians of New Haven, it is beyond the purpose 
of this chapter to speak. His elder brother. Dr. 
Nathan Beers Ives,* was so long and so intimately 
connected with his father, that it is impossible to 
dissociate the two in tiie memory of those who 
knew them. 

Nathan Beers Ives (graduated A. B. in Yale Col- 
lege in 1825, and M.D. three years later) began 
the practice of medicine in 1828, being then twen- 
ty-two years old. He died at the age of sixty- 
three, and for several of his latter years was much 
disabled by ill-health. He left, notwithstanding, 
an ample estate, much larger than had ever before 
by any one been accumulated in the practice of 
medicine in New Haven. There were a good 
many years when he was regarded as " taking the 
cream of the practice," and although some of his 
less fortunate competitors might indulge a not un- 
natural envy of his success, no one could call it 
unmerited in view of the qualities which contrib- 
uted to it. 

His perceptive faculties were naturally keen, and 
his management of his resources showed unusual 
tact. He devoted himself to his professional du- 
ties and to the welfare of his patients with that sin- 
gleness of purpose which can spring only from the 
genuine fitness of a man for his calling. * * * 
Rarely did he enter a household as a physician 
without becoming permanently bound to it as a 
friend. He had a vivid enjoyment of good com- 
pany and bright conversation, in which, with his 
natural vivacity of temperament, he always bore an 
active part. There always seemed a certain fitness 
in it that these gifts should be lodged in a short, 
slight, alert figure. "His soul," as old Fuller 
says, "had but a small diocese to visit. " It was 
related of him as a child that he used to climb into 

* Nathan Beers Ives, son of Eli and Maria (Beers) Ives. Born in 
New Haven June 26, 1806. Died in New Haven June 18, 1869, 



270 



History of the city of new Ha VFM. 



the branches of a great stramonium weed that grew 
in his father's garden. But in Dr. F.U Ives' garden 
every vegetable thing was apt to take on unwonted 
dignity and surprising proportions, and the child 
was certainly a small one. 

For a good many years, until his declining 
health kept him from avoidable labors. Dr. N. B. 
Ives took part in the private instruction of medical 
students. It would have been much to the advan- 
tage of the Medical College had it succeeded in its 
attempts to secure those valuable teachings for all 
its stmlents by adding Dr. N. B. Ives to its Fac- 
ulty, but he was ever averse to anything likely to 
interfere with what he regarded as his legitimate 
business, the practice of medicine. 

The youngest member of the original faculty of 
the Medical College, Jonathan Knight,* was only 
twenty-four years old when he deHvered his first 
course of lectures upon anatomy and physiology. 
His possession of the natural gifts for such a posi- 
tion had been remarked two or three years before 
by Professor Silliman and others who had the 
establishment of the College at heart, and when the 
young man was occupying himself in studying 
medical books in such intervals of leisure as his 
duty as tutor in Yale College allowed him. Ad- 
vised and encouraged by those friends, he spent the 
winters of 1811 and 181 2 in the medical depart- 
ment of the University of Pennsylvania, devoting 
special attention to those branches which it was in- 
tended that he should teach at New Haven. 

Very speedily in his lectures he began to justify 
the hopes of those who had selected him for the 
work. Their expectations must have been exorbi- 
tant indeed if the quality of his performance, as 
known to later generations of students, failed to 
satisfy them. 

Probably every surviving listener to Dr. Knight's 
lectures remembers them as models of terse and 
lucid statement, at once full and exact, delivered 
witli forcible and unhesitating elocution, the matter 
and manner of the whole carrying the impression 
of perfect mastery of the subject. Yet, be it re- 
corded for the encouragement of dilhdent merit, 
the young professor in his early years used to be 
so oppressed with a distrust of his own powers, that 
he sometimes wandered away into the fields at the 
lecture-hour, for actual fear of facing his class. He 
resolutely subdued this diftidence and learned to 
regard it as unreasonable. 

Many years after, when his successor in the ciiair 
of surgery, called abruptly from the rough work of 
an army surgeon in the field, was writhing with a 
sense of his unfitness for the new duty, the retiring 
veteran reassured his junior with: " Don't you think 
you know more about surgery than those youni^ 
asses .''" — a comforting suggestion, drawn doubtless 
from his own early experiences. 

There were other ([ualities beside those already 
mentioned which went to make Dr. Knight the 
admirable teacher he was. An earnest devotion to 



•Jonathan Knight, son of Jonath.in and Anne (Fitch) Knight. Bom in 
Norwalk, Conn., September 4, 1789, Died in New Haven August 25, 
1864. 



the business in hand, which kept him from even a 
momentary wandering; a sagacious sense of the 
needs of his audience, which kept him from over- 
refining and from aiming above their heads, these 
were combined with certain enviable physical gifts; 
a manly and graceful figure, erect and agile even 
in old age; a strikingly handsome face, whose habit- 
ual expression was tiiat of gentle dignity and in- 
telligent sympathy; and a voice so clear, musical 
and pleasantly penetrative, that it needed not to be 
of great volume to seize and hold the willing at- 
tention of every hearer. 

How charmingly orderly he was ! Said a clear- 
headed pupil-critic, "He begins at the beginning, 
goes straight to the end, and [oh joy, oh won- 
der ! j stops when he has finished. " 

Dr. Knight held the Chair of Anatomy and Physi- 
ology until 1838, when he was transferred to that 
of Surgery, which had been vacated by the death of 
Dr. Thomas Hubbard. He continued however, 
during his life, annually to deliver to the senior 
academical class a course of lectures on anatomy 
and physiology. The judicious skill with which 
these topics were adapted to the needs of a non- 
medical audience, was attested by the good order 
and willing attentiveness which reigned in the 
amphitheatre, albeit filled with listeners who had 
not yet reached "years that bring the philosophic 
mind," and apt to find hilarity rather than solem- 
nity in their first view of the human skeleton. 

Nothing remains to testify to the extraordinary 
effectiveness of Dr. Knight as a lecturer except the 
recollections of those who heard him. His few 
printed productions give no suggestion of that fine 
combination of personal forces that carried his un- 
written instructions into the minds of his pupils. 

From the death of his predecessor. Dr. Thomas 
Hubbard, in 1S38, until the close of his own life. 
Dr. Knight was unquestionably the leading surgeon 
in Connecticut. Conscientious, forbearing, conser- 
vative, perhaps in all that time he never did an un- 
necessary or premature operation. His was the 
wisdom always to know what should nol be done; 
his the religious caution to lay only hands of heal- 
ing upon the body — the sacred ark of man's life. 
To him the difficult and " brilliant "surgical opera- 
tion was of small merit if it did not heal his patient, 
or if it mutilated what might have been spared. How 
noble his appearance as he stood ready for some 
serious operation ! Long years of familiarity with 
wounds and suffering had not dulled compassion. 
Tiie slight change of color as he grasped the knife; 
the gentle compression of the lips; the instinctive 
gathering and tension of the muscles; the quick- 
ened glow of the eye; his whole demeanor, showed 
that no man more than he, felt " that death every- 
where surrounded his knife," nor more endeavored 
" to convey all his knowledge to its point." 

It was, perhaps, his habitual aversion to the use 
of the knife,where it could be avoided, that put him 
among the earliest who attempited the cure of aneur- 
isms by compression. He was the first surgeon 
who ever cured this disease by the mild antl simple 
means of manual pressure alone. This he did in 
1848, having relays of assistants from among his 



The practice of medicine and surgery. 



•m 



pupils, who relieved each other at short intervals, 
until, lulo, cilo, jucunde, in forty hours, the formid- 
able blood-sac had ceased its throbbing and whiz- 
zing, and shrunk into a quiet, harmless lump. 

Dr. Knight was twice President of the American 
Medical Association, the unprecedented honor of a 
second election being due to the admirable way in 
which he at its first meeting guided that somewhat 
unwieldy body on its way. His successes in this 
matter seem to have been the outcome of his natural 
lucidity, for he disclaimed any but an ordinary 
familiarity with parliamentary rules. 

There were some slight archaisms of speech and 
dress of w-hich Dr. Knight was one of the last 
upholders in this neighborhood. His pronuncia- 
tion of the u in unaccented syllables was according 
to the best standard of a hundred years ago, and 
its late survival in his fluent speech was far from 
displeasing to the critical ear. He never appeared 
to the public eye save in a dress-coat and with a 
faultless white cravat of a pattern no longer seen 
upon earth except in certain portraits which are 
become a part of history. A phrenologist, one of 
the early professors of that imitation-science, who 
was trying his skill on Dr. Knight's " organs, " said 
with oracular solemnity, "You are a conser- 
vative, with great reverence for the past. '' ' ' Yes, 
yes," responded the subject, "do you tell that 
by the shape of my head or by the tie of my 
cravat 1 " The charlatan's guess was true, as far as 
it went. Dr. Knight's love of tracing a truth back 
to its original discoverer nicely balanced his con- 
tempt for the humbugs which during his long 
life he saw rise, flourish and decline. 

The first accession to the original Faculty of the 
Medical College was in 1829, when Dr. Thomas 
Hubb.ird,* of Pomfret,was called to take the Chair 
of Surgery, vacated by the death of Nathan Smith. 

Dr. Hubbard was then fifty-three years of age. 
He was of wide repute as a hard-working, successful 
practitioner of medicine and surgery in the rural 
community in which he lived. There is reason to 
believe that he found his labors in his new field of 
duty to be of the hardest. It was inevitable that 
comparisons should be drawn between the re- 
nowned surgeon just lost to the college and any 
successor in the same place. Dr. Hubbard was 
undergoing a late transplantation; he was new to 
the work of teaching; he had enjoyed smaller ad- 
vantages of study than any of his colleagues. Yet 
such was the energetic industry that he applied to 
his new relations, that during the nine years of his 
professorship he discharged its duties creditably 
and satisfactorily. There was a flavor of rusticity in 
his speech and manner, but he was unaffected, 
simple, abounding in practical good sense. 

'I'he profession and the community at large felt 
when he died that they had lost a strong and use- 
ful man. 

In the same year in which Dr. Hubbard joined 
the Faculty, Professor Eli Ives was transferred to 
the Chair of Theory and Practice of Medicine, and 

♦Thomas Hubbard, born in Smithfield, R, I., 1776. Died in New 
Haven June 18, 1838. 



the duties of his previous department of Materia 
Medica and Botany were assigned to Dr. William 
Tully,* as Professor of Materia Medica and Thera- 
peutics. 

Dr. Tully was not a stranger in New Haven. 
He had taken the academical course in Yale Col- 
lege, and was graduated there in 1806. Subse- 
quently he received a considerable part of his 
tuition in medicine here from Dr. Eli Ives, and 
here, in 18 10, after the usual examination, he was 
licensed by the Connecticut Medical Society to 
practice. Still later, in 1816, the degree of M. D. 
was conferred upon him, causa honoris, by Yale 
College. 

He returned now to New Haven w-ith an estab- 
lished reputation as a medical author and instructor. 
In the then brief list of American medical writers 
his name was conspicuous as co-author, with Dr. 
Thomas Miner, of Middletown, of "Essays on 
Fevers and Other Medical Subjects," 1823, a 
notable work, which in its day provoked not a 
little discussion and some hostility. A very full, 
learned and elaborate " Prize Essay on Sanguinaria 
Canadensis, ' 1828, was also Dr. TuUy's work. " It 
may be pronounced one of the most important 
contributions to our vegetable indigenous Materia 
Medica which has yet been oflfered to the public." 
(Dr. Bronson, Biographical Sketch, 1861.) 

For the five years immediately preceding his ap- 
pointment here. Dr. Tully was one of the pro- 
fessors in the then new and thriving, but now ex- 
tinct, medical college at Castleton, Vt. His career 
as a practitioner, up to the time of his call to 
Castleton, had been remarkably diversified. From 
181 1 to 1824 he lived and pursued his calling in 
five different towns in Connecticut. His duties in 
the college at Casdeton requiring his presence 
there for only a fraction of the year, he spent the 
other months in Albany, where he was the partner 
in practice of the distinguished Dr. Alden March. 
Probably the atmosphere of a large town was more 
congenial to him than that of the more rural com- 
munities in which he had previously lived, for he 
prospered in his practice more in Albany than ever 
before. Still he was not long to remain there, for 
in 1829 came the call to New Haven, necessitating 
the abandonment of his Albany residence. He 
continued, however, for nine years longer to hold 
his Castleton professorship, the lecture term there 
coming at such a time of the year as not to inter- 
fere with his college duties at New Haven. 

Dr. Tully in his mental organization and habits 
of thought was essentially scholastic. He was 
happier in his study with his cherished books, and 
at his lecture-desk with his carefully written and 
voluminous manuscript, where he maintained a 
magisterial pomp of manner, than he was in listen- 
ing to the querulous whine of an invalid, or in 
assuming a conciliatory show of respect for the 
therapeutic views of some ancient dame whose 
fluency of speech did not outrun the copiousness 
of her misinformation; " medicina anilis " he scorn- 

• William Tully, only child of William and Eunice Tully. Born at 
Saybrook Point, Conn., February iS, 1785. Died in Springfield, Mass., 
February 28, 1859. 



II 



2?8 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



fully called such prattle. At that time the clinical 
thermometer was not in use, that beneficent saver 
of time and temper, which the physician of to-day 
places between the lips of a garrulous patient on 
entering the room, leaving it there as an efficient 
gag, until, having finished his observations, written 
his prescription, and given his directions, he is 
ready to make his escape. When the progress of sci- 
ence supplies an equally mild and certain conversa- 
tional stopper applicable to bystanding relatives, 
friends and volunteer nurses, the path of the physi- 
cian will become roseate and his temper angelic. 

With Dr. TuUy, study was pursued not as a means 
but as an end. Books were not tools of his work 
so much as objects of his affection or animosity; 
and words, if polysyllabic enough, were things to be 
loved for their own sakes. That drug which in the 
common speech is opium, he delighted to call, less 
concisely, ■' succus inspissa/us papaveris somniferi. " 

His recipes sometimes seemed intended not so 
much to guide the average apothecary as to leave 
him groveling in the mire of ignorance while they 
satisfied their author's yearning for an ideal nomen- 
clature. "There isn't any such medicine," indig- 
nantly exclaimed a compounder of drugs as he 
puzzled over the unfamiliar botanical name of a 
common herb in one of these prescriptions, "and 
if there was it wouldn't do to take it. " 

When the vernacular failed, in Dr. Tully's judg- 
ment, to meet the need of the occasion, he was 
ready, in speech or in writing, to enrich it from his 
storesof Greek or Latin. "Adenagic," "euphrenic," 
"parabysma," "prcegumenal," "and procatarc- 
tic; " these satisfy every demand of the philologist, 
and are admirable words — or would have been so 
if people had only agreed to give them breath and 
keep them alive. 

The Greek lexicon in some hands becomes the 
most obvious and least laborious of all means of 
enlarging the domains of science. 

Despite the verbal obstacles with which their 
pathway was beset, the more earnest and intelligent 
of Dr. Tully's pupils found him a captivating 
teacher. If his learning was ostentatious it was 
nevertheless genuine and great, and ready at his 
call. All his opinions took rank in his mind as 
irrefragable truths and were announced by him 
with unstinted positiveness. He was a man after 
his own heart. This gave a quality to his lectures 
which did not fail to commend them to weary 
souls searching for certainty in the most inexact 
and shifting of the sciences. His conversation 
shared the same characteristic to such an extent 
as to make it a doubtful joy to one who objected 
to having his notions of medical matters or his 
Latin quantities corrected according to the Tul- 
hian stantlard. 

" Hyoscy'amus, sir; " " Hama'melis, if you 
please;" " The word is Ec'zema. " In such wise 
would he deal justice upon some common offend- 
ers against the claims of the antepenult. 

Dr. TuUy was by far the most prolific medical 
writer ever numbered among the physicians of New 
Haven. He was a frequent contributor to medical 
periodicals. His principal work was his "Materia 



Medica;or, Pharmacology and Therapeutics," pub- 
lished in 1858. The first volume only was fin- 
ished, for life is short; yet it contained 1534 pages 
octavo, and was introductory to the treatise of in- 
dividual articles, which was to fill an indefinite 
number of successive volumes, for art is long. 

The book often shows its author at his best in 
its copious learning, its clear definitions, its incis- 
ive criticisms. It exhibits, too, some of his less 
admirable characteristics, a whimsical petulance, 
an inexorable verbosity. He bemoans the perver- 
sity of those medical students who " knew the ap- 
pearance of 01. Pyrola;, but they had no knowl- 
edge that this substance is a true saline ^ther, the 
Spirhylate or Oxyspirhylate of Protoxyd of Methy- 
gen, existing naturally in the plant Gaultheria pro- 
cumbens. " Nerveless weaklings, to rest content 
in the poverty of a druggist's label, and abbreviated 
at that, when a beautiful name of thirteen syllables, 
embodying pages of organic chemistry, stood ready 
to fill their mouths ! 

There is a touch of simple pathos in the old 
man's preface, where he speaks of his advanced 
age, the cares of his family, the scanty emoluments 
of his profession, and his experience that the medi- 
cal schools in New England "diminish rather than 
increase the income of the instructors." "I have 
wasted my time sixteen years in one institution 
and fourteen in another." It is painful to record 
that this versatile and accurate scholar, this bold 
and industrious investigator, drew to the end of 
his life in disappointment and unsuccess. It is one 
thing to know the science of medicine; it is an- 
other to understand the art of medicine; it is still 
another to thrive in the trade of medicine. 

Dr. Tully resigned his professorship in Yale 
College in 1 84 1. In 185 1 he removed to Spring- 
field, Mass, , where he spent the remainder of his 
days occupied somewhat in medical practice and 
somewhat in authorship. 

During the whole of Dr. Smith's professorship, 
anil the first year of Dr. Hubbard's, to lecture 
upon obstetrics was a part of the duty of the 
Professor of Surgery. In 1830 a separate chair 
was devoted to this branch, and Dr. Timothy 
Phelps Beers* was called to fill it. Dr. Beers is 

♦Timothy Phelps Beers, son of Deacon Nathan and Mary Beers. Born 
in New Haven December 25, 1789. Died in New Haven September 
22. 1858. The family of Deacon Beers showed, among its other 
members, a curious proclivity to connect itself in various ways with 
the medical prolession. His second son. John, died young, while 
pursuing medical studies. His third son, Isaac, was for many years, 
and luitil his death, an apothecary in New Haven. The three 
daughters of Deacon Beers all married physicians; the eldest. Maria, 
m. Eli Ives (r'/V/f supra): Abigail, the second, m. Jolm Titsworlh 
(M.D. Vale College, 1818), who practiced medicine in New Haven 
and afterwards removed to New Jersey ; the youngest, Eliza, m. 
Charles Hooker (see subsequent memoir). In the next generation the 
only son of Dr. Beers, T. P. Beers, Jr. (M.D. V.ale College, 1847), 
practiced medicine here and in California: died i8tx>. Two sons of 
Isaac, John P. and William I-, were for a long time apothecaries here. 
In the Ives branch, of the tiiree sons of Eli and Maria (Beers) Ives, 
the fipil, Nathan Beers [rii/i; supra), became a leading practitioner 
of medicine here for many years; the second, Levi {M D, Vale 
College, 1838). has long been at the high tide of activity and public 
esteem; while the third, Charles l.inneas, died as a stiident of med- 
icine. Their only sister. Maria, m. Henry A. Tomlinson I M.D. Vale 
College, 1832), whopr.acticed medicine here until his death, 1840. In a 
still later generation, the only son of Dr. N. B. Ives was Charles Lin- 
neus Ives (see subsequent metnoirj: the only son of Dr. Levi Ives is 
Robert Shoemaker Ives (M.D. Vale College, 18661, who is now in active 
practice here: the only son of Dr. Henry A. Tomlinson is Charles Tom- 
linson (M.D. Yale College, 1862). 



THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



279 



still affectionately remembered by many surviv- 
ing friends and patients as a perfect type of the 
"family doctor," kindly, cheerful, steady and 
skillful, devoted to his patients, and implicitly 
trusted and beloved by them. Nature had molded 
him in her generous mood, and had not stinted 
the vital juices in his composition. Had his fitness 
for his professorship been submitted, as certain 
questions used to be in the Courts, to a jury of ma- 
trons, there would have been no delay in a verdict 
in his fivor. During the whole of his long and 
industrious medical life he had special repute and 
acceptance in that branch of practice which he 
taught in the college, and a considerable portion 
of our citizens who are between seventy-three and 
twenty-seven years of age, and "town-born," at- 
tained that enviable position under his kindly aus- 
pices. 

His good qualities shone less conspicuously in 
the lecture-room than at the bedside. There was 
no doubt about the soundness and good sense of 
his teachings, but he was painfully diffident where 
no man had better right to be confident, and his 
hearers, borrowing a metaphor from the useful art 
which he professed, were apt to regard his lectures 
as illustrations of difficult and protracted delivery. 

Nevertheless, as even medical students are not 
proof against the charm of temperament, the good, 
amiable doctor was beloved and trusted by his 
pupils as he was by his patients. That he was 
not without some gift of imagination, sundry ex- 
cavations, made at his e.xpense, in the neigh- 
boring hills of Orange, alleged copper mines, 
still remain to testify. Dr. Beers probably em- 
barked in this venture some time before a valu- 
able truth had been formulated in the statement, 
"There is just enough of every kind of mineral 
in Connecticut to ruin any man who undertakes to 
mine for it." 

When, in 1838, Dr. Knight was transferred to the 
chair of Surgery, Dr. Charles Hooker * succeeded 
him as Professor of Anatomy and Physiology. 

The new professor during his fifteen years of 
medical life had already distinguished himself as a 
man of untiring industry and energy, and of a 
capacity for investigation and independent thought 
which often led him out of the beaten tracks of 
routine into paths of enlightened experiment. He 
was an uncommonly useful man in various ways 
to the profession and to the public. He had " the 
courage of his opinions " and his confident dicla, 
outspoken without reserve on all occasions, pro- 
voked inquiry. If they did not compel conviction, 
at least they often generated a wholesome antago- 
nism. It was hard to be dull or uninterested in the 
face of his vivacity. 

Some of his peculiar methods of treatment, in- 
volving the use of very large doses of powerful 
drugs to meet great exigencies, were considered 
extravagant at the time, but have since received 
the sanction of many eminenrpractitioners. 

As examples may be mentioned his dram doses 

* Charles Hooker, son of William and Hannah Hooker. Born in 
Berlin. Conn., March 22, 1799. Died in New Haven March 19, 1863. 



of calomel in Asiatic cholera (as long ago as its 
first invasion of America in 1832, when he seems 
to have had remarkable success), his half ounce 
doses of tincture of digitalis in delirium tremens, and 
his free administration of quinine in continued 
fevers before that practice became common. He 
was among the earliest cultivators of the diagnostic 
arts of auscultation and percussion, and assiduously 
sought to improve them and extend their applica- 
tion, using the stethoscope with an implicit con- 
fidence in its revelations that sometimes elicited 
critical sniffs from older and less enthusiastic doctors, 
who regarded that instrument as " inutile lignum." 

Dr. Hooker's mental alertness found expression 
in a somewhat tumultuous speech, a mixture of 
hesitation and precipitancy. His lectures, con- 
sequently, were not always easy to listen to. There 
was an odd, jerky, flitting unexpectedness in his 
movements which used to remind bystanders of 
some of the more agile rodents, and which gave a 
startling etTect to his surgical operations. 

Beside his industrious studies of certain subjects 
upon which he felt that more light needed to be 
shed (the mechanism of the sounds of the heart, 
and the proper system of dietetics in health and in 
sickness, may be mentioned as two which specially 
engaged his powers of investigation), he devoted 
himself to the every-day and every-night duties of 
his calling with an enthusiasm that never flagged 
through forty years of incessant work. 

No summons mocked by cliiil delay, 
No petty gain disdained by pride. 

No man whom New Haven has known, better 
deserved the honorable title of " physician of the 
poor," and his hold upon the affections of that 
class was touchingly exhibited at the public ser- 
vices at his funeral. An emperor might have 
looked with envy at the tearful concourse that 
crowded around the coffin of their dead benefactor. 

The list of doctors who have taught the people 
of Ne^v Haven to regard their profession as one of 
philanthropy rather than of money-making is not 
a short one. It was lengthened by Dr. Hooker. 
The very modest estate which, after so many years 
of incessant toil, he left to his heirs, had certainly 
not been diminished by any extravagance in his 
way of living. Even the indulgence in fast and 
showy horse-flesh, which is so often the solitary 
luxury of doctors of moderate means, was a weak- 
ness to which he rose superior. The somewhat 
ungainly, though useful, brutes which, acquiring 
something of the temperament of their master, 
drew his buggy with a sort of fidgety gambol, and 
which he was apt to regard as endowed with un- 
common sagacity and fidelity, were to some of his 
medical brethren objects of contumelious criticism. 
Witness the following dialogue: 

Scene. " Apotliecaries Ilall," in tfiose days a frequent 
rendezvous for (lie medical fraternity in leisure moments. 
Time. Just after the parade of a menagerie having a led 
rhinoceros for one of its features. 

Dr. Hooker. — " I expected the formidable beast to 
frighten all the horses on the street, but my Dolly went by 
him fearlessly." 

Dr. K. — "I dare say, but how did the rhinoceros stand 
it?" 



380 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



In 1852, the chair of Materia Medica, which had 
been most ably filled for ten years by Professor 
Henry Bronson, became vacant by his resignation, 
to the regret of all friends of the college. Dr. 
Worthinglon Hooker,* of Norwich, was invited to 
join the Faculty. It was arranged that he should 
become Professor of the Theory and Practice of 
Medicine, Dr. Eli Ives exchanging that place for 
his old Professorship of Materia I\Iedica, which he 
held at the foundation of the college. Dr. Worth- 
ington Hooker was a remote kinsman of Dr. 
Charles Hooker, both having as their earliest Amer- 
ican ancestor the Rev. Thomas Hooker, the pastor 
and leader of the first settlers of Hartford. For 
twenty-three years Dr. Worthington Hooker had 
been engaged in the practice of medicine in Nor- 
wich. He stood well as a man of general culture, 
and an enlightened and successful physician, and 
had beside won a peculiar celebrity as an essayist. 
The titles of some of his productions, " Physician 
and Patient," izmo, pp. 422; "Lessons from the 
History of Medical Delusions," 8vo, pp. 105, in- 
dicate that his ventures in this direction were less 
scientific than literary. While he was an under- 
graduate in Yale College, indeed, he became 
known as an easy and correct writer, and he main- 
tained and increased this reputation in after life. 
The gift of a fluent pen is rare enough in the med- 
ical profession to make its possessor conspicuous, 
and to entail upon him some odd jobs, reports, 
addresses, biographical sketches and the like, that 
the generality of doctors will shirk. Dr. Hooker 
seemed to enjoy this sort of occupation. The gen- 
tle current of his thought and the easy pace of his 
pen involved no great attention of cerebral cells nor 
much manual fatigue. He found his writing be- 
come the source of "praise and pudding." Be- 
tween 1S53 and 1S65 he produced a series of 
elementary te.\t-books in various departments of 
natural science, human physiology, natural history, 
chemistry, natural philosophy, mineralogy, geol- 
ogy, etc., which attained a merited popularity for 
their simple and attractive presentation to the 
youthful mind of the topics treated, and which 
brought their author a handsome income. He was 
also an abundant conlributor of articles of a scien- 
tific, or semi-.scientific, character to the periodical 
press. The editors of the literary and so-called re- 
ligious weeklies and monthlies came to know him 
as one upon whom they could rely to furnish mat- 
ter of that sort in an intelligible and attractive form 
at .'■hort notice. It is commonly the case that this 
kind of work is done in the shabbiest way, out of 
the abundance of ignorance, and from a motive as 
lofty as that which inspires the advertisements of 
patent medicines in the neighboring columns. It 
is high f)raise to say that Dr. Hooker's productions 
of this sort did not discredit him or the profession 
to which he belonged. 

It is probable that his strictly professional work 
after his removal to New Haven was never so large 
or so remunerative as it had been in Norwich. 



* Worthington Hooker, son of John and Sar.-xh (Dwightl Hooker. 
Born in Springfield, Mass., March 2, 1806. Died in New Haven No- 
vember 6, 1867. 



He might perhaps have felt a sense of disappoint- 
ment at the change, had not the leisure which it 
gave him been occupied with these not onerous 
literary pursuits which in their turn yielded him a 
substantial solace for the diminution of his fees. 

The vacancy left by the unexpected death of Dr. 
Worthington Hooker was filled by the appointment 
of Dr. Charles I.inneus Ives* as Professor of 
Theory and Practice of Medicine. 

Dr. Ives' advantages of birth and education were 
great. For three generations before him his ancestor 
on the paternal side had formed an unbroken line 
of high authority among the physicians of New 
Haven. In Yale College, in the professional schools 
of Philadelphia, and in the great hospitals of New 
York, he had had the best opportunities America 
could offer to prepare him for his life's work. 
During this period of his pupilage, as throughout 
his life, it was characteristic of him that whatever 
his hand found to do, he did it with his might. 
There was a bright alacrity in his way of work and 
living always, and if natural zest ever failed to at- 
tract him, an inexorable sense of duty always stood 
ready to supply motive power. 

He was a devoutly religious man, with an intense 
feeling of responsibility for himself and for other 
people, by which, rather than by considerations of 
expediency or comfort, he was actuated. He had 
a curiously unhesitating way of attacking situations 
which men are apt to fight shy of as being knotty 
and unproductive, or involving troublesome col- 
lisions. 

Dr. Ives was in his thirty-eighth year when he 
took this new duty of teaching upon him. He had 
been for some thirteen years in practice in his na- 
tive city, and hati gained a large share of the re- 
spect and confidence of his professional fellows, as 
well as that more common popular favor which 
makes itself visible in the length of a doctor's visit- 
ing list. 

To his intercourse with his pupils, accordingly, 
he brought a considerable wealth of observation 
and experience, as well as that native enthusiasm 
which was one of his most striking traits. It is a 
trait which greatly endears a teacher to his pupils, 
an eider to his juniors. Sharp statements, if not 
of fact, at least of opinion, with no trimming of 
(lualifications;apt to stick fast in the memory, easy 
to jot down in the note-book— these are the delight 
of the learner, especially in medicine, where as yet 
there are too many regions in which of necessity he 
wanders darkling. 

That agnosticism in therapeutics, which was 
somewhat fashionable for a while not long since, 
and which its apostles seemed to regard with com- 
placence as a mark of intellectual superiority, has 
never prevailed in New Haven. Dr. Ives at least 
was free from it — it was foreign to his nature to be 
lacking in positive convictions on any subject to 
which he turned his serious attention. 

Satisfactory as his relations in the college were to 

* Charles I.inneus Ives, son of Nathan Beers and Sarah (Badger) 
Ives. L'orn in New Haven June 21, 183 r. Died in Burlington, N. J., 
March 21, 1879. 



THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



281 



his colleagues and to his pupils, it was often pain- 
fully obvious that his eager and generous spirit 
"o'er informed its tenement of clay." Ever since 
his youth he had striven resolutely against falling 
into an acknowledged state of invalidism. His ill- 
health led him to resign his professorship in 1S73, 
after five years of occupancy. 

On the same account he shortly afterward re- 
moved from New Haven and withdrew from medi- 
cal practice. He accepted, however, the offered 
professorship of Diseases of the Nervous System in 
the University Medical College of New York, and 
went to Europe to make special study of that sub- 
ject. Owing to the continued failure of his health, 
he was never able to enter upon the duties of that 
appointment. 

Dr. Ives found a congenial occupation during 
the latter years of his life in the production of a 
book, "The Bible Doctrine of the Soul," embody- 
ing the results of some theological study and specu- 
lation to which he was long addicted. His taste 
for this sort of mental occupation might perhaps be 
referred back to his sound Puritan ancestry, though 
the outcome of it as exhibited in his book would 
scarcely have satisfied the orthodoxy of a century 
earlier. 

As early as May 8, 1826, at a meeting of the 
New Haven Medical Association, held at the 
house of Dr. John Skinner, formal action was 
taken in regard to "the hospital." A committee of 
six members of the association was appointed to 
solicit subscriptions for the projected institution, 
and certain resolutions descriptive of it and pro- 
viding for its organization were voted upon. 

It was especially declared at the outset that 
" the hospital shall be a charitable institution, and 
no physician or surgeon shall receive any com- 
pensation for his services." 

It is probable that already, before this meeting, 
a petition for a charter for this hospital had been 
presented to the Legislature, for, on the 26th of 
the same month, "An Act to Establish a State 
Hospital " was passed by that body. In it were 
named as corporators, ten well-known gentle- 
men, all but one of them being members of 
the Connecticut Medical Society, four of them 
being of the Faculty of the Medical College as 
well. When, nearly a year later, these corporators 
first met for the purpose of organizing, they 
elected a board of twelve directors, of whom only 
one was not a member of the Connecticut Medical 
Society. Still later, in the next year, an applica- 
tion to the Legislature for a grant of money in 
behalf of this hospital having proved futile, the 
public were urgently appealed to for help. Here, 
too, the initiative was in the medical fraternity. 
Four of the Faculty of the i\Iedical College headed 
the subscription list, three of them giving each 
$500, and the fourth, who had just become a 
resident of New Haven, and been added to the 
Faculty, giving $1 30. In the entire list of subscrip- 
tions from all over the State of Connecticut, there 
was but one other of $500. 

It was a day of small things; money came in 

36 



the scantiest driblets, and during the more than 
four years which elapsed before the hopes of the 
enterprising and persevering projectors began to be 
materialized in stone and mortar, there must have 
been some times when they.felt themselves weighed 
upon with the heaviness of discouragement. 

The criticism was freely offered that the under- 
taking was quite unwarranted by any present need 
of New Haven or of Connecticut, and indeed 
something of a prophetic spirit was required to 
animate the promoters to such an extensive dis- 
counting of the future. There are always some 
advantages, however, in being in advance of the 
times in such a business. The chief of these 
advantages is obvious to-day in the noble and well- 
situated tract of land upon which the hospital 
stands, and which the founders of this institution 
bought for a sum which now seems incredibly 
small. If the acquisition of a site had been de- 
layed many years, it is probable that the hospital 
would have been given either less ample breathing 
room or a less central position. 

Somewhat countervailing this advantage was 
the fact that the science and art of hospital build- 
ing was then undeveloped. It was a time when 
architecture fondly supposed itself to be Grecian, 
and the merits of any considerable building were 
largely determined by the extent of portico that it 
could offer to the admiring gaze of the public. 
Commonly the portico, however massive in di- 
mensions, was so airily constructed of pine boards 
as to give little trouble to subsequent generations; 
but the majestic Doric structure in antis which 
prefaces the entrance to the New Haven Hospital 
was built of the same solid masonry as the walls of 
the building which it was intended to adorn, so 
that, in spite of all objurgations directed against it 
as an obstructer of air and light, it still remains, 
like Teneriffe or Atlas, unremoved. 

The original hospital building, including the 
portico, cost something less than §13,000. Incon- 
siderable as this sum now appears, the capacity of 
the building was so greatly in excess of all demands 
upon it for many years, as almost to justify the 
caviling of those who had found convenient 
excuses for not lending a helping hand at the 
outset. The directors gained a small revenue by 
renting some of the rooms for the storage of house- 
hold furniture. In January, 1843, they were glad 
to rent the upper story of the south wing to Dr. 
James Gates Percival. This remarkable man 
established his abode there, fortifying his castle 
against intrusion in a sort of Robinson Crusoe 
fashion, and for some eight years continued there 
unmolested in his favorite pursuits, the study of 
languages and geology, and the production of 
copious and fluent rythmical compositions which 
were by many confidently believed to be in the 
nature of immortal verse. Some of these may still 
be read by those curious in such matters in the 
"Poetical Works of J. G. Percival," or scattered 
here and there through certain " Poets of Con- 
necticut," "Poets of America," and the like com- 
pilations. 

The demand of the community slowly grew up 



»ll 



282 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



to the supply of the hospital, so that in 1851 the 
directors requested the owners of furniture stored in 
the hospital to remove it, as it was occupying rooms 
needed for patients; and in the same year, and for 
the same reason, a committee was appointed "to 
secure the removal of Dr. Percival." The wording 
of the record would seem to indicate that his de- 
parture was not without a degree of reluctance, 

The parting Genius was with sighing sent. 

Few hospitals, it may be confidently asserted, 
can claim the distinction of having kept a poet 
in the upper story in a state of siege for eight years. 

It is not intended to give here even a brief ac- 
count of the changes and vicissitudes in the history 
of the hospital to the present day; suffice it to say 
that its career has been one of pretty continuous 
growth and improvement. 

The great enlargement of the hospital in 1873 
attracted attention to the importance of the insti- 
tution as a factor in society. The establishment 
in connection with it, about the same time, of the 
Connecticut Training School for Nurses, bringing 
in a radical and most necessary improvement in 
its care of the sick, has won for it of late years a 
large measure of the popular interest and favor 
which was long withheld from it, so that it is now 
generally recognized as one of the most deserving, 
as well as indispensable, of the local charities. 

It is true of most hospitals, however richly en- 
dowed with funds they may be, that the services 
gratuitously rendered them by their surgeons and 
physicians, if reckoned at the ordinary market 
rates, are, from that point of view merely, a greater 
gift than all money donations. This rule applies 



with peculiar force to the New Haven Hospital, 
which in its early life never felt the stimulus of any 
large individual bounty, but which was originally 
the child, and for many chill and an.xious years the 
nurseling of the medical fraternity almost exclu- 
sively. 

There is a peculiar pleasure, too, in saying that 
among the many generous gifts of money to the 
hospital of late, some of the most munificent come 
from a physician whose good-will to the institution 
may be due partly to his own service on its medical 
staff in his more active da3's, and partly to the de- 
voted fidelity in the same cause of his lamented 
son. Dr. Stephen Henry Bronson, 

Whose virtues Death mistook for years, 

and whose untimely removal in the midst of his 
labors must be counted one of the heaviest per- 
sonal losses ever suffered by the medical profession 
in New Haven. 

During the few years of the younger Dr. Bron- 
son's service in the hospital he learned to value the 
institution justly for the opportunities it afforded 
him for that orderly and systematic investigation 
which was the pleasure of his life, and he loved it 
for the beneficent work in the relief of suffering it 
enabled him to do. Throughout a large part of 
his short but useful and honorable career, and up 
to the very day of his sudden demise, much of his 
time and energy was spent in and for the hospital. 

In the esteem of those who knew him best, his 
name, shadowed though it is with the pathos of 
unfulfilled hopes, stands fitly and gracefully at the 
close of this brief record of the departed worthies of 
the medical profession in New Haven. 



LIST OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS. 



Some of the best known physicians of New 
Haven not professing any peculiar or exclusive 
method of practice are: 

•AlMng, Willis G 188 Orange street. 

•Ayres, W. 38 High street. 

*13acon, Francis 32 High street. 

*13eckwith, F. E 139 Church street. 

•liellusa, Freilerick 126 Court street. 

Billinghani, Walter A 13 Kimberly avenue. 

♦Bishiip, !■'.. Huggins 215 Church street. 

'Uishop, Timothy H 215 Church street. 

* liisscU, Evelyn L 8 Orange street. 

•Bradley, William L 203 Crown street. 

Estab. at New Haven, Conn., June, 1865. Grad. 
Yale Coll.; B.A. i860; M.U. 1864. In 1863 
served in 0. S. A. as Acting Medical Cadet ami 
Acting Asst. Surg, at McKern's Mansion Hospital, 
Baltimore, Md.; 1865-77 Demonstrator of Anat- 
omy Med. Dept. of Vale; 1871-81 Attending I'hys. 
and Surg. N. H. Hospital. Has also Idled the fol- 
lowing official positions: I'hys. to N. H. Dispen- 
sary; Sec. and Vice-Pres. N. H. Med. Association; 
Director and member Prudential Committee N. H. 
Hospital ; Member Executive Committee Conn. 
Training School for Nurses, and its Examiner for 
Graduation. Has published a nurnljer of papers 
on medical and surgical subjects. 

♦Bronson, I leiuy I Ig8 Chapel street. 

•Carmalt, Willi.im H 87 Elm street. 

"Carrington, Henry .V 1169 Chapel street. 



•Chapman, S. H 193 Church street. 

Crane, Robert 213 Orange street. 

•Creed, C. V. R 107 Orchard street. 

•Cremin, M. A 129 Olive street. 

•Daggett, David L 60 Wall street. 

Daggett, William G 22 College street. 

De Forest, L. S 24 College street. 

*De Forest, William B 259 Orange street. 

Dibble, Charles 139 Elm street. 

•Dibble, Frederick 1 121 Elm strcx-t. 

Doherty, James Joseph Stanford, 7 and 9 Sylvan ave. 

Estab. Meriden, Coini., April, 1S74. \'isiting Physi- 
cian New Haven County Prison, 1878-S0; Regis- 
trar of Vital Statistics, 1877-78, 1880 85, resigning 
the position October, 1885. 

•Doutteil, Henry 22 Broad street. 

* Downs, C. Manville 208 Wooster street. 

Dwight, Edward S 2 Orange street. 

*Eliot, Gustavus 163 Orange street. 

Estab. 157 Orange street, New Haven, Feb. 13,1882. 
Grad. Y. C. 1877; from Coll. of Phys. and Surg., 
New York, 1880; M.A. Vale Coll. 1882; Attend- 
ing Phys. ti> the New Haven Dispensary. Con- 
tributor to various medical journals. 

*Farnam, George B 37 Ilillhouse avenue. 

•Fitch, Clarence L 155 Wooster street. 

Grad. Dart. Med. Coll., 18S2. 

•Fleischner, Henry 92S Grand avenue. 

•P'oster, John P. C 109 College street. 

•Gilbert," Luther M 54 Olive street. 

'Gilbert, .Samuel D 134 Grand avenue. 



THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



283 



•Hawkes, William Whitney. . . .35 High street. 

Y. Coll. B.A. and M.D.; House Physician and Sur- 
geon Conn. Gen. Hospital 1SS1-S2; then a partner 
with Dr. C. W. Gaylord, in Branford, till January 
I, 1884, when he located in N. H. 

•Hotchkiss, W. H 137 Church street. 

*Hubbard, Stephen Grosvenor. .23 College street. 

A.M., M.D. ; grad. Dart. Coll. 1843; member City 
and State Medical .Societies; British Medical Asso- 
ciation ; Edinburgh Obstetrical Society ; Boston 
Gyn^iicological Society ; American Medical Associa- 
tion; and for sixteen years Professor of Obstetrics 
and Diseases of Women and Children in Yale 
College. 

•Ives, Levi 339 Temple street. 

*Ives, Robert S 347 Temple street. 

•Jewett, J. Waldo Tontine Hotel. 

*Judson, Walter 199 York street. 

Settled since 1871 in New Haven, Conn. Born in 
Bristol, Conn, May [, 1S40; fitted for college at 
Williston Seminary, E. Hampton, Mass. ; grad. 
Y. C. 1864; grad. Coll. Phys. and Surg., N.Y., 
1870 ; interne in Bellevue Hospital, New York, 
1870-71 ; is Consulting Phys. at the State Hos- 
pital. 

"Lambert, Benjamin Lott 258 Portsea street. 

Estab. in N. H. 1883. Son of Denison D. Lambert, 
a real estate broker of New Haven, who died in 
1871 ; was born and reared in New Haven, Conn. 

•Leavenworth, D. C 75 Howe street. 

•Leighton, Alton Winslow 117 Elm street. 

Estab. April, 18S0. Author " Sanitary Training in 
the Public Schools" in New Englander for March, 
1SS5, and other sanitary articles; member of Coun- 
cil of Section of Public and International Hygiene 
of Ninth International Medical Congress, to con- 
vene at Washington in 1S87; employed by many 
of the profession of the .State to paint views in 
water colors and oils of operations, pathological 
appearances, etc., requiring technical interpreta- 
tion; in charge of clinic for diseases of women at 
New Haven Dispensary for three years; member 
Committee on Public Hygiene N. H. County Med. 
Soc, 1884; first in State to operate and report 
operation for ovarian cystoma, acconi|illshed with 
the most modern antiseptic precautions, including 
the following specially distinctive points; catgut 
pedicle ligatures, catgut abdominal sutures, mer- 
curic bichloride sterilizing solution, perfect union 
of abdominal incision under a permanent dressing. 
See Proceedings of Conn. Medical Society, 1SS5. 

•I^wis, B. S 1093 Chapel street. 

•Lindsley, C. A 15 Elm street. 

•Lindsley, C. Purdy 15 Elm street. 

Lines, J. F 818 Chapel street. 

•Luby, John F 667 Grand street. 

Estab. 1882. Ph.B. Yale Coll. 1876; M.D. Coll. of 
Phys. and Surg., New York, 1878; served fifteen 
months in St. Mary's Hospital, Brooklyn, N. Y., 
and nineteen months in St. Vincent's Hospital, 
New York. 

•Mailhouse, Max 151 Meadow street. 

•Nicoll, John 11 College street. 

Estab. in N. H. 1854. 

•O'Connor, Matthew C 625 Grand avenue. 

*Osborn, (). T 1 1 1 York street. 

Oulman, Alphonso 104 Olive street. 

•Park, Charles Edwin 132 Olive street. 

Estab. June 31, 1881. Member and Secty. New Ha- 
ven County Medical Society; Attending Physician 
to New Haven Dispensary. 

•Pierpont, Henry 264 York street. 

Estab. at Naugatuck, Conn., 1854 60; in N. H. 1861. 

Reilly, James IVI. J 337 Cedar street. 

Grad. Yale Med. School 1878; attended lectures at 
Coll. of Phys. and Surg., N. Y., 1878-9; com- 
menced practice in N. H. in the spring of 1879. 

''Roberts, Edward K 244 Grand avenue. 

*Ruickoldt, Arthur 71 Olive street. 

'Russell, Thomas H 137 Elm street. 

Now Professor of Therapeutics and Materia Medica 



in Yale Medical Department, and Surgeon to Con- 
necticut State Hospital; grad. Yale Scientific De- 
partment, Ph.D., and from Yale Medical Depart- 
ment M.D.; is a member of the City, County and 
State Medical Associations. 

•Sanford, Ltonard J 2i6 Crown street. 

Sears, James W 24 Prince street. 

•Seaver, Jay W 233 York street. 

•Smith, Herbert E 29 Beers street. 

Smith, Marvin 7 Pearl street. 

Estab. Northampton, Mass., 1S83; rem. to N. II. 
1S84. 

Sprenger, William 50 George street. 

•Stetson, James E 106 High street. 

*Thacher, James K 206 Crown street. 

■"Thomson, William H 121 Grand avenue. 

"Wheeler, Frank Henry 1S8 Crown street. 

Grad. Y. Coll. 1880; Yale Med. Dept. 1882; at pres- 
ent is Assistant in Pathology at Yale Med. School. 

White, Caryl S 48 College street. 

•White, F. O 514 Howard avenue. 

* White, Moses C 48 College street. 

Whiting, William J 18 Ashman street. 

* Whittemore, Frank H 14S Orange street. 

* Williston, Samuel W 92 York square place. 

"Winchell, Alvord E 6 Pearl street. 

•Wright, Frank W 24 Pearl street. 

Of the above named, those marked with a star 
are members of the Connecticut Medical Society. 

HOMCEOIWTHY AND ITS HiSTORY IN NeW HaVEN. 

By Paul C. Skiff, M.D. 

In writing even a condensed history of the 
homceopathic system of practice of medicine in 
New Haven, it seems necessary, to a full under- 
standing of the subject, to refer briefly to its origin 
and the circumstances under which it was devel- 
oped, and to define briefly what homceopathy is. 

Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, a German scholar, of 
acknowledged ability as a chemist, a linguist, a 
practitioner of medicine, and an extensive writer 
upon medical subjects, while engaged in trans- 
lating medical works of yarious authors, and 
more especially CuUen's Materia Medica, into the 
German language, was forcibly impressed with 
the contradictory theories prevailing in regard 
to disease, and the varied specific pathological 
action ascribed to remedies in its treatment and 
cure. No two authors agreed as to the nature or 
treatment of diseases, and each ascribed different 
remedial action to the same remedy, in its applica- 
tion to diseased tissue. 

The same diversity of opinion existed in the 
minds of the general practitioner. 

In his minute analytical chemical experiments. 
Dr. Hahnemann saw that one element combined 
with another either neutralized its action, or such 
combination formeci a new agent, differing in its 
action from either of the separate elements. Hence 
his mind was impressed with the absurdity of the 
custom of the general practitioner in mixing several 
remedies as ingredients in the same prescription 
for the purpose of meeting the several indications 
called for by manifest symptoms. 

The system of combining several remedies indis- 
criminately in the same prescription, from obser- 
vation and experimental knowledge he pronounced 
to be unscientific, a matter of guess-work, and 
without any possible chance on the part of the pre- 



284 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



scriber to know what chemical agent he has made 
in these several combined elements; or to know, 
or even to guess at, what their effects shall be upon 
the disturbed forces of health. 

The only rational system of prescribing for the 
sick he pronounced to be, first, to know the effect 
which the remedy prescribed has upon the system 
in a state of health; and to gain a full knowledge 
of this, it is necessary to have had its effects proved 
by having been administered to various persons in 
health and under various circumstances, and the 
results compared and noted; and inasmuch as a 
multiple remedy could not be proven in this way 
with accuracy, a single remedy only, thus proven, 
should be given at a time. 

Thoroughly inspired with the soundness of this 
belief, he commenced testing the action of reme- 
dies upon himself, and making a full and minute 
record of their effects upon the system in general, 
and upon each particular organ and its functions. 

During the progress of his experiments, he ever 
kept in mind the thought that there might be found 
a law in the action of remedies upon the system in 
health by which to be governed in their adminis- 
tration in disease. 

This law revealed itself to his mind in an impres- 
sive manner. While experimenting with prepara- 
tions of cinchona and noting its drug action upon 
himself, he observed that there were present, while 
under the influence of this drug, all of the mani- 
fest symptoms of the intermittent type of fever 
for which it was so universally recommended and 
used to cure. This led him into a broader field of 
research, to ascertain the therapeutic action of 
specific remedies of acknowledged repute in curing 
specific diseases. 

He was rewarded in this investigation by ascer- 
taining that every specific remedy of accepted merit 
in the cure of any specific disease, produced in the 
system, when administered to it in a state of health, 
the identical morbid condition for which it was 
given as a cure. 

By the comparative provings of different reme- 
dies upon himself and others, and thus obtaining 
the correct drug-action of each individual remedy, 
and applying them to morbid symptoms corre- 
sponding to those mirrored out by the drug effects 
of a given remedy upon the system in a state of 
health, and noting the results, he established in his 
own mind the fact that the law of similars in the 
application of remedies to disease was the only 
known law by which the physician could be gov- 
erned in selecting his medication for the sick. 

These, in brief, are the circumstances under 
which the homceopathic system of practice of 
medicine was made known and given to the world. 

But he soon ascertained that in administering 
remedies to the sick, upon the law of similars of 
sufficient strength to produce drug action, he uni- 
versally obtained an aggravation of the symptoms; 
hence he found that curative results were obtained 
from smaller doses. 

He also ascertained by experiment, that curative 
action was imparted to remedies by a division and 
subdivision of their particles. 



Homoeopathy, in brief, means, as propounded by 
its founder, that no remedy should be given to the 
sick that has not been fully proven upon persons 
in health; that the division and subdivision of the 
particles of a remedy increases its curative action; 
that the curative action of a remedy does not 
require it to be given in sufficient quantity to pro- 
duce its manifest drug symptoms; that the only 
known law to guide the practitioner in selecting 
his remedy is the law of similarity of the drug 
symptoms obtained in a condition of health to 
the symptons found in a condition of disease. 

It has seemed necessary to give this preliminary 
explanation and qualification of homoeopathy, be- 
cause of the apparent ignorance, even at this late 
date, of what its claims are, and in consequence 
of a prevailing prejudice against it — the prevail- 
ing idea being that homoeopathy means, simply, 
infinitesimal doses ; whereas it gives to the pre- 
scriber all the latitude he desires as to the 
potency of his remedy; observation and compara- 
tive experience being the judge as to the curative 
quantity. 

Mechanical and external appliances have noth- 
ing to do with medication; these are ever allow- 
able as aids and helpers. 

It ever and only proclaims that if the Hahne- 
mannian law of similars is not a law to be followed 
as a guide in the treatment of disease, there is no 
law. The practice of medicine is not a science, 
but rather a system of individual experimentation 
and guessing. 

In writing the history of the birth and progress 
of homceopathy in New Haven, we virtually write 
its birth and progress in this country, so far as it 
relates to time, the obstacles to its growth, and the 
prejudices of the so-called regular medical profes- 
sion against it. 

Probably no creed of Church, State or Medicine 
in its early history ever received the ostracism of 
its opponents that homoeopathy did during the first 
few years of its progress in New Haven. 

The ban not only fell upon the practitioner him- 
self, but with equal vindictiveness upon his patrons. 
Church welcome and fellowship was denied to the 
practitioner and his family; society did not court 
him. He was frequently requested to make his 
calls in the night, or on foot, because of what the 
allopathic neighbors might say. When by mis- 
take, or from some other cause, he hitched his 
horse in front of a house, other than that of his 
patient, he was requested to remove it. 

A prominent physician belonging to the faculty 
of Vale, in a public medical meeting, when in dis- 
cussing professional courtesy, said he would not 
under any circumstances notice or in any way 
recognize a homojopathic physician; nor would he 
allow a member of his family to associate with 
those who patronized him. 

Another prominent physician, in his inaugural 
address on his appointment to a chair in the medi- 
cal department of Yale, said that it was an insult 
to the medical profession for clergymen, or men 
occupying any prominent position in the Church 
or society, in any way to give countenance to the 






THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



285 



system of quackery designated by the name of ho- 
ma-opathy. And he would stake his professional 
reputation upon the assertion, that within five 
years after he had settled in New Haven he would 
so influence public sentiment against it, that no 
physician of tiiat practice would be tolerated in the 
community. 

The State Medical Society had caused a law to 
be passed by the Legislature, whereby the medical 
services of a honueopathic physician could not be 
called legal service; and hence he could not legally 
collect fees for the same. 

Such were some of the outward manifestations of 
the bitterness of feeling on the part of the medical 
profession prevailing against homfeopathy in its 
early days in New Haven. And all of this forsooth, 
because homeopathy had stepped forth and pro- 
claimed that in the chaos of the medical profession 
it had discovered a simple law by which the prac- 
titioner could be guided in selecting his remedies 
for the sick. 

Dr. Charles H. Skiff was the first physician who 
introduced the practice of homceopathy into New 
Haven. He was born in Spencertown, Columbia 
County, N. Y., May 12, 1808. He received his 
medical education at the Berkshire Medical School 
of Williamstown, Mass., graduating September 5, 
1832. He immediately commenced the practice 
of medicine in his native town, where he remained 
in full practice for about six years, when he was 
stricken down with a severe lingering illness, during 
which, in the treatment of his case, his attention 
was directed to the homceopathic law of cure; and 
believing that his life was saved by the use of reme- 
dies applied through this law, he most enthusias- 
tically adopted it as his guide for the future in the 
treatment of disease. 

In the year 1842, having fully recovered from 
his sickness, he moved from his native town to 
Albany, N. Y. , to practice medicine upon his newly 
adopted theory. He remained in Albany one year, 
when, through the urgent solicitations of the Rev. 
Dr. Croswell, who was then in the zenith of his 
popularity as a preacher and pastor over Trinity 
Church, in 1843 he moved from Albany, and on 
the day on which Samuel Hahnemann, the pro- 
pounder of the new medical faith, died in Paris, he 
opened an office in New Haven, where he remained 
in active practice, with the exception of two years, 
until his death, December 11, 1875. His practice 
was at first confined mostly to chronic cases, and 
those which the regular practice had failed to 
cure; but his success in treating these cases was 
such, that he soon gained the confidence of his 
patrons and was called to treat ail classes of disease, 
even those of the most acute and alarming type; 
and his success in treating cases of this nature 
was such, that when the Rev. Dr. Croswell was 
expostulated with by the prominent allopathic 
physicians for defending and recommending this 
infinitesimal practice to his flock, his answer was 
"Gentlemen: If Dr. Skiff, in his system of prac- 
tice gives no medicine, but, as you claim, it is a 
mere system of faith, I advise you to throw your 
physic to the dogs and adopt it; for under my 



observation a far greater number of patients under 
his treatment recover, and recover more speedil)' 
under the same circumstances than under your 
treatment. And if it is faith that cures, your medi- 
cine is an evil, which should be discarded." 

He was a close student of symptomatology and 
the pathological action of remedies, and his pre- 
scriptions in frequent instances were marvelous 
in their curative results, so that, in consequence of 
his acknowledged success, he had gained the deep- 
est enmity of the prominent allopathic practitioners 
and they were only hoping for an epidemic of a 
malignant form to appear which would bring this 
phantom to a test and bury it in its own ineffi- 
ciency. 

That hope was soon realized, in the advent of an 
epidemic of dysentery of the most malignant type, 
spreading through the city and places adjacent to 
New Haven. But its results in putting homruopa- 
thy to a test were saddening to their ardent hopes, 
for the cures under homteopathic treatment during 
this epidemic were four to one in its favor. 

This was, of all other diseases, the one to be 
desired by homceopathy to prove its merits. 

The system of bloodletting, stimulants and opi- 
ates had proved a fatality. 

The mild law of similars, put to the severest test, 
proved a success. 

In the year 1849, ^'^- ■^•'T- Foot, of Jamestown, 
N. Y. , a man prominent there as a jurist as well 
as a physician, espoused the cause of hotniuDpa- 
thy, and moved to New Haven and associated 
himself with Dr. Skiff in practice, the copartner- 
ship lasting two years, when he opened an oflice by 
himself 

In the year 1853, Dr. Charles Foot, a son of 
Dr. E. T. Foot, a graduate of Yale and the Medi- 
cal University of New York, associated himself 
with his father in practice. 

The same year, Dr. J. Lester Keep, a promi- 
nent allopathic physician of Fair Haven, became 
a pronounced homceopath, and instead of his prac- 
tice diminishing, as predicted by his friends in con- 
sequence of the change, his over-taxed system soon 
broke down under his accumulated practice. 

In the year 1859, Dr. Paul C. SkifT, a cousin of 
Dr. Charles H. SkitT, a graduate of Yale, and a 
post-graduate of the Jeflerson Medical School of 
Philadelphia, took Dr. Charles Skiffs office, he 
having movctl to Brooklyn, N. Y. Dr. Charles, 
after remaining in Brooklyn two years, returned 
again to New Haven. 

In the early days of homfoopathy, when its liter- 
ature was limited, the physicians met at each other's 
ofiices frequently, by appointment, and gave to 
each other their experience in the treatment of 
cases and the action of individual remedies, and 
thus established each other in their faith. 

Homioopathy did not, as predicted, fail to meet 
the expectations of its friends, but rather continued 
to establish itself more and more in the confidence 
of the public. One after another has been added 
to the ranks of its practitioners in New Haven, until 
they now number, in 1886, about twenty-five, all 
in successful practice. 



286 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



Public opinion has long since placed the two 
schools of medicine upon the same platform, so far 
as legislation and equal rights we concerned. 

Some years since, the Legislature of the State, 
voted to appropriate from its treasury, towards 
erecting and endowing a homoeopathic hospital in 
New Haven, a sum equal to that which should be 
raised by private subscription or municipal appro- 
priation, but the physicians have all been too busily 
occupied in their profession to take advantage of 
the generous offer. 

The former professional prejudices have nearly 
all passed away, and the physicians of the two 
schools meet on friendly terms. This is evident 
by the fact, that at the last stated medical meeting 
of the Allopathic Society, itvvas voted to invite the 
homiuopathic physicians to unite with them, in 
securing the enactment of a law for the suppression 
of quackery in the State. 

Thus in medicine, as well as in all other matters, 
the world is moving on towards the truth. 



HoMfKOPATHic Physicians Practicing in 
New Haven. 

C. B. Adams, M.D 175 Grand avenue. 

Win. D. Anderson, M.D 150 Temple street. 

Benjamin H. Cheney, M.D 45 Elm street. 

Studied at Amli. Coll. Pursued study of Medicine at 
Coll. I'hys. and Surgs., N. Y. City, and grad. at 
Univ. of I^ouisiana, New Orleans. Served as Assist. 
Surg, in the Army about three years, and after- 
ward as Exam. Surg, in Provost- Marshal's Bureau 
until close of War. Practiced in Chicago, and 
located in New Haven in 1872. 

Mariette Cowles, M.D. (Mrs.). ..212 Wooster street. 

C. A. Dorman, M.D 541 Howard street. 

Edwin O. M. Hall, M.D South Quinnipiac. 

Adelaide Lambert, M.D. (Miss), 138 St. John street. 

A. A. Lee, M.D. (Mrs.) 1157 Chapel street. 

Isaac S. Miller, M.D 818 Chapel street. 

Established, N. Y. City thirty years ago. Rem. lo 
Hartford, Conn, in 1S70; practiced there until 
three years ago, when he removed to New Haven. 

W. H. H.Murray, M.D. (Mrs.). 189 Church street. 

Charles Rawling, M.D 346 Howard street. 

William W. Rodman, M.D 1081 Chapel street. 

William H. Sage, M.D 42 College street. 

Paul C. Skiff, M.D 664 Chapel street. 

Walter C. Skiff, M.D 664 Chapel street, 

Alonzo L. Talmagc, M.D 8 Park street. 

Charles Vishno, M.D g Olive street. 

Charles W. Vishno, M.D Grand and N. Quinnipiac. 

E. J. Walker, M.D 1 136 Chapel street. 

History or the Practice of Medicine in New 
Haven hy Physicians of the Eclectic School. 

By George Andrews, M.D. 

The first of the Eclectic School of physicians to 
locate in New Haven was Dr. Bennett W. Si'Errv, 
who commenced the practice of medicine in this 
city about the year 1834. 

Naturally a man of good abilities, he applied 
himself diligently to the practice of his profession, 
meeting with strong opposition on every hand, and, 



in spite of ill-health, which curtailed his efforts in 
his later years, he achieved great success. 

Dr. Sperry was a firm believer in the reform 
movement, and called to order the first Reformed 
Medical Convention held in the State in 1836. 

Besides the office of President, he held many 
other important positions in connection with the 
Reformed Medical Society, all of which he filled 
with honor, and was a respected and useful citizen 
until he succumbed, in 1841, to the disease against 
which he had fought for several years. 

Dr. Selden Sprague, who studied medicine with 
Dr. Sperry, opened an office for himself in 1841 
upon the death of Dr. Sperry, and was the ne.xt 
physician of the Eclectic School of note in New 
Haven. Dr. Sprague was a genial, kind and com- 
panionable man, attracting to himself many and 
strong friends; at the same time he was a bold 
practitioner, and never failed to employ the most 
heroic treatment known to medical science if he 
felt that the welfare of the patient required it. After 
twenty-seven years, in the zenith of his glory and 
success, he passed awav, having ever been an or- 
nament to a noble profession. 

Among other eclectic physicians were Isaac J. 
Sperry, brother of Dr. B. W. Sperry, who became 
secretary of the first medical society formed, and 
was the editor of the first medical journal published 
under the patronage of this society. He also be- 
came president of the society, and was a man of 
great determination and will. Dr. Richardson 
was also associated with Dr. Sperry for a short 
time. Dr. H. R. Burr and Dr. Chamberlain were 
also in successful practice in the city. Dr. H. I. 
Bradley, still actively engaged in practice, and 
who was compelled to retire in consequence of 
failing health for some years, was one of the most 
successful of the Eclectic School of practice. 

The next physician of the Eclectic School to lo- 
cate in New Haven was Dr. George Andrews, the 
first graduate of an eclectic medical college to 
practice medicine in this city. Graduating at the 
Worcester (Mass.) Medical Institute in 1850, he 
has been in practice from that time until the pres- 
ent, with the exception of a few years in which ill- 
health compelled him to seek employment demand- 
ing labor and exposure. Consequently he was en- 
gaged in the regular drug business until he regained 
his health, since which time he has continued the 
practice of his profession with marked success. Dr. 
Andrews was President of the Connecticut Eclec- 
tic Medical Association in 1885 -86, also a member 
of the National Eclectic Medical Association. 

Drs. Giles N. Langdon and James H. Robin- 
son were in successful practice for many years, 
making a large number of friends from their genial 
ways and warm-hearted sympathy for their patients. 
Dr. J. H. Robinson, by mistake, March 5, 1881, 
took a fatal dose of gclsemium, which terminated 
his life in a few hours. Dr. Ebenezer Rohin.son 
and Dr. Williams have been also located in this 
city. 

One of the most successful eclectic physicians is 
Dr. M. F. Linquist, who for seventeen years has 
enjoyed one of the largest and most lucrative prac- 




c 




r 



^7^< 



■< 





U/j (J ^^r^ 




i^ 



THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



287 



ticcs in New Haven. He was born at Gottenburg, 
Sweden, in 1825; is a graduate of the Medical 
University at Brussels, Belgium. Emigrated to the 
United States 1S48; and graduated at New York 
Eclectic College. Established himself at New 
Haven March, 1869. Has been President of the 
State Association, Vice-President of the National 



Association, and has filled for years other positions 
with much credit. 

Dr. J. H. Hutchinson was quite recently located 
in this city. He is a graduate of the Bennett Col- 
lege, of Chicago, 111. Dr. J.W. Cummings, formerly 
of Worcester, Mass. , is also located in practice 
here. 



BIOGRAPHIES OF PROMINENT PHYSICIANS OF NEW HAVEN. 



ELI IVES, M.D. 

William Ives was one of the original settlers at 
(^)uinnipiac, and his descendants have made the 
name prominent in the town's history. 

Besides the distinction which has always at- 
tached itself in New Haven to the "town-born," 
the family of Dr. Eli Ives has possessed for more 
than a century a professional skill and fame which 
may now be fairly called hereditary. For four con- 
secutive generations the son has succeeded the 
father in the successful practice of medicine. The 
second in the series was the subject of this memoir, 
Eli Ives, who was born at New Haven February 
7, 1779, the son of Dr. Levi Ives and of Lydia 
(Auger) Ives. The father was a physician of- rare 
qualifications and wide practice. He served as a 
surgeon in the Continental Army, was with Gen- 
eral Montgomery at Quebec, and died in New 
Haven in 1826, full of years and honors. 

The son was of a studious, yet resolute nature. 
He prepared for Yale College, partly through his 
own exertions and partly under the tuition of 
Rev. A. R. Robbins, of Norfolk, Conn. He 
graduated in 1799, a class-mate of Professors J. L. 
Kingley and ]\Ioses Stuart. For two years he was 
Rector of the Hopkins Grammar School. Declin- 
ing the offer of a tutorship at Yale, he applied 
himself at once to preparation for his profession, 
and studied the theory and practice of medicine 
with his father and with Dr. Eneas Munson, a 
noted physician and citizen, and a man of unusual 
attainments in botany and chemistry. Dr. Ives 
also attended the lectures of Drs. Rush and Woos- 
ter in Philadelphia. In 1801 he began to practice 
in New Haven, and achieved success from the out- 
set. He was influential in founding the Yale Med- 
ical School. That institution was organized in 
1 8 13 with a staff of five instructors. Dr. Ives 
was the Associate Professor of Materia Medica and 
Botany, and he performed all the duties of that 
department for sixteen years. He devoted much 
time and persevering labor to the establishment of 
a Botanical Garden, which stood on the ground 
now occupied by the Shellield Buildings. 

In 1S29 he was transferred to the Department of 
the Theory and Practice of Medicine, in which 
position he remained until 1852, when he resigned 
on account of age and infirmity. During the thirty- 
nine years of his connection with the Medical 
School, about 1,500 students received instruction 
from him. He was interested in scientific agri- 
culture and horticulture; was President of the Hor- 



ticultural and Pomological Societies; and was an 
active promoter of the Sheflield Scientific School. 

He sought after truth in all its forms, and rec- 
ognized the common bond which connects all 
sciences and arts. In token of his thorough and 
accurate knowledge, he was the recipient of many 
diplomas and degrees from associations at home 
and abroad, but with characteristic modesty he re- 
fused to make use of such titles. His memory 
was tenacious, and afforded him a wide knowledge 
of materia medica and of scientific literature. He 
was distinguished for his clear insight and bold 
treatment of difficult cases. In his use of remedies 
he was independent. 

Upright and honorable in his profession, he be- 
friended his younger brethren and aided to intro- 
duce improvements in medical science. Promi- 
nent in the formation of the New Haven Medica! 
Association, he was an active friend of the State 
Medical Society, and in his old age was President 
of the National Medical Society. 

He lived a Christian life and was ever zealous 
in furthering the work of the Church. In Sep- 
tember, 1808^ he joined himself in communion 
with the North Congregational Church. Humane 
and catholic in his sympathies, he entered heartily 
into the anti-slavery movement, and was a consist- 
ent friend of the total abstinence reform. 

September 17, 1805, he married Maria, daugh- 
ter of Dr. Nathan and Mary (Phelps) Beers. Five 
children were born to them, of whom only two 
survived their father. His death occurred on Oc- 
tober 8, 1 86 1. 

LEVI IVES, M.D. 

Much that has been said of the father, Dr. Eli 
Ives, is also true, with changed names, of the son. 
Dr. Levi Ives. He was born in New Haven on 
the 13th of July, 1816. His mother, Maria Beers, 
belonged to a prominent and patriotic New Haven 
family. Her father, Nathan Beers, saw seven 3'ears 
of service in the Revolutionary Army, so that both 
of Dr. Ives' grandfathers aided their country to 
gain its independence. As an adjutant, Mr. Beers 
had charge of Major Andre on the night before 
that ill-fated oflicer's execution. During the hours 
of that night IMajor Andre drew a pen-portrait of 
himself which he gave to Mr. Beers. It is now 
deposited in the Yale Art Gallery. 

Levi Ives studied at the Hopkins Grammar 
School, and took a partial course of instruction at 
Yale. In 1834, he commenced the study of medi- 
cine under the guidance of his fxther, and after- 



288 



HISTORY OF THE CFTY OF NEW HA VEN. 



wards continued his investigations in connection 
with the Yale INIedical School, from which he 
graduated in February, 1838. After a year and a 
half spent in observation and the acquisition of ex- 
perience at Bellevue Hospital, he joined his father 
in the practice of medicine at New Haven. 

The high hereditary fame of his family suffered 
no detriment at his hands. He made obstetrical 
cases a specialty, and soon obtained .an immense 
practice. His undoubted skill, quick judgment, 
and cheery genial disposition, combined to secure 
for him then, as now, not only many patients, but 
also hosts of friends. 

At the zenith of his reputation as a specialist, he 
decided to discontinue his exclusive devotion to 
one particular branch of his science. He widened 
the range of his vocation, and entered upon the 
larger field of the general practice of medicine. 
Success still waited upon him. The reputation 
which his father and grandfather had gamed, he 
has fully sustained. 

He is Consulting Physician and Surgeon to the 
Connecticut State Hospital; a member of the New 
Haven Medical Association, in which he has been 
President; he is also a member of the Connecticut 
Medical Association, and of the American Medical 
Association, to which he has frequently been ac- 
credited as a delegate. For many years he has been 
included among the members of the Connecticut 
Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

In June, 1841, he was joined in marriage with 
Miss Caroline Shoemaker, daughter of Elijah Shoe- 
maker, of Wyoming Valley, Pa. The grandfather 
of this lady, Elijah Shoemaker by name, was one 
of the victims of the memorable Wyoming massacre. 
The only child of this marriage is Robert Shoe- 
maker Ives, who was born in April, 1842. He 
graduated from Yale College in 1864, and now, like 
his grandfather, bears the titles of A.M. and M. D. 
He observes and continues the traditions of his 
family by establishing himself in New Haven, near 
his honored father, in the practice of medicine. 

DAVID A. TYLER, M.D. 

The life of a physician is usually far removed 
from the light of public notoriety. He who chooses 
the practice of medicine, chooses to earn his repu- 
tation in the quiet domestic circle, and not in the 
vast and clamorous whirl of public life. Only the 
sick and unfortunate to whom he ministers can 
best understand his patient watchfulness, his self- 
denials, and his calm persistence in the face of dis- 
heartening dangers. When such a dispenser of 
good passes away, it becomes both a pleasure and 
a duty to the living to recount the story of his 
beneficent life. Such a pleasing debt New Haven 
owes to the memory of the late Dr. David Atvvater 
Tyler. 

He was burn in Northford, in the town i>f North 
Branford, Conn., November 10, 1818. His father, 
Augustus Tyler, was a farmer in comfortable cir- 
cumstances. But financial troubles came upon the 
family, entailing the loss of both pro|)erty and home; 
and when the only son, David, was but five years 



old, the father died, leaving a widow and two chil- 
dren to struggle alone for a shelter and a liveli- 
hood. The mother won the hard battle by dint of 
persevering effort, aided by a cheerful courage, but 
she too died when her son had reached the age of 
seventeen years. By means of his own exertions he 
was enabled to acquire an education, and at the 
well-known Bacon Academy in Colchester, of which 
the late Rev. Myron N. Morris was the principal, 
he was fitted to enter the Sophomore Class in Yale 
College. Coming to New Haven he obtained em- 
ployment in the printing-office of the Register, but 
by the threatened failure of his health he was led to 
think more seriously than before of adopting the 
study of medicine. At this critical period he 
sought the advice of the noted Dr. F^li Ives. In 
accordance with Dr. Ives' recommendations, he 
abandoned his original plan of entering Yale, and 
began, instead, the study of medicine in the office 
of Dr. Nathan B. Ives, of New Haven. In 1S44 
he received the degree of M. D. from the Yale 
Medical College, and on the 14th of February of 
that year he opened an office on Wooster street. 

This step marks the beginning of a rapidly in- 
creasing practice, which was conducted from the 
same locality through a period of almost forty years. 
Dr. Tyler studied botany with Dr. Eli Ives in the 
latter's famous " Botanical Garden," and became 
a skillful botanist, especially proficient in the com- 
position of vegetable remedies. Like other phy- 
sicians of that day, he combined the arts of doctor 
and apothecary, and conducted a drug store in con- 
nection with his office. 

Soon after he embarked in the practice of his 
profession, he married Miss F^lizabeth Maltby, of 
Northford, who died in 1868. Of his three children, 
his two sons died before him, one at the age of 
eleven and the other at the age of thirty-five. His 
only daughter survived him, and is now the wife of 
the Rev. S. J. Bryant, of West Haven. 

Nearly the whole of Dr. Tyler's mature life was 
spent in contest with sickness, not only among 
others, but also in his own constitution. When, at 
thirty years of age, he stood at the entrance of what 
promised to be a career of unalloyed usefulness, he 
suddenly passed within the shadow of an incurable 
disease, the dread consumption. He was seized 
with hemorrhages, and for a short time retired to 
Northford. But he determined not to succumb, 
returned to New Haven, resumed his labors, and for 
thirty-five years maintained a constant battle with 
his insidious foe. It was perhaps partly the result 
of his personal experiences that he was particularly 
successful in the treatment of consumptives. He 
accjuired fame at an early date by his skill in treat- 
ing the cholera when that complaint became e()i- 
demic in New Haven (1849). He always conducted 
a general family practice, yet if, before the day of 
specialties, Dr. Tyler could be said to have any 
specialty, he excelled in the cure of ailments of the 
throat and lungs. 

In the fall of 1883, seriously failing health obligeil 
him to discontinue regular work, although it was 
for some time diflicult to sever the professional 
coimections that had existed between himself and 




7 ' ' 



THE PRACTICE OF MEDICIhE AND SURGERY. 



289 



his patients. After a prolonged illness he died of 
chronic consumption at his recently completed 
residence in West Haven, Conn., March 26, 1885, 
in his sixty-seventh year. 

Dr. Tyler's ancestors were long and favorably 
known in this region. The Tylers are an old Bran- 
ford family, while his grandmother was an Atwater, 
of New Haven. He was a man of sound judgment 
and quiet habits. In diagnosis he was remarkably 
shrewd, and might be called a doctor by intuition, 
so naturally and easily did the physician's mood 
rest upon him. Above all he was blessed with a 
cheerful, even-tempered disposition, which in itself 
seemed to bring healing to the sick. He always 
won the affection of children, and knew how to stay 
young while growing old. His sympathies and 
emotions were quick and vigorous, but were bal- 
anced by firm self-control. His relations with his 
fellow-men and with his professional brethren were 
those of mutual respect and confidence, and in the 
various medical associations to which he belonged, 
he was elevated from time to time to positions of 
honor. No one knew him to lose his temper, while 
many felt the warmth of his affectionate words and 
deeds. The poor and needy with whom he came in 
contact experienced his quiet, unselfish benevo- 
lence. 

Dr. Tyler lived a brave and useful life. He 
received the temporal reward which he well de- 
served, and he left his labor carrying with him the 
esteem and afl'ection of the community in which 
he had lived. 

L. J. SANFORD, M.D. 

The City of New Haven esteems Dr. Leonard J. 
Sanford as one of its own children, who has brought 
honor upon himself and upon his native place by 
his scientific attainments and by his professional 
success. He has but lately passed the half-century, 
having been born in New Haven on the 8th of 
November, 1833. 

He obtained his preliminary education in the 
schools of New Haven, and then decided to pre- 
pare himself for the practice of medicine. He 
studied at the Yale Medical College, and afterwards 
at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. 
At the latter institution he received the degree of 
Doctor of Medicine in March, 1854. Since that 
time he has been a resident of New Haven, and 
actively engaged in the manifold duties of his 
calling. 

Dr. .Sanford's professional abilities merited and 
obtained a wide and honorable recognition. He 
is a member of the American Medical Association, 
of the American Academy of Medicine, and of 
various local associations for medical and scientific 
purposes. To medical literature he has contributed 
a number of pamphlets on anatomical and physio- 
logical topics. In 1858, Yale College conferred 
upon him the Honorary Degree of A.M. Five 
years later he was elected Professor of Anatomy 
and of Physiology in the Yale Medical College, and 
the chair of Anatomy he still retams, giving annual 
courses of lectures. For many years he has been 
37 



lecturer on Physiology and Hygiene in both the 
Academical and Theological Departments of Yale. 

In April, 1866, Dr. Sanford married Miss Anne 
M., daughter of the late William Cutler, P'.sq., of 
New Haven, Conn. Their family consists of three 
children. 

Dr. Sanford's eminence in his vocation is the re- 
sult not only of assiduous application, but also of 
many admirable qualities of head and heart. His 
individuality is strongly marked, and his judgments 
are formed not only with moderation, but with in- 
dependence. 

An upright, judicious man, he is prudent and 
fer-seeing as a physician. Those who seek aid 
from his skill have cause to remember also his 
geniality and kindness. 

EVELYN L. BISSELL, M.D. 

General Evelyn L. Bissell was born in Litch- 
field, Conn., September ro, 1836, the son of 
Major Lyman Bissell, U. S. A., of Litchfield, and 
Theresa Maria Skeeles, of Durham, N. Y. 

He developed an early taste for military studies, 
and entered the military school of General W. H. 
Russell, in New Haven. Abandoning a cherished 
plan of going to West Point, he applied himself to 
the study of medicine, and graduated from the 
Yale Medical School in i860. He filled that year 
the position of surgeon on a Liverpool steamship. 

Upon the opening of the Civil War, he joined 
the army as Second Assistant Surgeon of the Fifth 
Connecticut Regiment of Volunteers, and during 
the first campaign participated in the retreat of 
General Banks before General Stonewall Jackson 
through the Shenandoah Valley. He was captured 
at the battle of Winchester, May 25, 1862, and 
was confined at Winchester. His captors, doubt- 
ing from his youth that he was a surgeon, set him 
to operate upon their own wounded, when he soon 
convinced them of his surgical character. He was 
there one of seven surgeons who signed the first 
cartel by which medical oflScers were recognized 
as non-combatants. Being released on parole in 
July, 1862, he reported to General Banks, and was 
ordered back to his regiment. 

He returned under protest, believing that if re- 
captured he would be shot. At the battle of 
Cedar Mountain, August 9, 1862, he was again 
taken prisoner while attending the wounded on 
the field. Being recognized by the Confederates, 
and his explanations deemed unsatisfactory, he 
was sent with the Federal wounded to Richmond 
and placed in solitary confinement in a tobacco 
warehouse opposite Castle Thunder, and was then 
transferred to the infamous Lihby Prison. He 
was subjected there to great annoyance, and, much 
more, was at the risk of being shot for the appar- 
ent violation of his parole, and one morning saw 
seven prisoners shot by the rebel authority. On 
the 20th of November he was released uncon- 
ditionally, upon a requisition from the War De- 
partment at Washington, a special commission 
having been appointed for such cases by Secretary 
of War Stanton, It afterward happened, by a 



290 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



singular retribution of events, that Surgeon Bis- 
sell's father, Major Lyman Bissell, of the regu- 
lar army, presided, after the war, at the court- 
martial before which Turner, the keeper of Libby 
Prison, was tried. 

Upon arriving at Fortress Monroe, Surgeon Bis- 
sell reported to General Dix, who assigned him to 
the hospital ship Euterpe, which was about to 
take the Federal sick and wounded to New York. 
He was referred to the Secretary of War for further 
instructions, and was ordered by him to join his 
regiment at Frederick City. Thereupon he took 
part in the battles of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, 
and Kelly's Ford. 

In the engagement near Chancellorsville, Dr. 
Bissell distinguished himself by bravery on the 
field. It is related in the record of the battle, at 
the Adjutant-General's office at Hartford, "during 
the entire engagement the attention of all was par- 
ticulady attracted by the daring displayed by Dr. 
E. L. Bissell, Assistant Surgeon, who in his efforts 
to see and attend to the wants of all the wounded 
of the regiment, frequently exposed himself to the 
most imminent peril. In this engagement, May 
3, 1863, Captain George Benton, Company F, 
being killed, was carried from the field by Dr. 
Bissell under the terrible fire from the enemy." 

Joining the Army of the Cumberlantl, Dr. Bis- 
sell had charge of the field hospital, in which 
there were three thousand cots. He was in the 
fights at Wahatchie, Reseca, Pumpkin Vine Creek, 
Dallas, Casville and Kenesaw Mountain. He at- 
tracted the attention there of the brave General 
Hooker, for his bravery while removing two hun- 
dred wounded men from the field in face of a con- 
cealed rebel battery. He was then specially detailed 
to remain at headquarters upon the medical staff" of 
General Hooker. He was afterwards likewise 
specially detailed to be the surgeon's staff of Gen- 
eral George H. Thomas and remained with him 
eight months. 

Upon the movement of General Sherman's army 
soulliward to Georgia, Surgeon Bissell remained 
at Nashville till the close of the war. 

He then settled in New Haven and entered 
upon the peaceful practice of his profession. He 
was appomted by Colonel Basserman, July 9, 1868, 
Surgeon of the Second Connecticut Regiment and 
was retained in the position by Colonel Bradley 
and again reappointed by Colonel Smith, remain- 
ing in the office until his departure to Peru. 

In 1872 he was called by the Peruvian Govern- 
ment to take charge of men engaged on the public 
works of the City of Lima. It was a responsible 
position over a large body of men, and, though 
lucrative, was full of hardship. Returning to New 
Haven in 1875, Dr. Bissell resumed his profession 
as physician and surgeon, in which he had a large 
practice. He was reappointed Surgeon of the 
Second Regiment by Colonel Smith, who, after a 
year's interval, had then recently reassumed com- 
mand. Ifpon Colonel Smith's advancing to the 
grade of Brigadier-General, Major Bissell was con- 
tinued in office by his successor, Colonel Graharri, 
and so remained until January 3, 1883, when he 



was made Surgeon-General upon the staff" of | 
General Waller, for 1883 and 1884. Upon the ' 
promotion of Colonel Leavenworth to the colonelcy 
of the Second Regiment, he tendered the post of 
Surgeon to General Bissell, which, for the third 
time, he accepted and still retains. 

At the Centennial encampment at Philadelphia, 
in 1876, Dr. Bissell was appointed acting Brigade 
Surgeon, and has served in this position at the 
State encampments under General Stephen R. 
Smith. 

He has been for many years, and is still, Examin- 
ing Surgeon for the Pension Department of the Gov- 
ernment; a Registrar of Vital Statistics of the Town 
of New Haven; a Police Commissioner of the city; 
and a member of the Board of Health. He is a 
member of the Grand Army of the Republic and j 
of the military order of the Loyal Legion of the I 
United States. 

Dr. Bissell married Sarah M., daughter of Hez- , 
ekiah Noyes, of Woodbury, Conn., who died July ■ 
19, 1883, leaving one daughter, Beatta W. 

These are the outlines of an onerous, busy and 
eminently useful life through an eventful epoch. 
Throughout it. Dr. Bissell has shown, in a rare 
degree, qualities of manliness, fidelity and patriot- 
ism, and he has won the admiration and regard of 
fellow-officers and associates who testify to his zeal, 
faithfulness and self-sacrifice in the discharge of 
duty. 

ALVERD E. WINCHELL, M.D. 

The family name of Winchell is found under 
various forms in America, Wales, England and 
Germany. It is probably of early Saxon or Yutish 
origin, and was known in the time of Hengist and 
Horsa, in 449. The derivation of the name has 
been learnedly worked out with interesting histor- 
ical detail by Professor Alexander Winchell, of 
Michigan University, who published, in 1869, a 
genealogy of the family. This shows the name to 
be identified in America with the early settlement 
of Windsor, Conn., in 1638, in the person of 
Robert Winchell, who was first at Dorchester in 
1635, and appears to have emigrated from one of 
the lower Saxon shires of England. 

The name also runs out into German and sub- 
branches, adding much to the interest and zest of 
the genealogical pursuit. 

Members of the family have carried the name 
into all departments of activity, and it is found 
during the American Revolution scattered in many 
directions, and so works its way down, widely iden- 
tified with the early history of New Fingland. 

Alverd E. Winchell was born in Egremont, Berk- 
shire County, Mass., June 21, 183 1. He is a mem- 
ber of the branch of the Winchell family, accurately 
traced through eight generations to its origin in the 
South of England. His early education was pur- 
sued in the Academy at Great Barrington, an adjoin- 
ing town, where he prepared for college. 

He entered the Wesleyan University, Middle- 
town, Conn., in 1853, and graduated in 1857, 
ranking among the first men of his class. He also 
received, in i860, the degree of A.M. 




^Zci^/^ (f,^^a/^/J^. y^ ^ 



THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



391 



During three years he was engaged in the profes- 
sion of teaching. On the invitation of Professor 
Alexander Winchell, Slate Geologist of Michigan, 
he became principal of the Owasso Union Seminary 
in that State. Notwithstanding his marked suc- 
cess in that position, and the most urgent solicita- 
tions of the officers of that institution, he returned 
East to pursue the study of medicine, for which 
profession he had always felt a marked predi- 
lection. 

He entered the office of Dr. Clarkson T. Collins, 
of Great Barrington, a gentleman of acknowledged 
ability and distinguished in his profession, through 
whose kindness he subsequently became acquainted 
with Drs. Alfred C. Post and the venerable Valen- 
tine Mott, of New York City. The encouragement 
and approbation bestowed by these distinguished 
men was most valuable, and always gratefully re- 
membered. He attended medical lectures at the 
College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, 
from which he graduated in 1865. 

At the conclusion of his medical course, which 
was supplemented by valuable clinical observations 
in Bellevue, New York, and other hospitals of the 
city, he settled in New; Haven, Conn., where he 
has since been engaged in the practice of his pro- 
fession. 

Although having a special preference for surgery, 
in which he has performed several difficult and 
delicate operations, he has devoted himself to gen- 
eral practice, and has acquired reputation as a 
superior obstetrician. 

He is a member of the State Medical Society, 
in which he has served as Fellow: also of the New 
Haven County and the New Haven Medical Soci- 
eties, serving in the latter as President for a term 
of years. 

He has taken a lively interest in all questions of 
sanitation, his attention having been specially 
directed to the subject from observations taken dur- 
ing a series of visits to different sections of the South 
immediately following the close of the Civil War. 

These investigations, and later continuous study 
of the same subject, became of practical advantage 
on his accession to the Board of Health of the City 
of New Haven, to which office he was appointed 
in 1879, and reappointed in 1882 and 1885, and 
of which he is still an active member. 

February 9, i860, he married Helen E. Hinman, 
daughter of Captain Charles Hinman, of Southbury, 
Conn. She died in February, 1863. In October, 
1865, he married Mary Mitchell, daughter of 
Elizur Mitchell, Esq., of South Britain, Conn., 
who died in April, 1874. His present wife, Cath- 
erine Worthington Shepard, whom he married 
October, 19, 1876, is a daughter of the late Rev. 
Samuel N. Shepard, pastor for thirty-three years of 
the Congregational Church in Madison, Conn. 
He has had three children, of whom one only is 
living. 

EDWIN AVERY PARK, M.D., 

was born in Preston, New London County, Conn., 
January 27, 181 7. He was the son of Benjamin 
Franklin Park and Hannah Avery, his wife. 



His father was a farmer and merchant in Pres- 
ton, his native town, where he lived and died 
upon the family homestead of many generations. 
He was the son of Elisha Park, who was the son 
of Rev. Paul Park, a minister of the Gospel in his 
native town, Preston, preaching in the same church 
and society for over fifty years, while at the same 
time he paid tithes or taxes for the support of the 
standing or legal order of salaried ministers. 

The Rev. Paul Park was the son of Hezekiah 
Park, who was the son of Robert Park, who was 
the son of Thomas Park, who was the son of Sir 
Robert Park, who, with his wife and three sons, 
came from England in 1630 and settled in Boston, 
Mass., the first of the name that emigrated to this 
country. 

Their English ancestors, since the conquest, re- 
sided in Lancashire. The late Baron Park, of 
England, descended from the same line. The an- 
cestral name was always written with an e, Parke, 
until within a few generations. 

Dr. Park, the subject of this sketch, spent his 
early life upon his father's firm, working there 
during the summer and attending the district 
schools during the winter. 

When sixteen years of age he commenced teach- 
ing school in the winter and taught in Westerly 
and other places for a number of seasons, and 
also attended the Wilbraham Academy. At the 
age of twent3'-one or twenty-two he turned his at- 
tention to the systematic study of medicine in the 
City of Norwich, under the tuition of Rufus 
Mathewson, M. D. He pursued this several years, 
taking a course of lectures in the New York Med- 
ical College and a subsequent course in New 
Haven, where he graduated from the Yale Medi- 
cal School in 1846. 

He at once opened an office and began the 
practice of his profession in New Haven. Dr. 
Park had so far largely worked his own way, be- 
ing of forceful character, resolute and energetic, 
and he now devoted himself with enthusiasm to 
his new and arduous calling. 

In disposition kind and sympathetic, a man of 
strong physique, he carried to the bedside of the 
sick his own hope and cheer, and was admirably 
adapted to the always responsible and often deli- 
cate duties of a physician. He attained an exten- 
sive practice and was held in affectionate confi- 
dence by the large circle of his patients and friends. 

Dr. Park during the war was Surgeon of the 
Enrolling Board, and associated with Colonel 
Dexter R. Wright. In that position he performed 
valuable and efficient work in connection with the 
enlistment of Connecticut quotas for the army. 

A man of liberal and active mind, well informed, 
ready, but not rash, in opinion, he won the respect 
of his medical associates, and was esteemed equally 
in professional and social circles. 

He was a man of Christian faith, and though 
prevented by professional duty from being a regu- 
lar, he was an occasional attendant at the Union 
Congregational Church. 

He was a member for many years of the New 
Haven Medical Association. The resolutions of 



292 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



this society, passed upon his decease, testify to his 
high standing as "a physician in large practice for 
more than thirty years in this city, whose genial 
nature and gifts in his attendance upon the sick, 
in the many emergencies of such service, have 
endeared his memory to a large portion of our 
citizens." 

"The late Edwin A. Park, M.D., by his long 
and untiring fidelity to his professional duties, both 
to his patients and to his medical brethren, laid a 
lasting foundation for the respect with which he 
was held while in life, and for the aftection which 
bound him so warmly to the homes and hearts of 
those to whom he ministered. " 

Dr. Tark, in 1853, married Hester Ann, daugh- 
ter of Charles J. .\llen, of New Haven. They had 
five children, of whom two sons and two daughters 
now survive, Catherine B., Hester M., Franklin 
A., and Dr. Charles E. 

Of the brothers of Dr. Park, three remain, 
Chief-Justice Park, of the Supreme Court of Con- 
necticut; Albert Park, an attorney of Norwich; and 
Ralph H. Park, now of Boston, late principal of 
the Wooster School of New Haven. 

Dr. Park died January 17, 1879. 

PAUL C. SKIFF, M.D. 

Among the many men of mark whom Litchfield 
County has contributed to New Haven, is one of 
the city's most popular and eminent medical prac- 
titioners, Dr. Paul Cheeseborough Skiff. 

In 1761, Nathan Skift" journeyed from Tolland 
County into the wilds of Western Connecticut. In 
what is now the town of Kent, and on the western 
side of the Housatonic River, he purchased a large 
tract of land, including a mountain, which was 
named SkiflT Mountain, and there the pioneer 
erected his log house with only the Scatacook 
Indians as his neighbors. After five years Nathan 
Skift" moved from his log hut into a new frame 
house which he had built, and into whose chimney 
he had inserted a large square stone bearing the 
date, " 1766." 

When Nathan Skift' rested from his labors, house 
and land descended to his son, Nathan Skift", 2d; 
from him to his youngest son, Luther Skiflf; again 
to the latter's youngest son, Samuel Skiff, who sold 
it, in 1875, to his brother, the subject of this sketch. 

Farm and homestead have tiierefore been occu- 
pied by the same family for about one hundred and 
twenty-five years. In this venerable house, on the 
4th of October, 1828, Paul C. Skift" was born. 

His mother was Hannah Comstock, daughter of 
Peter Comstock, of Kent, and Hannah Piatt, of 
Plattsburg, N. Y., Dr. Skift-s boyhood was spent 
in working upon the ancestral farm, and in profit- 
ing by such educational facilities as the town af- 
forded. 

When he was fifteen years of age, his mother's 
sister, Mrs. Roderick Bissell, a most estimable 
lady, living on the Western Reserve in the town of 
Austinburg, Ohio, invited him to come and live 
with her, and attend school at the neighboring 
Grand River Institute. Eagerly desiring a liberal 



education, he determined, in spite of many hin- 
drances, to profit, if possible, by the offer. With 
his wordly goods in a small trunk, and with si.xty 
dollars in his pocket, money given him by his 
Grandmother Comstock, he set forth alone for 
what was then the Far West, promising to paddle 
his own skift", and to ask for no help from any 
source. That promise he has well kept, having 
never asked or received financial aid from any one 
since that time, paying the entire e.xpenses of his 
educational course by his own labor, besides 
contributing largely to help others. 

However, it was diflicult for the lad of fifteen 
years to break away from his home and friends, 
and, had it not been for the ridicule of his brothers, 
his fortitude might have failed before he bought his 
ticket for Albanv. 

The ride to Albany afforded him his first experi- 
ence with the steam-cars. In that city he was so 
frightened by the numerous signs to "Beware of 
pickpockets " that he dared not enter either car or 
boat, and meditated a return home; but in the 
waiting-room of the Fjie Canal Packet Boat Line 
he became acquainted with some kindly persons 
who took charge of him as far as Buft"alo. The 
voyage along the canal lasted nine days, and cost 
$5 for fare and board. The boat in which he took 
passage across Lake Erie from Buft'alo for Ashtabula 
Harbor was overtaken by a terrible storm, and 
drifted about for four days in continual danger 
of sinking, so that by the time the boy reached his 
destination he was rich in experience. At Austin- 
burg, for about four and a half years he combined 
school tasks with outside work, having decided to 
prepare for the ministry. During the last two 
years he roomed with John Brown, Jr. , and fre- 
quently saw John Brown, Sr. , who lived not far 
away. Mr. Skiff was intending to enter the sopho- 
more year at Hudson College with his class, but 
he was suddenly called home by the illness of his 
eldest brother. He became manager of the farm, 
taught school awhile, and then, resolving once 
more to enter the larger world, he began the study 
of medicine, and graduated at the Yale Medical 
College in 1856. Afterwards he spent nearly two 
years at the Jeff'erson Medical College in Phila- 
delphia, under those eminent instructors, Professors 
Mutter, Pancoast, Meigs and Dunglison. Return- 
ing to New Haven in 1859 he began the practice 
of medicine, and has resided in this city since that 
time. 

Dr. Skiflf had been educated in the tenets of the 
old school of medicine, but even during his stay in 
Philadelphia his attention had been called to new 
theories. After a careful and conscientious study 
of homoeopathy, he concluded that it was an 
advance upon the elder medical system, and he 
embraced its principles. For this development he 
was indebted to the suggestions of Dr. Herring, of 
Philadelphia, and largely to the influence of^ his 
cousin. Dr. Charles Skill", the earliest homoiopathic 
doctor in New Haven, and the second in the State. 

In the course of Dr. Skiffs first year of practice 
here (1859), he noticed one morning sitting 
opposite to him at breakfast at the hotel where he 



,rifl!f/fJ 






fl/li:^/iya>t^y^ ^. cy^ 



<:^^<1< 



THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND SVRGERV. 



293 



was boarding, two men whose faces seemed familiar. 
Finally he said to the younger of the twain, " Isn't 
your name John Brown, Jr." At this apparently 
simple question the young man trembled like a 
leaf, and ejaculated, "What if it is.'" After a 
little parleying, Dr. Skiff broke the tension by 
saying, " Don't you remember Paul Skift?" The 
strain upon the young Brown had been so great, 
for he supposed his interlocutor to be a spy, or 
worse, that he burst into tears. Then he intro- 
duced his father, who was with him, to Dr. Skiff, 
and toki him that they had been to Springfield 
trading in wool. The fact was that they had just 
been to TariffviUe, Conn., to order pikes for their 
projected invasion of Virginia. The younger 
Brown showed his former schoolmate the frightful 
gashes made in his right arm when he was put 
in a chain-gang by the pro-slavery ruffians, and 
dragged by horses over the prairie. 

Dr. Skifl"s success in his profession was speedy. 
From the first year of practice to the present time 
he has been one of the busiest of men. His varied 
experiences have given him an acquaintance with 
all sorts and conditions of men. His skill in the 
healing art has been supported by prompt judg- 
ment, admirable foresight, unflagging good temper, 
and by an independent attitude towards all theories 
of practice. He has contributed to various medical 
journals, and was one of the founders of the State 
Homu-opathic Society. 

In June, 1875, he married Miss Emma McGregor 
Ely, of Brooklyn, N. Y., whose great-grandfather 
on her father's side was the Rev. Dr. Daniel Ely, 
of Lyme, Conn., and whose maternal great-grand- 
father was the Rev. Dr. Thomas Punderson, of 
New Haven. They have one child, Pauline, born 
in May, 1880. 

W. D. ANDERSON, M.D. 

Among the Scotch-Irish settlers who planted the 
town of Londonderry, New Hampshire, in 1719, 
were the ancestors of William De.xter Anderson. 
His mother, who belonged to the family of Atwood, 
of English descent, was a native of what is now the 
neighboring town of Bedford. He was born in 
1840, in the town of Derry, which had formerly 
been a part of Londonderry. While he was still 
in his boyhood, his father engaged in mercantile 
pursuits, and was in business in Boston until the 
time of the great conflagration of 1872. 

Dr. Anderson obti'ined his early education in the 
schools of Nashua, N. H. , and, after he had attained 
the age of ten years, in the Boston Public Schools. 
In the English High School of the latter city he 
spent one year in study, and afterwards prepared 
for college at a private institution in Newton, Mass. 
He entered Yale College in 1858, and graduated 
in 1862. Among his class-mates were Rev. E. B. 
Coe, D.D. ; the late Dr. George M. Beard; Dr. P. 
H. Bosworth; Ex-Governor D. H. Chamberlain; 
Henry Holt, of New York; Franklin McVeagh, of 
Chicago; and other well-known men. 

Dr. Anderson subsequently received from Yale 
the degrees of A.M. and of I\i.D., graduating from 
the Yale Medical College in January, 1865. 



He entered immediately upon professional life 
in New Haven. For three years he remained a 
practitioner of the old school, but in 1868 he 
adopted the principles of homceopathy, and has 
practiced ever since in that branch of the theory of 
medicine. In 1871 he succeeded to the office and 
professional good-will of the late Dr. C. C. Foote, 
at 150 Temple street, and still remains at that ad- 
dress. 

Dr. Anderson was for seven years a member of 
the Lfnited States Board of Examining Surgeons for 
Pensions. For several years he has held the posi- 
tion of State Medical Examiner in the Order of 
the Knights of Honor and also in the Royal 
Arcanum. He has served two years in the presi- 
dency of the Connecticut Homa^opathic Medical 
Society. 

Dr. Anderson has never confined himself to any 
specialty, but has engaged in general practice. 
Neither has he been confined by narrow profes- 
sional limits, but has felt free to follow the dictates 
of independent judgment and of experience, adapt- 
ing modes of treatment to individual cases. To 
diligence, fidelity and skill he owes his high pro- 
fessional rank. The esteem of his many friends is 
no less due to his unfailing urbanity, courtesy, 
and strict sense of honor. 

He has rare gifts as a musician, and New Haven 
musical circles suffered loss when professional 
duties withdrew him from a public musical career. 

CLIFFORD B. ADAMS, INI.D., 

was born in Suffield, January 8, 1850, the son of 
Chester A. Adams and Catherine Woodworth. 
The father was a native of Becket, Mass., the 
mother, of Suffield. 

He was sent to the district school, as is usual 
with country lads, and later entered the Connecticut 
Literary Institution of Suffield, at that time under 
the charge of Principal Pratt. He took a full course, 
and graduated in 1866. His education was won 
by his own industry, his father dying when he was 
sixteen years of age and leaving him the mainstay of 
the family. He then entered, as medical student, 
the office' of Dr. R. H. Chaflee, at Hartford, and 
from there, continuing his medical course, went to 
study with Professor Henry Noah Martyn, of Phila- 
delphia, and graduated at the Hahnemann IMedical 
College of Philadelphia, March i, 1S72. He 
afterward received a special diploma from the 
Hahnemann Medical Institute of Pennsylvania, also 
special diplomas for the post-graduate courses in 
the diseases of women and children and in surgical 
anatomy. 

His first practice, after finishing his preparatory 
course and leaving the hospital, was at TariflVille, 
Simsbur)', Conn. Early in 1875, Dr. Adams, 
seeking a larger field, removed to New Haven, 
where he soon commanded a large and extensive 
practice. 

■ While often treating cases in surgery, he has 
made a specialty of diseases of the lungs and has 
been very successful in cases of obstetrics. 

Dr. Adams, while constantly occupied with 



294 



HISTORV OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



general practice in his own locality, is frequently 
called to the towns around, and is appealed to in 
extreme cases and in councils for consultation. 

He married, in October, 1872, Georgia M., 
daughter of Thomas M. Sheridan, of Enfield. 
They have four children, Burdett S., Clara B., 
Mat'ie L., and F.thel. 

Dr. Ailams is a member of the Homoeopathic 
Medical Society of Connecticut, of which he has 
been an officer for some years. 

He is also a director of the Connecticut Humane 
Society. This society, organized in 18S2, began 
active operations January i, 1883, under the presi- 
dency of Rodney Dennis, Esq., of Hartford. 

Dr. Adams was the first man in this part of the 
State to interest himself actively in this most 
benevolent movement. In this connection he has 
become widely known and recognized in the .State 
as a zealous and efficient officer in cases demand- 
ing the authoritative e.xercise of human mercy and 
kindness. In his official capacity, acting for the 
society, he has visited during these years scores 
of towns, and has relieved numerous cases of suffer- 
ing humanity, a!.so hundreds of animals maltreated 
and abused, and has given warnings and instituted 
prosecutions in many other instances. This ser- 
vice, voluntary and gratuitous, has been rendered 
amidst the arduous duties of a busy medical 
practice, and only a man of rare resolution, of 
peculiarly temperate habits and strong physical 
capacity, could perform and sustain such arduous 
labors. 



Through the activity of Dr. Adams, a general 
e.xamination and reconstruction of the pauper 
system of the State has been made, and from this 
already the attention of the Legislature has been 
aroused, and the condition of the poor has been 
relieved through laws enacted for their protection. 

Dr. Adams has vigorously opposed the "farm- 
ing out " system of poor relief, and he has urged ! 
in behalf of the insane a merciful care and treat- 
ment from the towns in which they reside. The 
attention of the Governor has also been called to 
this important subject, and a widespread and 
general interest has thus been awakened through- 
out the State. 

The purpose of the Humane Society, as stated 
in their charter, is "to promote humanity and 
kindness, and to prevent cruelty to both man and 
the lower animals, and generally to encourage 
justice and humanity and to discourage injustice 
and inhumanity." 

Dr. Adams' report for the ensuing year shows 
an increased list of cases relieved of hardship, 
suffering and cruelty, and by his personal courage 
and zeal some remarkable instances of inhumanity 
have been discovered, and, so far as possible, rem- 
edied. 

In addition to these public activities, Dr. Adams 
has been largely interested in oyster culture, and 
has entered into various other business enterprises, 
requiring their own outlay of means and methods. 

He thus fills up the measure of an uncommonly 
active and useful life. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE PRACTICE OF DENTISTRY. 

Coiiipiled under tUe direction of Dr. JOSEFH YL. SMITH, ^Member A.jn. r>ental Association. 



DENTISTRY was first practiced in New Haven 
by dentists residing in New York and making 
occasional excursions to this city. In the last decade 
of the eighteenth century, a Dr. Skinner advertises 
himself at intervals of two or three years as "Sur- 
geon-Dentist and Oculist from New York." " He 
performs every operation incident to the teeth and 
gums. He substitutes artificial teeth, from a single 
tooth to a complete set, in such a manner as can- 
not be distinguished by close inspection from those 
of the natural growth." 

In the first decade of the present century, J. B. 
Porter's name appears instead of that of Dr. Skinner. 
In 1804 he has taken a room opposite the Church 
in Church street. In 1805 he announces that "he 
expects to make New Haven his general place of 
residence, and in future shall advertise when out 
rather than when in town." In 1 806, Dr. Bradley, 
Dentist, from New York, offers his services to the 
people of New Haven. 

Even when a dentist made New Haven "his 
general place of residence, " he could not depend 
upon it at this early ])eriod of its growth for his en- 
tire support, but, as is evident from Dr. Porter's ad- 
vertisement, he must sometimes make professional 



excursions to other cities and towns. It is not 
known that any dentist was continuously resident 
in this city till 1828, when Zerah Hawley advertises 
that he performs all operations in dentistry in the 
neatest and most approved manner at his office in 
Orange street, two doors north of the New Haven 
Bank. Dr. Hawley continued to reside in New 
Haven many years, but was obliged to supplement 
the income from his profession with the rewards of 
other industries. He had the reputation of being 
an energetic rather than a gentle operator. 

Monsieur F. L. Morel, Surgeon-Dentist, from 
Paris, came to New Haven about a year after Dr. 
Hawley had established himself. At first he came 
for a transient visit. His advertisement is headed, 
Niiliii\r vilia aric reparala. His sympathy, neatness 
and skill brought him many patients, and after a 
second visit he made New Haven his residence. 
During his first season he operated at the Tontine. 
When he came the second time for a longer stay, 
he found an office over a milliner's shop in Chapel 
street. When he announced his indention to estab- 
lish himself here permanently, he took an office in 
the second story of the building at the corner of 
Chapel and Orange streets, since known as the 





^^2>^^^CX^ 



I 



THE PRACTICE OF DENTISTRY. 



295 



Townsend Savings Bank, the entrance being on 
Orange street. Afterward his operating-rooms were 
at his residence, a few doors further south on the same 
street. He spent about twenty years in New Haven, 
but returned in his old age to his native countr)-. 

Dr. John J. Stone established himself as a 
dentist in New Haven about the same time as 
Monsieur Morel, and resided here several years. 

Dr. J. B. Wheat was also one of the early 
dentists. Becoming the owner of a house, he had 
one element of permanency which his predecessors 
had lacked. His residence was in Chapel street, in 
the house next west of the Center Church Chapel. 

Later was Dr. Mallett, whose office was in the 
Shipman House, two doors west of the residence 
of Dr. Wheat. He afterwards removed to West 
Chapel street, where he occupied successively two 
houses, first one on the south side of the street, 
and afterward one on the north side of the street. 

William G. Munson, having learned the trade of 
a brassfounder with Nehemiah Bradley, turned away 
from that art to the practice of dentistry. He had 
for many years an office in Argyle street. As a 
recreation he sometimes painted landscapes. The 
view of the Green as it was in 1799, which hangs 
upon the walls of the Historical Society, was one 
of the productions of this amateur artist. 



In the Directory of 1848 the list of dentists has 
lengthened to the following; 

Cowles, E. B., Miller, Edward B., 

Crofut, E. C Morel, Louis F., 

Crosliy, C. O., Munsoii, W. Ci., 

Mallett, Samuel, Thompson, William M., 

Wieat, Jerome 15. 

In 1 86 1, the following persons were operators in 
dentistry in New Haven: 
Crosby, C. O., Munson, \V. G., 

Dibble, J. A., Riggs, J. D., 

Ely, C. L,, Reed, J. H., 

(iuiin, N. S., Smith, Augustus B., 

Hall, Fayette, Smith, J. H., 

Mallett, Samuel, Stevens, Henry J, 

Metcalf, John T. Strcmg, Elias, 

Morel, Louis F., Wheat, Jerome B. 

For comparison with this list we give thatof 1870: 

Fuller, Austin B., Reed, John H., 

Hall, Fayette, Stearns, George O., 

Gaylord, Edward S., Smith, Joseph IL, 

Gladwin, W. \V., Smith, A. B., 

Mallett, Samuel, Stevens, Henry J., 

Munson, W. G., Strong, A. E., 

'■^'ggs, Joseph D., Strong, Elias, 
Woolworth, Isaac. 

The dentists operating 

Bascom, Horace S., 
Brinkman, M. R., 
Brothers, Fred. J., 
Bushncll, John H., 
Church, D. L., 
Davis, W. S., 
Devereaux, A. J., 
Fuller, Austin 11 , 
Gaylord, Edward S., 
Gidney, George H., 
Hall, Fayette,' 
Horton, VV. S., 
Jones, ^[rs. E. R., 
Metcalf, William H., 
Minor, W. H., 



in the city in 18S6 are; 
Nettleton, George Edward, 
Peterson, George F., 
Reed, John H., 
Rice, Arthur ^i., 
Riggs, Joseph D., 
Ross, J. B., 
Smith, A. B., 
Smith, Joseph H., 
Stearns, George O., 
Stevens, Henry J., 
Stiles, L W., 
Stone, F. C., 
Strong, Ehas, 
.Swift, Frank C., 
Welch, J. F. 



if seated on a giant's 
than the giant. So a 
even if not eminent for 



The art of the dentist has made great progress in 
New Haven as well as elsewhere since the end of 
the last centur}-. The advertisement of the operator 
who came to our city on occasional visits from New 
York about ninety years ago makes large promises, 
but it is not credible that he could make "a com- 
plete set in such a manner as cannot be distinguish- 
ed by close inspection from those of the natural 
growth." The progress in the art has been made 
by the ingenuity of successive operators, each of 
whom availed himself of the ingenuity of his pre- 
decessors. 

It is sail! that a dwarf 
shoulders can see further 
dentist of the present day, 
natural abilitics,ought to be able to do better work 
than the most gifted man who wrought in the first 
half of the century. It is believed that the dentists 
of New Haven are not behind those of any other 
city in the knowledge of the improvements which 
have been made in their art, and that New Haven 
has contributed its full share to the work of im- 
provement. 

The principal operations of the dentist are ex- 
tracting, filling, and making artificial dentures. 

The oldest inhabitant, and some persons not 
quite so old, can remember the turnkey with which 
teeth were wrenched out of the jaw as the root of a 
tree is forced out of the ground by the stump-ex- 
tractor on a Western farm, or as logs at a saw-mill 
are rolled on to the ways by means of a cant-hook. 
Then came into use the sharp-ended forceps, which 
first cut the gums and then so seized the tooth by 
its neck that the operator had it in his power. 
The next step in progress was in the use of anes- 
thetics, and though the suggestion of this method 
of relieving patients from fear and pain was first 
made by Dr. Wells, of Hartford, in 1844, the ap- 
plication of the method to the extraction of teeth 
in large numbers was made in New Haven in 
1863. 

It happened in this wise. Mr. G. Q. Colton had 
been for many years a traveling lecturer, and, 
among other experiments illustrative of chemistry, 
had exhibited to his audiences the effects of nitrous 
oxide gas. When in Hartford, in 1S44, he had 
administered the gas to Dr. Horace Wells, a sur- 
geon-dentist, and a practitioner in Hartford. Other 
persons besides Dr. Wells submitted themselves to 
the experiment, and among them one who. in his 
antics while under the effects of the gas,severely in- 
jured his shins. When he recovered his conscious- 
ness. Dr. Wells inquired of him if he had felt any 
pain from his collisions with the benches, when 
the man assured him that he had felt no pain and 
was unaware of any injury. Dr. Wells immediately 
turned to a friend sitting by, and expressed a belief 
that a person would, by inhaling the gas, become so 
insensible that his teeth might be extracted without 
pain. The next day he tested his hypothesis by 
taking the gas in the office of a brother dentist. Dr. 
J. M. Riggs, who removed a large molar from 
the mouth of Dr. Wells, the patient exclaiming 
on coming back to consciousness. "A new era 



a96 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



in tooth-pulling! It did not hurt me more than 
the prick of a pin." 

But for eighteen years this discovery was of little 
practical benefit. Dr. Wells continued to make 
experiments in the use of ana:sthetics, and conceiv- 
ing that possibly chloroform or chloric ether might 
be preferable to nitrous o.xide gas, experimented 
with these substances upon himself till, his brain 
being fatally injured, he lost his reason and his life. 
Meanwhile the truth remained that nitrous oxide 
gas was a sale anx'sthetic. As such it was, in 1863, 
brought to the public attention. The same G. Q. 
Colton, whose exhibition of the effects of the gas 
had suggested to Dr. Wells its use in dentistry, was 
eighteen years afterward lecturing in New Haven. 
He was not a dentist or a surgeon, but a traveling 
lecturer on chemistry, who for a score of years had 
amused the public with exhibitions of the effects of 
this gas upon those in the audience who were wil- 
ling to take it. No ill effects had ever followed its 
administration. It happened that Dr. Joseph H. 
Smith, a dentist in New Haven, had a lady patient 
in a very delicate state of health, to whom he was 
unwilling to administer the vapor of ether. He 
applied to Mr. Colton for information in respect to 
the availability of the nitrous oxide, and the re- 
sponse being favorable, engaged him to bring some 
gas to his operating-room and administer it. Mr. 
Colton did so, and while the patient was under the 
influence of the gas, and before she was aware 
that anything had been done. Dr. Smith extracted 
seven teeth. She came to her consciousness ex- 
claiming, "They are out! God bless Mr. Colton." 

An arrangement was immediately made by which 
Mr. Colton attended daily at Dr. Smith's office to 
administer the gas, and public notice being given 
of the arrangement, crowds came to have their de- 
fective teeth drawn without pain. During the 
month of June not less than 1,785 teeth were ex- 
tracted by Dr. Smith for subjects under the influ- 
ence of nitrous oxide gas administered by Mr. Col- 
ton. The schedule which Dr. Smith kept, and 
afterwards affirmed under oath to be true, exhibits 
the following figures: 

Date. No. of Tcclh. Date No. of Teeth. 
June 1 20 June 15 77 



2. 

3- 
4- 
5- 
6. 
8. 

9- 
10, 

12. 

'3- 



■ 50 

• 17 

• 34 
. S7 

• 34 

•'45 
.127 

• 57 
■'34 

■ 92 



16. 

17- 
18. 

'9- 
22. 

23- 
24. 
25- 
26. 
29. 
30. 



85 

• 40 
■ 87 

• '4 

• 38 
. 86 

91 
. 104 
.107 
. 62 

• 92 



Total. 



',785 



Early in July, Dr. Smith and Mr. Colton went 
together to New York, and there established an an- 
aesthetic institution, called the Colton Dental Asso- 
ciation, for the painless extraction of teeth. From 
that time to the present day nitrous oxide gas has 
lieen used by dentists as an anaesthetic. 

When cocoaine, the new aniesthetic was first 
used in dentistry, great expectations were formed 



of its usefulness. But subsequent experience has 
caused our best operators to abstain either entirely, 
or almost entirely, from the use of cocoaine, and to 
confine themselves to the use of older and safer 
anaesthetics. 

Gold was the material first used in filling cavi- 
ties in teeth, and though many substitutes have 
been proposed, it still holds the first rank. There 
are many methods of preparing gold for the den- 
tist, but the improvements which have been made 
in preparing it belong to the art of the gold-beater 
rather than to the art of the dentist, and we pass 
on to the process of filling a tooth. The dentists 
of the olden time, having first cleaned the cavity, 
pushed the gold into it by hand. Afterward the 
mallet was used, and the blow was found to be 
much more efficient than the push. Dentists of 
the old school shuddered at the sight of a mallet, 
and one of them being present at a dental clinic in 
Boston, called out to the new school operator; 
" Take a sledge-hammer." But about a year later 
the operator at the clinic being on a tour through 
the Western States, called on his conservative 
brother in St. Louis and found him using a mallet. 
Mallets are of different kinds: there is the hand 
mallet, the automatic mallet, and the electric mal- 
let. Some dentists prefer one and some another 
kind; but all these have been used by New Haven 
dentists. 

By means of the mallet, teeth are not only filled, 
but built up. In the early period of dental work, 
patients were unwilling to have the gold visible; 
but at the present time some of our best-looking 
and most honored citizens cannot smile upon a 
friend without displaying a considerable wealth of 
the precious melal. Others wear molar crowns of 
the same material, but less exposed to public view. 

The Jarves Gallery in the Yale School of the Fine 
Arts, containing one hundred and twenty paintings 
ilating from the eleventh to the seventeenth centu- 
ries, illustrates by object-lessons the history of paint- 
ing during that period, as a collection of artificial 
dentures made in successive years from the infancy 
of dentistry to its present condition would illustrate 
the history of that art. There is no such collection 
of artificial dentures; but from descriptions of single 
specimens it is evident that mechanical dentistry 
has never been content with its achievements, but has 
made continual progress. A dentist of the olden 
time, after premising that his professional engage- 
ments were covered with a veil of secrecy, and that 
he had many a time sneaked by the back way into 
a back chamber to prepare and insert two or three 
teeth for a young lady, says: "We first, by meas- 
urement, fitted a block of the right curve to fill the 
space to be supplied with teeth, and then with a 
camel's hair pencil dipped in rouge mixed with al- 
cohol, painted the gum and pressed the block on 
to receive the red impression; then carved, scraped, 
gouged and dug; painted, and tried again; and so 
on until the best possible fit was secured. We then 
proceeded to carve out the teeth. It was rude- 
looking, but it filled the bill. We sawed every root 



THE PRACTICE OF DENTISTRY. 



297 



and pivoted to it, sometimes fitting six teeth to two 
roots. If the roots were gone, we tied the blocks 
in with silk thread or gold wire." 

The blocks of which he speaks were carved out 
of ivory; but a vacancy of one tooth was more fre- 
quently filled with a tooth which had previously 
been in the mouth of another human being or of 
an animal. 

' ' Following the carved work came the old 
French Bellah teeth. They were mounted on 
gold plate with a dowel pin soldered to the 
plate, and this soldered to the platina clamps 
baked in the tooth. They were opaque; a 
muddy hue; no life-like shade. Still they did 
not look bad in the mouth of an aged person. 
Then came the Stockton pivot teeth. They were 
a great improvement in their life-like appearance. 
We struck up a plate, soldered the gold pins to it 
and attached the teeth with hickory plugs; im- 
mersed them in water twelve hours or more, and 
then, with a great deal of anxiety, removed the 
plate and examined to see how many had burst by 
the swelling of the wood. We always directed 
our patients to keep them wet. If the patient was 
ill and by carelessness the teeth were suffered to 
get dry and tumble off, they were brought back to 
be again put on where they belonged. 

"Next came the single gum-teeth of Stockton 
with platina pins baked in the teeth. When 
Stockton first manufactured his single plain and 
his single gum teeth with platina pins, to be 
backed with gold and soldered to the plate, he 
kept it a secret. He had a large stock of pivot teeth 
on hand. He sent out peddlers in every direction, 
put the price down to ten cents each, for INIr. 
Stockton was ' going to change his business. ' In 
about one month other agents came around with 
the improved teeth. We were all sold; had to 
abandon the old pivot teeth and use the new. " 

The next step of progress in the manufacture of 
artificial dentures was the block gum. A cast is 
taken of the mouth with wax; a negative of the 
waxen cast is produced in plaster, into which metal 
is run so as to produce a fac-simile of the mouth 
in metal. A platina plate is then swaged to fit 
this metallic counterpart of the mouth. Of course 
it fits also the mouth itself, and, if the work is a 
success, it fits so closely that it will remain in place 
by atmospheric pressure. To this plate the teeth, 
having been backed with platina by the manufac- 
turer, are soldered with a solder of fine gold. The 



interstices are then filled with a paste composed of 
aluminium, feldspar and quartz, and the paste is 
built up into the shape of the gum, which in a 
young and healthy mouth surrounds the roots and 
necks of the teeth. The piece, thus brought into 
the desired shape, is then put into the oven and 
baked. On cooling it shows cracks or fissures, 
which necessitate another baking after the seams 
have been filled. A third baking, after the block 
has been washed with a mixture containing a large 
proportion of feldspar and quartz and a smaller 
proportion of clay, gives it a vitrified surface like 
the enamel of the natural teeth. This kind of den- 
ture is doubtless superior to all others; but the 
dilTiculty of making it is commensurate with the 
excellence of its quality, and very few dentists are 
disposed to set up a furnace and bake porcelain 
dentures when there is so much probability that 
the extreme heat to which the work must be ex- 
posed will shrink, warp, crack or bulge the porce- 
lain and make it worthless. 

It is wisest, and perhaps it is in the end most 
economical, ' ' to get the best;" but many are obliged 
by the want of present means to be content with 
cheaper work. Such have their choice of gutta 
percha, rubber, and celluloid; and of these sub- 
stances may be made, by skillful dentists, good 
and useful dentures. 

The laws of Connecticut put no obstacle in the 
way of any person who wishes to become an opera- 
tor in dentistry. He needs no diploma, he sub- 
jects himself to no examination. Of course an 
occupation which is open to all cannot be regarded 
as a learned profession. Individual dentists have 
made such attainments in general knowledge, in 
oral anatomy, and in dental surgery, as would 
justify a college in conferring upon them an hon- 
orary degree; but the practice of dentistry does not 
of itself indicate unusual intelligence either general 
or special. There is in New Haven no guild of 
dentists organized for the certification of its mem- 
bers and the implied disavowal of responsibility for 
all operators who have not joined the association. 
One of the duties which dentists in Connecticut 
who are conscious of merit owe to themselves, is 
to organize a guild for mutual certification, and 
another duty is to procure, if possible, legislation 
which will confine the practice of operative den- 
tistry to persons who have been examined and 
certified by some competent authority. 



298 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



CHAPTER XVI 



THE HARBOR AND WHARVES. 



BY CHARLES HERVEY TO\\']SrSHENI ). 



THE spacious Harbor of New Haven, one of 
the most picturesque on the New England 
coast, is situated at the confluence of the Quinni- 
piac. Mill and West Rivers, with its entrance about 
midwav in an indenture of the coast, described be- 
tween Stratford Point westwardly and Sachem's 
Head eastwardly, distant one from the other twenty 
nautical miles, and is about thirty-nine miles to the 
westward of the Race, and fifty miles to the east- 
ward of Eort Schuyler on Throg's Neck, the former 
being the eastern and the latter the w'estern entrance 
to Long Island Sound. 

Previous to 1614, this harbor was occasionally 
visited by vessels belonging to European nations, 
while on their voyages of exploration or of trade 
with the Indians, and soon after this date we find 
it claimed by both the English and the Dutch. The 
former claimed by right of Cabot's discovery and 
the latter by purchase, in 1633, from the Indians, 
and also by the explorations of Captain Adrian 
Block, a Dutch navigator in the employ of the East 
India Company of Holland, who sailed along this 
coast in 1614, locating and naming several impor- 
tant headlands, islands and bays, and giving their 
position on a chart sketched by him during this 
voyage of exploration. 

One of the most prominent objects in the fore- 
ground on approaching our harbor, is the new light- 
house on the west end of the east breakwater now 
in course of construction over the southwest ledge 
to Quixes Rock, the latter being marked with an 
iron spindle surmounted with a cask, and the ledge 
having at its w-est end an eight-sided iron light-house 
with a mansard roof painted red, and a lantern 
rising from its center. The whole fabric of the 
light-house is supported by an iron tubular foun- 
dation secured by heavy irons to the ledge. It 
shows a fixed light of the fourth order, which, from 
a height of fifty-seven feet above sea level, is visible 
thirteen nautical miles in clear weather. The geo- 
grajjhical position of this light-house is in latitude 
41'' h'oz" north and longitude 72° 54'45"west. 
It bears from Falkner's Island light-house W. by N. 
jj N., ten and three quarter miles, and from Hor- 
ton's Point light-house N.W. by W. \ W., nearly 
twenty-three miles distant. From the light-house 
the Old Field Point bears S.W. \ S., nearly eighteen 
miles; the Middle Ground S.W. ^ W., thirteen 
miles; the Eaton Neck S.W. \ W., a little over 
twenty-seven miles; and Stratford Point W. by S. 
I S. , nearly ten miles. A bell on the light-house 
is struck by machinery at intervals of fifteen seconds 
during thick weather; but in the writer's opinion 
this should be supplemented by a steam fog trum- 
pet to be heard at least five miles in calm weather, 
and by a life-saving station at the old light-house. 

One statute mile N. N. E. f E. from this light- 
house, is the old discontinued stone light-house on 



the eastern point of entrance to the harbor, called 
Five-mile Point or Morris Point. Built in 1S40, 
this handsome structure of stone, painted white, 
with its black lantern elevated 90 feet above sea 
level, is a picturesque landmark, dear to the New 
Havener, and should never be taken down as it 
answers many valuable purposes. It is a guide by 
day to vessels in the offing; a station for triangula- 
tion; and, in case of accident to the breakwater 
light-house, it can be restored, at short notice, to 
its ancient function. 

This old light-house is also, at this date, doing 
valuable service as a United States Signal Station, 
giving timely notice to the fleets of sail and steam 
vessels that navigate Long Island Sound, of the 
approach of dangerous storms from land or sea. 
As view-ed from the City of New Haven it stands 
out alone, and to the writer is a bcati ideal of a 
light-house. As viewed from off" shore, it seems to 
stand, with the keeper's house and the Grove House, 
a summer hotel, both painted white, in a clump of 
scrub trees with a grove of taller trees behind it. 
The point on which it stands is faced from its rocky 
base seaward to tide level with bare rocks, forming 
at this east entrance to our harbor the outer horn 
of the crescent-shaped Morris Cove ; while Fort 
Hale, named for the patriot martyr, stands on a 
ledge of similar rocks, one and a half miles further 
north, as if to complete the beautiful symmetry of 
the cove. 

The shore within this outer horn of the crescent 
is faced with a conglomerate granite, and is beauti- 
fully wooded quite up to the portals of the ancient 
stone mansion of the Morris family. Here the town 
records of East Haven were kept for sixty years, and 
from this house were taken, in the dead of night. 
Captain Amos Morris and his son, by a raiding 
gang of Tories from Huntington, L. I., and carried 
to New York to be confined in the Jersey prison 
ship. ' 

Nearly opposite the residence, and built soon 
after 1670, on the spot where the original grantee 
first landed, is the old wharf, the site of ancient 
salt works. It is built of heavy boulders of the 
same kind of stone as is the mansion-house, and 
we have been told that they were put in place by 
giant Indians, who came from the east end of Long 
Island to assist Thomas Morris in this undertaking. 
At this wharf is shown, by the descendants of its 
builder, dry land, where vessels in early times w^ere 
moored afloat, giving evidence of the evaporation 
of the water in our harbor during these two hun- 
dred years. From Morris Wharf northward, the 
shore changes from bare rocks to a beautifully 
faced sandy beach, topped with a grassy mound, 
and continuing the crescent for nearly a mile — an 
unbroken beacli to the abrupt basaltic bluff known 
as the Palisades, distant from Fort Hale, on the 



e 

i 



THE HARBOR AXD WHARVES. 



299 



north horn of the crescent, one-fourth of a mile; 
and above this pebbly beach, reddened by surf, 
which has rolled unobstructed for more than thirty 
miles, are green meadows and the beautifully 
wooded heights of Raynham, surmounted by the 
higher slopes of the historic Beacon Hill. 

From Fort Hale to the King's Island, a rocky 
formation, and a part of the Government property, 
on which a brick house, now standing, was built 
during the War of 1S12, in place of the wooden 
quarters which had been twice burned b}" the enemy 
in the Revolutionary War, the shore trends north- 
wardly, turfed with beach grasses, and paved below 
high-water mark, by the action of the sea, with 
small black cobble-stones on both sides of a creek, 
which forms part of the East Moat, and allows an 
overflow to the meadows, much to their detriment, 
during the spring tides. 

Beyond this island a sandy beach and diked em- 
bankment protects the shores of the bridged creek, 



the shore across the east causeway of Tomlinson's 
Bridge to Stable Point, passing a few rods north 
of the causeway a solitary locust scaffold post, the 
only one now left of several which were standing 
here when the barque Panthea was launched in 
1820, built and owned by Jehiel and Samuel 
Forbes. 

From Stable Point northward we cross the Little 
River, so called, which is but a marsh, to the 
wharf of the E. S. Wheeler Company's works. 
Then, on the new bridge over the Quinnipiac, we 
cross that river to Grape-vine Point, to the wharf 
where the Hoyt Brothers Company ship immense 
quantities of oysters to Europe and all parts of our 
own country. 

This wharf, owned by C. S. Maltby, built in 1855 
on the site of the old Gesner Ship-yard, and that 
at the Bigelow Boiler Works, built iu 18S3, are the 
only wharves on Grape-vine Point, save a few piles 
which make a landing at the boat-house of the 



J f .\ ; 




Conscript Camp (Grape-vine Point). 



which has its outlet near the building and wharves 
of the Townsend Brothers' Shell-fish Culture. 
These are the only wharves in use at this date on 
the east shore between Tomlinson's Bridge and 
the light-house, save a remnant of the ancient 
Morris Wharf built two hundred years ago. There 
have been, however, several pile wharves built in 
Morris Cove w-hich have been destroyed by the 
bore of the teredo and the action of gales on an 
enormous body of ice, which carries everything 
attached to it seaward. 

The shores of the marsh, from Fort Hale through 
the Raynham District.to Crane's Bar and Sagamore 
Creek, is faced with fine sand and sedge banks; 
while the salt meadows, extending backward a short 
distance, meet the gently sloping grass land dotted 
with ornamental trees of rich and variegated foliage, 
behind which is the before mentioned Beacon Hill. 

From Sagamore Creek we leave the salt mea- 
dows, and follow the alternating sand and sedge of 



Yale navy, formerly the site of the Post and Gris- 
wold Ship-yards after their removal from Ferry 
Point, and the two sewers at Poplar street and 
James street. During the latter part of the War of 
the Rebellion, Grape-vine Point was the scene of 
great military activity. Here was Camp Terry, one 
of four conscript camps established in different 
parts of the State. Temporary buildings were 
erected for barracks. There were frequent arrivals 
of squads of recruits from towns whose quota was 
not full, and there were constant drills. 

The Quinnipiac and the Mill Rivers above 
the Chapel street Bridge have had all their 
wharves built since 1820, and as this property 
has frequently changed owners, we will not follow 
it further north than the Chapel street Bridge. 
Between it and the west end of Tomlinson's Bridge 
are the timber booms of the New Haven Steam Saw- 
mill, and a valuable frontage owned by the Messrs. 
Fitch, which adjoins the west causeway to Tomlin- 



300 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



\ 



son's Bridge at the Old Ferry Point or foot of Bridge 
street, where are the wharves of the Consolidated 
Railroad Company. 

The western boundary of the entrance to New 
Haven Harbor is called Oyster River Point. It lies 
W. f S. from Five Mile Point and is distant from it 
about three and a quarter miles. This point is low 
and grassy at its southern extremity, but further 
north the land rises with a gentle slope to a 
wooded crest about forty feet high. 

All along the western shores of this harbor is to 
be seen highly cultivated land studded with houses, 
and at Savin Rock are many elegant summer resi- 
dences. These seaside resorts seem to extend quite 
back to the flourishing borough of West Haven, a 
part of the town of Orange, and separated from the 
City of New Haven by West River. 

From Oyster River Point, the land back from the 
shore is high, undulating and partly wooded, but 
mostly cleared near the beach. The Savin Rock 
Bluff is about forty feet above sea level, with steep 
faces topped with trees and grassy summits. The 
land lies low near it and it is not perceived from 
the approaches to the harbor, as the high lands 
above show with such prominence. About two 
hundred yards to the southward of Savin Rock 
Bluff is a ledge, bare at low water and known as Savin 
Rock Ledge, and here empties the Cove Creek. 
The shore extends from Savin Rock about E. by N. 
for about a mile, and the beach is composed of 
hard sand, with a flat which dries at low water quite 
up to Sandy Point, which has now a jetty in course 
of construction by the Government, to be completed 
in the form of a letter L, intended to utilize the 
tidal scour across the Pardee Bar and deepen the 
channel by means known in hydraulics and suc- 
cessfully used on the Mississippi, the Rhine, and 
the Clyde. 

From Sandy Point, extending northwardly about 
one mile, is the beach, the whole length of which 
one hundred years ago was a dry sand spit, over- 
grown with beach grass and bushes; on which men 
now living inform the writer that they have picked 
berries, and driven in a wagon, at high water, to the 
parallel of Oyster Point, where stood a small house 
for the storage of tools used in the repair of ves- 
sels. 

Sandy Point, which is not visible from the mouth 
of the harbor, and is noticed only when one passes 
abreast of it, is a long, narrow point of bare sand 
with a few clumps of wire grass upon it. At low 
water the bare sand may be seen extending in an 
easterly direction three-fourths of a mile parallel with 
the shore. On the southerly extremity of this point 
stands a watch-house to protect the oyster beds in 
the vicinity; and another on piles, both painted 
white, is at the northern extremity of the beach, 
on a sand-spit which also dries at low water. Be- 
hind Sandy Point the western shore of the harbor 
makes about N. N. W. for nearly a mile to the 
mouth of West River, which runs through a salt 
marsh, and is the boundary between the town of 
Orange and the City of New Haven. 

The east point of this river is the southern ex- 



tremity of the City of New Haven, and is known as 
Oyster Point or City Point. 

It took its name of Oyster Point from an im- 
mense deposit of oyster shells found there, giving 
evidence of its having once been the site of an 
Indian village. The shore northward from it for 
three-quarters of a mile to West Creek, now 
drained into the sewer under Commerce street, 
was originally a bluff-faced plateau, twenty feet 
high in some places, with a strip of land of easy 
grade between the bluff and the water. Mount 
Pleasant, at whose base the West Creek flowed 
into the harbor, was once the seat of earthworks 
thrown up during the Revolutionary War. The 
West Creek was crossed at its outlet by the Trow- 
bridge Dike, its sluice being located at the north 
side of Lego's store, now standing. 

The West Creek was used in early times for 
navigation nearly up to the comer of York and 
George streets, and vessels of considerable size un- 
loaded their cargoes at College street, as has been 
shown by the discovery of a ship's skeleton in the 
rear of the old Wooster House. The course of the 
brook which fed this creek may now be traced by 
the gully in the garden of Mr. D. W. Buckingham 
in Chapel street, and even further on toward the 
corner of Howe and Elm streets. Just above the 
sluice, at its mouth, was a minor branch of this 
creek, penetrating westward through the ravine in 
which now runs the Derby Railroad. On the 
shore of the main branch, in a line parallel with 
George street, were numerous tanneries. At the 
outlet of the creek into the harbor, and on its 
eastern bank, was the Greenough Ship-yard, facing 
a small cove in the harbor, which was in part 
occupied w^ith lumber booms for the floatage of 
spars, logs and other lumber needed in the con- 
struction and repair of vessels. 

The shore between the East and West Creeks 
seems to have been open to the public until the 
town sold water lots, and granted the right to 
wharf ofT. The site for Long Wharf was granted 
November 23, 1663, to Mr. Samuel Bache, fifty or 
sixty feet out on the flats, and called a dock or 
wharf The flag-staff in Custom-house square 
stands very near the land-ward boundary of the 
grant. Mr. Jonathan Atwater next owned the 
land thus granted to Mr. Bache. In June, 1682, 
Mr. Thomas Trowbridge received a grant of land 
"by the waterside" for a warehouse and wharf, 
twenty-two feet wide, thirty feet from high-water 
mark upward, and two or three rods out on the 
flat. This wharf was at the foot of Fleet street, ex- 
tending eastward. It joined Mr. Bache's grant, and 
from these two grants, all since granted to Union 
or Long Wharf take their start from the shore. 

Long Wharf has been one of the important insti- 
tutions of New Haven, and the writer refers all 
who are interested in its history to a most interest- 
ing and valuable paper printed in the first volume 
of the New Haven Colony Historical .Society's 
Collections, written by Thomas R. Trowbridge, a 
descendant of the before mentioned grantee. 

This wharf, of only a few hundred feet in length, 
was the only one used by the general public 



THE HARBOR AND WHARVES. 



301 



previous to the War of the Revolution. There 
was, however, a pier built of wood and stone on 
the west side of the channel of the harbor, of 
measurement about eighty feet square, where vessels 
could lie afloat at all stages of the tide. In 1772 
an effort was made, by means of a lottery, to raise 
funds to connect the pier with the wharf; but the 
war coming on, nothing was accomplished until 
about 1 8 ID, when, as Mr. Trowbridge informs us, 
1,500 feet of the wharf was built by William Lam- 
son, who quarried the stone at East Rock, and by 
means of scows put it in place. According to the 
same authority, the wharf and pier measure 3,480 
feet. I am informed by Captain Lyman Osborn, 
now in his g5th year, that he well remembers the 
filling of this structure with mud, taken from the 
flats when the tide was out, and dumped between 
the walls at high water. 

The pier, which is shown in President Stiles' 
map of our harbor, was of great utility to the com- 
mercial interests of the port, as the largest vessels 
of that day could remain moored to it at all stages 
of the tide. It was made use of by the invading 
foe on the 5th of July, 1 779, who took possession 
of it with a flotilla, and established upon it a 
battery to cannonade the town. 

The length of the harbor, measured from Grape- 
vine Point to the new light-house along the center 
of the channel, which takes nearly a north and 
south direction, is about four nautical miles, and 
its width at high water, from Fort Hale to Sandy 
Point, is about one nautical mile. The bottom is 
composed of mud and ooze with a growth of sea- 
weed, except on Crane's Black Rock Bar, and the 
Beach, which is dry at low tide, leaving in the 
channel from the Pardee Bar to the wharves an aver- 
age depth of fourteen feet, except in Deep Hole, off" 
the head of the Beach, where there is a depth of 
twenty feet at low water. On each side of the 
channel are the fiats, which commence on the west 
side below Sandy Point, and on the east side at 
Fort Hale. These have been sold by the towns 
to be used for the cultivation of oysters. 

The before-mentioned wharves seem to be the 
only wharf grants before the Revolution, except 
two or three small wharves or landing places owned 
by the Peck and Atwater families, and a large land- 
ing place at the foot of Meadow street, prepared 
for some Jewish merchants of Newport, R.I., who 
were expected to remove to New Haven. This ex- 
pectation not being fulfilled, Messrs. Prescott & 
Sherman bought the valuable property, and here 
transacted a large foreign and domestic business. 

About 1848, the New York and New Haven 
Railroad acquired a right of way across Long 
Wharf, through property owned by Prescott & Sher- 
man and H. & L. Hotchkiss, and across the flats 
from Long Wharf to Mount Pleasant on the West 
Shore, and, building their road across the flats, 
inclosed a large area with an embankment six feet 
above high water, allowing the ingress and egress 
of the tides by a sluice. This inclosed area has 
lately been filled in, and a part of it occupied with 
the new passenger station and the machine-shop 
and wharves of the Consolidated Railroad. 



The harbor front between the East Creek and 
Ferry Point is elevated above sea level from twenty 
to thirty feet, and has always been known as the 
Bank or Bankside — a name which may have been 
suggested by the Bankside at Southwark, London 
Bridge, whence some of the first planters of New 
Haven came. In length it is about three-fourths 
of a mile; faces the harbor southward, and a plateau 
called the Oyster-shell Field northward. 

I am informed by the Hon. James E. English, 
that within his own remembrance most of the im- 
provements on this side of the harbor have been 
made. From his report and the records of the 
Proprietors' Committee, I am led to the belief that 
the only wharf on this water front (the Bank) 
previous to 1 700 was the town ship-yard at the foot 
of Olive street, deeded by the town in 1871 (Ben- 
jamin Beecher and James E. English, then Select- 
men) to the city for the use of the Fire Department. 
The Water street Engine-house now marks the 
site. The wharf, ship-yard and spar dock were 
public property, and the frontage was used to stow 
timber, heave down or haul out vessels for repairs. 
Here also were the timber-booms, used as late as 
1849 by Daniel'CoUins, spar-maker. It is said that 
nearly all of our vessels were built at this ship- 
yard before William Greenough came from Boston 
and located on the east bank of the West Creek. 
Next west of the Engine-house, on the site of the 
New Haven and Northampton Railroad oflice, and 
directly opposite the Benedict Arnold House, was 
granted a wharf site by the Selectmen to Hezekiah 
Sabin, 160 feet into the harbor down the Bank. 
The said Sabin was to build a wharf, and allow all 
vessels to land fish, salt and wood at said wharf 
free of all charge. This property was in 1869 sold 
to the New Haven and Northampton Railroad 
Company by Governor English, who employed the 
Hon. Henry White to furnish from the record the 
names of all the proprietors from the first grantee, 
and when he sold it to the railroad he surrendered 
the abstract of deeds. 

There was a small landing-place at the Pottery, 
next east of the ship-yard; and about 1790, Isaac 
Tomlinson and others built the Tomlinson Wharves 
on both sides of Brewery street, now occupied by 
the Messrs. Benedict, Messrs. English &. Holt, and 
the DeForest & Hotchkiss Company. When the 
Farmington Canal, which was constructed for trans- 
portation to and from tide waters to the interior, 
required a terminal basin, the angle in the flats 
between Tomlinson's Wharf and Long Wharf was 
inclosed by building the Basin Wharf, now a con- 
tinuation of Brewery street, having near its east 
and west extremities two sluices with tide-gates, 
which allowed canal boats and barges to pass in 
and out. There was also a sluice cut through 
Tomlinson's Wharf, and a tide mill erected thereon 
by Mr. Shaw of the West Indies, a son-in-law of 
Captain Elnathan Attwater, who, in company with 
Captain George Rowland, operated this mill till 
Captain Rowland built a mill on the canal at Lock 
No. I, between Cherry and Chapel streets. 

On the Brewery street wharves, cargoes of great 
value were received from and discharged into ware- 



If I 



302 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



houses built over slips, constructed for the recep- 
tion of molasses for the neighboring distilleries. 
These wharves have been made historic by the em- 
barkation here on the 19th of November, 1822, of 
the first reinforcement of missionaries to the Sand- 
wich Islands, who sailed in the ship Thames, of 
New Haven, Captain Clasby.* 

This water front has now been, nearly all of it, 
filled in by the New Haven and Northampton 
Railroad Company, organized under the laws of 
Massachusetts and Connecticut, with the right to 
utilize the abandoned bed of the Farmington Canal, 
a scheme conceived by Messrs. Joseph E. Sheffield 
and Henry Farnam, assisted by their attorney. 
Professor Isaac H. Townsend, who incorporated 
into the charter the right to wharf off" to the chan- 
nel. Availing themselves of this right, the com- 
pany constructed a wharf in 1858, which is a most 
valuable property, as a draft of twenty-two feet has 
been taken from it to sea by a large ocean steamer 
chartered by the Winchester Arms Company. 

About 1800, the Proprietors' Committee granted 
to Isaac Tomlinson, Kneeland and Isaac Town- 
send, and other proprietors on the Bank, si.x rods, 
from high-water mark, of the flat into the harbor, 
they to build a straight sea wall from Brewery 
street to Ferry Point; change the roadway along 
the shore upon the bank, so forming Water street; 
and to keep said street in repair. 

Near the foot of Hamilton street was a small 
ravine, over which was built a stone bridge. This 
ravine had been used before the Revolutionary War 
by General Wooster to convey his cargoes taken 
from vessels in the harbor, across the fields in scows, 
to his storehouse near the corner of Wooster and 
Chestnut streets. In this ravine was Mr. Bradley's 
ship-yard and next east of it was a small wharf be- 
longing to and in front of the residence of Captain 
Daniel Green. Here Captain Green landed and 
stored several very valuable China and India car- 
goes, including that brought by the Neptune — the 
richest of all cargoes ever brought into New Haven. 

Next east of Green's Wharf, on the site now oc- 
cupied by the Sargent Manufacturing Company, 
ran the sea wall in front of the residence of the 
late Kneeland Townsend to Wallace street. Be- 
tween Wallace and East streets the whole water 
front along the sea wall was laid out in pleasure 
grounds belonging to and in front of the Pavilion 
Hotel, built for the accommodation of travelers to 
and from New Haven on the steamboats Fulton 
and United States. These boats changed their 
landing place from Long Wharf to a new wharf, 
built along the channel south of Tomlinson's bridge 
and approached over the west causeway. This 
was the first, and continued to be, the only wharf 
connected with Tomlinson's Bridge until about 
1840, when the Belle Dock was built to accommo- 
date the steamer Belle. A few years earlier. Colo- 
nel Moseley built a wharf between Belle Dock and 
the Pavilion Gardens, which he sold to Abraham 
Heaton. This is still known as Heaton's Wharf 

Having thus noticed the wharves around the har- 

* See Chapter on Commerce. 



bor, it only remains to describe the improvements 
of the harbor which are in contemplation and have 
been commenced. 

The commercial importance of this port has 
long been known, and its ability to collect and 
pay into the treasury of the Government large sums 
of money is proved by the records of the Custom 
House, it being the seventh in a column of sea- 
ports arranged according to the amount paid into 
the treasury of the United States for duties on im- 
ports. 

The harbor affords safe refuge from all gales 
between E.S.E. around northward to W.S.W., and 
when the great national works are completed 
which have been ordered by the United States 
Government, it will afford safe refuge during gales 
from all directions. 

The latest harbor chart, issued in 1878 by the 
United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, gives at 
the entrance to the port, at low water, on the paral- 
lel of the new light-house, twenty-four feet draft — 
four feet more than on the bar at Sandy Hook — 
which gradually shoals in the channel to nineteen 
feet on the parallel of the old light-house, one 
statute mile distant, and to thirteen feet over the 
Pardee Bar on the way to the city wharves; and as 
the mean rise of tide is from six to seven feet, and 
is often increased by spring tide and conditions of 
wind to eight feet and even ten feet, vessels of 
twenty-two feet draft may usually reach the docks 
without detention. 

A scheme for improving and deepening this 
harbor to twenty feet at mean low water, which 
will give twenty-six feet, or more at high water, to 
the wharves, is being slowly carried out by the 
United States Government. It is expected that 
when these improvements are completed, the har- 
bor will admit, at high water, vessels of the largest 
draft. As the bottom of the channel is composed 
of soft silt, its dredging will require, as compared 
with other harbors, not a great outlay. The favor- 
able position of this harbor has been long since 
recognized. It lies midway of Long Island Sound 
at the head of an indenture into the coast of Con- 
necticut, which describes an arc of more than 200 
degrees, and has an area seaward of several miles 
of good anchorage, and a suffici^t depth of water 
for the largest vessels. The harbor having by rea- 
son of its geographical position and natural capa- 
bilities, valuable advantages as a mart of commerce, 
a scheme was conceived, and first publicly advoca- 
ted in the year 1870, to improve it by inclosing 
from Long Island Sound, at the entrance of the 
harbor, an area several times the capacity of the 
harbor as it now is, by means of breakwaters, as 
has been done at Cherbourg, France, and Plymouth, 
England, and so form a spacious roadstead or low- 
er harbor as a port of refuge fit to accommodate 
the enormous amount of tonnage that passes 
through the Sound, which by estimate now carries 
more value to and from the port of New York than 
passes over Sandy Hook Bar. 

The scheme having been advocated by its early 
friends on every suitable occasion in the meetings 




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THE HARBOR AND WHARVES. 



303 



of the New Haven Chamber of Commerce, took 
the shape, in the latter part of 1873, of a petition 
to Congress. This petition signed not only by 
committees from the New Haven city government, 
the Chamber of Commerce and the Harbor Com- 
missioners, but by a large number of citizens inter- 
ested in commercial pursuits, from Maine to Geor- 
gia, was placed in the hands of the representative 
in Congress of the district which includes New 
Haven, "the Hon. Stephen W. Kellogg, to secure this 
improvement for the benefit of foreign and do- 
mestic commerce in general, and in particular of 
that which has its home in New Haven. It was 
claimed that the geographical position of this dis- 
trict, bordering upon Long Island Sound, and 
actually paying large custom duties into the Treas- 
ury of the United States, gave ample claim for sup- 
port to the effort thus made. Mr. Kellogg ably 
advocated the petition, and secured for it a refer- 
ence to the Committee on Rivers and Harbors, 
who made a favorable report and recommended 
an appropriadon of $100,000 to locate and com- 
mence the construction of a breakwater on Long 
Island Sound. 

For some reason, however, not satisfactorily ex- 
plained, this recommendation was crossed off from 
the River and Harbor Bill, and nothing more was 
done in advocacy of this improvement till the year 
1879. Then the Hon. Hobart B. Bigelow, since Gov- 
ernor of Connecticut, was elected Mayor of the city, 
and through his efforts, seconded by those of the 
Hon. N. D. Sperry, the Hon. Cyrus Northrop, the 
Hon. Henry G. Lewis, Thomas R.Trowbridge, Esq., 
Charles Hervey Townshend, and other progressive 
citizens, this measure was revived, and by the joint 
action of the City Government, the Harbor Com- 
missioners, and the Chamber of Commerce, a com- 
mittee was appointed to ask the immediate action 
of the Government on this scheme, favorably and 
honorably recommended, but so long kept in 
abeyance to the great injury of commerce. This 
committee, consisting of the Hon. Hobart B. 
Bigelow, then Mayor; Messrs. George M. Har- 
mon and William Fuller, on the part of the Board 
of Aldermen; Messrs. M. Frank Tyler and George 
R. Cooley, on the part of the Board of Common 
Council; and Messrs. N. D. Sperry, Henry G. 
Lewis and Charles Hervey Townshend, on the part 
of the Chamber of Commerce, proceeded at once 
to Washington, in accordance with an arrangement 
made by the Hon. James Phelps, then the repre- 
sentative of this district in Congress, to whom great 
credit is due for his zeal in forwarding efforts for 
this and other measures of national importance. 
By his arrangement the delegation appeared before 
the Committees of Congress on Commerce and on 
Rivers and Harbors, who were so thoroughly con- 
vinced of the imporiance of a harbor of refuge in 
Long Island Sound, that they made another report 
favorable to the prayer of the petitioners and rec- 
ommended an appropriation of $30,000 to defray 
the expenses of a board of engineers, who should 
proceed to Long Island Sound and, after investiga- 
tion, locate a proper site for such artificial harbor 
and commence its construction. 



The favorable reports of these committees being 
approved by both Houses of Congress, a bill was 
passed directing the Secretary of War to order the 
Chief of Engineers of the United States Army to call 
a board of competent engineers to proceed to Long 
Island for the purpose stated. The board entrusted 
with this work consisted of Generals Tower, New- 
ton, Abbott, and Colonel Barlow, the officer in 
charge of this district. It is said to have comprised 
engineering ability equal to any in the world. 

These officers at once proceeded to make the 
preliminary examinations, and, after much study of 
the subject, unanimously recommended that two 
breakwaters be built in Long Island Sound, off the 
lower bay at New Haven, as the indenture here in 
the coast of Connecticut seemed best suited for the 
general benefit. It was recommended that the 
east breakwater should commence at the light- 
house on southwest ledge, which lies in mid-chan- 
nel, thereby utilizing this ledge, which is about six- 
teen hundred feet in length and has less than six 
feet of water at its shoalest point at extreme low 
tide, and extend to Quixes Rock, now marked 
with an iron spindle. The west breakwater is to 
commence near Luddington"s Rock, which lies 
southward two and three-quarter miles from Sandy 
Point, and run westwardly; protecting the anchor- 
age in the lower harbor and Morris Cove from 
heavy southwest gales; relieving the upper harbor 
from vessels seeking refuge; and leaving the chan- 
nel clear by day and night for vessels and steamers 
to reach the docks. 

When these breakwaters are completed, it is ex- 
pected that the east and west tides in the Sound 
will be so concentrated that the scour, assisted by 
the ebb tide out of the harbor and the accumulated 
water from the rivers, will act as a driving force to 
carry seaward an enormous quantity of mud which 
otherwise would deposit in the harbor an accumu- 
lating sediment. 

The following estimates were made by the Board 
of Engineers. 

For the East Breakwater from the New Light- 
house to Quixes Ledge: 

Length 1, 100 y.ards. 

Average height 32 feet 

Cross section 299 yards. 

Cost, 328,900 cubic yards, at $2 per 

yard $657,800. 

For the West Breakwater: 

Length 1,4°° yards. 

Average height 38 feet. 

It has however been more recently proposed to 
increase the length of the west breakwater three- 
fold, in order to include a greater area and thus 
form a more spacious roadstead. The cost of the 
west breakwater according to this later plan would 
amount to about $1,500,000. 

Space will not permit of inserting in full the re- 
port made by the Board of Engineers. We only 
copy a few words which they say in conclusion. 

" If the question be simply to provide safe refuge 
for coastwise vessels drawing not more than twelve 
feet of water, during the prevailing storms on the 



304 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



Sound, as the anchorage in the vicinity of Fort 
Hale is covered against all gales from the east and 
southeast, the only protection required is from 
southwest gales, which can be secured by building 
a dike, similar to that proposed by Major Barlow, 
on the west side of the channel. 

"Prominent citizens of New Haven are of the 
opinion that the light-house breakwater is the more 
important of the two, and that it should be built 
first. The opinion is doubtless correct, if the com- 
parative frequency and severity of easterly storms 
be alone considered; but if an easterly storm be 
followed by one from the southwest or west-south- 
west, the anchorage under the east breakwater 
would be rendered dangerous, owing to the indif- 
ferent holding ground and to the presence of ledges 
of rock and a rocky shore leeward. Hence the 
Board are of the opinion that, after the completion 
of a certain portion of the easterly breakwater, the 
westerly one should be promptly commenced." 

This report was signed by Z. B. Tower, Colonel 
of Engineers and Brevet Major-General U. S. A. ; 
John Newton, Colonel of Engineers and Brevet 
Major-General U. S. A. ; Henry L. Abbott, Major 
of Engineers and Brevet Brigadier-General U. S. A. 
After the breakwater had been commenced, the 
site was inspected by Brigadier-General Wright, 
Chief of Engineers U. S. A., who remarked that 
the work should have been commenced fifty years 

ago. 

In making their selection the Board took into 
consideration the benefits which might be attained, 
both of a local and of a national character; not 
only the commercial advantages to be reaped, but 
the value of a port of refuge as a rendezvous for 
deep draft vessels, ocean steamers and iron-clad 
ships in time of peace or war; and also the value 
of the breakwater as a site for iron-clad forts for the 
defense of New Haven, as a large, wealthy city and 
an important terminus of transportation. 

Not only were these important matters consider- 
ed, but also the report of the United States Signal 
Officer as to prevailing winds, and the Coast and 
Geodetic Survey Tidal Reports were carefully in- 
vestigated. 

It was shown that not alone would this section 
of the country be benefited, but that in a port of 
refuge oft" a large city like New Haven, ships wind- 
bound and in distress that pay annually tonnage, 
custom duties, and other taxes to the United States 
Government, could obtain supplies better than at 
a port where commercial facilities were inferior, 
even if the harbor were equally commodious. 
Again, it was shown that the position of New Ha- 
ven being so near the eastern entrance of the Sound, 
the numerous steamers leaving New York would 
have refuge further on in their eastward course than 
in the harbor of Huntington and Cow Bay, and 
could start out, whether bound coastwise or abroad, 
even in threatening weather, with all confidence, 
having such a port of refuge easily approached from 
all directions by the use of the lead in snowstorms 
and fog, and being, while in snug harbor, in an ad- 
vanCigeous position for the first favorable shift of 
wind. 



This harbor of refuge, though of great value to 
the nation as soon as the two breakwaters are com- 
pleted, will be increasingly important with the pro- 
gress of time. A century hence the shores of the 
Sound will be lined with cities, whose aggregate 
population will reach into the millions, and the 
great City of New York will have passed across the 
County of Westchester to occupy a long water-front 
on East River above Hell Gate and on the Sound. 



THE TOWNSEND FAMILY. 

Genealogical and Biographical. 

Of mixed Saxon and Norman origin, the Town- 
send, or Townshend, families of England and 
America trace their descent from a family of great 
antiquity in County Norfolk, England. In his 
"Peerage of England," Collins puts Walter Atte 
Townshende, son of Sir Lodovic de Townshende, 
a Norman nobleman who flourished soon after the 
conquest, at die head of the family. It seems that 
this Sir Lodovic de Townshende married Elizabeth 
de Hauteville, daughter of Sir Thomas de Haute- 
ville, and sole heiress of the Manors of Raynham. 
She was of the family of de Hauteville, or Haville, 
then a most important one socially and politically. 
"They were," says Collins, "of Norman extrac- 
tion, and, settling in the county of Norfolk, became 
possessed of a considerable property, said to have 
been granted them by William the Conqueror, a 
portion of which, by this marriage, came to the 
Townshend family." 

It is not in consonance with our purpose to re- 
cord the tracing of the genealogy of this family in 
its various branches, so ably accomplished by Mr. 
Charles Hervey Townshend, and so well known to 
readers of New England history and genealogy 
through his interesting book, "The Townshend 
Family of Lynn in Old and New England, Genea- 
logical and Biographical. New Haven, Conn., 
Revised fourth edition, 1884," but the following 
quotation relative to the orthography of this ancient 
family name * will be found of no slight interest. 

' ' The first part, de and Atte, seems to have been 
dropped during the fourteenth century, and from 
this time down to the dawn of Puritanism, as many 
as twelve different ways of spelling the name have 
been found. Thus : Tounsend, Tounneyshende, 
Towneshende, Towenshende, etc. About a. d. 
1 500, we learn it became fashionable to cut down 
still more; so Towneshende was abridged by drop- 
ping the e in the first and the h and the e in the 
last syllables, which abridged form seems at this 
time to have been generally adopted by the differ- 
ent branches of the family. But soon after the year 
15S0, the chief family at Raynham, finding that this 
mode gave a wrong signification to their name, as 

• Blomfield mentions the Manor of Townesond, Raynham, Norfolk. 
Norfolk charlers of the eleventh and twelfth centuries spell the name 
Ad-Capul-Ville, de Hauteville, de Haville, Ad-Exitum-Ville, Atte- 
Townes-hcnd, Atte-Townes-head. The learned Dr. Jessup, of Christ 
College, Cambridge, England, informs us that as early as the twelfth 
century there lived in a house of some pretensions at Rougham, Nor- 
folk, on the King's highway leading from Rougham to Raynham, a 
family bearing these names. 



THE TOWNSEND FAMILY. 



305 



they were the land-holders, stadt- or town-holders 
of that section of the country, again used the h in 
the last syllable, considering it more correct. Burke 
says, in his ' Landed Gentry ' that, ' previous to 
the ennobling of the Norfolk family we find the 
name as frequently spelt without the h as with; and, 
according to Blomfield, the orthography of the old 
Townshend monuments at Raynham is similar. 
Spelling however in those days was not considered 
a matter of much importance, and it seems not im- 
probable that Townshend is the more correct, 
hend being derived from hand (Saxon, hendeii), or 
the Latin word hendre, only used in composition, 
lo lake, lo hold, to occupy." With these and other 
authorities in favor of either of the accepted modes 
of spelling, according to personal taste different 
members of the family spell the name with and 
without the intermediate h, in illustration of which 
it may be remarked that Captain Charles Hervey 
Townshend adheres to the more formal orthogra- 
phy, which includes the h, while Professor Isaac 
Henry Townsend adopted, and Hon. James M. 
Townsend and other members of the family prefer, 
the more simple and direct orthography which ex- 
cludes it. 

The New Haven Townsends of the present day 
trace their descent in direct line from Sir Robert 
Townshend, of Ludlow, County Shropshire, Eng- 
land, second son of Sir Roger Townshend, of 
Raynham, Norfolk, by his wife, Anne de Brewse; 
their male progenitors having been Thomas Towns- 
hend, Esq. (i), eldest son and heir of Sir Robert; 
Henry (2); Thomas (3) ; Samuel (4) ; Isaac (5) ; 
Jeremiah (6) ; Isaac {7) ; Isaac (8) ; and William 
Kneeland (9), Isaac Henry and George Atwater, 
sons of the Isaac last mentioned. Different repre- 
sentatives of the family in America have in succes- 
sive generations been celebrated as statesmen, officers 
in our army and navy, in the pulpit, at the Bar and 
in medicine, and prominent in business and com- 
mercial circles. From the beginning of its history, 
the family has taken high social rank both in Eng- 
land and America. In the active promotion of the 
public weal, both in peace and war, it has ever been 
conspicuous on both sides of the Atlantic. A few 
briefly stated facts concerning some of the heads of 
families of the later generations will be found in- 
teresting. 

Thomas Towneshend, or Townshend (3), the 

original settler at Lynn, Massachusetts Colony, 

! we find first mentioned in the Boston records, 

j when he was made a Freeman, March 4, 1638, 

[ and in the old family record, now extant, he is 

i called " Mr.," a title given only to those of known 

i respectability. March 14, 1639, he was made a 

Freeman at Saugus, or Lynn, when the General 

Court granted in that year lands to the Rt. Hon. 

Robert, the Lord Brooke, who was expected with 

Cromwell, Hampden, Pym and others over to settle 

in New England; and the same year Thomas 

Townshend was allotted fifty acres at Lynn, and, 

being a desirable man, was allowed ten acres more 

(sixty acres altogether); and he also purchased 

other lands (sixty acres) formerly in the tenure of 

Mr. Edmund Needham, of Lynn, of Edward Hut- 

39 



chinson. * He is called in the records "husband- 
man," being a proprietor and one who leased the 
lands he had bought to the farmer who paid rent. 
The records also show that he owned other lands at 
Lynn and Rumney's Marsh. His residence was in 
his town lot of seven acres — one of the best sites in 
Lynn — located on the southeast corner of Franklyn 
and Mill streets (now Boston street) and just across 
the commons from his friend and pastor, the Rev. 
Samuel Whiting's, f and next his kinsmen, the Mans- 
fields. The Lynn and Salem records give evidence 
of his having been a gentleman of good intelli- 
gence, ability and education, he having served as a 
juryman J " Att Salem More of the 20''-' Quarterly 
Court y" 30"' i" Month, 164 1," and it is interesting 
to note that among those of this Court present were 
John Endicott, Deputy Governor; John Humphry, 
Esq., Deputy Major-General; Mr. Emanuel Down- 
ing, Mr. William Hathorne, Mr. Edward Holliock, 
and other members, whose names associated with 
his sufficiendy testify to his social and intellectual 
rank, as do also his well-drawn deeds of gift to his 
children and his beautiful autograph written in 
the Court or Norman style, and still to be seen in 
the office of the Secretary of State, Boston, Mass. || 
Mr. Townshend was a Liberal in sentiment, and 
did not agree with many of his Salem and 'Lynn 
Puritanical neighbors in their extreme measures in 
regard to Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, and, with the Rev. 
Samuel Whiting, was opposed to persecution. He 
died at Lynn December 22, 1677, aged eighty- 
three, and his wife ]\Iary, February 22, 1692, and 
both were buried in the old burying ground. The 
paternal home at Lynn was sold by his grandson, 
Andrew (son of his son, Andrew Townshend) 
to Deacon Daniel Mansfield, July 8, 1703. Mr. 
Thomas Townshend left sons, Thomas, Samuel, 
John and Andrew, and perhaps Robert, who was 
of Portsmouth, and also daughters. 

S.^MUEL (4), the second son and ancestor of the 
" Raynham" family, married Abigail, daughter of 
Samuel Davies who kept the inn at Winesemet, in 
the famous old Maverick House, built about 
1623 or 1624. He followed the vocation of a 
husbandman at Rumney's Marsh, Boston (or as 
the family record states, "Winesemet"), where he 
owned lands and leased Governor Richard Bel- 
lingham's farm. He was made Freeman in 1683, 
having joined the Second Church, Boston, Septem- 
ber 18, 16S1. He was often appointed to serve the 
public as constable, town surveyor, administrator 
and guardian, and was a useful and industrious 
citizen whose efforts were repaid with gain, as the 
inventory of his estate, settled by his heirs July 22, 
1708, proves. He died at Winesemet, aged sixty- 
six, and his stone at Rumney's Marsh (now Revere) 



* This Edward Hutchinson was of the family of the famous Anne 
Hutchinson who were banished to Rhode Island, leaving Boston March 
28, 1639. 

t His near neighbor and friend, the Rev. Samuel Whiting, had been 
domestic chaplain to Sir Nathaniel Bacon and Sir Roger Townshend in 
County Norfolk, England. 

X His name is here, on the official records, written Towneshende, 
and in other records the same. 

li See " Townshend Family of Lynn in Old and New England," 1884, 
fourth edition. 



306 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



bears date December 21, 1704. His widow died 
January 2, \']%%, and was buried in Copp's Hill 
burying-ground, Boston. 

Isaac (5) was born at Rumney's Marsh, or Chel- 
sea, Mass., and settled in Boston, where he bought 
lands on Winter street, in 171 6. He was married 
July 7, 1703, to Anne Ranger, and was killed at a 
fire in Boston, January 16, I7|^. 

Jeremiah (6) was born in Boston, and was bap- 
tized in Old South Church November 18, 171 1. 
With his family and brother, Ebenezer, he settled 
in New Haven, May 20, 1739, ^'""^ "bought lands 
the year before (March 10, 1738) of Mindwell Jones, 
in the Governor's Quarter, for £\i> ; also buys, 
December 10, 1739, of Ebenezer Mi.\, one-half of 
house and lot, with acre, more or less, on the cor- 
ner of the Green and Market place. He again 
buys, April 6, 1742, the other half for $260. Also 
house and land of Elizabeth Perkins. His first wife 
was Hannah, daughter of John Kneeland, or Cle- 
land, of Boston, Mass., a member of the Old South 
Church April 16, 1722; married April 16, 1734, 
by the Rev. Thomas Prince. She died in New 
Haven January 15, 1788, aged sixty-nine. Mr. 
Townshend left a record of his family, together with 
a tradition, which has been proved correct by evi- 
dence collected from English and colonial records, 
and supported by numerous facts and circum- 
stances. His change of residence to New Haven 
was through the suggestion of his friend, Mr. 
William Greenough, a shipwright of New Haven, 
who was from Boston. * * * Mr. Townshend 
died at New Haven, January 6, 1803, and was 
buried in the old churchyard in the rear of the first 
church on the Green, ne.xt his two wives, and the 
foundation of the west wall of the present edifice 
was laid across their graves, and their monuments 
are preserved in the crypt." 

Isaac (7) was born in Boston and came, a 
child, to New Haven with his parents. Com- 
menced business in New Haven, but moved to 
Stratford, Conn., about 1763, where he owned 
property and most of his children were born. In 
1 783 he removed to New Haven, where he lived on 
Crown street, near Orange (where James M. 
Townsend built, in 1883, one hundred years after), 
the remainder of his life. His wife was Elizabeth, 
daughter of Jacob and Abigail (Buder) Hitch- 
cock, of Springfield, Mass., connected by marriage 
to Sir John Davie, of Crediton, County Devon, 
and cousin to Major-General David Wooster, killed 
near Ridgefield, Conn., May 2, 1777, in a battle 
with the British forces under Governor Tryon, 
while on their return from Danbury. Her sister 
Abigail, widow of John Brown, married Captain 
Ezekiel Hayes, great grandfather of Rutherford 
Burchard Hayes, e.x-President of the United States. 

Isaac (8) was born in Stratford, Conn., Febru- 
ary 4, 1765. In 1 78 1, at the age of sixteen years, 
he joined Colonel Meigs' Regiment (Connecticut) 
and served until the close of the War for Indepen- 
dence. He engaged in mercantile business in New 
Haven in \1%%, "and was largely interested as 
a merchant by land and sea, having branch houses 
in Charleston and Cheraw, S. C, and an agency 



in New York " and another in London, the latter 
under the supervision of his brother, Kneeland 
Townsend. He was interested in real estate in 
Connecticut, Virginia, Vermont and Ohio, owning, 
with his brothers, the town of Townsend, in 
Huron County, in the latter State. During the 
War of 18 1 2-14, with his son, Isaac Henry Towns- 
end (later Professor of Law in Yale College), 
while en route from New York to New Haven on 
the packet sloop Susan, he was taken prisoner by 
a British armed vessel, conveyed to Plum Island 
and there detained on board the English ship 
Pomone, Captain Carterat commanding, until ran- 
somed. He retired from business soon after, hav- 
ing amassed an ample fortune, and his various in- 
terests passed into the management of his sons. 
He married Rhoda, daughter of David and Eliza- 
beth (Bassett) Atwater, April 11, 1795, and died 
in New Haven November 5, 1S41. They had 
eight children, of whom William Kneeland (9) 
born in New Haven June 3, 1796, was the 
eldest, Isaac Henry the fifth, and George Atwater 
the seventh in order of nativity. Isaac Atwater 
died in childhood. Charles Henry died in 1803 
at the age of two years. The other three were 
daughters, of whom Elizabeth married Isaac Beers, 
and now living, 1886; Emily Augusta married 
Hon. David Sanford, of Newtown, Conn. 

William Kneeland married Eliza Ann, eldest 
daughter of Hervey and Nancy (Bradley) Mulford, 
December 3, 1820. He was educated at the Hop- 
kins Grammar School and began business life as a 
merchant. He was a Director of the New Haven 
Bank, president of several corporations and asso- 
ciations, a Lieutenant of the Second Company of 
the Governor's Horse Guards of the State of Con- 
necticut, a Justice of the Peace and representative 
for the town of East Haven to the State assem- 
bly. On account of ill health he retired from 
business about 1830 and made his residence at 
"Bay Ridge," Raynham, then in East Haven, 
but since 1881 in New Haven. This property, 
which he had bought of his father and uncle 
some years before, was a part of the original 
grant by New Haven Colony to William Tuttle, 
the maternal ancestor of his wife. Here he passed 
the balance of his life in devotion to scientific 
agriculture, dying, after a brief illness, September 
23, 1849. at the age of fifty-three years. The 
lineage of his wife "has been traced back to many 
of the first settlers of the New England colonies, 
among them Captain Lyon Gardner, the first 
patentee and Lord of the Manor of Gardiner's 
Island, who came over as an engineer in the em- 
ploy of the Earl of Warwick, the Lords Say 
and Seal and Brooke, and en route stopped at 
Boston, where he laid out the fortification on 
Fort Hill, and the season following located and 
built Saybrook Fort, which he so valiantly de- 
fended against the Pequot Indians, and where his 
daughter Mary was born, who married Jeremiah 
Conklin, from whom descended Mrs. Townsend's 
father, Hervey Mulford, Esq., a graduate of Yale 
College, Class of 1794, and a merchant." Mrs. 
Townsend was born in New Haven November 




<^. <)/H>^ . Z/crVJ-t^J^yy^--^\^ 



THE TOWN SEND FAMILY. 



307 



26, 1798, and died at Raynham, the family res- 
idence on Townsend avenue, January 3, 1881, 
having lived to see her children grow up to fill 
honored and prominent places, and her grand- 
children rising to places of credit. William 
Kneeland Townsend was a devoted Christian gen- 
tleman, honored and trusted in all the relations of 
life, his virtues many, and his public services valua- 
ble to his fellow-men. Of his wife it has been 
truly said that " she was a lady of refinement and 
education, and that she lived esteemed, honored, 
beloved and admired by all who knew her, bearing 
her part equally perfect as a Christian and a gen- 
tlewoman. * * * Though highly accom- 
plished, she was a domestic wife, the fondest of 
mothers, a most sincere and devoted friend, and 
kindly, generous and charitable towards all." 

The children of William Kneeland and Eliza 
Ann (Mulford) Townsend were William Isaac, 
James Mulford, George Henry, Frederick Atwater, 
Robert Raikes, Charles Hervey, Timothy Beers, 
Edward Howard, and Eliza Mulford, named in 
the sequence of birth. 

William Isaac Townsend, formerly one of New 
York's energetic and enterprismg merchants, re- 
tired, and has lived in London, England, during 
the past twenty-five years. A biographical sketch 
of James Mulford is published in this work. 
George Henry has always resided at the home- 
stead at Raynham, Townsend avenue, and since 
early manhood has been engaged in active busi- 
ness, proving himself a thorough-going and suc- 
cessful man of affairs. He has for many years 
been a member of the Harbor Commission, and 
was one of the pioneers in the cultivation of oysters 
in Long Island Sound, and one of the first to cut 
and ship ice from Saltonstall Lake. His fellow 
citizens have many times desired and offered to 
honor him with ofiices of different kinds, which he 
has always declined, having no taste for politics 
and official life. Frederick Atwater, who was 
Major of the Second Connecticut Regiment, was a 
successful merchant, but retired from business on 
account of impaired health. He is genial and 
popular with a wide circle of acquaintances. Robert 
Raikes was one of the early pioneers in California 
(1849), and while there contracted a fever from 
the effects of which he died after his return to New 
Haven. Charles Hervey is represented by a bio- 
graphical sketch in this volume. Timothy Beers 
(see Tuttle Book) was born November 21, 1835. 
He graduated from the Yale Medical School in 
1858 as a physician and surgeon, and soon entered 
upon the practice of his profession. He was ap- 
pointed by the State authority, with Dr. Rockwood, 
to visit the Connecticut troops after the battle of 
Fredericksburg, and during the war he rendered 
efficient service as a surgeon in Knight's Hospital. 
In 1867 he was selected by a council of physicians 
in New Haven, on account of his great surgical 
skill, and his carefulness and rapidity in operating, 
to perform the Cssarian operation. This was one 
of the first successful operations of this character 
in this country, probably the first in New England. 
There had been only a few crowned with success 



in the whole of Europe. It therefore attracted 
wide attention, and Dr. Dibble, whose patient the 
woman was, gave the technical details in the 
Medical Record for March 2, 1868. He was 
offered and declined the professorship of surgery 
in Yale College. He has seldom engaged in the 
practice of his profession for several years, his 
health having been poor, owing to overwork and 
a partial sunstroke. Edward Howard is the suc- 
cessful manager of large business operations. He 
received the commission of Major, and was at- 
tached to the staff of Major-General Russell. Eliza 
Mulford married Charles Augustus Lindsley, and 
lives in New York. 



HON. ISAAC H. TOWNSEND, 

Professor of Law, Yale College. 

Isaac Henry Townsend was born in New Haven 
April 25, 1803, a son of Isaac and Rhoda Towns- 
end, and died January 11, 1847. Mr. Townsend 
was one of the finest scholars of his day, and a 
gentleman in the best sense of the word. He held 
many positions of honor and trust, but invariably 
refused political offices, many of which were offered 
him. He was a Director in the New Haven and 
Northampton Canal and Railroad Company, and 
with his colleagues, Messrs. Joseph E. Sheffield 
and Henry Farnam, organized the scheme to util- 
ize the abandoned bed of the Farmington Canal. 
To Mr. Townsend is also due the credit of procur- 
ing the valuable charter under which this improve- 
ment was carried forward. He was a Director in 
the New Haven Bank, a Justice of the Peace, a 
Member of the Common Council of the City of 
New Haven, and represented New Haven in the 
Legislature of the State of Connecticut. An ad- 
dress, deliverfed at his funeral, January 14, 1847, 
by Rev. Samuel W. S. Dutton, Pastor of the North 
Church in New Haven, attracted such attention, 
that the following request for its publication was 
made: 

" To THE Rev. Mr. Dutton. 

"Rev. and Dear Sir, — We shall esteem it a 

favor if you will consent to the publication of your 

address at the funeral of our friend, Professor 

Isaac H. Townsend. 

' ' David Daggett, 
"William L. Storrs, 
"Theodore D. Woolsey." 

This request was accompanied by the following 
communication: 

"To the Rev. S. W. S. Dutton. 

"Dear Sir, — At a meeting of the members of 
the Yale Law School, it was unanimously resolved 
that a committee of three be appointed to present 
the sincere thanks of the School to the Rev. Mr. 
Dutton, for his appropriate and excellent address 
on the life and character of their late instructor. 
Professor Townsend, and to request a copy of the 
same for the press. We therefore, in behalf of the 
School, have the honor to transmit their resolution. 



I 



308 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



and hope you will find it convenient to comply 
with the request. 

" With great regard, 

" Your obedient servants, 
"J. F. Jackson, 
" Franklin H. Clack, 
" Dexter R. Wright, 

' ' Commiltec. " 

Rev. Mr. Button complied with this request, 
and from a pamphlet copy of the above-mentioned 
address, we are enabled to extract the following 
biographical notice of Professor Townsend : 

"The occasion is one of mournful interest. A 
man who occupied a large and growing place in 
the esteem of a wide circle of friends and of the 
community — a man in whom unusual confidence 
was reposed, and to whom many important trusts 
have been committed — a man who held a high 
post of instruction and usefulness, for which he 
was well fitted by natural endowments, and by a 
long course of laborious and thorough study — 
has been suddenly stricken down, and his lifeless 
body, clothed for the grave, lies before us. The 
occasion is one of unusual sorrow. We meet to 
mourn, not over one who is carried to his tomb in 
a full age, as a shock of corn cometh in its season, 
but to mourn, with a less tranquil and bitterer sor- 
row, over usefulness cut down in its prime; over a 
good citizen fallen in the midst of beneficent toils; 
over a strong pillar prematurely broken. We 
mourn, not over one whose sun has traversed the 
arch of the heavens with its light, and found an 
expected setting in the western horizon, but over 
one whose sun, just attaining its meridian and 
beginning to shine with full radiance, has dropped 
from the zenith. We mourn with the sorrow, not 
only of bereavement, but of disappointment — the 
sorrow, not only of sundered affections, but of 
broken plans, and blighted promises, and withered 
hopes. It will be an indulgence to our sorrow, 
and accordant with a custom founded in propriety, 
to take a brief survey of the history of our deceased 
friend, and to draw such lessons of consolation and 
wisdom as we may from his life and death. 

" The affluence of Mr. Townsend's father, who 
was an opulent merchant, gave him all desirable 
advantages for improvement; while parental pru- 
dence and fidelity afforded neither facilities nor 
temptations to extravagance or inordinate indul- 
gence, or indolent expectation and dependence. 
And, what is more important, his parents set him 
an example of devoted piety, and faithfully in- 
structed his young mind in lessons of Christian 
truth and virtue. He received his classical prepara- 
tion for college in the Hopkins Grammar School 
of this city, under the instruction of Mr. Joel Jones, 
now Judge Jones, of Philadelphia. There his thirst 
for knowledge, his active and thorough mind, and 
his docility, manliness, and uniform propriety of 
conduct, rendered him an object of special interest 
and hope and affection to his excellent teacher, and 
gave indication of future eminence in learning. He 
entered Vale College in 1818. There he was dis- 



tinguished for his punctual and regular performance 
of all college duties (never having missed a single 
college exercise during the whole four years); for 
reverential regard for his teachers; for uniform cor- 
rectness of deportment; and for accurate and tho- 
rough scholarship. He graduated in 1822, with 
the second honor of his class. 

"Immediately upon his graduation, he com- 
menced in the Law School of this city, then under 
the care of the late Judge Hitchcock and of Seth P. 
Staples, Esq. , the study of law, for which the natural 
bent and the exact and accurate culture of his mind 
peculiarly fitted him. He pursued his studies with 
devotion and success, and in due time was admitted 
to the Bar and commenced the practice of law in 
his native city. In 1834 he represented the town 
of New Haven in the Legislature of Connecticut, 
though he greatly preferred the practice, and espe- 
cially the quiet studies, of his profession. But his 
natural straightforwardness and simplicity were so 
much offended with the crookedness and policy 
and contentions and unpleasant excitement of 
political life, that he finally resolved never to enter 
it, and never to accept any political ofiice except 
that of Justice of the Peace, so that he might sign 
his own writs. In 1835 he visited Europe, and 
spent about a year there, for the purpose of that 
enlightenment and culture which observation of 
other countries and their institutions would afford. 
There he carefully observed whatever would con- 
tribute to his instruction and improvement as a 
gentleman and scholar; but was particularly atten- 
tive to everything in the Legislative Assemblies and 
Courts of Justice, and legal usages of the various 
European countries, that would conduce to his 
excellence in his chosen profession. In 1842 he 
became connected with the Law School in this city 
as an instructor and lecturer — a sphere very con- 
genial to his tastes, and one for which he was 
peculiarly fitted by his devotion to legal science; 
by his uncommon legal learning; and by his powers 
and habits of close discrimination, accurate analysis, 
clear statement, and profound insight into abstruse 
questions. In August, 1846, on the formal organ- 
ization of the Law School as a department of Yale 
College, Mr. Townsend was elected by the Corpo- 
ration, Professor of Law in Yale College. 

"Of Professor Townsend's mind, the leading 
qualities were love of knowledge, or of the exact 
truth, perspicacity or penetration, activity, clearness, 
discrimination, accuracy and order. The first of 
these,his love of knowledge, prompted and directed 
all the others, and made him a very studious and 
devoted scholar. His mind was active, indisposed 
to inertness, always busy in thought, and, from 
earliest boyhood, more fond of books than of 
sports. He sometimes spoke slowly, or, rather, 
answered deliberately; not, however, because his 
mind was not active, but because it was exact He 
was unwilling to say anything till he could say the 
right thing. His mind was discriminating; distin- 
guishing clearly things that differed, and marking 
all differences, sometimes indeed with unnecessary 
minuteness. His mind was accurate. He was very 



i 



THE TOWNS END FAMILV. 



309 



exact He was satisfied with nothing in his own 
mental operations, or in matters with which he was 
concerned, that was not just right; and so fond was 
he of this precision, that he occasionally carried it 
into matters where it was not strictly necessary, and 
thus became sometimes almost punctilious. He 
had, strongly developed, the faculty of order. Every- 
thing that he did, he did systematically. He had a 
place for everything and everything in its place, not 
only in his office and in his chamber, but in his 
mind and in all his mental developments. Possess- 
ing these intellectual qualities, and having, until 
recently, uniform and uncommon health, he of 
course became a thorough and learned lawyer. It 
is not too much to say that in legal learning he was 
unsurpassed, if he was equaled, by any man of his 
age in his native State. 

" Whenever Mr. Townsend appeared in Court, 
he manifested the acute and solid and strong intel- 
lectual qualities, rather than the showy, the ready, 
and the versatile. His cases were always thoroughly 
prepared. He was always discriminating, pro- 
found, clear, pertinent, and e.xact. His argument 
was thorough; so much so as often to e.xhaust the 
subject. As an instance of this, it may be stated 
that the late Judge Hitchcock, justly celebrated for 
his acuteness and thoroughness, being associated 
with Mr. Townsend in an important case, rose, 
after his colleague had concluded, and, instead of 
following him according to previous arrangement, 
declared the subject exhausted and declined all 
further argument as unnecessary and useless. Being 
better acquainted, however, with books than with 
men, Mr. Townsend excelled more in dealing with 
questions of law than with questions of fact; and, 
though he presented his cases fully, clearly, and 
strongly to the jury, he yet excelled more in ap- 
plying the principles of the law than in that power 
of touching the various secret springs of feeling and 
action which belong to those who are eminently 
acquainted with social life and with human nature. 

" Mr. Townsend's integrity in all matters of bus- 
iness, and indeed in all his pecuniary dealings with 
mankind, was inflexible, and may be pronounced 
complete. There is no man who can or will say 
that he even violated an engagement, or ever in- 
tentionally wronged any human being. His mind 
being, as has been observed, remarkably truth- 
loving and true in its operations, he was extremely 
careful and conscientiously exact in the transaction 
of all business, either for himself or for others. 
He would have everything right; and felt that he 
could not move a whit forward till he saw that all 
was right. This strict integrity and rigid fidelity, 
together with his legal learning and his accuracy in 
its practical application, secured for him great con- 
fidence, so that no man of his age in his profession 
in this State has had more important legal trusts 
committed to him. Indeed, so much of this respon- 
sible business has been placed by the confidence of 
others in his hands, that, uniting with his prefer- 
ence for it, and for the duties of instruction, it has 
of late years withdrawn him almost wholly from 
practice in the Courts. After what has been said 
of Mr. Townsend's legal acquisitions, of his intel- 



lectual habits and faculties, particularly his perspi- 
cacity, discrimination and clearness, it is unneces- 
sary to say more than that he was eminently fitted 
for the office of Professor and Teacher of Legal 
Science, and had before him, therein, bright pros- 
pects of usefulness and honor. 

"Respecting Mr. Townsend's moral character, 
his integrity and fidelity — prime moral qualities — 
they have already been sufficiently noticed. From 
a child he was uncommonly correct in all his de- 
portment, and during that period of life when al- 
most all boys are thoughtless and wayward, he 
scarcely ever needed punishment or reproof from 
parents or teachers. In his natural disposition, 
and by culture, he was amiable, inoffensive and 
generous. He never manifested impurity of thought 
or speech. He never had any taste for the rude 
tricks or rough sports of boys, but preferred quiet 
study. So, when he was a member of college, he 
was studious, docile, reverent to teachers, and ex- 
ceedingly regular and punctual, as has been al- 
ready observed, in the performance of his college 
duties. These same qualities had thus properly 
modified development in manhood. In his social 
intercourse, while he was rarely communicative of 
his own feelings, he was aft'able and courteous. 
Though disposed to retire", especially of late years, 
to a limited social sphere, he had strong social af- 
fections. And while all acquainted with him knew 
him to be kind and careful of the happiness of 
others, none but his relatives and intimate friends 
knew fully the warmth of his heart and the un- 
common ardor and tenacity and fidelity of his 
friendship. 

" Possessed of an ample inheritance, to which 
he had materially added by his success in his pro- 
fession, he was public spirited and liberal. His 
benevolence was manifest in attentive kindness to 
relatives and friends, and not to them only, but to 
objects of charity and of public improvement. He 
had a filial affection and reverence for the noble 
literary institution which was his Alma Mater, and 
of which he died an officer, that was indicated not 
by words only, but at various times by deeds. Be- 
ing himself fond of the English classics, and ap- 
preciating the importance of writing well our own 
language, he gave, a few years since, $i,ooo to 
Yale College, directing the appropriation of the 
annual interest for the encouragement, by pre- 
miums, of English composition in the Senior Class. 
These prizes are now annually awarded, and are 
called ' the Townsend Premiums for English Com- 
position.' He was free from guile, and peaceful in 
his disposition, and shrunk from all pursuits and 
spheres where his simplicity needed to be ex- 
changed for policy, and where he would be liable 
to witness violent feeling, and hear rough, insinuat- 
ing, and abusive language. He was himself re- 
markably careful, in his speech, of the feelings and 
characters of others. It may almost be said that 
he spoke evil of no man, except, indeed, when 
duty demanded of him decided reprobation. Nor 
was this quality limited to his language. He was 
candid and charitable in his thoughts and judg- 
ments, hoping all things and thinking no evil. It 



310 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



seemed to be also his principle and desire to be 
useful, in his profession and life, to his fellow men. 
Utility — real utility — was prominent in his thoughts 
and in his speech. 

****** 

" From about the time of his illness, fifteen or 
eighteen months since, expressions of his religious 
feelings have been made, with considerable free- 
dom, to those who, as he judged, had a right to 
know them. He has repeatedly declared to them 
not only his conviction of the great truths of the 
Gospel, but that he loved those truths and regarded 
them practically, and felt prepared to meet God 
whenever he should call him, by cordial com- 
pliance with the conditions of his salvation. Speak- 
ing to his elder brother, the late William K. Towns- 
end, of his affliction and of the doubtful prospect 
of his recovery, he said that he had no desire to 
outlive his usefulness. If he could not be useful, he 
would rather die and be with his father and mother. 
He was 'the son of parents passed into the skies;' 
and entertaining their faith, and following in some 
degree their example, he desired to be united with 
them in their inheritance of the promises. " 

HON. JAMES M. TOWNSEND. 

[In the preparation of this biographical sketch, the well- 
known works on the " History and Genealogy of the Tuttle 
Family," "The Townshend Family," the " History of the 
New Haven Grays," McCarthy's " History of Petroleum," 
the files of the New Haven press, copies of newspapers 
published in New York and elsewhere, and numerous 
written documents, have been consulted. The sketch and 
its accompanying portrait are published in compliance with 
the following request : 

"New Haven, Conn., 

"August 26, 1885. 
"Messrs. W. W. Munsell & Co., 

" Fiiblishcrs History of New Haven, Conn. 
"Gentlemen, — Understanding you are to publish bio- 
graphical sketches and portraits of some of our prominent 
citizens in the history you are about to publish, we think it 
would be proper for some of the members of the New 
Haven Grays to have a place in your valuable work. Look- 
ing to that end, we, the undersigned veterans and members 
of the New Haven Grays, would suggest that among that 
number you will include ex-Captam James M. Townsend, 
who has lieen one of our most esteemed members for more 
than two-score years, and one of the company's best com- 
manders. 

"A. C. Hendricks, Chief of Fire Department of New 

Haven. 
" Wii.nuK F. Day, President National New Haven Bank. 
" Frank D. Sloat, ex-Comptroller of the State of 
Connecticut, ex-Captain New Haven Grays, and 
Supreme Dictator Knights of Honor. 
"E. E. liRADLEV, ex-Captain of the Grays, ex-Gen- 
eral Commander Militia, and ex-State Senator. 
"Benjamin R. English, Postmaster, New Haven. 
" Leonard S. HorciiKiss.Cashicr National New Haven 

County Bank. 
"J. C. Bradley, Cashier Merchants' National Bank. 
"Georce S. Arnold, ex-Captain New Haven Grays. 
"Frank T. I.kk, present Captain New ILiven Grays. 
" William A. Wright, Attorney at Law. 
" Leonard Bostwick. 
"T. Parsons Dickerman, Teller Merchants' National 

Bank. 
" E. A. Gessner, ex-Captain New Haven Grays. 

"A. L. DlLLENIlECK. 

"Benjamin J. Stone. 

"L. A. Dickinson, ex-Adjutant-General of the State 

of Connecticut, and ex-Postmaster of Hartford, 

Conn." And others.] 



Hon. James Mulford Townsend, second son of 
William Kneeland Townsend, was born in New 
Haven January 20, 1825, and is seventh in de- 
scent from Thomas Townsend, or Townshend, who 
settled at Lynn, Mass., in 1683.* When his 
school days were over he began active life as a 
clerk for the firm of Hook & Townsend, importers 
of cloths. New York, one of the partners being a 
brother of his father's. Returning to New Haven 
he was engaged for three years in the clothing trade 
as a member of the firm of Knewals, Hull k Towns- 
end, subsequently Townsend & Maltby. Retir- 
ing from mercantile life, he engaged in banking, be- 
coming Secretary and Treasurer, and subsequently 
President, of the City Savings Bank, serving as 
such until the aflairs of the concern were wound 
up in consequence of the repeal of the act of the 
Legislature under which it had been organized. 

In their report to the Legislature, in 1859, the 
Bank Commissioners stated that the institution had 
been a well managed and useful one, and recom- 
mended its continuance under a special charter, 
and in i860 the Legislature chartered the Town- 
send City Savings Bank, an account of which will 
be found in the department of this work devoted 
to New Haven's financial interests. At a later date 
he was chosen a Director of the Quinnipiac Bank, 
and for sixteen years he was a Director of the New 
Haven Bank, in which corporation his father, 
grandfather and great-grandfather had been direct- 
ors. The prominence of his connection with 
corporations and public enterprises other than 
banks, is shown by the fact that he has served, or 
is serving, as a Director in and Vice-President of 
the Shore Line Railway; a Director of the New 
Haven and Derby Railroad; a Director in and 
Treasurer of the Gettysburg Railroad, Pennsyl- 
vania; a Director in the New Haven Clock Com- 
pany; and at different times has been identified 
with other interests of like importance. The be- 
stowal upon him of these positions is at once 
evidence of his personal popularity and the high 
esteem in which he has always been held by the 
business community. He is also a Life Director 
both in the New Haven Hospital management and 
the New Haven Historical Society. 

From his youth Mr. Townsend has taken a 
hearty interest in military affairs. In 1841, atthe 
age of sixteen years, the records of that time- 
honored organization show that he became a mem- 
ber of the New Haven Grays. In 1848 he was 
elected captain, and his resignation, on account of 
ill health, was accepted by General King. Says 
Lucke's " History of the New Haven Grays :" " In 
a letter expressing high personal regard and warm 
commendation and appreciation of Captain Towns- 
end's services in the Grays, the warmest and best 
wishes of the company were expressed to the re- 
tiring commander, and a beautiful letter of thanks 
and testimonial of regard was spread upon the 
records." One of the most familiar adornments 
of the armory is a portrait of Captain Townsend 



• See the genealogical .nnd biographical sketch of the Townsend 
family and the bingr.aptiical sketches of Isaac Henry Townsend and 
Charles Hcrvey Townshend in this work. 




~'^fif^2.Su:l 



/ C _ ^ ■ -_ 




^ 



THE TOWNSEND FAMILV. 



311 



as he appeared at that time. From that date to 
this he has been one of the most devoted and help- 
ful of the many influential friends of the Grays. 
When the company went to the front to enter upon 
its three months' campaign during the rebellion, all 
members of the organization who were unable to 
procure articles of necessity or convenience not 
included in the Government supplies, were supplied 
by Mr. Townsend out of his private purse, his 
first thought being for the comfort of members of 
his old command. 

After the Grays had seen some six weeks' service 
in Virginia, Mr. Townsend visited them to look 
after their welfare and ascertain if he could still 
further serve them. Before returning to New 
Haven he purchased one hundred new quarter- 
dollars and gave one to each member of the com- 
pany. The recipients had one side of the coin 
made smooth and inscribed thereon the date and 
a brief records of the presentation of the souvenir. 
Many wore them as medals or kept them as 
pocket-pieces to the day of death, and those still 
living, when they meet the giver, remind him 
of the occasion by displaying their treasured 
mementoes. Upon the expiration of their three 
months' service, many of the Grays desired to 
re-enlist for three years, but as it was impossi- 
ble to do so and retain the uniform which had 
distinguished them from other military organiza- 
tions and had given them their company name, 
the army regulations demanding the wearing of 
the Government uniform, a new organization was 
decided upon. A deputation sent by those inter- 
ested called upon Mr. Townsend and requested his 
permission to apply to the new company the title 
of the "Townsend Rifles." This company was 
re-enlisted in August, 1861, under command of 
Captain Edwin S. Hitchcock, who had been with 
the Grays in their three months' service, as 
Company G, attached to the ylh Regiment Con- 
necticut Volunteers. It was designated as above 
by Mr. Townsend's permission, most of its mem- 
bers being New Haven men who had come to re- 
gard him as " the friend and father of the boys in 
blue " from his native city.* 

Captain Hitchcock was killed at Seassionville, 
S. C, June 14, 1862. The company served con- 
tinuously, and with great credit, from the date of 
muster (September 7, 1861) to the close of the 
war, participating in no less than eighteen engage- 
ments. On the departure of the Townsend Rifles 
from New Haven, they were presented with a flag 
by Mr. Townsend, which was born proudly through 
the war. It was the first Union flag raised in 
Georgia after the rebellion began, and floated from 
the light-house on Tybee Island (see Nciv Haven 
PaUadium May 8, 1862), and was in the van at 
more than one victory. It has been carefully pre- 
served, and can be seen in the rooms of the New 

*" This company was named the ' Townsend Rifles ' after James M. 
Townsend, who was indeed a father (as he was called by the boys) 
to the company and to those they left behind them, sending to tne 
front large boxes filled with whatever their friends wished to send. Thus 
the boys received many things that were not furnished by the quarter- 
master or commissary." — Extract from letter of L. E. Peck, now in the 
employ of ihe New Haven Post-office, at the time mentioned a mem- 
ber of the Townsend Rifles. 



Haven Historical Society, where it was deposited 
on its return to New Haven. The company was 
partially equipped at Mr. Townsend's private ex- 
pense, and during its entire service he looked 
carefully after its welfare, receiving, boxing and 
forwarding monthly, free of cost to senders or 
receivers, such supplies and delicacies as the friends 
and families of the boys at the front wished to 
send them, together with his own contributions to 
their comfort. 

His oversight of, and care for, destitute families 
of members of the company were as praiseworthy 
as they were unostentatious. When volunteering 
began to lag, to aid the filling of the quota of 
troops from his home town (East Haven), he offered 
five dollars to each East Havener who enlisted, and 
on muster day visited each regiment, and paid 
such volunteers according to promise. "\Vhen 
the 7th Regiment was discharged and paid off, 
after its return to New Haven, " says the Con- 
neclicut War Record, " the members of the Towns- 
end Rifles, including twenty who were discharged, 
and ten or eleven in the Knight Hospital suffering 
from wounds, were invited by their friend and pa- 
tron, Hon. James M. Townsend, to partake of a col- 
lation provided for them at the New Haven House 
by his munificence. The boys, with hearts full of 
cheer and gratitude, enjoyed themselves as only 
veterans can. At the conclusion of the bountiful 
collation, the boys drank the health of their noble 
and steadfast friend with a sincerity and heartiness 
of emotion which proved their high appreciation 
of his indefatigable and judicious exertions for 
their welfare and that of their families. With 
evident feelings of mingled tenderness and pride, 
such as every noble man must feel under such 
circumstances, Mr. Townsend responded." It is 
to be regretted that the limits of this article do not 
permit the reproduction of Mr. Town.send's elo- 
quent and patriotic address, which is printed in 
full in the Cunnec/icul War Record. It was greeted 
with hearty cheers. The soldiers then separated 
" to go to their homes, which Mr. Townsend had 
done so much for three long and fateful years to 
render comfortable and happy, and each paused 
and grasped the hand of their liberal patron with 
that deep and fervent gratitude which is best ex- 
pressed by quivering lips and moistened eyes." 
To give more public expression to this sincere 
thankfulness, the veterans published the following 
card: 

In behalf of the members of the Townsend Rifles, Com- 
pany G, 7th Connecticut Volunteers, whose term of service 
has just expired, we tender our thanks to our worthy friend 
and patron, James M. Townsend, for the many favors be- 
stowed on us, the fatherly care he has kept over our 
families during our absence, his kindly greeting on our 
return home, and the never-to-be-forgotten repast provided 
for us ere we separated to wend our way to our homes. 
We shall ever remember him with pride and the name we 
bore; his many acts of kindness; and the kind welcome he 
gave us on our return. 

Very respectfully, 

Townsend Rifles, Co. G, 7TH C. V. 

L. E. Peck, 

E. J. Borden, 

A. Downs, 

Committee. 



312 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



Such is Mr. Townsend's war record. It is one 
to be proud of; one of which his descendants for- 
generations must be proud. 

It may be noted that Mr. Townsend had been 
reared in the faith of an old line Whig. Until the 
beginning of hostilities he had counseled peace. 
When the inevitable war was precipitated by the 
attack on Fort Sumter, he became an advocate of 
the forcible suppression of the rebellion, and, from 
that day on until peace was assured, he was "for 
war" with his whole soul, devoting to the salvation 
of the Union his thought, his energy, and his 
fortune. 

The political honors which he has accepted or 
refused have been so many as to render him a con- 
spicuous figure in New Haven history. Hehasserved 
as Justice of the Peace, a member of the Common 
Council, and member of the Board of Education 
of the City of New Haven. He was Secretary of 
the Whig Convention at Baltimore which nomi- 
nated Millard Fillmore for the Presidency, and has 
been many times a delegate to State, Congressional 
and National Conventions. He has been repeatedly 
offered the nomination for representative to the 
Connecticut Legislature from the town of East 
Haven, where a nomination was equivalent to an 
election. While absent from the State, he was 
nominated by the Republicans as a Union candi- 
date for State Senator. His success was enthusi- 
astically predicted, and the prediction was verified. 
Referring to his nomination, the Neiv Haven Palla- 
dium, in the spring of 1864, said editorially: 

The Union voters of the Sixth District have an able and 
popular candidate for the State Senate in James M. Towns- 
end, of East Haven, and one whom they can and out;ht to 
elect on the first Monday of April. He is a son of the late 
William K. Townsend, of East Haven, formerly so well 
known to the farmers of New Haven County, and is himself 
well and favorably known in this city. Mr. Townsend is 
not in any sense of the word a politician, but his acts in sus- 
taining most liberally, from his own means, every good work 
for the cause of the Union; the bounties paid by himself to 
all the volunteers from his native town in the 15th and 27th 
Regiments; the raising of the " Townsend Rifles " of the 7th 
Regiment, a company which he still looks after with all a 
father's care; his efforts to fill the quota of East Haven at all 
times; and his unwavering and unciuestioning support of the 
administration in all its efforts to put down the reljellion, are 
a sufficient guarantee that will secure his election, we trust, 
without a doubt. 

Mr. Townsend's election, and the reason which 
impelled him to consent to be a candidate, were 
thus commented upon in the Neiv Haven Palladium 
of April 7, 1864. 

One of the most gratifying results of the election is the 
election of James M. Townsend, the Union candidate, for 
Senator in the Sixth District. In no sense a party man, he 
consented to the use of his name for the senatorship, think- 
ing he could thereby render some service to his country. 
He had liljerally aided the soldiers to go to the front, and if 
he could aid them by his voice and vote at home, he was 
desirous of so doing. How well the people of the district 
appreciated his motives in this respect is shown by his hand- 
some majority of three hundred in a district carried last year 
by the Democrats. 

He was renominated for this office by his party 
the following year, but declined the nomination. 
At a time when the Whigs were in the majority, 
he was offered by the chairman of the Whig State 



Committee the nomination to the office of State 
Treasurer, but declined. He was subsequently 
oflf^ered by the Republican State Committee the 
nomination for Lieutenant-Governor on the ticket 
with Hon. Marshall Jewell, but again declined. 
Hon. Morris Tyler, of New Haven, was nominated 
and was for two years Lieutenant-Governor while 
Mr. Jewell was Governor. At that time the Meri- 
den Recorder thus referred to him. 

The New Haven Courier truly says that among all the 
names thus far suggested for Lieutenant-Governor, no man 
is so deserving and popular as Mr. James M. Townsend, of 
that city. Meriden will go for Mr. Townsend with a might 
and a will, and we trust that he will receive the nomination. 

In 1872, Mr. Townsend was urged to stand as 
a candidate for the governorship, but refused the 
nomination, as he would not consent to have his 
name used to the prejudice of another who was a 
dear friend. The following editorial notice is clip- 
ped from the New Haven Journal and Courier of 
December 20, 1872. 

The name of Hon. James M. Townsend has been urged 
by many as a candidate for the gubernatorial chair at the 
coming election. He is a man highly popular in his town, 
popular in New Haven, and esteemed throughout this sena- 
torial district, to which he was elected to the Senate by three 
hundred majority, though the district had previously been 
Democratic; and he was one hundred ahead in his own 
town. And as the friend and patron of the soldiers, par- 
ticularly the " Townsend Rifles," he holds an honored place 
in the community. He has been named for other honors, 
but has almost invariably declined. We understand, how- 
ever, that Mr. Townsend would not consent to prejudice the 
nomination of so able and honored a standard-bearer as the ^ 
Hon. Henry B. Harrison, and his friends will acquiesce in 
this, his wish upon the subject, and hold him in their aflfec- 
tions the closer. 

Mr. Townsend was a warm personal friend of 
Governor W. A. Buckingham, who advised with 
him confidentially as to men and their elevation to 
oflSce. During the war. Governor Buckingham 
appointed him to responsible executive positions, 
and when Colonel William Fitch resigned that office, 
the Governor appointed Mr. Townsend Paymaster- 
General of the State of Connecticut, an honor which 
Mr. Townsend, on account of having so much other 
business, declined. 

While a member of the Senate, Mr. Townsend 
received a personal request from Lieutenant-Gover- 
nor Averill to accept the chairmanship of the Mili- 
tary Committee, with which he complied, and he 
soon introduced the first bill formulating the mili- 
tary law of the State of Connecticut. This bill was 
drafted by Hon. H. B. Harrison, with the aid of 
Mr. Townsend, and in its amended form is now 
the military law of the commonwealth. It has since 
been adopted by other States, and is pronounced by 
eminent military men the wisest and most effective 
State military law extant. These briefly stated facts 
serve to show in what esteem and confidence Mr. 
Townsend is held by his fellow citizens, not alone 
in New Haven, but throughout the State. 

Yale College, an object of so much just pride to 
the public-spirited citizens of New Haven, has ever 
been a special object of interest to Mr. Townsend. 
This interest would seem to be inherited, as Mr. 
Townsend's father, uncle and grandfather were 
deeply concerned for the welfare of the institution, 



THE TOWNSEND FAMILY. 



313 



often giving substantial aid, and contributed largely 
at the time when a fund of one hundred thousand 
dollars was raised for the College. His uncle, Pro- 
fessor Isaac H. Townsend, of the Yale Law School, 
founded the Townsend prize in the Academical 
Department, and Mr. Townsend established the 
Townsend fund, with an annual income of one 
hundred dollars, to be given to that student of the 
Yale Law School who should, on graduation, de- 
liver in the best manner the best written English 
oration. No further comment is required to estab- 
lish for Mr. Townsend a reputation as the friend of 
education. His prominent identification with the 
New Haven Board of Education has been elsewhere 
referred to. The public appreciation of his efforts 
in behalf of popular enlightenment was shown about 
five years ago, when nearly all of the residents of 
the school district embracing the school-house on 
Townsend avenue, signed a petition, which was 
duly presented to Mr. Townsend, requesting per- 
mission to name the school, Townsend Public 
School, in his honor. This personal compliment, 
flattering as it must have been, Mr. Townsend 
declined. 

Thoroughly conversant with all those practical 
topics which interest those who keep in the van of 
the world's progress, Mr. Townsend is also possess- 
ed of an intimate knowledge of those finer and 
more purely artistic subjects, a familiarity with 
which distinguishes the man of liberal thought 
from the ordinary man of affairs. To extensive 
reading he has added long and careful observation, 
aided by no small amount of travel. All important 
parts of our own country are familiar to him, and, 
in 1844, when he was quite a young man, a trip to 
Spain, Gibraltar and up the Mediterranean, fur- 
nished him material for a series of letters pub- 
lished at that time under a 110m tk. plume in the Nciv 
Haven Courier, which attracted much attention, 
and were extensively copied into other newspapers. 

A man of ideas himself, he has ever been quick 
to recognize the value of an idea born in the brain 
of another, and to the development of practical 
ideas, in the form of invention and discovery, which 
have promised to prove of utility to the world, he 
has devoted much labor and capital. It was in 
this line that Mr. Townsend made an achievement 
■which will be potent in perpetuating his name when 
it shall have taken its place in history. The dis- 
covery of petroleum in paying quantities, in Ve- 
nango County, Pa., in 1859, is chielly due to Mr. 
Townsend. On this subject we quote from the 
Venango Spectator, published in the very heart of 
the famous "Oil Country. " 

Hon. James M. Townsend was the man who sent E. L. 
Drake to Titusville, not witli a free commission, but under 
special direction to do what he did do— bore for oil. If 
Drake had failed, the loss of the adventure would have been 
loss to Mr. Townsend. • • • Drake was in fact his fore- 
man, and it is no more than rij^ht that Mr. Townsend should 
have, at least, a full share of the honor of a pioneer in de- 
veloping the great product which has revolutionized the 
world. 

These facts are borne out by McCarthy's " His- 
tory of Petroleum," and by every other recognized 
authority on the subject. 

40 



The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company, the first 
petroleum company in the United States, in which 
Mr. Townsend was one of the heaviest stock- 
holders, was organized in New Haven in 1854. In 
the spring of 1855, Professor Silliman, of Yale 
College, was employed to make an analysis of the 
oil. His report called public attention to the value 
of petroleum, and led to the reorganization of the 
company, largely through Mr. Townsend's in- 
fluence. The new company was known as the 
Seneca Oil Company of New Haven, Conn. In 
1857, Captain Charles Hervey Townshend, Mr. 
James M. Townsend's brother, at that time in com- 
mand of the packet ship Bavaria, sailing between 
New York and Havre, took a small bottle of crude 
petroleum with him — probably the first American 
specimen ever taken to Europe — and had it ana- 
lyzed by an eminent French chemist who reported: 
"If that oil can be gathered in quantity enough, 
its illuminating and lubricating qualities are such 
that for those purposes it will revolutionize the 
world." It was in the following December that a 
man whom Mr. Townsend had known as a con- 
ductor on the New Haven Railroad came to him 
broken in health, having been a sutTerer from ma- 
larial fever, in consequence of which affliction he 
had been obliged to leave his position on the rail- 
road. To this man Mr. Townsend proposed a 
mission to the wilds of Oil Creek to ascertain if 
anything could be made out of the land and leases 
of the Rock Oil Company, guaranteeing him a 
salary of $1,000 per annum, and furnishing him 
$1,000 cash as a working capital to begin oper- 
ations. This man was E. L. Drake. On the 29th 
of August, 1859, after many struggles and impedi- 
ments, the then village of Titusville was electrified 
by the dwellers along the creek rushing into the 
town screaming to every one they met: " The 
Yankee has struck oil ! " That strike, made after a 
year and a half of patient waiting, during which 
Mr. Townsend had been many times besought by 
the other stockholders to recall Drake and stop the 
expense of his at best doubtful investigations, was 
the real beginning of the oil business, an industry 
that has added millions upon millions to the 
world's wealth, made millionaires of paupers and 
paupers of millionaires, and extended its ramifica- 
tions to every quarter of the globe. This achieve- 
ment should place Mr. Townsend's name with those 
of America's greatest discoverers. 

In "The Descendants of William and Elizabeth 
Tuttle, '' we read: " It is said that Humboldt left a 
sum of money to procure a medal to be given to 
the discoverer of petroleum or rock oil. Mr. 
Townsend has been requested by eminent oil men 
in Pennsylvania to put in his claim, but, so far has 
not done so and the medal is not awarded." Re- 
ferring to this great interest, a distinguished gentle- 
man of Philadelphia wrote to Mr. Townsend: "The 
State of Pensylvania ought to erect a bronze monu- 
ment to your memory on account of the immense 
wealth brought to the State through your persever- 
ance, energy antl enterprise in providing the means 
for developing the petroleum business." At a later 
period the erection of such a monument at Titus- 



314 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



ville was proposed, to commemorate that vast pro- 
duction and export which has brought great sums 
of money into the United States, has been an 
important factor in turning the balance of trade in 
our favor, and in reheving the country, in some 
measure, from the gravest of the financial em- 
barrassments brought about by the civil war, en- 
abling a resumption of specie payments and a 
settled financial policy. Mr.Townsend's enterprise 
has been beneficial not only to the entire country, 
but to the civilized world at large. 

So great has been the public confidence in Mr. 
Townsend's financial and executive ability, that 
since early manhood he has been called upon for 
advice and counsel in intricate business questions 
as well as to act as administrator and executor in 
the distribution of extensive estates. A reference to 
only one such transaction, copied from the Niiv 
Haven Palhulium, of April 7, 1864, will serve as an 
example: 

The estate of the late Captain David Lines, a native of 
Woodbridjje, tliis State, is now in course of settlement in 
New York. Captain Lines, it will be remembered, disap- 
peared suddenly while on a visit to Niagara Falls in the 
summer of 1862. He had gone there for his health and is 
supposed to have fallen from the rocks and to have been 
carried over the falls. He had been for thirty years a pojiu- 
lar commander of vessels and steamshijis out of New York, 
and had accumulated a property of $50O,cxX), all so well 
invested that the estate, we are informed, has gained $100,- 
000 since his death. James M. Townsend, Esq., of this city, 
has been busily engaged for the past week with the adminis- 
trator, Mr. John A. Stewart, of the United .States Trust 
Company, New York, in the settlement. The property goes 
to two heirs, Mr. John M. Lines, of Woodbridge, the only 
son of a brother of Captain Lines, and Mrs. Anna Sperry, 
wife of Mr. Elihu Sperry, of this city. 

Mr. Townsend was married September i, 1847, 
to Maria Theresa, daughter of Epaphras and Sarah 
(Hall) Clark, of Middletown, Conn., where she was 
born October 10, 1828, and died at her home on 
Townsend avenue. New Haven, April 13, 1S84. 
They had two sons, William Kneeland, and James 
Mulford Townsend, Jr., of whom the history of the 
Tuttle and Townsend families gives the following 
account: 

"William Kneeland, attorney and counselor at 
law. New Haven, Conn., born June 12, 1848; was 
graduated from Yale College (Academic Depart- 
ment), 1 871, with high honors. He then took an 
extended tour to Europe, and on his return entered 
the Yale Law School, 1872, taking both the Jewell 
and Civil I^aw composition prizes, and graduated, 
1874, second in his class, with degree of LL. B. 
On his return from a second European trip he 
began the practice of law in New Haven, and 
entered the graduate class of the Law School in 
1S76, taking the degree of M. L. in 1878, and of 
D. C. L. in 1880. In 1879-80 he was a member 
of the Court of Common Council, New Haven, and 
in 1 880 was elected Alderman from the First Ward 
for the term of two yeans. In 1881 Dr. Townsend 
published a law book entitled 'The New Connecticut 
Civil Ofllcer, "which has been adopted as a text-book 
in Yale College Law School; and in [une, 1881, he 
was appointed (and is now) Professor of Pleading 
in Yale College, and a member of the firm of 
Townsend &Watrous, attorneys at law, New Haven. 



He married, July i, 1874, Mary Leavenworth, 
eldest daughter of Winston J. and Mary (Leaven- 
worth) Trowbridge, of New Haven, Conn. She 
was born in Barbadoes, West Indies, May 6, 1851, 
where her father was American Consul, and a resi- 
dent merchant and partner of the house of Henry 
Trowbridge's Sons, of New Haven, Conn. '' 

They had children: Winston Trowbridge, born 
June ID, 1878; Mary Leavenworth, born December 
6, 1879; ^'1'^ George Henry, born July 22, 1884. 

"James Mulford, Jr., attorney and counselor at 
law. New York City, was born August 26, 1S52, 
graduated at the Hopkins Grammar School in 1S69, 
and, after traveling in Europe, entered Yale College 
in 1870 and graduated in 1874 with an oration, and 
was chosen one of the Commencement speakers. 
He took, besides other honors, both the Junior and 
Senior 'Townsend prizes;' was one of the editors 
of the College Courant; ranked first in his class in 
English composition; and received the De Poorest 
prize (gold medal), then the highest collegiate 
honor at Yale, being ' awarded to that scholar of 
the Senior Class who shall write and pronounce an 
English oration in the best manner." On comple- 
tion of his studies at Yale he again visited Europe, 
and on his return studied law in the oftice of Chit- 
tenden ct Hubbard, and at the same time was a 
member of Columbia Law School in New York, 
from which he graduated in 1876, and in the same 
year became a member of the law firm of Chitten- 
den k Hubbard, and upon the retirement of Mr. 
Hubbard became, and is now, a member of the 
new firm of Chittenden, Townsend ife Chittenden." 

Mr. Townsend was married November 15, 1882, 
in Lexington, Va., to Miss Harriet Campbell, 
daughter of Professor John L. Campbell, LL.D., 
Professor of Geology and Chemistry in Washington 
and Lee University of Lexington. They have one 
child, born October 3, 1884, named Harriet Bailey 
Campbell. 

The following notice of the death of Mrs. James 
M. Townsend appeared in the Neiv York Observer, 
May 22, 1884: 

TOWNSEND.— At her home, New Haven, Conn., April 
13, 1884, Maria Theresa, daughter of the late Epaphras 
Clark, of Middletown, Conn., and wife of James M. Towns- 
end. 

Mrs. Townsend leaves two sons— Professor William K. 
Townsend, of the Yale Law School, and James M. Towns- 
end, Jr., engaged in practice of law in New York City. 
1 ler funeral was attended by Rev. Dr. Newman Smyth and 
Rev. Burdett Hart. The former read passages of Scripture 
and oftcrcd prayer in alfectionate sympathy with the be- 
reaved family; the latter followed with an address pecu- 
liarly appropriate to the sad occasion. The iiallbearers 
were Professor Timothy Dwight, Professor Cyrus Northrop 
and Henry C. Kingsley, of Yale College, and Hon. Henry 
B. Harrison, Wilbur F. Day and Henry D. White. 

The death of this lovely Christian woman has causcil the 
most poignant sorrow, not only among her kindred, but 
among a large number of people who admired and loved 
her for her amiability and her tine traits of character, and 
those to whom in sorrow and trouble she has been a minis- 
tering angel of comfort. Mrs. Townsend was a most esti- 
mable lady, of rare beauty of disposition, bright, spirited, 
hopeful, ol much innate refinement and artistic taste, and of 
a rarely sweet and sensitive nature. Though surrounded 
by every advantage which can be found in external circum- 
stances, she was most thoughtfully considerate of others, 
always active in good works, a most devoted wife and 




/.^^y^?^-^^^ ^'^^c^^^z.^^^^*,^^^ 



THE TOWNS END FAMILY. 



315 



mother, aiul in the words of Rev. Mr. Hart at her funeral, 
"Though hfe held out much to Hvc for, she gave to the 
sorrowing friends a beautiful lesson of trust and resignation. 
Her end was peace, and reflected luster on the power of the 
Christian faith over the tomb." 

CAPT. CHARLES HERVEY TOWNSHEND 

was born at Raynham, in East Haven (now New 
Haven), November 26, 1833, and is the seventh 
in descent from Thomas Townsend, or Townshend, 
who settled at the Lynn Colony of Massachusetts 
Bay in 1638. He was educated at private schools 
in New Haven and in Farmington, Conn., with a 
view of taking (if so inclined) a collegiate course 
at Vale College, but having a nautical turn of mind, 
he began during his last school vacation to prepare 
himself for his chosen profession by making several 
coasting voyages in sloops and schooners at an 
age when most boys in comfortable circumstances 
are still clinging to their home amusements. 

When about fifteen years old he made his first 
sea voyage on the Hyperion, a bark of 219 tons, 
built for Timothy Dwight, of New Haven, and 
launched at the Quinnipiac ship-yard in the year 
1848. He sailed from New York on his first sea 
voyage the 19th of April, 1849, for Trinidad, West 
Indies, returning home via St. Croix and St. Thomas 
to Baltimore. After two more voyages on the 
same vessel — one to the West Indies, and one to 
the Mediterranean — young Townshend shipped as 
ordinary seaman under Captain E. G. Tinker on 
the Margaret Evans, of 1,200 tons burthen, one 
of the original line of New York and London 
Packet Ships, and made one voyage; then changed 
to the Southampton, 1,500 tons, of the same line. 
This was then the largest and finest ship in the 
trade. In her he made several voyages as able 
seaman, and the last two as third mate. When 
appointed to this position he was not quite eighteen 
years old. 

After studying navigation a few months at New 
Haven under the tuition of Mr. Stiles French, he 
returned to New York and joined the Helvetia, 
1,200 tons. Captain B. F. Marsh, of Whitlock's 
New York and Havre Union Line of Packet Ships, 
and in her made four voyages, the first two as 
third mate, and the last two as second mate. He 
then changed to the Germania, 1,500 tons, Captain 
D. H. Wood, of the same line, and made several 
voyages to Havre as first officer. In connection 
with one of these, Mr. Townshend's journal relates 
a terrible incident. The return trip from Havre in 
February and March, 1856, was very boisterous, 
with tremendous gales and hurricanes. Several 
icebergs were sighted, and one night the ship ran 
into an immense field of ice, getting clear about 
daylight. On the 28th of February a boat, with a 
signal of distress flying, and a man sitting in the 
stern, was seen ahead, the ship at the time being 
under doubled-reefed topsails, and bowsing into a 
tremendous head sea. Mr. Townshend lowered a 
boat from his ship, and with four men pulled 
for the castaway through a sea so rough that when 
in its trough the Germania's sky-sail poles were out 
of sight. On drawing near to the drifting boat she 



was found to be two-thirds full of water; and on the 
bottom lay four dead bodies, two men and two 
women, frozen stiff. When the boats had ap- 
proached within a few yards of each other the man 
showed signs of life, and crawled on his hands and 
knees to the bow, and, when near enough, tumbled 
head-foremost into the stern sheets of the Germania's 
boat, and, after giving his name and a few particu- 
lars, sunk into a stupor, and in this state was hoisted 
on board the ship. He was restored with difliculty. 
This man was Thomas W. Nye, of Fair Haven, 
Mass., and he is still living to tell his "story of 
the sea," how on the evening of the 19th of Febru- 
ary, nine days before he was picked up, the ship 
John Rudedge, of Howland & Frothingham's 
Line of New York and Liverpool Packet Ships, 
and bound from Liverpool to New York with 
immigrants, passengers and cargo, was caught 
in an immense ice-field and went down, carrying 
with her several hundred passengers. Five boats 
put off from the wreck, including Nye's, which had 
thirteen on board. Twelve of these died, and the 
bodies of eight were thrown overboard by Nye 
himself. He had not strength left to remove the 
others. 

Early in the year 1857, Captain Townshend took 
command of the New York and Havre packet 
ship Bavaria. In about eight years he had worked 
up through every grade, from the lowest to the 
highest, in the merchant service, and in that highest 
grade stood among the first. He was now in his 
twenty-third year. He made two voyages in com- 
mand of the Bavaria, and ihen went back to his 
old ship, the Germania, as captain; in which he 
made thirteen voyages, all to Havre, e.x'cepting one 
to James River, Va., and Havre, one to INIobile 
and Havre, another to New Orleans and Havre, 
and one from New York to San Francisco, Puget 
Sound, Queenstown, London, Cardiff in Wales, 
and thence to New York, during which voyage he 
escaped capture by Confederate privateers twice off 
the South American coast, this last voyage cov- 
ering a period of two years. He then returned in 
the Germania to the New York and Havre route 
(the Civil War being ended), and while still in 
command of that vessel was invited to take com- 
mand of the United States mail steamer Fulton, of 
3,500 tons, by a unanimous vote of the Board of 
Directors, which he accepted early in the year 
1867, and after making numerous successful 
voyages in this service, changed to the command of 
the American Steamship Company's steamer On- 
tario, of some 5,000 tons burthen. 

While in command of the latter ship during the 
Franco-Prussian War, 1870-71, he took her into 
Havre via Cowes, England (having cleared his ship 
at the latter port for Antwerp to save detention), 
which port he sailed for from New York, under 
sealed orders, laden with fire-arms, ammunition and 
equipments, of which the French Government was 
sorely in need. The value of this cargo was two 
and a half million of dollars. The timely arrival of 
the Ontario, the Prussian advance guard having 
reached at the moment of her arrival a point four 
miles from Havre, saved this important port from 



316 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



capture, and an estimated loss of at least fifty mil- 
lions of dollars. This achievement created great 
enthusiasm and delight in France, notably in Paris 
and Havre, where Captain Townshend was ft'ted 
and made the object of unlimited courtesies and 
attention, and his name proposed for an award of a 
decoration of the Legion of Honor. 

One of the most noteworthy of first things in the 
history of American commerce is the first export 
of American petroleum. This was in 1858, when 
Captain Townshend carried a specimen of the oil 
from the Seneca Oil Company's Well, in which he 
was interested, at Titusville, Pa., which was given 
him by his brother, James M. Townsend, to Paris 
for analysis and brought back the report of the 
French chemist. 

There is probably no position of responsibility 
known among men requiring for its successful dis- 
charge so wide a range of practical knowledge as 
that of the captain of a ship. There is certainly 
none so full of exigencies, demanding courage, 
quick perception, fertile invention of expedients, 
and prompt and resolute action. It is also the 
most dangerous of callings. Captain Townshend 
has filled this position many years, crossing the 
Atlantic Ocean more than one hundred times with- 
out any serious mishap to himself, and, a most 
grateful and comforting reflection to him, without 
losing a single life ; but accredited to him having 
laded on several occasions more souls than he 
sailed with from his last port of departure. Nor 
has he lost a dollar's worth of property intrusted 
to his care. He has enjoyed the full gratitude of 
his passengers; the confidence and esteem of his 
employers; and the good-will, he believes, of every 
one. 

He has long been interested in oyster culture. 
For several years previous to i860, and while in 
the Havre trade, he personally watched the exper- 
iments of RIM. De Coste and De Broca, the latter a 
Commissioner to this country in 1859, at the in- 
stance of Napoleon HI, to examine our shell-fish 
culture. While here, the guest of the Messrs. 
Townsends, he suggested utilizing shells, tiles and 
twigs of trees to be used for a stool for spat, when 
ripe, to adhere to. Captain De Broca at this time 
gave Captain Townshend engravings, now in his 
possession, to prove the system was then (1859) in 
successful operation on the coast of France. 

Captain Townshend has devoted a great deal of 
time and money to an experimental study of the 
subject, noting in a journal an account of his 
method and result. This journal is largely trans- 
cribed in the Tenth Census of the United Stale 
Section X (Monograph B), in "A Report on the 
Oyster Industry of the United States," by Ernest 
Ingersol, who introduces it as follows : 

"In no way probably could I better illustrate 
the slow experiment and expensive trial by which 
the more intelligent of the New Haven planters 
have succeeded so far as they have done, than by 
giving an abstract of a diary kept for several years 
by one of the most energetic of these experi- 
menters, Captain Charles II. Townshend. I am 
able to avail myself of it through his consent and 



the kindness of Professor A. E. Verrill, of Yale 
College, to whom it had been intrusted for scien- 
tific use. Captain Townshend lives at Raynham, 
on the east side of the harbor, where his brother, 
Mr. George H. Townsend,. still continues the bus- 
iness on a large scale. He was in command of 
packet ships and ocean steamers of the New York 
and Havre Lines for many years, and took special 
pains when in Europe to study the methods of 
oyster culture in vogue on the French coast, and 
was able to apply many hints there obtained to his 
plantations on this side, though he found so great 
a difference of circumstances and natural history 
between French and American oysters, that his 
transatlantic experience was of less use than he 
expected it to be." 

The first memorandum in this interesting book 
informs us, under the date of 1S67, that the author 
"commenced to stock the ditch at Fort Hale, ad- 
joining his own property, and of which he has 
charge, with native oysters of two years' growth, in 
September and October of 1867, for the purpose of 
experiment. '' The abstract which follows fills sev- 
eral quarto pages of the report. 

Among the most important and valuable of the 
services rendered to his native place by Captain 
Townshend, we note, from the files of a daily paper, 
his suggestions for a cornice road along the cliffs of 
East Rock, and locating the soldiers' and sailors' 
monument there was his conception; also those in 
connection with the improvements of its harbor and 
the resurvey of Block Island Sound, Long Island 
Sound, and the East River to Hell Gate, where 
several dangerous reefs have been located (on a 
chart now in course of construction by the \J. S. 
Coast and Geodetic Survey), one of which, lying in 
the fairway of ships bound to New Haven and long 
known to the local pilot, now bears his name. 

His long experience in maritime affairs (twenty- 
five years), his familiarity with various FZuropean 
and American ports, and his training and habits of 
close and intelligent observation, qualify him pre- 
eminently to understand its facilities, needs and 
possibilities. 

He originated, about the year 1870, the idea of 
a port of refuge off the low-er quay at New Haven, 
by inclosing by means of two breakwaters, similar 
to Cherbourg, France, and Plymouth, England, 
which scheme met the approbation of commercial 
men and of Congress, and in 1879 t^his great na- 
tional work for the benefit of foreign and domestic 
commerce was surveyed and located by United 
States Government F^ngineers and is now in course 
of construction, and when completed w^ill cost sev- 
eral millions of dollars and cover an area of about 
four times the space of New Haven Harbor, and be 
easy of ingress and egress from all directions in 
tempestuous weather. For this, and the improve- 
ment of the harbor, about $250,000 have been ap- 
propriated. 

The immediate benefit of these w-orks, great as 
they are, but directly foreshadow far greater things 
when Long Island Sound shall become the path- 
way of F^uropean commerce to the port of New 
York, which city must, according to Captain Towns- 



THE CUSTOM HOUSE. 



317 



hend's idea, spread in the near future across West- 
chester County and face it. 

Captain Townshend is a member of the Harbor 
Commission, a Director of the New Haven Colony 
Historical Society and Chamber of Commerce, and 
of several other corporations, and has interests in 
banking, manufacture and commerce. A life so 
full of active employment would seem to leave but 
scanty leisure, opportunity or disposition for schol- 
arly pursuits, yet he has accomplished so much, 
especially in the line of antiquarian and genealog- 
ical work, as to awaken surprise that he has not 
succumbed to its subtle fascinations. 

In 1S79 he published, by request of prominent 
citizens, " A Centennial History of the British In- 
vasion of New Haven." He is the author of sev- 
eral commercial and historical pamphlets, of nu- 
merous able articles in the New England Historical 
and Genealogical Register and the local papers of 
the neighborhood, and has compiled, and published 
at his own expense, four editions of "The Towns- 
hend Family, of Lynn, in Old and New England." 
He has traced his own ancestry in many of its lines 
back to the first settlement of New England, and 
is directly descended from several of the Mayflower 
pilgrims, viz., John Howland, who married Eliza- 
beth, daughter of John Tilly, and his wife, Elizabeth, 
who, tradition says, was a daughter of Mr. John 
Carver, who was chosen Governor of the Plymouth 
Colony on board the Mayflower in Cape Cod Har- 
bor, November 11, 1620. 

From his ancestral chart, not 3-et completed, we 
note his descent from the following original New 
England settlers: Thomas Townsend, or Towns- 
hend, Samuel Davies, Edmund Ranger, John 



Kneeland, Luke Hitchcock, Henry Burt, Simon 
Lobdell, Robert Walker, Moses Wheeler, Stephen 
Butler, William Eustice, David Atwater, Thomas 
Bayers, William Bradley, John Brocket, John Rus- 
sell, Edward Granniss, John Wakefield, William 

Bassett, Oldham, Christopher Todd, Michael 

Middlebrook, Rev. John Rayner, Anthony Thomp- 
son, Thomas Harrison, Thomas Powell, Richard 
Mansfield, Henry Glover, William Mulford, fere- 
miah Conklyn, Lion Gardner, Rev. Abraham Pier- 
son, Edward Petty, Captain John Gorham, Francis 
Bell, Richard Miles, Joseph Alsop, William Preston, 
William Punchard, Richard Waters, Francis Brown, 

Edwards, Rev. Peter Bulkley, Rev. John Jones, 

Isaac Bradley, Rev. Roger Prichard, Jacob Robin- 
son, Mathias Hitchcock, Thomas lilerrick. Rev. 
Daniel Brewer, Ralph Hemingway, John Hewes, 
John Cooper, Robert Talmage, Thomas Nash, 
Thomas Yale, Captain Nathaniel Turner, Thomas 
Morris, Governor James Bishop, Captain George 
Lamberton, William Tutde, Thomas Morris, John 
Sanford, John Payne. 

Captain Townshend was married on the 26th of 
April, 1871, to Mary Anne, daughter of Henry and 
Elizabeth Daggett (Prescott) Hotchkiss, and has 
two sons, Henry Hotchkiss Townshend, born in 
New Haven September 30, 1874, and Raynham 
Townshend, born in New Haven July 10, 1878. 
Mrs. Townshend is descended from Samuel Hotch- 
kiss, John Prescott, David Atwater, William Bas- 
sett, Rev. Francis Higginson, Rev. John Higgin- 
son. Rev. Henry Whitfield, William and Anne 
Hutchinson; the exile from Mass Bay Colony, 1638, 
Elder George Minot, Thomas Savage, John Hoare, 
Lane, Capt. Timothy Wheeler, Blakesley. 



CHAPTER XVII 



THE CUSTOM HOUSE. 



IN 1 68 1, Governor Leete received a letter from 
the King, commanding him to take effectual 
care for the due observance of the laws relating 
to the trade of the plantations, and announcing the 
appointment of Edward Randolph as Collector of 
Customs for New England. With the royal epistle 
came one from the Commissioners of the Customs, 
giving particular instructions for the enforcement 
of these Acts of Parliament, and accompanied with 
blank forms such as were used in the custom 
houses at home. The Governor's reply to the 
Commissioners is too racy to be abridged, and 
we give it entire. 

Hartford, January 24, 1680. 
Much HoNOREn : 

Yours of May 24, 16S0, came to our hand January follow- 
ing, wilh the uiclosed from his Majesty, with the statutes, 
box of seals, and book of rates. The contents whereof were 
of so much satisfaction unto us, viz., to be informed and 
directed how we mit;ht serve his Majesty, preventive to 
frauds in customs and duties, tliat being part of our allegi- 
ance and duty incumbent, unto which wc apprehend our- 
selves suHiciently impowered by his Majesty's gracious 



charter granted to this colony. And we have the greater 
happiness by your early care thus to suggest to us, before 
we arrived at any capacity so to defraud: for though we 
may not boast ot our own goodness, yet penury hath hither- 
to obstructed; for after above forty years, sweating and (oil 
in this wilderness to enlarge his Majesty's dominions at our 
own costs and adventure, we have neither had leisure or 
ability to launch out in any considerable trade at sea, having 
only a lew small vessels to carry our corn, hogs and horses 
unto our neighbors of York and lioston to exchange for 
some clothes and utensils wherewithal to work and subdue 
this country : likewise some of those commodities are carried 
to the Barbados and those islands, to bring in some sugar 
and rum to refresh the spirits of such as labor in the extreme 
heat and cold, so to serve his Majesty's enlargement of do- 
minions and get a poor living to themselves meanwhile; the 
substance whereof we suppose Mr. Randolph can inform, 
who having lately taken an interview of our parts and col- 
ony; unto whom we have showed civility according to our 
capacity, and offered any furtherance in so good a design to 
prevent fraud toward our Sovereign in trade and naviga- 
tion. We have also appointed Customers or Collectors in 
our several counties, to take special care that these Acts of 
Navigation and Trade be duly observed and kept, and have 
commissioned them accordingly. They are the most aptest 
persons we could pitch upon fur that affair. This work is 



318 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



yet novel and unknown to them through want of experience 
in such occasions; but we have no cause to doubt of their 
fidelity and care in the due observance of the work and trust 
reposed in them; and we shall be ready to grant Mr. Ran- 
dolph such necessary aid and assistance as shall be requisite, 
if he also shall see cause to take any cognisance of these 
affairs in our colony. If yourselves, or any Lords of the 
Privy Council or Treasury, will concern themselves to 
further our light in this or any thing proper to our loyalty, 
we shall thankfully accept the same and do our duty there- 
in, praying always fur the long life and happy reign of his 
Majesty, and the welfare of yourselves and all Pi-otestant 
professors, as our own, who are your Honor's very humble 
servants, William Leete, Govt. 

John Talcot. 

John Allyn. 
These for the Honorable the Commissioners of his Majesty's 
Customs at the Custom House in London, Present. 

About six months earlier, Governor Leete had 
written to the Lords of the Privy Council, in reply 
to certain questions which they had propounded 
as a committee on trade and plantations. In 
reply to one of their queries he had given a com- 
plete report of all the shipping in Connecticut, viz. : 

In Stamford, i pinck of 80 tons and i sloop of 
10 ton. 

In Stratford, i sloop, 1 2 tons. 

In Milford, i pinck, 80 tons; i bark, 12 tons; 
I ketch, 50 tons. 

In New Haven, i pinck, 60 tons; i sloop, 30 
tons; I ketch, 24 tons; i sloop, 12 tons; and i 
sloop, 8 tons. 

In Branford, i bark, 30 tons. 

In Kenil worth, 2 sloops, one 18 tons and one 
14 tons. 

In Saybrook, 2 small sloops. 

In Middletown, i ship, 70 tons. 

In Hartford, i ship, 90 tons. 

In Lyme, i ketch, 70 toiis. 

In New London, 2 ships, one 70 tons and one 
90 tons; 3 ketches, about 50 tons apiece; and 2 
sloops, 1 5 tons apiece. 

In Stonington, i sloop, 10 tons. 

In reply to another query he had reported: 
" We take no duties of goods exported out of our 
government; nor of any goods imported, except on 
wine and liquors, which is inconsiderable and im- 
proved toward the maintenance of free schools. " 

It would seem therefore, that previous to 1680 
the colony of Connecticut had been left to itself 
in respect to duties on imports, and that then the 
home government began to be interested in the 
collection of duties on imports. From that time 
till 1766 there was but one Custom House, and 
that was in New London. 

As might be expected, there was some friction 
between the Collectors, whose commissions came 
from the other side of the sea, and the colonial 
authorities. The General Court enacted that New 
London, Saybrook, Guilford, New Haven, Mil- 
ford, Stratford, Fairfield and Stamford should be 
held, deemed, and adjudged to be lawful ports, 
"at every of which aforesaid ports an office shall 
be held and kept for the entering and clearing of 
all ships and other vessels trading to or from this 
colony, to be called and known by the name of 
the Naval Oflke. " A tariff was established regulat- 



ing the fees of Naval Officers for entering and 
clearing vessels; and a Naval Officer at each of the 
ports was appointed. The Naval Officers being 
thus expressly authorized by the colony to enter 
and clear vessels, the Collectors assumed that none 
but Collectors could enter or clear. In 17 10 a 
sloop belonging to Connecticut being seized at 
Newport, Rhode Island, for want of a clearance 
from the Collector at New London, the Governor 
and his Council espoused the cause of the owners 
and assumed all the expenses of litigation. 

This board lieing informed by a letter from Coll. William 
Wanton, of Newport, to his Honor the Governor, that the 
Collector there hath made seizure of a sloop belonging to 
this colony, whereof Francis Whitemore is master, because 
the said sloop went from Saybrook to Newport with a clear- 
ing from the Naval Officer at Saybrook, and had not a clear- 
ing from Mr. Shackmaple, the Collector at New London: on 
consideration thereof, and of the resolve of the General 
Court in May last concerning masters of vessels who enter 
and clear with the Naval Officer in any port of this colony, 
that they shall not be obliged to enter and clear at .any 
other port, but shall have free liberty to sail from the port 
where they so enter and clear directly, etc.; and also con- 
sidering the desire of the General Court in October last that 
the Governor and Council do use their utmost endeavor to 
defend the rights, powers and privileges of this government 
in and concerning our several ports, do resolve that whatso- 
ever is requisite to be done in tliis particular case, for the 
vindication of the vessel seized and justifying the clearing 
of the Naval Officer, lie done at the charge of this govern- 
ment. 

Changing the war from defensive to aggressive, 
the General Assembly, for so it was now named, 
passed a resolve in 171 5, 

that whatsoever person doth or shall at any time from and 
after the ending of the present session of this Assembly, pre- 
tend to have and exercise the power and office of a Collector 
in any place or port of this colony, before he has produced 
to the Governor and Council a commission for that end 
from the Lord High Treasurer, Commissioners of the 
Treasury, and the Commissioners of the Customs, and pre- 
sented the same to be entered in record in the Secretary's 
Office, shall not be allowed to execute the said office of 
Collector. 

A further resolve imposed a penalty of /"lOO on 
any person who should presume to act as Collector 
before his commission should be accepted and re- 
corded. Before the end of June next following 
this enactment, the Governor and Council, at a 
meeting in New London, sent for Collector Shack- 
maple, and acquainting him with the said act, gave 
him opportunity to produce his commission. Mr. 
Shackmaple having produced a commission signed 
by a Surveyor-General, and another of like charac- 
ter but different date. 

The Governor desired the said Captain .Shackmaple if 
he had any letters or other papers from the Lend 'I'reasurer 
formerly, or from the Commissioners of the Treasury, or 
the Customs, which could satisfy this Hoard that they were 
privy to his ever being employed as a Collector here, to pro- 
duce them. But he not offering any such letters or papers, 
it was considered and resolved that notwithstanding the 
commissions so produced, he did not appear ([ualilied with 
powers for the executing the office of Collector in this 
government, according to the Act of Parliament in the 
seventh and eighth year of King William the Third, intituled 
"An Act for Preventing Fraud and Regulating Abuses in 
the Plantation Tr.ade," referred to in the Act of the Assem- 
bly above mentioned. 

A few days afterward the Council ordered the 
naval officer at New London to prosecute the mas- 



THE CUSTOM HOUSE. 



319 



ter of a sloop who had sailed from that port with- 
out a clearance from the Naval Officer. Nothing is 
said in these instructions about a clearance from 
Collector Shackniaple, but there is no reason to 
doubt that he had cleared the sloop, and that this 
order to the Naval Officer was one gun in the battle 
for chartered rights. 

In several instances where masters of vessels had 
fallen into trouble in foreign ports, because their 
clearances were signed by Naval ( )fficers and not 
by Collectors, the Council certified that the vessels 
were duly qualified to trade, and that there was 
"no person in this colony with powers from the 
honorable the Commissioners of his Majesty's 
Customs for executing the office of Collector 
therein. " 

The position of the colonists was that their char- 
ter authorized them to regulate and control com- 
merce both foreign and coastwise; though they did 
not deny the right of the home government to 
establish such regulations as the good of the whole 
empire might demand. Reluctantly the custom 
was introduced that the Governor should take the 
oath required to be taken by all governors of her 
Majesty's colonies or plantations in America, by an 
Act of Parliament entitled "An Act for Preventing 
Frauds and Regulating Abuses in the Plantation 
Trade." However conscientious the Governor 
might be in his fidelity to this oath, he was also 
equally faithful to his oath as Governor under the 
charter. 

The outcome of the strife between the Royal 
Commissioners of the Customs and the colonists, 
was a double regulation of commerce. The 
colony had its laws respecting ports. Naval Officers, 
and duties; and the officers of the King under the 
Act of Parliament regulated the trade of the colony 
for the welfare of the British Empire. The colony, 
though holding that her own courts were compe- 
tent to decide all controversies, was obliged to 
submit to the establishment of courts of admiralty, 
and to demit the claim that her Naval Officers could 
issue clearances of full validity. 

So far as the writer has ascertained, the only 
duty which the colony imposed was that mentioned 
by Governor Leete in 1680, viz., a duty on wine 
and liquors. At the May session of 170S, this 
duty was fixed at fifty shillings for every pipe of 
wine and fifty shillings for every hogshead of rum; 
but at the October session the rate was reduced to 
ten shillings for a pipe of wine and ten shillings for 
a hogshead of rum. The money derived from this 
impost continued to be used for the promotion of 
learning; for in 1766, on the memorial of the 
President and Fellows of Yale College, showing the 
necessity of sufficient funds to enable them to sup- 
port the officers needful for the instruction, govern- 
ment, and well-being of that society, praying for 
such aid and assistance as will enable them to sup- 
port that important interest, so as to answer the 
true and great ends of its institution, a committee 
of the General Assembly reported that the want of 
sufficient funds is occasioned oy the payment of 
considerable sums towards building the chapel, 
finishing a house for the professor of divinity and 



for his support; also by the inability of the tenants, 
the great decrease of the number of students, and 
the withdrawal of the usual annual grant from this 
assembly; and recommended that the deficiency be 
paid out of the impost duty on rum, collected by 
the Naval Officers of the Ports of New London and 
New Haven. The General Assembly, after deduct- 
ing the salary of one tutor, and thus reducing the 
sum to be paid from ^159 12s. od. to ^^102 los. 
Sd., passed a resolve ordering the Naval Officer of 
the Port of New Haven to pay that sum "to the 
treasurer of the college, out of said duty on rum or 
so much thereof as he hath money arising thereon 
in his hands. And in case he, said Naval Officer, 
have not sufficient, the Naval Officer for the Port of 
New London is ordered to pay the residue thereof 
to said treasurer, for the use and purposes afore- 
said. 

Until 1756 there was in the colony but one office 
for the collection of customs by what the colonists 
called the Home Government, and that was at 
New London. The Connecticut Gazette, the earliest 
newspaper in New Haven, reports during its first 
year, the clearances, inward and outward, at the 
Custom House in New London; and begins August 
28, 1756, a similar report of the new office in New 
Haven. Its report on that day reads thus: 

Custom House, New Haven, Inward Entries. — Wells and 
Johnson from Barbados; Gibbs from Angiiilla. Captain Allen, 
Captain Miles, Captain Mansfield and Captain Smith are 
all safe arrived at Antigua. 

On the iith of September, the Gazette contains 
this announcement: 

Notice is hereby given that all vessels to or from the fol- 
lowing towns, viz. : Guilford, Branford, New Haven, 
Wallingford, Milford, Stratford, Derby, Fairfield, Norwalk, 
Stamford and Greenwich, belonging to the district of New 
Haven, are to be entered and cleared at the Custom House 
in New Haven, where an office for that purpose and to re- 
ceive his Majesty's customs is now opened. And all ma.sters 
of vessels are therefore required to apply for their dispatches 
at said office. Nicholas Lechmere, 

Colleclor. 

The earliest records preserved in the New Haven 
Custom House date from September, 1762. There 
is a book commencing with "A list of all ships and 
vessels cleared outward in the port of New Haven, 
in the colony of Connecticut, between the i6th day 
of September, 1762, and the3ist day of December, 
1762; " and continuing the outward clearances into 
the subsequent years. There is another book 
commencing with "A list of all ships and vessels 
which have cleared inwards between the i6th day 
of September, 1762, and the 31st day of December, 
1762; ''and continuing the inward clearances into 
the subsequent years. 

The British ministry had not at this date under- 
taken to tax the colonies for revenue. The strife 
excited by the first attempts to impose duties had 
subsided, and the colonists were content that Par- 
liament should regulate trade and discriminate 
between commodities produced by British subjects 
and such as were brought in from foreign realms. 

But when, in 1764, the right to raise a revenue, 
not by asking the colonists to tax themselves in 



320 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



their colonial legislatures, but by means of a tax 
laid by Act of Parliament, was asserted, the colo- 
nists hastened to protest against the principle, and 
against all measures for carrying it into practice. 
It was in the interest of this protest that Connecti- 
cut sent out Jared Ingersoll; and other colonies 
sent out similar agents. True it was the stamp- 
tax, rather than duties on imports, which awakened 
the colonists; but as soon as they were awake they 
saw that the latter, equally with the former, invaded 
their rights as British subjects. The argument 
written by Governor Fitch, copies of which were 
carried by ]\Ir. Ingersoll, freely acknowledges the 
right of Parliament to regulate trade for the welfare 
of the whole British empire, but denies its right to 
tax any British subjects not present by their repre- 
sentatives in the legislature where the tax was laid, 
and in particular denies its right to tax the people 
of Connecticut, because their rights and liberties as 
British subjects were under the special protection 
of a royal charter. 

When the colonists found that their protest was 
unavailing, and that laws were enacted to take 
their property without their consent, they combined 
to render such legislation inoperative by abstaining 
not only from the use of stamps, but from the use 
and importation of whatever was made liable to 
impost. Such general agreement was there in this 
abstinence, that English merchants trading with the 
American colonies finding their occupation gone, 
turned upon the ministry for relief The ministry 
yielding to the demands of the Americans, second- 
ed by their friends in England, so altered the laws 
regulating trade, that tea was the only commodity 
carried from England to America on which an im- 
port duty was demanded. Tea was retained on the 
list, it is said at the special request of the King, for 
the sake of conserving the principle that the mother 
country could tax its colonies. 

Of course, while this controversy was in prog- 
ress, the Custom House was not in high esteem 
among the Sons of Liberty. In the account which 
Benedict Arnold gives in the Connecticut Journal, 
under the date of 29th January, 1766, of the whip- 
ping which he and others gave to an informer, it 
crops out that the officers of the Customs them- 
selves discharged their duties perfunctorily. The 
informer endeavored to complain of Arnold on a 
Sunday, but, it being holy time, was desired to call 
on Monday. "Early "on Monday, Arnold hav- 
ing already heard of his intention, "gave him a 
little cliastisement. " The name of the officer who 
thus repelled the informer has not been transmitted 
to our time; but it is safe to infer that he was a 
New Haven man, and more in symjiathy with his 
fellow citizens than with those who had placed 
him in office. Undoubtedly in such a state of 
public opinion in reference to duties on imports 
there was much smuggling. 

In this state of feeling toward the Custom House 
and the duties its officers imposed, or were under 
obligation to impose, New Haven was not alone. 
Everywhere thruughout the country the laws reg- 
ulating trade were evaded, not only by such men 
as Benedict Arnold, but by merchants of far greater 



moral sensitiveness than he. Dr. Gordon, in his 
narrative of the seizure of John Hancock's sloop 
Liberty, in Boston, on the loth of June, 1768, 
after the Commissioners of the Customs, turning 
over a new leaf, had begun to enforce the laws 
with some degree of fidelity, says: " It had been 
the common practice for the tidewaiter, upon the 
arrival of a vessel, to repair to the cabin and there 
to remain drinking punch with the master, while 
the sailors and others on deck were employed in 
landing the wines, molasses, or other dutiable 
goods." 

The Collector of the Port of Boston when die 
sloop Liberty was seized by the Custom House 
authorities, was Joseph Harrison. He and his 
son Richard were both severely handled by the 
mob which resisted the seizure. How long he 
had been Collector at that port the present writer 
has not ascertained, but sees no reason to doubt 
that he is the same person who, a few years before 
was Collector at New Haven, as appears from the 
following notice given in the Connecticut Gazette 
of June I, 1762. 

All merchants and masters of vessels who have any pro- 
vision bonds now in the office are desired to produce cer- 
tificates, that they may be canceled in due time, or they 
will be prosecuted according to Act of Tarliament. 
By order of the Surveyor-General, 

Joseph Harrison, Collector. 

There are no Custom House records from which 
one can make a list of the Collectors before the 
Revolution. By accident the name of the first 
collector, Nicholas Lechmere, has been preserved 
in an advertisement. He entered upon the duties 
of his office in 1756, but the time when he de- 
mitted is not known. Another newspaper has pre- 
served the name of Joseph Harrison as Collector in 
1762. He probably left the office in 1764, as the 
New London Gazette of October 26th in that year, 
says: " Last Saturday, sailed from hence the Prince 
Henry, mast ship. Captain Robinson, for London. 
Jared Ingersoll and Joseph Harrison, Esqs. ; Cap- 
tain Samuel Willis, of Rliddletown; Mr. Samuel 
Wyllys, of Hartford, and some other gentlemen, 
went passengers in her." Samuel Peters, in his nar- 
rative, more amusing than veracious, of the finding 
of Gregson's will, informs his readers that Peter 
Harrison, Collector of his Majesty's customs, was 
residing at New Haven in 1768. As Joseph Harri- 
son was Collector at Boston in 1 768, it is probable 
that Peters tells the truth in saying that Peter Har- 
rison was at that time Collector at New Haven, and 
as Joseph Harrison is known to have embarked 
for England in October, 1764, it may be inferred 
that Peter Harrison became Collector in that year. 
If so, Peter Harrison was Collector about eleven 
years, for he died April 30, 1775. He came to 
America with Bishop Berkeley in 1729, and re- 
sided some years in Boston as an architect before 
he was appointed Collector at New Haven. His 
most notable professional work in Boston was 
King's Chapel. The Connecticut Journal of I\Iay 
3. 1775, contains the following obituary notice o^ 
him: 

On Sunday last, Died in a fit, I'eter Harrison, Escj. , Col- 
lector of his Majesty's customs for this Port. He was 



THE CUSTOM HOUSE. 



321 



born in the City of York in England, and in point of family 
second to very few in America. The duties of the Chris- 
tian, husband, parent, master, friend, were in Mr. Harrison 
seen as in a mirror. Bred a gentleman, he possessed in a 
complete degree all the habits which are the consequence of 
a uniform desire to please, grounded upon a good heart, 
and ripened upon experience. His integrity to his master 
awed the presumption of the illicit; while the trader found 
in him a director, counselor and friend. He was as superior 
to a bribe as inflexibly just. In his death learning appears 
veiled, and the fine art of Architecture has now in America 
no standard. 

Of course there was no Collector of his Majes- 
ty's Customs stationed at New Haven after the 
death of Peter Harrison. From that time the port 
was under the e.xclusive control of the colony of 
Connecticut. During the War of the Revolution, 
which had already commenced when Mr. Harrison 
died, navigation was very much interrupted; a few 
clearances, however, were given by the Naval Offi- 
cer. In the iMay session of the General Assembly 
in 1776, the Governor was appointed Naval Officer 
for the colony, and authorized to appoint a deputy 
at each of the ports of New London, New Haven, 
Middletown and Norwalk. 

The peace of 1 783 found Jonathan Fitch Naval 
Officer of the Port of New Haven and Collector of 
Customs for the County of New Haven. When 
the United States, having adopted a new Constitu- 
tion, organized, in 1789, the Government as it now 
exists, Jonathan Fitch was appointed by President 
Washington Collector of the District of New 
Haven, and remained in office till his death, which 
occurred September 22, 1793. He was a son of 
Governor Fitch, of Norwalk, and had been a citi- 
zen of New Haven during the war, a prominent, 
active and trusted Whig. He was succeeded in the 
collectorship by David Austin, who also held the 
office to the end of life. He died February 5, 1801. 
Elizur Goodrich was appointed his successor by 
President John Adams, whose day of office was 
now in its eleventh, or, perhaps one might more 
accurately say, in its twelfth hour. Mr. Good- 
rich hardly had time to take his seat, when 
President JelTerson appointed Samuel Bishop Col- 
lector of the Port of New Haven in place of 
Elizur Goodrich, removed. This appointment 
occasioned a correspondence between the mer- 
chants of New Haven and President Jefferson, in 
which the President announced what he regarded 
as the true principles of civil service. This corre- 
spondence we think is well worthy of being re- 
produced, without any abridgement, at a time 
when so much interest is felt in the subject therein 
discussed. 

To Thomas Jefferson, Esq., 

President of the United States. 

The undersigned, merchants residing at the port and with- 
in the district of New Haven, rcspectftdly remonstrate 
against the late removal of Elizur Goodrich, Esq., from the 
office of Collector for the district of New Haven, and the 
appointment of Samuel Bishop, Esq., to fill his vacancy. 
As the ground of our remonstrance, we represent that the 
office, while filled by Mr. Goodrich, was conducted with a 
promptness, integrity and ability satisfactory to tbe mercan- 
tile interests of this district; a promptness and ability not to 
be found in his successor. 

BeUeving the character of E. Goodrich, Esq., as an officer, 



to be unexceptionable, we lament that it should be consid- 
ered necessary that a change in the administration must pro- 
duce a change in the subordinate officers, and in this instance 
we have especially to lament that certain measures have suc- 
ceeded in deceiving the President so far as to induce him to 
appoint a man to an important office who does not possess 
those qualifications necessary for the discharge of its duties. 
We hesitate not to say that, had the President known the 
circumstances and situation of the candidate, he would have 
rejected the application. To prove this, let facts be sub- 
mitted to the consideration of the President. Samuel Bish- 
op, Esq., will be seventy-eight years old in November 
next; he is laboring under a full portion of those infirmities 
which are incident to that advanced period of life. With 
these infirmities, and an alarming loss of eye-sight, though 
he was once a decent penman, it is with difficulty he 
can even write his name. He was never bred an account- 
ant, nor had the course of his business ever led him to an 
.acquaintance with the most simple forms of accounting. He 
is totally miacquainted with the system of Revenue Laws 
and the forms of doing mercantile busmess, and is now 
too far advanced in life and too much enfeebled both in 
body and mind ever to learn either. A man whose age, 
whose infirmities and want of the requisite knowledge is 
such, is unfit to be the Collector of the district of New 
Haven. 

We are aware that it may be said he has sustained with 
reputation and now holds several offices in the city, town 
and county; but it will be remembered that none oi them 
are by recent promotion. His office of Mayor he holds by 
charter, during the pleasure of the Legislature; and he is 
continued as Judge of the County Court, and Town Clerk, 
because the people of this State are not in the habit of ne- 
glecting those who once enjoyed their confidence by a long 
course of usefulness. Knowing the man as we do, we do 
not hesitate to say that he cannot, without aid, perform a 
single official act. 

It may be said that the appointment was with a view to 
the aid of his son, Abraham Bishop, Esq., and that he is to 
be the Head Collector. We presume the business must be 
done by him, if done at all. Vet we cannot be led to be- 
lieve that the President would knowmgly appoint a person 
to the discharge of duties to which he was incompetent, with 
a design that they should be performed by his son. If how- 
ever, this was the case, we explicitly state that Abraham 
Bishop, Esq., is so entirely destitute of public confidence, 
so conspicuous for his enmity to commerce and opposition 
to order, and so odious to his fellow-citizens, that we presume 
his warmest partisans would not have hazarded a recom- 
mendation of him. 

Knowing these facts, of which we must believe the Presi- 
dent ignorant, and relying on assurances that he will pro- 
mote the general welfare without regarding distinction of 
parties, we cherish the idea that our grief at the rejection of 
Mr. Goodrich will not be augmented by the continuance of 
a father utterly unqualified for the office, or of a son so 
universally condemned. We assure the President that the 
sentiments thus expressed are the sentiments of the mer- 
chants and importers of the district. That such a class of 
citizens should be heard patiently, and their well-founded 
complaints redressed if practicable, we are fully persuaded. 
If it be an object to "restore harmony to social intercourse," 
and if " decision at the bar of public reason " be worthy of 
attention, surely such a portion of the community will not 
plead in vain for a reconsideration of his appointment, and 
that such an important office may be fiUeii by a person com- 
petent to the performance of its duties, and in some degree 
acceptable to the public. 

[Signed by Jeremiah .\twater, Elias Shipman, Abraham 
Bradley, Abel Burritt, and others, to the number of eighty 
persons.] 

We certify that the signers of the foregoing remonstrance 
are the owners of more than seven-eighths of the navigation 
of the Port of New Haven. 

Isaac Beers, 

President of the Bank, and of the Chamber 

of Commerce in NriO Haven. 

Elias Shipman, 

President of the Ne7o Haven Insurance 

Company. 



323 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY. 

Washington, July 12, 1801. 

Gentlemen, — I have received the remonstrance you were 
pleased to address to me on the appointment of Samuel 
Bishop to the office of Collector of New Haven, lately vacated 
by the death of David Austin. The right of our fellow-citizens 
to rejiresent to the public functionaries their opinion on pro- 
ceedings interesting to them, is unquestionably a constitu- 
tional right, often useful, sometimes necessary, and will al- 
ways be respectfully acknowledged by me. 

Of the various executive duties, no one excites more anx- 
ious concern than that of placing the interest of our fellow- 
citizens in the hands of honest men with understanding suf- 
ficient for their station. No duty, at the same time, is more 
difficult to fulfill. The knowledge of character possessed by 
a single individual is of necessity limited. To seek out the 
best tlirough the whole Union, we must resort to other in- 
formation, which from the best of motives, is sometimes in- 
correct. In the case of Samuel Bishop, however, the sub- 
ject of your remonstrance, time was taken, information was 
sought, and such obtained, as could leave no room to doubt 
of his fitness. From private sources it was learnt that his 
understanding was sound, his integrity pure, his character 
unstained. .\nd the offices confided to him within his own 
State are public evidences of the estimation in which he is 
held by tlie .State in general, and the city and township par- 
ticularly, in which he lives. He is said to be the Town 
Clerk; a Justice of the Peace; Mayor of the City of New 
Haven, an ofiice held at the will of the Legislature; Chief 
Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for New Haven County, 
a Court of high criminal and civil jurisdiction, wherein 
most causes are decided without the right of appeal or re- 
view; and sole judge of Court of Probate, wherein he singly 
decides all ([uestions of wills, settlements of estates, testate 
and intestate, appoints guardians, settles their accounts, and 
in tact has under his jurisdiction and care all the property, 
real and personal, of persons dying. The two last offices, 
in tlie annual gift of the Legislature, were given to him in 
May last. 

Is it possible that the man to whom the Legislature of 
Connecticut has so recently committed trusts of such dif- 
ficulty and magnitude is unfit to be the Collector of the dis- 
trict of New Haven, though acknowledged in the same 
writing to have obtained all this confidence by a long course 
of uselulness ? It is objected indeed, in the remonstrance, 
that he is 77 years of age; but at a much more advanced 
age, our Frankli.v was the ornament of human nature. He 
may not be able to perform in person all the details of his 
office; but if he gives us the benefit of his understanding, 
his integrity, his watchfulness, and takes care that all the 
details are well jierformed by himself or his necessary as- 
sistants, all public purposes will be answered. The remon- 
strance indeed does not allege that the office has been ill 
conducted, but only apprehends that it will be so. Should 
this happen in event, be assured I will do in it what shall 
be just and necessary for the public service. In the mean- 
time he should be tried without being prejudged. 

The removal, as it is called, of Mr. Goodrich, forms an- 
other subject of com])laint. Declarations by myself in favor 
oi political tolerance, exhortations to harmony and affection 
in social intercourse, and to respect for the equal rights ai 
the minority, have on certain occasions been quoted and 
misconstrued into assurances that the tenure of office was 
not to be di.sturbcd. But could candor apply such a con- 
struction ? It is not in the remonstrance that we find it, but 
it leads to the explanations which that calls for. 

When it is considered that during the late administration, 
those who were not of a particular sect of politics were ex- 
cluded from all office— when, by a steady pursuit of this 
measure, nearly the whole offices of the United States were 
monopolized by that sect; when the public sentiment at 
length declared itself and burst open the doors of honor and 
confidence to those whose opinions they more approved— was 
it to lie imagined that this monopoly of office was still to be 
continued in the hands of the minority ? Ltoes it violate 
their equal rights to assert some rights in the majority also ? 
Is it political intolerance to claim a proportionate share in 
the direction of the public affairs ? Can they not harmonize 
in society unless they have everything in their own hands ? 

If the will of the nation, manifested by their various elec- 



tions, calls for an admmistration of government according 
with the opinions of those elected; if, for the fulfillment of 
that will, displacements are necessary, with whom can they 
so justly begin as with persons appointed in the last moments 
of an administration, not for its own aid, but to begin a ca- 
reer at the same time with their successors, by whom they 
have never been approved, and who could scarcely expect 
from them a cordial co-operation ? Mr. Goodrich was one 
of these. Was it proper for him to place himself in office 
without knowing whether those whose agent he was to bs 
could have confidence in his agency? Can the preference 
of another as the successor of Mr. Austin be candidly called 
a removal of Mr. Goodrich ? If a due participation of office 
is a matter of right, how are vacancies to be obtained ? Those 
by death are few; by resignation, none. Can any other 
mode then but removal be proposed? This is a painful office, 
but it is made my duty, and I meet it as such. I proceed 
in the operation with deliberation and inquiry, that it may 
injure the best men least and effect the purposes of iustice 
and public utility with the least private distress; that it may 
be thrown as much as possible on delinquency, on oppres- 
sion, on intolerance, on ante-revolutionary adherence to our 
enemies. 

The remonstrance laments that "a change in the admin- 
istration must produce a change in the sulxirdinate officers;" 
in other words, that it should be deemed necessary for all 
officers to think with their principals. But on whom does 
this imputation bear ? On those who have excluded from 
office every shade of opinion which was not theirs, or on 
those who have been so excluded ? I lament sincerely that 
unessential differences in opinion should have been deemed 
sufficient to interdict half the society from the right and the 
blessings of self-government; to ]irescribe them as unworthy 
of every trust. It would have been to me a circumstance of 
great relief had I found a moderate participation of office in 
the hands of the majority; I would gladly have left to time 
and accident to raise them to their just share. But total ex- 
clusion calls for prompter correctives. I shall correct the 
procedure; but that done, return with joy to that state of 
things when the only questions concerning a candidate shall 
be: Is he honest? Is he capable? Is he faithful to the 
Constitution ? 

I tender you the homage of my highest respect. 

Tho.m-\s Jefferson. 
To Elias Shipman, Esq., and others. Members of a Com- 
mittee of the Merchants of New Haven. 

On a monument in Lot No. 29, Maple avenue. 
Grove street Cemetery, is this inscription: 

Samuel Bishop, 

Town Clerk of New Haven 54 years, its Representative 

at 54 sessions of the General Assembly, Judge of the 

County and Probate Courts, died Mayor 

of the City and Collector of the 

Port, August 7, 1S03, 

Aged 80. 

His son, Abraham Bishop, was appointed Col- 
lector in the place thus matle vacant, and continued 
in the office till his death, in 1829. 

Since the death of Abraham Bishop the Collec- 
tors of the Port have been: 

William H. Ellis, 1829-41; James Donaghe, 
1841-44; Royal R. Hinman, 1844-45; Noriis 
Wilcox, 1845-49; James Donaghe, 1849-53; Mi- 
not A. Osborn, 1853-61; James F. Babcock, 1861- 
69; Cyrus Northrop, 1869-S1; Amos J. Beers, 
1881-85; John C. By.Kbee, 1885. 

The following table shows the value of imports 
and exports during the twelve years of Collector 
Northrop's administration, for each year. 

Imports. Exports. 

1S69 §297,142 $120,828 

'870 194, «3' 407,955 

1871 252,521 550,240 

1 872 260, 142 269,955 

"873 196,730 308,095 



BANKS AND BANKING. 



323 



Imports. Exports. 

i*>74 $203,894 $1,347,772 

1875 1,034.093 3,607,277 

1S76 1,071,629 3,049,467 

■877 1,133.036 7.590.356 

1878 998,651 2,853,659 

1879 788,181 2,362,385 

1S80 957.793 "5.05' 

"The imports and exports recorded at the Custom 
House here during these twelve years have been, 
with a few special exceptions, comparatively light. 
The imports have been confined almost exclusively 
to molasses and sugar, with an occasional in- 
voice of rum or salt. In the years 1875-77, E. 
S. Wheeler & Co. were receiving cargoes of iron 
and steel from abroad, and these receipts swelled 
the figures for those years, as will be seen by the 
table. While the total exports have been far in ad- 
vance of the total imports, it is owing to special 
causes and does not indicate the normal condition 
of business. The immense consignments of arms 
sent to Turkey by the Winchester Repeating Arms 
Company between 1874 and 1879, carried the 
value of exports into the millions. The value of 
exports in 1877 was almost seventy times as much 
as in 18S0. Even the vessels which bring West 
India goods to this port, go to New York to load 
for the return trip, the facilities there being much 



better. The exports consist principally of grain, 
flour, butter, cheese, lard, and other domestic pro- 
visions. " 

The customs collected during the twelve years of 
Collector Northrop's administration were: 

1869, from May I $187,701 00 

'S70 3>9-489 55 

'S?' 307.498 55 

1872 227,369 61 

'873 350.546 00 

1874 366,682 CO 

'^75 350.339 63 

1076 409,048 70 

1877 298,028 69 

1878 312,805 34 

1879 299,026 22 

1880 458,767 87 

1881 (three months, estimated) 40,000 00 

The business of the Custom House was probably 
attended to by the Collector at his residence till 
1 818, when the Government erected a building for 
the purpose on the corner of West Water and 
State streets, facing the open space which has since 
been called Custom House square. In i860 the 
erection of the Government Building on Church 
street was completed, and the portion of the edi- 
fice intended for that purpose became and has been 
from that time the Custom House. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

BANKS AND BANKING. 



BY HON. CHARLES A.TVl^ATER. 



T 



*IIE business of banking in New Haven has 

kept pace with improvements and facilities 

in commercial intercourse throughout the country. 

Ninety years ago a single bank, with a capital 
of fifty thousand dollars, seems to have afforded to 
the business men of New Haven all the require- 
ments necessary for several years. 

The Mechanics' Bank was chartered in 1824, 
consequently the community relied upon the $50,- 
000 bank capital for a period of thirty years. The 
Eagle Bank was chartered in 181 1, and failed in 
1825, affording little aid to the community. 

Previous to 1800, New Haven was comparatively 
isolated from other portions of the country for 
the want of prompt intercourse between the prin- 
cipal centers of trade. Sailing vessels and stage- 
coaches supplied the carrying trade and the mails, 
a trip to New York often consuming a week's 
time. Now the steamboat, railroad and electric 
telegraph enable the business man to reach the 
most distant points of this country, and even of 
the world, in the space of a few hours. 

The banking capital of New Haven is to-day 
more than five million dollars, and the deposits in 
the Savings Banks amount to nearly ten million 
dollars. 

The banks of New Haven have been, on the 
whole, very conservative in their loans and dis- 
counts, and although they have passed through 



several seasons of panic, resulting in suspension 
of specie payments and entailing severe losses 
through failures, their notes and deposits have 
been protected and no loss has occurred to the 
community. At the same time the stockholders 
have reaped a fair income upon their stock. 

The National Banking Act stopped the State 
bank circulation in 1866, and all the New Haven 
banks, except the City and Mechanics' Banks, or- 
ganized under the new law. 

New Haven B.'Vnk. 

The first motion toward the formation of a 
bank in New Haven appears to have been made at 
a meeting held in Mr. Thomas Atwater's tavern. 
The only record of the meeting which has been 
preserved is in a notice of another meeting to be 
held February 16, 1792, by adjournment. The 
Connecticut Journal of February 1 5th has this ad- 
vertisement: 

■pS- The meeting held at Mr. Thomas Atwater's respect- 
ing the forming a bank in this place, stands adjourned 
to Thursday evening, the 16th instant, when it is expected 
some other matters of importance will be laid before them. 
A general attendance of the inhabitants is desired. 

Mr. Atwater's tavern was kept in the house 
which Dr. Dana in his Century Sermon erroneously 
speaks of as built by Joshua Atwater, one of the 



324 



mSTORV OF THE ClTV OF NEW HA VEN. 



first planters of New Haven. It was in reality 
built by Jonathan Atwater, a nephew of the before- 
mentioned Joshua, and was probably more than a 
hundred years old when the bank meetings were 
held. Some of the timbers of the frame were 
eighteen inches in diameter, and the bricks at the 
top of the stone chimney were stamped "Lon- 
don." Mr. William Glen endeavors, in 1772, to 
guide the public to the store, where he kept an 
assortment of goods, by informing them it was 
" next door to Mr. Atwater 's tavern, opposite to 
the Rev. Mr. Whittlesey's, and near the Long 
Wharf" 

The General Assembly, at the October session 
in 1792, chartered the Isank in accordance with 
the prayer of the petitioners; but it was not or- 
ganized till 1795. The reason of the delay proba- 
bly was that the charter fixed the capital at $100,- 
000, a sum too great for New Haven in the 
eighteenth century. In October, 1795, the charter 
was amended, reducing the capital to $50,000, 
with the privilege of increasing it to $400,000. 

A statement of the condition of the bank was 
required to be made to the Legislature once in 
two years. The books for subscription to the cap- 
ital stock were opened on December 9, 1785, at 
the house of Ebenezer Parmalee, and four hun- 
dred shares were subscribed by eighty-three per- 
sons. Among the original subscribers are the 
names of Eli Whitney, John NicoU, John Mills, 
Eneas Munson, Jr., Elizur Goodrich, Thaddeus 
Beecher, James Bassett, Titus Street, Frederick 
Hunt, Young Love Cutler, Pierpont Edwards, 
Timothy Atwater, Simeon Baldwin, David Dag- 
gett, and the Trowbridges, Hotchkisses, Darlings 
and Kimberleys, the ancestors of the grandchil- 
dren and great-grandchildren of the same names 
now living, some of whom have passed three-score 
years and ten. The first meeting of the stock- 
holders was held December 22, 1795, and the fol- 
lowing Board of Directors was chosen: David 
Austin, Isaac Beers, Elias Shipman, Elizur Good- 
rich, Joseph Drake, Timothy Phelps, John Nicoll, 
Thaddeus Beecher and Stephen Ailing. 

On the first Thursday of July, 1796, David 
Austin was elected President, and William Lyon 
took the oath of office as Cashier before Elizur 
Goodrich, Esq., Justice of the Peace. 

On the 29th December previous, Mr. Lyon was 
sent to Philadelphia "to obtain, and carefully 
superintend and inspect while making, the mould 
and box and water letters necessary for the bank, 
and the paper for the bills." An instalment of 
twenty per cent, was called in, payable July 9, 
1796. On February i6th, sixty thousand dollars 
in bills were ordered to be printed, of the de- 
nominations one, two, five and ten dollars. Notes 
for discount were received on Thursday, and credi- 
ted to customers the following Friday. l"he hours 
of business were from 10 to i and 3 to 4 o'clock. 

To obtain a discount, "a note expressing the 
sum needed, dated in New Haven and drawn and 
indorsed by a resident of the city and not more 
than thirty days to run, must be inclosed in a letter 
addressed to the Cashier by the person requesting 



the loan. " Drawers and indorsers not residing in 
the city were required "to appoint some place at 
which and some one of whom demand of pay- 
ment may be made, and to whom notice of non- 
payment may be given." Ebenezer Parmalee's 
bill of six dollars for the expenses of several meet- 
ings at his house was ordered paid by the Board. 
Mr. Parmalee's house was a tavern at the corner 
of Chapel and Gregson streets, and after the dis- 
continuance of Mr. Atwater's tavern, was the princi- 
pal one in the city. The host was the father of the 
late Mrs. Abram Heaton. 

March 10, 1796, William Lyon's house "was ■|| 
rented at twelve pounds per annum, for the use of "' ' 
that part of it used by the bank; the bank to fit it 
up, and to have the materials when taken down." 
The Directors attended the meetings of the Board 
by lot, one-half on alternate weeks, until otherwise 
ordered. The expense of fitting up the room in 
Mr. Lyon's house for banking purposes amounted 
to eleven pounds nine shillings and eleven-pence. 
The only security for the safe keeping of the cash 
was a small iron box, bought by Mr. Lyon in 
Philadelphia, about the capacity of a peck meas- 
ure. The house of Mr. Lyon stood on Chapel 
street, between Orange and State, on the site of the 
present Lyon Building. March 28th, five hun- 
dred dollars was voted as the salary of the Cashier. 
By vote of the Board, Stephen Munson "was 
allowed six cents for each bank notice he carrieil 
until July next." 

The first dividend was declared February 24, 
1797. It was eight percent. By a statement of 
the Cashier to the Stockholders, July 6th, it appears 
that this dividend absorbed all the profits of the 
bank up to that time, except one hundred dollars 
reserved to pay the expenses of organization; and 
no loss had accrued by bad debts or counterfeit 
money. 

The second dividend, four per cent., was de- 
clared February 24, 1798, and at the same time it 
was voted ' ' that the note of any person who had 
been under protest should not be received for 
collection." 

July 6, 1 798, Isaac Beers was chosen President. 

April 15, 1799, Amos Doolittle was appointed 
to print the bills of the bank. 

January 16, 1800, the Cashier was instructed to 
return to David Austin the National and New York 
Bank bills received from him on deposit, and in 
future no bills of any banks be taken on deposit 
but those of the New Haven Bank; but the notes 
of the National and New York Banks might be 
received in payment of notes. September ist, 
William Mansfield was appointed "Runner of the 
bank." 

December 3, 1801, the Board voted "not to 
receive for collection any note except such as were 
proper to discount, except notes of the New Haven 
Insurance Company, Custom House bonds, and 
notes executed in New York and made negotiable, 
if indorsed by two persons residing in New 
Haven." 

January 28, 1802, an account was opened with 
the New York branch of the United States Bank. 



jBaxa's and banking. 



325 



May loth it was voted to collect United States 
Treasury drafts on Samuel Bishop, Collector of the 
Port, and to pay for the same in sixty days. David 
Daggett was authorized to take Hartford Bank bills 
to present for specie. Notes and drafts sent to 
New York for collection to be at customers' risk. 

February 7, 1803, Thaddeus Beecher was paid 
four dollars for carrying $6,413 in his vessel to 
New York. In December the increased trade of 
the city requiring more capital, forty thousand dol- 
lars additional stock was subscribed. 

October 2, 1805, the capital was further in- 
creased by nine hundred shares, and a premium of 
five per cent, was charged on all subscriptions from 
those who were not already Stockholders. This 
premium was divided among the old Stockholders, 
and amounted to fifteen dollars per share. 

October, 1806, a gang of counterfeiters was dis- 
covered in New Haven, and through the agency of 
Elisha Wood and John Hotchkiss were arrested. 
The State of Connecticut and the Manhattan Bank 
of New York had each ofl^ered a reward of five 
hundred dollars for their detection. The following 
is a record of the Board of Directors in relation 
thereto. "Inasmuch as there is a third person, 
whose name, for sufficient reasons, must be con- 
cealed, who has acted under the orders of the bank 
in discovering the aforesaid villainy and giving in- 
formation, who as yet has received no recompense, 

" Voted, That the donation of one hundred dol- 
lars received from the Cheshire Bank at Keene, 
which was to be disposed of at the discretion of 
this Board, be paid to said third person, and fifty 
dollars from this bank be paid to the same man." 

Mr. Lyon was allowed eight dollars and nine 
cents for his expenses going to and returning from 
Hartford February 26, 1809, he having been gone 
three days. 

April 30, 1808, the Bridgeport Bank was in- 
formed that hereafter no more collections would 
be received from it "owing to the inconvenience 
_ incident thereto." 

July, 1 809, proposals were received for a lot for 
a banking-house. Of those ofi'ered but two were 
considered suitable. First, that of Thaddeus 
Beecher, for a lot east of the house lot of John 
Miles, fronting on Chapel street thirty feet, and ex- 
tending northeasterly into the square sixty feet, at 
fifteen hundred dollars. Second, a lot of Abram 
Bradley 3d, at the corner of Chapel and Orange 
streets, twenty-five feet on Chapel and sixty feet on 
Orange street, for nineteen hundred dollars, with a 
covenant on the part of said Bradley, that if a 
building shall be erected in his life-time adjoining 
northwest of the bank, it shall be fire-proof. Mr. 
Bradley's lot w-as accepted. 

The first record of post notes issued by the bank 
is under the date March 19, 18 10, in a certificate 
of the President, which states that thirty had been 
burned which had been filled up and issued, and 
the balance, fifty-one, had not been used, and 
were also burned. September 6th it was voted 
" that the sum of foreign bank bills this bank may 
at any time have in possession is to be considered 
among the secrets of the bank, and should any 



person apply to the Cashier for information on this 
subject, it will be sufficient for him to reply, 'if 
you have any bills of this bank we are ready to 
redeem them, either by giving you bills of other 
banks or specie, as you desire.'" 

July 12, 1 81 2, Mr. Beers resigned the presidency 
on account of the infirmities of age, having occu- 
pied the position fourteen years, and Eneas Mon- 
son, Jr., succeeded him. It does not appear that 
Mr. Beers received any compensation for his servi- 
ces during the time he acted as President. 

October 13, 18 13, John Nicoll was authorized 
to make loans in the City of New York. This is 
the first record of any loans made elsewhere than 
at the bank counter, and the President and Cashier 
were authorized to discount notes between Board 
meetings. 

December 9, 18 14, the bank voted to invest fifty 
thousand dollars in the stock of the City Bank of 
New York. On February 7th the bank agreed 
with the Secretary of the Treasury of the United 
States to receive deposits "arising from the cus- 
toms, interest, revenue and direct tax, only in 
specie, bills of any of the banks in the City of New 
York or of this State, and Exchequer bills. July 
ist, Henry R. Pynchon was chosen Cashier at a 
salary of $800. Eneas Monson, Jr., and Gilbert 
Totten were appointed a committee " to transfer 
the property of the bank to the new Cashier and to 
take account of the same." The following is the 
statement made at the time of the transfer, for 
which Mr. Pynchon gave his receipt. 

Gold of America, England, Spain and 

Portugal $15,240 25 

Silver in dollars and parts of dollars. . 29,759 75 

Exclusive of dollars in Hartford 

Bank 8,000 00 

Specie in use 891 27 

$53.891 27 

Bank bills in vault $1 18,000 00 

Bank bills in use. ii595 75 

5"9.59S 75 



There had been issued seventy-three post notes, 
amounting to $3or,353. 16, for which the retiring 
Cashier accounted to the bank. On the i6th of 
September following, all these post notes had been 
redeemed and burned. 

December 15, 181 7, the President was voted 
$200 for six months' services. This is the first 
record of a compensation to that officer. 

October 6, 18 19, the bank gave public notice 
that in future notes of known bankrupts be not 
received for collection. 

June, 1820, the State of Connecticut having be- 
come a Stockholder to an amount exceeding five 
thousand dollars, John H. Jacocks was appointed 
State Director. 

July 6, 1826, Amos Townsend, Jr., was chosen 
Second Teller, but he had been in the service of the 
bank since 1825. 

July 7, 1 83 1, Eneas Monson, Jr., retired from 
the presidency and Henry Dennison succeeded him. 



326 



HISTORV OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



At this time the exchanges with the Mechanics' 
Banlv were made daily and the balances paid weekly. 
December 29th, Amos Townsend, Jr., was chosen 
Cashier, in the place of I\Ir. Pynchon, deceased. 

The year 1837 was memorable for the financial 
panic which swept the country, and the banks sus- 
pended specie payments. In June they issued notes 
in conformity with the law of the State, payable in 
the notes of other incorporated banks current in 
New York and Boston, with the condition of re- 
demption printed on the face of the old notes. 
The banks returned to specie payments January 

15. '^'^11- 
January, 1847, Rfr. Henry Dennison died, and 

Mr. Hervey Sanford was elected President. In this 

year spurious notes of the bank, printed from its 

own plates, were put in circulation, and were so 

well executed that they were received by the Suffolk 

Bank and even paid out by the New Haven Bank 

over its own counter. W. E. Brockway and others 

were arrested for the felonv. 

In June, 1S65, the bank organized under the 
National Banking law. The officers of the new 
organization were Hervey Sanford, President; 
Amos Townsend, Cashier; Wilbur F. Day, Assistant 
Cashier. Mr. Sanford died January 6, 1869, and 
was succeeded by Mr. Day, who still holds the 
office of President. 

It is a remarkable fact, that with a corporate 
existence of eighty-two years, this institution has 
had but four Presidents and three Cashiers, up to 
the change of its organization from a State to a 
National Bank. 

From the early history of the old bank can be 
traced that local pride which for many years en- 
dowed with a special grace all who were town- 
born. 

Mech.anics' Bank. 

Of the old State banks incorporated by the State 
of Connecticut, but two in New Haven still retain 
their original charters, the Mechanics' and City 
Banks. 

The Mechanics' was chartered by the General 
Assembly at its May Session, 1824. Capital stock, 
$500,000; shares, $100 each. Its stock was exempt 
from ta.xation, charter perpetual, and two-fifths of 
its capital to be subscribed to the slock of the 
Farmington Canal Company. Books for subscrip- 
tion to the capital stock of the bank were opened 
on April 6, 1825; William Mosely, Charles H. Pond, 
George Cowles, and William W. Boardman being 
the Commissioners to apportion the stock to the sev- 
eral subscribers. Of the five thousand shares sub- 
scribed, three thousand eight hundred and forty 
were apportioned to citizens of the City of New 
York, the remainder to citizens o^New Haven and 
adjoining towns. The list of New Haven sub- 
scribers shows the names of nearly every prominent 
business firm, and almost every man of note in the 
several professions of law and medicine in the 
city. Of the original subscribers to the stock of the 
bank, it is believed not one is now living. The 
capital of the bank having been subscribed and 
apportioned, and an instalment of ten per cent. 



paid in, the first Board of Directors was appointed 
on April 9, 1825. James Hillhouse, Abraham 
Bishop, William J. Forbes, W. B. Lawrence, Samuel 
Glover and W. W. Boardman, were chosen Direct- 
ors, and James Hillhouse elected President. 

At a meeting of the Directors, April 21, 1826, 
Abraham Bishop submitted a report, recommend- 
ing the purchase of a building and lot of ground 
belonging to Captain Samuel Miles, for the sum of 
five thousand dollars, which was accepted. The 
premises bought were the lot on State street, for- 
merly occupied for a banking-house. John G. 
Barnard, the first Cashier, was elected April 22, 1825, 
at a salary of one thousand dollars per annum. 

On April 25, 1825, the bank subscribed for one 
thousand shares of the capital stock of the Farm- 
ington Canal Company. 

On July 9, 1825, Nathan Smith was elected Presi- 
dent of the Bank; the Board then consisting of 
Abram Heaton, William J. Forbes, Russell Hotch- 
kiss, Samuel F. Lambert and Thomas Proctor. 

At this time all the funds of the bank were 
loaned in New York on collateral security, being 
held to meet the call for payment on the Canal 
stock and the commencement of business. 

Regular banking operations were commenced 
early in October, 1825, and on the 17th of the same 
month the first instalment on the Canal stock, 
twenty thousand dollars, was paid. About this time 
the Eagle Bank failed, and the panic which ensued 
therefrom will be remembered by many of our 
older citizens as an era in the financial history of 
our city. On March 13, 1826, the bank received 
one thousand shares of its own stock, valued at 
thirty-one thousand five hundred dollars, in part 
payment of a debt due from one of the Directors, 
and took in addition as collateral security six hun- 
dred and forty shares, waiving the payment of an 
instalment for eighteen months. May 4th, the 
Director above alluded to having become em- 
barrassed in business, the six hundred and forty 
shares of stock were taken in payment of his obli- 
gations, and he resigned. Eiihu Sanford was 
elected in his place. 

July 3, 1826, the bank sold to Andrew Kidston 
(father of our respected fellow-citizen, Andrew L. 
Kidston) a lot of land taken from the northwest 
corner of the bank lot, for twenty dollars per rod. 

The first dividend, three per cent., was declared 
payable July i, 1826. On December 13th, Abram 
Heaton was appointed "to superintend the afiairs 
of the bank during the absence of the Cashier,'' 
and W. W. Boardman "was authorized to sign the 
notes of the bank in place of the Cashier." 

April 12, 1827, Mr. Boardman resigned as Di- 
rector, and Charles Atwater was chosen to fill the 
vacancy. Mr. Barnard resigned as Cashier on 
account of ill-health on the same day, and John 
Fitch was chosen his successor. On June 30th the 
bank subscribed for an additional one thousand 
shares of Canal stock, thus completing its subscrip- 
tion of two hundred thousand dollars. On July 
2d, Nathaniel Bacon was appointed book-keei)er at 
a salary of four hundred dollars for six months. 
On July 26th the Board of Directors voted to loan 



BANKS AND BANKING. 



327 



the Canal Compan}- twenty-five thousand dollars, 
provided the New Haven Bank would do the same. 
The loan was made, and finally paid by the Canal 
Company in four hundred shares of the stock of 
the Hampshire and Hampden Canal Company, the 
bank having previously offered to sell the note, 
which amounted, with accumulated interest to 
§28,039.40, for the sum of $10,000. At that time 
the trustees of the Eagle Bank deposited in the 
Mechanics' Bank 125,000 on interest at five per 
cent. In the month of October, notes were issued 
payable at the Phrenix Bank, New York. 

The present system of express transportation not 
being known, the only mode of transmitting val- 
uable packages was by private hand or by officers 
of the steamboats running between New Haven 
and New York. The steamboat company not be- 
ing willing to assume any risk of loss by convey- 
ing the packages of bank notes, the bank, by a 
vote of the Board of Directors agreed to release 
them from all responsibility therefrom. To il- 
lustrate the confidence reposed in private indi- 
viduals in those days, one of the business men of 
New Haven going to New York was requested to 
lake a package of bank notes to be delivered to 
one of the Wall street banks. Arriving in New 
York, he met a stranger within a few squares of 
Wall street, of whom he inquired the way to the 
bank. The stranger said : " I am the cashier of 
that bank, and if you have any message I will de- 
liver it for you." The New Haven man handed 
the package to the stranger and went his way. 
Fortunately the money was not misplaced. 

Way 8, 1828, John Fitch resigned as Cashier, 
and Henry A. Perkins was appointed to the va- 
cancy, at a salary of $1,200 per annum, he agree- 
ing to perform the duties of Treasurer of the Canal 
Company without additional pay. INIr. Perkins 
resigned in August, and Mr. Fitch was reappointed. 
Nathan Smith retired from the presidency in De- 
cember, 1829, and in March, Charles Atwater was 
elected President. Ransom Burritt was chosen 
book-keeper, at a salary of $1,500 per annum, and 
John W. Fitch clerk, at $200 per annum. Mr. 
Atwater resigned in April, 1832, to take the presi- 
dency of the City Bank, which had been recently 
chartered, and Nathan Smith was reappointed Pres- 
ident for the remainder of the year. At the first 
meeting of the Directors in July, 1832, Eneas 
Munson was elected President, with a salary of 
$400 a year. In July, 1S35, John Fitch was elected 
President and his son, John W. Fitch, Cashier. 

In the month of March, 1835, Charles A. In- 
gersoU and William H. Ellis were appointed a 
committee to visit Washington and interview the 
Secretary of the Treasury in relation to the bank 
becoming one of the depositories of the public 
money. The arrangements were perfected, and 
the institution became a "pet bank," so called in 
those days. It was stipulated that when the Gov- 
ernment deposits amounted to more than one- 
half the capital of the bank, the Secretary of the 
Treasury might require collateral security for their 
safe keeping above that sum. Weekly returns to 
be made to the Treasurer of the United States, and 



the books of the bank to be open to the inspection 
of an agent of the Treasury Department. The 
bank agreed to perform all transactions growing out 
of the public deposits, such as receiving, disburs- 
ing and transferring funds, without charge to the 
Government, the Secretary to give the bank reason- 
able notice of any transfers required by him. 
On May 10, 1837, the Government deposits were 
$206,857.95, and the bank made over to the 
Secretary of the Treasury, as additional collateral, 
$35,000 in specie, which the bank held in its own 
vault. In the fall of this year the panic of 1837 
occurred, and disastrous failures of firms and banks 
were the consequence. Specie payments were sus- 
pended, and the Legislature was called upon to 
legalize the bank suspension. Notwithstanding 
the state of the times the bank declared its usual 
dividend, and fortified itself so as to be able to pay 
specie to the Government for its deposits and its 
circulating notes. 

On July 29, 1839, Henry White was appointed 
agent of the bank to sell the stock of the New 
Haven and Northampton Company owned by the 
bank, for seventy-five cents per share, thus wiping 
out two-fifths of the capital of the institution. In 
consideration of this reduction of the capital to 
$300,000, the Stockholders voted to so reduce it, 
which vote was confirmed by the Legislature at 
the following day session. On March 2, 1858, 
proposals were received and accepted for building 
a banking-house. The plans and specifications 
were drawn by Henry Austin, and the contract 
given to IMarcus Bassett and Roswell J. Munson, 
who completed the building during the year. The 
old IVIiles House was sold to the Quinnipiac Bank. 
In IMarch, 1853, Israel K. Ward and George B. 
Curtiss were appointed clerks October 20, 1851, 
Mr. Curtiss being promoted to Teller in 1853, ^"d 
William A. Law, book-keeper, the same year. 
Charles A. Sheldon was appointed clerk July 6, 
1858. John W. Fitch was chosen President and 
George B. Curtiss, Cashier, the same date. Mr, 
Fitch died in 1S61, sincerely mourned by his col- 
leagues and by the citizens generallv. He was a 
man of kindly sympathies and strong convictions, 
and will ever be remembered wiih respect by those 
who had dealings with him as a bank officer. 

The War of the Rebellion having begun, and 
Governor Buckingham feeling the necessity of 
vigorous action on the part of this and other New 
England States, was much hampered in the move- 
ments of troops for the want of funds, no legisla- 
tive action being possible for some months. The 
Directors of the Bank sympathizing with the Exec- 
utive and the General Government, voted to loan 
to the State $25,000, subject to the immediate call 
of the Governor, and the President at once in- 
formed him by telegraph and letter of the action 
of the Board. Governor Buckingham accepted the 
off"er and the money was drawn. Afterwards other 
banks of the city made advances to the State prior 
to the meeting of the Legislature. 

The Mechanics" Bank has been an educational 
institution, where many men have graduated to fill 
important financial positions in this and other cities, 



328 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



Henry A. Perkins, late President of the Hartford 
Bank; Nathaniel A. Bacon, Israel K. Ward, and 
Charles A. Sheldon, of the Second National Bank; 
William Fitch, a Director in the same; Ransom 
Burritt, late Cashier of the New Haven County 
Bank; and Henry B. Smith, late Cashier of the 
Merchants' National Bank, were all as young men 
ct)nnccted with the institution. The bank has done 
entirely a home business, and though since 1866 
it has had no circulating notes, its dividends have 
been regular. 

During the i)rcsent year, the bank has bought a 
lot at the corner of Church and Centre streets, and 
as these sheets arc passing through the press, the 
buikiing is being renovated and prepared to serve 
as a banking-house. 

The City Bank 

was chartered May, 1831, with an authorized cap- 
ital of $500,000; shares, $100 each. 

The friends of the Farmington Canal were at 
this lime very solicitous that it shoukl be extended 
to the Connecticut River, and the stockholders 
having realized nothing from their investment, the 
only hope remaining was to obtain funds by fran- 
chises granted by the General Assembly. Accord- 
ingly Nathan Smith, a prominent lawyer of the 
city, and interested in the canal, conceived the 
idea of a bank charter, and embodied in the act 
incorporating the City Bank, the peculiar features 
therei)f as an equivalent for a bonus to be paid to 
the Canal Company. 

The bank was to have a perpetual charter and 
its stuck was to be free from taxation. It was to 
subscribe to the capital stock of the Hampshire and 
Hampden Canal Company the sum of $100,000 
when the bank was organized. When the tolls 
collected by the Canal Company were sufficient to 
afford a dividend of si.K per cent, per annum on its 
capital stock, the bank was to be liable to taxation 
in the same manner as other bank stock. 

At the time the bank charter was granted, the 
business of New Haven did not require an increase 
of bank capital, and the large amount, being one- 
tifth of its capital, to be invested in canal stock 
which would evidently be a total loss, deterred the 
citizens of New Haven from subscribing. This 
Canal Company having already absorbed $200,000 
of the capital of the Mechanics' Bank, besides 
$1,200,000 of private capital, still cried for more. 

The bank was organized in December, 1831. 
Samuel St. John, Nathan Smith, Henry W. Ed- 
wards, John H. Coley, Hervcy Sanfortl, Theron 
Towner, William Mi.x, and Horace R. Ilotclikiss 
were chosen Directors. Samuel St. John was 
chosen President, and the first instalment was 
called in March 8, 1832. The bank then sub- 
scribed for one thousand shares of the stock of the 
Canal Company. 

On April 24, 1832, Nathan Smith resigned as a 
Director and Charles Atwaler was appointed in his 
place. Mr. St. John then resigned and Mr. At- 
water was elected Presitlent and Nathaniel A. Ba- 
con Cashier. On IMay 14th following, S. D. 



Pardee was appointed book-keeper "on trial for 
thirty days." Mr. Pardee was connected with the 
bank either as Clerk, Cashier or Director to the day 
of his death. The President of the bank at this 
time devoted all his energies to filling up the stock 
subscriptions among the personal friends of the Di- 
rectors in New Haven and New York. The first 
dividend was declared July 21, 1834, $3.50 per 
share. On October 6, 1836, Stephen D. Pardee 
was chosen Cashier at a salary of $1,000 per an- 
num. 

January 17, 1837, Ebenezer Seeley having noti- 
fied the bank that a Committee of the Legislature 
had been appointed to investigate its affairs, the 
Directors voted to submit the books and papers of 
the bank to the inspection of the Committee, and 
Hervey Sanford and John Babcock were appointed 
a Committee to prosecute the hearing before the 
Legislative Committee. 

The Committee met at the bank from time to 
time, visited New York for the purpose of finding 
evidence to prove the allegations of William Brown 
and others who had petitioned the Legislature, al- 
leging that the funds of the bank were loaned in 
New York at usurious interest. 

The Committee of the Legislature having made 
their investigation, reported to the General Assem- 
bly to repeal the charter of the bank. The Legis- 
lature voted to repeal the charter. The Governor 
vetoed the bill, giving as his reason therefor, "that 
the Committee had not proved any act of forfeiture 
by the bank." The Legislature not being able to 
pass the bill over the veto by the constitutional ma- 
jority, the charter was saved. 

The promoters of the repeal however had the 
satisfaction of showing their indignation at the re- 
sult, by burning in efllgyon the Lower Green, Gov- 
ernor Edwards and the President of the bank. 

Thus the trial ended in smoke. 

February 21, 1849, the bank bought the lot on 
the corner of Orange and Chapel street, of Mrs. 
Mary G. McCracken, for $14,000, and sold 20 
feet on the east side to Mr. John H. Coley for 
$6,000. One of the most prominent and success- 
ful business men of the city of that day told the 
President of the bank that the Board of Directors 
ought to have a conservator appointed over them 
for paying such an exorbitant j)rice for the lot, and 
that his children and grandchildren would never 
see the day when it could be resold to realize the 
first cost. 

The present banking-house was built April 4, 
185 I. During the several bank suspensions which 
have occurred since its organizatiun, the City Bank 
has mainlaineil its integrity and redeemed its circu- 
lation in gold and silver. Since 1866 it has issued 
no circulating notes, and still maintains its organi- 
zation as a State bank. 

The New Haven County Bank 

was incorporated in 1834. Capital Stock, $500,000; 
shares, $25 each. 

The books for the sul)scrii)tian to the capital 
stock were opened in New Haven under the super- 



BANKS AND BANKING. 



330 



intendence of James M. L. Scoville, Erastus Lyman, 
Charles Yale, Eli B. Austin and Isaac Mix, on 
August 7, 1834. 

The bank was required within twelve months 
from the time of its organization by the choice of 
Directors, to pay to the Treasury of the General 
Hospital Society of the State of Connecticut, for 
the use of the same, the sum of $2,000; and the 
further sum of $1,000 annually for three successive 
years thereafter, making in the whole the sum of 
|5,ooo to be paid to the Treasurer for the use of 
the Society. The bank was also required, at the 
several periods aforesaid, to pay the like sums, 
amounting in all. to the farther sum of $5,000, to 
the Hampshire and Hampden Canal Company, to 
aid in the completion thereof. 

The commissioners were required to "publish in 
a paper " printed in New Haven, a list of all appli- 
cants for stock, the amount subscribed for by each, 
the amount allowed to each, and report a similar 
list to the General Assembly. 

May 18, 1859, the capital was reduced to $340,- 
000, and shares to $8, with privilege to increase to 
original amount. 

The bank is organized under the National 
Banking Act as the New Haven County National 
Bank. 

William H. Elliott was the first President. His 
successors have been Henry Hotchkiss, Willis Bris- 
tol and James G. English. 

Merchants' Bank. 

Incorporated 1851. Capital, $500,000; shares, 
$50 each. 

Books for subscription to the capital stock were 
opened in New Haven on the third Tuesday in 
July, 1S51, under the superintendence of Samuel 
G. Hubbard, James S. Brooks, Adna Whiting, Eli 
T. Hoyt and William R. Hitchcock. 

It was provided that no one person or corpora- 
tion or copartnership be allowed to hold, directly 
or indirectly, at one and the same time, a greater 
amount of the capital stock actually paid in than 
$50,000. In case of the failure of the bank, the 
holders of the bills or notes thereof, of the denomi- 
nation of $100 and under, to have a lien on all the 
estate of said bank, both real and personal, in pos- 
session, remainder, or reversion, and on all the 
debts due the bank and the securities for the same, 
and on all claims in favor of said bank of every 
nature whatever, and any conveyance, assignment, 
or transfer of any property hereinbefore specified, 
made in expectation of insolvency, or with a view 
to the same, to be void. 

The President, Directors and Cashier to be liable 
as joint and several debtors to pay the debts of the 
bank, if, in case of the failure of the same, they ex- 
ceed fifty per cent, over and beyond the total amount 
of the capital stock actually paid in, and of the 
moneys deposited. 

Nathan Peck was President of the Merchants' 
Bank from its incorporation till his death. He 
was succeeded by ex-Governor Hobart B. Bige- 
low. 

12 



QuiNNipiAC Bank. 
{Now The Yale National Bank.) 

was organized in 1853, under the Free Banking Law 

of the State of Connecticut, with a capital of $500,- 
000. Circulation secured by deposit of securities 
with State Treasurer. 

By an act passed July, 1855, all the free banks 
were permitted to become incorporations as the old 
banks of the State, and the securities for circulation 
returned to the several banks. 

This institution organized under the National 
Banking Act as the Yale National Bank with a 
capital of 1750,000. 

Tradesmen's Bank. 
{Noiv The National Tradesmen's Bank.) 

Incorporated 1854. Capital allowed, $500,000; 
shares, $100; provided the whole amount be called 
in within one year from July 11, 1854. Not to 
commence business until one-half of the capital be 
paid in; nor loan to any individual, copartnership 
or corporation, a sum exceeding ten per cent, of 
the capital actually paid in. 

Books for subscription to the capital stock were 
opened in New Haven on the second Tuesday in 
July, 1854, under the superintendence of Commis- 
sioners Green Kendrick, of Waterbury; Dwight 
Morris, of Bridgeport ; John C. Palmer, of East 
Haddam; Chauncey Jerome, of New Haven; and 
Stephen W. Kellogg, of Naugatuck. No one to 
hold exceeding $50,000 of the stock. 

Charter amended 1855. To go into operation 
when $250,000 stock is subscribed for and fifty per 
cent, thereof paid in. May increase capital to origi- 
nal amount allowed by charter. 

Now organized under the National Banking Law 
as the National Tradesmen's Bank. 

Elm City Bank. 
{Now The Second National Bank.) 

Incorporated 1854. Capital, $500,000; shares, 
$100; to be called in within one year, and to com- 
mence business when one-half paid in. Not to 
loan exceeding ten per cent, of capital stock to any 
one individual, etc. 

Books to be open for subscription to capital 
stock second Tuesday in July, 1854, under the 
superintendence of Leverett Candee, Adna Whiting, 
Seymour W. Baldwin, Dyer Ames, Jr., and Henry 
Trowbridge, or a majority of them. Two per cent, 
bonus to be paid to State. 

Charter amended 1855. Allowed to commence 
business when $100,000 shall be paid in. Charter 
again amended in 1857, to increase the capital 
$400,000. 

Organized under the National Banking Law with 
a capital of $1,000,000 as the Second National 
Bank. E. C. Scranton was President till his death. 

The First National Bank 

was organized under the National Banking Law in 
1862. " It was the first bank started under that Act 
in New England and the second in the United 



330 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



States. The capital at the time of its organization 
was 1300,000, owned by five gentlemen, who were 
the Directors and still remain such, viz., James E. 
English, H. M. Welch, Daniel Trowbridge, Amos 
F. Barnes, and Elisha N. Welch. 

H. M. Welch has been the President since the 
organization of the bank, and William Moulthrop 
Cashier. The present capital is $500,000, with a 
surplus of $1 20,000. 

Union Trust Company. 

Incorporated May, 1868. Capital, $100, oco. Sur- 
plus by last report to the Bank Commissioners, 

$20,000. 

New Haven Savings Bank. 

Incorporated 1S38. 

Simeon Baldwin, Ralph I. Ingersoll, Roger Sher- 
man, James Brewster, Wooster Hotchkiss, Elias 
Gilbert, Henry White, Elihu Atwater, Henry Peck, 
Eli Osborne, Marcus Merriman, Jr., John Fitch, 
Henry Hotchkiss, Amos Townsend, Jr., Stephen 
D. Pardee, Asa Budington, Francis T. Jarman, 
William ]. Forbes, John Durrie, William Moseley, 
Henry Oaks, Sherman W. Knevals,and William G. 
Hooker, Corporators. 

Deposits as reported October I, 1S84, 

to the Bank Commissioners $5,339,082 84 

Surplus 210,000 00 

Assets $5,602,652 81 

Number of depositors I7i454 

Connf.cticut Savings Bank. 

Incorporated June 22, 1857. 

E. C. Scranton, James Brewster, James E. En- 
glish, Minot A. Osborn, Dennis Kimherly, P. S. 
Galpin, Charles R. Ingersoll, Daniel Trowbridge, 
Charles Hooker, John W. IMansfield, Sherman \V. 
Knevals, James Punderford, Lucius Gilbert, Will- 
iam Lewis, Judson Canfield, Lucius R. Finch, N. 
D. Sperry, Samuel Noyes, C. S. Bushnell and Ed- 
ward S. Rowland, Corporators. 

Deposits as reported October I, 

1884, to the Bank Commissioners $3,215,382 68 
Surplus '25.958 18 

Assets $3,362,044 60 

Number of depositors 8, 553 

TowNSEND Savings Bank 

was originally incorporated as the Townsend City 
Savings Bank, June 23, i860. 

Jonathan Knight, James M. Townsend, Nathan 
B. Ives, David Cook, Frederick A. Townsend, H. 
Lee Scranton, George K. Whiting, Elias B. Bishop, 
George H. Townsend, Ambrose Todd, Hugh Gal- 
braith, James Olmstead, Benjamin Noyes, James F. 
Babcock, Ezekiel H. Trowbridge, Alfred Hughes, 
Leonard Bradley, Sereno H. Scranton, Henry G. 
Lewis, Edwin B. Bowditch, Charles A. Tuttle, 



Charles T. Can dee, Edward Hotchkiss, Smith G. 
Tuttle, and their successors. Corporators. 

May 27, 1863, name changed by General As- 
sembly to Townsend Savings Bank. 

This institution ranked among the largest in the 
State, and on January i, 1873, its reported de- 
posits and surplus amounted to $3,871,964. 

On September 14th following, a statement of its 
affairs showed deposits to the amount of $2,904, - 
099. 

From January, 1874, to June ist following, its 
deposits decreased $300,000. At about this time 
the report of the Special Bank Commissioners was 
published, showing a loan by the bank on doubt- 
ful collaterals of $394,000. This created a panic, 
and demands for deposits were renewed beyond 
any former occasion. An extraordinary effort was 
made to satisfy this demand, but the managers 
were soon compelled to require a notice of three 
months before any large sums would be paid. A 
large number of the depositors immediately gave 
the required notice, and the amount represented by 
them fell due about September ist following. 

During the months of June, July and August, a 
constant drain was kept up in a small way, and on 
September ist the books showed a further reduction 
of $400,000 in its deposits. 

On September nth, the Bank Commissioners 
received notice of their appointment, and were at 
once appealed to to give the bank immediate atten- 
tion. An examination was commenced on Septem- 
ber 14th, and the bank was closed to all business 
except collections, until its condition could be 
positively ascertained. 

This examination resulted in an application by 
the Bank Commissioners to the State's Attorney for 
New Haven County, who prepared a petition, and 
Judge Phelps, of the Supreme Bench, after hearing 
the application, appointed Walter Osborne, T. E. 
Doolittle, and J. E. Redfield receivers, and the 
oversight of the bank passed into their hands. 

The nominal value of assets as reported to the 
Bank Commissioners July i, 1884, was $1,781,- 
926.76. Of these assets the receivers say "it is 
impossible to give any cost or market value to any 
of the stock or bonds held by us." 

National Savings Bank. 

Incorporated June 20, 1866. 

Charles Atwater, Hoadley B. Ives, William W. 
Stone, Bernard Reilly, James F. Babcock, John 
H. Benham, William bownes, N. D. Sperry, Will- 
iam E. Goodyear, Abner L. Train, David J. 
Peck, Patrick Ward, F. W. J. Sizer, Wilson H. 
Clark, Edward Downes, George A. Basserman, 
Maier Zunder, Edward Malley, and Sidney M. 
Stone, and their successors, Corporators. 

Total amount ot assets as reported 
to Bank Commissioners October I, 
»S84 6677,523 33 

Whole amount of deposits $618,587 30 

Surplus 49.397 37 

Total number of depositors 1,811 




/ TTp^ 



// 



/// 



//^y{^n.n-c/' /WO^cA. 



BANKS AND BANKING. 



331 



New Haven Co-operative Savings' Fund and 
Loan Association. 

Incorporated i8Si. 

Assets as by last report, October I, 1884, $26,205.72 

Deposits $24,996.37 

Surplus 82. iS 

Number of depositors 254 

Mutual S.wings' Banks and Building Associa- 
tions. 

The General Assembly of the State of Connecti- 
cut authorized the establishment of savings and 
building associations June 22, 1850. By their 
charters each institution was privileged to loan 
money to its members at any rate of interest 
obtainable; to receive money on deposit, not to 
exceed $i,coo from any one person in any one 
year. 

The first of these institutions established in the 
State was the Whitneyville Association in Decem- 
ber, 1849. In March, 1850, the Mechanics' 
Savings' Bank and Building Association at West- 
ville commenced business. In April the New 
Haven Building Association began operations. 
By the report of this institution to the Bank Com- 
missioners, its condition in January, 1855, stood 
thus: Stock, 7,805!- shares, valued at $385,615; 
and deposits, $161,545. The average rate of 
bonus on permanent loans was 35 per cent., and 
on temporary loans two per cent, monthly. The 
dividends were 1 7 per cent, per annum. From 
this date these associations multiplied rapidly in 
the State, so that in 1855 there were forty-eight in 
active operation, and their success was unprece- 
dented in the history of financial institutions. 

In the autumn of that year the Supreme Court 
decided the monthly bonus which had been taken, 
illegal. This decision carried with it a forfeiture 
of all the interest and bonus stipulated for the 
future, and gave a check to the institutions. The 
principle that in borrowing money the more one 
paid the cheaper he got it, proved to be a falsity, 
and the unfortunate borrowers soon found they 
had deceived themselves by the theory. 

The IMechanics' and Workingmen's Mutual 
Savings Bank and Building Association was the 
second organized in New Haven. The rate of 
bonus was '\ per cent, monthly; reported dividends 
5f per cent, quarterly. Its stock was $190,000; 
deposits, $144,000; loans, $90,000, of which 
$71,000 were secured by mortgage. 

People's Saving Bank and Building Association. 
— This institution reported to the Bank Commis- 
sioners April I, 1855: 2,359 shares, value $58, 173; 
deposits, $30, 734; loans, $84,279. Rate of bonus 
reported on permanent loans, \ per cent, per 
month ; on temporary loans one per cent, per 
month. Reported dividend, 14^^ per cent, per 
annum. 

City Savings' Bank of New H.wen. — This institu- 
tion was a sort of nondescript, organized and doing 
business professedly under the Building Associa- 



tion Laws; but it did not conduct its affairs ac- 
cording to the model which the Legislature had 
before them when they passed the Act. 

Any one wishing to study the history of these 
associations, and the thorough manner in which 
the falsity of the principles upon which they were 
founded has been demonstrated, are referred to 
Mr. William Franklin's work, "The Building 
Associations of Connecticut and other States 
Examined." By consent of the author, many facts 
embodied here have been taken from his work, 
for which Mr. Franklin has the thanks of the pub- 
lishers. 



BIOGRAPHIES. 

HENRY HOTCHKISS. 
Born April q, 1801. Died December 11^, 1871. 

It is only within living memory that the business 
men of New Haven have adventured to any large 
extent in enterprises foreign to the natural devel- 
opment of the local interests of the town. For 
the first two centuries of its growth there was little 
surplus capital among its inhabitants and that little 
found its market in the increasing wants of a 
moderately prosperous community. Gradually, as 
capital increased, a wider field was needed for 
its investment, and sagacious capitalists united in 
joint-stock corporations and other forms of business 
enterprise without much reference to the kinds of 
industry in which their money was employed. 

Among the earliest of our citizens who in any 
marked way exhibited this spirit of broader enter- 
prise, was the late Henry Hotchkiss. 

From the day, nearly two centuries and a half 
ago, when the first settlers landed at Quinnipiac, 
until to-day, the name of Hotchkiss — all of that 
name being the descendants of Samuel Hotchkiss, 
the original planter — has never ceased to be a fa- 
miliar one to the people of New Haven; while for 
a period longer than falls within the recollection of 
any one now surviving, the name has been identi- 
fied with the commerce and industry of Long 
Wharf. 

Early in the present century Justus Hotchkiss 
was a well-known lumber merchant there, in con- 
nection with his brother-in-law, the late Russell 
Hotchkiss. Justus Hotchkiss died in 181 2, and 
his only children, Henry and Lucius, were sent 
for their education to the academy in Fairfield, 
then under the instruction of the late Governor 
Button, where they remained until the former had 
reached the age of eighteen. For the next three 
years Henry served as a clerk to his uncle, who 
still continued the lumber business, and on attain- 
ing the age of twenty-one became a junior partner. 
In 1828, the uncle having retired, the brothers, 
under the firm title of H. & L. Hotchkiss, contin- 
ued the family name on the wharf with a greatly 
extended business, till the year 1850. In connec- 
tion with their shipping and mercantile enterprises 
the firm furnished the capital required by the late 



332 



ItlSTORy OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



Leverett Candee, one of the first licensees under 
the Goodyear patent, for the manufacture of rub- 
ber shoes. From 1842 to 1852 the Messrs. Hotch- 
kiss were partners, as a private firm, with Mr. 
Candee, under the name of L. Candee & Co., the 
former furnishing whatever capital was needed 
while the latter superintended the manufacture of 
the goods. After many discouragements, arising 
both from an imperfect method of manufacture and 
from legal contests necessary to establish the valid- 
ity of the Goodyear patents, the business became a 
successful one. Thus was laid the foundation of 
a great establishment. 

In 1852 the firm of L. Candee & Co. was organ- 
ized as a joint-stock company with a capital of 
$200,000 (which was subsequently increased in 
1869), Mr. Candee becoming its President. In 
1863, Mr. Hotchkiss was made both President and 
Treasurer of the Company, and continued to dis- 
charge the duties of both offices with singular abil- 
ity till 1869, when he was succeeded as Treasurer 
by his son, Henry L. Hotchkiss, who was also 
Secretary of the corporation, and who is now, and 
has been since his father's decease, its President. 

Under the administration of both father and son 
the enterprise has assumed vast proportions, em- 
ploying 1,500 operatives at tV- , resent time. In 
addition to the active manage .-c .t of this corpora- 
tion, Mr. Hotchkiss accepted great responsibilities 
in directions so widely different as to indicate his 
singular aptitude for the management of great en- 
terprises and the confidence reposed in his ability 
and integrity by those with whom he was asso- 
ciated. 

He was one of the original Corporators and a 
Director in the large Waterbury brass manufactory, 
widely known as Holmes, Booth & Haydens. He 
was also President and a Director of the United 
States Pin Company of Seymour. For twenty-one 
years he was President of the New Haven County 
Bank, a position demanding at one time special 
financial ability on account of its large and com- 
plicated interests. Mr. Hotchkiss was also the first 
President of the Union Trust Company of New 
Haven, in which office he is succeeded by his son, 
Henry L. Hotchkiss. At the organization of the 
Union Trust Company, in 1871, he became its 
first President and as such served until his death. 

Besides these important trusts, he was an origi- 
nal Corporator and subsequently a Trustee of the 
Shore Line Railroad Company, and as such was 
for some years prominent in its management. 

Mr. Hotchkiss had no taste for civic honors and 
never allowed his name to be used as a candidate 
for political office. Almost the only exception to 
the rule of his life, to mind his own business, is 
found in his connection with the New Haven Col- 
ony Historical Society, in whose welfare he took 
great interest and of which he was a Director; and 
earlier in life, in his active participation in military 
matters, where he attained the rank of adjutant; 
and in the New Haven Fire Department, of which 
at one time he was the head. 

Such an accumulation of corporate trusts, run- 
ning through many years, makes it needless to 



speak of the high regard, both for integrity and 
business skill, in which he was held by the com- 
mercial community. 

The personal characteristics of Mr. Hotchkiss 
were somewhat marked. Utterly unpretending in 
his intercourse with his fellow men, he greatly dis- 
liked assumption and pretense in others. Shams 
of all kinds he held in little esteem. In business, 
in pleasure, in his dress, in the fashion and furni- 
ture of his house, he wanted things to be as they 
seemed. The house he built, and in which he 
died, was, like himself, square and solid. Senti- 
mentality had no attraction for him. Scientific and 
scholarly attainments united with failure in practi- 
cal matters were not to his mind. His reading 
ran but litde in the direction of fiction or poetry, 
but rather in those lines that were most in harmony 
with the needs and the taste of a thorough man of 
business. Never making any parade of philan- 
thropy, he was yet very helpful in a quiet way to 
many, especially young men, and said nothing 
about it. 

In the darkest days of the Civil War no reality of 
his entire life was so real to him as the necessity of 
saving at all costs the Union of the States; and his 
investments for the support of the Government be- 
came larger as the prospects of ultimate success 
became gloomier. 

Mr. Hotchkiss was eminently a home man, and 
only those who formed the family circle know how 
large a share of its happiness was due to the kindly, 
considerate indulgence of its head. 

Mr. Hotchkiss was united in marriage May 22, 
1823, to Elizabeth Daggett Prescott (born May 22, 
1803), a daughter of Benjamin Prescott, the senior 
member of the then widely known shipping firm of 
Prescott & Sherman, and a member of the family 
whose name is forever associated with the best 
achievements of the country in arms, in literature, 
and in legislation. 

Five children survive them, four daughters and 
one son. The latter, Henry L. Hotchkiss, who 
has succeeded his father in many important trusts, 
was married (February 25, 1875) to Jane Louisa 
Fitch, a daughter of the late Henry Trowbridge 
and granddaughter of Noah Webster, the lexicog- 
rapher. Of the daughters, one is the wife of John 
O. Bronson, M.D., of Rhinebeck, N. Y., and the 
youngest is the wife of Captain Charles H. Towns- 
hend, formerly in command of one of the French 
passenger steamers running between New York 
and Havre. 

MATTHEW G. ELLIOTT. 

The family of Eliot possesses an ancient and 
honorable lineage which has adorned the historic 
page of both Old and New England. At almost 
the same tiine Sir John Eliot in England was the 
bold champion of an injured people against an 
arbitrary King, and Rev. John Eliot in Massachu- 
setts was the friend, advocate, and "Apostle" of 
the untutored, unfortunate Indian. The latter's 
grandson, Rev. Dr. Jared Eliot, of Killingworth, 
Conn., was a famous divine, author and scholar of 




(yyuicZZ^n^^!>o- v7 (^jU 



BANKS AND BANKING. 



333 



the last century, the friend and correspondent of 
Benjamin FrankUn and of Bishop Berkeley. 

Great-grandson of Dr. Eliot, and fifth in descent 
from the beloved "Apostle to the Indians, " is 
Matthew Griswold Elliott, of New Haven. He 
was born in the town of Kent, Litchfield County, 
Conn., November i6, 1805, and was named after 
his father's uncle, Matthew Griswold, Governor of 
Connecticut. His father, Matthew Elliott, was a 
farmer in Kent, highly esteemed by his fellow- 
townsmen, who several times chose him to repre- 
sent them in the General Assembly. 

The son followed the farmer's vocation until 
1823, when he left the Litchfield hills and turned 
his steps toward New Haven. He began mercan- 
tile life first as a clerk with Mr. Elihu Sanford, who 
then conducted a large wholesale grocery trade in 
Custom House square. Mr. Elliott evinced such 
unusual aptitude for his new calling, that within 
four years he became Mr. Sanford's partner, and 
the two established what was probably the largest 
and most prosperous business in their line in the 
city. 

Mr. Elliott's reliability and energy won prompt 
recognition in the community, and his services 
were sought for in the public councils. He was 
elected to the Board of Councilmen in 1844, and 
served three years. Afterward, from 1848 to 1851, 
he was a member of the Board of Aldermen, and 
was one of the most active men in the city govern- 
ment. For a portion of the time he was also at 
the head of the town government as First Select- 
man. It was under his administration that the 
old Almshouse was replaced by a new one, and 
his management of that transaction gave great sat- 
isfaction. 

His interest in various corporate enterprises in 
and around our city began at an early period. 
He was a Director in the Farmington Canal Com- 
pany, and became connected with its lineal suc- 
cessor, the New Haven and Northampton Railroad 
Company, in which he was a Director for many 
years. In 1852 he was made President of the 
newly-built New Haven and New London Railway 
Company, and, while holding that position, was 
instrumental in the formation of the Tradesmen's 
Bank of New Haven. Having resigned his posi- 
tion in the Railway Company, he was elected in 
1855 to be the first President of this bank, which 
afterwards became a part of the National Banking 
system. During the thirty-one years that have in- 
tervened since 1855, Mr. Elliott has been annually 
chosen by the Board of Directors to occupy the 
honorable and responsible office of President. Over 
the welfare and prosperity of his charge he has 
watched with sedulous care, that it might be kept 
steadily and safely in the front rank among our 
banking institutions. His financial ability and ex- 
perience have been of frequent service to the com- 
munity. In the New Haven Savings Bank he is a 
Vice-President and one of the oldest Directors. 

Mr. Elliott is a shrewd observer and of a retir- 
ing disposition. He has exceeded even the four- 
score years that are allotted to man ' ' by reason of 
strength," yet he mingles in the daily walks of the 



business world, an honored and honorable exam- 
ple to those who come after him. Mr. Elliott has 
been twice married; first, in 1834, to a daughter of 
Captain William Brintnall, of New Haven; and, 
after her death, to a daughter of Captain Caleb 
Brintnall, also of this city. 

ERASTUS C. SCR ANTON. 

Erastus Clark Scranton was born at Madison, 
Conn., on the i6th of November in the year 1807. 
He received a common school education in the 
schools of his native place, and made his first busi- 
ness venture on shipboard in the capacity of cabin- 
bo3'. His success was rapid. He entered into 
mercantile life, gaining his first experience at 
Georgetown, D. C. , where he tarried but a short 
time. He became master and afterwards owner of 
the ship, and eventually acquired a large interest 
in the coasting trade, extending his ventures along 
the coast as far as Florida. When about twenty-two 
years of age he married a lady of Westbrook, Conn., 
and for several years subsequent to that event con- 
tinued to make his home in Madison. 

In 1835 he established himself as a wholesale 
grocer at Augusta, Ga., and, until 1842, he conduct- 
ed an extensive business there, and afterwards, for a 
short time, at Appalachicola, Fla. In the latter year 
Mr. Scranton returned northward to his native State 
and town, bringing with him, as the result of his 
activities, a handsome fortune. In New York he 
entered into a partnership with several gentlemen 
who were interested in trade with South America. 
His diligence, ability and geniality won for him 
wide recognition and many warm friends. People 
learned to intrust to him the laboring oar in many 
public improvements, and he soon became identi- 
fied with the business life of New Haven and its 
vicinity. He was among the active promoters of 
the Shore Line Railway. 

His Madison neighbors selected him to represent 
them in the Lower House of the Legislature in 
1 85 1, 1856, and again in 1862, while in i860 he 
served a term in the Connecticut Senate. In 1854 
the business ties which had hitherto bound him to 
New York were severed, and in the next year Mr. 
Scranton was elected to the presidency of the Elm 
City Bank of New Haven, now the Second National 
Bank. It was then a young institution, but,- under 
his management, grew and prospered beyond all 
expectation. 

New Haven, therefore, was his business home 
for many years before 1864, when it became his 
permanent dwelling-place. In May, 1865, he was 
invited to become President of the New York and 
New Haven Railway Company, and accepted the 
offer. 

At the head of these prominent public trusts he 
remained until his death, and he had an influential 
voice in the management of many other business 
enterprises and of educational institutions. Through- 
out the Civil War he was prominent among the sup- 
porters of the National Government, and was gen- 
erously active in the organizations for sending 
southward contributions for the support of the 



334 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



Union cause. The Republican party elected him 
to the mayoralty for the year 1865-66, during which 
time it became his sad duty to notice officially, 
with fitting words, the untimely death of Abraham 
Lincoln. Just at the close of the year 1S66, on 
the 29th of December, Mr. Scranton was himself 
instantly cut ufl' in the midst of his honors and use- 
fulness by a railway accident at South Norwalk. 

Thus New Haven's commercial life was deprived 
prematurely of a chief support, and the New Haven 
community lost a sagacious, public-spirited, and 
beloved citizen. 

HOBART B. BIGELOW, 

one of New Haven's citizens who has been en- 
trusted with the administration of the highest 
public office, was born in North Haven, New 
Haven County, on the 16th of May, 183-I.. Upon 
his father's side he came from the Massachusetts 
Bigelow stock, a family that had made its record 
since colonial days for producing substantial, 
energetic and useful citizens. His mother was a 
Pierpont, a descendant of the Rev. James Pier- 
pont, the second minister of New Haven, and one 
of the founders of Yale College. Mr. Bigelow's 
education was that common to the sons of farmers 
at that time. He attended the district school of 
Noith Haven, and when at about the age of ten 
his father moved to South Egremont, Mass., his 
education was continued there, in the same class 
of school, until he was old enough to enter the 
South Egremont Academy, where he remained 
until he was seventeen. 

At this age he entered upon the work of life. 
He began to learn the trade of machinist with the 
Guilford Manufacturing Company. He remained 
with this Company until its failure, and after that 
went into the employ of the New Haven Manu- 
facturing Company, then under the management of 
his uncle, Asahel Pierpont, of New Haven. Here 
his apprenticeship was finished, and he passed to 
the shops of Messrs. Ives & Smith, then occupying 
the factory now (1886) used by the firms of Barnum 
& Root and D. Frisbie & Co. , at the lower end of 
Whitney avenue, adjoining the south side of the 
Canal Railroad track. Mr. Bigelow's business was 
for nearly twenty years carried on at this place. 
Until 1 86 1 he had charge of the machine depart- 
ment as foreman, under both Ives & Smith and 
their successors, Wilco.x & Gay. In 1861, upon 
the death of Mr. Gay, he bought out Mr. Cyprian 
Wilcox's interest in the machine-shop, and con- 
tinued in his own name. Later he acquired of 
Mr. Wilco.x the foundry connected with the 
establishment, and the business was carried on 
under the name of The Bigelow Manufacturing 
Company. At this place, under close, careful, 
and intelligent management, Mr. Bigelow's busi- 
ness grew until there was no longer space for his 
buildings. They had extended along Whitney ave- 
nue and through the block to Temple street, and in 
1870 he was compelled to remove to a wider loca- 
tion. He bought a tract of land on Grape-vine 
Point, including a disused building originally 



built for a machine-shop, and in this place the 
business has since been conducted. 

Two years prior to his removal, Mr. Bigelow 
had added a department for the manufacture of 
boilers, a department for which his establishment 
has since become famous throughout the country. 
In 1875 the firm style was made H. B. Bigelow A 
Co., Henry Elson being received as partner, and 
in 1877 the partnership was extended by the 
entrance of Mr. George S. Barnum. Its present 
form is that of a corporation. The Bigelow Com- 
pany, organized in 1883 under a special charter 
granted by the Legislature of that year. 

Mr. Bigelow's continuous success in his business 
had not passed unnoticed by his fellow citizens, and 
in the period between 1863 and 1881 he was called 
upon to fill a variety of public stations. He was a 
member of the Common Council, as Councilman 
in the year 1863-64, and as Alderman 1864-65, 
under the mayoralty of the late Morris Tyler. He 
was Supervisor 1871-74, and filled most acceptably 
the office of Fire Commissioner for the years 1874- 
76. He also served one term as representative from 
New Haven in the General Assembly of 1875. So 
long an experience had especially fitted him to fill 
the place of Mayor, and though belonging to the 
party normally in the minority in New Haven, he 
was in 1879 elected for a two years' term by a very 
handsome majority. 

Mr. Bigelow's administration of this office was 
marked by two events of peculiar and permanent 
interest to the citizens of New Haven. It was un- 
der his administration, and very largely due to his 
support and encouragement, that the East Rock 
Park Commission was created and the park opened, 
and this great addition to the beauty and comfort 
of the city made possible. The other was the well- 
planned and successful effort of the city govern- 
ment, under his encouragement and direction, for 
the building of the breakwaters which have been 
projected and are being carried on by the United 
States Government for the improvement of our 
harbor. Upon the close of his term as Mayor, he 
was called by the majority of the citizens of the 
State to occupy the office of Governor, a place 
which he filled with quiet dignity, thorough im- 
partiality, and great good sense. 

Mr. Bigelow was married in 1857 to Miss Eleanor 
Lewis, daughter of the late Philo Lewis, a branch 
of a family that has left its mark in the administra- 
tion of New Haven City affairs. His family con- 
sists of two sons, of whom the elder is Secretary of 
the Bigelow Company, and the other is still pursu- 
ing his studies. In 1882, upon the death of Nathan 
Peck, he was elected President of the Merchants' 
National Bank of New Haven, of which he had 
been for several years a Director. 

Since Governor Bigelow's retirement from official 
life, his attention has been devoted to his bank 
and to his company, with lesser interests in a large 
variety of business enterprises. His career has been 
pre-eminently that of a business man, familiar with 
and skillful in modern methods of conducting large 
enterprises, and basing his success upon through- 
ness, energy, careful and thoughtful attention to 




^i/ /3./^ 




FINANCIAL PANICS. 



335 



details, avoidance of speculation, and the severest 
integrity. His administration of public affairs has 
always been marked by the same characteristics. 
These qualities have won him the heaity esteem of 



his fellow citizens, which has been deepened by a 
quiet, open-handed and broad-minded practical 
benevolence, of which very few realize the full ex- 
tent. 



CHAPTER XIX, 



FINANCIAL TANICS. 



IN New Haven, as well as elsewhere, the wheels 
of industry have sometimes ceased to move. 
We have already related that in the days of the 
embargo the seamen of the city and the artisans of 
every kind dependent on commerce for the means 
of subsistence were idle, and that the capital of 
those who owned ships was unproductive. Traffic 
of every kind being more or less closely connected 
with commerce, was affected by this paralysis of 
New Haven's principal industry. 

When the War with Great Britain in 1812 was 
declared, the activity of New Haven was again 
smitten, and there was another period of idleness 
and distress. 

Neither of these calamities can be attributed to 
over-trading. It was the embargo which originated 
the first and the war which caused the second of 
these depressions. 

Of course, in both cases, the depression was ac- 
companied with shrinkage of value, the destruction 
of credit, and many insolvencies. But since the 
last war with Great Britain there have been four 
crises in business which may be called financial 
panics, because produced largely by suspicicn and 
fear. We do not mean that they are to be attributed 
solely to the subjective emotions of creditors, but 
that sparks of fire falling upon tinder caused a 
conflagration which might not have taken place if 
the sparks had fallen on less combustible material. 

The first of these panics was occasioned by the 
failure of the Eagle Bank. After fourteen years of 
prosperity, this institution, without a moment's 
warning, suspended specie payments September 
19, 1825, and never resumed. Investigation showed 
that the bank had loaned on insufficient security 
money enough to consume its entire capital, its 
deposits, and its circulation. No bank was ever 
more firmly established in the public confidence 
than this had been, so that its failure was the ruin 
of confidence. The abstraction of so much capital 
would be a serious calamity to New Haven wiih its 
present wealth; but comparatively it was a much 
greater loss to such a city as New Haven was in 
1825. In addition to the destruction of$i, 500,000 
of its working capital, the city suffered from the 
paralysis of that confidence which multiplies capital 
by means of credit. Consequently every kind of 
business was depressed, and every kind of property 
shrank in value as expressed in money. For in- 
stance, one of the directors of the bank who had 
borrowed half a million of its funds, was erecting a 
block of houses in Church street adjoining the 
Tontine. The contractors, unable to obtain funds 
from him, were obliged to suspend payment, and 



when the houses, finished with money advanced by 
creditors, were sold to liquidate the debts, one of 
the houses brought only $3,400, and the three 
aggregated only $13,900. A person who knows 
how to appreciate the property to-day can hardly 
believe the statement. 

There was no sudden recovery from the effects 
of this financial earthquake. The high granite base- 
ment of the banking-house, which the bank had 
begun to build on the corner of Chapel and Church 
streets, where the Exchange Building now is, stood 
for years; but there was no need of such a memorial 
of the defunct institution to keep it in memory. 
The granite was taken away in 1832 to prepare 
the ground for the erection of the Exchange Build- 
ing, but the memory of the Eagle Bank survived 
the removal of the grand foundation of its projected 
banking-house. The failure of the Farmington 
Canal to meet the expectations of its projectors, re- 
tarded the growth of confidence and credit. In 
case of fire it furnished the city with a supply of 
water, and was in this respect beneficial; but it did 
little for the business of the city, and nothing for 
the enrichment of its stockholders. New Haven 
sank in it almost as much capital as in the Eagle 
Bank; and this additional drain upon its wealth 
prolonged the period during which it was difficult 
to procure the aid of borrowed capital in the trans- 
action of business. Ground was broken for the 
canal in July, 1825, so that the disappointment and 
loss which it occasioned followed close upon the 
failure of the bank and enhanced its effect. 

The next financial panic occurred in 1837. It 
was not, like that of 1825, a local disturbance, 
but it affected the whole country. Its history be- 
gins with the removal, in 1833, of the public de- 
posits from the Bank of the United States to State 
banks selected by the Secretary of the Treasury. 
The Bank of the United States had been consti- 
tuted by its charter the depository of the public 
money. In return for the benefit which the bank 
derived from this accession to its working capital, 
it was under engagement to transfer the public 
funds from place to place within the United States, 
or the territories thereof, and to distribute the same 
in payment of the public creditors, without charg- 
ing commissions, or claiming allowance on ac- 
count of diff'erence of exchange. The bank had 
faithfully fulfilled its contract in regard to gratui- 
tous exchange for the Government, and by its 
ubiquity had kept all exchange very nearly at par. 
Its notes were good everywhere throughout the 
land. For some reason President Andrew Jack- 



336 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



son was hostile to this institution, and when Con- 
gress had passed a bill to renew its charter, which 
was soon to expire, he sent back the bill with his 
veto. Not content with this expression of his dis- 
pleasure, he determined that the public deposits 
should be transferred to an association of State 
banks selected for the purpose. The Secretary of 
the Treasury (Mr. McLane) having conscientious 
objections to ordering the transfer from a bank en- 
titled, both by its charter and by the service it had 
rendered, to be the custodian of the public funds 
and the fiscal agent of the Government, w-as ap- 
pointed Secretary of State, in the expectation that 
his successor in the Treasury Department (Mr. 
Duane) would execute the President's will in re- 
spect to the deposits. On the loth of September, 
1833, General Jackson read an elaborate paper to 
the Cabinet, announcing his reasons for the re- 
moval of the deposits and appointing the rst of 
October as the day when it should take place. On 
the 2 1st of September Mr. Duane announced to 
the President his intention not to order the re- 
moval. But the iron will of Jackson did not suc- 
cumb. Duane was dismissed from his office, and 
Taney, afterward Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court, was appointed in his place, by whom the 
requisite order for the removal of the public funds 
to the State banks was immediately given. 

The measure produced a great derangement in 
the business of the whole country, and an almost 
total suspension of the accustomed action of the 
financial S3'stem. The United States Bank was 
obliged, by a regard to its own safety, to strike sail 
and withhold from the public the amount of ac- 
commodation it had been accustomed to afford. 
The rate of interest went up in six months from 
six to twelve per cent, per annum; stocks were 
depressed, some ten, some twenty, and some 
thirty per cent; commodities of every kind shrank 
so much in value as to threaten merchants and 
shopkeepers with ruin, especially if the goods had 
been purchased on credit. Labor felt the shock 
even more than capital. Mills and factories shut 
down their gates, and where workmen were not 
discharged their wages were reduced. This effect, 
however, was only temporary. When the change 
had been accomplished, and the "pet banks," as 
they were called, had the public money in their 
vaults, they loaned more copiously than they had 
ever been able to do before, and consequently the 
activity of business of every kind was as much 
greater than usual as had been its depression dur- 
ing the change. Stimulated by the large addi- 
tion to their working capital afforded by the de- 
posit of the public money, and anxious to earn 
enough to make large dividends, the banks so in- 
creased the volume of the currency in circulation, 
that labor was drawn from other branches of in- 
dustry to those which are most easily affected by 
the state of the money market; and there was an 
unnatural and evil distribution of labor, causing a 
rate of production in some departments which 
could not be maintained, and was sure to bring, 
sooner or later, involuntary idleness and inability 
to purchase, to those dependent on these branches 



of industry. To the superficial observer all seemed 
exceedingly prosperous in 1836. But the balance 
of trade was against us; coin w^as constandy 
shipped to Europe to pay for the excess of im- 
ports over exports; this excess was greater than 
usual in 1836 by reason of a wet summer and con- 
sequent damage to cereals, and in the spring of 
1837 the bubble burst. On the loth of May the 
banks in New York suspended specie payment, 
and their example was followed by the banks 
throughout the whole country as fast as the news 
of the suspension in New York reached them. 

A committee of merchants immediately went to 
Washington, and in an address to President Van 
Buren, then recently inaugurated, made a state- 
ment of the distress prevalent in their city, from 
which we extract the following sentences: 

Under a deep impression of the propriety of confining our 
declarations within moderate limits, we affirm that the value 
of real estate has within the last six months depreciated 
more than forty millions; that within the last two months 
there have been more than 250 failures of houses engaged 
in extensive business; that within the same period a decline 
of 20,000,000 of dollars has occurred in our local stocks, 
including those railroad and canal incorporations which, 
though chartered in other States, depend chiefly upon New 
York for their sale; that the immense amount of our mer- 
chandize in our warehouses has within the same period 
fallen in value at least thirty per cent; that within a few- 
weeks not less than 20,000 individuals depending upon 
their daily labor for their daily bread have been discharged 
by their employers because the means of retaining them 
were exhausted; and that a complete blight has fallen upon 
a community heretofore so active, enterprising and pros- 
perous. The error of our rulers has produced a wider des- 
olation than the pestilence which depopulated our streets, 
or the conflagration which laid them in ashes. 

The distress which the New York committee rep- 
resented as existing in their city prevailed through- 
out the whole country. If it was greater in New 
York than in other cities, it w-as because New York 
was the greatest city in the land. 

In New Haven all the banks suspended specie 
payments as soon as they heard of the suspension 
in New York, except the City Bank, whose circula- 
tion at that time was very small. The suspension 
of the banks was followed by the suspension of 
merchants and manufacturers, with this difference 
between them and the banks in the meaning of the 
suspension, namely that the latter were solvent 
and continued to pay out a paper currency which 
would be redeemed in the future, while the busi- 
ness men were, by the stoppage of business and the 
shrinkage of values, rendered insolvent. As the law 
at that time allowed a creditor to put an attach- 
ment on the property of his debtor for his own 
security without reference to the safety of other 
creditors, it was hardly possible for any man who 
owed anything to pass unscathed through the or- 
deal t)f universil suspicion. Old and conservative 
firms were obliged to go into liquidation; and men 
who supposed they were able to build for them- 
selves handsome residences, and had paid instal- 
ments on them, were obliged to give the builder a 
deed of the property, and sacrifice whatever they 
had paid. 

One feature of the time of inflation which pre- 
ceded the panic of 1837, was speculation in real 



FINANCIAL PANICS. 



337 



estate. This feature was not peculiar to New Haven, 
but was noticeable throughout the country. Here, 
as elsewhere, tracts of land were purchased; avenues, 
streets and building-lots were staked out; and it 
was expected by the sanguine that the lots would 
rapidly rise in value. Some of these tracts of land 
have since relapsed to the use of the agriculturist, 
and others in the course of forty-eight years have 
become as thickly peopled as it was expected they 
would be in as many months. But those who went 
most boldly and deeply into such speculations lost 
what they invested and became insolvent. 

The recovery from 'the depression which followed 
the panic of 1S37 was gradual and slow. It was 
so gradual that one can hardly say it was complete 
in less than ten years from its commencement. 
But as specie payment was resumed by the banks 
in New Haven, and throughout New England and 
New York, May 10, 1838, on the anniversary of 
the suspension in New York, one year may be re- 
garded as the measure of the panic and ten years 
as the measure of the hard times which it intro- 
duced. 

The next panic occurred in 1857. Its causes 
were similar to those which had produced the panic 
twenty years before. Like that, it extended through- 
out the country. After a long period of prosperity 
in business of every kind, it was found that the ex- 
cessive importation of foreign commodities was 
draining the country of specie, and the banks in 
New York, which had now become more than ever 
before the financial center of the country, thought 
it necessary for their own safety to diminish the 
amount of their liabilities by refusing to discount. 
The contraction commenced early in August, and 
was so great, that by the middle of September ex- 
change on London had fallen below the point at 
which specie could be shipped without loss. The 
object of the contraction having been gained, the 
contraction ought to have ceased. Such was the 
judgment at the time of some of the most intelligent 
bank directors in New York and elsewhere. 

The Hon. Nathan Appleton, of Boston, in a letter 
to the Bos/on Daily Advertiser, dated October 12, 
1857, says: 

Tlie New York l)anks have been acting under a panic, and 
that ])anic they have communicated to others, until there is 
ahnost a total loss of contidence. The consetiuences are be- 
fore us in the paralysis of all trade from Bangor to New 
Orleans: the stoppage of banks through a great part of the 
United States; the stoppage of factories; the discharge of 
thousands of laborers; the inal)ility to bring our large crops 
of produce to market; the riunous rate of two or three per 
cent, a month on the strongest paper; a ruinous depreciation 
in the price of all stocks, and even in e>:change on London. 
In my whole experience I have never known a crisis as severe 
as the present, and, I must say, so wholly uncalled for. 

The Bankers' Magazitie, of November, 1S57, 
says : 

The contraction of bank accommodation at New Vt.trk, it is 
now conceded, was unnecessarily sudden and too great. In 
view of the injury sustained by the city and State by such a 
course, a few of the more liberal managers of our city banks, 
early in Seiiteniber proposed essential relief by a moderate 
expansion. This course was a safe one in view of the then 
condition of the foreign exchanges and of the prospective in- 
crease of specie at this point. This measure was opposed 



by a few and finally abandoned, as none could adopt it un- 
less it was agreed upon as a general and concerted policy. 
The contraction increased until the loans were reduced to 
about 100 millions in the second week of October; the manu- 
facturers, mechanics, merchants and tradesmen were all 
suffering from the decline of 20 millions of loans, and a still 
more violent contraction of bank circulation; two of the city 
banks had suspended on the loth; two more on the 12th; 
many in the country had likewise suspended ; Pennsylvania 
and Rhode Island were under a general suspension; and 
finally, on the 13th, the New York City banks concluded to 
suspend specie payment on their deposits and circulation. 
The Chemical Bank was the only exception, and that follow- 
ed the course recommended by the others during the same 
week. This course of contraction is now considered by our 
leading bank liircctors as unnecessary and as productive of 
nearly all the evil which has arisen. A more liberal policy 
would have relieved the merchants and saved them from 
extraordinary losses. The capital of the banks, by mercantile 
(ailures, has been damaged from 33 to 50 per cent., a loss 
which will require many years to recover. The suspension 
of the city banks was precipitated by the heavy loss of the 
steamer Central America in September; liy the gradual with- 
drawal of contidence among bill-holders, and linally among 
depositors: and by the heavy failures. Among these we may 
enumerate the Ohio Life and Trust Company, the Illinois 
Central Railroad Company, the New York and Eric Rail- 
road Company, the Michigan Southern Railroad Company, 
and other corporations whose stock and bonds liad been 
hitherto considered solid securities in this market, and whose 
failures served to destroy confidence among the Western 
bankers, and induced them to withdraw their remaining 
deposits from this city. 

The suspension of specie payments put an end to 
the panic- The banks were now able and willing 
to make loans "in current funds, " and as these 
funds were available for the transaction of business, 
the wheels of industry began to move, slowly and 
carefully indeed, but much to the gratification of the 
solid men who during the panic had found them- 
selves as destitute of credit as if they had been in- 
solvent. 

On the 14 th of December confidence was so far 
restored that the banks resumed specie payments. 
The panic had ruined many merchants and manu- 
facturers who were attempting to do business with 
insufficient capital, and caused severe loss to some 
who, though solvent, were unprepared for a sudden 
disturbance of credit. 

There was nothing peculiar in the effect of the 
storm upon New Haven. Our merchants and 
manufacturers suffered as did those in other cities, 
and it was not until the outbreak of the Rebellion 
that business became as brisk as it had been in 
1856. During the Civil War, by the increase of 
paper money, and the immense amount of it put 
in circulation by the Government to provide the 
sinews of war, business became very active and 
continued so till the Rebellion collapsed and for 
several years afterward. It is said that when the 
war reached its greatest vigor, the Government was 
spending two millions per day. The circulation of 
so much paper currency necessarily inflated the 
price of all property beyond what it would be 
worth when that irredeemable medium should 
again be retired and sH values once more expressed 
in gold. 

During the progress of the return of nominal 
values to the standard of gold, there occurred in 
New York, in 1869, a fluctuation in the price of 
gold which created a panic, most severely felt in 



338 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



New York, because that city is the financial center, 
but felt everywhere throughout the land. In a 
single day the price of gold was forced up from 134 
to 165, threatening those whose property was in 
anything else than gold with additional loss. But 
the sale of four millions of gold by the Secretary of 
the Treasury on the ne.\t day reduced the rate of 
exchange as much and as suddenly as it had ad- 
vanced, and restoretl the public to the confidence 
from which they had backslidden, that there was 
value in the paper currency furnished by the Gov- 
ernment. This exciting day at the New York Ex- 
change is still denominated "Black Friday. ' 

In the further progress of the readjustment of 
values expressed in money, from the scale of prices 
caused by the circulation of so much paper cur- 
rency, to a scale appropriate to specie, occurred a 
financial panic in 1873 whose effects were lasting 
and severe. It was the final collapse of the infla- 
tion consequent upon the war and its expenditures. 
The readjustment caused a nominal shrinkage in 
the value of the goods in the possession of every 
manufacturer, of every merchant,and of every shop- 
keeper. 

The distress was of long continuance, for the 
reason that, though some firms could endure a de- 



gree of shrinkage, none could foresee how far the 
decline would proceed. While property was thus 
of uncertain value, and on the decline as compared 
with money, debtors were naturally fearful and 
creditors as naturally suspicious. Besides there was 
little activity and no profit in trade. Merchants, 
one after another, were obliged to confess them- 
selves bankrupt. In many cases manufacturers 
discharged their workmen, or retained but a few, 
and waited for better times. The decline of values 
affected real estate as well as the commodities 
of the merchant and the manufacturer; and in 
New Haven there has been no such reaction from 
the time of greatest depression in real estate to the 
present, as might reasonably have been expected in 
a city which has increased so much in population. 
Since the panic of 1873 there has never been any 
expansion of credit so great as to threaten another 
explosion. Trade has seemed to have an auto- 
matic regulator, so that when too brisk it slows up 
of itself; and when dull, its dullness is in degree 
like the darkness of night, which is darkest just be- 
fore day. If the banks profit by experience, and 
Congress shuns rash experiments and sudden 
changes, we may hope that the financial panics of 
the past may be the means of saving us from their 
repetition in the future. 



CHAPTER XX. 

INSURANCE. 



PREVIOUS to 1797 there was no insurance 
company in New Haven, and there was sel- 
dom, if ever, any insurance elTeclcd against fire. 
If a man lost his house, frieniUy neighbors might 
perhaps contribute something to rebuild it; but 
apart from this contingency, every man was his own 
insurer against fire. There was really more need 
of marine than of fire insurance, because of the 
greater risk to which property in ships was exposed. 
Such risk was in the first place divided by joint 
ownership, a merchant preferring to have a share 
in several vessels rather than venture in any one of 
them a sum of money eijual to its whole value. 
The risk was sometimes still further divided by 
obtaining fractional insurance from indivitlual un- 
derwriters, who might be willing for a satisfactory 
premium to assume the risk on a fraction of a 
share. Of course a storm disturbed such under- 
writers as much as it did the owners of the ship 
and cargo; and both ])arties spent sleepless nights 
listening to the wind. But when the vessel came 
safely into port, these anxieties were forgotten and 
other risks were taken. 

The General Assembly, at its October session in 
1797, incorporated 

The New Havkn Insurance Company. 

One of the articles of the charter expressly pro- 
vides "that the business of the corporation shall be 



wholly confined to marine insurance." The Com- 
pany was evidently intended to do the same bus- 
iness which had been done before by individual 
underwriters, and with less risk to any one person. 
(July one or two instalments of the cajiital stock 
were paid in money, the Company accepting good 
indorsed notes for the balance. The first Board 
of Directors consisted of Elias Shipman, Joseph 
Drake, Stephen Ailing, Frederic Hunt, Ebenezer 
Peck, Simeon Baldwin, Jeremiah Townsend, Tim- 
othy Phelps, Nathan Beers. At a meeting of the 
Board in January, 1798, Elias Shipman was chosen 
President, and Austin Denison, Clerk. In [anuary, 
1791;, the Company maile a dividend of three dol- 
lars on each share for the six months then ended; 
and in July of the same year made a dividend of 
five dollars on each share, out of the profits of the 
first six months in 1799. As the shares were only 
fifteen dollars, it appears that the Company was 
very successful in these first months of its business. 
1 he dividends were paid at the New Haven Bank, 
the Cashier, William Lyon, being the Treasurer of 
the Insurance Company. This Company continued 
to issue policies for about a third of a century, 
when it closed its oflice, divided its capital among 
the stockholders, and went into a state of (luies- 
cence, but retained its organization on account of 
claims it had on the United States for French spo- 
liations. A special act of the General Assembly 
was passed permitting this disposition of the Com- 
pany's alfairs. At first the Company voted to sus- 



msURAXCE. 



339 



pend business for two years, "or until the com- 
mittee provided for in the next vote shall judge it 
expedient to call a meeting of the stockholders, in 
order to resume the business. " It was then "vo- 
ted that Timothy Dwight, Elnathan Attwater, Mar- 
cus Merriman, Gilbert Totten, and Elihu Sanford 
be the committee to act for this Company, agreeably 
to the above vote." This was in 1831. In Jan- 
uary, 1S33, the following vote was passed: 

JV/ii^eas, Many unfortunate circumstances have occurred 
which have prevented the stockholders of the New Haven 
Insurance Company from receiving any dividends for up- 
wards of six years past, and whereas the prospect of making 
up our losses in future by continuing the business, is far 
from Ixing of a flattering character; therefore 

Kcsolved, That this Company should cease so far as re- 
spects issuing any policies ol insurance hereafter. 

The last dividend was made by a vote passed in 
July of the same year. The sum of $7.25 for 
each share was in consequence of this vote paid to 
the stockholders. 

Gilbert Totten was at this time President of the 
Company and the following persons were Stock- 
holders, as appears from a call which they signed 
in July, I S3 2, for a meeting of the Company. 

Timothy Dwight, Samuel Darling, Thomas Dar- 
ling, A. Bradley, Elihu Sanford, Joseph M. Clark, 
James Hunt, Laban Smith, Samuel J. Clark, 
Benjamin Tallmadge, Henry and Lucius Hotch- 
kiss, Russell Hotchkiss, William Lyon, Elnathan 
Attwater, Isaac Townsend, Eli Ives, Marcus Merri- 
man, Eleazer T. Fitch, J. Forbes & Son, Titus 
Street. 

The Oce.an iNsrRANCE Company of New Haven 

was incorporated by the General Assembly in Octo- 
ber, 181S. Its capital was $60,000, with liberty to 
increase to $100,000. Its office was on Union 
Wharf, where it commenced business in June, 1819, 
Truman Woodward being its Secretary, 

Probably the same causes which influenced the 
stockholders of the older marine insurance com- 
pany to close up its affairs, prevented a profitable 
development of business by the Ocean Company. 
It does not appear to have long survived the date 
of its birth. 

The first fire insurance company organized in 
New Haven was 

The Mutual Assurance Company. 

It advertised, September 21, iSoi, 

That the Mutual Assurance Company have commenced 
businesss under their charter of incorporation, and that 
t)ooks are open for subscription at the office of the Secretary 
of the Corporation. Those who are desirous of becoming 
associates are requested to call on him and subscribe the 
books. In case persons living at a distance are desirous of 
becoming associates, their subscriptions may Iw made by 
proxy. 

The terms of insurance are three-quarters of the appraised 
value of the building, at half of one per cent, for the first 
year; one third of one per cent, for the second year; and 
one fourth thereafter. 

All payments of premiums to lie made to the Treasurer on 
receipt of policy, and no policy to take elTect until the pay- 
ments shall t)e by him indorsed. 



The Secretary of the Company was Elizur Good- 
rich; and the Treasurer was Simeon Baldwin. 

Mutual insurance not proving a success, a stock 
company was formed some time before October, 
181 5. At that date it was in existence and trans- 
acting business, John H. Lynde being its Secre- 
tary. Mr. Lynde died in that year; but in 1818, 
William Cannon was the Secretary. He notified 
the stockholders that the annual meeting for the 
choice of Directors will be held on Thursday the 
4th of June. At that meeting Nathaniel Bacon, 
Andrew Kidston, Charles Denison, Joel Walter, 
Hervey Sanford, Samuel Hughes, Aaron Forbes, 
Leonard E. Wales, and William H. Jllliot were 
chosen Directors. At a meeting of these Directors, 
Charles Denison was chosen President; H. R. Pyn- 
chon. Treasurer; and William Cannon, Secretary, 

The City Fire Insurance Company, 

though of much more recent origin, is believed to 
be next in age. The year in which it was incor- 
porated is not remembered. Wells Southworth 
was the first President, and Henry L. Cannon was 
Secretary. Just prior to the great fire in Port- 
land, iNIe. , in a period of business depression, the 
managers became discouraged and voluntarily 
retired the Company from active business. It had 
been successful in previous years, and on retiring 
paid all claims in full, and one hundred and forty 
per cent, to stockholders. 

In 1874, James M. Mason, E. J. Mason and H. 
Mason bought the charter and started the Company 
anew; but the times were not propitious, and after 
two years the Company again retired, paying all 
claims and returning to stockholders the full 
amount of their investments. 

The Security Insurance Company 

was organized in 1841, under the name of "Mu- 
tual Security Insurance Company," with $200,000 
of subscribed capital, of which 550,000 was paid 
in. For two years the Company was run as a 
mixture of the stock and mutual systems. This 
proving to be unsuccessful, the mutual system was 
discontinued, and the name changed to correspond 
with the new departure. 

The Company was designed originally to effect 
fire, marine and inland insurance, and after the 
change in its system had a good run of business 
in fire insurance in New Haven, and in marine 
insurance in New York. Its capital was increased 
in L872 to $100,000, and in 1874 to $200,000. 
No New Haven corporation can quote from its 
directory more well-known names. Joseph N. 
Clarke was its first President. Philip S. Galpin 
was Secretary and Manager from 1841 till his 
death in 1871. Joseph N. Clarke, Elihu Atwater, • 
Nathaniel A. Bacon, Willis Bristol, William H. 
Ellis, John English, H. S. Soule, Theron Towner, 
James Brewster, Henry Farnam, and Harvey 
Barnes were among its first directors. 

The Company are now doing a large and suc- 
cessful business in both fire and marine insurance, 



340 



HISTORV OF THE ClTV OF XEW HAVEN. 



having agencies in all the principal cities of the 
country. 

Charles S. Leete, President; H. Mason, Secre- 
tary; George E. Nettleton, Assistant Secretary; 
Charles S. Leete, Thomas K. Trowbridge, ])aniel 
Trowbridge, J. I). Dewell, William R. Tyler, J. A. 
Bishop, Cornelius Pierpont, A. C. Wilcox, James 
M. Mason, Directors. 

Home Insurance Company. 

This Company was organized in 1859, and was 
pushed with great energy. It had at one time 
over a thousand agencies in the principal cities, 
and ranked among the largest fire insurance com- 
panies of the United States. It included in its 
directory a large number of prominent citizens of 
New Haven. In its haste to get to the head it 
became reckless, and in 1 870 or 1 87 1 its affairs were 
found to be in so bad a condition that it was put 
into the hand of a receiver. Its capital was entirely 
lost, and its creditors received only a small per- 
centage on their claims. 

The Home ilid principally fire business, but 
some marine and some inland. For years it paid 
handsome dividends, and its stock was largely 
held in New- Haven by investors. Its failure was 
among the most notable financial troubles New 
Haven ever experienced. 

QuiNNiPiAC Insurance Company. 

This Company was chartered in 1869. J. D. 
Dewell, President; George S. Lester, Secretary; 
George E. Nettleton, Assistant Secretary; H. H. 
Bunnell, 'IVeasurer; J. D. Dewell, H. H. Bunnell, 
Cornelius Pierpont, George S. Lester, C. S. Scran- 
ton, P. R. Carl, B. H. Douglass, H. P. Frost, S. 
Benjamin, Jr., H. H. Strong, R. C. Peck, A. H. 
Kellam, E. H. Barnes, E. Beecher, J. W. Brooks, 
Directors. 

Cash capital, $100,000. 

The business was in fire insurance, and mainly 
local. In 1 871 the Company voluntarily retired, 
paying all claims and returning its capital to stock- 
holders in full. 

Only one life insurance company has been locat- 
ed in New Haven. 

The American National Life and Trust Com- 
pany 

was first organized under the name of the Ameri- 
can Mutual Life Insurance Company. It was char- 
tered by the General Assembly of Connecticut in 
May, 1847, and commenced busine.ss in the latter 
part of that year, Professor Benjamin Silliman, Sr., 
l)eing President, and Benjamin Noyes, Secretary. 

After several years the Company was reorganized 
and enlarged, its name being changctl to the Amer- 
ican National Life ami Trust Company. Under 
this name the Company invested a large part of its 
funils in the erection of the eilifice on Cha|)el street 
and opposite the Green, called the Insurance Build- 



ing. It is 118 feet front by 100 feet in depth and 
1 10 feet high. The corner-stone of this imposing 
edifice was laid October 28, 1871, by the Governor 
of the State in the presence of a large delegation 
from a national convention of officers of insurance 
companies then sitting in New York, who made an 
excursion to New Haven to participate in the cere- 
mony. The ofiicers of the American National Life 
and Trust Company at this time were Benjamin 
Noyes, President; John B. Robertson, Vice-Presi- 
dent; Richard F. Lyon, Secretary; Willis ]5ristol, 
Treasurer. 

Previous to the erection of the Insurance Build- 
ing, the office of the Company had been in the 
Adelphi, at the corner of Chapel and Union streets. 
When the new edifice was completed, apartments 
on the second fioor were Occupied by the Company 
for the transaction of its affairs, the rest of the build- 
ing being leased to various occupants. 

Not long after the erection of the Insurance 
Building, it became evident that there was an un- 
friendly feeling between the Company and the In- 
surance Commissioner for the State of Connecticut. 
On the 14th of November the strife culminated in 
a notice from the Commissioner that his examina- 
tion of the aftairs of the Company showed that it 
was hopelessly and irredeemably insolvent, antl 
that he should proceed to file with the Judge of 
Probate his application for the appointment of a 
trustee to close up its affairs. This notice was 
given by the Commissioner at a special meeting of 
the Directors called at his request. The announce- 
ment was received by the Directors with astonish- 
ment and indignation, they believing that the Com- 
pany was in good condition. One of them asked 
for delay, offering to make good any deficiency 
which could be shown in the assets, and was told 
in reply that the application to the Court of Pro- 
bate would be made immediately. From this time 
onward there was open war between the parties. 

An investigation of the charges made by the 
Commissioner was commenced on the 5th of Janu- 
ary, 1875, before the Hon. Levi B. Bradley, Judge 
of Probate, and the Hon. James Phelps, a Judge of 
the Supreme Court of Errors, and continued until 
the 9th of March. On the i2tli of April the Judges 
decided that the allegations of the Insurance Com- 
missioner were untrue, and his j)elition to have a 
receiver appointed was dismissed. 

During the May session of the General Assembl}- 
the Commissioner endeavored to have the charier 
of the Company repealed, but did not succeed. 

The Directors, in their search for relief from 
what they regarded as unjust anil malicious perse- 
cution, found that a life insurance company had 
been chartered by a special act of the Congress of 
the United States, and that all the assets and liabil- 
ities of the American National Life ami Trust Com- 
pany could be transferred to the company chartered 
by Congress. For the sake of exempting itself 
from the control of Connecticut, the Company 
adopted the name of the company chartered by 
Congress, transferring to the new name all its as- 
sets. The name of the company chartered by 
Congress, untler which the Connecticut Company 








r\j ruC 



INSURANCE. 



341 



thus sheltered its property, was the National Capitol 
Life Insurance Company of Washington, D. C, and 
this was henceforth the name of the institution first 
chartered by the General Assembly of Connecticut 
as the Anierican Mutual Life Insurance Company, 
and afterward recognized by the same authority as 
the American National Life and Trust Company. 
In consequence of this change of name and legal 
status, the principal or home office was henceforth 
in Washington, and the office in New Haven was 
nominally a branch office for the New England 
Department. 

So far as relates to the protection of itself from 
the attacks of the Connecticut Commissioner in the 
courts and in the General Assembly, the transfer to 
the jurisdiction of the L'nited States was effectual. 
But the attack upon the Company so injured its 
credit that very little new business came in, and 
many policy holders neglectetl to renew their poli- 
cies. In process of time therefore the Company 
became really, as well as constructivel}', bankrupt, 
and ceased to keep an office for the transaction of 
business. 

The Insurance Building, which the National 
Capitol Life Insurance Company had conveyed to 
the Treasurer of the LInited States by a deed of 
trust, is still in the hands of the Receiver appointed 
by the Superior Court of Connecticut, and the 
affairs of the Company are not yet entirely wound 
up. 

A great deal of life insurance is effected in con- 
nection with societies and clubs; sometimes by 
membership and sometimes by a supplementary ar- 
rangement, in which a member covenants to pay a 
small sum to the family of every brother who has 
belonged to the Supplementary Mutual Benefit 
Association, and thereby secures to his own family 
a similar benefit at his decease. 

There are besides these mutual benefit associa- 
tions connected with Masonic and other societies, 
two independent mutual benefit associations in 
New Haven. One is the Connecticut Benefit As- 
sociation, at 8ii Chapel street, and the other is 
the New England Mutual Benefit Association, at 
(3) 81 Church street. 

In addition to marine, inland, fire and life insur- 
ance, a new kind of insurance has recently come 
into vogue. Bank officers, railway conductors and 
ticket agents, trustees of estates, and others who 
occupy fiduciary positions, being required to give 
bonds for their fidelity, an insurance company 
has been formed in New York to insure for a pre- 
mium the fidelity of fiduciaries. This company, 
called the American Security Company, having 
its headquarters at 160 Broadway, New York, has 
an oflice in New Haven, at 1 7 Hoadley's Building, 
where Messrs. N. D. Sperry, R. F. Lyon, and E. 
E. Boyd, the Agents of the Company, issue its guar- 
antee bonds. 



than one department of insnrance, we shall not 
undertake to give the specialty of each operator. 



Atwatc-r, W. J. 
BiiWL-rs, Calub B. 
Callahan, E. A. 
Cannon, 11. L. &J. S. 
Cooke, N. M., Jr. 
Coiilidge, E. C. 
lieeclier, Edward C. 
Dudley, Amos E. & Son. 
Enscou, M. R. 
Eit/.patrick, W. 
Glazehrook, James. 
Gurney, A. L. 
Heller, M. 
Hinman & Cooke. 
Ilolloway, G. E. 
Jones, A. C. 
Long, Henry C. 
I«vy, Charles. 
McUermott, John Y. 



Morse, Gardner. 
Morse, John. 
Nichols", I, \V. 
North, John G. 
North, John C. 
Oviatt, S. li. 
Parsons, H. S. 
Pond Hros. 
Post, John H. 
Prothero.W. H. 
Sperry & Kinilx'rly. 
Sutton, Geo. II. 
Thomjison, C. S. 
Thompson, Geo. E. 
Thorn, Samuel G. 
Warren, H. C. & Co. 
Weld & Son. 
Wilson, McNeil & Co. 



The following is a list of insurance agents in 
New Haven. As some of them operate in more 



BIOGRAPHIES. 

CHARLES PETERSON. 

An interesting romance is connected with the 
family history of Charles Peterson. It is related 
very nearly in his own words. His father's name 
was Carle Remipanport, afterward changed to 
Peterson. It was during 1794-95, the period of 
the French Revolution, that Captain William Fair- 
child, of New Haven, commanding the brig Shep- 
herdess, was at Rouen, France, bound for Savan- 
nah, Ga. The mother of Carle arranged with 
Captain Fairchild to take her boy to Savannah, say- 
ing "that she would save one," the times being 
then revolutionary and bloody in France. When 
ready for sea, the lad, then about twelve, was 
brought on board by the mother, who appeared to 
Captain Fairchild to be a fine matronly woman of 
decision and character. She took off the yellow 
silk handkerchief from her neck and bound it 
around the boy, and with a kiss of desperation and 
love parted with her child forever. The silk ker- 
chief he carried with him, as boy and man, around 
and around the globe, and when he died at St. 
Thomas in 18 14, captain of the brig Cleopatra, it 
was sent home to his wife, and now (18S6) remains 
tattered and worn, a sacred relic, the last love token 
of a devoted French mother to her son. 

Captain Fairchild essentially adopted Carle, and 
at Savannah May 3, 1795, bound him regularly as 
an apprentice, and trained him up to his own pro- 
fession, the sea. Captain Fairchild had two adopted 
daughters, Patty and Henrietta Miles, children of 
Captain William and Mary Hitchcock Miles, de- 
scended from Richard Miles, one of the first settlers 
of Milford, in 1639, who removed to New Haven 
in 1693. On his first arrival in New Haven, Carle 
met Henrietta scouring knives on the back stoop. 
Childish attachment ripened into love, and in 1809 
they were married. 

15efore Carle was eighteen, he was mate of the 
brig Shepherdess. In iSoi, being released from 
his indentures, he went, being then only nineteen 
years of age, with Captain Brintnall as second officer 
in the ship Oneida, on a second sealing voyage. 



343 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



They visited the South Shetland Islands, and after 
catching a cargo of seals went to the Sandwich 
Islands and to China. 

Charles Peterson was born in New Haven Novem- 
ber I, 1810. He attended Mr. John Lovell's school 
on the Lancasterian system, and at an early age 
learned the shoemaker's trade of Eldad Gilbert, on 
Cherry, now Wooster, street. This he abandoned 
upon attaining his majority, and entered upon the 
grocery business under the firm name of Gardner 
Morse & Peterson. After a few years in this, he 
went into the ilrug business, with Dr. Lewis 
Hotchkiss, on Chapel street. He then conducted 
a similar trade in drugs, chemicals, and paints in 
partnership with D. S. Glenney, on Chapel street, 
under the firm name, Peterson & Glenney. In 
1854, Mr. Peterson disposed of his interest to his 
partner, D. S. Glenney, and turned his attention to 
the shipping business, for which he perhaps inher- 
ited an inclination from his seafaring father, the 
captain. 

Trade with the West Indies and with other dis- 
tant ports was greater than now, and in a few jears 
of prosperous activity, Mr. Peterson gained a com- 
petent fortune. He retired in 1859 from the ship- 
ping business, having been elected the previous 
year a Director in the .Security Insurance Company, 
in which he continued twenty-seven years. He was 
in 1869 elected President of the Company, remain- 
ing in that office untd his decease, September 5, 
1885. He was also a Trustee of the Connecticut 
Savings Bank for many years, and for a similar 
period was Secretary of the Hazard Powder Com- 
pany, of Enfield. 

In matters of State he was identified in his early 
years with the Whigs and in later years with the 
Democratic party. Mr. Peterson was equally active 
and prominent in matters of the church, being one 
of the original incorporators of St. Paul's Church, 
and served as a vestryman from its foundation. His 
relations with Dr. Croswell were close and aflection- 
ate. He always cherished the memory of the vener- 
able rector most tenderly, and this despite the 
trying and naturally estranging circumstances of 
the separation of Trinity Parish in which Mr. Peter- 
son bore a leading part, when, for the better con- 
venience of the lower part of the city, St. Paul's was 
established by a colony from the mother church. 

In general matters he was historically identified 
with the city, knew the old landmarks, and re- 
membered the incidents and changes that always 
mark a growing town. 

"I well recollect, " says he, in a memorandum 
of historical reminiscences, " the old South Church 
in Church street, that was built for us by a mission- 
ary society in England for the propagation of the 
gospel in foreign parts. I recall when Trinity was 
first opened, and so fearful was my mother that the 
crowd would crush us, that we took seats low down 
on the Chajiel street side, .so we could fiee. I re- 
member when the lot where St. Paul's stands was 
sold, 1 think for $600." 

Mr. Peterson was intimately acquainted with the 
shipping trade of New Haven, and has left valuable 
memoranda of it, including histories of ships and 



cruises of New Haven merchantmen, which are full 
of interesting and authentic information concerning 
the varying fortunes of our early sea captains. 

When, in 1824, Lafayette visited this country and 
came to New Haven, Charles Peterson was presented 
to the old hero by Captain John Miles, as the son 
of a Frenchman, when, placing his hand upon the 
boy's head, he declared "the son of a Frenchman 
will always make a good American." 

Mr. Peterson was one of the oldest members o 
the New Haven Colony Historical Society, and was 
for many years a Director. A memorial letter from 
its Secretary, Thomas R.Trowbridge, to his widow, 
expresses the sense of loss in his death, and a high 
estimate of his valuable qualities as a man, and as 
an active and historically well informed member of 
the society. A similar letter from the Vestry of St. 
Paul's Church, conveys an expression of sorrow and 
the sense of their great bereavement in losing one, 
"constant in his attendance upon its worship; 
liberal in the use of his means for the support of 
the church; deeply interested in whatever concerned 
its welfare. A churchman of pronounced convic- 
tions always held in charity, his life was blameless 
and above reproach. Of great gentleness and kind- 
ness, his example and influence were ever in behalf 
of peace." 

The resolutions of the Board of Directors of the 
Security Insurance Company testify to his high 
character and worth, as follows; " His unswerving 
integrity won him the hearty respect of the com- 
munity and the entire confidence and esteem of his 
associates in this Board, while by his kindness of 
manner, his thoughtfulness and un.selfishness, he 
gained the aft'ections of all those with whom he was 
intimately thrown in the management of the affairs 
of the oflice. He was a bright example of honesty, 
integrity and devotion to duty." 

The Underwriters' Association passed a resolu- 
tion of respect for his excellent worth in all the 
relations of a long and active business life, and a 
similar memorial was rendered by the Chamber of 
Commerce. 

Mr.Peterson married, November 3, 1832, Janette, 
daughter of Eli Denslow, of New Haven. They 
have had ten children, of whom five sons and four 
daughters survive. The .sons are Charles; Dr. 
George F., the dentist; Frederick I.; Edward S. ; 
and A. Hazard. The daughters are Mrs. A. P. 
Hotchkiss, Mr.s. Henry Merrill, Mrs. L. H. Stan- 
nard, and Miss Emma Peterson, all residing in 
New Haven. 

GARDNER MORSE. 

With the public interests and business history of 
New Haven during the last half century, the name 
of Gardner Morse has been inseparably identified. 
He was born at Marlboro, Mass., April 11, 1809, 
at the farm which had been the homestead of his 
ancestors for nearly two hundred years, and is still 
the residence (if their descendants. He was the 
twelfth of thirteen children born to Stephen and 
Rebecca (How) Morse. At the age of sixteen he 
left home to enter the service of Timothy and 




^^-^MultccJ^^7M£' 



V^ZiL^ 



u 



INSURANCE. 



343 



Stephen Bishop, who were then prominent mer- 
chants in New Haven, and were located on State 
street. After six years he left their employment in 
order to establish a similar business on his own 
account in partnership with the late Charles Peter- 
son, under the firm name of Morse & Peterson. 
The new firm located in one of the stores now oc- 
cupied by Wallace B. Fenn & Co., and Mr. Morse 
continued in business there for six years. In 1837, 
being elect(id Collector of the city, town, and .State 
taxes for New Haven, he severed his connection 
with mercantile life. For the next twenty years he 
devoted himself to the successful conduct of the 
collectorship, to which he was annually re-elected. 
He was recognized as a prudent and skillful ex- 
ecutive officer, and received many important anil 
responsible trusts from corporations and from 
private individuals. The agencies of several fire 
insurance companies in Connecticut, New York, 
and Pennsylvania were placed in his hands. 

But he has been especially honored and trusted 
as an administrator of estates. He has thus stood 
in a fiduciary relation to the possessions of a host 
of prominent men of the former generation, among 
others to the real estate properties of Titus Street, 
James Hunt, Joel Root, Samuel Ward, William 
H. Elliot, Sidney Hull, D. W. Davenport, Henry 
Eld, Admiral Gregory, J. D. Beecher, John M. 
Garfield, Elam Hull, Levi Gilbert, Nathaniel A. 
Bacon, Elial T. Foot, and William W. Boardman. 
Many of these trusts, whose original owners are 
long since departed, remain, still unexpired, in the 
guardianship of Colonel Morse. 

In the year 1852, he was the first of the three 
trustees to whom the town delegated the dispo.sal 
of the old Almshouse propert}-, and in ail the finan- 
cial transactions by which the new Almshouse was 
established he took a leading part. Again, when 
the property of the present Almshouse was conveyed 
to said trusteeship, to be used in the purchase and 
improvement of the new Spring Side Town Farm, 
Colonel Morse was one of the principal managers. 
The Trustees who were associated with him in 
1852, were Henry White and Wyllys Peck, who 
are now both deceased, and who have been suc- 
ceeded by H. M. Welch and Luzon B. Morris. 

Mr. Morse has also been foremost in directing 
the expansion of the city into outlying districts.. 
In connection with the late John W. Mansfield he 
was extensively engaged in the purchase and im- 
provement of various unoccupied tracts, and in 
preparing the same for habitation, and for partici- 
pation in urban duties and privileges. That portion 
of the city lying west of Park street, from Oak 
street to Davenport avenue, and now adorned by 
the Church of the Ascension, and by many attractive 
private residences, owes nearly its entire develop- 
ment to the enterprise of these gentlemen. 

Mr. Morse has been for twenty-five years an Act- 
ing Trustee and member of the LoaningCommittee 
of the New Haven Savings Bank, also for many 
years one of its Vice-Presidents. Besides his long 
employment in the Department of Taxes, he has 
served the town for a considerable time as a Trustee 
of the Town Deposit Fund. In the city government 



he also filled the office of Fire Commissioner for 
twelve years (1862-74). With the government of the 
State, Mr. Morse has also held ufficial connection, 
and it was in that service that he meritoriously 
won his familiar appellation of "Colonel." Those 
who are old enough to remember the former militia 
organization of Connecticut, will recall the fact that 
its degree of military discipline was a very (luctu- 
ating quantity. There were freijuent periods when 
the only order was disorder, when insubordination 
was the rule, and when the trainings were neglected. 
The year 1835 was such a time in the history of 
the Second Regiment, when Gardner Morse, then 
not a member of the organization, was elected 
Colonel, and the late Minott A. Osborn was chosen 
Major. It is probable that an easy time had been 
anticipated under the new commanders; if so, the 
lazy and merry men were grievously disappointed. 
Colonel Morse insisted on the fulfillmentof the law 
to the very letter, and he was ably seconded by the 
genial Major. At the cost of much persistent effort, 
Colonel Morse compelled attendance upon train- 
ing days, and brought his regiment into a high 
state of military order and perfection. 

Mr. Morse's success in life is largely due to the 
same qualities that enabled him to discipline the 
disorganized militia. He unites quick perceptions, 
prompt and accurate judgment, to an extraordinary 
capacity for administration; while the whole is con- 
trolled by a firm will and tempered by good cheer 
and kindly sympathy. 

He has been so long and so actively engaged 
among us, that his story is part of the history of 
our community. That community recognizes in 
him the author of much of its own growth, and 
honors him as that best of political products, a 
good citizen. 

Mr. Morse is a member of the parish of Trinity 
Church, and has been for many years its Vestry- 
man, Clerk, and Treasurer. He has also performed 
the duties of Trustee and Treasurer of Trinity 
Church Home. 

He has been three times married, and has had 
twelve children, of whom eight are n(jw living, two 
daughters and six sons, all residents of New Haven. 

CALEB B: BOWERS, 

Hon. Caleb B. Bowers was born in Middletown, 
Conn., April 21, 1820. He is the son of William 
and Almira (Bailey) Bowers, whose married life con- 
tinued for more than sixty-two years. His father 
died in 1878; his mother is still living, at the ad- 
vanced age of eighty-nine years. He comes from 
an ancestry traceable in three lines to the earliest 
days of the settlement of New England, viz. : George 
Bowers, at Scituate, Mass., in 1637; John Dwight, 
at Dedham, Mass., in 1635; and John Bailey, at 
Hartford, Conn., in 1660. 

Among the numerous descendants of George 
Bowers have been some of the most prosperous 
merchants of the colonial days, and many distin- 
guished in the learned professions. The subject of 
this sketch is fourth in line of descent from the Rev. 
Benjamin Bowers, a graduate of Harvard College, 



3U 



HISTORY OF THE CITV OF NEW HA FEN. 



who removed from Billcrica, Mass., in 1740, to 
become tlie first Congregational minister in Middle 
Haddam, Conn., he being the great-grandson of 
George, the original settler. George was also the 
father of Rev. John Bowers, who came to New 
Haven in 1653. lie was for a time engaged in 
teaching,and afterwards was settled as first minister 
in the town of Derby, Conn. 

Mr. Bowers is descended from good revolution- 
ary stock, both his grandfathers having served in 
the War for Independence; his maternal grand- 
fatiier sulTering, during many months, the horrors 
of tlie "Jersey Prison Ship, " from which he was 
releasetl on the restoration of peace, and where he 
loyally and persistently resisted repeated oflers of 
freedom conditioned upon his enlistment in the ser- 
vice of the enemy. 

Mr. Bowers' parents moved to Berlin, in Hartford 
County, during his infancy, where he spent his boy- 
hood in the ordinary pursuits of country life, re- 
ceiving the benefits of a common school educa- 
tion, supplemented by an academic course of two 
years. 

At the age of sixteen years he taught a district 
school, and continued teaching as his vocation for 
fourteen years, prosecuting his studies of Latin, 
higher mathematics,modern languages and element- 
ary law, and later in life made insurance law a 
specialty. At twenty years of age he was principal 
of the Academy in Portland, Conn., holding the 
position for four years, after which he became 
master of the Grammar School in Springfield, Mass. , 
having supervision of all the schools of lower 
grade. During this period, from 1845 to 1849, 
he was a member of the Hampden County Teach- 
ers' Association, and also of the Massachusetts 
State Teachers' Association, in which positions he 
was an earnest and eflicient laborer in the cause of 
pctpular education, delivering lectures and engag- 
ing in the discussion of important topics. He en- 
joyed the confidence of the Hon. Horace Mann, at 
that time the State Superintendent of the Board of 
lulucation, and the familiar intercourse of many 
other distinguished educators of that period. 

In 1849 lie married Fanny M., only daughter of 
Luther ami Nancy (Baldwin) Cutter, of Springfield, 
Mass., and their union has been blessed by a 
family of three sons and one daughter, all of whom 
give promise of useful and honorable lives. 

At the time of his marriage he terminated his 
labors as an instructor, since which he has passed 
an active and varied life, and m all its diversified 
requirements he has resolutely and successfully dis- 
charged the ilutics imposed creditably to himself 
and to the satisfaction of those whose interests he 
has been called ujjon to serve. 

In 1850, he entered, by appointment, into public 
service in Washington, D. C, and was for nearly 
three years Acting Chief Examiner of the Post Of- 
fice Dejjartment, l)eing often assigned to important 
and responsible duties outside of^ the routine of his 
position. During these palmy days of the republic, 
he enjoyed the accjuaintance of most of the public 
men of that time, and from his intercourse with 
them acipiired much knowledge, which in after 



days has proved of great service in other public 
positions to which he has been called. 

Leaving Washington in 1853, he was chosen to the 
oflSce of Secretary of the Hartford Fire Insurance 
Company, where he remained for five years, during 
which the Company experienced a degree of pros- 
perity une.xampled throughout its previous existence 
of nearly half a century. He was then invited to 
the presidency of the City F'ire Insurance Company 
of Hartford, where for six years, by industry and 
good management, he maintained his well-earned 
reputation as a successful manager and skillful un- 
derwriter. He then organized under a new charter 
the Putnam Fire Insurance Company, and acted 
as its President for a year, leaving it with a large 
business established on a profitable basis. At this 
time, feeling the need of rest and recreation, un- 
known to him since his boyhood, he removed with 
his family to Claremont, N. H., where he intended 
to enjoy quite and retirement, but within the )'ear 
he was elected a delegate at large from the State to 
the Philadelphia Union Convention of 1866, and, 
being in sympathy with its declared object and pur- 
poses, he accepted appointment and was the chosen 
Chairman of the State Delegation and served as the 
New England member of the Committee on Plat- 
form, of which the late Henry J. Raymond was 
Chairman. Subsequently he was appointetl the 
Collector of Internal Revenue for the third New 
Hampshire District, serving in that capacity for 
several months, until his removal to New Haven, 
with marked success, and receiving the special 
commendation of the Secretary of the Treasury. 

In 1867, Mr. Bowers was induced to return to 
his native State, selecting New Haven as his future 
home, with a view to the thorough education of his 
children. 

Mr. Bowers in his later years has exemplified his 
early interest and belief in education, and he has 
aflorded each of his chililren the best possible op- 
portunities for liberal and scientific culture. Two 
of his sons were graduates of Yale College in the 
Classes of 1874 and 1879, one having chosen med- 
icine as his profession and the other the law. They 
are also graduates, respectively, of the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons in New York and of the 
Yale Law School. His youngest son is now a mem- 
ber of the Senior Class at Yale, and his only 
daughter is a graduate of the school at Farmington, 
Conn., so long under the guidance of Miss Sarah 
Porter. 

Since his residence in New Haven, Mr. liuwers 
has gained an honorable position as a citizen, and 
is highly esteemed for his courteous manners, ster- 
ling integrity, varied information, and business abil- 
ity. He is identified with many uf its business en- 
terprises and public and charitable institutions. 

He is a member of Trinity Church Vestry, 
Chairman of the Board of Visitors at the Ht)spital, 
a member of the Chamber of Commerce, a Director 
of the New Haven Colony Historical Society, a 
Director of the New Haven Water Company, Presi- 
dent of ihe Underwriters' Association, and was for 
several years one of the Boaril of Fire Commission- 
ers, being for a portion of the time its president. 



IXi>UJiANCE. 



345 



and has filled other positions of trust and responsi- 
bility, in which he has exhibited an aptitude for 
public affairs, proving himself a safe and conserva- 
tive leader, a wise counselor, and an efficient worker. 

He was elected State Senator in 1875, ^^'^ ^'' 
though without any previous legislative experience, 
he was chosen president of that body, filling the 
exalted position with great ability, and having 
much influence with his oflicial associates. By a 
constitutional provision he became at several times 
the acting Governor of the State. 

He was Chairman of the Committee on Rail- 
roads during this session, before which many im- 
portant and vexatious questions were brought for 
investigation and trial. He was again elected for 
two years, 1877-78, and took a prominent part in 
debate, and carried through the Senate, by the de- 
cisive vote of sixteen to four, a bill creating a new 
board of commissioners for the better and more 
thorough supervision of insurance companies, but 
which, to the regret of many, was defeated in the 
House of Representatives. 

Coming to New Haven with a competency re- 
sulting from years of industry and economy, Mr. 
Bowers has found time, in addition to attention to 
his private affairs and moderate pursuit of the in- 
surance business, to take a somewhat active part in 
politics. He presided gracefully over the Demo- 
cratic Congressional Convention at Middletown in 
1875, guiding the turbulent elements with skill 
and success. He was an active and zealous sup- 
porter of Tilden and Hancock in their respective 
campaigns, making many eloquent and popular 
addresses in support of his chosen candidates. 
But as a politician, although a partisan, he has 
ever adojited as his rule of action in all matters in- 
volving the public welfare, the motto, " Non sibi, 
sed pii/rue," and has never been willing to sacrifice 
the highest interests of the people, nor prostitute 
oflicial position, to mere party success or individual 
aggrandisement. 

His patriotism was called into active exercise in 
the days of our civil strife, and he was prominent 
among the first few citizens of Hartford, where he 
then resided, who, in response to the call of Presi- 
dent Lincoln, inaugurated the movement that cul- 
minated in the formation of Connecticut's First 
Regiment of Volunteers. On the morning follow- 
ing the first public meeting, he personally raised in 
a few hours, by subscription, more than $2,000 to 
be used in the support of said volunteers, and also, 
in common with several of Hartford's wealthy and 
prominent citizens, pledged an amount equal to 
nearly one-fifth of his annual income, as a guaranty 
for the continued support of the regiment in the 
possible contingency of a failure of the State Legis- 
lature to provide the requisite means. 

During the entire struggle he was an active and 
outspoken defender of the Government, and at all 
times ready by his efforts and his influence to up- 
hold and maintain the integrity and entirety of the 
Union. By his extensive acquaintance and knowl- 
edge of men, he was enabled, at critical periods, 
to render valuable aid in securing prompt and har- 
monious action from men of diverse political views, 
u 



and was often consulted by Governor Buckingham 
in regard to the selection of suitable persons in the 
formation and officering of succeeding regiments. 

As a citizen, Mr. Bowers' influence has ever 
been in support of good morals, sound instruction 
for the masses, honest government, and whatever 
is calculated to promote and advance the best in- 
terests of society. 

CHARLES WILSON. 

This prominent citizen of New Haven was born 
in Cornwall, Litchfield Co., Conn., May 2y, 1830, 
a son of Elizur and Maria (Finck) Wilson. He 
spent his boyhood on his father's farm and in the 
common schools, and finished his education at one 
of the academies so popular at that time through- 
out the country. Later he was for a time a school 
teacher and clerk in a store. 

In 1854 he came to New Haven and at once 
connected himself with the insurance business, 
with which he has since been so conspicuously 
identified. His thorough knowledge of underwrit- 
ing in all its branches is proverbial, his experience 
in every capacity, from clerk and agent to secretary 
and vice-president, having made him familiar with 
insurance in all its minutia;. He has always 
represented first-class companies and done a large, 
but conservative, business, looking righteously to 
the safety of both insured and insurer. As a general 
agent he is well known over a large section of coun- 
try, and his fairness in the adjustment of intricate 
cases has won him the respect of all interested. 

Mr. Wilson has never interested himself in poli- 
tics, his large business demanding his undivided 
attention. He has been often solicited by his 
fellow citizens to accept positions of trust and 
responsibility, but has uniformly declined such 
honors, although consenting once to represent his 
Ward in the Common Council of the City of New 
Haven. He is public-spirited and enterprising, 
and lends liberal support to all measures intended 
to promote the general good. 

Reared as a Congregationalist, he united with 
the Old North Church (now the United Congrega- 
tional Church) when he came to New Haven in 
1S54. After his removal to Humphrey street, he 
took a deep and helpful interest in the Humphrey 
street Congregational Church, toward the establish- 
ment and maintenance of which, as well as toward 
the erection of its house of worship, he has con- 
tributed with no stinting hand. 

He has been twice married; first, in 1854, to 
Miss Anna E. Stone, a native of Kent, Litchfield 
County, who died in 1861; and second, in 1862, 
to Miss Sarah E. Porter, then a resident of New 
Haven. He has a son and a daughter living. His 
eldest son, Charles H., who was for some years his 
partner in business, died in 1884. His surviving son, 
Clarence P., is connected with his office, and is a 
young man of good abilities and bright promise. 

Mr. Wilson is a man of fine presence, genial and 
courteous, and is justly popular with all classes 
of his fellow citizens. His business standing is 
deservedly high. 



346 



mSroRV OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



1 



CHAPTER XXI. 

STREETS, AVENUES, AND BRIDGES. 



I. Streets. 

1"^!IE map of 1641 shows all the streets laid out 
at the first settlement of the town. The land 
which these streets covered having never been alien- 
ated by the original proprietors, belongs to the pro- 
prietors of common and undivided lands, subject 
to such rights as the public have in any land which 
has been used as a highway. These aboriginal 
streets do not belong, we repeat, as modern streets 
do, to the owners of the land which adjoins the 
street, but to that collective and mystic person de- 
scribed above as " the proprietors of common and 
undivided lands." These streets are, or at least 
were, four rods wide. In many instances the owners 
of adjc;)ining lots have encroached upon the street; 
and, the encroachment being of ancient date, it has 
sometimes been difficult to define the street with 
e.xactness. All of this class of streets have however 
been carefully surveyed by the oflicials of the city; 
and the mere stones which they have placed at the 
angles of intersecting streets, though they do not 
determine the lines of the streets beyond all possible 
controversy, are probably very near the land-marks 
originally established. 

Streets laid out since the first settlement of the 
town, having been taken from private property for 
the use of the public as highways, continue to be 
private property, subject to use as highways. It 
was a long time before any of this class of streets 
were cut through the original town plat. But, one 
after another, new streets remote from the center of 
the town were laid out; so that the map of 1775 
shows more miles of street in the new township 
than on the old half-mile-square. 

Space does not permit us to speak specifically of 
streets outside of the original town plat, but we 
propose briefly to relate the history of those within 
it which have been opened since the incorporation 
of the city. 

Immediately after the organization of the city 
government, the principal streets were fcjrmally and 
authoritatively named. 

At a city mecliii); of the City of New H.iven, liolden on the 
22(1 (lay of Septeiiilier, 17S4, 

I'olnl, That tile streets in the City of New Haven be 
named as follows, vi/..: The street from Ca]il. Samuel Mun- 
soii'scoriier lo 'I'homas I lowell, Esc| 's shop, SiATK SiKEKT; 
the street from Cooper's corner to Capt. Koliert lirown's 
corner, CutiKCll SruKiir; the street from Dixuell's corner 
to Dunbar's corner, Coi.lkoe Strekt; llie street from 
Tench's corner to .\ndrews' corner, Yiirk Street; the 
street from C'apl. Samuel Munson's corner to Tench's, Grove 
Stkkki"; the street from liishop's corner to Darlini^'s corner, 
I'.I.M Sl'REi:i ; the street from Rhode's corner to Mr. Isaac 
I toolittle's corner, CllAfi:i.STREE r; the street from Andrews' 
corner to Thomas llowell, Esq.'s shop, (lEoRCE SrREBT; 
the street from John Whiting, Esq.'s corner to the Head of 
the I-onc Wharf, I'i.EEr Sireet; the street from Capt. 
Thomas Rice's to I'erry Point, Water Street; the street 
from t'apt. Leveret Hubbard's corner to Capt. Trowbridge's 
corner, Mkaddvv Street; the street from Mr. Ile/.ekiah 
.Sabin's to Douglas's house. Union Street; the street from 



the Rope Walk tfl Storer's Ship Yard, Oi.ivE Street; the 
sireet from Major William Munson's to Capt. Solomon 
Phipps', Fair Street; the sireet from tirove street across 
the squares a little west of Pierpont Edwards, Esq.'s house 
over into George street, Orance Sireet; the street across 
the middle squares in front of the Court House and other 
public buildings, Temi'i.e .Spreet; the street between the 
ihvelling-housc where Mr. Timothy Jones, deceased, dwelt, 
and where Mr. David Austin, Jr., now lives, up through the 
square to the Green and across the opposite square near the 
new jail. Court .Street; the street across the upper sciuares 
from Grove street to George street, which runs between the 
dwelling-house and store of Henry Daggett, Esi|., High 
Street; the street from Mr. Joseph Howell's acioss the 
squares between the old and new houses of Mr. Joel Atwaler, 
Crow.n Street: the street from Mr. Ebenezer Townsend's 
corner to Capt. Moses Venire's house, CllKRRV Street; the 
streets or ways from Mr. Josiah Burr's house out on Mt. 
Carniel and .\mity roads. Broad W'.W. 

Some long streets which are delineated on the 
map of 1775, are not mentioned in this attempt to 
affi.K names to the streets. Perhaps they were so 
remote from the center of population, and so little 
used, that no one cared to propose names for them; 
the name of some person living in the neighbor- 
hood sufficiendy designating a street or road in the 
outskirts of the city. But on the other hand, names 
were by design appointed for streets across all of 
the nine aboriginal squares, although some of them 
were not yet opened; the appointment of names e.x- 
pressing an e.xpectation that the streets would be 
laid out. 

Referring again to the map of 1775, ^^'^ see that 
at that date Crown street was open from State to 
Church, bisecting one of the aboriginal squares, and 
that the southern half of the bisected square was it- 
self bisected by Little Orange street. 'I'he improb- 
ability that any new streets were opened during 
the Revolutionary War is so great, that we may as- 
sume that the map shows all the streets which were 
in use when the city was incorporated. 

The first street opened by the newly constituted 
municipal authority, was High street from Chapel 
to George. It was laid out forty feet wide; and its 
lines, as marked on both sides of the street by mere 
stones, were established by a committee appointed 
for that purpose, whose report is signed August 4, 

1784. 

High street was not long afterward extended from 
Chapel to Elm, and an extension from Elm to ( irove 
was ordered in 1827. This last order, however, 
was not carried into efiect till some years later, 
when the new- gateway to the cemetery was erected. 
On the same day on which names were given to the 
streets. Temple street was laid out and established. 
The city exerted its authority in so doing, not 
through a committee specially appointed for the 
purpose, but through its Mayor and -Mdermen, who 
declare that they 

Do survey, lay out and establish a new street in the City of 
New Haven, 50 feet in width, beginning 50 led north- 
westerly from the northeasterly corner ol Capt. John .Mix's 
line upon the street that runs past the dwelling-house of 



STREETS, AVEXUES, AND BRIDGES. 



U1 



lames Ilillhouse and runnint; throui,'h the land of said Capt. 
John Mix in a direct hne with the front of the Court llonse 
and Meeting-houses, and then in the same direction through 
the land of I'elatiah Webster to the other highway, this day 
laid out through the lower part of said Webster's land, in 
front of the new house now building by Jeremiah Atwatcr; 
anil saiil street is to extend easterly tifty feet in breadtli from 
said westerly line in a range with said public buildings, 
through the lantl of said Pelatiah Webster, John Pierpont, 
and John Mix, and a small strip ujion the land of the heirs 
of Sanuiel Mix, deceased: To be and remain an open public 
street for the use of said city forever - which street is called 
Temple street. In witness w hereof we have hereunto set our 
hands this 22d day of September, 1784. 

Roger Sherman, Mayor. 

SAMIIEL BiSHOl', 

David Austin, 

John Whiting, Aldermen. 

Temple street was afterward opened from Crown 
street to George street, but not with a width as great 
as it had north of Crown street. Within the last 
three or four years this section of the street has been 
widened with considerable expense in removing 
buildings. 

The other highway alluded to "as this day laid 
out through the lower part of said Webster's land, 
and in front of the new house now building by 
Jeremiah Atwater, " was that part of Crown street 
which lies between Church and College streets. It 
was a continuation westward of Crown street, as it 
is shown on the map of 1775. "The new house 
now building" by Steward Atwater was on the rear 
of the garden attached to the house he had hitherto 
occupied in College street, where his daughter 
Mrs. Anna Townsend lived, within the memory of 
many now living. "The new house " mentioned 
by the Mayor and Aldermen is now an old house. 
It stands next west of the residence of the Hon. 
Caleb B. Bowers. 

In 1809. Crown street was, so far as municipal 
decree is concerned, extended through to York 
street; the width of it from College street to York 
street being fixed at 45 feet. But persons born 
since 1S09 can remember when Crown street was 
not actually open to the public as far west as York 
street. 

At the time of the incorporation of the city, 
Orange street was open from George to Crown; 
and the appointment of the name to the street as 
extended to Grove, implies an expectation that it 
would be so extended. The extension was indeed 
ordered on the very day when the streets were 
named. 

We, the Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council of the 
City of New tiaven, do survey and establish a new street in 
the City of New Haven, fifty feet in width, beginning 
seventy-three and a half feet east from the easterly end of 
the dwelling-house of Townsend and Denison, formerly the 
dwelling-house of James Blakeslee, on the land of saiil 
Townsend and Denison, and the land belonging to the heirs 
of Joseph Noyes, deceased, in a direct line to the front or 
west side of the barn of Pierpont Edwards, Esq., then run- 
ning through the land of said Edwards and the land belong- 
ing to the Grammar School, to the new highway this day 
laid out in front of the dwelling-house of Captain Phineas 
Bradley; and said street is to extend westerly tifty feet in 
width from the easterly line through the land of said Gram- 
mar School, lands belonging to the heirs of Colonel Nathan 
Whiting, deceased, and tlie said land of said heirs <.>f Joseph 
Noyes, ami said Townsend and L)enison; to be and remain 



a public street for the use of said city forever; which street 
is called Orange street. In witness whereof, we have here- 
unto set our hands this 22d day of September, 1784. 

Wall Street was surveyed, laid out, and estab- 
lished June 5, 1787. Its width was fixed at forty 
feet. 

The western part of Court street was a court 
before the War of the Revolution. Here was the 
dwelling-house of Captain Phineas Bradley, of 
which mention is made by the Mayor, Aldermen 
and Common Council, in their order that (Jrange 
street should "extend to the new highway this day 
laid out in front of the dwelling-house of Captain 
Phineas Bradley." The order establishing Court 
street was dated September 22, 1784. The width 
was fixed at forty feet, and in length it extended 
from State to Church streets. 

Library street is the only one of the streets which 
have been cut through the aboriginal squares about 
half way from side to side, which now remains to 
be noticed. It was opened in 1842, and was at 
first called Atwater street, because the land through 
which it was cut had long been the property of an 
Atwater family residing on York street. The name 
was afterwards changed to Library street, because 
the College Library stands near its eastern ex- 
tremity. 

Gregson street and Centre street are of a differ- 
ent class from those which cut aboriginal squares 
into equal, or nearly equal, sections. Centre street 
is but a prolongation of School alle}', which Trinity 
Church opened through its glebe land. Private 
enterprise extended it westward to Temple street, 
and more recently, eastward to Orange street. The 
extension of it eastward was made by the late 
Henry White, Esq., through his own land, which 
reached from Church to Orange streets. 

Gregson street, originally opened through the 
glebe land, has been prolonged southward to 
Crown street. 

The city has employed its official engineers for 
years in defining the streets, both ancient and mod- 
ern, until there are now few places where the street 
lines are not sufficiently determined by mere 
stones. The municipal authority has also in many 
streets established building lines, determining how 
far back from the street buildings must be placed. 
The distance of the building line from the street 
line differs very much in different streets, and even 
in different places in the same street. Near the 
corners of a block it is often much less than mid- 
way between the corners. On a business street it 
is much less than on a street where there are resi- 
dences already placed far back from the street. 
The municipal regulations which determine build- 
ing lines are established with much careful study 
of the requirements of each particular localit)'. 

II. — Avenues. 

Streets leading into the town were called by the 
first planters, lanes. It does not appear that the 
word conveyed to their minds, as it does to ours, 
the idea of narrowness. The entrance into the 



us 



tJIStOkV OP THk CITY OF NEW HA I'EN. 



town from New York, Stamford, Milford and other 
places west of New Haven, was by West lane. The 
people of Cheshire came to town through Orchard 
street, then called Long lane. The approach from 
Wallingford and Middletown was by way of Neck 
Bridge and Neck lane. These approaches gradu- 
ally ceased to be called lanes, and were known by 
the distinctive appellation of country roads, or, 
after the incorporation of turnpike companies, as 
turnpike roads. In a modern nomenclature such 
entrances into a city are called avenues. After two 
hundred and fifty years from the foundation of the 
city, the number of such entrances into New Haven 
is naturally greater than at first. 

Commencing in the southwest, we find a mod- 
ern approach to the city called Kimberly avenue. 
It crosses West River on a bridge built, in 1848, 
lower down on the river than any other bridge, by 
a joint committee of the two towns of Orange and 
New Haven. The New Haven committee were 
Isaac Thomson, Atwater Treat, and Sylvanus But- 
ler. This avenue is the shortest route into the city 
from Savin Rock and West Haven, and is named 
Kimberly avenue in honor of a family which has 
resided in West Haven from colonial times to the 
present day, and numbers among its members one 
who was elected a Senator of the United States. 

A little north of Kimberly avenue Bridge is the 
bridge on which the railroad to New York crosses 
the same river, and a little further north is the 
bridge of the Derby Railroad. Then on the same 
river, above the bridge of the Derby Railroad, is 
the bridge from which Davenport avenue, Congress 
avenue, and Columbus avenue diverge toward dif- 
ferent parts of the city. This bridge has been 
known from the most ancient time by the name of 
West Bridge, and the road from it into the city, 
which we now call Davenport avenue, was at first 
called West lane, and afterward Milford turnpike. 
It was by this bridge that General Garth hoped to 
lead his troops into town on the morning of the 
5th of July, 1779. 

About a mile further north than West Bridge is 
the bridge on which Derby avenue crosses the 
same river. This is a comparatively modern bridge 
and equally modern road, having no history anter- 
ior to the time of turnpikes. 

From Westville, still another mile further up the 
stream, is a fine broad avenue into the city bearing 
the name of Whalley, one of the regicide judges of 
King Charles, who found refuge and concealment 
in New Haven. The bridge on Whalley avenue is, 
however, a modern structure, more recent than the 
British invasion. General Garth crossed the river 
on the bridge near Blake's factory; and some of 
his troops, if not the main body, followed Gofl"e 
street toward the center of the town. 

Roads from Amity, as Woodbridge was then 
called, and from Cheshire, converged at GofTe 
street into one and the same approach into the 
town. In the city ordinance affixing names to the 
streets, Broadway is the name given to "the streets 
or ways from the corner of York and Elm streets 
out on Mount Carmel and Amity Roads." Di.\- 
well avenue has more recently been cut through 



from the upper part of Broadway to the Mount 
Carmel road at the crossing of Munson street. 

Further east than the Long lane of colonial days 
is the fine avenue into the city formed by the con- 
vergence at Whitneyville of the Farmington turn- 
pike with the Hartford turnpike. Whitney avenue, 
at times almost impassable before it was provided 
with a sewer, now supplies eligible sites for subur- 
ban mansions and a fine career for generous steeds. 

East of East Rock the city is approached by 
State street. The first planters called it Neck lane, 
because it connected the town with the neck of 
land between the two rivers whose confluence was 
at Grape-vine Point. Through this avenue the 
equestrian traveler of the olden time came from 
Middletown, or from Hartford, to New Haven. 
Governor Hopkins, as he lay on his death-bed in 
England, exclaimed, "How often have I pleased 
myself with thoughts of a joyful meeting with my 
father Eaton. I remember with what pleasure he 
would come down the street that he might meet 
me when I came from Hartford to New Haven; but 
with how much greater pleasure shall we shortly 
meet one another in heaven." 

Grand street and Chapel street are both modern 
avenues into the city, dating only from the time 
when those streets were extended, by means of 
bridges, to the country east of the Quinnipiac. 

Bridge street may be considered as an ancient 
avenue, having from a very early date conducted 
into town travelers from Branford, Guilford and 
New London, after they had crossed the (Quinni- 
piac River in the ferry-boat established by public 
authority. 

III. Bridges. 

Having viewed the avenues by which the city is 
approached, we will briefly enumerate the bridges 
over which those who travel on these avenues 
cross the neighboring rivers. 

But before we do so, w'e will give a moment's 
attention to another class of bridges. Fortunately 
for New Haven its streets are so much higher than 
the railroads which pass through the city, that very 
few of them cross the dangerous tracks on grade. 
The bridges over the railroads lielong to and are 
maintained by the corporations which own the 
railroads. Most of them are unsightly structures 
of wood; but the railroad bridges in Chapel street 
and Grand street are prophecies of a new departure 
in favor of strength and neatness. 

HRIDGES OVER WEST RIVER. 

The first bridges provided at the common ex- 
pense of the proprietors were bridges for foot men, 
cattle and carts being left to find their way through 
the water where it was sufticiently shallow. But, 
so early as the 25th of the i2ih month in 1641, 
that is on the 25th of February, 1642, N. S., it 
was ordered at a General Court that as speeilily as 
may be, a cart bridge be made over the \Vest 
River. The bridge thus ordered was and is still 
called the West Bridge. It is the same to which 
Columbus street. Congress avenue, and Daven- 
port avenue conduct as they converge. It is the 



STREETS, AVENUES, AND BHIDGES. 



340 



same over which the British general hoped to enter 
the city on the 5th of July, 1779. The first 
structure suffered early decay, for at a General 
Court February 11, 1655, 

the townsmen informed tliat the West Bridge grows olil and 
rotten, and they have had thoiiglits that it niiglit be better 
to liuild a new one before this one be quite down; for as 
some workmen have said, it may save near twenty jiounds 
in it, because it will be a considerable help in the work. 
Some propounded that this with mending might serve two 
or three years loni;er: Init it was answered that it is so 
rotten as there is danger in cattle and men going over, 
especially carts; and some have said the charge of a new 
one « ill not be aliove ten pounds more than to repair the 
old one, if they do it substantially. The town to issue this 
matter left it to the townsmen to call workmen, viz., William 
Andrews, Jarvis Boykin, and tieorge .Smith, to view it 
again, and as they have information from them, they may 
either cause a new bridge to be builded, or repair the old 
one, as they shall think fit, and what they do therein the 
town hereby confirms, and desires them to see that this be 
at present so supported as danger to persons or cattle may 
be prevented. 

With many reparations and renewals the West 
Bridge still brings travelers from more western 
towns into our city. It is now a substantial iron 
bridge, built in 1876. A dike was long ago built 
by the side of the causeway leading to it across 
the meadow, which, with the aid of a tide gate 
under the bridge, excluded the tide from the 
meadows above and greatly improved the t]uality 
of the grass. Barber in his History and Antiq- 
uities of New Haven, says this dike was built in 1769 
principally through the efforts of Nathan Beers, he 
being an owner uf much land there. 

In the order of time, the ne.xt bridge built over 
the West River was that near Blake's foctory in 
Westville. It was at first erected as a foot bridge 
in 1702. The proposal the next year to enlarge it 
sufficiently for the passage of horses was negatived 
by the vote of the town. Before the Revolu- 
tionary War, however, it had been widened and 
strengthened, so that when the British found that 
there was no passage for them across West Bridge, 
they pushed on up the river to cross this, which was 
then called Thompson's Bridge. On Stiles' diagram 
of the British invasion, it is named Derby Bridge. 

A bridge on Whalley avenue was built by the 
Litchfield Turnpike Company, and another on 
Derby avenue by the Derby Turnpike Company. 
The contract for the latter was made in 1800. The 
Litchfield Turnpike Company is as old within one 
year as the Derby Turnpike Company; but some 
antiquarians are of opinion that for a time this 
Company depended on Thompson's Bridge and at 
a later day built one further down stream. This 
opinion is confirmed by the following notice pub- 
lished in the Connecticut Journal : 

Notice is hereby given that there w ill be a meeting of the 
subscribers to the Turnpike Company, established on the 
road from Thompson's Bridge to Rimmonil's Falls I'.ridge 
by Mrs. 1 )ayton's. holden at the office of Henry Daggett, 
Esq., on Monday, the 23d of instant November, at two 
o'clock in the afternoon, to organize said subscribers and 
take measures to proceed in said business. 

Henrv Daggett, 
Peter Johnson, 
Thomas Punderson, 

Coinmittt'e. 
New Haven, November 10, iSo:. 



The Kimberly avenue Bridge was built when the 
avenue which leads to it was opened by the town 
in 1848. 

There are yet four more bridges over West River, 
but they are not on great avenues leading into the 
city from other towns, and are of recent origin. 
They are on Martin, Chapel, Oak and Washington 
streets. 

BRIDGES OVER MILL RIVER. 

The earliest bridge over Mill River was a foot 
bridge or a horse bridge. Perhaps it was built be- 
fore the permanent organization of civil authority, 
as there is no order to be found on the records for 
its erection. At a General Court, the 25th of 12th 
month, 1641, that is, in February, 1642, N. S., 
"it is ordered that the Neck Bridge shall be re- 
paired forthwith, and that as speedily as may be, a 
cart bridge be made over the West River, and 
another over the Mill River." The natural inference 
from this record is that, soon after the date named, 
a cart bridge was built in Neck lane over Mill 
River, to take the place of the bridge which needed 
repair. From that time to the present. Neck Bridge 
has been prominent among the institutions of the 
town. Here Whalley and Goffe lay concealed, 
while the special constables, sent by the magistrates 
to apprehend them, rode over their heads with hue 
and cry. Here the militia from neighboring towns 
gathered to resist the British on the evening of the 
5th of July, 1779, in such number, that early the 
next morning the city was evacuated without the 
application of the torch, which would have tlestroyed 
the city and provoked attack upon the retreating foe. 

The bridge on Grand street which crosses Mill 
River was built by private subscription in 1819, 
and was at first called Barnesville Bridge. Having 
been hastily built, it soon needed repair. The 
public-spirited citizens who had contributed for its 
construction, did not feel that they were bound to 
maintain it, and the town authorities felt no re- 
sponsibility for a bridge which did not belong to 
the town. It was however finally decided, in a 
suit for damages by a person who had been injured 
through a defect in the bridge, that the town was 
under obligation to keep it in good condition. 

A bridge on Chapel street crosses Mill River, 
bringing Grape-vine Point, as our ancestors called 
the southern end of the neck between East River 
and Mill River, into closer connection with the 
center of the city. 

Between Necic Bridge and the northern boundary 
of the city there is no other public bridge over Mill 
River than that on Orange street on the way from 
the city to East Rock Park, the bridge just below 
Whitney Lake being private. There was also, 
once, a private bridge on Rock Lane; but it was 
carried away by a tornado in 1839, and was never 
rebuilt. The bridges over Mill River which are 
further up stream than Orange street, are beyond 
the bounds of the City and Town of New Haven. 

BRIDGES OVER QUINNIPIAC RIVER. 

The act of the General Assembly incorporating 
the City of New Haven, in tracing its boundaries. 



350 



HISTORy OF THE CITi' OF NEW HAVEN. 



begins " at the northeast corner of the Long Bridge 
(so called) in said New Haven," and after perambu- 
lating the territory whose inhabitants were " or- 
dainetl, constituted, and declared to be from time 
to time, and forever hereafter, one body corporate 
and politic, in fact and in name, by the name of 
the Mayor, Aldermen, Common Council and 
Freemen of the City of New Haven," returns " to 
the first mentioned point at the northeast corner of 
the Long Bridge." 

The bridge thus selected as the beginning and 
the ending of the boundary of the city as at first 
fixed by the General Assembly, is now commonly 
known as Lewis Bridge. As long as the Mid- 
dletown Turnpike Company was in existence, it 
was on their road from New Haven to Middle- 
town. It is now a short bridge with a long cause- 
way through the meadow on the east bank of the 
Quinnipiac. 

The next bridge on this river, in the order of 
time, is also next in the downward flow of the 
stream. It was at first called the Dragon Bridge, 
perhaps from a tavern sign which did not so vividly 
portray Saint George as it did the dragon with 
which he fought. 

During the Revolutionary War, the General As- 
sembly, while in session at New Haven, appointed 
a committee on the subject of constructing a bridge 
over the Quinnipiac; and when their committee re- 
ported in favor of erecting it at Dragon, granted to 
the town of New Haven a lottery to aid in the 
undertaking. Owing to the depreciated currency 
of the country at this time, only about £zoo was 
raised by the lottery, a sum inadequate to the pur- 
pose. Nothing further was done till about the 
year 1 790, when the necessity for a bridge at Fair 
Haven had become still more urgent. The Legis- 
lature in that year granted permission to the town 
of New Haven to erect a bridge, and to receive 
tolls from travelers for a period of twenty years, 
during which time they were obliged to keep the 
bridge in repair. It was also stipulated in the 
grant, that no other bridge should be permitted on 
the (Quinnipiac River within a certain distance. 
In 1 79 1 the town transferred this grant to Henry 
Daggett, James Prescott, and Thomas Punderson, 
wiio agreed to build the bridge in consiileration of 
receiving the tolls for twenty years, provided the 
town would open proper highways leading to it. 
The town also transferred to these contractors its 
part t)f the Long Bridge on the Middletown road. 
This bridge, being within the stipulated limit as to 
distance, and then nearly decayed, was removed 
on the completion of the Dragon Bridge in 1793. 
The people, however, who lived beyond the Long 
Bridge, made grievous and just complaint that they 
were obliged to go a long distance out of their 
way, over newly formed roads, and then turn back 
again to Neck Bridge before they could reach the 
city. Quite an excitement was created on the sub- 
ject, and the Legislature was applied to for relief. 
The aggrieved parties offered to construct a free . 
bridge at tlieir own expense in place of that which 
had been removed, and to put the old causeway in 
CDUijjlete repair. Notwithstanding tiie terms of 



the grant to the town of New Haven, the General 
Assembly authorized the reconstruction of the 
Long Bridge. In this state of things the contract- 
ors for the construction of the Dragon Bridge ap- 
plied to the town for relief The usual way of 
raising money then, so that nobody would feel it, 
was by means of a lottery. So the (General Assem- 
bly sanctioned a lottery on consideration that the 
bridge should be free. The avails of this lottery, 
together with the X300 raised by the first "East 
River Bridge Lottery " were paid over to the con- 
tractors in satisfaction of their claims. The bridge 
thus became a free bridge, with the obligation rest- 
ing on the town of New Haven to keep it in repair 
for the twenty years contemplated in the original 
grant. Three years, however, before the expira- 
tion of this period, the bridge was carried away by 
a freshet, and an attempt was made to oblige East 
Haven to bear a portion of the expense of its re- 
pair. This having failed, a company was formed, 
to whom the Legislature granted authority to put 
it in repair and to collect tolls, until their capital 
should be returned with an interest of 1 2 per cent, 
per annum. This reimbursement of their expenses 
with the interest was attained in 1825, when the 
bridge became free. This bridge is on what is now 
calletl Grand avenue. 

Before the construction of Fair Haven Bridge, 
there had been two ferries by which the inhabitants 
of East Haven and travelers further east could 
reach New Haven. One, called the old ferry, car- 
ried passengers from Red Rock to the foot of Ferry 
path, now Ferry street, whence they found their 
way to Neck Bridge. This ferrv naturally came to 
an enti when the new bridge over the Quinnipiac was 
completed. The New Ferry likewise, which crossed 
the united waters of the two rivers that come to- 
gether at Grape-vine Point, lost some of its custom, 
and it was foreseen that unless a bridge was built 
there the travel from New Haven to the eastern part 
of Connecticut would, more and more, shun East 
Haven. The inhabitants of East Haven therefore 
applied to the General Assembly and obtained a 
grant authorizing them to erect Tomlinson's 15riilge 
on the site of the New Ferry, and to collect tolls 
for its support. The enterprise was probably has- 
tened by the fact that the Legislature had a[)poinled 
a committee to consider and report on a roaii from 
the eastern part of the State through Dragon to 
New Haven. 

An important subsidy was granted to Tomlin- 
son's Bridge by the proprietors of the common and 
undivided lands in New Haven, who promised the 
Company the use of certain adjoining wharves as 
long as the bridge should be maintained. These 
wharves are now «o valuable to the owners of rail- 
roads and steamboats, that the franchise of the 
Bridge Company has been bought, and is held, for 
the sake of its appurtenances. 

There is one other bridge over the (^)uinni[)iac. 
It is above Tomlinson's Bridge and below the 
bridge on Grand avenue. It is on the site of the 
Old Ferry, and reaches from the foot of the Old 
Ferry path on the west side, to Red Rock on the 
east side of the Quinnipiac. As a traveler from the 



TRAVEL AND TRAXSPORTATWX. 



351 



east leaves the west end of this bridge a single turn 
brings him into Chapel street, and on that street he 
can continue, not indeed in a perfectly straight 
line, but with only slight deflection, to the Chapel 
street Bridge over West River, and on to Ike Mar- 
vel's Farm, of Edgewood. 

We have now surveyed all our bridges. There 



are nine on West River, four on Mill River, and 
four on Quinnipiac or East River. Bridges further 
up stream are beyond the limits both of the city 
and of the town. With so many bridges and ave- 
nues. New Haven is on all sides easily accessible. 
The city which John Davenport built "four- 
scfuare " has more entrances than there are gates 
into the New lerusalem. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

T R A \' K L AND T K A N S 1> U K T A T I O N. 
13 Y (5KOR.a-l<; DUTTON "WA.TIiOUS. 



AS one is whirletl through New Haven in the 
si.x-hour express from Huston to New York, 
it is nearly impossible to realize how utterly differ- 
ent were the conditions of travel only a hundred 
years ago. Yet even then the facilities for travel by 
land were much in advance of those of the early 
part of the eighteenth century. 

From far back in colonial times New Haven 
had ranked high as a sea-port, and both her for- 
eign and her coasting trade had been of consider- 
able importance. Freight and packet vessels plied 
frequently between this and adjoining seaboard 
towns, and really afforded all the means of inter- 
course which were needed. Indeed early coloniza- 
tion had conformed itself to the natural water- 
courses, and there were but few inland towns of 
consequence not accessible by navigable streams. 
But as the pressure of population became stronger, 
and the more available lotaiions were appropri- 
ated, farming and industrial interests penetrated 
further and further from the reach of navigation. 
Here a valuable water-power and there a rich valley 
invited settlements, and the existing natural chan- 
nels of trade were felt to be too tortuous or were 
entirely unavailable. Then theie was found to be 
a need for a more direct land communication. 
This period, however, came quite late in New Ha- 
ven's history. 

In 1 71 6 the inhabitants of Hartford expressed 
by a vote their dissatisfaction at the settlement of 
the "Collegiate School'' at New Haven, and in it 
speak of the latter place as "being so very remote, 
and the transporting anvthing bv water thilher be- 
ing so uncertain, there being but little communica- 
tion between these counties [Hartford and New 
London] and New Haven." * 

The Colonial Records for the next year give the 
first intimation of any regular means of communi- 
cation between these towns. It was then enacted 
bv the General Court of the Colony of Connecticut 
that 

This .\sseiiil)ly do grant to Captain John Munson, of New 
Haven, that in consideralion he hath first been at the cost 
and charge to set up a wagon, to pass and transport passen- 
gers and goods between Hartford and New Haven, which 

* Hartford Town Voles, Vol. I, p. 244. 



may be of great benefit and advantage to the Colony in gen- 
eral; that he, said John Munson, shall have and enjoy to 
him, his executors, administrators. and assigns, the sole and 
only ]irivilcge of transporting persons and goods between 
the towns aforesai<l during the space of seven years next 
coning: provided, that it shall and may be lawful for any 
person to transport his own goods or any of his family in his 
own wagon, anything in this grant to the contrary hereof 
notwithstanding. 

And this extraordinary privilege on condition 
that he shall annually, 

at least on the first Monday of every month, excepting De- 
ceml>er, January, February and March, set forlh with the 
said wagon from New Haven, and with all convenient dis- 
patch drive up to Hartford, and thence in the same week 
return to New Haven, bad weather and extraordinary casu- 
alties excepted, on penalty of ten shillings each neglect.* 

From this primitive period to the time of the 
incorporation cif New Haven as a city, there was 
steady, though very slow, progress toward the de- 
velopment of a system of roads. 

Here and there throughout the Colonial Records 
are found enactments relating to the laying out or 
improvement of highways. The usual course was 
for the General Court to appoint a committee to 
view the ground and report again to the Assembly. 
On the acceptance of the report it was instructed 
to lay out the road, and the several towns through 
which it passed were ordered to open, repair and 
make it fit for traveling at their own expense. 

In 1759, the General Assembly was advised that 
the traveled road between Hartford and New 
Haven was sadly in need of straightening and re- 
pairing. As the road then passed through the 
townships of " Weadiersfield, Farmington, Rliddle- 
ton and Wallingford," the complaint was not an 
unreasonable one, and a committee was appointed 
" with all care and diligence to view and observe 
said road now used in the various crooks and nota- 
ble turns thereof, and them duly to note, and also 
with utmost care to find out how and where it 
may be practicable to shorten and better said way 
in whole or in part, "t In 1760 changes were re- 
ported and thii towns were ordered to make them 
and to see that the fences and other obstructions 
across the way were removed. 

* Manuscript Records of the Colony of Connecticut, Vol. V, p. loi. 
t Colonial Records 1759, p. 294. 



35:^ 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



In this general manner one road after another 
was thrown open and improved, until, by 1770, it 
would seem that in nearly every available- direction 
New Haven was provided with a highway, many of 
these being also post-roads. 

In 1767, the Selectmen in the various towns 
were ordered to set up mile-stones on all of the 
post-roads of the colony, showing the distances from 
the county town. But these roads were sadly 
neglected, and often in a deplorable condition. Up 
to the time of the Revolution the greater part of 
the travel was still by water, and what land travel 
there was, was almost entirely on horseback, with 
occasionally a private carriage. The post-riders 
alternately jogged along merrily and plodded 
through bottomless mire, whiiing the monotonous 
hours away by reading the mail committetl to their 
charge, and quite content to make the si.\ miles 
per hour required by law. 

The Post Office Department, reorganized and 
placed upon a paying basis by Benjamin Franklin, 
was rapidly stretching out new feelers into new 
country, and by this time a grand post route from 
Maine to Georgia was in operation. 

The Revolutionary War checked the growth of 
inland facilities, and communication, difficult in 
times of peace, was often entirely closed by the ad- 
ditional perils of war. What rude attempts at pub- 
lic conveyance had been made were abandoned. 

These roads were well provided with public- 
houses, and travelers speak with high praise of the 
entertainment therein. Foreigners, however, used to 
find the assumption of an equal, if not a superior, 
air on the part of mine host irritating, contrasting 
it with the obsequiousness of continental inn-keep- 
ers. But the Marquis de Chastellux, who traveled 
much in this country in 1780-82, and was attached 
to the American Army, courteously explains it by 
saying that 

Travelers are considered as giving them more trouble 
than money. The reason of this is, that the inn. keepers 
aie all of them cultivators, at their ease, who do not stand 
in need of this slight profit. The greatest number of those 
who f<.>ll()w this profession are even compelled to it by the 
laws of the country, which have wisely provided that on all 
the great roads there shall be a pulilic-house at the end of 
every six miles for the accommodation of travelers.* 

It was of Litchfield that he was then speaking 
particularly. He was passing through it on his 
way to Albany from Providence, via Voluntown, 
Hartford, Litchfield and Fishkill. 

Alter the Revolution communication was once 
more resumed, and stages, more or less frequent, 
and more or less commodious, began to run. The 
swiftly running mail-coaches had not yet come in. 
'I'lie roads were still far too bad to permit of such 
rapid travel, and indeed they had never been 
adopted anywhere until, in 1784, the experiment 
of forwarding the mail in coaches was tried in 
England. Success attended the trial, and the sys- 
tem rapidly spread over England and to this 
country. The old stage-coaches continued to 
travel slowly until the mail-coaches became general. 

Brissot de Warville, who has written so charm- 



• M. de Chastellux. Travels in Norih America, Vol. I, p. 50. 



ingly of his experiences in this country, and who 
has left us such valuable bits of everyday informa- 
tion, tells of a journey from Boston to New York 
by land in 1788.* He says: " Many persons have 
united in establishing a kind of diligence, or public 
stage, which passes regularly for the convenience 
of travelers. In the summer season the journey is 
performed in four days. " This time however would 
seem to be exceptional, for many speak of it as only 
with difilculty accomi)lished in six. The vehicles, 
he says, varied according to the road to be traveled, 
sometimes a light, swift carriage, and again a lum- 
bering, springless wagon. 

I cannot refrain Irom adding an extract, illustra- 
tive of the itdivc/e of his style, and of his native gal- 
lantry, which maybe a|)preciated by New Haveners. 
Speaking of New Haven and of his journey through 
it, he says: 

New Haven yields not to Weatherslield for tlie beauty of 
the fair sex. « * * On the road you often meet these 
fair Connecticut girls, either driving a carriage, or .ilone on 
horseback galloping boldly; with an elegant hat on the head, 
a white apron, and a calico gown — usages which prove at 
once the early cultivation of their reason, since they are 
trusted so young to themselves, the safety of llie road, and 
the general iiniocence of manners. You will see them 
hazarding then\selves alone without protectors in the public 
stages. 1 am wrong to say huzarttittg. Who can offend 
them ? They are here under the protection of public morals, 
of their own innocence. It is the consciousness of this 
innocence which renders them so complaisant and so good, 
for a stranger takes them liy the hand and laughs with them 
and they are not offended at it. \ 

Samuel Breck, speaking of travel in 17S7 be- 
tween New York and Boston, says: 

In those days there were two ways of gelling to Boston: 
one was by a clumsy stage that travels about forty miles a 
day, with the same horses the whole day; so that hy rising 
at 3 ^>r 4 o'clock and prolonging the day's ride into night, 
one made out to reach lioston in six days; the other route 
was by packet-sloops up llie Sound to I'roviilence a[id (hence 
by land to Boston. This was full of uncertainty, sometimes 
being traveled in three and sometimes in nine days. 

I myself have been that length of lime (nine days) going 
from New York to Boston. J 

The fare from Providence to New York by packet 
was $6. There was at that time scarcely a town 
all along the coast that did not have its boats run- 
ning freijuently to New York. They were always 
comfortable, but with head-winds the time of arrival 
was never to be accurately prophesied. 

All through the advertisements in the New Haven 
newspapers from this time on, notices appear of the 
sailing of regular or occasional packet-sloops to 
New York, Albany, Boston, or Savannah. 

In 1791, a line of passenger boats was established 
to run twice weekly from New Haven to New York 
upon the arrival of the stage-coach from the east- 
ward. Applications for passage or freight were to 
be made either to Bradley & Huggins, Thaddeus 
Beecher, or John Huggin.s, at their dwelling-houses; 
or to John Clarke at Smith's Tavern at the head of 
the Long Wharf. 

* J. p. Brissot de Warville. New Travels iii the United States of 
America, pp. 122 et Si\/. 

t //'/V/. Letter 3, p. 134. 

i Recollections of Samuel Urcck, p 90. 



TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. 



353 



It was just about this time that a new era in 
transportational agencies was beginning, that of 
Turnpikes. 

The taking of toll upon roads for the purpose of 
maintaining and repairing them seems to have been 
practiced in England more than five centuries ago, 
since the time of William Philippe, the hermit, who 
inaugurated it. But up to the last of the eighteenth 
century the roads and turnpikes as well continued 
in an execrable condition. The system had not 
been carried out to satisfactory results and but little 
gain had come of it. This inefficiency was attrib- 
uted to the principles upon which the manage- 
ment was conducted. The Turnpike Acts had 
established what are known as Turnpike Trusts. 
The management was vested in the people of the 
neighboring country for ten to fifteen miles around, 
perhaps to the number of one or two hundred, and 
the tolls seem to have been looked upon as a pub- 
lic revenue. 

A writer in the Eilinhurgh Reviav of October, 
1S19, commenting on the badness of the roads and 
of this system, suggested that the proper way to 
secure the ma.ximum benefit from the taking of 
tolls would be to put the building of new roads in- 
to the hands of private corporations, and let them 
devote the surplus revenue to the payment of divi- 
dends.* 

This very system had been in vogue in Con- 
necticut almost from the beginning of the era. The 
very fust Turnpike Acts were of a nature quite simi- 
lar to those establishing the English Turnpike Trusts. 
There was, for instance, the Act which authorized 
the collection of toll on the stage-road through 
Greenwich, passed in October, 1792. A gate was 
to be established by Commissioners to be ap- 
pointed, antl fare was to betaken at the rate of one 
shilling and si.x-pence for each traveling carriage of 
four wheels; two-pence for each man and horse, etc. 
The money was to be expended under the direction 
of the Commissioners, and they were to account 
for it to the County Court of Fairfield County. 

There were only a few acts of this kind, and after 
a year or two the fever of turnpike building seized 
the good people of the State in earnest. From 
1795 to 1836 vast numbers of turnpike companies 
were incorporated, the charters being upon a 
stereotyped plan. That of the Cheshire Company, 
chartered in 1800, to build a road from New Haven 
through Cheshire to Southington, may fairly be 
considered representative. A bond was to be filed, 
conditioned that assessed damages should be paid, 
and that the roads and bridges be built and main- 
tained at the charge of the Company. Two gates 
were to be established and the rates of toll were 
fixed. 

The exemption clause ran as follows: 

Provided also, that persons traveling to attend public 
worship, funerals, society, town or freemen's meetini^s, and 
jiersons obUged to do military duty and traveling to attend 
trainings; persons going to and from grist mills; and persons 
living within one mile of said gates, and passing said gates 
more than one mile to attend their ordinary farming business, 
shall not be liable to the payment of said toll. 

* Edinburgh Review, ?xii, pp. 480-483. 



Thi'ee Commissioners were to be appointed to 
inspect and superintend the road and its manage- 
ment, and the Company was to present its accounts 
yearly to the General Assembly. When the Com- 
pany should have received enough by tolls to repay 
the money spent, with interest at twelve per cent., 
the road was to be discharged from toll. The 
charter was a close one, not subject to revocation 
or amendment by the General Assembly. 

As I have intimated, the anxiety to invest capital 
in the stock of turnpike companies soon reached 
a fever height, and the roads were rapidly built all 
over the State. As a rule, these investments turned 
out very unfortunately for the investors, but were of 
corresponding advantage to the State. Large re- 
turns were expected, but seldom realized. Yet, as 
an instrument of development, turnpikes have 
served their purpose, and served it well. A net- 
work of good roads spread over the State, and a 
fresh impulse was given to trade and commerce. 

Some companies have prospered, but the majority 
have, either through railroad competition or lack 
of support, been unsuccessful. Out of all the com- 
panies chartered since 1792, only four remain in 
existence throughout the whole State. Some charters 
have expired by limitation, others by revocation or 
repeal, while other companies have simply slipped 
out of existence by virtue of the general laws or a 
non-exercise of powers. 

The turnpikes, as a rule, followed the lines of 
the old highways, and the cost of construction was 
in general not great. The land had usually already 
been devoted to a public use; the material for 
building was generally the earth at hand, for gravel- 
ing was almost unknown; and the improvements 
mostly consisted in avoiding hills, straighten- 
ing, draining, and removing rocks. An opinion 
has prevailed that a principle was adopted of not 
allowing an ascent of greater than 5 degrees; if this 
is so, it was not adhered to.* 

The first incorporated company whose road was 
to run from New Haven, was the Straits' Turn- 
pike Company, often spelled Streights. 

This was chartered in October, 1797, and its 
road was to run from the New Haven Court House 
to the Litchfield Court House, 36 miles. It took 
its name from a place in the highway, in the town 
of Woodbridge, called "The Straits." Three gates 
were to be established and tolls fixed — 6. 2 cents 
for mail-stages, 25 cents for others, etc. The road 
ran through the western part of the town of New 
Haven, and through Westville, then called Hotch- 
kiss Town, where it was at a later day joined by 
road of the Rimmons Falls Company. 

In May, 1798, the Derby Turnpike Company 
was chartered, to run from New Haven to Derby 
Landing. The capital stock was $7,520, and the 
length of road eight miles. Of all the turnpike 
companies whose roads once left New Haven, this 
is the only one still in existence. It has only one 
gate, just beyond the Maltby Lakes, a few miles out 
of New Haven, and though not the only road to 
Derby, is much the best one. Its road originally 

* American State Papers, Vol. XX, pp. 725 et seq. 



354 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



ran from York street, westward, and across West 
River. In 1847 the part east of Kensington street 
was discontinued, and since then there have been 
other portions abandoned to the care of the city. 
Tlie road lias never been a great financial success, 
though it has generally paid reasonable dividends. 
It began to pay in 1805, and, as a rule, has done so 
since. The building of the Naugatuck Railroad 
had a serious influence upon the profits, and 
though there was a reaction, the building of the 
Derby road caused another set back. The divi- 
dend paid for the last few years has been about 6 
per cent, semi- annually. The Company has no 
officers except the four Directors, R. M. Basselt, 
J. E. Bassett, E. N. Shelton, and G. T. Hine, and 
a Clerk and Treasurer. Mr. J. E. Bassett acts in 
both the latter capacities, and receives the munifi- 
cent salary of $10 a year. 

The Rimmons Falls Company ran its road, of 
six miles in length, into New Haven, joining the 
Streights Company's road in Hotchkiss Town. 

The most important of these roads was that of 
the Hartford and New Haven Turnpike Company, 
incorporated in October, 1798. There were to be 
800 shares of stock, four gates, and bonds in the 
sum of $50,000 were to be filed with the State 
Treasurer that all damages should be paid and the 
road kept in proper repair and condition. James 
Hillhouse was greatly interested in this project, 
and appears as one of the corporators and soon 
afterward as President of the Company. In No- 
vember of 1798 a meeting was called to receive 
subscriptions, and a local paper of December 6th 
says that the subscriptions had all been filled up 
and several applicants disappointed. The length 
of the road was thirty-four and three-quarter miles. 
It ran from Grove street, out of what is now Whit- 
ney avenue, crossed Will River, near what is now 
the foot of Whitney Lake, and continued north- 
ward. In 1 81 5 the present entrance into the city 
was altered by continuing Temple street northward 
through land of Mr. Hillhouse, until it intersected 
the turnpike road, so that there were two branches, 
as is now the case. 

The Cheshire Turnpike Company, whose organi- 
zation has been mentioned, made use of the Hart- 
ford road for entering the city, and an Act of 181 5 
provided that between " Whitney's Gun Factory " 
and the .State House, it should be kept in repair at 
the joint expense of the two companies. 

In 1802 was incorporated the New Haven and 
IMilford Turnpike Company, upon the petition of 
Jeremiah Atwater and others. There were to be 
100 shares of stock, and one gate was to be erected 
at such place between the New Haven Court 
House and the Milford Meeting-house as either of 
the three Judges of the County Court might estab- 
lish. In 1804, on the petition of I. Beers and 
others, showing that a dispute had arisen as to the 
place where the road was to enter the squares of 
the city, it was resolved by the General Assembly 
that the old road from George street to West Bridge 
be confirmed as a part of the turnpike road. In 
1836, this roail, running west of the Hospital, was 
exchanged for the town road, running east of it, 



by mutual assent and the ratification of the Legis- 
lature. 

In 18 13 the Middletown, Durham and New 
Haven Turnpike Company was chartered, and in 
1817 the Dragon Turnpike Comjiany. The latter 
was to run from the east line of Olive street in New 
Haven, through Dragon (now Fair Haven), to 
Norwich Landing. The time for taking up shares 
was subsequently extended to six months from 
May, 1819; but this road seems never to have been 
built. 

The Fair Haven Turnpike Company was incor- 
porated in May, 1S24; from Killingworlh to Dragon 
Bridge. 

In connection with these roads, it seems most 
natural to make some slight mention of Tomlin- 
son's Bridge, that ancient structure so long a griev- 
ance to our citizens, now no more. 

The Bridge Company was chartered in October, 
1796, under the legal name of " The Company for 
Erecting and Supporting a Toll Bridge from New 
Haven to East Haven." 

The Ci)7mecticiit Journal of April 25, 1798, con- 
tains a notice relating to it as follows: 

The Subscriber is happy to inform the Pulilic that the 
Bridge from New Haven to East Haven is passable for foot 
people. A Box will be put on Mr. Woodwanl's Store, and 
the toll will lie left to the generosity of those Gentlemen that 
walk over the Bridge. Zenas Whiting. 

East Haven, 24 April, 1798. 

The Hartford and New Haven Railroad Com- 
pany purchased a majority of the Bridge stock at 
an early period of its existence, and on the con- 
solidation of that road with the New York and New 
Haven Railroad Company in 1872, it passed into 
the hands of the latter company as successor to the 
rights and projierty of the old road. 

At the session of the Legislature in 18S5, the 
Bridge Company was ordered to construct a new 
and suitable britlge in place of the venerable one 
that had so long remained there. 

The commands of the Legislature have been 
obeyed, and a handsome iron drawbridge was 
completed by the Railroad Company by the ist 
of December of the same year in which it was 
ordered. 

With the growth of the turnpike system, rapidly 
covering the State with excellent roads, and render- 
ing communication no longer a burden, but a 
pleasure, there sprang up once more an increase of 
travel and of traffic. Through routes began to 
shape themselves over the connected, though inde- 
pendent, bits of improved roads. Stage lines in- 
creased in number and importance, and the speed 
attained by the coaches grew from year to year. 

The trunk road from Georgia to Maine entered 
New Haven and thence diverged, one branch 
toward Hartford and the other via New London 
and Providence. 

This transformation was taking place all over the 
East. In 1 794 a stage route was opened from 
Portland, Me., to Whitestown, near Utica, N. Y. 
Albany had become a famous stage center; and in 



TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. 



355 



the first quarter of the next century the "Old 
National Pike " was in its full glory. 

In the communication by the Secretary of the 
Treasury to the Senate of the United States, April 
6, 1808, a report, somewhat incomplete (because, 
as the Collector of the District of Connecticut 
naively says, he had a cold and could not easily 
get all the information desired), is given of the con- 
dition of the several turnpike roads and companies 
throughout this State. 

Among other things it is said that when the Con- 
necticut Turnpike Company's road is completed, 
the whole of the route from New York to Boston 
(in Connecticut) will be a turnpike road (except 
a short space of very level road from Fairfield to 
Stratford); i. e., the Connecticut, the New Haven 
and Milford, the Hartford and New Haven, the 
Hartford and Tolland, and the Stafford Pool Turn- 
pikes. These, so says the report, "constitute as 
good a route, perhaps, as can be hoped for. I 
speak in reference to distance, the nature of the 
ground, and the state of the population generally. 
The road itself is susceptible of vast improve- 
ment," etc.* 

President Dwight says, writing about 181+, that 
six turnpike roads commencing at New Haven 
were at that time in use. 

One through Berlin, and by a branch through Middletown 
also, to Hartford, and thence in four different ways to 
Iloston, etc.; another to F.irmington, and thence through 
Litchfield to Albany, and thence to Niagara, and by branches 
to Hudson and Catskill, and thence to the Susiiuehannah 
River, etc.; by another branch up Naugatuc River, through 
Waterbury and Norfolk to Stockbridge and Albany; the 
fourth through Humphreysville to Soulhbury, and tlience to 
Cornwall; the fifth through Derby to New Milford; the 
sixth to Stratford Ferry and Ihence to New Vork.f 

He adds, in a note, that a turnpike voad was in 
1814 finished between New Haven and Middle- 
town. 

Of the earlier stage-coach lines it would be neither 
practicable nor desirable to give a complete history, 
and I select one as an illustration of the state of 
passenger travel at that time, and as a standard by 
which to mark its later progress and development. 

In the Conncclicui fournal of July 19, 1797, 
appears an advertisement of a weekly stage line to 
Litchfield, to start from New Haven at 4 o'clock 
P.M., and to arrive every Wednesday afternoon. 

Each passenger pays 4d. a mile, and .allowed 14 lbs. bag- 
gage gratis — 150 lbs. same as a passenger. Every favor 
will be gratefully acknowledged by the public's humble 
servants, Joseph Wheeler, Garwood li. Cunningham. 

Later in the year the same men, with three asso- 
ciates, advertise to run a stage twice weekly through 
Litchfield to Sheffield, there to exchange with a 
stage which ran from New York to Vermont. The 
stage to start from Mr. Butler's, in New Haven, and 
the fare is to be by^ cents a mile. The proprietors 
assert that they will not be accountable for baggage, 
and that it is to be carried at the owner's risk. 

* American Stat« Papers, Vol. XX, p, 873. 
t Dwight's Travels, Vol. I, p. ly/. 



By the first few years of the new century great 
results by way of increased accommodations had 
followed the improvement of the roads. In 
1804 a mail stage left Boston daily for New York 
at 5 A. M. ; at ii p. m. it was to arrive at Wil- 
braham ; whence it again started at i a.m., via 
Springfield and New Haven, to arrive in New 
York at 1 1 a.m. of the next day. A line also ran 
three times weekly by way of Providence. 

In 1810 was advertised the Boston, Hartford, 
New Haven, New York and Philadelphia Mail 
Stage Line. A coach left Boston daily (Sundays 
excepted) at 4 a.m., and arrived at Hartford at 8 
P.M., the fare for that distance being $6.50. The 
next day it left Hartford at 9 a.m., New Haven at 
7 P.M., and arrived at New York at noon of the 
third day. From Boston to Hartford fresh horses 
were put in every ten miles. 

In 181 1 a new line was announced to Albany, 
leaving New Haven at 5 a.m. every Wednesday, 
and arriving in Albany at 4 p.m. of the next day. 

The New York and Boston New Line Diligence 
Stage in 181 3 yet further shortened the time. By 
leaving New York at 2 a.m., Hartford was reached 
on the first night and Boston on the next. 

In 1 81 5 stages ran from New Haven by three 
different routes to Hartford, and thence either by 
the upper road (via Springfield and Wooster) or 
by the lower road {via Pomfret) to Boston. 

By 18 17 the disturbing element of steamboat com- 
petition had come in to reduce the price of convey- 
ance, and Messrs. Ezekiel Lovejoy k Co. advertise 
to run a stage to New York in thirteen hours, and 
for what they regard as the absurdly low sum of 
$5. For years the price had been $8, and was 
then $1 less than by the steamboat and %\ more 
than by the packets. 

These were the good old days to which our 
grandfathers even yet love to look back. Time 
has blurred the recollections of the discomforts 
and the annoyances, and only the rose-colored 
picture remains of the madly-galloping horses, the 
merry horn, the crowds of gaping villagers, and 
the co.sy, comfortable inn. 

Fine old-fashioned gentlemen like Samuel Breck, 
turned with loathing from the dirty, greasy, pro- 
miscuous carriages of the early railways, and 
sighed for the days when a man might travel with 
dignity and at his leisure in his own carriage and 
four, or at least in a post-chaise. He describes 
enthusiastically a journey which he made in iSio, 
in a hackney-coach, with four horses, from Phila- 
delphia to Boston. He says: 

We arrived at Mrs. Lloyd's at Boston, before sundown, 
without accident, and after one of the pleasantest rides 
imaginalile. The roads are turnpiked all the way, and of seven 
ferries that a traveler was obliged formerly to pass, there re- 
mains now but that at Paulus Hook (from New York to 
Jersey City), which can never be bridged. The roads are 
not only extremely improved, but the distances are short- 
ened thirty-six miles lictween I'hiladeljihia and Boston. A 
stage runs from Hartford to Boston every day on the new 
road, 102^ miles, from 4 o'clock A.M. to S p.m.* 

This is one side of the picture. Edward Everett, 

* Recollections of Samuel Breck, p, 271. 



356 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



writing of a trip to New York in 1814, and by this 
very stage line, gives us another: 

I was to leave Boston early on Monday morning, October 
31st, for New York, via Hartford, a journey, at that season 
of the year, of two very hard days. Early Monday morn- 
ing, really late Sunday night, a messenger was sent round 
to wake up the passengers who had engaged seats, and pre- 
pare them to be called for by the stage-coach, which in this 
case took place a little after midnight. We reached Hart- 
ford without accident, but not till about eleven o'clock at 
night, after a most weary d.ay's work of nearly twenty-three 
hours. 

The programme of the route assumed an arrival at Hart- 
ford at 8 I'.M., and a start at three o'clock next morning. 
Hut we were allowed but a short hour for supper and rest, 
and again started just after midnight. On the way to New 
Haven, though with my knees lient lo an acute angle by the 
liaggage on the floor of the coach, I was obliged to carry a 
fellow traveler of about ten years old in my lap. We 
reached New Haven about sunrise. 

I was ready to drop from fatigue, but intended to proceed 
directly to New York. The friendly remonstrances of Gen- 
eral David Humphreys, whom 1 met on the steps of the inn, 
induced me to stop at New Haven, where 1 passed a most 
agreeable day under his friendly guidance.* 

Now, just as stage travehng had nearly reached 
its ma.xiinum of speed and comfort, yet another 
agency came into operation. 

The steamboat as a mechanical possibility had 
been known in America from the early e.xperiments 
of Fitch and Rumsey in 1783. As is well known, 
the first successful steamboat was that constructed 
by Fulton in 1807, and navigated upon the Hud- 
son, but it was not till eight years later that New 
Haven began to enjoy the benefits of steam trans- 
portation. 

In the marine list of the Columbian Register, 
March 28, 1815, appears the following, which 
seems to be the first notice of any steamboat arrival 
at tills port: 

Arrived March 21st. The elegant Steamboat Fulton, 
Capt. Klihu S. Hunker, 1 1 hours from New York, with 
30 passengers. [The Steamboat arrives at and departs from 
Tomlinson's Bridge, at the east end of the City.] 

Later in the season the Fulton commenced run- 
ning regularly to New York twice a week, and 
later yet three times. 

Business began to adjust itself to the new condi- 
tions of travel. Mr. Henry IJuller, a popular host, 
moved his hotel from the New England Coffee 
House, on Church street, to a place "on the bank 
near the bridge, where the Fultfin leaves, "and it was 
opened in May, 181 6, as the New Steamboat Ho- 
tel. The stage office was also kept there, and most 
of the stages ran down to the wharf to connect with 
the boat. 

In this year a new- steamer, the Connecticut, 
commenced running in connection with the Ful- 
ton, the former between New York and New 
London, and the latter between New York and 
New Haven, under the name of the Sound Steam- 
boat LW. Two years afterward, the exiicriment 
was successfully tried of extending the line to Nor- 
wich. 

In 1 819, Mr. rtutler advertises the Connecticut 
Hotel near the steamboat landing. He says that 

•Old and New, Vol. VII, p. 47. 



great facilities for transportation have made New 
Haven a popular place of resort for Southern fami- 
lies in summer, and urges the advantages of his 
house and location. 

About this time there began to be a great deal of 
hard feeling toward New York and the New York 
boats, on account of the exclusive privileges which 
the State had granted to Robert Fulton and Robert 
R. Livingston, of navigating the waters of the State 
by vessels driven by steam or by fire. New Haven- 
ers began to complain because they were shut off 
in New York from privileges which the Fulton 
Steamboat Company was allowed to exercise in 
Connecticut. 

In this spirit of warfare the boat United States 
was purchased in New York by some of our citi- 
zens, to run from here to New York, in 1821. Yet 
so high did the feeling run, that the boat was not 
even permitted to get up steam enough to leave the 
city, and she had to be towed outside the jurisdic- 
tion of the State. 

An act was passed in the spring of 1822 by the 
Connecticut Legislature to protect the citizens of 
this State in the use of their steamboats. The 
boats of the New York monopolists were not to 
be allowed to enter Connecticut unless reciprocal 
privileges were given in New York, and a state of 
war declared pro tanlo. 

The citizens of New Haven were thus cut off 
from direct steam communication with New York, 
but the steamboat United States, Captain Beecher, 
ran from New Haven to Byram River, the bound- 
ary line of New York State, and there connected 
with a stage line for New York. 

This state of things lasted until the decision of 
the famous case of Gibbons vs. Ogden * in March, 
1S24, reversing a decree of the Court of Errors in 
New York, and declaring the act of New York un- 
constitutional. 

Two months later the New Haven Steamboat 
Comjiany was chartered, in May, 1824. 

On March 9, the Connecticut arrived for the first 
time since the law- excluding the Fulton Company's 
boats from our waters. The New Haven boat, the 
United States, commenced running the next Mon- 
day, the fare being reduced to $3. By 1825, the 
field seems to have been left alone to the New Haven 
boats. 

The Coltanhian Rcgialer in the spring of that year 
congratulates New Haven that there are three boats 
running regularly to New ^■ork, all receiving liberal 
support and all owneil by our own citizens. These 
.seem to have been the Ignited States and the Hud- 
.son by day, and the Providence, Captain Tomlin- 
son, as an evening boat. 

A short time afterward the steamboat oHice was 
removed from the head of Long Wharf to the 
"new and commodious store lately erected at 
Tomlinson's Bridge." 

In 1828, the New Haven Steamboat Compan) 
reduced the flire to New York to %2. 50, meals in- 
cluded. The boats eni|)loyed were the Ignited Slates 
and Hudson, and Joel Root was 'the agent. A year 

* Gibbons vs. Ogden, 9 Wheal. (U. S. Supreme Court), i. 



TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATIOX. 



357 



later the fare from Hartford to New York was $3, 
both boat and stage fares included. 

September 11, 1830, the boiler of the United 
States exploded, just as she was leaving New York, 
opposite Blackwell's Island. Of the thirty-two pas- 
sengers on board two were killed outright, and 
several afterward died in consequence of injuries 
received. 

Within the next two or three years rales were 
further cut down by competition, and two handsome 
new boats were put on the line, the Superior and 
the Splendid. A new set of stages was run to Hart- 
ford in connection with them, and the time was re- 
duced to only ten or eleven hours from New York 
to Hartforil. These two boats were said to be the 
fastest and most elegant on the Sound. 

A contract was made between the Hartford and 
New Haven Railroad Company and the old New 
Haven Steamboat Company on the 13th of October, 
1S38, for a working arrangement. This bargain, 
when it subsequently became known, caused much 
ill feeling, and a pamphlet, headed "Secret Mo- 
nopoly," divulged all its provisions. These were 
principally that the railroad agreed to enter into no 
engagement to run its cars in connection with any 
other steamboat line from New York to New Haven, 
and that the steamboat company should pay $500 
per year to the railroad until the road should be in 
operation to Hartford, then $1,200. 

This arrangement worked well until the middle 
of May, 1839, when the Connecticut River Steam- 
boat Company (Commodore Vanderbilt's line) 
threatened to touch at New Haven on its way to 
and from New York, and to run in opposition to 
the old line. In addition to this danger, the old 
company was burdened by an oppressive mail con- 
tract, which compelled it to run its boats every day. 
Sooner than contend against these obstacles, it de- 
cided to sell its boats to the Connecticut River Line 
and discontinue its business. 

The new owners, as successors to the obligations 
of the old, engaged to fulfill this contract with 
the railroad company. They soon began to evade 
it. On the i6th of Maj', 1839, Commodore Van- 
derbilt wrote a letter threatening that unless the 
fare was raised above the contract prices, he 
would have to run inferior boats. He soon be- 
gan to boast that he would break down the rail- 
road, and tried to keep his word by withtlrawing 
the New York and the New Haven, and putting on 
the day line the Bolivar, an old ferry-boat, entirely 
unfit for the purpose. 

This treatment induced the railroad company to 
apply to the Legislature for the right to purchase 
steamboats for use in connection with its business. 
In 1839, the desired power was given to charter, 
or purchase and hold, such number of steamboats 
to be used in connection with its business as it 
might deem expedient, to an amount not to exceed 
$200, oco, and to increase the capital stock to the 
same amount. 

It had the further effect of creating great hos- 
tility to Commodore Yanderbilt and his line, and 
an active opposition sprang up. It first took the 
form of individual venture, and Captain Peck 



for a short time ran the American Eagle. A 
most disastrous cutting of rates followed, and in 
the fall of 1840 the fare to New York dropped to 
25 cents, and even to 12^. 

The next year, 1841, an opposition company 
was organized under the general law of 1837, with 
the name of the New Haven Steamboat and Trans- 
portation Company. Subscription to the stock was 
solicited on the ground of patriotism, and a list of 
perhaps 250 subscribers was obtained. This Com- 
pany, at first under the name of the Citizens' Line, 
began by running the Telegraph, Captain Deming. 
She proved unsatisfactory, and the Belle was pur- 
chased. Captain Richard Peck, a well known and 
respected citizen of New Haven, to whom the 
writer is indebted for much of his information con- 
cerning steamboat matters, was put in command, 
and the Belle soon drew to herself most of the pa- 
tronage. She ran about two years, and passed into 
the hands of the Connecticut River Steamboat 
Company. 

The Hartford and New Haven Railroad Com- 
pany ran the Traveler and the Champion for some 
years in connection with its business, and then sold 
them out to Mr. Chester W. Chapin, of Spring- 
field, about 1850. 

When the New Haven Steamboat Company sold 
out its boats, it did not, however, give up its 
charter. Through Captain Beecher, Mr. Thomas 
R. Trowbridge, and others, it was kept alive, and 
a new company was subsequently organized, which 
purchased it, It is therefore still in existence. 
The first boat built under the new management was 
the Granite Slate, in 1853. Later came the Elm 
City, in 1856; the Continental, in 1S61; and the 
C. H. Northam. The Company now runs the 
Continental and the C. H. Northam on its regular 
day and night lines. The Elm City is kept as a 
spare boat; the New Haven is used as a Sunday 
and freight boat ; and the Eleanor F. Peck as a 
freight boat around New York. 

The only opposition lines since the days of the 
Belle, have been the Propeller Line and the Starin 
Line. The former, known as the New Haven 
Transportation Company, owned the New Haven 
and the Northampton, The latter boat was sunk 
off the harbor by the Continental and the other was 
sold. The Starin Line runs two boats regularly be- 
tween New Haven and New York, the J. H. Starin 
and the Erastus Corning. 

The success of the Erie Canal, the enormous re- 
turns from similar investments in England, and the 
feeling that the turnpike system had reached the 
climax of its development, with no further hope of 
substantial improvement, all contributed to turn the 
popular mind to thoughts of a new agency for in- 
ternal communication. 

The Eastern States were seized with an epidemic 
of canal fever. Especially was this true of New 
England. In Connecticut, Massachusetts and Ver- 
mont, numerous charters were granted, and the 
problem of cheap and easy transportation seemed 
about to be solved. 

As early as 1S20, a plan was proposed for divert- 



358 



HiSTORr OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEM. 



ing the water from the Farmington River to South- 
ington. and thence by the Quinnipiac River to 
Tomlinson's Bridge. This was claimed to have the 
double advantage of clearing out the harbor and of 
affording inland communication with the northern 
part of the State. Somewhat later a direct canal 
was suggested. Both were at first scouted as be- 
ing not only impracticable, but indeed an utter im- 
possiblity. 

By the next year however, popular sentiment had 
changed, and a meeting of the citizens of New 
Haven was held at the County Hotel, December lo, 
to consider the question. Resolutions were passed 
that a survey should be made and the cost of a canal 
up the Farmington Valley estimated. A committee, 
consisting of George Hoadley, William H. Jones. 
Isaac Mills, David De Forest, and Eli Whitney, 
was appointed, with power to act. 

Early in 1822, a petition for incorporation was 
handed in to the Legislature, and in the same 
year the Farmington Canal Company was cliar- 
tered. 

In August of the same year a meeting of citizens 
of the towns of Hampshire and Hampden Counties, 
in Massachusetts, was held, lo take steps for the 
building of a canal to connect the upper end of the 
Farmington Canal, at the State line, with the Con- 
necticut River at Northampton. In 1823, a corpo- 
ration was chartered for this purpose, under the 
name of the Hampshire and Hampden Canal Com- 
pany. Subscriptions were opened for stock in the 
Farmington Canal in July, 1823, and much en- 
couragement was given to the promoters of the 
work by the liberal spirit which was manifested by 
the citizens of New Haven. 

Joel Root was the first President of the Company; 
George Hoadley, Treasurer; and W. W. Boardman, 
.Secretary. In 1825, lames Ilillhouse was chosen 
Superintendent. A survey was made in this year, 
and it was estimated that the canal could be made 
for $420,698.88, exclusive of land damages. The 
next year, 1824, the Mechanics' Bank of New Haven 
was chartered, on condition that it should make a 
subscription of $200,000 to the stock of the Farm- 
ington Canal Company. 

The work was commenced July 4, 1825, at Sal- 
mon Brook Village in the town of Granby, in the 
presence of from two to three thousand people, and 
with the appropriate ceremonies of a procession, an 
oration, prayer, the reatling of the Declaration of 
Independence, and the inevitable banquet. The 
first spadeful of earth was dug by Governor Wolcott, 
followed by the President of the Company. The 
spade used is now in the possession of the New 
Haven ("olony Historical Society. 

Much life and amusement was contributed to the 
occasion by a canal barge fitted up by Captain 
George Rowland, of this city, which was drawn from 
New Haven by four horses, and which contained a 
party of New Haven gentlemen. 

In the procession the boat was drawn by six 
horses, and carried the Governor, the President 
and Engineer of the Company, and other men of 
|iriiminence. (Jn its way up from New Haven 
and back again, the boat's crew was cheered and 



bells were rung and salutes fired in several of the 
towns. * 

In 1825 and 1826 the work was quite vigorously 
pushed on, and on May 8, 1826, it was unani- 
mously voted "that the stock of this Company be 
united with that of the Hampshire and Hampden 
Canal Company, to the extent and for the purpose 
of constituting the net amount of tolls and proceeds 
of both a general fund for dividends, as soon as 
both canals shall have been completed." 

A union of stocks on this basis was effected dur- 
ing the year, each company however preserving its 
separate corporate existence. The interests of the 
two companies were now more closely united than 
ever, and the idea of a further extension began to 
come forward more prominently. The friends of 
the canal looked forward to an ultimate communi- 
cation through the States of Massachusetts and Ver- 
mont with Canada, and thence by the existing lines 
of river, lakes and canals to the Mississippi. This 
was indeed a grand project and by no means chi- 
merical. The question of internal improvements 
was then one of the most important in politics, and 
the attitude of the administration, though by no 
means friendly to all devices for squandering public 
funds, was at least such that aid to an enterprise of 
unquestioned national benefit in times of both war 
and peace might fairly be expected. 

But the canal had a deadly foe in the Connecti- 
cut River Company. Much money had been 
spent by this corporation in improving the naviga- 
tion of the Connecticut River above Hartford, and 
it proposed to extend its operations above North- 
ampton, thus becoming an active competitor for 
the business of the Connecticut Valley and its ad- 
joining country. This opposition followed the 
Canal Company from State to National Legislature, 
and, together with the increasing feeling in favor 
of railroads, defeated the plan for a national sub- 
scription to the Canal stocks so ably urged by 
James Hillhouse, President and Agent, in 1829-30. 
New Haven's interests were, of course, all on the 
side of the canal, and in 1826 there was danger of 
much ill-feeling between New Haven and Hartford 
on this matter, f 

In this year, 1826. there was considerable discus- 
sion as to the line which the canal should take 
through New Haven. Four different surveys were 
made and reported, though only two were seriously 
thought of. The arguments for the western course, 
as presented in a local paper, were: that it would 
be the cheapest to lay out; fewer bridges would be 
reijuired; a "bason" might be conveniently built 
near Broadway for the landing of lumber, stone 
and heavier freight; and that it would be at a higher 
grade and so more useful if a strong head of water 
were required for fires. J 

Seven reasons were given for the other route, 
and the one subsequently adopted, through the 
creek between State and Union street.s. The need 
of a central route through the business part of the 

♦ CohtmbitiH Register, July 9, 1825. 
t Hayt/oni Mercury, ]\\nii 13, 1826. 
i Columbian Kesister, February 18, 1826. 



TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. 



359 



city, the availability of a constant supply of water 
in case of fire, and the purification of the old creek 
were all urged, and finally prevailed.* 

In 1827 the canal suffered its first serious shock 
of financial paralysis. The funds from the stock 
subscriptions were e.xhausted, and from this time 
forth it was only the heroic and indomitable pluck 
of its managers which kept it from ruin. James 
Hillhouse was really the soul and spirit of the 
enterprise, and up to his death, in 1S32, he labored 
unremittingly for its success. 

This is not the place to write of men or their 
histories, but it is remarkable that three of New 
Haven's most generous benefacturs, and most pub- 
lic-spirited citizens, Hillhouse, Sheffield, and Far- 
nam, should all have been identified with this 
canal, and should all have given their best energies 
for its success. Unfortunate it certainly was as 
an investment. ]iut is it not as probably true 
that it had its influence in the development of a 
sturdy, invincible strength of character among our 
citizens, as it certainly is that New Haven's ma- 
terial interests were by it greatly promoted .'' 

The financial embarrassment was much re- 
lieved by a subscription of $100,000 to the stock 
by the City of New Haven in 1829. By the 
summer of 1827, Captain Rowland had com- 
pleted an elegant packet-boat for use on the 
canal, called the New England. But he was 
obliged to wait nearly a year before he could use 
it. In the spring of the ne.xt year the canal was in 
use to Cheshire, and later to Farmington. On the 
4th of July, being the anniversary of the opening 
three years before, two excursion boats, the New 
Kngland and the DeWitt Clinton, with several peo- 
ple on board, started for Farmington. A breach 
in the bank kept them from going beyond South- 
ington, whence they returned the next day. 

In the latter part of 1829, the Hampshire and 
Hampden Canal was completed as far as Weslfield, 
Mass., and a continuous line of navigation was 
opened from New Haven to that town. The effects 
were soon perceptible in an increased activity of 
business and the diminished price of many of the 
more essential commodities of life. The story of 
this Company's experience is much the same as 
that of the Farmington Company — great scarcity of 
funds and frequent injuries from freshets and ma- 
licious enemies. 

In 1832, the Company was assisted by a sub- 
scription of $100,000 made to its stock by the City 
Bank of New Haven, which was incorporated on 
that condition. Pleading appeals were made for sub- 
scriptions to the bank. It was said to be the canal's 
last hope, and that real estate, which had appre- 
ciated 11 per cent in consequence of the canal would 
correspondingly decline. 

The work of extension to the Connecticut River 
was carried on under the superintendence of Cap- 
tain James Goodrich, the President, and of Mr. 
Henry Farnam, Chief Engineer, and completed to 
Northampton in 1835. 

The operation of the canal certainly gave a con- 



* Coiumbian Register, January ai, 1826. 



siderable stimulus to New Haven's inland com- 
merce. From the local papers, which published 
an inland navigation list, it would appear that the 
arrivals and clearances frequently ran as high as 
sixteen or seventeen each per week. There was 
only a trilling passenger business, except occa- 
sional excursions on some of the finer packet- 
boats. These were generally advertised in some 
such manner as this: 

The New England will leave Hillhouse Basin for Gooil- 
yeai's Hotel on Wednesday, and return at sunset — fare 50 
cents. Select parties accommodated at any time. 

The principal articles of import were wood, cider, 
apples, cider-brandy, butter, etc. ; and of export, 
hides, sugar, molasses. Hour, coffee and salt. 

The canal stood fairly well in popular favor, and 
occasionally some enthusiast would endeavor by 
fulsome eulogy to bring it into yet higher esteem. 
Some of these efl'usions are quite amusing, for in- 
stance this one in the Connaiicul Journal for June 
9, 1829: 

No, every stockholder will and must have the satisfaction 
of having contributed to a work, inlinitely of more impor- 
tance to the world than the work of slaughter accomplished 
by Lord Wellington on the fields of Waterloo. His ended 
in human butcheries which deluged the country in human 
blood ; but l/tis work, to the very latest posterity, will stand 
as a monument of human wisdom and good. 

Or this, from the same pen, in July: 

Away, then ! all coldness, all indifference, and all brutal 
opposition ! This canal will shine with meridian splendor 
when its opposers shall have been for years and ages 
shrouded in the land of darkness. 

But in spite of all efforts the canal did not pros- 
per, and the only stockholder who ever received a 
dividend seems to have been the farmer who made 
complaint to the officers that no returns ever came 
in, and who was recommendetl to mow the grass 
along the tow-path. This he did yearly to his great 
satisfaction and emolument. 

The failure was largely due to circumstances 
which could never have been foreseen, and instead 
of the canal's standing a "monument of human 
wisdom and good," its memory is a monument to 
noble, but misdirected, efforts. 

As early as 1828, the eflects of the improve- 
ment in railroads were seen by far-sighted men to 
be disastrous to canal enterprises, and a railroad 
was suggested in substitution for the projected 
canal northward.* The prophecy proved a true 
one, and it was in great measure the introduction 
of railways which stood in the way of the canal's 
ultimate success. 

Extraordinary losses and damages by freshets 
made it absolutely necessary that some steps be 
taken to save the property from ruin. The 
plan proposed and followed led to the forma- 
tion of the New Haven and Northampton Com- 
pany in 1836. According to this arrangement the 
entire stock of both companies was to be relin- 
quished and they were to be merged into the new 
company. The creditors of both were to sub- 
scribe the amount of their debts to the new com- 
pany, some at par and some at a discount of 75 

* Connecticut Jourijat, December 27, 1829. 



360 



HISTORY OF THE CI TV OF NEW HA VEN. 



per cent, and there was to be a cash subscription 
of $135,000. The total loss to the two companies 
was$i,039,04i.62, and the amount of capital paid 
in to the new company was $216,112.39, of which 
$145,927,47 was paid in debts, leaving a cash 
capital of $120, 1S4.92. Severe and stringent as 
these measures were, this seemed to be the only 
way in which this important work could be rescued 
from destruction and maintained until its place 
could be supplied by a railroad. Much praise is 
due to the founder of this new company, the Hon. 
Nathan Smith, and to Judge Hinckley, for the 
perseverance with which they worked out this solu- 
tion. The property and franchises of the old 
companies were conveyed to the new one, and 
the management thus passed largely into diflerent 
hands. 

Further freshets, and the deterioration of the 
property, necessitated large expenditures, and in 
1839 the City of New Haven came to its relief by 
an offer of credit to the extent of $100,000. $20- 
000 in bonds was at once issued, but on applica- 
tion for the rest, in 1840, it was refused. Instead 
of this the city agreed to ^ive $3,000 a year, for 
thirty years, for the use of the water in the canal, 
to relinquish its mortgage, and to give up the 
$20,000 already loaned. 

Not only did the canal furnish New Haven 
with a considerable supply of water for ordinary 
uses, but also a water power by which a great 
deal of machinery was moved. In 1836, Mr. 
Rowland built the "City Mill" upon a part of 
the property now used as the City Market. He 
raised a handsome brick building, and estab- 
lished a grist mill and feed store in the very heart 
of the city. 

The New Haven Packet Boat Company was or- 
ganized in 1838, for running a daily line of passen- 
ger boats to Northampton. The Company, through 
the efforts of Mr. Nathaniel A. Bacon, did a profit- 
able business, and the punctuality and comfort of 
the boats were highly commended. The running 
time to Northampton was twenty-six hours, and the 
fare, including meals, was $3.75. 

In 1841, a business communication was first es- 
tablished between New York City antl the upper 
part of Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hamp- 
shire. 

In 1843, Joseph E. Sheffield was elected Presi- 
dent of the Company. The business done in- 
creased rapidly, but extraordinary losses still con- 
tinued, and bonds had to be issued to pay the 
floating debt. In 1845, Mr. Sheffield resigned, 
having .sold the greater part of his stock, and 
heavy losses this year turned the thoughts of the 
Directors to the building of a railroad to take the 
place of the canal. At the suggestion of Mr. Far- 
nam, the Superintendent, a survey for a railroad 
was made by Mr. Alexander C. Twining in that 
year. The next year Mr. Sheffield and his friends 
bought in a large amount of the stock which was 
Dwiied in New York by parties unwilling to make 
further ailvances either for canal or railroad. A 
charier was granted, anil the work commenced in 
January, 1847. 



Before following out the history of the transfor- 
mation of the plant of this Company from canal 
into railroad, it is more fitting to go back a little 
and trace out the early fortunes of New Haven's 
first railroad. 

The successful application of steam power to the 
drawing of railway carriages in i^ngland, led to 
most enthusiastic propositions for its use in this 
country. Discussions of the possibilities of its 
uses were often exaggerated far beyond even the 
results subsequently attained. Some thought tiiat 
a rate of a hundred miles an hour would shortly be 
reached, with the improvements fairly to be ex- 
pected. 

New Haven however was not too eager to be in 
the vanguard of progress. She had already her ele- 
phantine canal, ample service on the Sound by steam 
and sail, and a capital system of turnpikes and high- 
ways. The railway age was well advanced there- 
fore before New Haven could be roused from her 
apathy. 

By 1829, two important railways had been com- 
menced in the United States (not including the first 
one of all at Quincy, Mass.), though steam had not 
been determined on as a motive power. The first 
steam locomotive which ever ran in America was 
imported from England, and was used upon the 
Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's Railroad 
August 8, 1829. 

Not till the 30's were any steps taken here to- 
ward the building of a road. About that time the 
newspapers began to handle the subject, gingerly 
at first, but soon with great energy. In an editorial 
of 1830, an amusing account of anticipated results 
is given. 

C.entlemeii will keep tlieir own steam coadies, aiul find it 
clieap, pleasant and convenient to travel, and not at tlie slnw 
rate of twenty miles tlie day, in their private vehicles. Stables 
will cease to be an annoyance; steani-carriaf;es will bcjiatient 
animals, never kicking for flies, nor whisking their tails in 
men's moutiis, nor sending out noisome odors. When a 
gentleman would take a ride, he has only to direct 
John to put the kettle on, and 
Whiff .iway in a jiffy,* 

At various intervals during the year 1832, an 
enthusiastic citizen, signing himself "Clinton," 
wrote numerous letters to the Conmclicut Journal, 
urging the builtling of a railroad from Hartford to 
New Haven by way of Middletown. A road was 
already building from Boston to Worcester, and 
this road, it was claimed, would be a link in the 
chain from Boston to New York. "Construct this 
railroad between Hartford and New Haven via 
Middletown," he says in one of the earliest letters, 
"and soon THE fuli.-orbed si'i.endoks of a noon- 
day Bi'siNKSs ON IT will ciowH all cfforts with abun- 
dant success. " He later discusses the pros and cons. 
The most serious objections seemed to be those ad- 
vanced in behalf of the rights and interests already 
vested in the canal and the turnpikes. " The for- 
mer it could not injure," he says, " because there 
have never been many passengers ujHin the canal. 
A railroad could not divert a dollar's worth of 
freight from it; and if a railroad should add to the 

* Connecticut Journal, January 26, 1830. 






TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. 



361 



wealth and enterprise of New Haven, this would 
add a higher tone of interest in the canals." As to 
the turnpikes, "They, " he says, "occupy quite a 
different country from the railroad, and have been 
of comparatively little importance to the public or 
to the stockholders." If there is anything to the 
argument of interference with vested rights, " Why," 
he asks, "did the Legislature charter three or four 
turnpikes ending at both Hartford and New Ha- 
ven ?" Another plan was to quiet the turnpikes 
for a few thousand dollars. These roads have been 
useful, it was said, but poorly paid public servants, 
and ought not to be turned out unpensioned. 

About this time a road was threatened from Bos- 
ton via Providence, Norwich, and New London, if 
New Haven's road was not built, which would 
divert the through travel from New Haven. 

"Clinton " subsequently discusses the questions 
of probable profits, the kind of power to be used, 
and of terminations and local jealousies. "It is 
evident," he says, "that about i8 per cent, can be 
made annually on passengers alone." He proposes 
for New Haven three stations, to accommodate all 
sorts and conditions of men, one in front of the 
Tontine, another at the Canal Basin, and a third at 
the Steamboat Wharf 

It scarcely seems credible that any one could 
combat the road on any other ground than of pri- 
vate vested interests or the probable failure as a 
business enterprise. But it was not alone such ob- 
stacles that had to be contended against. As an 
exponent of the views of the stagnant part of the 
community, and doubtless a large element in it, 
hear what "A Writer in the Review" says, as quoted 
in the Councclicut Journal. 

The wliolc project he ridicules, and argues that it may 
appear even injurious to Hartford; and that the interests of 
Hartfortl would l)e against stiortening tlic distance to New 
York, if there were any chance of preserving tlie then exist- 
ing relations of country and towns. 

An attempt is made later in the year again to 
frighten our citizens out of their sloth and indiffer- 
ence. Roads are to be built, it is said, from Bos- 
ton to Providence and from Providence to Stoning- 
ton; and a road has been chartered to run from 
Norwich either to Providence or Worcester at its 
election. 

In May, 1833, James Brewster and others pre- 
sented to the Legislature a memorial for a railroad 
from New Haven to Hartford. In the same jear 
the charter was granted; the well-known names of 
Joel Root, Obadiah Pease, and James Brewster 
being among the corporators. The corporate name 
was "The Hartford and New Haven Railroad 
Company. " 

The Company was authorized to construct a 
single, double, or treble railroad from some suit- 
able point in the town of Hartford, by the most 
direct and feasible route, to the City of New Haven 
and to the navigable waters of New Haven Harbor, 
at some point between the Canal Basin and the west 
end of Tomlinson's Bridge, so called. The capital 
stock was to be $500,000, with the privilege of in- 
creasing the same to $1,000,000. The Company 
was authorized to fi.x the tolls and charges to be 
It; 



received for the transportation of persons and 
property, provided that such rates should be fixed 
annually by the Company in March, and immedi- 
ately published in the papers, and that they should 
not be raised at any other time during the year. 
The capital stock was made free from ta.xation un- 
til the profits collected by the corporation should 
afford a dividend of 5 per cent, per annum. If 
$100,000 should not be expended upon the road 
within four years, or if the road should not be 
constructed and operated within six years, then the 
rights of the corporation were to cease. The char- 
ter was a close one, /. c, not subject to amend- 
ment or repeal by the Legislature. 

For the next year or two little seems to have 
been done beyond effecting an organization in 
1835, and the survey and receiving the report of 
the engineer, Mr. A. C. Twining. This report in- 
cluded estimates as to the probable value of the 
business upon the new road, based upon the busi- 
ness done by the stage and steamboat lines, and 
verified by the affidavits of their officers. 

Early in 1835 the subject of the railroad excited 
great attention both in Hartford and New Haven. 
A grand Kne of communication was talked of from 
Boston to Washington. The work from Washing- 
ton to New York was promised to be finished in 
the year, and the railroads from Boston to Worcester 
and Providence were nearly completed. There was 
still another project, to connect Boston and New 
York by a road along Long Island. These plans it 
was felt would draw away travel from New Haven 
and Hartford. Three main routes, with several 
branches and combinations of them, were suggested 
from New Haven to Hartford — the western, by way 
of New Britain; the middle, via Meriden; and the 
eastern, via Middletown. An undignified squabble 
ensued between the friends of each, and charges of 
deception by false maps and statements were freely 
made. 

The Middletown route was first laid aside as 
being too difficult. The one via Meriden was then 
decided on by the Directors, but the friends of the 
western way appealed to the Commissioners, who 
refused to confirm the lay-out without further in- 
formation. The Meriden route was finally decided 
on. 

Petty, small-minded objections were made to 
the mode of entrance to the City of New Haven. 
It will be remembered that the charter provided 
that the termination of the road should be at or 
near Tomlinson's Bridge, at tide-water. While the 
charter's command could not be disobeyed, it was 
charged that private interests in adjoining property 
had secured this provision, and that the city's wel- 
fare had been sacrificed to a few private purses. 

In April, 1836, notice was given that the road 
had been located for the first eighteen miles to 
Meriden, and the attention of contractors was 
called to this fact, James Brewster signing the no- 
tice as agent. 

Another scare further stimulated interest and 
ambition, for it was rumored that a charter was to 
be applied for for a railroad from New Haven to 
Norwich, to connect with the Norwich and Wor- 



362 



HISTORY OF THE CITF OF NEW HA VEX. 



cester road, then building, to form a through line 
from Boston to New York. 

Suggestions were made for a public demonstra- 
tion on the first breaking of the ground, which was 
expected to occur about the middle of June, 1836. 
This plan seems to have been abandoned. 

The early financial history of this corporation is 
of the same sad nature as that of the canal. There 
was the same difficulty in collecting assessments 
and procuring capital in any way, and the same 
heroic endeavors on the part of a few determined 
men, who stuck by the Company through thick 
and thin. What James Ilillhouse was to the old 
Farmington Canal in its infancy, James Brewster 
was to the railroad. But lest our citizens be too 
hastily condemned for lack of public spirit, it 
ought in fairness to be remembered that just while 
the Railroad Company and the Northampton Com- 
panv were most in need of funds, there came the 
panic of 1837, and many a liberal man was finan- 
cially crippled and unable to meet his obligations. 
Suits often had to be resorted to to collect unpaid 
stock subscriptions, and even then the whole could 
not be obtained. In the spring and summer of 
1837 the treasury was completely exhausted, and a 
temporary loan of $6,000 was procured. 

In the springs of 1837 and 1838, unsuccessful ap- 
plications were presented to the Legislature for aid 
in behalf of this Company, the Housatonic Rail- 
road Compan)-, and the Norwich and Worcester 
Railroad Company. A favorable report was ob- 
tained from the Cominittee on Internal Improve- 
ments, and a lengthy report was prmted, but the 
aid was refused. 

Device after device was resorted to to procure or 
economize money, and great sacrifices were made. 
The President was paid a salary of but $1,000 per 
annum, and by dint of unwearied efforts the road 
was finally carried through. 

In 1838 the road was opened as far as Meriden, 
and the Directors were under the diflicult necessity 
of operating one-half of the road while building 
the other. This first portion was completed about 
the 1st of December. 

E. H. Brodhead, the principal engineer, re- 
signed about this time, and the business was con- 
fided to James N. Palmer and Ceorge C. Miller, of 
New York. The sections of the new portion were 
offered to the contractors October 11, 1838. The 
whole road was in running order by December of 
the next year, and the first train ran through to 
Hartford on the 14th of that month. 

The Comjjany had from an early ])eriod been in 
possession of a majority of the stock of the Tom- 
linson's Bridge, the popular name for tiie more 
legal one of "The Company for Erecting and Sup- 
])orting a Toll Bridge from New Haven to East 
Haven." It had purchased fifty-seven and one-half 
out of the sixty shares for the sum of $57,787.50, 
the par value of them being $1,000 each. This 
purchase was made on account of the valuable 
property and privileges of the Bridge Company, of 
great importance to the railroad by reason of its 
termination at New Haven, as provided for in the 
charter. A wharf in connection with it was built, 



and was ready in 1839, and the Company was pre- 
pared for peace or war with the steamboat man- 
agers. The details of this struggle and its outcome 
have already been given. 

In 1835 the Hartford and Springfield Railroad 
Company was chartered, to build a road from Hart- 
ford to Springfield, provided leave should be given 
by the State of Massachusetts so to do. The cor- 
porators were the same as those of the Hartford 
and New Haven road, and it was the intention 
that these companies should be ultimately merged. 
The charter was in general similar to that of the 
New Haven Company. Power was given to bridge 
the Connecticut River, provided no prejudice of 
the rights of the Enfield Bridge Company should 
result. Massachusetts chartered the Hartford and 
Springfield Railroad Corporation, in 1839, and the 
two roads were, in 1840, authorized to unite, tak- 
ing the name of the Massachusetts Company. 

Numerous extensions of time were granted from 
year to year, and the Hartford and New Haven 
Railroad Company and the Hartford and Spring- 
field Railroad Corporation were consolidated, in 
1847, by action of the stockholders of both, under 
the name of the former Company. 

The opening of the railroad in 1838 was not marked 
by the grotesqueness which characterized similar 
events in the case of the earlier railroads. The 
public had become familiarized with railway travel, 
and most people had already seen or heard of 
the iron horse. The science of railroad build- 
ing and operation had taken rapid strides since 
the Rainhill experiments in England, and the pre- 
liminary obstacles in the way of a new agency had 
largely been removed. The sad fate of the colored 
fireman of the " Best Friend of Charleston" had 
clearly demonstrated the impracticability of sitting 
upon the safety-valve of the locomotive; and one 
by one experience developed the conditions of suc- 
cess. 

In 1845, the Branch Company was incorporated, 
to construct a railroad from some point on the Con- 
necticut River within the City of Hartford, to con- 
nect and unite with the extension road of the Hart- 
ford and New Haven Railroad Company at some 
point within the town of Hartford. This Company 
con.solidated with the Hartford and New Haven 
Railroad Company, by the action of both companies 
in 1850, as did also the Middletown Railroad Com- 
pany, chartered in 1844. 

The IMiddletown Extension Railroad Company, 
to unite the Miildletown Branch with the Connecti- 
cut River, incorporated in 1857, was merged in 
1861. 

The New Britain and Middlcti>wn Railroad Com- 
pany was merged in 1 868, having been incorporated 
in 1852. 

Yet another branch was added in 1871, having 
been chartered in 1 868, under the name of the 
Windsor Locks and Suffield Kailroad Company. 

Before taking up the history of the New York 
and New Haven road, it would perhaps be more 
natural to go back to that of the New Haven and 
Northampton Company, from the time when the 



TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. 



303 



substitution of a railroad for the canal was first 
seriously thought of 

The failure of the canal to accomplish the ends 
desired had been so clearly demonstrated, that there 
seemed but little question that something radical 
should be done. The arguments in favor of a rail- 
road upon this particular route were very alluring. 
It was said that the water privileges of the company 
alone were of great value, and that a railroad 
could be built along the line of the canal for a far 
less cost than anywhere else in the State. The land 
was already secured, and the important elements of 
grading and land damages would not have to be 
considered. The water too, it was urged, would 
be of great value for city purposes, and a revenue 
might be derived from that. It was proposed orig- 
inally to build the road upon either the towing- 
path or the berme bank, though this plan was in 
some cases departed from. 

It has already been said that, in 1846, large 
quantities of stock of the New Haven and North- 
ampton Company changed hands, and Mr. Sheffield 
and his friends held a controlling interest. Mr. 
Sheffield was again chosen President, and Henry 
Farnam Engineer and Superintendent. An act 
amendatory of the charter was passed, entitled " An 
Act to Incorporate the Farmington Canal Rail- 
road." Under this the New Haven and Northamp- 
ton Company was empowered to build a railroad 
from the Canal Basin at New Haven, through the 
City of New Haven to some point in the town of 
Farmington, with liberty to extend it to the north 
line of the State. The Canal Company was author- 
ized to add to its stock by increasing the nominal 
value of the shares from $25 to $100. 

The road was to be so constructed as not to in- 
terfere with the Cheshire Turnpike Company, and 
that part of it through the City of New Haven was 
to be constructed as the Common Council should 
prescribe. Ample provisions were made for the 
appraisal and purchase of the shares of dissenting 
stockholders. This Act was passed in 1846. 

The first petition to the Legislature was for a rail- 
road to Granby, with a branch from Farmington to 
Collinsville, and another from Cheshire to Water- 
bury. 

The treatment of the latter request was for 
years a standing grievance to the Canal road. It 
always felt iiseif most unjustly treated, and that 
the usefulness and prosperity of the road was 
greatly impaired by the continued refusal to charter 
this branch. It has always been supposed that it 
was the better generaled opposition of the Nauga- 
tuck road, chartered in 1845, which killed it. How- 
ever that may be, the matter was postponed to the 
next session of the Legislature, and no reasons were 
given. 

At the time of the first report of the Directors 
since the chartering of the railroad, the only debts 
of the Company were the $60,000 of outstanding 5 
per cent, bonds (the interest on which was provided 
for until 1869, by the contract with the city before 
spoken of), and $72,000 of 6 per cent, bonds. 
There was no floating debt. The Company really 
seemed to be fairly upon its feet and to be in a 



position to flourish. The Directors had every con- 
fidence in the advantages of the property; they 
hoped to extend the road to Piitsfield, there to con- 
nect with the Western; to connect with the Con- 
necticut Valley and New England at Westfield; and 
by the hoped-for branch to reach Waterbury and 
the trade of the Naugatuck Valley. 

By the last day of December, 1847, trains were 
running to Cheshire, and a month later to Plain- 
ville. At this time there were but three stock- 
holders in the City of New Haven, besides the 
original projectors, first and foremost of whom were 
Messrs. Sheffield and Farnam. Afterward a more 
general interest was shown by a subscription of 
nearly two thousand shares, distributed among 
over two hundred stockholders. 

The Directors with complacency say: "And as 
it is destined to become the main stem of a great 
extent of future roads, both into the Farmington 
Valley to Pittsfield, and direct to Springfield, we 
have run it nearly straight and level, instead of fol- 
lowing the canal, as it was originally intended." 

Before the Legislature, in 1847, the Collinsville 
Branch, the Cheshire Branch, and the application 
to own and use steamboats on the same terms as 
the Hartford and New Haven Railroad Company, 
were all defeated. 

About this time negotiations were being made with 
the New York and New Haven Railroad Company 
concerning the latter's entrance into the City of New 
Haven and other matters. The New York road 
had decided to build around the city rather than 
through it upon the surface. Arrangements were 
therefore made in August, 1847, for a lease to it of 
the Canal road for twenty years, at $45,000 rental ■ 
annually, together with a provision for contingent 
increase, the road to be delivered when completed. 

There were in all three leases to the New York 
and New Haven Railroad, but of them and their 
purposes later. 

It was thought that this plan would secure the 
payment of regular dividends on the $60 per share 
paid in, and a co-operation in future extensions of 
the road. 

It was intended to keep a supply of water out- 
side of the City of New Haven for use in the 
city, and to keep the canal open, especially above 
Plainville, until the road should be extended to the 
State line. 

In 1848, Massachusetts chartered the Pittsfield 
and New Haven Railway; the road from Plainville 
and Collinsville was put under contract; the prayer 
for extension to the State line granted; the capital 
stock increased by 5,000 shares; power to run 
steamers in connection with the road given; and a 
further increase of stock permitted for this purpose. 
The Company was also authorized to discontinue 
its canal in New Haven and to construct its rail- 
road in and upon the bed of the canal. In Octo- 
ber, 1S48, it was voted to suspend construction to- 
wards Collinsville and return to the original idea of 
building along the line of the canal. A contract was 
made with Messrs. Farnam & Sheftield to build the 
new road from Farmington River to Granby (State 
line), and thence to the Western Railroad (now 



3C4 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



part of the Boston and Albany Railroad), for the 
5,000 shares of new capital stock. 

Massachusetts, in 1849, refused to charter this 
last named part from the State line to West 
Springfield. The contractors asked for and ob- 
tained a new arrangement by which they were to 
receive $500,000 of bonds, convertible into stock, 
and were to build bolh from Farmington to the 
State line and from Farmington to Collinsville. 
The road was promptly and honestly constructed, 
and in the best manner, and on July i, 1849, was 
delivered over to the lessees. 

There were three distinct leases made to the 
New York and New Haven Railroad Company. 
The contracts of lease themselves, their histories, 
and those of the railroads while they were in force, 
deserve a more detailed description than can be 
here given of them, principally because of the light 
which they shed upon the relationships of the then 
existing roads,and upon the causes which influenced 
their later growth and development. 

The first of these bears date of January 11,1848, 
and was of that part of the road from Grand street, 
in New Haven, to Plainville, for twenty years, at a 
rental of $45,000 annually, with numerous other 
provisions and conditions. The road was to be de- 
livered when completed as far as Plainville. As be- 
fore stated, the road was delivered July i, 1849. 
The object of this lease was to compel a con- 
nection of the Hartford road with the New York 
road in the center of the city, instead of at the 
wharf of the Steamboat Company. 

The second, that of March 4, 1848, conveyed, 
by a perpetual lease, the property of the Company 
from Grand street, in New Haven, to the ('anal 
Basin, and included lands east of the canal, and 
four acres at the head of the basin; among other 
lots, one granted by the city to the New Haven 
and Northampton Company for the purpose of 
erecting a station-house (where the old depot now 
stands). By the terms of the lease, one track was 
reserved to the use of the Canal Company. 

These two leases have been regarded as mutually 
advantageous in general, though in some respects 
unfortunate for the lessor Company. 

The third lease was made February 16, 1850, of 
all the roads and franchises of the Company above 
Plainville. It will be recollected that the Canal 
Company had relied upon extending its road north- 
ward, to connect either at West Springfield with the 
Western Railroad, or at Pittsfield with the road 
there for Albany and the North. The Massachu- 
setts legislature refused the Springfield extension in 
1849, anil in 1850 it was again urged with all pros- 
pects of success. ]{ut opposition came from a 
most unexpected and deadly (juarter, the President 
of the Western Railway himself In despair the 
Company resorted to a lease to the New York road, 
hoping with iis aid and alliance to procure the 
needed extensions. The basis of the rental was a 
sum of $40,000 annually. 

Most serious charges were made by the Canal 
Company against the New Yivk roatl for the con- 
duct of its officers while it controlled these roads. 
It is claimetl that by treacherous violations of both 



the letter and the spirit of the leases, the Canal road 
was sacrificed to a rival road (the Hartford and 
New Haven) and to a rival locality. It was claimed 
that contracts were made secretly between the New 
York road and the Hartford road, which under- 
mined the whole purpose and spirit of these agree- 
ments. 

In the papers in a suit brought against the 
New York and New Haven Railroad Company 
by the Hartford and New Haven Railroad Com- 
pany, for breach of these very agreements, they 
are set forth. One of them, dated April 30,1849, 
provides that the Hartford road shall discontinue its 
line of day boats, and shall run all its trains, ex- 
cept one, into the Chapel street depot, instead of 
to the steamboat wharf. In another, the New York 
road undertakes to endeavor to prevent the further 
extension of the Canal road, and to prevent its com- 
petilionwith the Hartford road. In another, of March 
16, 1850, the New York road agrees not to book 
passengers to Hartford via Plainville and the Hart- 
ford, Providence and Fishkill road; the Hartford 
road on its part agreeing not to ticket to any point 
west of Hartford. Under date of April 16, 1850, in 
a modification of the former contract, the New York 
road agrees not to forfeit or give up its lease of the 
Canal road beyond Plainville, this for the purpose of 
preventing competition of the Canal road with the 
Hartford and New Haven. 

Some years later a mandamus was applied for 
by the Attorney for the .State against the Hartford 
and New Haven Railroad Company to compel it 
to run its trains to the steambcat wharf to accom- 
modate the public. By way of return, the Hartford 
road set up its contract of March 16, 1850, and its 
consideration, the agreement of the New York 
road to prevent the extension of the Canal road, 
and that the New York road insisted on holding it 
to its bargain not to run passenger trains to the 
steamboat wharf. The case being reserved for the 
Supreme Court, it was held that this return was 
insufficient, and that the contract with the New 
York road was void as against public policy.* 

The liabilities of the Northampton Company as 
they appeared in the balance sheet of June i, 1850, 
were as follows: 

Capital stock, 11,493 shares at 75 per 

cent $861,975 00 

Capital stock, 36 shares at 25 per 

cent 900 00 

7 per cent, bonds, due in 1869 500,000 00 

6 " " (now due) 12,00000 

5 " " due ill 1854 59.473 01 

Notes 59.043 05 

The old canal account was closed on the books 

at $389,493-56. 

From this time on until the exjiiration of the 
leases, July i, i86(), there is but little of importance 
to record. St)me forty-one miles were added to 
the road, and by 1870 it was opened to New Hart- 
ford and also to Williamsburgh (eight miles above 
Nordiampton). 

All throughout the duration of the leases bitter 
complaints of treachery and injustice were made 

* Slate 7'^. Hartford and New Haven Railroad Company, 39 Conn., 
p. 538. 



TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. 



3G5 



against the New York road for betraying ihe Canal 
road into the hands of iis rival, yet upon the truth 
or falsity of these charges it is not my place here 
to comment. 

'l"he road was left in a dilapidated condition by 
the lessees, and large expenditures were necessary 
to put it in a proper state of repair again. A suit 
was brought against the New York road for a share 
in the New Britain earnings, and for damages on 
account of violations of the Plainville lease by 
lormer officers of the New York road. At the time 
of the report of 1870 (the first since the leases), 
this suit was slill in Court. It was subsequently 
settled on payment of a few thousand dollars. 

In this same report it was stated that at a late 
session of the Legislature the people of Waterbury 
had succeeded in procuring a charter for a road to 
connect with Cheshire, one step toward a realization 
of the long dreamed of project of connecting New 
Haven with the Naugatuck Valley. This charter 
was granted in 1870, and the Company was incor- 
porated under the name of the Waterbury and 
Cheshire Railroad Company. Hopes were also 
entertained of a connection between Holyoke 
and Westfield, and of one with the Connecticut 
Western, then under contract. This same repoit 
says that the persistent efforts of the two principal 
railroads of the State (the New York and New 
Haven, and the Hartford and New Haven) to con- 
solidate, were at the last session of the Legislature 
for a third time defeated. 

The subsequent history of the road may be 
briefly given. The Holyoke and Westfield Rail- 
road, a little over eleven miles in length, has been 
leased to it in perpetuity. Two extensions were 
opened in 1881; one to North Adatns through the 
Hoosac Tunnel, over the Troy and Greenfield 
Railroad; and the other to Turner's Falls. The 
former gives a means of access to Albany, Troy, 
and Saratoga. In the same year a majority of the 
stock passed into the hands of the New York, New 
Haven and Hartford Railroad Company. 

The road is weighed down by an enormous 
funded and floating debt. The general balance 
sheet of September 30, 1884, shows the former to 
be $3,200,000; the capital stock to be $2,460,000; 
and the total liabilities to be $6,882,057.54. 

Mr. Charles N. Yeamans, of Westfield, Mass., 
is tlie President, and Mr. E. A. Ray, of New Haven, 
the Treasurer, Secretary and General Ticket Agent. 
There is a Board of nine Directors, five of whom 
are also Directors of the New York, New Haven 
and Hartford Railroad Company. 

It was not till after the Hartford and New Haven 
road had been in successful operation for some 
years that serious thought was given to a land con- 
nection of New York with New Haven by rail. 
Several steamboats were running regularly between 
these cities and the need of a railroad was not felt. 
Indeed, so many advantages were steamboats in 
those days thought to possess over railways, that the 
earlier railroads of Connecticut were built merely 
as means of access from the inland to the lines of 
Sound steamers. A railroad between places already 



served by a steamboat line was looked upon as a 
superfluity. 

By 1844, however, this view had changed, and 
the Legislature of Connecticut was asked for and 
granted a charter to the New York and New Haven 
Railroad Company. Foreinost in this enterprise, 
though it is not generally known, was Mr. Joseph 
E. Sheflield. Not long afterward he dissociated him- 
self from the undertaking, and the credit due him 
for giving it the first impetus is seldom awarded. 
It was he who procured the charter, subscribed 
for a majority of the stock, had the njad surveyed 
by Professor Twining, and paid most of the bills 
therefor. 

After the books had remained open for subscrip- 
tion for ten days, there were only three New Haven 
subscribers, one of whom was Judge Hitchcock. 

A grave obstacle to success, and one which un- 
doubtedly explains much of the apathy at the first 
inception of the plan, was that no means of access 
to New York City or through New York State had 
yet been granted. 

Arrangements were made by Mr. Sheflield and 
Judge Hitchcock to negotiate the stock in Eng- 
land with the Barings. The untimel}- death of 
Judge Hitchcock prevented this and nearly killed 
all hope of a completion of the project. 

An application to the New York Legislature in 
1845, to run to New York City, was unsuccessful 
on account of the determined opposition of the 
Harlem road and of the Westchester Turnpike 
Company. An agreement was finally reached 
with the Harlem road, almost on its own terms, 
in 1846, for which another, even more onerous, 
was substituted in 1848. One made with the 
Westchester Turnpike Company was ratified in 
July, 1S49. In May, 1846, the New York and 
New Haven Railroad was authorizetl to join with 
the Harlem road at or near Williams' Bridge. 

Among the Directors elected this year are the 
familiar names of Joseph E. Sheflield, Anson G. 
Phelps, Robert Schuyler, and Stephen Tomlinson. 

Indifference, however still reigned, and Mr. 
Sheflield disgusted with the lack of enterprise gave 
it up. Nevertheless he remained a stockholder in 
both the New York and New Haven and the Hart- 
ford and New Haven roads for some time longer. 

There was still nothing done until Mr. Alfred 
Bishop took hold of the matter. In the fidl of 
1846 he made a proposal to build the whole road 
under one contract, and later in the same year the 
contract was made with him and with Messrs. G. 
L. Schuyler and S. G. Miller. Mr. .Schuyler sub- 
sequently transferred his interest to Mr. Bishop. 
By December 31, 1846, the whole of the capital 
stock was subscribed. By the spring of the next 
year the line had been located and approved by the 
Commissioners. 

The line adopted was in the main that surveyed 
by Professor Twining, except from the Harlem 
Junction to New Rochelle, the entrance into 
Bridgeport, and the entrance to New Haven. Pro- 
fessor Twining's line was run to a point on the 
western edge of the head of the harbor, and from 
thence was indefinite, except that it contemplated 



306 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



crossing the Harbor and the Canal Basin on piles, 
and running along the shoal water to the Hartford 
road. It was thought much better to adopt the 
canal route, and it was decided to enter the city on 
the east bank of the canal. This plan was later 
abandoned, in consequence of the agreement of 
1848 with the New Haven and Northampton Com- 
pany already referred to, and an entrance by way 
of the bed of the canal determined upon. 

It will be remembered that one of the three 
leases convejed lands south of Chapel street to 
be used for the purpose of building a station- 
house. Upon these was erected what is now 
known as the Old Depot, which was used as a 
passenger station by the principal roads of the 
city, until the building of the new depot at the 
foot of Meadow street in 1874. Admirers of that 
artistic structure may be interested in the allu- 
sion to it made in the report of the Board of 
Directors in 1849. 

The liberal treatment and hiijh consideration extended to 
this Company by the Government and intelligent citizens of 
New Haven, have induced the only departure from a strict 
rule of economy in the construction of the road which had 
been adopted by the Directors, and have led to the erec- 
tion of a station-house, from a design of a popular architect 
of the city, of more ornament and elegance than would 
otherwise have been built. 

The clock was presented by an owner of one of 
the adjoining buildings. 

There were further delays, which prevented the 
completion of the road until the winter of 1849. 

Additional arrangements were made with the Har- 
lem road in 1S49 concerning the payment for the 
transit of trains over the Harlem tracks and the 
rates for the haulage of cars into New York City. 
These are still in force. 

At that time, and for several years afterward, the 
passenger station in New York was at Canal street, 
and the cars were drawn by horses into the city. 
The car houses were at Forty-second street. 

By April 30, 1849, the long pending negotiations 
with the Hartford road ended in a contract. The 
substance of this has already been given, relating 
chiefly to the discontinuance of day trains to the 
steamboat landing anti to the fare to be charged 
bv the night boats. Facilities were to be given 
the Hartford road for its business, at the station- 
house in New Haven. In consideration of these 
agreements the New York road was to pay $20,000 
annually for five years — $10,000 to the Hartford 
Railroad Company and $10,000 to the Connecti- 
cut River Steamboat Company. 

The cost of the road and equipment was 
$2,701,879.13, exceeding the original estimate by 
$201,879.13. The fares were made very low: 
$1.50 from New Haven to New York, and fifty 
cents from Bridgeport, on account of the steam- 
boat competition. 

In the years 1853-55, the road was subjected to 
two most crucial tests of its stability and endur- 
ance. Two calastruphes, either of which alone 
might well overwhelm a less vigorous road, fol- 
lowed each other almost within a year, and 
threatened the road's very existence. 

Tlie first was what is usually spoken of as the 



" Norwalk Disaster." On the 6th of May, 1853, 
a train heavily laden with passengers, many of 
them delegates returning from a medical conven- 
tion held at New York, on its way to New Haven 
plunged through an open draw into the Norwalk 
River. Forty-four persons met instant death, one 
died a few days later in consequence of injuries 
then received, and many were seriously injured. 
Attempts have been made to make a mystery of 
this accident and its cause, but, according to the 
best obtainable authority, it was caused by noth- 
ing more than a flagrant breach of orders on the 
part of the engineer and conductor in disregarding 
the draw-signal, which was plainly visible. The 
conductor, Comstock, was subsequently indicted 
for manslaughter, but never convicted. The heavy 
claims for damages prevented the payment of the 
dividend for that year which the earnings would 
have warranted, and absorbed the sum of $252,- 
31 1.50. Forty of the claims for those killed were 
settled, two were in negotiation, and two were in 
suit at the time of the report for 1854. Most of the 
claims for injuries were settled. 

The second calamity was the defalcation of the 
President, Robert Schuyler, who had been at the 
head of the road ever since its organization in 
1846. He was a member of the firm of R. it G. 
L. Schuyler, bankers and brokers of New York, 
and ranked among the foremost of New York's 
capitalists. Up to the very moment of discovery 
he had been regarded as a man of the highest 
ability and honor, and held positions of trust in 
several of the most important Eastern railroads. 
In the New York road he was Transfer Agent as 
well as President, and this former office gave him 
the opportunity to carry out his designs. 

The suspension of dividends in consequence of 
the Norwalk accident had caused a fall in the stock 
of the road in 1854, from 85 on June 23d to 79 
July ist, and to 69 July 3d. Upon an examination 
of the books to see who were selling, suspicions 
were aroused, and it was discovered that false cer- 
tificates of stock to the amount of $1,000,000 had 
been issued to the firm of R. & G. L. Schuj'ler, 
and by it pledged as collateral to raise money. 
There had been no check upon Mr. Schuyler ex- 
cept his honor, and the non-payment of dividends 
gave him the chance to issue certificates in unlim- 
ited quantities without exciting suspicion. On 
July 3, 1S54, he wrote a letter to the Directors re- 
signing his oflices. calling attention to the state of 
the books, saying that much would be found there 
that was wrong, and exonerating his brother from 
blame. He himself disappeared from public view, 
is thought to have lived for some time in New 
York in concealment, and to have died abroad 
soon afterward. 

Bill his acts plunged the road into a limitless sea 
of litigation. One suit was brought by the road 
itself, called the "Omnibus Suit," against over 
three hundreil defendants, for the purpose of hav- 
ing the spurious stock .separated from the good, 
and of settling several other (piestions. The Courts 
had held that as the corporation itself had no 
power to increase its stock, u fortiori, its agent, 



TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. 



367 



unauthorized, could not, and therefore these cer- 
tificates were void. Subsequently it was held that 
the Company was liable for its negligence in allow- 
ing its operations to be so carelessly managed, and 
was under an obligation to pay the amounts on 
which the stock had been issued, by way of dam- 
ages. Much of this litigation was settled on the 
basis of one good for two bogus shares; the rest 
was litigated to the end and recovery had against 
the Company. A Connecticut case illustrates one 
phase of the subject. * 

The heavy expenses to which the Company was 
put in consequence of this litigation, and the dam- 
ages which it was forced to pay, necessitated an ap- 
|ilication to the Legislature for assistance in some 
direction. In 1855 the Company was empowered 
to issue §3,000,000 of mortgage bonds for the pur- 
pose of retiring the old bonds and securing and 
paying just claims. $800,000 of 6 per cent, bonds 
were issued in the same year, payable October i, 
1875, and holders of unsecured 7 per cent, bonds 
were allowed to exchange them for the secured 6 
per cent. 

In the same year the Directors of the road were 
authorized, for the express purpose of adjusting the 
claims against it arising out of the Schuyler trans- 
actions, to increase the capital stock of the Com- 
pany by an amount not exceeding the sum of two 
millions of dollars. 

In these ways the emergency was bridged over, 
yet it was some time before the road recovered 
from these two shocks. In 1857 it attempted to 
again pay dividends, but was served with two in- 
junctions. These were subsecpiently dissolved. 

In this year the Company determined to rid itself 
of the heavy loss incurred by the haulage of cars 
through New York to the Canal street station. 
Arrangements were made with tiie Harlem road for 
the use of one-half of the square on Fourth avenue 
between Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh streets, 
now known as Madison Square Garden. The 
building of a depot was begun in February of this 
year. 

The road was now in successful operation again, 
diough ils debts were still heavy, the bond account 
standing at $2,159,500. The losses on the Canal 
ri_)ad extension showed a considerable decrease 
Irom those of the year preceding. 

In 1S67, Mr. William D. Bishop, of Bridgeport, 
was elected President, and under his wise and 
far-sighted management, those plans of consolida- 
tion were consummated whose beneficent eflects 
on both the contracting railroads and the public 
have been so marked. 

As has been slated, the efforts of the New York 
and New Haven road, and of the Hartford and 
New Haven road to consolidate had been defeated 
by tlie opposition of other railroads for some time. 
The inconvenience of a separate management of 
two roads so intimately related by the necessities 
of position; the inharmonious clashings of interest 
and opinion, which inevitably did and would arise, 
and the economy of one set of officials over two, 

* Bridgeport Bank vs. New York and New Haven Railroad, 30 
Conn., 231. 



made this union appear most desirable. The con- 
venience to and safety of the public further de- 
manded a unity of management. 

On the 3d of August, 1870, the railroads entered 
into perpetual covenants and agreements for a 
union, which were ratified by a unanimous vote of 
the stockholders of the Hartford and New Haven 
road, and by a vote, almost unanimous, of the 
stockholders of the New York and New Haven road. 

In 1 87 1 a public act was passed by the Connecti- 
cut Legislature giving to the Hartford and New 
Haven road power to merge its corporate existence 
into that of the New York and New Haven Com- 
pany, and empowering the Directors of these two 
railroads to enter into valid agreements for the con- 
ditions and terms of the consolidation. The act 
further provided that when this agreement should 
be ratified by the stockholders of each, the consoli- 
dated corporation should continue a body politic 
and corporate under the name of the New York, 
New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company.* 
The railroads were finally consolidated by the ac- 
tion of both companies August 6, 1872. April 5, 
1872, a similar act of authorization was passed by 
the State of Massachusetts. 

The Shore Line Railway had been leased on 
November i, 1870, to the New York and New Haven 
Railroad Company at an annual rental of $100,000. 
The lease was transferred to the consolidated Com- 
pany as successor to the rights of the lessee. The 
three principal railroads entering New Haven there- 
upon came under one management, an arrange- 
ment which had become a virtual necessity. 

Very little of moment- remains to be said as to 
the history of this railroad since the consolidation, 
except that there has been a steady increase in the 
improvement of the road and equipment, in the 
accommodation of the public, and the amount of 
freight and passengers carried. The new depot 
was built in 1874, and was first used as a passen- 
ger station in that year. 

In 1879, Mr. Bishop, whose health had given 
way under the strain to which his most valuable 
and honorably performed services to the road had 
subjected him, resigned from the presidency of it 
and Mr. George H. Watrous, of New Haven, was 
elected to fill his place. Mr. Watrous abandoned 
a successful law practice to take the position, and 
has held it up to this time. Mr. E. M. Reed is the 
road's Vice-President, and Mr. O. M. Shepard its 
General Superintendent. 

The Boston and New York Air Line Railroad 
passed into the control of this C'ompany on the ist 
of C)ctober, 1882, it having been operated since 
February, 1879, under an agreement between the 
two companies. By the new arrangement the road 
was leased for a term of ninety-nine years to the 
New York, New Haven and Hartford road on a 
rental sufiicient to pay a 4 per cent, semi-annual 
dividend on the preferred stock, and the interest 
on the bonds and taxes. 

In 1 88 1, the New York, New Haven and Hart- 
ford road acquired a majority of the stock of the 
New Haven and Northampton Company. It is 

*■ Public Acts of Connecticut, 1871, Chap. 129. 



308 



HISTORY OF THE CTTV OF NEW HAVEN. 



understood that this step was deemed highly desir- 
able by the Directors, to protect both the road and 
the public from the evils of a threatened parallel 
road from Boston to New York, which scheme in- 
volved the use of the road of the Canal Company 
as a connecting link in the chain. 

One of the first roads thought of for shortening 
the ilistance from New York to Boston was the New 
York, Providence and Boston. The history of this 
road is of but little interest to New Haveners, ex- 
cept as it forms an important part of the Shore 
Line route to Boston, and as it is one of the 
earliest roads of the State. A report on the survey 
of a route from Stonington to Rhode Island was 
made in March, 1832. The Connecticut petition 
was dated January 4, 1832, and a charter of e.\- 
traordinary liberality was granted. 

Another early projected route between New York 
and Boston was that by way of Middletown and 
Willimantic. A company was chartered in 1846 
to run a railroad over this route, under the name 
of the New York and Boston Railroad Company. 
Efforts to build the road were attended with un- 
usual difficulty, so says the report of this Company 
in 1850, on account of the unscrupulous opposi- 
tion of a leading city of the State (Hartford) and 
of the opposition of the railroad and steamboat 
companies. The charter allowed the Company to 
build though the towns of Middletown and Wind- 
ham to the east line of the State, and to make law- 
ful contracts for the operation of its road in con- 
nection with other roads. The capital stock was to 
be $2,000,000, with the privilege of increasing it to 
$3,000,000. 

By 1855 a report was made by the engineer, 
Mr. T. W. Pratt, to the Company. He states that 
the Commissioners in the three States of Connect- 
icut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts have ap- 
proved of the entire line, and that these separate 
corporations have been empowered to unite into 
one. The subscription to the whole project was 
then $1,000,000. Considerable work was done 
under this charter, though the road was not com- 
I)leted. 

In 1S67 another charter was granted for a rail- 
road over this route, under the name of the New 
Haven, Middletown and Willimantic Railroad 
Company. This Company bought out the interests 
of the old Company. 'I'he charter given was a 
liberal one, and subsequent amendments authorized 
loans of credit by the towns through which the 
route ran, and stock subscriptions on the part of 
some of them. The road was opened in 1 873. 

In 1875 'he road was sold under foreclosure; the 
bonds exchanged for new stock; and a new corpo- 
ration chartered under the title "of the Boston and 
New York Air Line Railroad, the present name. 
The later fortunes of this ill-starred mad have been 
spoken of under the head of the New York, New 
Haven and Hanford Railroad Company 

The same reasons which delayed the appearance 
of the New \'ork and New Haven Railroad, o]»er- 
aled in ihe same manner to prevent the construc- 



tion of a road out of New Haven eastward — that 
is, the early popular preference for steamboat over 
railway traveling. 

When the New York and New Haven project 
was fairly under wav, it was seen that by a continu- 
ance of the line along the coast, a route, pleasant 
and fairly direct might be carried through to Bos- 
ton, by a connection between the already con- 
structed roads, the New York and New Haven on 
the one hand, and the New York, Providence and 
Boston on the other. As has been said, this latter 
road was one of the first in the State, having been 
chartered in 1832. With this object in view, the 
New Haven and New London Railroad Company 
was chartered in 1848, to run a road from some 
suitable point in the City of New Haven, across the 
Connecticut River, to some suitable point in the 
City of New London. The capital stock was to 
be $500,000, with the privilege of increasing it by 
$1,000,000. Authority was not given however to 
bridge the Connecticut River. A further resolution 
associated Dennis Kimberly, James Brewster, and 
others with the original corporators. 

The next year authority was given to borrow a 
sum not exceeding $450,000. In 1854 further 
authority was given to issue, to the amount of 
$100,000, bonds bearing interest at 10 per cent. 
The road was opened in July, 1852. 

In this same year the New London and Stoning- 
ton Railroad Company was chartered to run from 
a point in the town of Groton, on the east bank of 
the Thames, to the terminus of the New York, 
Providence and Boston Railroad at Stonington. 

In 1856 the Legislature authorized a consolida- 
tion of the New Haven and New London Railroad 
Company and the New Lonilon and Stonington 
Railroad Company, under the name of the New 
Haven, New London and Stonington Railroad 
Company. The road considering itself ill-treated 
as to its facilities fordoing business in New Haven, 
ai)plied, in 1859, to Judge Butler for a man- 
damus to compel the New York and New Haven 
road to give it facilities equal to those which the 
Hartford road enjoyed. The contracts of that road 
with the Hartford road were set up, but the per- 
emptory writ was granted. 

The holders of the first mortgage 7 per cent, 
bonds of the New Haven and New Lonilon Rail- 
road Company were in June, 1864, incorpo- 
rated, under the title of the Shore Line Railway, 
with all the powers conferred upon the New Haven 
and New London road. The Company was em- 
powered to buy of the trustees all the property 
and franchises conveyed to them, whenever the 
title should have become absolute after foreclosure. 
The Company was organized after this plan, and 
has ever since existed as the Shore Line Railway. 
The later history of the ro.id, so far as important, 
and its relations to the New York and New Haven 
road, have already been given. 

In this same year, 184S, the New Haven, Dan- 
bury and Erie Railroad Company was chartereil by 
Connecticut to connect with the Erie Railroad in 
New York, but the road was never built. 



TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. 



369 



The story of New Haven's latest and only re- 
maining railroad involves a chapter of history 
which it is not pleasurable to recall. 

The charter of the Naugatuck Railroad, granted 
in 1 84 5, authorized the Company to build its rail- 
road "from some suitable point in the town of 
Plymouth, or in the town of Waterbury, to Derliy, 
and thence to the City of New Haven, or to the town 
of Milford, or to the town of Bridgeport," etc. 

In the next year the New Haven and Northamp- 
ton Company was authorized to build its road. 
As said before, the design of that Company was to 
build a branch from Waterbury to Cheshire, and in 
that way to divert the trade of the Naug:aluck Val- 
ley to New Haven. A clause permitting such a 
branch was put into the proposed bill, and a peti- 
tion for it was largely signed by the people of Wa- 
terbury and Winsted. The people of Bridgeport, 
Birmingham, and Ansonia seeing the apathy ot our 
wealthy citizens in this cause, enlisted the support 
of others among them, and persuaded, by private 
negotiations, the Waterbury delegation to the Leg- 
islature to withhold the petition, under the assur- 
ance that the Naugatuck road should run by way 
of Derby and end at New Haven. To the amaze- 
ment of all interested in the Canal road, to whom 
the.se arrangements were unknown, the clause au- 
thorizing this branch to Cheshire was stricken out. 

While the Naugatuck road was building, Mr. 
Alfred Bishop, the contractor, made a liberal prop- 
osition to the New Haven people. He promised 
that the road would be built to New Haven, and 
that place be made the terminus, if its citizens 
would subscribe for $75,000 of the capital stock. 
Partly through a preference of some citizens for 
the Cheshire plan, and partly through the pure 
inertia of others, the proposal was not accepted. 
With a blindness almost incredible, the citizens 
of New Haven sacrificed the rich trade of the 
Naugatuck Valle}-, and when their eyes became 
opened to the enormity of their blunder, tried to 
make amends by sacrificing themselves to the 
Derby Railroad. 

All of the added prosperity which Bridgeport has 
received by reason of the Naugatuck road might 
have been New Haven's. And if capitalists had 
but advanced the trifling sum of $75,000, they 
would have been well repaid by an ownership to 
that extent in a ten percent, dividend paying road. 
Instead of this, our city as a municipality, and our 
citizens, have burdened themselves by many times 
this amount with little prospect of any return in 
the near future. 

The New Haven and Derby Railroad, which 
was built for the purpose of tapping the Nauga- 
tuck Valley, and of regaining that which had 
been so foolishly lost, was incorporated in 1864, 
among the corporators being Cornelius S. Bush- 
nell, Henry Dutton, N. D. Sperry, and Charles 
Peterson. The capital stock was placed at $500,- 
000, with a limit of $700,000 at the pleasure of 
the Company. Three years were given from the 
passage of the act within which to expend $100,- 
000, and five years in which to put the road into 
operation. 

17 



In June, 1867, an Act of the Legislature, upon 
the petition of the City of New Haven, authorized 
the city to subscribe for and take two thousand 
shares of the capital stock of the road, and to 
borrow $200,000 at a rate of not over seven per 
cent, annually, for the purpose of paying for the 
stock. This however on the condition that so long 
as the city remained a stockholder, the Mayor and 
one Alderman, to be annually elected by the Com- 
mon Council of New Haven, shall be Directors in 
the road. At stockholders' meetings the city was 
to have one vote for every four shares of stock it 
owned. The resolution was to take effect when 
it should have been approved by a special vote of 
the freemen of the city. The stock was subscribed 
to by the city in accordance with this plan. 

On the 25th of January, 1S69, three votes were 
passed by the freemen of the city concerning a 
loan of credit to the railroad. These were subse- 
quently confirmed by the Legislature, and the city 
was given the power to guarantee the second 
mortgage bonds of the Company to the extent of 
$225,000. The mortgage was made to the city. 
With all this aid the road has never been a pros- 
perous one. It a was very expensive one to build, 
and it was too late in the day to get the cream of 
the Naugatuck Valley business. It was opened to 
Ansonia, thirteen miles, on August 1, 1871. 

The capital stock authorized by vote of the Com- 
pany was $457,000, of which 4,466 full shares, 
paid in with cash, were issued. The general bal- 
ance sheet of September, 1884, shows liabilities to 
the amount of $1, 164,859.44, including a debt to 
the City of New Haven of $75,000. The city at 
that time had paid out over $200,000 as interest 
on the guaranteed bonds. Taking these items 
together, it is seen that the "Little Derby ' has 
proved quite an expensive pet. 

Besides the part which the Derby road has played 
in the development of the city in the line of its 
legitimate business, it has entered very largely as 
an element into many of the speculative schemes 
for building a road from New Haven to New York 
as a "parallel" to the New York and New Haven 
Road. 

The Derby road runs directly west from the city 
and in the most natural unoccupied line between 
it and New York. It has also the advantage of a 
good entrance into New Haven, and good termi- 
nal facilities, so that nearly all of these plans have 
contemplated its co-operation. 

Avery brief sketch of some of these projects may 
not be without interest. 

The idea of paralleling first became prominent 
in 1866. The New York and New Haven road wa^ 
then unpopular, especially in Fairfield County, and 
it was maintained, perhaps not without cause, and 
at least with apparent honesty, that the public con- 
venience was not satisfactorily consulted, and that 
public needs required additional facilities. In that 
year a petition of Mr. Camp, and others, of Nor= 
walk, was presented to the Legislature for a charter 
for a parallel road. The marketing of land entered 
somewhat into this plan, as it has always done in 
later ones, yet the petitioners §e?ni to h-ive been 



370 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



sincere. The petition was defeated that year, as 
well as in the two subsequent ones. In 1869 the 
biggest fight of all took pilace and the petition was 
again defeated. For a year or two the matter 
slumbered. 

The General Railroad Law of 1S71 partly covered 
the points especially desired by the friends of the 
" Parallel;" it included, however, no power to 
build bridges over navigable waters, and in 1874 
this road, organized under the General Law, with 
the name of the New York and Eastern Railroad, 
petitioned for authority to bridge the Housatonic 
River. When, in 1871, the existing roads agreed 
to withdraw all opposition to the General Rail- 
road Law, on condition that no opposition should 
be made to the consolidation of the old com- 
panies, the power to bridge navigable streams was 
purposely left out of the law, it being understood 
that if any parallel road were built it should be 
built bv way of Derby, and should be no nearer to 
the old line. The old road therefore looked upon 
this petition as a violation of faith, and so clearly 
were the speculative designs of the new road, and 
its utter want of ability to stand fairly upon its feet 
and face the public, brought out, that the petition 
was not granted. Three or four successive at- 
tempts to organize and get started under the Gen- 
eral Law were made without success. 

Mr. S. E. Olmstead and his son-in-law were in 
all or most of these projects. 

Before the Derby road was completed, a corpo- 
ration was chartered under the name of the New 
England and Erie Railroad Company, having 
among its corporators many of those already em- 
barked in the Derby enterprise. This road was to 
run through Derby and Danbury to the New York 
State line, there to connect with another company's 
line which crossed the Hudson. This was in 1868. 
In 1870 these three companies were authorized to 
consolidate. The New England and Erie it is 
needless to say has never been built. 

In 1882 the Jewell petition for a special charter 
came up for action,cIaiming to have no connection 
with any of the "old parallel" schemes, though 
making use of the same line. In connection with 
this petition there were certain revelations made, 
from which it appeared that there was at the bot- 
tom of it a "construction company" and a specu- 
lative scheme of the worst possible form. The 
petition was not granted, but the General Railroad 
Law was amended so as to give the power to 
bridge navigable waters, and to give increased privi- 
leges concerning the issuing of bonds. 

Some of the latest "parallel" roads are known 
as the New York and Connecticut Air Line Rail- 
road, the Hartford and Harlem Railroad, and the 
New York and Boston Inland Railroad. These 
companies are either dead or in their last gasps. 
Into details it is unnecessaay to enter. 

It may in general be said of the various "par- 
allel " plans that many who at first upheld them 
are now proteslants against them, and that as a 
rule they have passed into the hands of New York 



and Boston speculators. Some of them were in- 
spired by an honest belief in the necessity for fur- 
ther accommodations; some were for the purpose of 
enriching their promoters through the agency of 
construction companies; and some were black- 
mailing schemes of the worst description. 

It would give an inadequate idea of NewHaven's 
traveling facilities, were all mention omitted of her 
horse railroads, by which she is well served in ail 
directions. 

The oldest, most useful, and most prosperous of 
these roads is the Fair Haven and Westville. A 
charter of great liberality conferred upon this Com- 
pany, in i860, the power to build a railroad be- 
tween these two villages as termini, with a number 
of lateral branches extending to nearly every quarter 
of the city. Most of these have been since built, 
and the Company now has, in addition to its direct 
line, a road to the steamboat wharf, a branch from 
the corner of State and Chapel street to the new 
depot, and a branch up West Chapel street. Un- 
der the presidency of Mr. Hoadley B. Ives the 
road is ably managed to the satisfaction of both 
stockholders and the public. 

The New Haven and West Haven road, and the 
New Haven and Centreville road, were both incor- 
porated in 1865. The former used to run from 
Church street by way of Congress avenue to West 
Haven. It now runs past the new depot, rejoining 
the old route in Howard avenue. The latter ran 
from Broadway, in New Haven, to Centreville. It 
has since been extended, via Elm and Church 
streets, to the corner of Church and Chapel streets. 

At this point now center all the horse railroads 
of the city; the remaining ones being the State 
street Horse Railroad, chaitered in 1868, and in 
1871 authorized to extend to Chapel street by way 
of Elm and Church; the New Haven and Ailing- 
town Horse Railroad, whose first charter was given 
in 1872, and which is now known as the Sylvan 
avenue Horse Railroad; and the Whitney avenue 
Horse Railway Company, running to Lake Whit- 
ney. 

An attempt has been made in this chapter to 
present a sketch, merely, of the facilities for trans- 
portation which New Haven has enjoyed during 
her existence as a city. Occasionally when local 
interest or clearness seemed to demand it, more at- 
tention has been given to details. It is not pre- 
tended, however, that it is in all respects complete; 
especially is this true as to the enumeration of the 
stage-coach and packet lines. The intention of 
the writer has been, more particularly, to empha- 
size the successive steps in the development of our 
present transportational system. 

The inlluence of railroads and steamboats upon 
the business, commerce, and prosperity of our city 
has been too apparent to call for further comment. 
For matters of pure statistics the reader is referred 
to the reports of the companies themselves and of 
the Railroad Commissioners, 





cyyyuye/ Qy 




CUA^ 



Tc 




I 






t ^ 



n 



TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. 



371 



BIOGRAPHIES. 



EDWARD MORDECAI REED 

was born in Lancaster County, Pa., on the 17th of 
November, 182 1. For two generations at least, his 
ancestors had been residents of the Keystone State. 
His father followed at first the occupation of an 
architect and builder, but afterwards cultivated a 
farm. 

Mr. Reed attended the common schools of his 
native place, and from his earliest years manifested 
a strong predilection for the study of mechanics and 
machinery. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed 
to a machinist in Lancaster City, and worked in the 
foundry and machine-shop owned by Boone & 
Cockley. He mastered the details of his profession 
so rapidly that, when only twenty years of age, he 
was made general foreman of the establishment. 

Early in 1843, he began his long experience in 
railroading, by serving as a locomotive engineer on 
the Baltimore and Ohio Railway. In 1845, he re- 
ceived an appointment under the Philadelphia and 
Reading Railroad Company, as master of machinery 
in the Port Richmond shops at Philadelphia. In 
the same year, Mr. Reed accepted a call to Havana, 
Cuba, where he was placed in charge of the ma- 
chinery and of the operation of the Havana and 
Guines Railway. 

Three years later he left the West Indies, and 
came to Connecticut. He obtained here the re- 
sponsible position of master mechanic for the Hart- 
ford and New Haven Railway Company, and has 
since remained a citizen of our State. He was ap- 
pointed Superintendent of the Hartford road in 
1853, and retained that place until 1872. In the 
latter year the Hartford and New York Railway 
Companies were united, under the general title of 
the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad 
Company, and Mr. Reed was advanced to the 
General Superintendency of the consolidated road. 
Two years later he was chosen Vice-President of 
the road, which position he still holds. 

Mr. Reed is by profession a civil and mechanical 
engineer. He has built a large number of stationary 
engines and locomotives, and has designed and 
erected many bridges and buildings. He has been 
prominently instrumental in raising our principal 
means of communication to its present prosperous 
state, and Yale College, in 1885, recognized his 
public services and scientific attainments by bestow- 
ing upon him the honorary degree of A.M. 

JAMES A. DAVIS, 

for some years the lessee and operator of the Whit- 
ney avenue Horse Railroad, is known as well for 
his identification as a brick-maker and otherwise, 
with New Haven's manufacturing industry. 

He is a son of Edward and Betsey (Augur) Davis, 
and was born in Hamden, June 6, 1844. His 
younger years were passed in doing his part on his 
father's farm and gaining the rudiments of an edu- 



cation in the common schools. Later he was a 
student for a time in the private school of Professor 
Edwin Robbins, on State street. New Haven. 

Mr. Davis became a resident of New Plaven in 
1872, at which time he began business as a con- 
tractor on public and private improvements. About 
ten years ago, in partnership with William J. At- 
waier and William E. Davis (his brother), he es- 
tablished the New Haven Concrete Company, in 
which he is still a stockholder. The firm of Will- 
iam E. Davis & Co. (consisting of William E. and 
James A. Davis) was organized in i88;>, and with 
yards in Hamden and office in Grand street, en- 
tered extensively upon the manufecture of brick. 
Mr. Davis is also a member of the firm of C. B. & 
J. A. Davis, contractors, Holyoke, Mass., and one 
of the proprietors of a large boarding and sales 
stable in the same city, of which his cousin, C. 
B. Davis, is manager. His lease of the Whitney 
avenue Horse Railroad dates from October, 1877. 

Mr. Davis is Republican politically. He is 
identified with the Whitneyville Congregational 
Church. 

He was married January 6, 1875, to Miss S. E. 
Parks, of Bridgeport. 

HON. W. W. WARD. 

Among the prominent business men of New 
Haven and vicinity at the beginning of the, present 
century were four brothers, Henry, Thomas, James 
and Jacob Ward, all seafaring men. Thomas and 
Henry Ward were extensively engaged in shipping 
general export merchandise from New Haven and 
West Haven to the West Indies, with a large ware- 
house at West Haven Eour Corners, and store- 
hou.ses and other shipping facilities at Long Wharf 
An incident connected with this period of their 
business career was the following: On one occa- 
sion, during the War of 181 2, Jacob Ward accom- 
panied Thomas and Henry Ward to New York by 
row-boat to buy a brig. On their way the trio 
stopped over night at Hart's Island, and resuming 
their journey, after rowing several hours discovered 
that their money (a considerable sum) which had 
been carried by Thomas was missing. Returning 
to Hart's Island, they were overjoyed to find it 
under a pillow in the hotel, where it had been 
placed for safe keeping the previous night. About 
1835, the Ward Brothers lost property to the 
amount of some $70,000 by a fire at Long 
Wharf 

The only male representative of this old and 
honorable family in West Haven is Mr. W. W. 
Ward, whose name heads this article. He was 
born in West Haven in 1830, a son of Jacob and 
Henrietta (Kimberley)Ward. His early life was 
passed on liis father's place and in the common 
schools, where he recieved the basis of his practical 
education. He passed his early manhood in var- 
ious kinds of business with satisfactory success, 



sn 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



and in 1867 became the Superintendent of the 
New Haven and West Haven Horse Railroad 
Company, since which time he has managed the 
business of that corporation with success and to 
the satisfaction of the stockholders and the public. 

Republican in politics, Mr. Ward has never 
been a politician in the usual acceptation of the 
term, and has never sought or willingly consented 
to accept office of any kind. A few years ago, 
however, he was prevailed upon to become a can- 
didate for Representative in the Legislature of 
Connecticut. His election followed, and his term 
of office was passed in such a manner that he won 
the approbation of his constituents, his party, and 
the public. He declined renomination and has 
since devoted his time exclusively to the interests of 
his business. Though taking a deep interest in 
public affairs and in the public good, he is suffi- 
ciently disinterested to wish simply the greatest 
good to the greatest number, without regard to his 
own personal interests. 

Reared in the Episcopal Church, he has all his 
life inclined to that denomination, and has been 
for years a member of Christ's Church of West 
Haven. His standing in business and commercial 
circles is deservedly high. 

Mr. Ward's brothers, George, Minott, and Israel 
K. Ward, were well-known in various walks in 
life. George was a seafaring man and is now a 
resident of Florida; Minott Ward was, during his 
life, a sea captain, and was lost ofi" Cape Hatteras 
on March 31, 1865; Israel K. Ward was prom- 
inently connected with the banking interests of New 
Haven, and was highly respected by a wide circle 
of acquaintances. He was Cashier and for twenty- 
five years connected with the .Second National 
Bank of New Haven. He died in 18S3. 

Mr. Ward's sister, Louisa, married Adrian C. 
Hickmann, and is living in West Haven. 

GEORGE H. WATROUS. 

Although the family of Mr. Watrous was origi- 
nally of Connecticut extraction, he is by birth a son 
of the Keystone State. 

George Henry Watrous first saw the light on the 
26th of April, 1829, in Bridgewater, Pa. While 
he was yet an infant the family removed to Conk- 
lin, N. Y. As Mr. Watrous approached the age 
of manhooti, he determined to leave the paternal 
farm and to obtain an education. The studies 
preparatory for college were completed at Homer 
Academy in Cortland County, N. Y., a school 
whose excellence won for it a high rank among 
educational institutions. In 1850 he began his 
collegiate career by joining the Sophomore Class 
of Madison University. The next year brought 
him to New Haven and to Yale, where he entered 
the Class of 1853 in its Junior year. Graduating 
with honor in the ensuing year, he decided to de- 
vote himself to the law, and at once commenced a 
two years' course at the Yale Law School. Through- 
out this time of professional study he was depend- 
ent, in part, upon his own resources, and was em- 
ployeil as instructor of Greek in General Russell's 



School. A story is related of him while thus en- 
gaged, which is strikingly indicative of those char- 
acteristics that have contributed to his success in 
subsequent life. The Baptist Church, near General 
Russell's School, had a tall steeple, whose instabil- 
ity under heavy winds periodically frightened the 
neighborhood. During a Greek recitation the 
.scholars saw the steeple swaying, and cried out in 
fright, "Look, look, the steeple is falling!" Mr. 
Watrous quietly replied, "That is not in your les- 
son; go on! " 

For about a year after receiving the degree of LL. B. 
he was in the law-office of the Hon. Henry B. Har- 
rison, and with him and Mr. Charles L. English 
was active in forming the Republican party through- 
out the State. Of that party he has remained to 
this day a consistent and influential member. In 
February, 1857, Mr. Watrous left the office of 
Governor Harrison and formed a partnership with 
the late Governor Henry Button, a combinatir>n 
which endured until 1S60, when Governor Button 
was elevated to the Supreme Bench of the State. 
The legal alliance with him introduced Mr. Watrous 
to the responsibilities of a large practice and de- 
termined the trend of his future study. The new 
firm was Counsel for the New York and New Haven 
Railway Company, and Mr. Watrous made a speci- 
alty of corporation law and of the relations of rail- 
way corporations in particular. The bulk of his 
professional labor has been performed, therefore, 
in civil causes and in suits relating to both munic- 
ipal and commercial corporations He has not 
sought engagements in criminal causes, but has 
been retained for the defense in three somewhat 
celebrated capital cases, the most prominent of 
which was the famous Hayden trial. 

After Mr. Button became a Judge, Mr. Watrous 
took sole charge of the business that had belonged 
to the firm, and remained alone at the head of his 
large and increasing practice until 1879. I^^''- 
Watrous' intellectual acumen and comprehensive 
mental grasp won for him honorable distinction in 
every department of the law to which he addressed 
himself, and his superiority within his chosen speci- 
alty was speedily recognized. After 1864 the office 
of Counsel to the Corporation of the Hartford 
road was added to the previous trust of a similar 
nature under the New York and New Haven Cor- 
poration. His influence aided in the consolidation 
of the two roads, which occurred in 1872, and he 
naturally succeeded to the very responsible office 
of Counsel to the newly-formed corporation. 

In 1879, that corporation, in which he had been 
a Director since 1875, duly acknowledged his 
merit and crowned his services by electing him to 
the presidency of the consolidated road. There is 
no executive office in New England which carries 
with it more burden.some responsibilities, or de- 
mands a more accurate knowledge of men and a 
more patient fidelity. President Watrous has dis- 
charged each and every one of these obligations in 
a manner which proves him to be a thorougly 
efficient executive oflicer, and which has secured 
for him the respect of all classes in the community. 
Under his management New Haven's communica- 





I;;| 



THE POST OFFICE. 



373 



tions with the outside world have been arranged to 
the satisfaction of the business world; the local over- 
sight of the road has been carefully intrusted to 
competent officers; and the firm resolution and 
ready observation of the President have succeeded 
in materially extending the system of roads over 
which he rules, and in insuring its security and 
prosperity. 

Mr. Watrous' name has become a familiar fea- 
ture in the management of many of New Haven's 
public institutions. Besides an interest in many 
of the roads that belong to the "consolidated" 
system, or are dependent upon it, he also sustains 
official relations with local and national banking 
institutions, with the City Gas and Water Com- 
panies, with the Horse-railway Companies, etc. 

Mr. Watrous has not sought political preferment, 
and yet has found time to serve his fellow-citizens 
as a member of the municipal government in vari- 
ous capacities. He was a member of the lower 
branch of the Court of Common Council from i860 
to 1862, and of the upper branch in 1863. In the 
following year he represented the town in the Lower 



House of the State Legislature. He also performed 

the duties of a Road Commissioner for the City 
from 1866, until June 30, 1870. He was for several 
years a member of the Board of Education. Public 
trusts more strictly consonant with his private oc- 
cupations were those of City Attorney, which office 
he held from 1862 till 1865, and of Corporation 
Counsel for the City, which post he occupied dur- 
ing the year 1872. 

Mr. Watrous married his fiist wife in 1857, Mi?s 
Harriet J. Button, the daughter of his partner. She 
died, leaving him with three children. In 1874 he 
married Miss Lillie M. Graves, of Litchfield, Conn., 
by whom he has also three living children. 

The sphere of Mr. Watrous' career has now wi- 
dened out far beyond the limits of a professional ac- 
tivity, and beyond our municipal boundaries. Called 
to administer the aft'airs of an institution which is 
a State in itself, he exerts a potent influence upon 
the welfare of many communities. But all the in- 
crease of his responsibilities has but served to 
augment the esteem in which he is held by the 
public. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE POST OFFICE. 



PROBABLY the earliest Post-Office in North 
America is described in the following extract 
from the records of the General Court of Massa- 
chusetts: "It is ordered that notice be given that 
Richard Fairbanks, his house in Boston, is the 
place appointed for all letters which are brought 
from beyond the seas or are to be sent thither, are 
to be lelt with him; and he is to take care that they 
are to be delivered or sent according to the direc- 
tions; and he is allowed for every letter id., and 
must answer all miscarriages through his own 
neglect in this kind; provided that no man be 
compelled to having his own letters except he 
please." In 1657, the colony of Virginia passed a 
law requiring each plantation to provide a messen- 
ger to convey the government despatches as they 
arrived, each planter in succession sending a 
messenger to the next, and so on to the final desti- 
nation. The penalty for neglecting this duty was a 
hogshead of tobacco. In 1672, Governor Lovelace, 
of New York, established a post to go monthly from 
New York City to Boston and back. The post- 
riders set out from New York and Boston simulta- 
neously on Monday morning, and on the Saturday 
following they met at the half-way house in Say- 
brook, Connecticut; whence, having exchanged 
mails, they returned each to the place from which 
he had come. In 1686, an order was made in New 
York that all letters coming from beyond sea 
should be delivered at the Custom House. The 
postage was four-pence half-penny for a single 
letter and nine-pence for every packet or double 
letter, "one-half of the money to be given to the 
poor" under the direction of the Captain-General 
and the Council, and the other half to the officers 



of the Custom House. In 1691-92, a Postmaster- 
General for the British Colonies in America was 
appointed by letters patent from the King, with 
authority to erect post offices. This office was 
continued, and, in 1753, Benjamin Franklin re- 
ceived the appointment of Postmaster-General, hav- 
ing previously been Postmaster in Philadelphia. 
The appointment of Franklin to be Postmaster in 
Philadelphia is thus advertised in Franklin's news- 
paper: 

October 27, 1737. 

Notice is hereby given that the Post Office of Philadel- 
phia is now kept at li. Franklin's m Market street, and that 
Henry Pratt is appointed Riding Postmaster for all stages 
between Philadelphia and Newport in Virginia, who sets out 
.about the beginning of each month, and returns in twenty- 
four days, by whom gentlemen, merchants and others, may 
have their letters carefully conveyed and business faithfully 
transacted, he having given good security for the same to 
the Honorable Colonel Spottswood, Postmaster-General of 
all his Majesty's dominions in America. 

Colonel Spottswood dying in 1753, Franklin was 
appointed to succeed him, and held the office 
twenty-one years, till 1774, when he was ejected 
because of his opposition to the oppressive meas- 
ures of the British ministry. William Hunter, a 
printer in Williamsburgh, Virginia, was associated 
with Franklin in this appointment. Hunter died 
in August 1 76 1, and, so far as the writer has 
ascertained, Franklin had no associate in the office 
after the death of Hunter. 

About a year after his ejection, Franklin was re- 
stored to the position of Postmaster-General by 
appointment of the Continental Congress; and 
when, in 1776, he vacated it that he might accept 
the more important position of ambassador to 



3H 



HISTORY OF TH£ CITT OF NEW HA VEN. 



France, his son-in-law, Richard Bache, became 
Postmaster-General. 

It was while Franklin was Postmaster-General, 
by authority of the King, that a Post Office was 
first opened in New Haven. The immediate oc- 
casion of its establishment seems to have been the 
French War, and the importance of postal com- 
munication between the soldiers and the friends 
wiiom they had left behind. It had a close con- 
nection with the Cunnecliciit Gazette, being estab- 
lished simultaneously with that periodical, of which 
the first postmaster was the editor, and being kept 
in the same building. This building was "near 
the Hay-market " and the hay-market was an open 
space at the corner of State and St. John streets, 
where for many years after the establishment of 
the Gazette and the Post Office were "the Hay- 
scales." 

It was in April, 1755, that the Post Office was 
opened, and the Gazette commenced its weekly 
excursions from the neighborhood of the Hay- 
market. About two years afterward both institu- 
tions, if we may properly regard them as in any 
sense distinct, were removed to what is now called 
Custom House square, to a building on the east 
side of that square and next south of Water street. 
Until recently this has been regarded in New 
Haven as the earliest site of the Post Office, the 
onlv file of the Gazette in New Haven before the 
Brinley collection was acquired, beginning with No. 
130, which bears the imprint: "Printed by J. 
Parker and Company at the Post Office, near Cap- 
tain Peck's at the Long Wharf." 

The twins seem to have had a migratory dispo- 
sition, for before July 8, 1758, both Gazette and 
Post Office had been removed to a house on George 
street, which is still standing. Number 1 70 of the 
Gazette under the above date has this imprint: 
" New Haven: Printed by J. Parker and Company 
at the Post Office, at the house where Colonel 
Daviil Wooster lately lived." Colonel Wooster, after- 
wards Major-General of the Militia of Connecticut, 
until lie removed to Wooster street, owned and 
occupied the house at No. 282 George street, 
nearly fronting College street. This house he 
conveyed, July 28, 1757, to a syndicate of gentle- 
men, of whom Aaron Day, his class-mate in college 
and his partner in trade, was one. In the Gazette 
of December 15, 1759, Mr. Day thus offers the 
house for sale: "To be sold at public vendue at the 
house of Mr. Aaron Day, on Thursday, the loth 
day of January next, at 5 oclock in the afternoon, 
a large dwelling-house now in the possession of 
Mr. John Holt, Postmaster, where the printing- 
office is now kept." Not long after, perhaps on 
the day appointed for the vendue, the house was 
sold, and the printer and postmaster were obliged 
to remove. The Gazette of June 21, 1760, con- 
tains their announcement as follows: 

We liciL-by iiifoiin our custoiners ami all persons con- 
cerned, th.it the printing and post offices are removed to the 
house where Mr. Wiliiim (Irecnough lately lived, near 
Captain Joseph Trowbridge's, at the waterside, where the 
business will be cirried on as usual. We hope our next re- 
moval will be to a house of our own. 

The Printers. 



The house where Mr. Greenough had lived was 
at the corner of Meadow and Water streets, and on 
the west side of Meadow. He having married the 
Widow Mix, had gone to reside in her house where 
the Battell Chapel now is, and consequently his 
house at the waterside could be hired for the print- 
ing-office and the Post Office. 

The Mr. John Holt, Postmaster, mentioned in 
Mr. Day's advertisement, was a member of the firm 
of lames Parker and Company. Mr. Parker was 
a partner in a printing-office and newspaper in New 
York. He had a partner by the name of Wey- 
man, who managed the business of the office in 
New York till 1759, when he retired from the firm. • 
This event made a new arrangement necessary, and 
Mr. Holt went to New York to take the place of 
Mr. Weyman. This change of residence is an- 
nounced in an appendix to the notice of removing 
the printing-office from the Wooster house to the 
Greenough house: "The printer of this paper be- 
ing about to remove to New York, desires all per- 
sons whose accounts have been unp.iid above the 
usual and limited time of credit, immediately to 
discharge them; else he shall be obliged to leave 
them in other hands to collect; and he hopes they 
will not be against allowing interest. The business 
will be carried on as usual by Mr. Thomas Green 
in New Haven." 

Several successive numbers of the Gazette after 
Mr. Holt's removal to New York bear the imprint : 
"New Haven : Printed by J, Parker and Company 
at the Post Office, at the house where Mr. Green- 
ough lived, near Captain Trowbridge's, at the water- 
side." The Gazette of December 5, 1761, an- 
nounces another removal: " The public are hereby 
informed that the printing and post ofllces are now 
kept at the house where Captain Hatch lately lived." 
The writer being ignorant of the location of Captain 
Hatch's dwelling, cannot inform his readers where 
the Post Office was kept in 1762 and the years 
which followed. In April, 1764, the publication 
of the Gazette was suspended, and the Post Office 
must for about fifteen months have missed its twin. 
When Benjamin Mecom came to New Haven in 
1765 to revive the Gazette, he located his printing- 
office at the Post Office, and thus the duality was 
restored. But though he lets us know that the 
Gazette was printed at the Post Office, he does not 
define the place so that we can ascertain where our 
great-grandfathers went for their letters and papers 
in the year when the Stamp Act went into opera- 
tion. Advertisers sometimes mention the olfice : 
as for instance, William Wolcot advertises at his 
house in New Haven next door to the Post Office; 
but who can tell us where William Wolcot dwelt in 
1765.? 

We learn the name of the first postmaster in New 
Haven from Mr. Aaron Day's advertisement of the 
house "now in the possession of Mr. )ohn Holt, 
Postmaster," as well as from an otficial announce- 
ment, dated June 7, 175S, over the signature, 
"John Holt, D. Post Master," of the rates of post- 
age ami the kinds of money which would be ac- 
cepted. Mr. Holt was a partner in the printing- 
house of James Parker and Company and while he 



THE POST OFFICE. 



375 



resided in New Haven was the editor of the Gazette 
as well as the Postmaster of the town. A sketch of 
his biography from the pen of Isaiah Thomas, the 
historian of American pi inting, maybe found on an 
earlier page of this volume in the chapter on the 
Periodical Press. 

When Mr. Holt removed to New York, in 1760, 
Thomas Green, another partner in the firm of 
James Parker and Company, gave attention to the 
Post Office, which by the favor of Franklin and 
Hunter was a perquisite of the printers. Perhaps, 
indeed, James Parker was by this time, as we learn 
by his official signature that he was in 1765, Secre- 
tary of the General Post Office of North America. 

When Mr. Green ceased to print the Gazette, and 
went to reside for a time in Hartford, Benjamin 
Mecom came to New Haven to resume the publi- 
cation of the Gazette, not immediately, indeed, but 
about fifteen months after Mr. Green ceased to 
publish the Gazette. Mr. Mecom, by the favor of 
his uncle, the Postmaster-General, received the ap- 
pomtment to be Postmaster in New Haven, and as 
he e.xpected to come a year sooner than he did, 
there was probably no postmaster between Green 
and Mecom. 

In the last number of the Gazette, dated February 
28, 1768, but evidently printed some time in March, 
Mecom thus announces the appointment of his 
successor: "Mr. Luke Babcock is appointed Post- 
master for this town in the room of the printer of 
this paper, who woiks at the place where the 
Post Office was lately kept. " The announcement 
is not without ambiguity, and needs for its elucida- 
tion some activity in those processes of thought by 
which hvpotheses become guides to the truth. 
Luke Babcock was a graduate of Yale College in 
the Class of 1755, who went to England, in 1769, 
to receive ordination in the Church of England. 
The writer conjectures that in February, 1 768, he 
was the editor of the Connecticut Journal, the new 
paper whose establishment had compelled Mecom 
to abandon the Gazette. It would appear from 
the advertisement that the latter still expected to 
remain in town as a job printer. 

Having now followed the New Haven Post Office 
in its travels from one house to another, and in its 
change of postmasters nearly to the time when 
Franklin was ejected from his position as Postmaster- 
General, let us go over the same years again to no- 
tice the methods- in which the postal service was 
conducted. 

Under this head is presented first a prolix an- 
nouncement from the New Haven Postmaster in 
regard to newspaper postage: 

New Haven Post Office, June 7, 1758. 
Wliertas, The additional instructions to the Dejiuty Post- 
masters which have been published in all the English news- 
papers on the continent, took place the 1st inst., recjuiring a 
small consideration of gd. sterling for all distances not exceed- 
ing every fifty miles, for the carriage of newspapers; and 
making the Postmaster liable to the said payments to the 
riders and also to the payment for the papers to the printers: 
In consequence of which instructions, the papers, except 
those sent gratis to the printers and public offices have bjen 
stopped by the printers till fresh orders have been received 
by the way of tlie Postmasters, or till some new method of 
conveyance is concluded on ; and whereas some gentlemen 



to whom this ofifice is convenient may desire to have the said 
papers continued to them and may be at a loss how to get 
them: I have therefore with regard to myself thought proper 
to give this public notice of the rules I intend to observe and 
the terms on which those that choose may be supplied with 
the New York or Boston papers through my hands. As I 
shall endeavor to avoid all needless trouble or perplexity in 
our accounts, and all hazard of losing by the papers 1 send 
for, for which I am liable, I shall expect to have the money 
paid down for all these papers, in such money as is current 
in the respective places where they are printed; and so long 
as the money lasts I shall continue punctually to send the 
papers and no longer. I think this the only method I can take 
with safety and convenience; for though it might be very 
safe to trust many of the gentlemen, yet if any trust is given, 
some will expect it that either will not or cannot be punctual; 
death would sometimes occasion a failure, and sometimes it 
would be impossible to get York or Boston money. Nor can 
it justly be thought a hardship that the ready money is in- 
sisted on. The payment of so small a sum can be no great 
difficulty to any person that can with prudence send for the 
papers; at least a man may reasonably be expected to have 
the power of restraining his curiosity till he can procure 
money to pay the necessary expense of indulging it. 

Whoever then sends to me money that will pass in York 
or Boston and desires to have the papers from either of these 
places, I will immediately write for them and send tnem 
along by the first post with the same care as if our own 
papers. The postage from New York to New Haven will 
be 2s., lawful money, per annum, and afterward at the same 
rate in proportion to the distances. From New Haven those 
I send by the special post, if for persons who take our papers, 
will be sent gratis as before, but if for any that do not take 
our own papers, the charge on them will be the same as if 
they had been sent by the general post, viz.: Those above 
100 miles will be 2s. and 3d. sterling; those above 150 miles 
3s. And when any persons have money not yet run out, in 
the hands of the printers, I shall be willing to discount it 
with those who apply to me for the papers, 

John Holt, 

D. Post Master. 

In the same number of the Gazette occurs the 
announcement of James Parker and Company, which 
may be found in the chapter on the Periodical Press, 
offering to subscribe "five pounds lawful money " 
toward the establishment of a special post to Albany 
and the fi-anking of all letters to the Connecticut 
soldiers in the army. This is mentioned here to 
illustrate the close connection which subsisted be- 
tween the Post Office and the printing-office, Frank- 
lin being the root and Parker, Green and Holt be- 
ing branches of one and the same tree. About a 
year after Holt had removed from New Haven to 
New York, the monthly inail between New York 
and Boston became a weekly. In the Gazette of 
June 15, 1 76 1, is the following announcement of 
James Parker and Company, the proprietors of that 
paper: 

Wliercas, The Postmasters-General have agreed that there 
shall be a constant weekly post established between Boston 
and New York, to set out from those places on Thursdays 
and to meet on Saturdays at or near Hartford, returning to 
Boston and New York on Wednesdays, ]irovided the said 
post shall not be expensive to the General Post Office; and 
whereas, it is supposed that the said post cannot yet be sup- 
ported by the profits arising to the Post Olifice from the letters 
it will receive thereby; and yet that it will be a very great 
public conveniency, more especially to the people between 
Boston and New Plaven, where there is now no regular post 
established, though there are many considerable trading 
towns on the road, and the distance is much less, the road 
much Ijetter, and the passage not liable so to obstructions from 
ferries as the New London Road : and whereas, the said pro- 
posed post cannot be supported unless the deficiency of the 
profits arising from it to defray the expense is made up by 
subscription: —These are therefore to desire all gentlemen 



* 



376 



HISTORY OF THE CITV OF NEW HA VEN. 



and others who would promote this design, that they will, in 
the several places concerned, agree among themselves upon 
proper persons to take in subscriptions for such sums as any 
pel sons shall lie willing to contribute tothe aforesaid purpose, 
and to transmit the subscriptions as soon as possible to James 
Parker and Company, printers in New Haven and in New 
York, an<l Mr. Richard Draper, printer in Boston, who will 
faithfully account for whatever sums they receive, and who 
propose to undertake to be managers in this business, and to 
set It on loot as soon as ever they shall find that the contri- 
bution will be likely to support the expense. 

James Parker & Company. 
New 1Ia\f.n, June 12, 1761. 

This extract from the Gazette illustrates at once 
both the need which the General Post Office had of 
help and the methods by which the Postmaster- 
General was able to secure it through his fellow- 
craftsmen and natural allies, the printers. 

Routes through the more densely settled parts of 
the country yielded revenue; but if those who 
dwelt in less populous regions desired a post they 
must make up by contribution whatever excess of 
cost there might be over the amount of postage. 
Printers of newspapers willingly took the lead in pro- 
moting such contributions, expecting that every new 
post route would bring new subscribers. It is said 
that the Colonial Post Office had never yielded any 
revenue to speak of before Franklin commenced to 
manage it; and that under his administration its 
profits increased to /^3,ooo per annum. 

An announcement dated " General Post Office, 
North America, August 24, 1 765, gives notice of the 
rates of postage on letters." It is signed "By 
command of the D. Postmaster-General, James 
Parker, Secretary;" Dr. Franklin having given his 
old friend a position in the General Post Office. It 
ordered that letters by land to or from any chief 
Post Office in America from or to any other part 
thereof, not exceeding 60 miles from such chief 
Post Office or from the office where such letter not 
passing through a chief office may be put in, shall 
pay, single, four-pence; double, eight-pence; treble, 
one shilling; the ounce, one shilling and four-pence. 
For longer distances the postage was proportionately 
greater. Letters by sea paid two-pence additional, 
and letters by special posts the same addition. 

Mr. William Goddard, a printer in Philadelphia 
and Baltimore, feeling that the rate of newspaper 
postage was oppressively high, conceived the idea 
of taking advantage of the popular indignation 
against the British Ministry, and thereby establish- 
ing an opposition post by means of a joint stock 
company. In the spring of 1774 he made a jour- 
ney eastward as far as Salem, Mass., advocating 
his project in every large town, and stirring up the 
people to withhold the revenue which their oppres- 
sors wrenched from them by means of the Post 
Office. The people were in the mood to hear hiin, 
and the more so when news came of the ejection 
of Franklin. Large sums were subscribctl through- 
out New Fngland, and New Haven partook in the 
enthu>iasm. The Connecticut Jountal of May 27, 
1774. announces: "We have the pleasure of assur- 
ing the public that the subscription for establish- 
ing a new and constitutional post office was opened 
in this town last evening and has already met with 
great encouragement from many of the respectable 



inhabitants of this place." Mr. Goddard's plan 
had already been put in operation between Phila- 
delphia and Baltimore, but there is no evidence 
that the plan which he proposed for establishing 
postal arrangements for the whole country was even 
temporarily in operation. Perhaps all the difficul- 
ties in its way might have been obviated in the 
course of time, if the hostilities which broke out in 
the spring of 1775 had not made soine arrange- 
ments for postal communication immediately and 
imperatively necessary. 

Dr. Franklin's displacement was dated January 
3t, 1774, so that Mr. Goddard's journey through 
New England must have been undertaken immedi- 
ately after the news of his ejection reached America. 
But arrangements for this punishment of Franklin 
had been begun months before. Without the knowl- 
edge of Franklin, an inspector was sent from Eng- 
land to examine and report on the condition of 
the American post offices. Hugh Finlay, the in- 
spector, kept a journal of his visit to Canada in the 
summer of 1773, and of his journey thence through 
New England to New York. October 26th he was 
at Providence; November 7tli he was at New Lon- 
don; November nth he says: 

Finding it would be convenient to have an hour's conver- 
sation with tlie western rider, I set out for Saylirook and 
arrived there about two o'clock. I found the road pretty 
good from the rope ferry, where I found old Hurd, the west- 
ern rider, waiting Mumford's arrival; he had been here three 
hours; it is very uncustomary for the riders to be detained 
at this season, but I conclude he finds it impossible to pass 
at the Rhode Island femes, from high contrary winds. 
This man Hurd at 72 is strong and robust; he has been in 
the service 46 years; he pretends that lie makes nothing by 
it and says he will give it up — that at present he only rides 
for his health's sake, which induces him to keep it. It is 
well known that he has made an estate by his riding, and, 
it is said, in the following way: Way letters he makes his 
own jK'rtpiisite, or rather he has done so in former times. 
At present each office checks him a little. He does much 
business on the road on commission; he is a public carrier, 
and loads his horse with merchandise for people living in 
his route; he receives cash and carries money backward and 
forward, takes care of returned horses, and in short refuses 
no business, however it may aft'ect his speed as post. 

At New Haven, Finlay writes: 

It is a large, flourishing seaport town. Went to the 
Post Office (Christopher Kilby, Postmaster). Examined 
his books; questioned him and found that he understands 
his business thoroughly; he laments that he cannot put 
the Acts of Parliament in force. He complains much of 
the post-riders; says they come loaded with bundles, pack- 
ages, boxes, canisters, etc. ; every package has a letter 
afiixcd to it, which the rider claims as his own property 
and perquisite; nay, sometimes a small bundle of chips, 
straw or old paper accompanying a sealed packet or large 
letter, and the riders insist that such letters are exempted 
from postage. The riders have told Mr. Kilby that the 
devil might ride for them if these way letters and pack- 
ets were to be taken from them. In short, they come so 
loaded that it is impossible for them to come in time. The 
portmanteaus seldom come locked; the consequence is that 
the riders stuff them with bundles of shoes, stockings, canis- 
ters, money or anything they get to carry, which tears the 
portmanteaus and rubs the letters to pieces; this should be 
prevented by locking the mails.* 

This inspector seems to have been satisfied with 
the New Haven Postmaster; but the result of all 
this inspection was that Franklin was removed and 
the inspector succeeded him in the office. But 

* Magazine of American History, Vol. XIII, p. 195. 



THE POST OFFICE. 



377 



notwithstanding all the complaints against Frank- 
lin's administration, the Post Office, which under 
his management yielded ^3,000 per annum, never 
again contributed a farthing to the British treasury. 
The displacement of Franklin created an intense 
excitement throughout America. The people dis- 
covered that the British ministry had no right to 
establish post offices in the colonies, and were 
ready to invest money in a scheme as impractica- 
ble as that proposed by Mr. Goddard in the spring 
of 1774- 

Captain Kilby died March i, 1764, before he 
had heard of the displacement of Franklin and 
the appointment in his place of the inspector who 
had visited New Haven in the preceding November. 

While Mr. Goddard was still endeavoring to 
make arrangement for a postal service independent 
of the government, tidings came flying through the 
land of the massacre at Lexington. 

As soon as these tidings reached New York, the 
ministerial post was discontinued by order of the 
new Postmaster-General. In the Cotnuxticut Jour- 
nal q{ May 10, 1775, the editor says: 

We hear that the post having been interrupted, the Post- 
master (who has hitherto without legal authority been ap- 
pointed from home, and asaconveniency permitted here un- 
questioned) has discharged the riders, the expense of which 
he has no longer a fund to support. An office for this 
necessary liusiness will doubtless be put under proper regu- 
lations by the Continental Congress, and no more be per- 
mitted to return to the rapacious hands of unauthorized 
intruders; since it would be the most contemptible pusilla- 
nimity to suffer a revenue to be raised from our property to 
defray the expenses of cutting our throats. We hear Mr. 
William Cioddard, who has been a great sufferer, with many 
others, by the malpractice of an illegal holder of this office, 
is now on a journey to the eastward in order to put the fnisi- 
ness under proper regulations to be laid before Congress. 

Three days after the date of this announcement, 
the Massachusetts Provincial Congress eslablished 
fourteen post offices in their province, and made 
arrangements for post-riders on certain roads. 
Rates of postage were also fixed at twenty-five 
per cent, advance on those which the people were 
accustomed to pay. The Committee of Intelli- 
gence in New York, about a week earlier had 
assumed the responsibility of employing the same 
post-riders who had been discharged, " to depart 
from this city on the usual days and to go the 
usual stages," and had given notice "that INIr. 
Ebenezer Hazard has undertaken to receive and 
forward letters from this city." Their announce- 
ment is thus ended: "From information received 
by the committee from Connecticut, it will be ne- 
cessary, in order to prevent letters from being opened 
by the committees on the road, that they be in- 
spected here by some well-known member of the 
General Committee, and by him indorsed with his 
name as one of the Committee of New York." 

These postal arrangements were designed to be 
provisional only, and to give place to permanent 
arrangements to be made by the Continental Con- 
gress. A committee was raised in that body be- 
fore the end of the month and charged with the 
duty of considering "the best means of estab- 
lishing posts for conveying letters and intelligence 
throughout this continent." In July this conimit- 

48 



tee having reported. Congress appointed Benjamin 
Franklin Postmaster-General, with a salary of $1,000 
per annum, and fixed the rates of postage at 20 
per cent, less than those appointed by Parliament. 
On the 30th of August, Congress 

Ri'solved., That the communication of intelligence with 
frequency and dispatch from one part to another of this 
extensive continent is essentially requisite to its safety; that 
therefore there be employed on the several post-roads a 
rider for every twenty-five or thirty miles, whose business 
it shall be to proceed through his stage three times in every 
week, setting out immediately on receipt of the mail, and 
traveling with the same by night and by day without stop- 
ping until he shall have delivered it to the ne.\t rider; and 
that the Postmaster-General be desired, either by the use of 
way-bills, or by such other means as he shall find most 
efficacious, to prevent delays in the riders, or to discover 
where they happen, that such dilatory riders may be dis- 
charged. 

And as it is requisite that the Deputy Postmasters should 
attend with punctuality at their several offices for the re- 
ceipt and delivery of letters. Resolved, That it be recom- 
mended to the .Assemblies and Conventions of these States 
to consider how far it may be consistent with the policy and 
good of their respective States to excuse such Deputy Post- 
masters from those public duties which may call them from 
attendance at their offices, and to proceed therein as to their 
wisdom shall seem best. 

" In consequence of the foregoing resolution of 
Congress for the more frequent and speedy com- 
munication of intelligence," says the CnnnecticiU 
/ow«(7/ of September 11, 1776, "William God- 
dard, Esq., Surveyor of the General Post Office, 
arrived here last evening on his way through 
these Northern States, in order to carry into im- 
mediate execution that necessary and important 
business." 

Returning now from this digression into the con- 
duct of the postal service in general to the office of 
Luke Babcock, who became Postmaster in New 
Haven, in 1768, we can only say that he was prob- 
ably succeeded by Captain Christopher Kilby, 
w-hen Mr. Babcock went to England to receive 
Holy Orders in 1769. Captain Kilby died in 
office on Sunday, March i, 1774. He was suc- 
ceeded by his son, John Kilby, who though he 
was, as the Probate Records show, a minor, kept 
the office till the end of the calendar year. In the 
Connixlkut fournal of December 28, 1774, is this 
advertisement : 

Post Office. — Mr. Elias Beers being appointed D. Post- 
master for this town, in the room of Mr. John Kilby, resigned, 
the office will be removed from Mrs. Kilby's to Mr. Beers' 
shop on Thursday, the 5th of next month. 

Captain Kilby's dwelling-house is described on the 
Probate Records as facing the Green. Abel Morse 
a few years later announces that he has removed to 
New Haven, and "carries on the book-binding 
business in its various branches a little south of 
the College, in the store formerly occupied as a 
post office by Mr. Kilbv." With the aid of these 
two hints we may locate the Post Office, in the 
time of Captain Kilby, in Chapel street, between 
Temple and College streets, and probably near the 
latter street. Mr. Elias Beers' shop was a wooden 
building of two stories in College street, next south 
of the building in which his brother, Isaac Beers, 
kept an inn and afterwards a book store. It is re- 



378 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



I 



niembered by the writer and by many of the older 
citizens of New Haven. Its site, as well as that of 
the inn, is now covered by Mosely's New Haven 
House. Mr. Elias Beers kept a miscellaneous as- 
sortment of goods, and was accustomed, even after 
he kept the Post Office, to advertise his shop as 
opposite the printing-office. The Conncctkid Journal, 
after its primers left the Old County House, was 
printed in the second story of the building "on 
the northeast corner of the President's lot. " The 
President's ii>t was bounded south by Chapel street 
and east by College street. The Postmaster ad- 
hered for a long time to the rule of adxertising his 
wares as "at his shop opposite the Printing Of- 
fice," but occasionally departs from it, and seems 
to assume that the public have at last learned where 
letters sent by post are delivered. Under date of 
August I, 1792, is: "Enfield Falls Lottery Tickets 
for sale by Elias Beers, at the Post Oflice, New 
Haven." 

It was while Rlr. Beers was in ofiice that a 
change was made in the authority by which the 
postal service was conducted, and in January, 
1776, he advertises the letters in his possession as 
a list of letters remaining at the Cousliltilwnal Pusl 
Office, January 5, 1776. It was his custom 
afterward to advertise letters at the beginning of 
every quarter and to append to the notice, " N. B. 
Those names without any towns annexed are for 
New Haven." Gradually the number of distant 
towns served by his office diminished; doubtless 
for the reason that offices were multiplied. 

Under date of April 12, 1780, the editor of the 
Journal sa.ys : 

By a late regulation of the I'obt Office, we expect in futvue 
to receive four mails in a week; two from the westward and 
two from the eastward, which will render it most conven- 
ient to i^ublish our paper on Thursdays, by which we shall 
be able to insert the latest Southern and Western intelli- 
gence. 

In July, 1783, Mr. Beers appends to his quar- 
terly list of letters this notice: "In future the 
mails at this office will be closed as follows, viz. : 
The mails for the westward, on Monday evenings 
at 7 o'clock; and those for the eastward, on Friday 
evenings at 7 o'clock. The posts will set out early 
the next morning." 

In 1793, appeared this notice: 

Post OrFlCE. New Haven, November, 1793. — The mails 
will arrive and close at this ofiice until the first of May next, 
as follows, viz.: 

Soul/urn Mail arrives on Tuesdays and Fridays, at 7 
o'clock r.M. Closes the same evening, 8.30 o'clock I'.M. 

Eastern Mail, via Hartford, arrives on Mondays and 
Thursdays, I o'clock P.M. Closes the same day, 2 o'clock 
r.M. 

Eastern Mail, via /^cw London, arrives on Mondays and 
Thinxlays at I o'clock 1>.M. Closes on Thursdays and 
Kridays at 8 o'clock I'.M. 

I!y an Act of Congress regulating the Post Office, it is en- 
acted, "That all letters brought to any Post Office half an 
hour before the time of making up the mail at such ofiice 
shall be forwarded therein." 

Notice is accordingly given that all letters brought to the 
ofiice, not conformable to the above recited act, will lie over 
for next post. 

Elias Beers, 

Postmaster. 



In January, 1799, the Post Ofiice was "removed 
to the Brick Building in Chapel street, between the 
houses of Messrs. Joseph Darling and Elias Ship- 
man." But the removal did not take place because 
Mr. Beers ceased to be Postmaster, for the quarterly 
list of letters remaining in the office is signed Elias 
Beers, Postmaster. Joseph Darling's house was on 
the lot which is now occupied by the Yale Uni- 
versity Club, and Mr. Shipman's was the same 
which is now occupied by the Quinnipiac Club. 
The new location must have been verv near, if not 
identical with that occupied by Captain Christopher 
Kilby when he was Postmaster. 

In March, 1S02, about one year after the in-" 
auguration of President Jeflerson, Jesse Atwater re- 
ceived the appointment of Postmaster, in the room 
of Elias Beers, dismissed. Dr. E. H. Leflingwell 
remembers that when his father's family removed 
to New Haven in 1808, Jesse Atwater kept the 
Post Oflice in a one-story building on the west side 
of State street, a few doors north of Chapel street. 
The writer has not ascertained whether this was the 
first location of the oflice after Mr. Atwater's ap- 
pointment, but has seen an account book of Colonel 
William Lyon, in which he charges Mr. Atwater 
with one year's rent of house and one year's rent of. 
Post Oflice. William II. Jones was appointed 
Postmaster in New Haven, May 3, 1S14, in the 
room of Jesse Atwater, deceased. He continued 
to serve for more than 27 years. At one time — 
perhaps immediately after his appointment — the 
office was in Church street, nearly opposite the 
site of the United States Building, in which the 
affairs of the Post Oflice and of the Custom House 
are now administered. It was next door south of 
and within the same brick walls as SydneyBabcock's 
book store, from which so many juvenile books 
were issued. When the Tontine was built, Mr. 
Jones became its landlord, and removed the Post 
Oflice to the basement of that building. During 
his administration, the appointment of Postmasters 
in oflices of the first-class was transferred from the 
Postmaster-General to the President of the United 
States acting with the concurrence of the Senate. 
Mr. Jones' commission by the President was dated 
July 9, 1836. Some time before this change he had 
removed the oflice from the Tontine to a one-story 
brick building on the corner of Chapel and Union 
streets, where the Second National Bank now 
stands. It had previously been occupied as a 
storage and auction-room by Joel Atwater, who 
had also an auction-room on State street. 

Henry Huggins was the next appointee, Mr. 
Jones being removed by President John Tyler in 
January, 1842, after a service of twenty-seven vears 
and eight months, a longer service than that of any 
other postmaster in New Haven, but only five 
months longer than that of F.lias Beers. Mr. Hug- 
gins kept the oflice in the same building in whicli 
Mr. Jones kept it in the later j'ears of his term. He 
gave satisfaction to the people of New Haven, but 
became obnoxious to the person who had given him 
the appointment and was ejected in 1844, Ed- 
ward A. Mitchell being appointed September 12, 
and coming into possession October 24th. Mr, 



TliE POST OFFICE. 



3^9 



Mitchell was the father of the Hon. Charles L. 
Mitchell, the present representative in Congress of 
the district to which New Haven belongs. It is 
said that he first made and used postage stamps for 
prepayment of postage in America. When the office 
was open, prepayment could be made in money ; 
but wishing to provide some way in which prepaid 
letters could be deposited when the office was closed, 
he issued stamped envelopes, which guaranteed to 
those who purchased them that the Postmaster 
would prepay the letters to which the stamps were 
attached. This little private enterprise of the New 
Haven Postmaster was the forerunner of the system 
by which the postage is prepaid on millions of let- 
ters every day in the year and in all parts of the 
country. 

When Mr. Mitchell took the office the rates of 
postage were 6, lo, 124^ and 25 cents for single let- 
ters, according to distance, no prepayment being re- 
quired. During his term of office, the rates were 
reduced to 10 and 5 cents, according to distance, 
and subsequently to 5 cents uniform for all dis- 
tances, the weight not exceeding one-quarter ounce 
and prepayment required. This arrangement oc- 
casioned great inconvenience for those who wished 
to deposit letters in the office when its doors were 
not open, and Mr. Mitchell took the responsibility 
of issuing envelopes bearing an imprint, of which 
■i. facsimile is here given. Each stamp bore the 



POST OFFICE 
PAID. 

E. A. Mitchell. P.M. 
^ ( 



signature of the Postmaster, and they w^ere sold 
at the cost of postage and envelopes as an accom- 
modation. Some post offices refused to recognize 
them and reported the facts to the department. As 
however the stamps could only be used at the New 
Haven office and were sent as prepaid matter, prop- 
erly entered on the New Haven post bill, there 
could be no loss to the Government, and the depart- 
ment taking a liberal view of the matter, authorized 
their continuance. They were intended merely as 
an accommodation to the citizens, and in the absence 
of any Government stamps were much appreciated. 
There is no doubt that the adoption of stamps by 
our Government was hastened by the issue of 
these prepaid envelopes, and it can be truly said 
that they were the first stamps issued in the United 
States. 

John B. Robertson was appointed Postmaster in 
New Haven June 14, 1849, and assumed the duties 
of the office on the 2d of July, the removal of 
Mr. Mitchell being occasioned by the election of 
General Zachary Taylor to the presidency. During 
his administration, the building in which the office 



had been kept was taken down and another erected 
in its place, which afforded on its first floor much 
better accommodation for the Post Office, and on its 
second floor a commodious public hall. These 
improvements were made by James Brewster, Esq., 
the owner of the property, and the public room 
over the Post Office, which was the most popular 
place in the city for lectures and concerts, was known 
as Brewster's Hall. \\'hile the old building was be- 
ing taken down and a better one erected in its place, 
the Post Office was kept in the Adelphi Building on 
the other side of the street. 

The next presidential election brought another 
change of Postmasters in New Haven, Lucius A. 
Thomas being appointed by President Pierce in the 
room of John B. Robertson. Mr. Thomas retained 
the office not only while Pierce was President, but 
through the administration of Buchanan, going out 
and giving place to Nehemiah D. Sperry in April, 
1 86 1, after the election of Lincoln. 

The men who have successively filled the office 
of Postmaster in New Haven have, so far as is known 
to any now living, given good satisfaction to those 
whom they have served. From Elias Beers to the 
latest decedent, all have received public testimony 
to the fidelity and courtesy with which they have 
discharged the duties of the office. 

When Mr. Sperry was removed, in May, 1885, at 
the expiration of his sixth term of office, a public 
banquet was given him, at which men of different 
political parties and of various pursuits united to 
honor the man who had been Postmaster for twenty- 
four years, and had discharged the duties of the 
office satisfactorily to all. 

Benjamin R. English succeeded Mr. Sperry, and 
is now the Postmaster of New Haven. 

The building occupied by the Post Oflice was 
erected by the United States while Mr. Thomas 
was Postmaster, at a cost of $225,000, including 
the land; about $200,000 having been expended 
on the edifice. A large addition to the rear, increas- 
ing the working capacity about 80 percent., has 
recently been made. 

The New Haven Post Office is the first in Con- 
necticut and the twentieth in the United States in 
the amount of mail matter received and delivered; 
but its receipts for postage are so much diminished, 
in consequence of the remittance of postal stamps 
to this neighborhood in payment for small manu- 
factured articles, that its gross reeeipts are less than 
those of some offices which dispatch and receive 
much smaller mail bags. For example, during the 
year ending June 30, 1884, the office in Hartford 
handled 3,396,147 pieces, and the office in New 
Haven 8,099,774 pieces; yet the receipt of money 
at Hartford exceeded that at New Haven. It is 
said that a single firm of card-printers in the neigh- 
borhood of New Haven take in some $37,000 
per annum in postage stamps. These, if sold by 
the Post Oftlce in New Haven, would without other 
help make its receipts greater than the receipts at 
Hartford. The total value of postage stamps thus 
brought to the neighborhood of New Haven is be- 
lieved to be $55,000. 



380 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



BIOGRAPHIES 



EDWARD A. MITCHELL 

was born at Bristol, Conn., in the year 1S15. At 
an early age he manifested that e.xceptional business 
capacity which later in life made him so eminent 
among the citizens of New Haven. 

Although never prominently identified with poli- 
tics, he was appointed Postmaster of New Haven 
by President Tyler, which position he retained un- 
der President Pierce. 

During the last twenty years of his life he was 
identified with many of the foremost manufacturing 
interests of the State, notably among which are 
Rogers, Smith & Co., the Winchester Repeating 
Arms Co. , the Meriden Britannia Co. , Benedict & 
Burnham Manufacturing Co. , and the Wiliimantic 
Linen Co. 

As a man, both in the public and private walks 
of life, he was one to whom the sincerest respect 
and love could not be denied. Mr. Mitchell died 
at Fernhurst, his country home in East Haven, 
September 14, 1S76. 

HON. NEHEMIAH DAY SPERRY. 

The ancient town of Woodbridge, which adjoins 
New Haven on the west, spreads itself out for 
many square miles over a broad ridge, at an eleva- 
tion of from three to six hundred feet above the 
city. It has no village or central settlement, and 
the stranger is at a loss to locate it; but he is con- 
tent to search for it in vain, driving along its firm 
roads among its beautiful farms and woods, drink- 
ing in its pure and bracing air, and occasionally 
getting a glimpse of the distant city and harbor, or 
a wider outlook over Long Island Sound. 

In one of its most picturesque localitie.s, near 
the head of the famous Woodbridge Ravine, where 
the brook forms a large trout-pool and a pretty 
cascade preparatory to its downward rush, stands a 
low, old-fashioned farm-house, known as the "Sperry 
Place." It has been in possession of the family ever 
since a grant of land was made to Richard Sperry, 
one of the original settlers of the town, who after- 
wards made himself famous in the history of the 
colony by supplying the wants of the regicides 
Gofie and Whalley while they were in hitling 
in the Jutlges' Cave on the opposite ridge of 
West Rock. The last of the family to occupy the 
farm-house were Enoch and Atlanta Sperry, who 
here reared a family of five sons and one daughter. 

Nehemiah Day Sperry, their third son, was born 
July 10, 1827. Descended from old New England 
stock, he inherited the sturdy Puritan character, 
which was still further develope.l by his early train- 
ing. Brought up on a New England farm, where 
a living is with difiiculty wrung from the cold soil, 
he acquired a vigorous frame, ami habits of indus- 
try and prudence. The beauty of nature around 
him nourished in him the imagination and senti- 
ment which liie daily druilgery of farm-work might 



have crushed; and the trout-brook close at hand 
gave him a taste which has clung to him through 
life. 

His education, apart from that which is gained 
by an active mind in contact with the great world, 
and which is of much more importance than any 
that a college can give, was chiefly obtained in the 
district school-house. It was a plain, low house, 
standing beneath three elms, on the main road from 
New Haven to Seymour. Its one room, rudely 
furnished with slabs, and warmed in winter by a 
large open fire, accommodated about fifty-five 
scholars. Often here in the evenings social religious 
meetings were held, the ladies bringing their silver, 
brass, or glass candlesticks. And from these ser- 
vices, as well as from the more formal Sunday 
worship in the meeting-house, where the Gospel 
was preached with much austerity, and, more than 
all, from the influence of his Christian home, he 
received impressions and ideas which contributed 
to mold his principles and shape his character. 
While he was yet little more than a boy, he ex- 
changed the position of a pupil for that of a teacher, 
and during the winter months of several years con- 
ducted successfully various district schools. The 
last season of his teaching he received the highest 
salary paid in Connecticut for district-school teach- 
ing. The committee having in charge several 
schools, offered a prize to the one which should 
make the greatest improvement during the term. 
The prize was awarded to the school taught by 
Mr. Sperry. 

At the age of fourteen he went to New Haven to 
attend school, doing chores for his board. On the 
first Sunday, the family with whom he boarded not 
being altogether proud of the appearance of the 
country boy, contrived to have him conducted to a 
small Primitive Methodist church, instead of taking 
him with them to their pew in a more fashionable 
place of worship; but the young man, with charac- 
teristic penetration and ambition, instantly detected 
the trick, and cpiickly made his appearance, pant- 
ing with haste, at the Centre or Middle Brick 
Church, where Dr. Leonard Bacon was then in the 
prime of his ministry. Here he attended regularly 
for some time, but was subsequendy induced to 
take a seat in the Chapel Street Church, afterwards 
the Church of the Redeemer, which he soon joined, 
and of which he became, and still continues to be, 
a prominent, liberal and efficient member. 

Having learned his trade, that of a mason builder, 
he went into business, forming a partnerhip with 
his brother-in law, Willis I\f. Smith. The firm is 
still in existence, and is the oldest continuous one 
in the city. To it New I laven owes many of its 
finest and most important buildings. 

Mr. Sperry 's activity, ambition, and public spirit 
however, could not long be confined witiiin the 
limits of private business. He immediately identi- 
fied himself with his new home, anti exerted him- 
-self to promote its best public interests He early 




-^^' sj-li J^C. Koevoets.!! ^ 




THE POST OFFICE. 



381 



joined the Masonic fraternity, and rapidly rose lo 
its higher degrees. He interested himself in every 
social and public movement, and through all his 
life has been among the foremost to welcome and 
advocate every good enterprise and public improve- 
ment. He organized the first street railroad com- 
pany in the State, and subsequently secured most of 
the legislation respecting such roads. He was one 
of the active promoters of the construction of the 
New Haven and Derby Railroad, designed to bring 
to the city the trade of the Naugatuck Valley and 
the West, and has been a director in the manage- 
ment of other railroads, and of many manufactur- 
ing companies. 

But it was in the field of politics that his public 
spirit, natural shrewdness and tact, remarkable 
faculty of organization, and large knowledge of 
men and human nature found the widest scope. 
Having served in various capacities of the govern- 
ment of his adopted city and town, he would have 
been nominated in 1855 fur the Governorship of 
the .State, but that he lacked the requisite age. 
His youth, however, did not disqualify him for the 
office of Secretary of State, to which he was elected 
for two successive terms. While he held that office 
the constitutional amendment making reading a 
qualification for voting was proposed and prepared 
at his suggestion, and pressed to a successful issue. 
The first meeting of friends to consider the amend- 
ment was held in his office. 

His intense patriotism led him to throw himself 
heartily into the American party, which at that 
time sprung suddenly into existence. He was a 
member of the National American Convention 
which met at Philadelphia in June, 1855, to for- 
mulate a party platform, and was a member of the 
committee on platform. The committee was made 
up of one from each State, and was in session 
about one week. The great fight in the committee 
was on the question of slavery, and the pro-slavery 
men secured a majority of one. True to the New 
England [irinciples of liberty in which he had been 
reared, Mr. Sperry cast his vote and used his in- 
fluence on the anti-slavery side. A majority and 
a minority report was made to the convention, ex- 
citing a bitter discussion which lasted several days. 
When the final vote was taken. New York cast her 
vote in favor of the majority report, and thereby 
gave the pro-slavery men a majority of the votes 
cast. The anti-slavery men thereupon withdrew 
in a body to the parlors of the Girard House, and, 
after organization, passed a resolution, and sent it 
to the country with an address. It was as follows: 

"That we demand the unconditional restoration 
of that time-honored compromise known as the 
Missouri Prohibition, which was destroyed in utter 
disregard of the popular will — a wrong no lapse of 
time can palliate, and no plea for its continuance 
can justify; and that we will use all constitutional 
means to maintain the positive guarantee of its 
compact until the object for which it was enacted 
has been consummated by the admission of Kan- 
sas and Nebraska as free States." 

Among those who, with Mr. Sperry, bolted the 
convention, and passed the Girard House resolu- 



tion, w-ere many who have since become famous, 
such as Henry Wilson, James Bufiington, and 
Andrew J. Richmond, of Massachusetts: Governor 
Anthony Colby, of New Hampshire; Schuyler 
Colfa.x, William Cumback, and Godlove S. Orth, 
of Indiana; Governor Thomas H. Ford, of Ohio: 
and others. This was the first bolt in any national 
convention on the subject of slavery. Whatever 
may have been the origin of the Republican party, 
it was this bolt which gave it existence and impor- 
tance as a political power. 

From this time Mr. Sperry naturally afiiliated 
with the Republican party. He was a member of 
the convention which, in 1856, nominated John 
C. Fremont for the presidency. He was soon 
made Chairman of the State Republican Commit- 
tee, a position which he occupied for many years 
before and during the war. Under his manage- 
ment Connecticut was always Republican in poli- 
tics. Having secured the election of Governor 
Buckingham by a notable victory, he was able to 
lend eflScient aid in the nomination and election of 
President Lincoln. He was also elected a member 
and the Secretary of the National Republican Com- 
mittee, was also a delegate to the Baltimore con- 
vention which renominated Mr. Lincoln, and was 
elected one of the Executive Committee of seven 
which had the re-election of Mr. Lincoln in charge, 
and which held frequent sessions at the Astor 
House in New York from the time of their ap- 
pointment till the election. When the secret his- 
tory of this committee is written, it will be found 
that Mr. Sperry rendered important services to the 
country as a member of it, to which it is as 3'et 
improper to make more than a passing allusion. 
In his own city during the war, he was chairman 
of the Recruiting Committee chosen by the citi- 
zens to fill up the quota of men charged to New 
Haven. 

In these various positions he gained large control 
of the Republican party and of the course of poli- 
tics in his own State; contributed much to the 
success of the Government and the help of the 
soldiers in the War of the Rebellion; gained the 
acquaintance and confidence of public men all 
over the country, and exerted a wide influence. 
When the Monitor was built he became bondsman 
for the builders, having full confidence that it could 
whip the Merrimac. With President Lincoln and 
his advisers he was on terms of intimacy, and no 
one was more trusted and relied upon by them than 
Mr. Sperry. He was the President of the State Re- 
publican Convention which named General Grant 
for the presidency, and was one of the early sup- 
porters, in Connecticut, of his candidacy. Mr. 
Sperry 's political action of course involved him in 
many antagonisms, and brought upon him sharp 
attacks, which he bore with habitual good nature 
and serenity. Every one admitted that he was an 
able and dangerous antagonist; most allowed, in 
the end, that he was a fair and honorable one. 
There is one thing which has alwa3's distinguished 
him from the ordinary politician, and that is, that in 
all his political conduct he has been governed by 
regard to great underlying principles and public in- 



383 



HISTORY OF THE ClTY OF NEW HA VEN. 



lerests, and has not made politics a mere means of 
gaining private or even party ends. 

In 1878, the New Haven Board of Education 
abohshed the reading of the Bible in the public 
schools. Their action caused much dissatisfaction, 
and this dissatisfaction Mr. Sperry, true to his own 
education, headed and fostered. At the next school 
election he organized and led a campaign, in which, 
owing to his earnest appeals from the platform and 
through the press, and not less to his shrewd man- 
agement, by which Protestants and Roman Catho- 
lics were united, the personnel of the Board was 
changed, by a popular vote of nearly three to one, 
and the Bible was replaced in the schools, where it 
still remains. His achievement brought him an 
unexpected but gratifying note from Sir Charles 
Reed, LL. D., Chairman of the London School 
Board, in which he said: 

"Allow me, a stranger, to congratulate you on 
your splendid triumph in favor of the good old 
Book. In these days we cannot afford to banish 
the true foundation of all moral and religious train- 
ing, without which our common schools would be 
worthless to a community seeking to train a virtu- 
ous and God-fearing people. " 

On the accession of President Lincoln, Mr. Sperry 
received the appointment of Postmaster of New 
Haven, and this appointment w-as afterwards several 
times renewed, so that he held the office uninter- 
ruptedly for six terms under seven different Presi- 
dents. Under his management the business of the 
office increased immensely, owing as much to the 
skill and liberality with which it was conducted, as 
to the demands of the people. It came to be re- 
garded by the Department as the model office, and 
so satisfactorily was it managed, both to the Govern- 
ment and to the people, that for many years during 
the latter part of his administration no one ventured 
to compete with Mr. Sperry for his position. At 
the close of the twenty-four vears of his service, the 
general accounts of the office, the business of which 
had for some years amounted to millions annually, 
balanced within eight cents. During the adminis- 
tration of the Post Office Department by Postmaster- 
General A. W. Randall, Mr. Sperry was offered, 
but declined, an appointment on a commission to 
travel in Europe and examine the postal systems of 
various countrie.s. On the election of President 
Garfield, it was anticipated by Mr. Sperry 's friends 
and fellow-citizens that he would be invited to take 
the portfolio of Postmaster-General. The State 
government in all its branches was substantially 
unanimous in desiring it, and it was also strongly 
favoreil by a majority of all the Senators from New 
ICngland. But when it was found that New Eng- 
land could have but one seat in the cabinet, and 
might have a higher one, Mr. Sperry refused to 
stand in the way of mt)re important interests. Post- 
master-General Hatton, on retiring from office 
March 4, 1885, said in an open letter, that for 
ability and efficiency the best offices in the country 



ranked in the following order: New Haven, Cincin- 
• nati, Philadelphia. 

Mr. Sperry retired from office May 16, 1885, as 
good-naturedly and smilingly as if he had been pro- 
moted. His retirement was made by his friends and 
fellow- citizens the occasion of tendering him a pub- 
lic banquet in token of their appreciation and res- 
pect. The largest opera-house in the city was filled 
with tables, around which were seated more than 
four hundred of the most prominent citizens, irre- 
spective of political opinions or affiliations; while the 
galleries were crowded with ladies. The two United 
States Senators from Connecticut, ex-Postmaster- 
General James, representatives of existing and past 
city and State governments and congressional dele- 
gations, long-time friends and old-time opponents, 
united in bestowing an ovation of which any man 
might well be proud. 

Since his retirement, Mr. Sperry has not ceased 
to keep an eye upon public interests. His latest 
movement has been to suggest a system of constant 
collection and publication by the National Govern- 
ment of facts relating to the condition of business 
in its various branches. The suggestion met with 
instant general favor, and seems likely to be brought 
in some shape to the attention of Congress, and 
to lead to important results. The National Board 
of Trade, of which Mr. Sperry is a member, has 
adopted his plan, and recommended it to our law- 
making power at \\'ashington. 

In person, Mr. Sperry is tall, erect, dignified, but 
in disposition he is full of kindness, genial, sympa- 
thetic, generous, overflowing with fun, and alwa3's 
ready to laugh, even at his own expense. Strong 
in his convictions, inflexible in his principles, but 
large in his charity and tender in his feelings, true 
as steel in his friendships, and ever ready to stretch 
out his hand to help others, he has endeared him- 
self to a host of friends, who go to iiim constantly 
for counsel or help. How freely and liberally he 
responds to such demands, and how much he has 
done privately, in all kinds of ways, for the relief 
and help of others, especially of young men, onh' a 
few intimate friends know. His social pofmlarity 
is indicated by the fact that he has been President 
of the Quinnipiac Club, in New Haven, for the past 
ten years. 

IVIr. Sperry is still in the prime of life, and it will 
be strange if his tried character and abilities, and 
large experience and acquaintance with men and 
affairs, are allowed to be permanently withdrawn 
from the public service, and if, in the fluctuating 
course of human events, his name does not yet 
occupy a prominent place in the history of the 
future. 

Mr. Sperry was married, in 1847, to Eliza 11. 
Sperry, daughter of Willis and Catherine Sperry, 
of Woodbridge. Mrs. Sperry died in 1873, leaving 
two daughters. In the winter of 1S75, Mr. Sperry 
was married to Minnie B. Newton, daughter of 
Erastus and Caroline Newton, of Lockport, N. Y. 



lA'NS AND HOTELS. 



383 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

INNS AND HOTELS. 



THE first mention in the records of New Haven 
of a house for the entertainment of strangers 
occurs about seven years after the arrival of the 
planters; but it is implied in the mention that the 
institution was already existent. William Andrews, 
who kept the ordinary, was "licensed to draw 
wine and to sell by retayle. '' He was also author- 
ized to fence in twenty acres of the public domain 
for a convenient place to put strangers' horses 
in. As Mr. Andrews lived in what we now call 
Grove street, and much of the travel was by water, 
"it was propounded that another ordinary might 
be set up toward the waterside, but none was 
founil fit for the present, only it was left with John 
Livermore to consider of, if he can be free and fit 
to undertake it." A year later "Brother Philip 
Leeke was desired to keep an ordinary or inn, and 
to provide for the refreshing of seamen, which he 
took into consideration." As "Brother Leeke" 
lived by the waterside, this motion was evidently 
designed to remove the inconveniences caused by 
the distance of the inn from the water. 

Probably Goodman Leeke did not decide to keep 
the ordinary; for a year and a half later it was pro- 
pounded to the Court " that, seeing \\"illiam An- 
drews who hath kept the ordinary is about or hath 
laid it down, that therefore some other might be 
found to do it, that so strangers might know 
whither to go to be refreshed ; but the Court again 
propounded it to William Andrews to see if he 
would not still keep it. He answered, he would 
consider of it, and in a short time give in his answer 
to the Magistrates." A month later" William An- 
drews was desired to acquaint the Court what he 
intended to do about the ordinary. He answered 
that though he was willing, he desired the Court 
would provide another, because his wife is at 
present unwilling. But he had further time given 
him to consider of it, and to come to the Governor 
and give his answer." 

A few weeks later, " the Governor acquainted the 
Court that Brother Andrews had been with him 
about keeping the ordinary, and is willing to keep 
it if he could see a way how he might be able to 
provide things at the best hand in season. He 
therefore propounds that the town would buy his 
house, house-lot, and land, and make him such 
pay as he might buy provisions in season at best 
hand, and he will live in it, and pay them rent by 
the year till he can provide himself of another 
house, convenient and nearer the waterside, for 
this purpose, and he will refer the price to in- 
different men to judge. The Governor asked the 
Court if ihey would not choose some to consider 
with Brother Andrews of this matter; and they 
agreed to do it, and chose Richard Miles, Henry 
Lendall, Thomas IMunson, Jarvis Boykin, Francis 
Newman and John Cooper as a committee to con- 
• sider of it, and make report to the Court as they 
should find cause. Further, William Andrews 



propounds that he might have some part of the 
Oyster-shell Field for a pasture for strangers' horses, 
and some meadow ground which lies convenient 
to get hay for strangers' horses in the winter, all 
which, upon the issue of the former matter, the 
Court would consider further of." 

The ne.xt mention of this matter occurs under 
date of October 9, 1648, as follows; 

William Andrews, who keeps the ordinary, propounded 
to the Court that he might have some help afforded him for 
the better carrying it on. He was wished to acquaint the 
Coui't vatli what he desired: He said, first, a convenient 
house near the water-side; secondly, ^100 of provision laid 
in, and he would return it again to the town so soon as it 
pleased (iod to enable him: which was taken into con- 
sideration to be prepared against another Court. 

At the next meeting, which was on the 30th of 
the same month, the question concerning the 
ordinary was again brought forward by William 
Andrews, who 

Desired the Court that they would provide some other 
to keep the ordinary, else furnish him with /'loo and a 
convenient house. Mr. Evance said that himself and four 
more would lend liini _,^5 apiece for three years freely, 
which was looked upon as a kind offer, but that would not 
answer, and some proposition was made concerning John 
Harriman's keeping of it, and about the house [that] was 
Mr. Lamberton's, upon which occasion it was referred till 
Mr. Goodyear came home. 

On the third day of the following January the 
question whether William Andrews should keep 
the ordinary which had so long vexed the meetings 
of the town was brought to a final issue. 

It was propounded that some course might be settled 
about an ordinary. William .\ndrews said he was unpro- 
vided, and unless the town afforded him help he could not 
keep it. It was then said that John Harriman hath been 
propounded and is willing; whereupon the Court ordered 
that John Harriman and his wife keep the ordinary for this 
town till the Court see cause to alter it. 

But John Harriman was no sooner appointed to 
keep the ordinary, and thus authorized to draw 
wine by retail, than he 

Was called to answer for drav\ ing wine by retail, before he 
kept the ordinary, without order. He answered he did it 
for Mr. Goodyear, but wherein he hath done anything con- 
trary to order he leaves himself with the Court. He was 
asked if he did not own the thing: he said there came 
several that pleaded necessity and said they could not be 
supplied elsewhere, which had some, and he did let the 
seamen which worked about the ship have some betwixt 
meals: but he was told if he would confess no more, it 
might be proved that he sold out of the house, out of cases 
of necessity; for Robert Basset sent and had wine two or 
three times: he said he knew not that Robert Basset had 
any but upon Mr. Goodyear's account: but was told, yes, 
for he sent his money for it. He said, he left himself with 
the Court ; but because Mr. Goodyear who is somewhat con- 
cerned in the thing is not now in Coiu't, it was respited. 

At the next meeting Mr. Goodyear declared to the Court 
that that which John Harriman was questioned for last 
Court, in drawing wine ^^■ithout order, was occasioned by 
him; for when the ship-carpenters came from the Bay to 
work upon the ship, they required wine to their diet, which 
he was fain to provide ;it his great charge. Towaril the 
latter end ot their being there, William Andrews pressed 
to leave the ordinary, and proposition was made to John 



384 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



Harriman in the Court to keep it, and then William An- 
drews being without wine, some did come to John liarri- 
man's and pressed to have some, plead int; necessity; upon 
which he spoke to the Governor, teUin;^ him liow people 
pressed for wine for their necessity, lie said, why doth he 
not let them have it? intending to have him take upon him 
the ordinary and so let them have it in an orderly way; but 
he understood it not so; but that was his error, for he told 
them what the Governor said, and after they did let some 
folks have some; but for any disorder, he hopes none can 
say there was any. 

The Governor said: That it is a lireach of order is clear, 
and for his part he never intended anything but that he 
should let people have wine orderly ; but for any disorder, 
he heard of none. The Court considering that it is a breach 
of order and that for which others ha\e been fined, could 
not pass it by, but ordered that Mr. (ioodyear pay to the 
town for this breach of order 40 shillings. 

And SO the law was vindicated in the punish- 
ment of the "Worshipful Deputy Governor." The 
persons who have been mentioned as propounded 
to keep the ordinary, were, without exception, mem- 
bers of the church, and it is doubtful whether any 
other than a man whose character was thus in- 
dorsed could have obtained a license. Possibly 
however a free planter, who was not a church mem- 
ber, would have been accepted if propounded for 
the responsible position of innkeeper. But the 
Puritanism of New England confining the retailing 
of wine and spirituous licjuors to houses provided 
for the entertainment of travelers, commissioned 
only the most trustworthy men to be innkeepers. 
Some observations of President Dwight on this 
point are worthy of attention. In the narrative 
of his Journey to Berwick, he thus speaks of the 
commencement of his return: 

In the afternoon we began our progress to Boston by 
Piscataqua Bridge, and rode to Somcrsworth, wliere we 
lodged at an excellent house kept by a Captain R. This 
gentleman, for he amply merits the title, had just buried 
his wife and quitted the business of an innkeeper. With 
some persuasion, however, he consented to lodge us; but 
with evident apprehensions that we should find less agree- 
able accommodations than we wished. The treatment which 
we received from him and all his, was such as favorite 
friends might have expected from a very hospitable and 
well-bicd family. I never found an iim more agreeable. 
The tenderness and respect with which our host spoke of 
his deceased wife, would indeed of themselves have rendered 
ordinary entertainment sufficiently pleasing to us. 

He then continues, still addressing his imaginary 
English friend: 

Your countrymen so often laugh at the fact that iiuis in 
New England are kept by persons whose titles indicate 
them to be men of some consequence, that I suspect you 
will smile at the preceding paragraph. An iimkeeper in Great 
Britain, if I have not been misinformed, has usually no other 
respectability in the eye of his countrymen besides what 
he derives from his property, his civil manners, and his ex- 
act attention to the wishes of his guests. The fact is other- 
wise in New England. Our ancestors considered an inn as 
a place where corruption would naturally arise and might 
easily spread ; as a place where travelers must trust them- 
selves, their horses, baggage and money; where women, as 
well as men, must at times lodge, might need humane and 
delicate olTices, and might be subjected to disagreeable ex- 
posures. To provide for safety and comfort, and against 
danger and mischief in all these cases, they took particular 
pains, in their laws and administrations to prevent inns 
from being kept by vicious, unjirincipled, worthk'ss men. 
Every innkeeper in Connecticut must be recommended by 
the .Selectmen, and civil authority, constables and grand 
jurors of the town in which he resides; and then licensed 
at the discretion of the Court of Common Pleas. Sub- 



stantially in the same manner is the business regulated in 
Massachusetts and New Hampshire. In consequence of 
this system, men of no small personal respectability have 
ever kept inns in this country. Here the contemiit with 
which Englishmen regard this subject is not experienced and 
is unknown. Any honest business is of course respectable 
when it is usually found in respectable hands. Whatever 
employment, on the contrary, is ordinarily pursued, or 
whatever station is filled by worthless and despicable men, 
will itself soon become despicable. This subject has been 
so long a topic of ridicule, that it has attracted my attention 
to some extent. A course of observalion has convinceil me 
that our ancestors were directed in their views concerning 
it by wisdom only. Unhappily we have departed from their 
system in instances sufficiently numerous lo show but too ' 
plainly our own folly. A great part of the New England inn- j 
keepers however, and their families, treat a decent stranger 
who behaves civilly to ihem in such a manner as to show him 
plainly that they feel an interest in his happiness: and if he 
is sick or unhaiijiy, will cheerfully contribute everything in 
their power to his relief. However smart then your country- 
men may be upon this subject, permit me to wish that mine 
will for a long time select none but respectable men to be 
their innkeepers. 

Mr. Harriman commenced to keep the ordinary 
in 1649 and continued to serve the town in that 
occupation till 1671. That he persevered twice as 
many years as his predecessor does not clearly 
prove that he w^as content in it. We will (luote 
from the records of the proceedings at a General 
Court the 17th of December, 1656, to show some 
of the troubles with which he was afflicted: 

The Governor acquainted the town that the occasion of 
this meeting is to perfect that business propounded the last 
town-meeting concerning the ordinary, John Harriman hav- 
ing declared himself since, that he cannot keep it any 
longer. He halh neither bread itor beer to carry it on, nor 
can get corn to furnish himself for his wampum which he 
takes upon that occasion. 

Whereupon the Court and townsmen have met and con 
sidcrcd how he may be supplied, and have thought upon this 
way, that seeing the jurisdiction is in his debt and the town 
iri the jurisdiction's debt, that therefore they would furnish 
him with about forty bushels of wheat and some rye, which 
may for the ]ire.seiit serve him in his occasions; .and it may 
be set ofl in men's rates, the last of which is due in March 
next. And after much debate several men gave in ihcir 
names and quantity they would furnish him with: which 
was taken notice of by the secretary ; about as much as lie- 
fore mentioned, and a note of it given to John Harriman 
that he might act therein accordingly. Also it was jiropound 
ed that seeing wampum is now a drug and will not provide 
him matter to carry on that business, whether he may not 
refuse it, or at least be left to his liberty what wamimm to 
take, without offense to the town. Whereupon it was de- 
clared that they leave that matter to himself, and what he 
doth therein shall be without offense to them. 

Mr. Andrews had been embarrassed by the want 
of sufficient capital to buy provisions for the ordi- 
nary; but Mr. Harriman was so fortunate that his 
property was in silver, which he had loaned to ihe 
colony. His trouble was that his business brought 
him only wampum, and that sometimes of such in- 
ferior quality that he could make no use of it. 
The permission to refuse wampum and demand 
silver of tho.se whom he refreshed at the ordinary 
seems to have induced him to keep on in the busi- 
ness for a time.* However, on the yth of January, 

* In j66i, " wampum w.is declared to be no longer a legal tender in 
MaS5.ichuselts. Rhode Island passed a similar decree the next year, 
and Conneclicut prnbalily soon afterward. lint though wampum now 
ceased to he legally current, it lingered among the people for years, and 
constituted in great part the small change of the community." — Wam- 
pum: a paper presented to the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of 
Philadelphia. By Ashhel Woodward, M.U. 



AVA'^ AND HOTELS. 



385 



1 67 1, he peremptorily declined to do so any 
longer. 

John Harriniaii, Senior, gave notice to the town of his 
laying down of keeping the ordinary for several reasons 
by him presented in a writing under his hand which was 
now read to the town ; wherein also he desired the town to 
provide another for the place and work. He was earnestly 
desired to continue in the work, at least until the next town 
meeting. He seemed not willing to engage it. In the issue 
it was left with the townsmen to consider the matter and 
endeavor to prepare some meet person and make their re- 
turn at the next town-meeting. 

At the next meeting the townsmen made report 
through Jeremiah Osborne that they "had con- 
sidered and labored in the busmess, but could find 
none willing to undertake it, and therefore did re- 
turn the business to the town again." On the 26th 
of June, in the same year,' 

it was propounded about one to keep the ordinary, and the 
town was acquainted \\ hat endeavors had been used with 
some about it since the last town meeting; and in the issue 
Abraham Dickerman was by vote appointed to keep the 
ordinary in New I laven ; who declared that he should ac- 
cept it upon trial. 

We may assume from the custom of the times 
that Mr. Harriman did not discontinue the enter- 
tainment of strangers till the appointment of his 
successor. The standing of Mr. Harriman in the 
community may be measured by these several con- 
siderations : he was a church-member and the 
appointee of the town to the responsible position 
of innkeeper; he brought up his son to learning, 
John Harriman, Jr., having graduated at Harvard 
College in 1667. But, on the other hand, he is 
styled Goodman on the records, and never Mr., as 
was his son, when, after his graduation, he taught 
the Hopkins Grammar School and sometimes sup- 
plied the pulpit after it became vacant by the death 
of Mr. Street in April, 1674. The records for 
1674 speak of a rate for the maintenance of the 
ministry, of which ;\Ir. Harriman was to have £^o 
and another preacher of the name of Taylor was to 
have £(\i 17s. 

During King Philip's War, John Harriman's 
house was fortified by the town. Four houses in 
different neighborhoods were selected to be forti- 
fied and defended in the last extremity; but there 
is no positive evidence that any of the houses were 
actually stockaded, except that of the former inn- 
keeper. The evidence that his house was used as 
a garrison lies in the fact that he claimed remunera- 
tion for damage by such use. 

Goodman Harriman acquainted the town that the sen- 
tinels going daily upon his house upon the platform did do 
him some damage, breaking or removing the shingles (they 
being decayed) so that the water came the more into the 
house, and did propound that if the town did think it for 
Iheir convenience to make use of his house that way, that 
they would do something in helping him to cover it. 

There is evidence that while Mr. Harriman kept 
the ordinary he removed his residence. The 
writer has not been able to determine with certainty 
where he commenced the business, but from the 
mention of Mr. Lamberton's house when Mr. Har- 
riman was first nominated, and from the connection 
between him and Mr. Goodyear in business, it 
seems probable that the Lamberton house, vacated 



when the widow of Mr. Lamberton became the 
wife of Mr. Goodyear, and conveniently situated 
for the refreshing of seamen and ship-builders, was 
used as an ordinary. After Mr. Goodyear's death 
his house and home-lot, on the corner of Chapel 
and College streets, was sold by order of the Court 
for the benefit of his creditors, and Mr. Harriman 
became the purchaser. The deed is dated March 
22, 1658-59, and conveys, "with Mrs. Goodyear's 
consent, the house lately belonging to I\Ir. Good- 
year, with the barn and kitchen and whatever else 
is included in the sum of ^^120 as expressed in the 
inventory, with the home-lot proper to the house." 
About a year later the commissioners on the estate 
of Mr. Goodyear conveyed to Henry Lindon, by 
order of tha Court, an adjoining lot, and Mr. 
Lindon, on the ist of May, 1660, conveyed the 
same lot to John Harriman, describing it as the 
home-lot called Mr. Hawkins' lot, and insert- 
ing the condition, " If John Harriman leaves the 
ordinary the lot is to be tendered to the town upon 
just considerations." In 1680, John Harriman 
records these two lots as containing three acres each. 
Originally, one of these lots had been laid out to 
Stephen Goodyear and the other to a friend of 
Goodyear who had taken stock in the plantation, 
but failed to come in person. By conveyance 
from Hawkins, Goodyear had become possessed of 
three acres in addition to the three that were his 
from the first. On the corner lot stood the Good- 
year mansion, which, some six or seven y-ears before 
his death, he had offered to give for the use of the 
college which he and others were so desirous to 
see set up in New Haven. The six acres which 
John Harriman thus acquired he devised by his 
will, dated 1683, to his son of the same name. 
In March, 1700, N. S., John Harriman, minister 
of the Gospel, then of Elizabethton, New Jersey, 
and Hannah, his wife, conveyed the six acres to 
"John Harriman, Jr., Inkeeper," and in 1703, the 
last named "John Harriman, Jr., of Elizabethtown, 
New Jersey, Cordwainer," conveyed to Captain 
John Miles " one acre and my Mansion House. " 
This acre was bounded north by Market place; 
west by street; south by Captain John Miles' land; 
east by land of John Harriman, Jr. It is the 
opinion of Henry D. White, Esq., who has kindly 
traced the conveyance of the property, that the 
Beers house which immediately preceded the edi- 
fice which we call the New Haven House, or some 
portion of the Beers house, may have been "the 
Mansion House," erected by Deputy-Governor 
Goodyear, and conveyed to Captain John Miles by 
the third John Harriman. 

At first thought this location of the ordinary does 
not seem to answer the requirement that it should 
be near the water. But if one keeps in mind that 
the first planters landed near the corner of College 
and George streets, it will appear that the site where 
Moseley's New Haven House stands, though now 
remote from any wharf, was not at that time in- 
convenient for travelers who came or went by water. 

Abraham Dickerman, or as he was not long after 
styled. Lieutenant Dickerman, was probably born in 
England, came in childhood with his parents to 



386 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



Massachusetts, married Mar)-, daughter of John 
Cook, December 2, 1658, and after the birth of his 
first child removed to New Haven. In 1668, he 
bought of Thomas Kimberly, Senior, his "dwelling- 
house and barn with all other appurtenances there- 
to belonging, which said house, barn and house-lot 
was formerly in possession of Richard Perry." The 
home-lot of Richard Perry was on the northeast 
corner of Church and Elm streets, and there is no 
reason to doubt that the ordinary was kept on that 
corner in 1661 and for some years thereafter. 

Lieutenant Dickerman was a man of mark in 
New Haven, having represented the town in the 
General Assembly for twenty-one sessions between 
1668 and 1696. His son. Deacon Isaac Dickerman, 
also had a long service in the Legislature, having 
been appointed deputy for fifty-nine sessions. He 
was one of the deputies for New Haven when the 
attempt was made to remove the College from New 
Haven to the northern part of the State. Dr. Leon- 
ard Bacon was wont to say of that attempt that 
it was the only contest between New Haven and 
Hartford in which New Haven had not been de- 
feated. Lieutenant Abraham Dickerman was also 
entrusted by the town to act as their committee or 
agent in the settlement of the Rev. James Pierpont. 

Mr. Dickerman having accepted the appoint- 
ment to keep the ordinary upon trial, found the 
business as unsatisfactory as his predecessors had 
done. The want of a circulating medium was a 
serious impediment to all trade; but especially so 
where barter was impossible, because one of the 
parties was non-resident. Tiie rude currency of 
the aborigines, which at first did good service, was 
found to be in many instances of so poor material 
that, like debased or clipped coin, it lost purchasing 
power as it passed from hand to hand. An inn- 
keeper was especially liable to loss by the use of 
wampum, for no one would receive it in payment 
for grain or flesh, and still less for West India 
goods. In about four years after he began, Mr. 
Dickerman gave his second notice that he wished 
to retire from the ordinary. 

April 27, 1675. 

Aljialiuni Dickerman spake to the town and told them he 
had formerly given notice of his layint; down the ordinary, 
and had desired the town to provide another person to keep 
it ; and said he was not provided to carry it on, and that he 
would not have the hazard of breach of law, or inconvenience 
by liis keeping it at present, being not provided as is neces- 
sary for such a business. The town answered that it was 
now late and many gone; therefore desired him to let the 
matter alone till another meeting. 

But of course Mr. Dickerman was not immedi- 
ately released. Four years later, April 27, 1680, 

Abraliam 1 )ickerman (as lie had done formerly) did again 
give notice to the town of his purpose to leave ofi' keeping 
the ordinary, and did not see a course taken to settling of 
another in that work ; but did desire it might not be olTensive 
if he left it off, which he did intend to do. 

A few months afterward 

John Cooper, one of the townsmen, informed that they had 
considered the Inisiness of the ordinary and had spoken with 
some persons, but could not prevail with any to keep the 
ordinary, and therefore desired the town would consider the 
business and provide some person to keep it that tliey may 
be satisfied with. And the town diil desire and appoint the 



magistrates and townsmen, their committee, to take that 
matter into consideration and to provide a mc-et person to 
keep an ordinary, that the town be not destitute, and if the 
town have any land that is fit for pasturage, they would be 
willing to afford them encouragement. 

The writer has not ascertained how the ordinary 
was carried on between 1680 and 1690. Perhaps 
Lieutenant Dickerman was as unsuccessful in his 
attempt to lay it down in 1680, as he had been in 
1675; and again, perhaps, some record has been 
overlooked. Investigation becomes more diftlcult 
after Mr. Dickerman's day, because about that time 
New Haven discovered that it was subject to the 
laws of Connecticut, and that the General Assembly 
had committed to the County Court the trust of is- 
suing licenses to innkeepers; and so the town grad- 
ually ceased to debate about the ordinary. During 
the decade of which we write there was an ordinary 
at the Iron-works at East Haven, for on "Febru- 
ary 14, 1686, O. S., John Potter, who had been 
licensed to keep an ordinary for entertainment at 
Stoney River, now declared that he doth lay it 
down. '' 

On the 24th of March, 1690, O. S., 

Lieutenant Sherman moved for a consideration of the 
matter about Captain Miles keeping an ordinary and for is- 
sue of it. After much debate/?-;; and con, and Mr. Bishop 
had informed the town that George Pardee, Senior, had a 
license to keep ordinary by order of the County Court; with 
much debate aliout the business, it was at last put to vote 
and the major vote of the persons present carried it to chose 
Captain Miles to keep ordinary. 

Captain Miles was at this time, in all probability, 
residing in the Goodj-ear Mansion House, Mr. 
Harriman having deceased, and his son to whom 
he had devised the property being a resident of 
Elizabethton, New Jersey. In 1703, as we have 
already seen, the old mansion became the properly 
of Captain Miles, by conveyance from the third 
John Harriman. In October, 1 701, the General 
Assembly of Connecticut sat in New Haven, and 
continued to hold its October sessions there till the 
new constitution was adopted more than a century 
afterward. As there was no public building except 
tiie Meeting-house till 1717, probably the Council 
sat at Captain Miles' inn. The lower house at 
their October session in 1702 voted: "This Court 
doth allow to Captain John Miles, five pounds in 
pay for the colony expenses in his house by the 
Court of Assistants and this General Court." The 
special mention of the (jeneral Court may imply 
that Captain Miles furnished committee rooms as 
well as a Council Chamber. The grant to Captain 
Miles in 1703 was for three pounds instead of the 
sum allowed in 1702. 

How long Captain Miles continued to keep the 
ordinary in the Goodyear mansion has not been 
ascertained; but as there is no indication either on 
the map of 1724 or on the map of 1748, that the 
house was an inn, probably there was an interval of 
about a quarter of a century after Captain Miles 
vacated it and before it came into the possession of 
Isaac Beers, about the middle of the century, dur- 
ing which it was not a public-house. 

At the proclamation of King George the Third 
in 1 76 1, after the ceremonies at the Council Cham- 



INNS AND HOTELS. 



ast 



ber in the Court House, "the Governor, the 
Deputy Governor and Council, with numbers of 
clergy and other gentlemen of distinction, were 
again escorted to Mr. Beers', where an elegant 
entertainment was provided on the occasion. " If 
tradition can make anything certain, this was the 
house, Mr. Beers being still the landlord, where 
Washington spent a night when he passed through 
New Haven on his way to take command of the 
army before Boston in 1775. Here Parson Whit- 
telsey being invited to dine with the distinguished 
strangers, ascertained the age of the recendy ap- 
pointed commander-in-chief by diplomatically re- 
marking that he must have been very young when 
he accompanied General Braddock to Fort Du 
Quesne. We know definitely when Mr. Beers re- 
tired from the business of an innkeeper. He ad- 
vertises in the Connecticut yournal o'iY^^xwz.w 18, 
1778: 

Isaac Beers returns his thanks to the pubh'c who li.ive 
favored him with their custom since he has kept a public- 
house. He now informs them that by reason of a multi- 
pHcity of other business and the ill state of his health, he 
shall discontinue the same after the last day of instant Feb- 
ruary. Therefore he gives this notice that his former 
customers may not be disappointed in expecting entertain- 
ment as in times past. 

Whatever may have been the truth in regard to 
the occupancy of the Goodyear mansion as an inn 
in the earlier years of the eighteenth century, the 
business of an innkeeper seems to have continued 
in the family of Miles. December 26, 1709, 
"Serjeant Richard Miles hath liberty granted to 
him to keep a house of public entertainment, he 
attending the law." This record is to be under- 
stood probably as a recommendation ofhim to the 
County Court as a proper person to receive a 
license, New Haven being in transition from its 
former habit of appointing innkeepers by vote of 
the town to the Connecticut method, in which ap- 
pointments were made by the County Court upon 
tho nomination of the Civil Authority, the Select- 
men and the Grand Jurors of a town. This was 
only one of many things in which the subjugated 
colony was slow in learning the new ways required 
of her by the laws of Connecticut. Patience was 
necessary on the part of the victors lest their yoke 
should gall beyond endurance; and as at first they 
had allowed the magistrates of New Haven to 
govern "according to the laws of Connecticut, or 
such of their own as were not contrary to the 
charter,'' so they patiendy waited for a gradual as- 
similation of the methods of New Haven to those 
of Connecticut. 

A similar nomination of Richard Miles was con- 
tinued from year to year till 1716; only in 1713 it 
was " put to vote whether the town would choose 
Lieutenant Richard Miles to keep a public-house 
of entertainment and passed in the negative." 

Deceml)er 17, 171 1, upon the desire of Mr. Jeremiah 
Osborne that the town would grant him liberty to keep a 
house of public entertainment, it was granted to him, he 
quaUfying himself thereunto as the law directs. 

The reader will have noticed that the first plant- 
ers of the town styled the one house provided for 



the entertainment of strangers "the ordinary." 
The word passed out of use with the seventeenth 
century, and tavern became in the eighteenth cen- 
tury the more usual appellation of such a house. 
The word inn has not been very much used in New 
Haven, though the person who kept a tavern was 
usually described in conveyances as an "inn- 
keeper." Etymologically, an ordinary was a house 
of entertainment at a fixed price; a tavern was a 
place for refreshment with food and drink; while 
an inn was understood to include lodging as well 
as diet and drink, and to provide for a longer stay 
than a tavern. But practically there was no differ- 
ence between an ordinary, a tavern, and an inn. 
Either name was used according to the preference 
of an individual or the custom of the place. 
Modern usage dignifies the largest and best houses 
of entertainment by calling them hotels. But in 
the olden time there were no such large public- 
houses in New Haven or elsewhere as those which 
we call hotels. A tavern was usually larger than 
the average dwelling-house, bnt not larger than the 
mansions of the most opulent families. 

On the Wadsworth map of 1748 are four public- 
houses. James Peck kept an inn at the head of 
the wharf. He was the father of Captain Ebenezer 
Peck mentioned in Mr. Goodrich's account of the 
invasion of New Haven, and, as the writer supposes, 
was referred to by James Parker and Company 
in their advertisement of the Connecticut Gazette 
in No. 130. James Peck probably inherited the 
house where his inn was kept, as it appears on the 
map of 1 724, drawn by Joseph Brown, as the house 
of William Peck. Samuel Cooke kept an inn in 
Chapel street, between Temple and College streets; 
John Mix was an inn-keeper at the corner of 
College and Elm streets, where West Divinity Hall 
now stands; and Israel Munson kept an inn on 
College street, further north than IVIix's. Within 
the memory of persons now living, the house which 
in 1748 was kept by John Mix was called Cook's 
Tavern. Earlier than Cook and later than Mix its 
landlord was Justus Butler. 

In 1763, mention is made in one of the advertise- 
ments of the Gazette of "John Beecher, Innkeeper 
at New Haven," and four years later is this adver- 
tisement: 

To be sold cheap at Capt. John Beecher's Golden Ball 
Tavern, till next Wednesday, a large number of choice 
Philadelphia breeches, from fifteen to eighteen shillings 
a pair. 

In 1 769 occurs in the Connecticut Journal a 
notice of a vendue at the house of Captain John 
Beecher (the Golden Ball on the Green). Under 
date of March 29, 1780, an advertisement of 
"Richard Cutler's Store, opposite Mr. Beecher's 
Tavern," gives us further information in regard to 
the location of the Golden Ball. It was opposite 
Cutler corner; and as it was not on the Glebe 
land, it must have been where the Exchange 
Building now is. 

In 1772, Joseph Smith, cordwainer or shoe- 
maker, gives notice that his sh'op is "at the sign of 
the Green Boot and Shoe, next door to Mr. Bald- 
win's Tavern and near the upper end of Leather 



388 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



Lane." Baldwin's Tavern was in the house previ- 
ously owned and occupied by Colonel, afterward 
General, Wooster. 

In the same year William Glen advertises an 
assortment of goods at his store next door to Mr. 
Atwater's Tavern, opposite to the Rev. Mr. Whittle- 
sey's, and near the Long Wharf. Doubtless the 
tavern here mentioned as a way-mark, is the same 
which eleven years later is described in ihe /ourmi/ 
of May 2 2, 1783, as Mr. Thomas Atwater's Tavern 
near Long Wharf. It was probably just opened as 
a tavern when Mr. Glen used it in his advertisement 
as a way-mark, for Mr. Thomas Atwater was mar- 
ried to Margaret Macomber, May 28, 1772. 

In the " Vale Book" are some extracts from the 
records of the Linonian Society relating how its 
anniversary was celebrated in 1773: 

The Society convened at II o'clock at the dwelling-house 
of Mr. Thom-is Atwater; two orations were delivered, the 
election of officers was held, and the first part of a lecture 
on Heads was exhibited, when we adjourned, says the 
chronicler, to the dining-room, where we found an elegant 
entertainment prepared. After dinner, as soon as matters 
could be pro])erly adjusted, the new comedy, entitled the 
West Indian, was represented. * « • The whole re- 
ceived peculiar beauty from the officers appearing dressed 
in regimentals, and the actresses in full and elegant suits of 
Lidy's apparel. Between the third and fourth acts a musical 
dialogue was sung lietween Fenn and Johnson ni the char- 
acters of Damon and Ctora. An epilogue, made expressly 
on the occasion, and delivered by Hale Secumhis,' was re- 
ceived with approbation. The musical dialogue was then 
again repeated, a humorous dissertation was delivered, and, 
at the reijuest of several gentlemen who were not present in 
the former part of the day, the first part of the lecture on 
Heads was again exhibitecl. After a short pause, which was 
enlivened with a " Chearful " Glass, a pathetic valedictory 
oration was delivered by Mead and answered by TuUar. 
At five o'clock the assembly walked in procession to the 
College and then disjiersed. 

Mr. Thomas Atwater entertained the society again 
in the following year (1774), and the performances 
were of a similar character. 

It was at this tavern that the preliminary meeting 
for the organization of a bank was held in 1792, as 
related in the chapter on Banks. 

Among the taverns of the city at the time of the 
Revolutionary War was one sometimes called the 
Tory Tavern. The house is still standing in Elm 
street, on the lot adjoining that on which is the 
First Methodist Church. It was built by Nicholas 
Callahan between 1772 and 1776. In 1781 the 
property was confiscated, Callahan being then 
"with the enemies of the United States." The 
property was bought by William McCrackan, and 
after several convejances to persons who succes- 
sively owned it for short periods, it was bought by 
Isaac Tomlinson in 1791, who, in 1792, sold it to 
Jonathan Mix. The Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon, 
who lived in the house for several years, speaks of 
a ball-room "at the eastern side of the house on 
the second floor," which in his day had been di- 
vided into two apartments. It is probably too late 
now to ascertain whether the ball-room was there in 

*There were two persons of rtie name of Hale in tlie Class of 1773. 
I think ttrc specification Seruntius disttngiiislies Nathan Hale, " The 
M.-irtyrSpy,' Irom Kev. Enoch Hale, whose name is rhe first of the 
iwu on the caraloKue. 



the time of Callahan. It is evident from Dr. Ba- 
con's article in the Xav Englandcr of January, 
1882, on "Old Times in Connecticut," that he 
had connected the name of Mix and no other 
name with the ball-room. We shall by and by al- 
lege reasons for believing that Dr. Bacon was mis- 
taken in conceiving that this was the place where 
Dr. Mason F. Cogswell and others met for a dance 
on the 17th of November, 1787. But in this Tory 
tavern, in the first months of the Revolutionary 
War, probably the outspoken Tories of New Haven 
were wont to meet to talk over the news from the 
seat of war, to expatiate on the folly of the Whigs, 
and to strengthen one another in the expectation 
that the rebellion would speedily collaf)se. 

Several taverns are incidentally mentioned in the 
numbers of the Connecticut Journal for 1 783, and 
usually in advertisements of merchandise to be sold 
in shops near them. Under date of January, 1783, 
"Stocking-weaving at the sign of the Stocking Leg 
near Mr. Hawley's Tavern." August 6, 1783, 
"Josiah Burr at his house near Mr. Page's Tav- 
ern." The record made in 1784 of the names of 
the streets gives us the location of Josiah Burr's 
house, but not of Page's Tavern. August 13, 1783, 
" The stage will leave Smith's Coffee-House. " On 
the 2 2d of December, 1784, Mr. Jedidiah Morse 
advertises that on Tuesday next will be published 
and ready for sale by the author, at the book store 
of Abel Morse, next door to Mr. Scot's Tavern, 
"Geography made Easy." As Abel Morse's book 
store was in State street, we have discovered that 
Scot's Tavern was also on that street. 

Under date of January 26, 1785, is this adver- 
tisement: "To be sold, that large and convenient 
dwelling-house that is now occupied as the City 
Tavern, together with the stables and outhouses, 
situated on Water street, one hundred yards east of 
the Long Wharf" Within the memory of persons 
now living this was called liulford's Tavern. In 
April, 1786, "Jacob Brown, one of the proprietors 
of the stages, informs the public that he has opened 
a house of entertainment in the City of New Ha- 
ven." In May, 1787, he advertises that he has re- 
moved from the house he lately occupied on the 
Green, to Colonel Hubbard's elegant stone house 
near the Old Market, where those who wish to 
take passage in the stage, and others, may be de- 
cently entertained. November 15, 1786, Maltby 
and Fowler advertise goods which they have for 
sale at their store just by Miles' Tavern, Chapel 
street." September 19, 1787, Hezekiah Beardsley 
advertises an assortment of drugs "at his store di- 
rectly opposite Mr. John Miles' Tavern.'' The tav- 
ern thus referred to was the same house afterward 
for many years, and within the remembrance of 
citizens now living, kept by Jesse Buck, and called 
Buck's Tavern. The person who kept it in 1786 
was doubtless a descendant of Captain Miles, who 
in 1690 was chosen by the town to keep its ordi- 
nary. Contemporary with those thus mentioned 
in the journal, was the tavern of Jonathan Atwater 
at the corner of College and Crown streets. Its 
sign was a bunch of grapes. Mr. Gootlrich, in his 
paper on the Invasion of New Haven by the Brit- 



TAWS' AND HOTELS. 



389 



ish, says it was built by Joel Atwater in 1771. It 
may be true that Joel Atwater kept the Bunch of 
Grapes at the time of the invasion, but the tavern 
was older than "Joel Atwater's new house." 

Jonathan Atwater thus advertises a stray, August 

6, 1763: 

Taken up as a stray, on the 1st instant, a large bay horse, 
about 9 or 10 years old, Ixjlter than 14 hands high, a natural 
trottir, branded 224 on the upper part of his left buttock. 
The owner may have hmi by proving his jifoperty and pay- 
ing charges. Inquire of Jonathan Atwater at the Bunch of 
drapes Tavern in New Haven. 

Jonathan Atwater, the father of Joel, was not 
living in 1763, and Jonathan, the brother of Joel, 
removed to Bethany. Whether the removal was 
later than 1763 the writer has not ascertained. If 
earlier, he must have been at the time of his ad- 
vertisement visiting at the Bunch of Grapes. In 
1763 it had been kept by two persons in succes- 
sion, neither of whom was of the name of Atwater. 
In the Gazette of July 9, 1763, is this advertisement: 

Verdine Elsworth, Innkeeper, at the sign of the Bunch of 
Grapes, near the entrance of the town, in the house John 
Stout lately removed from, takes this [lacuna] to acquaint 
the public that he keeps good entertainment for man and 
horse. 

When Crown street was laid out it was "between 
the old and new houses of Mr. Joel Atwater." I 
think therefore the Bunch of Grapes must have 
been on the north side of Crown street. The "new 
house " on the south side of Crown street is still 
standing, and is occupied by descendants of Joel 
Atwater. There is no reason for discrediting the 
tradition that he was the keeper of an inn in one of 
his two houses at the time of the invasion. Dr. 
John Skinner tokl INIr. Horace Day that he spent 
his first night in New Haven at the Bunch of 
Grapes. He became an inhabitant of the town, 
marrying a daughter of Roger Sherman, and build- 
ing a house not far from the place where, as a 
stranger, he had tarried for a night. 

Some time in the last decade but one of the 
eighteenth century, Joseph Peck, being the keeper 
of the jail, kept a tavern in the county house con- 
nected with the jail. It stood within the present 
limit of the College Campus, in front of the site 
where the Lyceum now is. The county house and 
the jail were removed from the (keen to this place 
soon after the incorporation of the city, and re- 
mained here till about 1800, when, new accom- 
modations having been provided for the county in 
Church street, these buildings were removed. At 
an earlier date, when the county house was on the 
Green, a tavern was kept in it by Stephen Munson. 

Contemporary was the tavern of Mr. Ebenezer 
Parmele, at the corner of Chapel and Gregson 
streets. The books for subscription to the capital 
stock of the New Haven Bank were opened here 
on the yth of December, 1795. The Chamber of 
Commerce, which was organized in 1794, held its 
weekly sessions in this tavern "in the front room 
on the lower floor," and paid Mr. Parmele for the 
use of it "eight shillings for each session, he to fur- 
nish good candle light and good fire." The New 
Haven Insurance Company held its meetings here. 



That Mr. George Smith kept a tavern near the 
head of the Long Wharf in 1787, appears in the 
following advertisement: 

All persons desirous of sending small bundles, letters, etc., 
to New York in the Catherine Packet, John Clark, Master, 
are desired to leave them at Mr. George Smith's Tavern, 
near the head of the Long Wharf, New Haven; where 
articles of the like kind, brought from New York in said 
packet, will be left. 

May 9, 1787. 

There was also as early as 1786 a public-house 
at the corner of Court and Orange streets, called 
the Assembly House or the City Assembly Room. 
It was kept by John Mi.x, Junior, who, in 1785, 
leased the lot for 99 years from the Hopkins Gram- 
mar School, and appears to have opened his house 
in the summer of the following year. In the Om- 
7iecticut Journal oi hVigwiX 2, 17S6, he had the fol- 
lowing advertisement: 

A musician wanted immediately (or by the 20th of Au- 
gust), to live in a family. A person who understands the 
rules of music and is a good perlormer on the violin may 
meet with generous encouragement and constant employ by 
applying to the subscriber at the City Assembly Room in 
New Haven. John Mix, Junior. 

^ * 11 None need apply but those who can be well 
recommended for their honesty and sobriety. 

July 24, 17S6. 

His expectation of patronage seems to have in- 
creased, for, having continued this advertisement till 
August i6th, he e.xhibits this in the next number: 

Wanted for commencement evening and the evening fol- 
lowing, four or five excellent performers on the violin; a 
numlier of cooks and attendants for the week. 

The subscriber wishes to contract for a number of fat 
turkeys and fowls; a quantity of butter, cheese and eggs; 
and a numlier of other articles of provisions. Apply im- 
mediately at the City Assembly Room. 

August 16. John Mix, Jun. 

From year to year similar advertisements indi- 
cate that this was the center of the festivities of 
Commencement week. The writer feels confident 
that here was the dance on the 17th of November, 
1787, which is referred to in the diary of Dr. 
Mason F. Cogswell, on which Dr. Bacon com- 
ments in his article entitled Old Times in Connect- 
icut. The evidence that here was the Mr. Mix's 
at which the young people of New Haven were 
wont to dance, sufficiently appears in the following 
advertisement dated only eleven days after the 
evening when Dr. Cogswell "joined a party of 
about twenty couples at Mr. Mix's:'' 

DANCING SCHOOL. 

The dancing school kept by M. Charles J. De Berard is 
now open for the reception of ladies and gentleman at the 
City Assembly Room in Court street. N. B. — Ladies and 
gentlemen in the country who wish to attend the dancing 
school may be accommodated with genteel boarding and 
lodging at the City Assembly Room, by the public's most 
humble servant. John Mi.x, Junior. 

New Haven, November 28, 1787. 

Mons. Charles De Berard having been an offi- 
cer in the French Army, had preferred to remain 
in America rather than return to France to face the 
consequences of a duel in which he had been en- 
gaged. One of his descendants residing in Syracuse, 
N. Y., possesses a catalogue of the pupils attend- 
ing his dancing school in New Haven in 1792. 



390 



HISTORY OF THE CITY Of NEW HA YEN. 



f 



]Mr. Goodrich, in his paper on the British in- 
vasion, incidentally mentions the tradition that 
Talleyrand stayed at Mix's Assembly House when 
he visited New Haven in July, 1794. 

In the Conneclicul Journal cA January 6, 1789, is 
found mention of Eber Sperry's Tavern at the corner 
of Elm and York streets. 

Before the end of the eighteenth century came 
an entire assimilation of New Haven to the Con- 
necticut method of appointing taverners. In the 
archives of the County Court (now in the keeping of 
the Superior Court, for the reason that the New 
Haven County Court has followed the New Haven 
Colony into non-existence), are the nominations 
of the civil authority, the Selectmen and the 
Grand Jury of " persons whom they think fit and 
suitable to keep an house or houses of public en- 
tertainment '' in the town of New Haven during 
the year 1808. These persons are Justus Butler, 
Jacob Ogden, John Clark, Joseph Nichol, Asa 
Morgan, Simon Wells, John Howe, Amasa Good- 
year, Daniel Candee, Jonathan Maltby, Charles 
Lewis, James B. Reynolds, Stephen Rowe, Joel 
Pardee, Linus Lines, Benjamin Lewis, John Mix 
and William Love. On the 14th of March these 
additional were nominated: Andrew Farrell, Rich- 
ard Thomas, Elisha Frost, Zenas Cooke and Jared 
Leavenworth. 

The list shows a large increase in the number of 
taverners since the time of William Andrews and 
John Harriman. But it is to be remembered that 
some, perhaps more than half of these, resided at 
a distance from the center of the town, and kept 
houses of entertainment for teamsters and cattle- 
drivers, and that probably some were taverners 
rather than inn-keepers, applying for a license in 
order to "retail drink" rather than to lodge 
strangers. Whatever may be the reason that so 
many were nominated, Dr. Dwight counted only 
twelve inn-keepers, in 181 1, within the limits of the 
city. 

Several of these taverners continued to be nomi- 
nated year after year for a long period, but most of 
their names have passed into oblivion. Justus 
Butler and Jacob Ogden are, however, remembered 
by some of our older citizens. Justus Butler's 
tavern was on the lot now occupied by the Post 
Office building. He removed thither in 1796, hav- 
ing previously kept the house at the corner of Elm 
and College streets. His tavern was in high repute 
among hoii vivatils for the excellence of its cuisine; 
and not only was Mr. Butler an enthusiast in his 
art, but some of his patrons were so enthusiastic as 
to maintain that there was no limit to his capa- 
bility. A lawyer from out of town who had heard 
his New Haven brethren declare that Butler never 
failed to fill an order, expressed a desire to have 
bear meat for supper, and Butler happening to 
have among his guests a man who was traveling 
with some trained bears, bought one of the animals 
and filled the order at the time appointed. In De- 
cember, 1S16, Mr. Butler gives notice that he 
"has removed from the large house he lately occu- 
pied in Ciuirch street to one nearly on the opposite 
side of the street. " When President Monroe visited 



New Haven in June, 18 17, he dined with his suite 
and the dignitaries of the city and of the Common- 
wealth at Butler's, and at the close of the repast 
gave audible expression to his content. Mr. Butler 
is said to have declared that this was the supreme 
moment of his life — -that having now successfully 
entertained the chief magistrate of the nation, he 
had nothing more to look forward to in this world, 
and was ready to die. 

Jacob Ogden kept the Coftee-House on the site 
where the Tontine was afterward built. The house 
itself was removed to a lot further north on the 
same street, where it became the home of the Rev. 
Dr. Leonard Bacon. Before Mr. Ogden kept the 
Coffee-House he had been a prominent man in 
Hartford, both in business circles and in the 
vestry of Christ's Church. His removal to New 
Haven was occasioned by a reverse of fortune. 
The Coffee-House stood some distance back from 
Church street, so that there was a grass plot in front 
on which in Court term the lawyers sat after dinner 
and after supper. Ogden's Coffee-House is the 
same institution which at an earlier date was called 
Smith's Coft'ee- House, and as such was advertised 
in 1783, as the place from which " the stage will 
take its departure." Four years before 1783 the 
house had been the home of Joshua Chandler and 
his fiimily. When the British left New Haven on 
the 6th of July, 1779, Chandler and his family left 
all they had and went with the invaders, never 
more to return. 

David Austin, Thomas Howell, and Jeremiah 
Atwater give notice in the Connecticut Journal of 
December 15, 1779: 

We, the subscriljers, beiny appointed Commissioners by 
the Hon. Court of IVolute for the District of New Haven, 
to receive and examine the claims of the creditors to tlie 
estate of Joshua Chandler, lately resident in New Haven, 
now with tlie enemies of the United States, hereby give 
notice that we shall attend for that purpose at the house in 
which said Chandler lately dwelt, in said New Haven, on 
the first Monday of January next, anil on the first Mondays 
of the five following months. 

Charles Chauncey, Esq., is appointed administrator on 
the estate of said Joshua Chandler. 

In about eleven months after the Chandlers left 
their house, its conversion into a public-house is 
thus advertised: 

New Haven Cofl'ee-House is just opened by the sub- 
scriber at the house lately occupied by Mr. Chandler, the 
east side of the (ireen, where all persons who may favor 
him with their custom may depend on the best usage and 
the readiest attendance given by the public's humble 
servant, Jafez SMrrn. 

The writer does not know who kept the Coffee- 
House after Jabez .Smith retired from it and before 
the coming of Mr. Ogden. He thinks, however, 
that it was Henry Butler, who in 1816, soon after 
the steamboat Fulton began to make regular trips 
to New York, advertises that he has removed from 
the New England Coffee House in Church street 
to the Steamboat Hotel on the bank, near the 
bridge where the Fulton arrives and takes her 
departure. A few weeks later he advertises that 
the corner-stone of a new steamboat hotel was 
laiil on the 4 th of May, to be built by Messrs. 
Tomlinson & Town.send, in connection with the 



/a:v^ and hotels. 



391 



proprietors of the steamboat Fulton, for the con- 
venience of passengers traveHng in the boats. 
"It will be," he says, "when completed, the most 
superb edifice of the kind, as respects appearance, 
convenience and situation, that there is in the 
United States." 

The ' ' new steamboat hotel " was called the 
Pavilion, and for several years was much resorted 
to in summer by families from the Southern States 
and the West Indies. 

In 1824, when Lafayette visited New Haven, 
he was entertained at Morse's Tavern, or Morse's 
Hotel, as it was sometimes called in accordance 
with modern usage. It was on the corner of 
Church and Crown streets, where the Hoadley 
Building now is, and as it was selected by the city 
government for the entertainment of their dis- 
tinguished guest, was doubtless considered as, at 
the time, the best ■ house of public entertain- 
ment in the city. What had become of Justus 
Buller the writer does not know, but assumes that 
he was not at that time keeping the tavern on the 
other side of the street. The coffee-house, too, 
had ceased to be a public-house, if indeed it had 
not already started on its journey northward. It 
was at Morse's that the dinner was provided by the 
First Ecclesiastical Society for the Council which 
installed Dr. Bacon in 1825. For the instruction 
of those who think that the golden age is in the 
past, and that there has been no progress in the 
right direction within the last sixty years, we copy 
the bill which the Society paid for the entertain- 
ment of the " Reverend and Beloved." 

New Haven, March 8th, 1825. 
Judge Mills and Others, ist Society's Committee. 
To A. MORSE, Dr. 

To Dinners for Council $30.50 

To Porter 7.00 

To Wine 36.00 

To Cigars 2.25 

To Liquors and Horse-Keeping 12.75 

$88.50 

March 23d, Reed, payment for A. Morse, 

G. Morse. 

The building in which Morse's Hotel had been 

kept was bought by James Brewster, and converted 
into a carriage fiictory. He built a brick addition, 
with an entrance on Crown street, for the accom- 
modation of the "Franklin Institute," a literary 
association of which I\Ir. Brewster was a liberal 
patron, if not the founder, designed for the im- 
provement of young mechanics and other young 
men by means of lectures and courses of study. 

The carriage-shop, however, was more prosper- 
ous than the Institute, and soon occupied both 
parts of the edifice, the old and the new. 

About the time that Morse's Hotel was aban- 
doned, the Tontine was erected and occupied as a 
house of public entertainment. 

The Tontine plan of investment was originated by 
Lorenzo Tonti in the seventeenth century. Its es- 
sential feature is that as one shareholder after another 
is removed by death, his share becomes the property 
of the survivors. In the New Haven Company it 



is provided that when the number of shareholders 
is reduced to seven, all the property, real and per- 
sonal, shall revert in fee simple to those seven per- 
sons and the company come to an end. The Ton- 
tine Coffee-House, for so it was at first called in 
memory of Smith's Coffee-House and Ogden's 
Coffee-House which had preceded it, was for a 
time kept by A. Andrews; afterward by William H. 
Jones, who being the Postmaster of the city, found 
the basement of the Tontine Building sufliciently 
capacious for the business of the oftice. The Ton- 
tine was afterward kept by S. W. Allis till the New 
Haven House was built by Mr. Augustus R. Street, 
when Mr. Allis removed thither and became the 
first of its landlords. 

Mr. Street when building the elegant edifice 
which he presented to the School of the Fine .\rts, 
sold the New Haven House to Yale College, by 
whom it w-as sold to Mr. .S. H. IMoseley, its present 
owner and manager. 

We have now brought the history of inns and 
hotels in New Haven to the time when some of the 
e.xistent public-houses were built and opened. It 
only remains to mention in alphabetical order the 
present hotels of the city. The directory for 1886 
contains the following list: 

Adams House, George street. 
City Hotel, VVooster, corner of Union street. 
Durant Hotel, State street. 
Elliott House, Chapel, corner of Olive street. 
Elm House, Water street, corner State street. 
Fair Haven Hotel, Grand street. 
Franklin House, Greene, corner of Franklin. 
Grand Union Hotel, Chapel street. 
Herbert House, Uixwcll avenue. 
Hotel Arcade, Wooster street. 
Hotel Brunswick, Court street. 
Hotel Converse, State street, corner George street. 
Hotel Hanover, St. John street. 
Hotel Yale, Court street. 
. Kenwick House, Chapel street. 
Kimberly Avenue Hotel, Kimberly avenue. 
King's Hotel, Chape! street. 
London House, Wooster street. 
Maines Hotel, Church street. 
Merchants' Hotel, State street. 

New Haven House, Chapel, corner of College street. 
Powers' I lotel, State street. 
Selden House, State street. 
Seymour House, George street. 
Tontine, Church street. 
Traeger's Hotel, Center street. 
Tremont House, Court, corner of Orange street. 
Union House, LJnion street. 

Winchester Hotel, Ashmun, corner of Henry street. 
Windsor Hotel, Union street. 
Woolsey House, Meadow street. 

These profess to be public-houses for the enter- 
tainment of travelers, in distinction from restaurants. 
By a judicious selection a stranger may find com- 
fortable lodging in a style suited to the length of 
his purse, and with a more manly philosophy than 
that of Shenstone, may alter one word in the poet's 
verse and say: 

Here, waiter, take my sordid ore. 

Which lackeys else might hope to win; 
It buys what courts have not in store, 

It buys me freedom at an inn. 
Whoe'er has traveled life's dull round. 

Where'er his stages may have been, 
May [smile] to think he still has found, 

The warmest welcome at an inn. 



392 



HIS TOR F OF THE CHT OF NEW HA VEN. 



BIOGRAPHIES. 



SETH HAMILTON MOSELEY. 

The Moseley family in England (spelled also 
Maudsley, Modesley, Mosly, and in other ways) 
has been traced back through several generations 
prior to the European settlement of this country. 
In these early periods it embraced not a few men 
prominent in Church and State, men of learning and 
of active business enterprises. But in the brief 
biography now proposed we must leave this English 
history of the family with this passing reference. 

The first American ancestor of the subject of this 
sketch was John (i) Moseley, who, with his wife 
Cecilia (written also Cicily orSisily), came to Dor- 
chester, Mass,, in 1630, in the ship Mary and John, 
with the Warham and Maverick company, the 
body of whom removed six years later to Con- 
necticut, and founded the town of Windsor. The 
]Moscley family with others remained in Dorchester. 
From this John (i) Moseley, the line of descent 
ran through Thomas (2), who married Mary 
Cooper; Ebenezer (3), whose wife was Hannah 
Weeks; Nathaniel (4), who married Sarah Capen; 
Nathaniel (5), whose wife was Rosanna AUworth; 
and Samuel (6). 

The first Nathaniel (4), born December i, 1766, 
with his wife, Sarah Capen, before the year 1745, 
removed from Dorchester to that part of Windham, 
Conn., now the town of Hampton. Here his 
brother Samuel, a graduate of Harvard College, 
1729, had, in 1734, been ordained and set over the 
parish church, and here he filled the pastoral office 
from 1734 to his death in 1791. Nathaniel (4) 
was made a deaon in his brother's church in 1761. 

The second Nathaniel (5) lived in that part of 
Windham, Conn., now the town of Chaplin, and 
here his son Samuel (6), one of several children, 
was born August 16, 1780, and married. May 
8, 1803, Beulah Alworth, of Chaplin, who died 
soon after the birth of a daughter. She was a 
woman of beautiful character, and much beloved. 
On February 17, 1808, he married his second 
wife, Polly, daughter of Jonathan and Lydia (Bill) 
Tarbox, of Hebron, Conn., who was born July 17, 
1 782. They had nine children, of whom two were 
daughters. The subject of this record, the young- 
est of these children, was born in that part of 
Springfield, Mass., known as theSi.xteen-Acre Mills, 
on July 19, 1826. 

In his early years he attended the district school 
near his father's house. At the age of twelve, hav- 
ing an aptitude for study, he was entered at the 
Springfield High .School, as it then was, and com- 
menced a course of education preparatory to col- 
lege. To carry out this purpose of a collegiate 
education he struggled for years with ill-health, 
which often compelled him to abandon the school- 
room. In 1843, the Massasoit House, at Spring- 
field, entered upon its long and successful career. 
\'()ung Moseley, being then seventeen years old, 
found employment in this house, his motive being 



to earn money for his college course. In the fol- 
lowing two winters he taught school in Somers, 
Conn., for the same object. He was for a time 
connected with the Wesleyan Academy, Wilbra- 
ham, in this preparatory course. 

At last becoming discouraged with the ill-health 
which seemed always to settle upon him as soon as 
he was fairly launched upon his studies, he ac- 
cepted a position in the Massasoit House, and be- 
gan what proved to be his life work. He remaineit 
in this house not far from fourteen years, or until 
1858, and it is entirely safe to say that his services 
conduced largely to its growth and prosperity. He 
had come to be recognized by hotel men far and 
wide as having remarkable -qualifications for this 
department of business, and inviting offers began 
to present themselves. In 1858 he was chosen by 
I\Ir. Albert Clark to be his partner in the Brevoort 
House, New York, which was long regarded as a 
hotel having no superior in this country. The 
strong confidence which Mr. Clark had in him was 
shown by offering him an equal interest in the 
business. But Mr. Moseley had only a small 
amount of money saved from his previous salary 
to secure an interest costing something more than 
$50,000. Under these conditions (Mr. Moseley 
being unwilling that any friend should run any 
risk by being his indorser) Mr. Clark took his 
notes, payable on demand, with no security save 
the confidence he had in the integrity of the man 
and his ability to make a success of their united 
enterprise. The result soon showed that the oper- 
ation was a success, and entirely safe and secure to 
both parties. 

While connected with the Massasoit House, he 
had been united in marriage, December 4, 1855, 
with Sarah jane, daughter of General Benjamin E. 
Cook, of Northampton, Mass. The children of this 
marriage were, William Hamilton Moseley, born in 
Springfield, October 22, 1S57, now associated with 
his father in business, and Sarah Emma Clark 
Moseley, born in New York, March 8, 1859, and 
now living in New Haven. Eight days after her 
birth, the wife and mother, greatly beloved in all the 
circle of her kindred and acquaintance, was called 
away by death. 

After four years of most successful business in 
the Brevoort House, Mr. Moseley was so utterly 
broken in health by his cares and domestic affiiction, 
that the physicians decided he must leave his 
pijsition at once, or pay the forfeit with his life. 
The very general opinion among his friends was 
that he could not recover, whatever he might do, 
but closing out his business he devoted himself 
assiduously to the work of recovery. In these later 
years those who know him best have often said 
that his own determined will, carrying out persist- 
ently such plans as his best reason suggested and 
approved, brought him back to health. 

For a year after leaving his position he was ter- 
ribly prostrated and a great sufierer. As soon as he 




Enj/byWTa*ih.. BVlyivN!:' 




'ytz^co< 



PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 



303 



felt that he could possibly travel, he set out upon 
an extended journey through Europe and the East, 
occupying a large portion of the years 1863-64. 
For the next three years he gave himself to the 
same general regimen in this country, traveling and 
recreating. 

In November, 1867, he purchased the New Ha- 
ven House, which was then the property of Yale 
College, a part of the estate left by the late Augus- 
tus R. Street for the establishment of the Art School 
of the College. 

About the same time, he was again united in 
marriage with Miss Elizabeth Rogers Perkins, 
daughter of Henry and Abby Barker (Noyes) Per- 
kins, of Salem, Conn. By this marriage there have 
been two children, Julia Noyes Moseley, born in 
New Haven October 6, 1868, and Henry Perkins 
Moseley, born in New Haven April 14, 1872. The 
son is pursuing studies preparatory to college. 

The brief space to which this sketch is necessarily 
limited forbids further expansion. The people of 
New Haven, and travelers from far and near know 
the excellence of Woseley's New Haven House 
since he came into possession of the property in 
1S67. As a citizen of New Haven, interested in 
its Christian and benevolent enterprises, his record 
is plain and open, and is a record of positive activ- 
ities for good objects and ends. 

SAMUEL H. CRANE 

was born in Springfield, Mass., November 9, 1839, 
the son of Samuel R. Crane, of Washington, Berk- 
shire Countv, Mass., and Mary W. Butler, of Pitts- 
field. 

Mr. Crane received a common school education 
in SpringfieUi, and in 1S55 engaged as telegraph 
operator at the Massassoit House. Remaining there 
four years, he came in 1S59 to New Haven, and 



was employed in the office of the New Haven, 
Hartford, and Springfield Railroad Company, at 
Belle Dock. After six years service there, he was 
engaged as clerk at the Savin Rock House during 
two seasons. In the fall of 1866 he went to St. 
Augustine and assisted in the management of the 
Florida House. 

Filling two seasons there, he returned north in 
1867, and engaged as assistant manager of the 
Charles Island House off the Milford Coast. In 
the fall of 1868 he went to Norfolk, Va. , and re- 
turning shortly after, took charge of the Beach 
House at West Haven. Mr. Crane returned in 
1869 to St. Augustine, and took the management 
of the Florida House. After fulfilling one season 
in charge of the Sea View House in West Haven, 
he came, in 1874, to the Elliott House, New Haven, 
and shortly after assumed sole control of it, and so 
remains to-day, 1886. 

While here, he has also supervised the man- 
agement of the Sea View House, the Branford 
Point House, and the Crocker House at New 
London. 

Mr. Crane was married in Newtown, Maryland, 
to Ellen L. Barnes, of Fair Haven, April 14, 1869. 
They have one daughter and one son. 

Mr. Crane has developed with much application, 
a natural talent in the arts, and is a practical oil 
painter, having from childhood pursued it as an 
amateur. 

The Elliott House, ranking first-class among the 
New Haven hotels under the hand of Mr. Crane, 
has come to supplement, in the lower part of the 
cit)', a want long felt of well ordered and generous 
accommodations, and his native bonhomie ^i\A cheer 
have made him well known as a reliable and capa- 
ble host, attentively meeting the often irksome and 
arduous demands made by the house and home 
wants of a growing city. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 



Compiled under tlie supervision of IVIr. C. C. Beiiliani. 



THE first planters of New Haven were too seri- 
ous to feel the need of amusement for themselves 
or to provide it for their children. But it is an 
error to think that they were positively hostile to 
the social festivity which is natural to all who are 
pleasantly situated, and especially to those who are in 
the morning of life. If the fathers of the new settle- 
ment made no provision for meetings of mirth, they 
did not attempt to prohibit the younger members 
of society from providing for themselves. Of course 
they attempted to regulate such meetings, that 
they might not become nurseries of vice. It was 
with such intent that the General Court ordered 
that single persons shall not " meet together upon 
pretence of husking Indian corn out of the family 
to which they belong after nine of the clock at 
night, unless the master or parent of such person 



or persons be with them to prevent disorders at 
such times, or some fit person intrusted to that end 
by the said parent or master." 

The social amusements of the young people of 
the first generation were connected wnth the fre- 
quent huskings of the autumnal season, the occa- 
sional house-raisings, and the regularly recurring 
trainings, of which there were six in the year. On 
the last named occasions the soldiers were required 
to " exercise themselves in running, wrestling and 
leaping, and the like manly exercises;" and were 
encouraged to play at cudgel, back-sword, stool- 
ball, nine-pins, and quoits. 

The young men who were contestants in these 
athletic games were surrounded by a crowd of in- 
terested spectators of both sexes and of every age. 
The people of the town came to the Market Place 



394 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



to witness these by-plays of the General Training as 
the Greeks flocked to the Isthmian games. 

As the first generation gave place to the second, 
some amusements came into vogue which were less 
pleasing to the older and more sedate people. In 
1660, the General Court protested against "night 
meetings unseasonably," "corrupt songs," "foolish 
jesting," "wanton and lascivious carriages," "mixt 
dancings" and "immoderate playing at any sort 
of sports and games." About a year later this 
declaration of the Court was read as a warning to 
Samuel Andrews, Goodwife Spinnage and James 
Heaton, when, being summoned before the Court, 
they were charged with allowing young persons to 
play cards in their houses. Goodwife Spinnage 
said that the scholars had played at cards at her 
house on the last days of the week and on play- 
days in the afternoon, but in the evening, never. 
Andrews confessed he had done wrong, and pro- 
fessed his hearty sorrow. Heaton "acknowledged 
that he might have spent his time better, and if it 
were to do again, he would not do it, being it is 
judged unlawful and gives offence; but for the 
thing itself, unless all recreation is unlawful, he 
cannot see that what he hath done is evil." The 
Court suspended judgment, " hoping that this will 
be a warning to them to take heed of such evil 
practices and to improve their houses to better pur- 
poses for time to come than herein they have done. " 
But as if Heaton had given less satisfaction than 
the others, he was called again some three months 
afterward, when he "declared unto the Court that 
he understood that there were reports abroad of his 
miscarriage in suflering some young persons to be 
at his house at an unseasonable time; which report 
he acknowledged to be true, and professed his 
hearty sorrow for it, and his desire to see the evil 
of it more and more, and that God would help him 
for time to come to keep a conscience void of 
offense toward God and toward men." In less 
than a year after this second appearance before the 
Court, Mr. Heaton married the daughter of the 
teaching elder and was from that time so exem- 
plary, that twenty-five years later, when the church 
was without an elder, he was sent to Boston and 
Portsmouth, in company with Deputy-Governor 
Jones, in search of a suitable candidate to fill the 
vacancy. 

When the second generation in their turn were 
giving place to their successors, the amusements of 
tlie young people had become still more displeas- 
ing to the magistrates, elders and other persons of 
gravity. In 1692 the ministers of New Haven 
County united in proposing a lecture to be preached 
in the several towns, the object of which was "to 
further religion and reformation in these declining 
times." The Town of New Haven, in town-meet- 
ing assembled, thankfully accepted the proposal, 
but "recommended to the authority, town-officers 
and heads of families to take the utmost care they 
can to ]-)revent all disorders; especially on lecture 
days; and particularly that there be no horse-racings 
on such days." 

In the latter i)art of the eighteenth century danc- 
ing was very fashionable in New Haven. Two 



causes conspired to cultivate a taste for this amuse- 
ment. One was the residence here of French 
families driven from their native land by the terrors 
of the French Revolution, many of the French- 
men being not only skillful practitioners, but 
teachers of the terpsichorean art. Another was 
the presence in the city of a considerable number 
of resident graduates of the College, who seem to 
have given themselves to this amusement with an 
enthusiasm hardly surpassed by that of their charm- 
ing partners. 

During the same period, also, the presence of the 
College in the city contributed to the cultivation of 
the drama. The Liuonian Society, and at a later 
date the Brothers in Unity, were wont to give an 
annual exhibition of tragedies, farces and come- 
dies, with such aids of costume and scenery as 
were within reach and not prohibited by the Faculty. 

It is on record that President Dwight when an 
undergraduate was an actor on the stage of the 
Linonian Society. At the anniversary of the same 
society in 1772, the play was " 'Phe Beaux's Strata- 
gems;" and among the performers were Nathan 
Hale, the martyr spy, and James Hillhouse, the 
first Commissioner of the School Fund. 

Probablv the first theatrical entertainment in 
New Haven by professional actors was given on 
the 3d of April, 1800. The Cunncclicul Journal oi 
that date contains this announcement: 

THEATER. 
This evening, Thursday, April 3, at Mr. Booth's Assem- 
bly Hall, New Haven, will be presented a variety of theatri- 
cal entertainments, called an Evening's Regale. 

The evening's entertainment to commence with a monody 
on the death of General George Washington, as lately 
spoken in the principal theaters of America. 

A popular new song, called " Nong, Tong, I'aw; or, John 
IJull's Trip to France." 

"Bucks, have at ye all; or, the Picture of a I'lay -house." 
"The Kidnaper; or. The Irishman in London." 

Guhvell by a young gentleman. 

Mons. Lebarose by Mr. Lattm. 

Paddy O'Blarney by Mr. ( )rmsby . 

The favorite song, called " The Hobbies."- 
The humorous satirical sketch called "The Drunken 
Man," as wrote by Kippesly. 

To which will be added a celebrated Pantomine called 
"The Death of Harleqiin." 

Harlequin by Mr. I«attin. 

Pantaloon by a young gentleman. 

Cuddy Soft Skull by Mr. Urmsby. 

Columbine by a young lady. 

After which, by a grand piece of machinery, an exact rep- 
resentation of Captain Truxton's victory, displaying the en- 
gagement between the Constellation and L'lnsurgent, 
with a Ijcautiful view of the sea and the Hshes sporting in 
the waves. A grand procession of Neptune and Amjihitrite 
in their majestic car, drawn by sea-horses, with a view of 
unconmion fishes, sea-lions, sea-fowl of dilTerent kinds, 
mermaids, etc., etc. 

The whole to conclude with the pojiular Federal song 
called " American Commerce and Freedom." 

Tickets Is. 6d. each, to be had at the theater. Perform- 
ance to commence at 7 o'clock. 

*,* No person admitted without a ticket. 

Theatrical amusement was, however, of slow 
growth. The clergy set themselves against it, anil 
the great revival of religion which characterized the 
early years of the present century enableil the 



PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 



395 



clergy to put a taboo upon this amusement; so that 
probably no play was presented in New Haven by 
professionals for thirty years. Amateur performances 
were, however, tolerated, if not approved; and the 
three college societies very nearly, if not quite, 
supplieJ what litde demand there was for dramatic 
entertainments. Some quite respectable historical 
tragedies were written by undergraduates and ex- 
hibited by their class-mates. After the establish- 
ment of the Lancasterian school, " Lo veil's E.xhi- 
bitions " provided a similar entertainment for a 
much more numerous class of people than could 
be accommodated in the Linonian or the Brothers' 
Hall. Once at least Lovell's exhibition was held 
in the Methodist Church over the Lancasterian 
school, and was as numerously attended as the 
space would permit. 

A great change has taken place in public senti- 
ment within the last fifty years in regard to dramatic 
entertainments. We shall now proceed to sketch 
briefly the history of the theatre since its intro- 
duction as one of the permanent institutions of 
the city. 

In 1847 the city was visited by negro minstrels, 
or by persons calling themselves by that appellation. 
They called themselves also the " Apollonians,"and 
"The Baker Family." In 1848, the New Haven 
Elocution Class gave a dramatic entertainment in 
the hall of the Mechanics' Institute in Street's 
Building, corner of Chapel and State streets. 

In 1849, the New Haven Elocution Class gave a 
dramatic performance in Temple Hall, Court and 
Orange streets. In this and previous performances, 
the female characters were taken by boys and 
young men. 

In 1850, " The Lady of Lyons '" and " The Loan 
of a Lover" were given at Exchange Hall by the 
New Haven Elocution Class. 

Mr. Elisha Homan announced, in 1851, that, as- 
sisted by his brothers and sisters and members of 
the New Haven Elocution Class, he would give a 
series of five dramatic performances, commencing 
February 26th. The attempt was so successful that 
in December of the same year, another series of 
plays, lasting for four weeks, was announced by 
the Homan family, assisted by the Elocution 
Class. 

In 1852, the Homan family and the Elocution 
Class gave plays through Christmas week, followed 
by a series from February i-llh to 19th, and another 
series from March 28th to April ist. 

During the winter and spring of 1853, Mr. 
George H. Wyatt and his company presented plays 



at the Temple. During the same 3'ear the Homan 
family opened a permanent theatre in Exchange 
Hall, corner of Church and Chapel streets, under 
the name of Homan's Atha;neum, with a new stage 
and scenery. Their first appearance was September 
1 6th, and the announcement of permanence was 
made at the performance on September 19th. 

But a rival was already in the field; for " Wyatt 's 
Dramatic Lyceum " announced itself September 
5th, promising to give dramatic performances for 
four weeks from date, at Temple Hall, with new 
stage and scenery. These two institutions were 
both in operation through the season of 1853-54. 

In September, 1854, Vlx. Henry Plunkett became 
lessee and manager of the Homan Theatre, and 
named it Plunkett's Olympic. He introduced a 
higher class of plays than had been seen in the 
city. But he was not successful, and gave up the 
theatre after running it for two seasons. It was 
then taken for a short season by a stock company 
of actors; but they soon retired, and the theatre 
was permanently closed. 

The American Theatre, in a hall corner of 
Church and Crown streets, was opened in 1855, 
and after a short season failed. 

The Union Theatre, in Union Hall, Union street, 
was opened about the same time, and had a similar 
history of failure. 

Music Hall, erected by Mr. Samuel Peck, was 
opened November 19, i860, with a promenade 
concert by the New York Philharmonic Society. In 
1869 the stage was remodeled and fitted with 
scenery and appliances for dramatic performances. 
In 1870 the ownership was transferred to Mr. Clark 
Peck, who changed the name of the building to 
Grand Opera House. In 1884 it was leased to 
Mr. G. B. Bunnell, being for a time known as 
Bunnell's Museum, but more recently as Bunnell's 
Grand Opera House. 

New Haven Opera House, built by Dr. Paul C. 
Skiff, was opened February 19, 1877, ^)' the Provi- 
dence Opera Company in " Rosedale." The stage 
is sixty-five feet deep, and is one of the best in 
New England. 

Carll's Opera House, built by Mr. Peter R. 
Carll and a stock company, was opened September 
20, 1880. It is the second hall of its kind in size 
to be found in New England, seating 2,000 people. 
It has a very large stage, furnished with artistical 
and mechanical appliances, handsome dressing and 
reception rooms, and other conveniences, so that it 
is generally considered by experts one of the best 
constructed buildings of the kind to be found in the 
countrv. 



^96 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN, 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

TREES AND PARKS. 

BY HKNRY HOWE. 

Author of " Historical Co/lfclifltts of Virginia" '' Ifisloricni Collections of Oliio,'' " IJisloriccil Collections of the 

Great West," etc. 



[This article is lar^cely dciivcd from " New Haven's Green 
and Elms," l)y Henry Huwe, publislied in the New Haven 
Journal and Courier in 1SS3-84.] 

NEW HAVEN has always been famous as a city 
of gardens. By the original laying out of 
the town in large squares, e.xtensive grounds have 
been one of its marked features from an early day. 
The soil is highly favorable to the cultivation of 
fruits and vegetables, being a light, warm, sandy 
loam, easily tilled, and duly responsive to the care 
of the gardener. 

But the especial charm of our city is its elms. 
The abundance and beauty of the trees of this spe- 
cies justifies the fanciful appellation often applied 
to it—" Elm City" or "The City of Elms." This 
descriptive term was first used by a widow lady, 
who, half a century since, lived in a large white 
house on Temple street, on the lot north of the 
Chapel of the United Church. Her maiden name 
was Louisa Caroline Huggins. She was town-born 
(1799), and at the time of her marriage (1818) to 
Cornelius Tuthill, was called "the belle of New 
Haven." Our memory of her is that of a tall lady 
of fine figure, sparkling black eyes, unusual vivac- 
ity of manner and speech, and absorbed in literary 
work. With a family of remarkably bright chil- 
dren around her, she entered upon a literary career, 
and in the course of a life prolonged to over eighty 
years, became the authoress of more than thirty 
dilferent works, principally books for the young, 
some of which run through many editions. Some 
of her stories were reprinted in England. The 
latter part of her life was passed in Boston and 
Princeton. She lies buried in the Grove street 
Cemetery, among the honored dead. No other 
female author of equal reputation has been born in 
New Haven. 

The earliest elms known in the history of our 
city were the two shown on the map of General 
Wadsworth as "Trees planted in 1686." They 
were the only trees engraved on it, and were placed 
on Elm street, just below what is now Temple 
street, in front of the residence of "James Pierpont, 
Gentleman." His house was a little nearer the 
street than the Bristol mansion, now occupying the 
same home-k)t. It was built for his father, the 
Rev. James Pierpont, by the voluntary contribu- 
tions of the people. The history of these trees is 
thus given by Dr. Bacon in his "Historical Dis- 
courses." 

As the people were bringing in ihcir Iree-will offerings of 
one kind and another to complete and furnish tlie building. 
one man (a poor parishioner. William Coupcr by name] 
desiring to do something for the object, and having nothing 
else to offer, brought on his shoulder from the farms two 



elm sayilings, and planted them liefore the door of the minis- 
ter's house. Under their sha<le, some forty years afterwards 
(1726), Jonathan Edwards — then soon to take rank in the 
intellectual world with Locke and Liebnitz — spoke words of 
mingled love and jjicty in the ear of Sarah Pierpont. Under 
their shade when tome sixty summers (1746) had passed 
over them, Whitefield stood on a platform and lifted up 
that voice the tones of which lingered so long in thousands 
of hearts. 

Five years before Jonathan Edwards married 
Sarah Pierpont, after a successful courtship under 
these elms, he wrote the quaint and delightful de- 
scription of her already given on pages 1 12-13. 
She was eighteen years of age when she was married 
to Mr. Edwards. Authorities of the time speak of 
her as a lady of rare beauty and great virtue. Dr. 
Hopkins, who first saw her when the mother of seven 
children, says she was more than ordinarily beauti- 
ful ; and her portrait, taken by Smybert, "while it 
presents a form and features not often rivaled, pre- 
sents also that peculiar loveliness of expression 
which is the combined result of intelligence, cheer- 
fulness and benevolence. " This portrait, with one 
of her husband, are in the Art Gallery of Yale Col- 
lege. 

Both of these trees were standing in 1825, the 
last was taken down about 1840. Its circumference 
was eighteen feet, exceeding by two feet any elm 
now in the city. A section of it was preserved many 
years by the Rlisses Foster. 

It was under these trees that Whitefield, looking 
up to the skies had that famous imaginary conver- 
sation with Father Abraham, when he successively 
inquired if he had any Seceders up there.' any 
Congregationalists 1 any Presbyterians ? any Bap- 
tists ? etc. Receiving to each query a negative 
answer, he inquired: "Whom have you?" And 
Father Abraham answ-ered, "We know none of 
those names up here. We have in heaven all those, 
and only those, who love the Lord Jesus Christ." 

The platform was built for Whitefield's use by 
James Pierpont, the "gentleman." He was what 
was calleti in that day in theology "a new light," 
and the principal founder of the society which 
built the Blue Meeting-house. He contributed so 
largely to the building of that structure that it 
almost ruined him, nearly throwing him out of his 
profession as "gentleman." 

Framed and hanging in Yale College Library are 
pencil pictures by the late Robert Bakewell of two 
ancient elms that stood side by side in front of Bat- 
tell Chapel. They were sawn down in 1877 and 
1879. The investigations of the very careful his- 
torian of our elms, Professor William H. Brewer, 
proved that the oKlest, the north tree, was set out 
in 1738 or 1739. It was then about ten years old. 



TREES AND PARKS. 



391 



On that corner, back from the street, once stood 
the mansion and female seminary of the Reverend 
Claudius Herrick, who died May 26, 1831, aged 
56 years. It was a famous spot early in this cen- 
tury, being one of the earliest institutions estab- 
lished in the Union for the instruction of young 
ladies in the higher branches. It was founded by 
him about the year 1808, at the suggestion of Presi- 
dent Dwight, and aggregated in a long term of 
years several thousand pupils. A tall blonde and 
a sweet-tempered, gentle-voiced man was Claudius 
Herrick, the inevitable consequence of being en- 
veloped in a cloud of maidenly innocence and bud- 
ding beauty, whose possessors he was gracefully 
conducting along the highways and byways of 
pleasing knowledge. The mansion was what they 
call a double house, having a door in the middle; 
was of two stories, low between joists, and of a 
dark brown hue, never having had a particle of 
paint. A deep garden was in the rear. The lot 
was broad, grass-turfed, and shrub-adorned. With 
the noble elms in front and groups of merry girls 
in the yard, ihe whole formed a picturesque scene 
grateful alike to the eye and the heart. 

Within the old home-lot, but now on the College 
Campus, is a scarlet oak named the ' ' Herrick Oak. " 
It was set out there to commemorate the spot of 
his birth, by the late E. C. Herrick, a son of Clau- 
dius, and College Treasurer, one of the purest and 
best men and brightest intellects known in the his- 
tory of New Haven. He had previously failed in 
an attempt to raise an oak near the same spot from 
an acorn from the "Charter Oak." The only other 
oak known to us in the vicinity is the " Fellowes 
Oak," which stands on the Green a few rods north 
of Trinity Church. It was imported from England, 
and is a recent gift to the city of the late Richard 
S. Fellowes. As these oaks will probably outlive 
several generations of our elms, we make this rec- 
ord of measurements taken by the writer Septem- 
ber 8, 1886. The Herrick oak has at four feet 
from the ground a girth of thirty-four inches. It 
first branches si.x and one-third feet from the base. 
Diameter of spread of branches N. and S. is forty- 
five feet. Extreme height about thirty-two feet. 
The Fellowes oak has four feet from the ground a 
girth of twenty-two inches. Diameter of spread of 
branches E. and W. twenty feet. P^xtreme height 
about twenty-three feet. In England are what 
are called "gospel oaks, " so-called because for a 
thousand years they have marked the boundaries of 
parishes. 

The artist, Robert Bakewell, who made the draw- 
ing of the Herrick elms, deserves more than a 
passing notice. He was the son of an eminent 
English geologist, served his time in the banking- 
house of the poet Rogers, and then, after a little 
venture in Mexico, came to New Haven one sum- 
mer day, in the year 1828, with a letter from his 
father to Professor Silliman. In his travels in Eu- 
rope in 1808-10 Mr. Silliman had made the ac- 
quaintance of the elder Bakewell, and they were 
warm friends. He at once took the son into 
favor, finding employment for him in illustrating 
his scientific works, and entering his name on the 



college catalogue as its teacher in drawing. So 
close was his friendship, that for forty successive 
Thanksgivings Bakewell was an invited guest at his 
table. 

Mr. Bakewell was a rare acquisition, minister- 
ing to us in the love of the beautiful at a period 
when little else was thought of than the necessities 
of life. He was a lovable character every way, ex- 
ceedingly modest and gentle, with a nervous hesi- 
tancy of speech, and impressed us, as did the poet 
Percival, by his shrinking delicacy. Among other 
pictures by him was the large elm within the Green, 
about two hundred feet northerly from the New 
Haven House, which he predicted would become 
one of our most noble and expansive trees. It is 
one of a row that extended across the Green to 
Elm street, some of which were removed on the 
building ofthe State House, and two of which are 
now standing beyond its north facade. 

We extract the following from a communication 
ofthe writer to the New Haven Journal and Courier : 

On a winter's day, about forty years ago, after an ice- 
storm, Mr. Bakewell met a friend on the Green and told him 
of a mishap which had befallen his pet tree, which he had 
claimed was destined to be *'the elm of New Haven," and 
he then took him to it and pointed out where one of the top 
branches had broken down by its weight of ice, and was 
endangering the branches t)elow. He expressed so much 
feeling in regard to it, was so anxious that it should be re- 
moved, that his friend immediately started oft and informed 
the Mayor, the ever-vivacious and cheery Philip S. (lalpin. 
The Mayor's eyes, which always laughed, twinkled as he 
was told of the distress of poor Mr. Bakewell, and replying, 
" We'll remedy that," he at once dispatched a man to saw 
off the broken branch. 

Mr. Bakewell made many pleasant pictures of things dear 
to New Haven associations, but the best picture is the im- 
pression he left of himself upon the hearts of those who en- 
joyed the wealth of his friendship, the true gold that came 
from one inspired with the love of the beautiful, because. 
Christian as he was, he saw therein the smile of God. 

In the twiliglit of a summer's evening we were standing 
upon the swanl of our Green conversing with an old gentle- 
man upon his peculiarities, his shyness and modesty. Bake- 
well was never married, and to our remark that perhaps in 
his early life he had some disappointment of a tender na- 
ture which might account for this, he replied: "Yes, he 
had a heart history; that I know." His rejoinder aston- 
ished us. Our surmise was indeed correct, and in all eager- 
ness we listened to the revelation, which, however, was dif- 
ferent from our anticipation and about in this wise : " Vou 
remember," said he, " about (ifty years ago we had seasons 
of revival in religion, when occurred a condition of things 
of which the present generation have but a faint conception, 
when for days together the people would drop their busi- 
ness and flock in crowds to church and labor for the con- 
version of their fellow-men. It was in the year 1S32, I 
think, or thereabouts, that there was a season of this kind, a 
four days' meeting held in the Centre Church. On an even- 
ing after the close of an eloquent sermon from the Rev. Dr. 
Thomas Skinner, of Philadelphia, the speaker invited those 
who were ready to take 'a stand on the Lord's side to rise 
in their seats.' Up they sprang all over the house, until 
perhaps one hundred were standing, men. women and chil- 
dren. I happened to be in the seat behind Mr. B.ikcwell, 
then a young man, when I saw him lean forward, and, with 
both hands, grasp the back of the pew in his front. He 
rose but a little way, and then, overcome by his modesty, 
fell back. The speaker dropped a few more words of sub- 
lime exhortation and the tears stood in many eyes. It was 
indeed a solemn scene. Again I saw Bakewell bend forward 
and grasp the pew, and then he arose to his feet, and there 
he stood with the light of heaven upon his brow, and so re- 
mained until his dying d.iy— and that was his heart his- 
tory." 



398 



HISTORY OF THE CITV OF NEW HA YEN. 



We are tempted to give a personal anecdote of Mr. 
Bakewell, whose interest in our New Haven elms, and in 
this tree in particular, is worthy of an enduring record. 
With painstaking interest he had given a young man a se- 
I'ics ot drawing-lessons. When finished his pupil took out 
his pocket-book to pay him, when he said; " No I I wish 
you to accept of what I have done for you as a testimony of 
the respect in which I hold the memory of your father." 
He had known that father when living, had stood over and 
closed his eyes in death, and now that lie himself is no more 
it is not to be w»->ndered at that the memory of this beautiful 
compliment is still living in the heart of that pupil, so that he 
is here constrained to show the tenderness in which he hokls 
the memory of his friend and the great friend of this tree by 
naming it "Ihe Robert Bakewell elm." 

The great planting of the elms had its inception 
in an order issued from the Common Council Sep- 
tember 22, 1784, and approved in city meeting 
June 5, 1787, for the laying out of Temple street 
to Grove street. The avenue through, the Hill- 
house Farm, one hundred and five feet wide, now 
Hillhouse avenue, was surveyed and laid out, and 
the elms planted in 1792, the guiding stakes being 
driven by a young man, by the name of Day, in the 
employ of Mr. Hillhouse. Our informant had 
this information frotn I\Ir. Day himself when he 
was a venerable old gentleman occupying the posi- 
tion of President of Yale College. 

Professor Brewer had at one time in his posses- 
sion the original paper drawn up by Colonel James 
Hillhouse, to which various citizens had subscribed, 
stating the amount each would pay for beautifying 
the Green, by planting elms and preventing the 
washing of the sand. Its date was in the spring 
of 1787. Professor Brewer's investigations show 
that the greater part of the elm planting was be- 
tween this date and 1796, though some of it was 
within the first decade of this century. The late 
Professor A. C. Twining stated to us, in 1883, that 
when a schoolboy (about 1S08) he saw James Hill- 
hou.sc setting out elms between the Centre and 
North Churches. They were trees about a foot in 
diameter, entirely divested of foliage, huge forking 
poles with roots attached, which, to his astonish- 
ment, sprouted and grew and became the now no- 
ble trees under which, when his hair was silvered 
with age, he was delighted to walk.* 

Rev. David Austin planted the inner rows of 
elms on the east and west side of the Lower Green, 
but the great work on the two Greens and through 
Temple street is a.scribed to James Hillhouse, who 
obtained his trees from his I\Ieriden Farm. Men 
of far-seeing, hopeful and creative spirits like Hill- 
house were then, as ever, rare. He was a born ge- 
nius for leadership and an untiring worker. He 
would at any time throw oft' his coat and take hold 
and labor with his hands on the roughest, hardest 
work, when by so doing he could expedite an en- 
terprise. He set the little town, which had then 
less than a thousand families, agog, so that even 

*Mr. Rucl P. Cowles communicates the following: "The Rev. 
Daniel WhIiIo was visiting at my liouse about the year 1870. I think 
he was at this time about ninety-five years of age, and the oldest liv- 
ing graduate of Sale College. While driving through temple street 
and up Hdlhouse avenue on one occasion, he remarked to me that 
he saw Mr. James Hillhouse plant many of the elms, and said some 
of them were no larger than my driving-whip I suppose he referred 
to the time he was in college " Mr. Waldo graduated in 1788. If he 
and Professor 'I'wining both remembered correctly concerning the size 
of the transplanted trees, Mr. Hillhouse used much smaller trees in 
1787 than in 1808. — [Editor.) 



children were aroused to help him. Among the 
boys who assisted was Ogden Edwards, born in 
1 78 1 , afterward a New York City Judge, and Henry 
]?aldwin, born in 1779, afterward a Judge of the 
Supreme Court of the United States. The latter 
once said, in the presence of Mrs. Worthington 
Hooker, then a young lady, and a daughter of 
Governor Edw'ards : "I held many an elm while 
Hillhouse shoveled in the earth." Even the girls 
caught the enthusiasm. There was, for instance, 
Caroline Shipman, who became Mrs. Garnet Dun- 
can, of Louisville, Ky. She was a daughter of 
Elias Shipman, a leading merchant, who lived in 
' ' the house now occupied by the (,)uinnipiac Club. " 
She watered the trees which Hillhouse had planted 
along on Chapel street in front of her home, and 
with her own hands set out an elm. 

The most noted of our elms is that on the cor- 
ner of Church and Chapel streets. An eccentric 
character named Jerry Allen, poet and pedagogue, 
brought it on his back from Hamden plains, and, 
after several ineffectual attempts to sell it for cash, 
made a trade with Thaddeus Beecher, who kept a 
store on the E.xchange corner. His compensation, 
tradition says, was a pint of rum and a few trifling 
articles additional. This elm was planted on the 
very day of the death of Benjamin Franklin, April 
17, 1790, and is named in his honor. Not older 
than others in the city, it owes its peculiarly thrifty 
condition to its being in a moist and otherwise favor- 
able soil. Its girth two feet from the ground is 16 
feet; at five feet, 1 3 feet 1 1 inches; height, 80 feet. 

We take the account of the Nathan Beers elm 
from ihe Journal. 

The elm that stands on Grove street, just west of the en- 
trance to Hillhouse avenue at the end of the Sheffield place, 
is an imperious, cloud-climbing individual, towering by otir 
measurement to full one hundred feet, the tallest of our elms, 
as well as the greatest in girth, and containing, we think, 
the most wood. Its openness to the view, with its enormous 
stature, renders it a most majestic specimen. Its length of 
trunk prevents its size from making the impression it would 
otherwise. Two feet from the ground it measures 16 feet 3 
inches; at five feet, 14 feet 2 inches. It owes its superiority 
perhaps to the old botanic garden hard by into which \is 
roots must widely sjiread, its openness to the sun. and, per- 
haps an original superiority of constitution. It is of the 
Etruscan vase form. We predict for it a greater size in the 
future, and venture to name it, in honor of a patriarch of the 
American Revolution, *' the Nathan lieers elm." 

In the (irove street Cemetery is this motiumental inscrip- 
tion in Maple avenue. Lot No. 22: 

Nathan Beers. 
Born February 14, 1753. DUd February II, 1849. 
He served his counlry in the Army of the Revolution as 
Lieutenant and Paymaster from March, 1777, until 
after the army was disbanded. Was Dea- 
con of the North Chuicli from 
1804 until his decease. 

Nathan Beers was one of the three sons of the " venerable 
Nathan Beers," who was murdered in cold blood by the 
British on the invasion of our city, and in his owti residence, 
which stood on the northwest corner of ('hapel and York 
streets. At the outbreak of the war this son, Nathan, was a 
memljer of the Governor's Guard, which, under Benedict 
Arnold, marched to take part in the siege of Boston under 
Washington. After the war he was steward of Vale Col- 
lege, where he was ruined by his kindness in crediting stu- 



TREES AND PARKS. 



399 



dents. He had taken the position at the earnest request of 
President Dwight, having at the time quite a large property. 
Several decades passed. No one had any legal claim upon 
him, when he received quite a sum as back pension for his 
services in the ranks that had tiled for liberty. With this in 
hand he sought out his old creditors, and where they were 
dead their heirs, and paid them in full, and then remained 
what the world calls " a poor man." He attained the great 
age of ninety-six years. 

His home was on the lot adjoining this tall elm, where he 
passed his last years in horticulture, his residence Ijeing 
about two hundred feet distant, facing the avenue, near the 
Sheffield mansion. It was the old style of New England 
house, with the door in the center and sloping rear, and at 
one time probably graced too by the fall well sweep and 
pendant moss-covered tjucket. A kinsman of ours he was, 
we are proud to say, and now he rises before us in memory 
as a patriarch of noble mien and graceful presence. When 
he entered a room where there was company, it was "some- 
thing worth the while " to see him, he was so stately, so 
filled with the dignity of the George Washington era. This, 
combined with the sweetness and the moral grandeur of his 
character, left upon the mind an enduring picture that we 
would not well part from. Though so deaf he could not 
hear a word that was uttered, he was every Sabbath in his 
seat at church, his face ever upturned to the minister with 
an expression so calm, so peaceful, that one could but feel 
that every feature was under the celestial light. A fine por- 
trait of him by Jocelyn is in the possession of his grandson, 
Dr. Levi Ives. 

He hoped to live long enough to pay his creditors interest 
also on his old debts, but although attaining nearly a century 
of life, was unable to accomplish it. We sometimes think 
that no man is so selfish as to be insensible to an act of no- 
bility, but we err in this judgment when the demon of avar- 
ice gets one in his clutches. Ambition and lust may have 
compassion on a victim, but avarice never. This truth finds 
an illustration in the instance of one of his creditors living in 
Bethany, who on being paid the principal of his long out- 
lawed debt refused to give a receipt therefor unless the in- 
terest was then paid to him. 

On the night previous to the execution of Major Andre, 
Nathan Beers was officer of the guard, and in the morning 
he stood beside him. He said that Andre was perfectly 
calm. The only sign of nervousness he exhibited was the 
rolling of a pebble to and fro under his shoe, as he was 
standing awaiting the final order for his execution. As a 
last thing, although he was a stranger to Mr. Beers, but 
probably attracted by the kindness of his countenance, he 
took from his coat pocket a pen and ink sketch and handed 
it to him, saying in effect: " This is a portrait I drew of my- 
self yesterday by looking in a mirror. I have no further use 
for it, and I should like you to take it." This portrait for 
many years was hung framed in the Trumbull Gallery of 
Vale College. In 1S21, at the time of the removal of the 
remains of Major Andre to England, a lock of his hair was 
procured and placed in this framed picture. In the coiu-se 
of the years of its exhibition some thief stole this lock, and 
in consequence, fearful that the original sketch might like- 
wise be stolen, it was thereafter no longer exposed to public 
view. It is carefully preserved among the archives of the 
College. 

During his last years the Governor's Guards at the close 
of a day of parade often marched to the residence of the old 
vcteian on the avenue to give him a salute. He was not 
much of a speech-maker, but on one of these occasions he 
came out in front of his house and said: "Boys, I thank 
you for the honor you pay me, and while I am loo deaf to 
hear your guns, I must say your powder smells good." 

In his last years he lost his mental powers, and 
was wont to go often on a week-da)- and sit on the 
steps of the North Church under the impression it 
was Sunday, and wait there for the sexton to come 
with the keys to open the sanctuary. It was sad 
thus to see him, for he was wont to shed tears at the 
se.xton's seeming delay and at the sight around 
him of the apparent desecration of the Lord's holy 
day. It is pleasing to know that the Grand Army 



of the Republic, on every recurring Decoration 
Day, strew flowers over the grave of this Christian 
patriot. 

We associate no single tree, but rather the whole 
family of the elms with the name of James Hill- 
house. 

Professor Brewer judges that under the most 
favorable conditions an elm may have a life of two, 
or even three, centuries. One of the Fierpont elms 
had a life of full one hundred and sixty years. We 
know of no tree of this family anywhere that has 
stood two centuries. Most of our elms are now 
about a century from the seed. 

New Haven has only one park strictly speaking, 
but under this general term we may include all our 
public plats of turf covered ground; at the head of 
which stands our far-famed Green, which, with its 
majestic walls of elms, has impressed so many 
hearts. "This public square" says Dr. Bacon in 
one of his masterly civic orations delivered Dec- 
oration Day, 1879, "was called by the founders of 
our city the market-place. It was designed not as 
a park or a mere pleasure ground, but as a place 
for public buildings, for military parades and ex- 
ercises, for a meeting for the buyers and sellers, for 
the concourse of the people, for all such public 
uses as were served of old by the Forum at Rome 
and the Agora at Athens, called in our English 
bibles. Market. " 

The Green is the heart of New Haven, the central 
spot of its love. To one born and reared here, 
the very name touches a sacred and patriotic 
chord. And when, far awav, he thinks of his 
na'tive city, this spot of all others rises sweet in 
memory — God, country, law, learning, and all hu- 
manities in and around, seem to have here their 
symbols or associations. 

From the earliest times it has been alike a re- 
ligious and a patriotic center. From it soldiers 
have marched forth to meet the foe of home and 
country. Sermons, pravers, psalms, orations, dis- 
charge of musketry, ringing of bells, trumpet blasts, 
drum beats, the shouts of multitudes and the roar 
of artillery have ascended from this spot for more 
than two centuries. Seven generations have come, 
acted their parts, and then for them the curtain has 
dropped. 

According to the map in the City Engineer's 
Office, the measurements of the Green arc: 

On College street 82S.55 feet. 

Church street 831.42 

Elm street S38 5 

Chapel street 84S.6 " 

Average 839 " 

The fence incloses a trifle in excess of 16 acres, 
and the entire area with the bounding streets is 
about 2 1 acres. The distance around the fence is 
3,357 feet, or 163 feet less than two-thirds of a 
mile. Walking around the square on the opposite 
sides of the bounding streets, one would pass a 
few feet in excess of two-thirds of a mile. The 
Green at the Church street line is 18 feet, and at 
the College street line 37 feet above high-water 
mark, a difference of 1 8 feet. The upper or west 



400 



HISTORY OF THE CTTY OF NEW HAVEN. 



Green is the broadest; an equalizing line from 
Chapel to Elm streets would run through the vesti- 
bule of the three churches. 

We again quote from the journal: 

The Green originally was not an attractive spot. At one 
period, near the Elm and Church street corner, was a pen 
for swine. Tradition says the Green was full of cobble- 
stones, and so boggy that in places it was ditched. Near the 
southeast corner arose a small rivulet or run, which, going 
out where the town pump now is, crossed southerly to the 
Cutler corner, ran through that square and the next scjuare 
and crossing State siceet, about two hundred feet northerly 
from the corner of George, emptied just beyond into East 
Creek, which was on the line of the railroad. On the Green 
aiound the sources of this rivulet the alders grew pro- 
fusely, which the Indians, wanting straight sticks lor arrows, 
\\ ere wont to gather. Some of the early settlers built their 
dwellings from wood cut from the Green. 

The surveyor who laid out our original nine squares was 
John Brockett. He was the eldest son of an English baro- 
net, forsook his prospects for rank and fortune at home, and 
crossed a broad ocean in some little cockle-shell of a vessel 
to ihis then wilderness, drawn thither by the dimpling eye- 
lids of a Puritan girl. He was nianied about 1642, was the 
jirogenitor of the Connecticut Brocketts and of the eminent 
Tennington family of New Jersey. The genealogy of the 
Tuttle family states that he was the eldest son and heir ap- 
parent ot Sir John Brockett, of Brockett Hall and Manor, 
County Hertfordshire, Baronet. The manor and hall is 
now in the possession of the Temple family, and was the 
country seat of ihe late Lord Palmerston. John Brockett 
was prominent in public affairs, especially in the capacity of 
surveyor. He died March, 1690, aged eighty. Whether he 
married the lady whose attractions drew him to these shores 
is unknown. 

In laying out our nine squares, Brockett probably had no 
better instrument than a common surveyor's compass, and the 
difficulty was increased by the thickness of the underbrush. 
Running his lines through the woods, perfect accuracy was 
not practicable nor probably sought for, and, as a conse- 
quence, there is not a single corner in our original city plot 
that is an exact right angle. The half-mile square is a little 
in excess. Each side, taking the inner lines of the bordering 
streets, averages about fifty-one feet over that distance. The 
map in the City Surveyor's < )tfice, as measured for us by 
Mr. Kelly, gives the distance around tlie four sides as 
10,763 feet, or 203 feet in excess of two miles. The meas- 
urements are: State street 2,678 feet, and its opposite, York 
street, 2,690, or 12 feet the longest; Grove street, 2,691, and 
its opposite, George street, 2,704, or 13 feet the longest. 

(3ur ancestors reserved the Green for a market-place 
in Ihe English sense of the appellation, but we have no 
evidence that any market-house was built upon it till 1785. 
Then for a few years there was a market-house near the 
southeast corner of the Green. Up to 1798 the Green was 
not inclosed, but was traveled in all directions by ox-teams 
and vehicles. In July, 1799, it was voted that "it would 
add to the convenience of the citizens and to the ornament 
of the city, that the tireen or public square of the city should 
be leveled and the upper and lower sections railed in, and 
suitable fences erected to preserve the same fi-om the pass- 
ing of carriages and teams, and that water-courses should 
be prepared for conducting off the water." 

At the same time Pierpont Edwards (lawyer), James Hill- 
house (College Treasurer), and Isaac Beers (bookseller near 
the College and brother of Deacon Nathan Beers), were au- 
thorized to "superintend and accomplish the same, pro- 
vided the same Ije done without expense to the city." A 
subscription was then taken for the purpose, and the grass 
sold yearly to pay part of the expense and keep the fence in 
repair. In September, 1803, it was voted that James Hill- 
house, Isaac Beers aiul Thaddeus Beecher be a committee 
to examine and adjust the accounts of Mr. David Austin, to 
ascertain what he expended in railing and ornamenting the 
Green (setting out elms, we presume), and make report if 
anything, and if anything, what sum is legally and equitably 
due to him from the city on account of moneys so expended. 
Erom the above record it is evident that the city finally paid 
a small amount toward the expense of inclosing the Green. 



The fence was likewise built through the Green on both 
sides of Temple street, making two inclosures, the upper and 
lower Green. 

It was a neat post and rail fence, painted white, with two 
rails. About forty years since it was taken to Milford and 
put around its Green, where it still remains, but in a dilapi- 
dated condition. It was succeeded by the present iron fence, 
at a cost of a tritle less than seven thousand dollars. 

As late as 1830 the cows from the town Poor- 
house were sometimes pastured on the Upper 
Green, which was then in places quite sandy. In 
boyhood the writer saw laborers on the Lower 
Green mowing the gra.ss, and haycocks dotting its 
surface on a summer evening — cones of fragrance. 
About forty years since, for a term of years the de- 
struction of the elms was threatened by the visita- 
tion of the canker-worm. Some seasons many of 
the trees were almost entirely stripped of their foli- 
age. They looked as if blighted by fire, and 
pedestrians underneath were greatly annoyed by 
the worms falling on them. Fears that the elms 
would be destroyed led, during the mayoralty of 
Aaron N. Skinner, to the planting of the maples 
now on the Upper Green; the pest not visiting 
maples. 

Besides the old Green, the city has the following 
open areas, whose dimensions we express in acres 
and tenths. Wooster Square, 4.66; Clinton Park, 
3.78; Jocelyn Square, 261; York Square, i.oz; 
Spireworth Square, .83; Munson Park, .59; Upper 
Broadway Park, .57; Hamilton place Park, .53; 
Fountain Park, .■^y, Lower Broadway Park, .30; 
Temple street Park, . 14; Houston Park, .06; State 
and Lawrence streets Park, .04; Sherman and 
Winthrop avenues Park, .03; Kimberly and Green- 
wich avenues Park, .02. 

Several of them are insignificant grass plats, 
formed by two roads meeting at, a slight angle, 
leaving a strip too narrow for building and thus, 
of necessity, thrown open to the public. Others 
were given by land-owners to popularize their sur- 
rounding possessions. In the great era of land spec- 
ulation in 1835-36, the Messrs. Jocelyn thus gave 
to the public Jocelyn and Spireworth sijuares. The 
latter, which is in the Hallock quarter, derives its 
name from a slender spindling sort of grass which 
grows only on ])oor, sandy soil. About that lime 
York square was formed by several gentlemen, who 
built for themselves around it, in that retired nook 
off from Broadway, some palatial residences with 
Grecian fronts. 

One of the most picturesque places in the city is 
the wide area called Broadway, as seen from the 
corner of York street. There, in the course of a 
few hundred feet, come in from the West four con- 
verging highways, viz.. Elm street, Whalley, Gofle 
and Dixwell avenues. These have at their junction 
two small gem-like parks, one a little west of the 
other, but both in full view, where noble elms in 
the prime of their beauty give a crowning elegance 
to the whole expanse. One of its main charms is 
the modest little Episcopal church, in simple 
Gothic architecture, founded by the sisters, the 
Misses Edwards, who have so long been identified 
with female education in our city. It is sweetly 



TREES AND PARKS. 



401 



snuggled in behind the trees, giving a sort of moral 
aroma to the place. 

Broadway is one of the highest points on the city 
plain, forty-two feet above high-water mark, and 
twenty-three feet above the corner of Chapel and 
Church streets. It is the avenue by which "the 
red coats," as the old people of the last generation 
called the British soldiers, came to town. Within 
the remembrance of the writer, two old houses were 
standing which had upon them marks of the con- 
flict — for Broadway was a battle-ground. One was 
the Tuttle House, in which the beams in the attic 
were scarred with bullet-holes. It stood on the 
site of the little church, with its front door facing 
east, and hay -scales before it. It had once been 
painted red, but the paint had faded with the years. 
The other, the Augur mansion, also faced east, and 
stood at the junction of GofTe and Whalley ave- 
nues. Over the front door was a hole made by a 
cannon ball, which lodged in the chimney. It was 
perhaps fired from one of Captain Phineas Brad- 
ley's cannon upon the advancing foe. He was 
grandfather of General Luther Bradley, U.S.A. 

It was about the year 1830 that the elms were 
set out by the contributions of the neighbors. 
Broadway then had some prominent men. Among 
these we note a few, beginning with the poet Perci- 
val and his friend, the delicately constituted and 
gifted Hezekiah Augur, a small, spare, erect man 
of the sanguine nervous type, whose group of 
"Jephthah and His Daughter," now in the Yale 
Art School, when produced e.\cited great attention 
and pride among his fellow-citizens, it being, we 
think, the first group in marble executed by an 
American. Among the oti dits in regard to it, is 
that wherein, among a knot of citizens standing on 
the corner of Chapel and Church streets, the ques- 
tion arose, " Who was Jephthih .''" Unable to decide, 
two of them started on an interrogating tour, stop- 
ping in store after store and getting varied replies, 
until they came to that of a good deacon, whom 
they found busy with knife in hand cutting out 
trunk straps. At their question he looked up and 
said, "I really at this moment don't exactly re- 
member. Was not Jephthah one of Bonaparte's 
generals .•' " 

Daniel Read, the musical author and teacher of 
singing. His noble psalm tune, "Windham," 
sung to the words. 

Broad is the road that leads to death. 
And thousands walk together there, etc. 

has sunk into the hearts of multitudes for now ex- 
actly the full century past. 

Dr. Levi Ives, Deacon of the North Church, 
who discovered the pathology of croup. He was 
a kindly, generous man, and on visiting patients 
who pleaded poverty, where he advised delicacies, 
such as chicken broth, etc., would always siy, 
' ' send to my house. " He was an ardent Jeffersonian 
Democrat, and is alluded to in Theodore Dwight's 
political pasquinade in ridicule of a festival in New 
Haven March 3, 1803, beginning with 
W tribes of faction join 

Your daughters and your wives; 
Moll Gary's come to town 
To dance with Deacon Ives. 
51 



Rev. Dr. Eleazer T. Fitch, College Pastor, and Pro- 
fessor of Divinity in Yale, who had the family trait, 
extreme modesty, and never heard the bell calling 
him to his pulpit without a nervous shrinking. He 
possessed fine mechanical and artistic abilities, 
could construct anything, composed music, and 
was an eloquent divine. The tones of his voice 
were singularly pathetic, thrilling like music. 

Rev. Samuel Merwin, for many decades the faith- 
ful pastor of the North (Church, which greatly 
flourished under his ministrations. He was of a 
tender sympathetic nature, and had a keen sense of 
the proprieties; his faith was like a mountain and he 
was especially fervent in prayer, wherein he often 
brought out with a grateful unction the promise, 
"Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as 
white as snow; though they be red like crimson, 
they shall be as wool. " As these words dropped 
from his lips, they touched the heart of the listener 
with an ineffable sense of reconciliation and peace. 

Colonel Elisha Hull, a wealthy manufacturer of 
soap and candles, which he largely exported to the 
West Indies. The citizens were accustomed to sell 
him their ashes and grease, for which he sent a cart 
from house to house to gather them up, they re- 
ceiving their pay in a return of soap and tallow 
candles. 

William H. Ellis, who although noted last, was 
not least — for he was every way a ponderous man, 
turning the scale at 260 pounds, and had more 
common sense than half a dozen ordinary men 
rolled into one — began life as servant to Timothy 
Atwater, the proprietor of a soap and candle factory, 
and, eventually adopted the vocation of a butcher. 
One day he dropped his cleaver, pulled off his 
white apron, emerged from a cellar just south of 
the Glebe Building, where his meat shop was, and 
took the position, by invitation of President 
Andrew Jackson, of Collector of the Port of New 
Haven. From that time forth it was said he 
carried the Democracy of Connecticut in his pocket. 
Ellis had with him, as tide-waiter, a man named 
Myers. He was a German, one of the half-dozen 
then in the city, and a man of quick wit. Natur- 
ally elated, a few days after his appointment, E^Uis 
said: "Myers, what do people say about my being 
Collector.'" " Dey say," he rejoined, "you've 
been Collector before. " "What do they mean.'" 
" Collector of soap grease and ashes for Timothy 
Atwater." 

Myers deserves a passing notice, for he was a 
noted New Haven character. In the Napoleonic 
wars, near the beginning of this century, he ran 
away from home to avoid conscription, and settled 
in New Haven, married, and raised a good family. 
A son of his graduated at West Point and became 
an honored officer in the Union army during the 
Rebellion. Myers had lived here twenty or thirty 
years in the occupation of drayman, in which time 
he had lost all knowledge of his father's family, 
when one evening he entered the bar-room of 
Bishop's Tavern, which then stood where the Post 
Office now is. He found there a German peddler 
with whom he opened a conversation. In a few 
minutes the group around the wood fire were 



402 



HISTORY OF THE CITF OF NEW HA VEN. 



astonished by seeing Myers and the peddler spring 
from their chairs and rush into each other's arms, 
with the exclamation, " Mein Gott, it is mein 
brudder." 

Myers was not the only German that our city 
obtained through their hatred of war. Several 
families in and around Broadway were founded by 
Hessian soldiers, who, on the retreat of the British 
on July 6, 1779, hid and remained behind. They 
married here and founded families. Their names 
were Le Forge, Clyme, Bromlee, and Knevals. 
A grandson of the latter is a law partner of 
ex-President Arthur. 

Wooster square, next to the old Green, is our 
largest and most important open space, containing 
four and two-thirds acres. Previous to 1825 it was 
a pasture land where Governor English states that 
he once saw in his youth a ploughing match. At 
that date the city bought it, for $6,000, of Abraham 
Bishop, being the only land, we believe, ever pur- 
chased for a square by the city, excepting the 
original acquisition from the Indians. Mr. Bishop 
also owned the adjoining land east. The city 
claimed that he was also to include the strip for a 
street east, now known as Wooster place. In a 
resulting litigation the city was defeated. The 
square was first inclosed with a wooden fence, which 
was replaced in 1853 with iron railings at an ex- 
pense of $4,000. Individuals planted the trees at 
a cost of some $1,500. 

This square is densely shaded by a large variety 
of trees. By reason of its quiet and seclusion, and 
the domesticity of the neighborhood, it is the most 
frecjuented resort in the city, in the warm days of 
summer, for mothers and nurses with young chil- 
dren. Over one hundred babes, some in arms and 
some in carriages, have been counted there at one 
lime by Charles E. Stokes, who for seven years past 
has been its guardian policeman. 

The most striking topographical features of New 
Haven are the two precipitous walls of trap rock ris- 
ing from the northern boundary of the plain, known 
respectively as East and West Rock. These, with 
the picturesque cone of Mount Carmel (736 feet in 
altitude), some six miles farther inland, and the 
softly-wooded and grass-carpeted hills on the right 
and left of the plain, give to the city a very beau- 
tiful setting as seen from the mouth of the harbor, 
five miles away. The Dutch, on their discovery 
of the site, were, from the ruddy appearance of these 
rocks, induced to give it the name of Rodenberg or 
Red Mountain. West Rock, where its wall faces 
the city, rises 387 feet; a mile north, 485 feet; and 
three miles, 600 feet. The range is about seven- 
teen miles in length. 

Near by, easterly from its southern termination, 
but facing also the south, is a smaller mountain, 
Pine Rock, 274 feet high. Sixty years ago there 
was a cave or fissure on its walled face, called Fry's 
Cave, in which tiwelt a hermit, a wild, solitary be- 
ing, who would sometimes wander into and through 
the town, begging from house to house. 

On West Rock, at a point 365 feet high, is the 



cluster of five rocks, the tallest about eighteen 
feet high, so noted in our history as Judges' Cave, 
where the regicides Gofie and Whalley were con- 
cealed. They were originally parts of a single huge 
boulder, which Professor Dana says weighed at least 
a thousand tons, and came in the glacier period 
from the Mount Tom range. This range begins in 
South Mountain, in Meriden, where it is 996 feet 
high, and ends in Mount Tom, Massachusetts, 
where it is 1,214 feet high. 

The East Rock range is a little less distant from 
the center of the city than the other — fairly about 
two miles. Its entire length is only a mile and a 
half, and extreme height 362 feet. Average breadth 
half a mile. As West Rock has a smaller compan- 
ion in Pine Rock, East Rock has a satellite in Mill 
Rock, 228 feet in altitude, lying west of its north 
end, the village of Whitneyville intervening. It is 
crowned by a single residence, with a grand out- 
look, that of Professor William P. Blake. South 
of Mill Rock begins Sachem's Ridge, ending at 
Hillhouse avenue, half a mile from the Green. Its 
extreme height is 140 feet. 

Mill River passes in front of East Rock, close to 
its base, and penetrates the interior 1 5 miles. The 
35-foot dam at Whitneyville has converted several 
miles of it into a long, beautiful lake, from which 
the city obtains its water. In the rear of East Rock 
lies the broad, beautiful valley of the Quinnipiac 
River, the stream being n miles in length, with 
thousands of acres of salt meadow in its lower 
part. These two streams for miles are separated 
by the Quinnipiac Ridge, a high, grassy, farm-cov- 
ered tract of rolling land. Such is the general sur- 
rounding of East Rock Ridge. Its lower mass is 
red sandstone, In the igneous period the basaltic 
lava burst through fissures and, flowing over, formed 
the precipitous columnar face which gives its front 
such an impressive, almost fearful aspect, as one 
stands at its base looking up. 

Since the establishment of Central Park in New 
York, in 1S51, parks have come to be regarded as 
a necessity to every large city. Some fifteen years 
ago, Mr. John W. Bishop, who was largely inter- 
ested in real estate in that quarter, offered to give 
the city the two eastern spurs of East Rock, Indian 
Head and Snake Rock, if they would spend $3,000 
annually in improving the land for a park. He 
later offered to waive this condition, but was de- 
feated by the efforts of owners of land in the west- 
ern part of the town, who wanted a park in their 
own neighborhood. In 1876 the subject of parks 
was reopened by a petition headed by President 
Porter and the late ISIayor Filch. Mr. Bishop had 
by this time sold off much of the land which he 
had formerly offered the city, but he agreed to give 
most of what he had left if others would make 
similar contributions of land or money, and if East 
Rock were made the center of the park. Plenty of 
other sites were offered — for a consideration. The 
decision was not long held in abeyance, so Flast 
Rock Park was established, in 1880, by charter 
from the Legislature. It comprises, in round fig- 
ures, 353 acres, of which 50 acres were given by 



TREES AND PARKS. 



403 



Mr. Bishop, 20 by Yale College, and 17 by five 
other donors. In addition to the gift of 87 acres 
as above noted. Mayor Lewis, in his message for 
1884, stated there had then been expended "upon 
the Park, $73,144 for lands, roads and incidentals, 
of which $18,885 ^^'^s subscribed by citizens, $24,- 
000 came from the annual $6,000 payments of the 
city, and the balance from the city in payment of 
assessments for condemned land." The land be- 
longed to about I 25 different parties, the tracts vary- 
ing in size from a small building lot to one of many 
acres. Only 144 acres of it is in New Haven; 209 
acres, the larger part, being within the line of Ham- 
den. 

Early in 1882, Donald G. Mitchell was requested 
to draw up a plan for the "harmonious develop- 
ment" of the park. After careful study of the 
ground, he designed a map of a lay-out, which, 
with a report, was made the basis of future work. 
The general aim of his plan was, "To make acces- 
sory and enjoyable not only the more command- 
ing localities, but the retired nooks and recesses 
of the range * * * endeavoring, however, to 
subordinate the walks and roads and plantings to 
the grander features of interest, under the convic- 
tion that the things best worth seeing there will 
always be the rocks and woods and views as nature 
left them." 

East Rock Park is in its infancy, but its promises 
for the future are such as will eventually give it the 
reputation of being a gem among the parks. What 
other presents such a sublime frontage to the ap- 
proaching stranger .' What other has such a vari- 
ety of scenery inland and seaward ? The eye rests 
also on interesting historic points around the city 
and down the harbor, grateful to the pride of coun- 
try, as they are associated with memories honora- 
ble to the heroic self-sacrifice and bravery of our 
fathers. 

Mr. Mitchell, in his report to the Commissioners, 
gave this detail of the topography: 

The area proposed for the park is a crescent-shaped body 
of land, two miles north by east from the dreen, with its 
convex side toward the city, its prominent feature being a 
great up-lift of basaltic cliti", which, in its highest part, 
reaches an elevation of three hundred and sixty feet, and 
sliows a precipitous face from seventy to a hundred feet in 
height by some eighteen hundred feet in length. This great 
line of precipice is convex in shape, and fronts the city ; it is 
fringed with a dwarf growth of wood, and the rocky debris 
at its foot slopes to the banks of Mill River, which, « ith its 
narrow hem of salt meadow, skirts the rock upon the south 
and west. 

East of the southernmost end of the main cliff, and separ- 
ated from it by a wooded gorge, rises a lesser basaltic hill, 
known as Indian Head, which repeats in miniature the fea- 
tures of its larger neighbor, and has only some sixty feet less 
of elevation. Thence the rocky framework of the park 
lands tends southeasterly and ends in Snake Rock, where 
trap and red sandstone both appear. This last cliff, some 
two hundred feet in height, forms the southern horn of the 
crescent shape to wliich I have likened the general area. 

North of East Rock proper there is another dip of the 
land, though not so gorge-like as at the southern end, yet 
showing a very picturesque sylvan glade, which is flanked 
by heavy forest growth on the north. This forest growth 
covers the southern slope of a new transverse line of rocky 
ridge, whose eastern extremity is known as Whitney Peak, 
[two hundred and eighty feet elevation], and which at the 
west ends in a bold, rocky buttress of cliff at the Whitney 



Dam. North of this barrier again, easy slopes of wooded 
and tilled land carry the park area to the shores of the lake, 
and to the so-called Ridge road, which forms for a consider- 
able distance the northern boundary. 

The eastern border is a curved line, nearly parallel with 
the North Haven road, and some six or seven hundred feet 
distant therefrom for more than half its length — following 
generally the bottom of the slope which the hill-land makes 
in its descent to the level of the Quinnipiac valley, and 
touching State street at what I have designated as the (Juin- 
nipiac entrance. The eastern slope is seamed with several 
rocky ravines, heavily wooded, which receive the flow of a 
few scattered springs upon the flank of the hill. 

A forest growth covers at least four-fifths of the area, 
stunted and dwarfed where the rock comes near to Ihe sur- 
face, and heavy and luxuriant where the soil is deep. 

There is scarcely a level spot upon the entire 
range, and in places it is extremely wild and rough, 
with picturesque, solitary dells, varied woods, 
underbrush, jagged rocks, and occasionally rare 
wild flowers. Before the construction of a rude 
carriage road, about forty years ago, through the 
ravine between Indian Head and the main 
peak, it was much visited by pedestrians for the 
wildness of its scenery and the beauty and grandeur 
of its outlooks. The main peak was then, as now, 
the favorite point of view. From here the eye 
takes in the elm-embowered city, the harbor, with 
the hills and plains that bound it; and beyond, a 
vast stretch, east and west, of the great inland sea, 
with Long Island itself, its nearest point twenty-five 
miles away, its sand-hills often towering up and 
shining brightly in contrast with its dark, somber 
forests. It is said that the extent of the Long 
Island shore under the eye from this point is fifty- 
eight miles, nearly half its entire length. 

On the north part of the ridge, looking west, one 
gazes on Whitneyville, with its glassy chain of 
lakes, Mill Rock, and then the bold profile of West 
Rock beyond, with its long wooded range, six 
hundred feet high, running to the far north. From 
the rear of the ridge the view north is beautiful and 
extensive, stretching one-third the distance across 
the State. It is up the broad level valley of the 
Quinnipiac, with its bounding hills. The wood- 
crowned Saltonstall ridge incloses it on the east, 
and on the west lie the grassy farms of the Quinni- 
piac ridge. Six miles further away, on the left 
these pastoral uplands are ended by the huge form 
of the Sleeping Giant, two miles long and seven 
hundred and thirty-six feet high, with his head, the 
softly rounded cone. Mount Carmel, at its south- 
west termination. Sixteen miles away, in Meriden, 
to the right of the Giant, but still on the left front, 
boldly rises in mid-air, one thousand feet, the south 
end of the Mount Tom range, which, with the 
Berlin range on the right front, melts into the blue 
of the overhanging sky. The meadows of the 
winding Quinnipiac, with their myriads of cones of 
salt hay, have thus a beautiful setting, over whose 
level surface the clouds of summer are wont to 
chase their flitting shadows. These salt meadows 
comprise three thousand five hundred acres and lie 
broad under the eye for nearly seven miles to where 
the spires of the churches of North Haven come in 
view, mere dots in the gray distance. 

Early in this century the Turner family were 
part owners of East Rock and of land north of it. 



404 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



A member of this family, Seth Turner, in conse- 
quence, it is said, of disappointment in love, re- 
turned from Massachusetts whither his parents had 
removed, built a rough stone hut on the summit of 
his ancestral acres, and took up the life of a 
hermit. The hut was about twelve feet square and 
partly underground. He had a garden walled 
around, and kept a few sheep and goats. He was 
sometimes seen in town with a little cart drawn by 
a single goat, peddling roots and herbs. He acted 
upon the apothegm ".Silence is golden," rarely 
speaking to any one and avoiding human society. 
On November 2, 1823, his lifeless body was found 
frozen in his hut. 

About the year 1843, Elizur Hubbell, a silver- 
plater, of New Haven, built a small house for re- 
freshment at the outlook. The approach then was 
by a very precipitous road between Indian Head 
and the main peak. He was bought out by a 
respectable old couple by the name of Smith, who 
earned a little money by furnishing accommodation 
to visitors. One day, just before noon, in the year 
1848, they were surprised and murdered by a man 
named McCaffrey. He was arrested, tried, sen- 
tenced, and executed for the crime in 1850. He 
confessed that his sole incentive was money, none 
of which he obtained. A few years later Milton j. 
Stewart purchased the top of the rock, and retained 
possession until bought out by the Park Commis- 
sioners. He was an industrious, busy man. With 
his own hands alone he built a large stone house 
and kept watch over his property with a dog and 
gun. A stranger in search of the picturesque on 
Hearing his mansion would be met by Stewart with 
the greeting, "I charge you ten cents. " "What 
for.'" "For my view." Mr. Stewart built for a 
front access a series of wooden steps up the face of 
the ledge, some seventy feet or more in height. 
Among his works was the building, on the sum- 
mit of the mountain, of a steamboat about forty 
feet long, called "Stewart's steamboat." It was 
never finished, and the exoterics have failed to dis- 
cover how it was to be launched. 

Until the middle of this century there were no 
means of ascending to the summit excepting on 
foot. There was a cart road at the base for the use 
of the quarrymen, who obtained an abundance of 
stone for cellar walls, and a bridge for their use 
over Mill River at Rock lane, near the north front. 
Pedestrians usually came by the way of State street 
Bridge, anciently called Neck Bridge, and so noted 
in our early history, being on the highway to Wal- 
lingford, Middletown, Hartford, etc. Until quite 
recently, that neck of upland south of the south end 
of the range, west of State street, east of the salt 
marsh, and extending south to Neck Bridge, was a 
dense forest of evergreens, mostly pine and spruce, 
with some cedars, through which ran a winding 
lane, densely shaded, and much visited by young 
people fifty years ago. One spot was especially 
attractive. It was about a quarter of a mile from 
the bridge, and extended from the lane to the 
meadow bank. It was called the "Seat of Happi- 
ness, " and consisted of a grove of stately, solemn 
pines. The ground, level as a house floor, was soft 



to the feet, being everywhere covered with the 
spicular leaves, which in successive years had fallen 
from the trees. These formed a natural carpet in 
one uniform russet hue, here and there brightened 
by dashes of gold from the sunlight glinting through 
openings above, and all the brighter by contrast 
with the dark, somber trunks and deep verdure of 
the pines which responded in mournful whisperings 
to the softest breathings of tlie air. 

The Soldiers' Monument. 

On the summit of East Rock Park is to be a 
granite column in memory of the soldiers of New 
Haven who have died in the service of their coun- 
try. This monument had its origin in a proposal 
which originated with the members of the Admiral 
Foote Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, 
John McCarthy and Charles E. Fowler being espe- 
cially active. "The Post held an enthusiastic meet- 
ing on the 5th of April, 1879, and this was among 
their resolutions passed: 

Resolved, That Admiral Foote Post, No. 17, department 
of Connecticut, d. A. R., respeclfully petition the Honor- 
able Court of Common Council of the City of New Haven, 
in behalf of the soldiers and sailors of the late war, to set 
apart and dedicate the five-sided lot of ground just south of 
the Liberty I'ole on the old Green for a site for a memorial 
fountain or monument to the citizens who enlisted from the 
Town or City of New Haven, and died in llie service of 
their country in the War of the Revolution, in the War of 
1S12, the War with Mexico, and the War for the Union and 
the suiijiression of the rebellion. 

The Post's overture was for a memorial fountain, 
built of granite, at an estimated cost of $25,000, 
which they thought they could raise by dime sub- 
scriptions. The Council, with surprising alacrity, 
granted their petition, and on the ensuing memo- 
rial day there was a great celebration on the Cireen, 
when the five-sided site, so delineated by the asphalt 
walks, was formally dedicated by Admiral t'oote 
Post. Mayor H. 15. Bigelow presided at the exer- 
cises, and Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon delivered a me- 
morial oration. Department-Commander Charles 
E. Fowler made the dedicatory speech, and a large 
chorus of school children, under Professor Jepson, 
rendered appropriate songs. 

Nothing, however, was done toward raising the 
funds, and various distracting projects arose, divid- 
ing public opinion between a Memorial Hall, a 
Free Library, and a monument on East Rock. 

In December of 1883, the Grand Army again 
asked at a town-meeting for a memorial for the 
soldiers, and, $50,000 being appropriated, a large 
committee was appointed to act with one from the 
Grand Army for devising the best form that couUl 
be given to the memorial. A monumental column 
was decided on. Three sub-committees were then 
appointed, viz., On 6';fe. —Ex-Governor Bigelow, 
Colonel Healey, Town-Agent Reynolds, Colonel 
Samuel ToUes, and Theodore A. Tuttle. On De- 
sign. — General S. E. Merwin, Ex-Governor J. E. 
English, Governor Henry B. Harrison, Colonel 
Fox, and J. D. I'iunkett. (hi Finance. — John 
McCarthy, (jeneral Frank 1). Sluat, and Conrad 
Hofacker. 




SOLDIERS' MONUMENT. 



TREES AND PARKS. 



405 



The site selected was the summit of East Rock 
Park, and the design that of ]\Ioffatt & Doyle, of 
New York. The monument is iio feet in height 
from Its base to the statue of the Angel of Peace on 
its summit. The base, the pedestal, and the shaft 
are to be of a reddish granite; the statue at the top, 
like the bas-reliefs and statues on the lower por- 
tion of the monument, is bronze. The pedestal is 
square, consisting of a series of stone steps, five in 
number, the lowest 40 feet square. The base, 17 
feet high, is square and of uniform massive blocks 
of stone with casements, one of which is for the 
entrance and ascent to the summit, the others being 
merely blanks. Between the base and the com- 
mencement of the shaft, which is a smooth column, 
are eight feet of ornamental masonry, on the four 
corners of which at the base are four lironze figures, 
nine feet high, in a sitting posture, with their backs 
to the shaft. These are (i) The Genius of History, 
reading a book in her lap; (2) Victory, with trum- 
pet and laurel wreath; (3) Prosperity, with the horn 
of plenty; (4) Patriotism, with bare neck and arms, 
drawing a sword. This noble monument com- 
memorates the four great wars in which this coun- 
try has been engaged since the first blow for liberty 
was struck at Le.xington, and each one of these bas 
reliefs itself is a mute reminder of an important 
struggle. Over the entrance the scene depicted is 
the surrender of General Lee to General Grant at 
Appomattox. Figures of Grant and Lee occupy 
the foreground, and between them stands a little 
table on which the terms of unconditional surrender 
were made. On the topmost portion of the base, 
under the bas-relief, are the words, in raised letters 
of granite, 

Shiloh, Oettysburg and Antietam, 

and below these words, and over the top of the 
casement, are the numerals 

1861-65. 

On the back of the monument the scene de- 
picted is that of Commodore Perry on Lake Erie. 
The great commander is in the act of writing his 
famous dispatch: 

We have met the enemy and they are ours. 

This picture also contains a representation of the 
dismantled British fleet. On the base, under this 
picture, are inscribed the words: 

Lake Erie, Bridgewater and New Orleans. 

The dates over the casement are 1812-15. 

An illustration of General Scott entering the con- 
quered City of Mexico occupies one of the other 
faces of the monument. 

Palo Alto, Monterey and Chepultepec, 

and the dates 1846-48 are mentioned on the stone 
below. 

The fourth bas-relief is a picture of the surren- 
der of General Cornwallis at Yorktown; a figure of 



Washington stands in the foreground receiving the 
British generals' swords. 

Bunker Hill, Bennington and Yorktown, 
and the dates 1775-83 are inscribed below it. 

The shaft of the monument towers up seventy- 
five feet. It is circular in form and slightly tapering. 
Its base is ten feet in diameter. The column rests 
on a sculptured wreath. Above this there are a few 
feet of ornamental masonry, and then there is a 
band of thirteen chiseled stars representing the thir- 
teen original states. Above this the uniform blocks 
of granite are unornamented until the ornamenta- 
tion around the four look-out windows is reached. 

A spiral staircase, well lighted by look-out win- 
dows, leads to the apex of the monument, which is 
nearly cone-shaped, and crowned by the bronze 
Angel of Peace eleven feet high. She has one hand 
outstretched holding and dispensing blessings, while 
the other is lifted high aloft to Heaven. 

A grand feature of the park is the beautiful, easy 
winding drives to the summit. These, by their 
varied curvings, give not only charming vistas, but 
in places near by show in awe-inspiring profile the 
frowning, jagged cliffs of the mountain itself as a 
foreground to a broad expansive scene of peace 
and beauty, on mainland and sea. 

The total length of the carriage-drives is in ex- 
cess of five miles. The first drive finished was that 
made by the city from Bishop's Gate, at the south- 
eastern entrance at Cedar Hill, to Indian Head. 
Not until this was opened did the public begin to 
realize the superb value of the park, a feeling which 
culminated into enthusiasm on the completion of 
the Farnam drive, in 1883, to the summit. On the 
decease of Mr. Farnam, his widow continued its 
extension, in all two and a quarter miles, at a total 
cost of $15,000. 

Farnam Drive begins at the base of the frowning 
cliff" at the Orange street Bridge and winds through 
the northern half of the park. In the spring of 
1885, Ex-Governor James E. English gladdened 
the hearts of his fellow-citizens by a like munificent 
offer, a contribution of $10,000 for a similar drive 
complementary to the other, to be called The En- 
glish Drive, to start at the same point, the Orange 
street Bridge, and. winding through the southern 
half of the park, as the other through the northern, 
to terminate at the same place, the Lookout Point; 
this with the understanding that it should be fin- 
ished by May, 1886. 

Henry Farnam and James E. English, founders 
of their own fortunes, both beginning life as build- 
ers — the one of canals and railroads, the other of 
dwellings and business structures — thus crown their 
successful careers by building these beneficent me- 
morials on the face of the everlasting rock, to re- 
main till 

Seas shall waste, 

The skies to smoke decay; 
Rocks fall to dust. 
And mountains melt away. 



40G 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



BIOGRAPHY. 



WILLIS MINOR SMITH 

was born in Woodbridge, New Haven County, 
April 5, 1819, the son of Daniel Treat and Re- 
becca (Sperry) Smith. 

He was the ninth in a family of ten children, five 
sons and five daughters. His father died when he 
was fourteen years of age, being suddenly killed by 
the falling of a tree. 

The house in which he was born was owned 
and occupied by the Rev. Benjamin Woodbridge, 
from whom the town was named, and it was left as 
a gift to Daniel Treat Smith. This famous old 
house has a secret closet, built close to the chim- 
ney, with a sliding panel in the wall. It will ac- 
commodate two persons, and local tradition reports 
that it has often held the regicides, when, fleeing 
from their hiding-place on West Rock, they escaped 
out into Woodbridge. There is also upon the 
premises of this house a well, made through the 
solid rock, which has a secret hiding-place, a recess 
or shelf in the rock, and here sometimes, when hard 
pressed, a regicide was let down and concealed. 
Mr. Smith's great-grandmother, when a child, often 
carried provisions to a secluded spot at the foot of 
West Rock, and left them on a certain stump for 
the regicides. Watching their opportunity at night, 
they would descend from their place of shelter, near 
the top of the rock, still known as Judges' Cave, 
and securmg the food, return to their retreat. 

Mr. Smith worked on his father's farm and at- 
tended school until 1835. He then came to New 
Haven, and was apprenticed to the firm of Hine, 
Peck it Perkins, to learn the mason's trade. 
Stephen P. Perkins was junior member in this firm. 
That year he worked on the Saunders Building at 
Chapel and Orange streets, now known as the 
Union Trust Company Building. He was also 
employed on the Halleck residence at Oyster 
Point, and the Free Church on Church street, now 
the American Theatre. The following year, 1836, 
the year after the great fire in New York, he went to 
that city and took part in rebuilding the burnt dis- 
trict. Returning to New Haven, he served out his 
time as apprentice, and, after working for some 
years as a journeyman, formed a copartnership, in 
1847, with N. D. Sperry, which copartnership still 
exists, tiie firm being at this time the oldest in New 
Haven, and probably in the State. 

Among the first buildings erected by the young 
firm, was the Second Congregational Church in 
Fair Haven Fast. In 1849 they built the O. E. 
Maltby residence in Fair Haven, ami tiie same 
year a residence on Grand street, and the ne.\t sea- 
son three liandsome dwellings on Olive street for 
Joel Ives, Minoit A. Osborne, and James F. Bab- 
cock, the two last then rival editors of New Haven. 
In 1851 they built Henry Ives' residence at Orange 
and \Vall streets, and houses for Judson Canfield 
and Philemon Hoadley on Crown street. 

The next season they erected N. F. Hall's fine 



residence on Orange street, and later made altera- 
tions in the Chapel street Church. In 1S55 they 
built the Hall Block on Orange street, and thene.xt 
season the Chaplain Block on Chapel street below 
Union; also about this time the residence of E. S. 
Rowland at Green and Academy streets, and that 
of N. D. Sperry at Orange and Bradley streets. In 
i860 they erected the Judson Building on State 
street, facing Elm; the elegant Perit residence on 
Hillhouse avenue; and a block of houses on Tem- 
ple street. 

In 1862 they put up the Tremont House, and 
a year or so later I\Ir. Smith completed his own 
handsome residence on Orange street. Soon after 
the firm built the block of houses on Trumbull 
street near Orange, and the one on Orange street 
at the corner of Trumbull. 

In 1869 they built the Farnam College, and 
immediately afterward the elegant Farnam resi- 
dence on Hillhouse avenue. Then the Durfee 
College, continuing the new square on the Vale 
grounds; the Insurance Building on Chapel street, 
extending over Gregson; the White Buildings, 
extending from Church street through Center to 
Orange, and including the Temple of Music; the 
Morris Tyler Building on Chapel street; the Gar- 
field Buildings, one on Chapel, the other on State 
street; the handsome building owned by Governor 
English, and occupied by Proctor, McGuire A Co. ; 
the Kensington Flat; the Pitkin Building; W. H. 
Farnam's residence on Hillhouse avenue at Trum- 
bull street; Henry C. Kingsley's residence diag- 
onally across from this; the fine stone building of 
the Yale Seniors' secret society, known as the 
Wolf's Head, at Trumbull and Prospect streets; 
Battell Chapel on the Yale Campus; the Sloane 
Memorial Laboratory and the Winchester Observa- 
tory, both Yale buildings; the chancels of St. Paul's 
and Trinity; and the Staples Block on Trumbull 
street, are all their work. 

In addition, the firm have made the extensive al- 
terations and extensions to the New Haven Post 
Office, and have put up hundreds of other build- 
ings in New Haven, throughout Massachusetts, 
and in New York City, and are now erecting the 
Lawrance Hall for Yale College. 

In connection with the finer residences named, 
it may be mentioned that the Henry Farnam place 
is already willed to Vale College, and may even- 
tually become the residence of the President. 

Before the Lawrance College was fully com- 
pleted, Mr. Smitli's firm was awarded another im- 
portant contract, the building of the Soldiers' Mon- 
ument in Fast Rock Park. It is quite safe to say 
that a more intricate piece of mechanical work was 
never undertaken in New Haven; and from the 
very first Mr. Smith took sole charge of it. 

There were many — some of them good me- 
chanics too — who stood ready to volunteer their 
advice as to how the work should be done, the 
derricks constructed, and the stones raised and put 




/ <y/<:j . , (^ , S4,,j//C 



ARTIFICIAL ILLUMINATION. 



407 



in place; but the subject of our sketch had his 
own ideas with regard to the matter, and has car- 
ried them out most successfully, not a single acci- 
dent having occurred from the beginning to the 
completion of the work. 

The builders were greatly inconvenienced by the 
non-arrival of the bronze figures, and, in regard to 
this, ex-Governor English, the Treasurer of the 
Building Committee, said the reason they were not 
on hand, was simply because neither the architects, 
nor anybody else, supposed it possible for the con- 
tractors to put up the work with such unprecedented 
rapidity. 

Referring to this last triumph of Mr. Smith's 
wonderful mechanical skill, the Palladium of Au- 
gust 26, 1886, said: 

The work of stone-laying has been much more difficult 
than ordinary work of the kind, owing to the great weight of 
the material and the additional weight which it is to bear, 
and also to the proportions of the structure. The rapidity 
with which the work has been done has seldom been equaled, 
and progress would have been much slower had not the con- 
tractors felt that there was danger that delay and disaster 
might be caused if their men were obliged to work in such 
an elevated place during the September gales. 

Willis M. Smith has had the general superintendence of 
the tower building, and now that it is finished he is relieved 
from a great responsibility. Although he is about sixty-five 
years of age, he still carries out his principle of never send- 
ing his men into a position into which he is not willing to go 
himself. Throughout the progress of the work, whenever a 
basis of operations has been established at a new altitude, he 
has been the first person to mount to and occupy it, and yes- 
terday, when the highest position for a derrick was reached, 
he climbed to the cross beam, and, assuming an heroic posi- 
tion, remarked to those below him, "Boys, there's a fine 
view up here." 

In planning for the construction of the monument, Mr. 
Smith had to solve a prnlilem very much like that of the reel 
in the bottle. Until the building of the shaft was completed, 
raising the stones was a comparatively simple operation, a 
single derrick in the center, supported by timbers, answer- 
ing all purposes. But when the time for closing the top 
of the shaft arrived, some three weeks ago, this would no 
longer answer. It was removed, and a " straddle-derrick " 
was substituted. The frame of this derrick was in the form 
of a triangle. The base consisted of a beam, extending 
through and outside the shaft, an aperture having tempora- 
rily been left for the purpose. The other sides extended 
from this, and at the apex which their upper ends formed, 
were the pulley-blocks to be used for hoisting. The circu- 



lar stone having been placed over the circular shaft, the 
straddle-derrick was replaced with the simple one in order 
that the stones for what is known as the roof of the monu- 
ment, and which tapers much more than the shaft below, 
might be laid. This work having been finished, the use of 
the triangular structure was again necessary in order to liy 
the five stones of gradually decreasing size to intervene be- 
tween the roof of the tower and the bronze. Again it was 
arranged in a new position. Yesterday noon the last of 
these stones was laid, and an iron bar, two inches in diam- 
eter and six feet long, was passed through them vertically 
and securely fastened. A hearty cheer went up when tlie 
job was finished. 

It will thus be seen that Mr. Smith's firm has 
erected most of New Haven's finest and costliest 
buildings, public and private, and by common 
consent stands at the head of the building trade. 

Although Mr. Smith has had a partner through- 
out his business career, he has had the sole respon- 
sibility and direction of the practical and mechanical 
operations. It is rare that a church is built with- 
out some one or more workmen being killed. 
Through his long business career, Mr. Smith has 
managed with such care and prudence that fortu- 
nately no fatal accident has befallen his workmen, 
and rarely has any occurred. 

The greater demands upon builders arising from 
growing needs, larger resources, and finer taste, has 
made the labor and responsibility of building far 
heavier than formerly, and new methods of working 
are required for new operations. These Mr. Smith 
has frequently met by his own inventive resources. 
Thus he has devised an adjustable derrick for rais- 
ing stone, suited to greater or less heights. He has 
al.so perfected a formerly unknown method for 
laying building stone in the winter season, by heat- 
ing it. 

Mr. Smith married, November 25, 1844, Mary 
E. , daughter of Wyllys Sperry, a prominent resi- 
dent of VVoodbridge. They have one child, a 
daughter, who is the wife of Edward W. Dawson, 
the author. 

Mr. Smith is distinguished for his modest and 
retiring disposition, for his love of home life, and 
his sincere attachment to the Christian religion. 

He has been connected with the Society of the 
Church of the Redeemer for more than forty years, 
and has been a member of it for many years. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

ARTIFICIAL ILLUMINATION. 



FOR a century and a half New England had no 
other artificial illumination than that afforded 
by candles. The 19th of May, 1780, was a re- 
markably dark day. The Legislature of Connecti- 
cut was then in session at Hartford. A very gen- 
eral opinion prevailed that the Day of Judgment 
was at hand. The House of Representatives being 
unable to transact their business, adjourned. A 
proposal to adjourn the Council was under con- 
sideration. When the opinion of Abraham Daven- 
port, of Stamford, was asked, he replied, "I am 
against adjournment. The Day of Judgment is 



either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there 
is no cause for an adjournment; if it is, I choose 
to be found doing my duty. I wish therefore that 
candles may be brought." 

On another occasion, almost a century earlier, 
the General Assembly had prolonged its delibera- 
tions till the darkness of evening made it necessary 
to bring in candles. Sir Edmund Andross had ap- 
peared in the Assembly and demanded, in the 
King's name, the surrender of the Charter. Gov- 
ernor Treat remonstrated against the injustice in 
a speech, in which he gave a narrative of the e,\- 



408 



HISTORY OF THE CTTY OF NEW HAVEN. 



pense, the hardships and the dangers by means of 
which the country had been planted by its inhabit- 
ants; of the bloody wars in which they had defended 
it from savages and from foreigners; of his own ex- 
posures for the same purpose; and declared that it 
was like giving up his life now, to surrender the 
patent and privileges so dearly bought and so long 
enjoyed. 

Candles must be snuffed; and on this occasion 
it came to pass that all the candles were snuffed 
simultaneously, and by such blundering hands that 
every light was extinguished. The Charter, which 
had been brought in and laid on the table, ready 
to be given up if it must be, disappeared before 
the candles could be relighted, and so was pre- 
served. 

Even since the eighteenth century began to count 
its years, the Chapel of Yale College was lighted 
with candles. Tradition relates that, on a certain 
occasion when it was the duty of one of the younger 
professors to read, after prayers, an order which had 
been passed by the Faculty, the Reverend President 
perceived that the professor was embarrassed for 
want of light, and offered him one of the luminaries 
shining froTn the pulpit in the sentence, begun in 
the regulation Latin, but ending in the more facile 
vernacular, " Domine Day, will you have a candle.'" 

New England had engaged to some extent in 
the whale-fishery before the Revolution; but from 
the peace of 1783 this industry grew in importance 
till the middle of the nineteenth century, when it 
reached its greatest height. Few men now living 
can remember when the Chapel of Yale College 
was lighted with candles, or when candles diffused 
more light in the dwelling-houses of New Haven 
than the oil of whales. When the whale-fishery 
began to decline in the middle of the present cen- 
tury, a mixture of alcohol and turpentine was used 
as a cheaper substitute for oil. 

About the middle of the century, while this 
" liurning fluid," consisting of turpentine and al- 
cohol, was in use, petroleum, or rock oil as it was 
at first called, was discoverred. It was found in 
some counties of Pennsylvania on the surface of 
the ground, and collected in what would now be 
considered small quantities. New Haven men 
were from the first interested in this discovery, and 
some of the stock of the earliest petroleum com- 
pany in the United States — the Pennsylvania Rock 
Oil C'ompany — was owned in New Haven. This 
Company owned about 1,200 acres of land in 
Venango County, Pa., which they had purchased 
for 50 cents an acre, and had a lease, for 99 years, 
of all lands in the vicinity which were supposed to 
contiin any rock oil. The deeds, conveying the 
lands they had purchased, described them as 
bounded on one side by Oil Creek, and on all 
other sides, by "no man's land." So destitute of 
value had the land been considered, that no man 
was disposed to own it. The owners of the leased 
lands reserved nothing but the right to store the 
logs which were rafted down the creek. In 1856 
the Penn.sylvania Rock Oil Company executed a 
lease to persons in New York, who engaged to de- 



velop the resources of these lands and pay a royalty 
on the minerals and oils, the royalty on the oil 
being twelve cents a gallon. Before this party had 
begun their work, the hard times of 1857 crippled 
them, and, as they looked around for some escape 
from their contract, they discovered that the wife 
of one of the persons from whom the Pennsylvania 
Rock Oil Company had purchased land, had 
neglected to sign the deed. Taking advantage of 
this technicality, they repudiated their contract. 

Mr. James M. Townsend conceived and sug- 
gested the idea of examining this property with a 
view of assuming the lease surrendered t)y the party 
in New York. Among Mr. Townsend's acquaint- 
ances was a man by the name of E. L. Drake, 
who had been a conductor on the New York and 
New Haven Railroad, but was at that time idle by 
reason of severe illness. Mr. Townsend having 
acquainted Mr. Drake with his plans, the latter 
offered to go to Venango Co., Pa., for a small 
compensation, saying; that as a railroad man, 
he could procure a free pass. He accordingly 
made the journey, perfected the title to the lands, 
and on his return, reported that he believed that a 
fortune could be made by collecting the oil and 
selling it in small quantities for medicinal purposes. 
Acting upon this report, Mr. Townsend organized 
a new company by the name of "The Seneca Oil 
Company," by whom the lease surrendered by the 
New York people was assumed. Mr. Drake was 
again sent out, as the agent of the Seneca Oil 
Company, to develop the resources of the lands of 
which the Company had control. 

At first the oil was gathered, as it always had 
been before, by spreading woolen blankets and ab- 
sorbing the oil spread out on the surface of the 
water in the trenches which the workmen dug. This 
process not proving lucrative, the Directors of the 
Seneca Oil Company hired a man who had bored 
salt wells at Syracuse, N. Y. , to go to Penn- 
sylvania and bore for oil. The boring continued 
till the auger had gone down sixty-eight feet, but 
without success. The stockholders in New Haven 
were by this time discouraged, and determined to 
abandon the enterprise. The Directors sent Mr. 
Drake five hundred dollars, directing him to pay 
his bills and come home. On the 29th day of 
August, 1859, one day before this order reached 
him, the auger suddenly drojiped four inches and 
up came the oil for which they had long bored in 
vain. 

Instantly the news began to spread. The same 
day, Titusville, then a small village, was electrified 
by the dwellers along Oil Creek coming into town 
and crying out to every person they met : "The 
Yankee has struck oil. " That cry was the begin- 
ning of a sound which has gone out into all the 
earth. 

In this first oil-well the oil rose to within five 
feet of the surface. With a common pump it yielded 
five hundred gallons of oil in a day, and with a 
force pump the yield was increased to twice that 
quantity. The oil was stored in immense tanks, 
where, by an unlucky accident, it took fire, so that 
the first fruits of the discovery were lost. The bor- 






•m^M 





, / /yiWt^^^T^cxo 




ARTIFICIAL ILLUMINATION. 



w:^ 



ing of other wells by other parties so increased the 
production of petroleum, that the price declined 
from one dollar per gallon to one dollar per barrel. 
The Seneca Oil Company, therefore, having ex- 
pended a considerable sum of money in preparing 
the way of this new industry, did not reap a cor- 
responding harvest. But history must award to a 
New Haven man the honor of boring, with New 
Haven capital, the first of the oil-wells which have 
increased the wealth of the world. 

The New Haven Gas Company antedates the 
use of petroleum as an illuminant. The Company 
was chartered in 1847, and commenced business 
in the following year. The first dwelling-house in 
which a meter was placed, was that of Professor B. 
Silliman, Jr., who had from the first been an active 
promoter of the enterprise. His mansion in Hill- 
house avenue was illuminated with gas on the even- 
ing precedingThanksgiving Day in November, 1848. 
The first business house in which a meter was 
placed was the book store of Durrie & Peck (now 
H. H. Peck) in Chapel street, Henry Peck, the 
junior partner, being then Mayor of the city. The 
streets were first lighted with gas in the spring of 
1849. No street lamps had been supported by the 
city previous to this time; but here and there an 
enterprising citizen kept a light before his premises 
to illustrate the sentiment, 

How far that little candle throws his beams. 
So shines a good deed in a naughty world. 

The earliest of these benefactors of the public and 
of themselves, is said to have been Philip Saunders, 
the proprietor of a grocery on that corner of Chapel 
and Orange streets where now is the Union Trust 
Company. 

The business of the Gas Company increased, so 
that, on the ist of December, 1855, the number of 
public lamps was 189, and the number of con- 
sumers was 1,252. It has continued to increase till 
now the city supports 860 gas lamps, and the num- 
ber of gas consumers is about 5,000. The Hon. 
William W. Boardman was President of the Com- 
pany from its organization till his death in 1871. 



He was succeeded by Mr. Daniel Trowbridge, 
who has continued in the oftice till the present 
time. 

The first electric light company in New Haven 
was not a financial success. It was organized in 
1 88 1, and employed the Weston system. After a 
trial of eighteen months, it being found that the 
lights were both unsatisfactory and e.xpensive, the 
company was reorganized under the name of the 
New Haven Electric Light Company, and sub- 
stituted the Thompson-Houston apparatus for the 
Weston. The first lights of the new company were 
exhibited December i, 1883, and the number of 
lights has been increased till there are now 225 
lights; of which more than two-thirds are in stores. 
After a trial of the new system for more than two 
years, the lights are found to be superior to those 
of the old company in steadiness, and to be less 
expensive; so that with the same charge as before 
for each light, the company arc giving good satis- 
faction to their customers and to the public, and at 
the same time making a handsome profit instead of 
a ruinous loss. The directors believe that this 
species of electric light will be found suitable for 
inside as well as outside illumination, and con- 
fidently anticipate its adoption in factories and 
stores. 

Some of the larger factories in the city have already 
apparatus of their own for producing electric light, 
and are well satisfied with this illuminant. 

The question arises whether, if these anticipations 
should become reality, electricity will drive out the 
use of gas.'' Perhaps for lighting streets it may; but 
there is nothing in the present condition of electric 
light in New Haven to justify the belief that it will 
take the place of gas in dwelling-houses. As the 
building of railroads has increased the demand for 
horses, so perhaps will the use of electric light oc- 
casion the reciuircment of an amount of artificial 
illumination a hundredfold greater than would 
have been deemed sufficient but for this wonderful 
illuminator, and thus it may promote, rather than 
diminish, the use of lesser lights. 



BIOGRAPHY. 



WILLIAM WHITING BOARDMAN 

was born at New Milford, Conn., on the loth of 
October, 1794. He belonged to an old New Mil- 
ford family, prominent in the history of town and 
State from the earliest times. His father, Hon. 
Elijah Boardman, was United States Senator from 
Connecticut in the first part of this century, and 
died in the public service. His mother was Mary 
Anna Whiting, a woman of remarkable intelli- 
gence and amiability. She was descended from 
two notable Connecticut men, Major-General John 
Mason and William Whiting, one of the first set- 
tlers at Hartford, and a friend of the famous Rev. 
Thomas Hooker. 



Mr. Boardman studied at the Litchfield and Col- 
chester Academies, and entered Yale College 
shortly before he was fourteen years old, gradu- 
ating in 181 2, the youngest member of his class. 
After graduation he studied law at Litchfield, and 
later at the Cambridge Law School, and immedi- 
ately afterward established himself in his profession 
at New Haven. 

In 1824, the Legislature elected him to be Judge 
of Probate, and he held the office for five years. 
In the same year began his service in the city gov- 
ernment, lasting through two terms in the Board 
of Councilmen and eight in the Board of Alder- 
men. His last employment in the latter capacity 
was in the years 1865-66, when he was known as 



410 



HIS TORI' OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



the chief promoter of a plan for mutual city in- 
surance. 

For several years he served in the Governor's 
Foot Guard, rising to the rank of Major. While 
in command he quelled, with admirable tact and 
prompt decision, a riot growing out of popular 
feeling against the Medical College. 

Judge Boardman repeatedly represented the 
town in both branches of the State Legislature, 
and was once Speaker of the House. His last 
service in the House was in 1851. In 1840 he was 
chosen to fill the vacancy in the United States 
House of Representatives caused by the resigna- 
tion of the Hon. William L. Storrs. Shortly 
afterward he was elected to represent this district in 
the Twenty-sixth Congress, and served through 
the sessions of that body with great distinction. 
During the last twentj-five years of his life he re- 
tired from public service, . and devoted himself 
almost exclusively to his domestic affairs and to 
the management of his large property. 

On the 28th of July, 1857, he married Miss 
Lucy IM. Hall, of Poland, Ohio. 

He was especially interested in the prosperity of 
religious and charitable institutions, and gave to 
them liberally of his time, his money, and his 
sympathies. He was an efficient member of the 
Episcof)aI Church, and was Junior Warden of 
Trinity Church at the time of his death. He was 
frequently chosen as delegate to Episcopal conven- 
tions, both local and national, and always asserted 
a commanding influence in church councils. 
Trinity College honored him with the degree of 
A.M. in 1845, and of LL.D. in 1863. Of that 
institution he was a Trustee, and also of various 
educational, ecclesiastic, and eleemosynary foun- 
dations. 



Judge Boardman contributed largely to the suc- 
cess of the New Haven Water Company after the 
city refused to build the water-works. Of that 
Company he was a Director, and for a number of 
years its President. He held similar positions in 
the Gas Company, the State Hospital, the Trades- 
men's Bank, and the New York and New Haven 
Railroad Company. 

In general he was quick to espouse the cause of 
public improvement, and gave of his lime and 
means to every enterprise that promised to develop 
and build up the community. He was a con- 
scientious steward of his ample fortune, scrupu- 
lously honest — a clear-headed, resolute, sincere 
man. He had a nervous, vigorous organization, 
both mental and physical. His nature was of 
that positive kind which possesses the elements of 
great personal power. Popular clamor and oppo- 
sition could not shake his independence of thought 
and action. An ideal presiding officer, he has 
been seen to take the chair of an assembly when 
two-thirds of those present were hostile to the pur- 
pose of the meeting, and by his dignity and fear- 
less address carry the business to a successful ter- 
mination. He supported the cause of the Union 
with all the ardor of his being, and during his last 
hours was heard to exclaim, "Sustain the Govern- 
ment." 

He died peacefully on the 27th of August, 1871, 
at the ripe age of seventy-seven years. 

Judge Boardman was above the average stature, 
and of fine presence and bearing. Under a de- 
cided and sometimes brusque manner, there was 
concealed unusual tenderness of spirit. He was 
an appreciative neighbor, a genial companion, and 
a loving friend. " Those who knew him best, loved 
him best." 



CHAPTER X XV I 1 I. 



WATER SUPPLY. 



BENEATH the plain on which New Haven is 
built, is a plentiful supply of good water. In 
Some places wells arc twenty and even twenty-five 
feet deep; but elsewhere the water rises quite near 
to the surface. At the corner of the Green, where 
the town pump assuages the thirst of the multi- 
tude, the water level is about four feet lower than 
the sidewalk. Tradition reports that in the seven- 
teenth century a stream flowed constantly from the 
Green to the Cutler corner, and thence diagonally, 
across the Lamberton Quarter, to East Creek. At 
the same time, copious springs gushed from the 
bank between George street and West Creek. 

The level of the water is, of course, in con- 
sequence of the removal of forests, somewhat lower 
at the present day than it was two centuries ago. 
The reduction of inequalities in the surface of the 
grouiul has also tended to deprive us of the spark- 
ling springs at which our forefathers quenched tlicir 
thirst. 



Wells were the main dependence of the inhabit- 
ants of our town for drinking water iluring more 
than two centuries. It was not till New Haven 
had become a manufacturing city, and felt the need 
of water for the production of steam in her work- 
shops, that reservoirs were constructed and pipes 
laid for the introduction of a more plentiful supply 
than could be drawn from wells. 

The increasing compactness of the city, and the 
substitution of a railroad for the Farmington Canal, 
forced upon thoughtful citizens thoughts of fire, 
and of the means of putting it in check. 

The New Haven Water Company was incorpo- 
rated in 1849. It made little progress, however, 
toward the creation of water-works for several 
years, during which the public mind was agitated 
with debate whether it was better that the city, in its 
corporate capacity, should provide water, or leave 
it to be provided by the company, which, having 
procured a charter for that purpose, had not yet 



WATER SUPPLY. 



411 



begun the construction of its works. At a city 
meeting, held June i, 1852, a resolution was passed 
appointing a committee to inquire and report the 
most feasible method of supplying the city with 
water for the extinguishment of fires and other pur- 
poses. A careful investigation was made of the 
various sources of supply around the city, and trust- 
worthy information was furnished to the committee 
in regard to the amount of water required, the 
capacity of the streams, and many other facts in- 
dispensable to a proper conception of the magnitude 
and great importance of the project. 

The report of the committee was printed and 
ready for circulation in February, 1853, and its 
merits were thoroughly discussed by the friends and 
the opponents of the measure. The committee rec- 
ommended, 

First. — To procure a supply of water for the city, 
to be brought at the expense of the city from the 
Quinnipiac or the Mill River. 

Second. — To instruct the committee to make ap- 
plication to the Legislature for such addition to the 
charter of the city as to provide for the transfer of 
the rights and privileges of the New Haven Water 
Company to the city, and any other matters proper 
to carry into efi'ect the objects expressed in the first 
proposition. 

A city meeting was held March 21, 1853, to take 
action on the report, at which Mayor Skinner, 
chairman of the committee, made a full statement 
of the objects of the meeting, and of the course 
taken by the committee. A resolution was then 
passed that an adjourned meeting be held on the 
26th day of the same month, to vote by ballot on 
the propositions presented by the committee. Ac- 
cordingly on the 26th of March the ballot was taken, 
and the city voted, by a large majority, in favor of 
both propositions. 

In accordance with this vote, a Board of Water 
Commissioners was appointed and organized 
which, after an examination occupying five months, 
aided by celebrated engineers, adopted a plan and 
consummated a contract for water power, lands, 
.etc., with Mr. Eli Whitney. 

Meanwhile opposition to the construction of 
water-works by the city increased, till, on a petition 
to the General Assembly that another ballot should 
be taken, a bill passed that body ordering a new 
ballot and requiring a three-fifths vote in its favor 
to make it binding. On the 17th of July, 1854, 
this ballot was taken, and the proposition that the 
city should build the water-works was defeated by 
a large majority. 

Of course nothing more was done by the city, 
except to satisfy Mr. Whitney for the failure of the 
Water Commissioners to fulfill their contract. 

The introduction of water into the city being 
thus left to private enterprise, the New Haven Water 
Company, which from the first had maintained its 
organization, again came to the front. The orig- 
inal corporators assigned the charter, in 1856, to 
Eli Whitney, who petitioned the General Assembly 
in the name of the Company for suitable amend- 
ments, and having obtained them reorganized the 
Company. It was principally due to his energy and 



assumption of pecuniary responsibility, in behalf of 
what was then considered a doubtful enterprise, 
that the works were finally constructed, Mr. Whit- 
ney advancing to the Company more than $75,000. 

The plan of the works was greatly enlarged be- 
yond that which had been proposed by the city's 
engineer. The dam at Whitneyville creating the 
lake is thirty- five feet high and thirty-two feet thick 
at its base. In anticipation of its construction and 
the flowage it would cause, twenty buildings and 
three bridges were removed. The covered bridge 
of one hundred feet span was taken up whole and 
placed on abutments about forty feet high, a quar- 
ter of a mile up the stream from where it originally 
stood. Long lines of highway were also changed 
to avoid llowage. 

The contractors for the construction of the works 
were Eli Whitney and Charles McClellan & Son. 
The sum paid them was $350,000, of which $150,- 
000 was in cash, $100,000 in bonds, and $100,000 
in stock. 

The Company and contractors had unusual trials 
and difficulties, owing to the persistent efforts of 
opponents, who tried to obtain a rival charter with 
intent to supply the city from the Orange Hills. 

The construction was commenced in the spring 
of i860, under the charge of Mr. J. W. Adams as 
chief engineer and Mr. Thomas N. Doughty as his 
assistant. Water was introduced into the distrib- 
uting mains on the ist of January, 1862. The 
length of mains laid down at that dale was i7["„-''|j 
miles. The Company has now more than one hun- 
dred miles of pipe. 

Mill River is the source from which the supply 
was at first obtained. It has a watershed of fifty- 
six square miles, and affords a daily amount through- 
out the year of 120,000,000 gallons. Since then 
two additions have been made to the supply. First, 
the franchises of a rival company owning the lakes 
in Maltby Park, west of the city, were purchased, 
and afterward, in view of the increase of population, 
the waters of Saltonstall Lake were acquired and 
added to the bountiful sources already at command. 
The additions were made in view of prospective, 
and not of present need. Mill River would of itself, 
with sufficient reservoirs, supply a city of 100,000 
inhabitants. 

Soon after the introduction of water into its pipes, 
the Company made a contract to supply water for 
all the occasions of the city, including those of the 
Fire Department, for the period of twenty years. 
This contract provided that the city at any time 
during the continuance of the contract, after ten 
years from the date thereof, might purchase the 
water-works, by paying an amount equal to the 
capital stock paid in and invested, together with 
interest of ten per cent, per annum on the same, 
less all dividends declared by the Company, and the 
city thereupon assuming the payment of all the 
bonds and other liabilities of the Company. This 
contract being made in 1S62, the public mind was 
greatly agitated as the period of twenty years dur- 
ing- which the city had the option of purchase drew 
toward an end. The same difTerence of opinion 



413 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



existed as twenty years before in regard to the com- 
parative desirableness of water-works owned by the 
city and water- works owned by a chartered corpo- 
ration. The question was submitted to a popular 
vote, and the majority decided that the water- works 
should not be purchased by the city. This decision 
of the city not to buy, released the water company 
from all obligation to sell; and the two parties now 
make such terms as they can with one another, the 
water rent of the city increasing from time to time 
with the increase of population. At present the 
annual ])ayment is $16,000. 

The different sources from which the Company 
derives its supply, all afford pure, agreeable and sa- 
lubrious water. In the summer ol 1865 there was 
a disagreeable taste and odor. Upon investigation 
it was discovered to be due to the use of water 
which had stood too long in the reservoir. The 
impartation of motion soon corrected the evil, and 
there has never been any serious complaint since 
then of the quality of the water. On the contrary, 
those who have observed the effects of the city water 
upon the human system, generally concur in the 
opinion that it is more favorable to health than that 
which our fathers drew from 

The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket, 
The moss-cuvercd bucket which hung in the well. 



The effect of the water, by reason of its purit] 
and softness, on steam boilers, is such as to preven 
the formation of scale and keep the interior per 
fectly clean, thus greatly economizing the use o 
fuel. 

The quality of the water, which the friends of the 
Company were delighted to find so excellent wher 
only Mill River was drawn from, has not deterior 
ated since the lakes have been added to the supply. 
Citizens of New Haven may well congratulate 
themselves, not only on the abundance of water 
with which the city is blessed, but on its excellent 
quality, whether compared with that which quenched 
the thirst of their predecessors, or with that which 
is offered them when visiting in other cities. 

The Hon. Erastus C. Scranton was the first Pres- 
ident of the Water Company, but was obliged by 
the pressure of other duties to resign the office be^ 
fore the works were built. He was succeeded by 
Mr. David Cook, by whom the first printed report 
of the Board of Directors is signed. When the 
second annual report was issued, in 1864, the Hon. 
William W. Boardman was President, and he con 
tinned in the office till 1868, when he was sue 
ceeded by Mr. Henry S. Dawson, who has been 
President of the Company from that time to the 
present. 



BIOGRAPHY. 



HENRY SHEPARD DAWSON, 

the son of a farmer, was born in New Hart- 
ford, Conn., July 3, 18 13. His father's given name 
was Holt, his mother's maiden name, Irene 
Shepard. He lost his father when twelve jears of 
age, and ever after supported himself 

On June 4, 1836, he married Miss J^lizabeth 
Ailing, of Orange. They had nine children, of 
whom only two survive, Sidney Holt, born in 
1842, and Augustus Edward, born in 1844. 

Mr. Dawson learned the trade of a hat finisher, 
at which he worked as a journeyman in eight dif- 
ferent States, and in Washington when Andrew 
Jackson was President. He was a merchant in 
Plymouth Hollow for two years; and in 1841, 
when twenty-eight years of age, entered as a clerk 
in his brother's store on State street. New Haven. 
In connection with his nephew, B. H. Douglass, 
he bought out his brother. The firm Dawson & 
Douglass continued for many years in the business 
of general merchandise and manufacturers of con- 
fectionery, and were also engaged in the West 
India trade, running for eight years from one to 
three vessels to Porto Rico and San Domingo. 
From $30,000 per annum their business increased 
to $800,000. 

With an ardent, philanthropic nature, with faith 
in God anil faith in man, Mr. Dawson early identi- 
fied himself with public enterprises. He was the 
first President of the Derby Railroad, a work vitally 
important to the prosperity of the city. Since 1866 
he has been President of the New Haven Water 



Company, though for years previously he had been 
its Vice-President, and its success was doubtless 
due as much to his eftorts as to those of any other 
person. It so absorbed him that he gave up his 
lucrative mercantile business, selling out to Mr. 
Douglass, and resigned his railroad presidency to 
devote his entire energies to the Water Company. 

The original charter of the Water Company was 
granted in 1849, and a number of the ablest busi- 
ness men attempted to build water-wurks, but 
failed in getting the stock subscribed, the people 
lacking faith. In 1853 the charter was altered to 
enable the city to build them. After accepting 
this, the city finally refused to order the issue of its 
bonds through which alone the work could be 
prosecuted. Several more years elapsed and nothing 
was done, and it seemed as if New Haven was 
doomed to stagnate through the supineness of her 
people, and remain little more than an academic 
town, while smaller towns, through the introduc- 
tion of water power, were becoming hives of man- 
ufacturing industry and places of general thrift. 

While the prospects were so gloomy for the 
future of the city, seven gentlemen met, in 1859, in 
a private parlor, for one more effort. All honor to 
their names! They were Henry S. Dawson, Henry 
G. Lewis, E. C. Scranton, James F. liabcock, 
Minott A. Osborn, David Cook, and David G. 
Peck. Of these, Messrs. Dawson and Lewis alone 
are living. 

After a very great effort on the part of these gen- 
tlemen, the stock was subscribed. The contract 
for the construction of the works was made in the 



SEWERAGE. 



413 



spring of i860, when suddenly the claims of a 
rival company were sprung upon them, and a con- 
flict for the mastery began, which continued until 
after water was introduced in the city in 1862. 
It was only by indomitable pluck, hard work, 
anxious days and sleepless nights, that Mr. Daw- 
son and his associates saved the city from the sore 
disaster of the ruin of this most beneficent institu- 
tion. 

From the knowledge gained in his early experi- 
ences, Mr. Dawson sympathizes with struggling 
working people, and he has unbounded faith in 
and for the masses. He has lately established a 
charity called "The Bread Fund," by a gift of 
$i,oco to the city, which is characteristic of him. 
This is a nucleus. He hopes and believes that this 
fund will ultimately reach a large amount, so large 
that at a future day the poor may be fed and clad 
by the free-will offerings of their more fortunate, 
prosperous fellow-citizens without begging and 
without a resort to taxation, thus creating peace 
and good-will between all classes. 

During the most distressing period of the rebel- 



lion, when the hearts of multitudes were in anguish 
as to the result, Mr. Dawson's faith never forsook 
him; but his patience did when McClellan, with 
his magnificent army of 200,000 men, lay idle for 
month after month before Washington, under pre- 
tense of guarding the city. At this juncture he 
wrote to President Lincoln to call for 25,000 volun- 
teers over forty-five years of age, to go to \Va.shing- 
ton, equipped at their own expense, asking only 
their food of the Government, while they would 
defend the city and allow the army to move upon 
the enemy. Had the call been made, he would 
have been one of the volunteers. 

Mr. Dawson has filled many positions in the city 
government, and has always proved true to his 
trusts. He is exactly six feet in height, full- 
chested, of extraordinary personal agility, and his 
eyes are intensely black and sparkling, while 
their brows are heavy, dark and overhanging; his 
beard is long, white and flowing; his countenance 
patriarchal, impressive and quickly responsive to 
every shade of emotion, whether it be joy, sadness, 
sympathy or indignation. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



SEWERAGE. 



TWO kinds of drainage are essential to the health 
of a city. A porous soil is favorable to a dry 
atmosphere and thus to health. But, however dry 
the soil of a city may be by nature, there must be 
some means devised, as the city increases in popu- 
lation, of removing the dampness and filth pro- 
duced by so many animal organisms; or else, how- 
ever dry the soil may have been originally, the air 
is poisoned more and more, from day to day, till a 
pestilence depopulates the city. 

New Haven has by nature a dry soil, and till 
the middle of the present century had so sparse a 
population that there was little need of sewerage. 
There were indeed at an early date some subter- 
ranean sluices, by means of which a heavy rainfall 
could be conducted into the two creeks which 
nature had provided for the drainage of the town 
plat. 

The sewerage of the city which its increasing 
population required, commenced with the intro- 
duction of the Mill River water in 186 1. A sewer 
discharging into the harbor was immediately con- 
structed through State and George streets, at the 
expense of the city. 

The introduction of water through our streets, 
says Mayor Welch, in his address to the Common 
Council, in 1862, 

will give rise to tlic important suljject of sewerage, and wilt 
demand at the liands of tlie Council the greatest considera- 
tion. The construction of tlie George street sewer, though 
at heavy expense, will be of great benefit to all living on 
that slope of the city. Accurate surveys have established 
that by connecting sewers the drainage from State, Church, 
College, and numerous streets may be lurneil into the main 
channel. 

George street sewer was built under a supposed public 



necessity, and therefore was paid for entirely from the city 
treasury. As other sewers, if ordered, may not come under 
like influences, and as we have no law assessing benefits on 
adjoining proprietors for sewer work, it is a proper subject 
for inquiry whether a public law is not required whereby a 
part of the cost may be assessed to adjoining land -owners, 
and the balance paid by the city ? 

The George street sewer having been constructed 
at the expense of the city, without any assessment 
on private property, a charge was made of fifty 
dollars for each connection with it, whenever it 
was opened for the benefit of an adjoining pro- 
prietor. 

We have said above that the sewerage of the city 
commenced with the introduction of the Mill River 
water. The George street sewer was intended as 
the commencement of a system; but it was soon 
seen that some much more extensive plan must be 
devised to answer the requirements of the whole 
city, especially in view of its prospective increase. 

The plain on which New Haven is built has but 
little elevation above the level of the sea, and is of 
considerable extent. These features of the site 
j made the drainage of the city a comparatively diffi- 
cult problem, and the municipal authorities wisely 
sought the best professional advice. Noticing that 
Chicago had similar, though still greater, natural 
difficulties to surmount, and hearing that the sewers 
of Chicago, though not yet completed, had already 
improved the sanitary condition of diat city, they 
employed Mr. E. S. Chesbrough, C. E. , then City 
Engineer of Chicago, to prepare a plan for a system 
of sewers adapted to the peculiar requirements of 
New Haven. 

Mr. Chesbrough forwarded to Mayor Lewis a pre- 



414 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



liminary report on the 4th of March, 1871, and a 
final report on the 30th of December, 1S72. 

The preliminary report assumes that the follow- 
ing objects are essential in any plan that might be 
adopted, viz. : 

/)>\s/. ^Undoubted efficiency in the works as far 
as they may be carried out, to meet existing de- 
mands. 

Second. — Capability of further extension to meet 
future demands, without rendering useless important 
portions at first constructed. 

T/n'rd. — The least possible expenditure compat- 
ible with the foregoing essentials; and 

Fuurlh. — The consequent use, as far as practi- 
cable, of existing sewers. 

During the interval between the two reports, 
sewer work was prosecuted in accordance with 
these views, so that every sewer laid, whether large 
or small, contributed toward the completion of the 
system. 

The general plan recommended by Mr. Ches- 
brough,and adopted by the city authorities, is thus 
described in his final report. 

The area of the present corporate limits of New Haven 
Ijetween Mill and West Rivers, is about thirty-eight hundred 
acres. A small portion of this area, about two hundred 
acres liordering West River, and about one hundred acres 
bordering Mill Kiver, is salt marsh. 

The toijography of the city is such as to afford facilities for 
the construction of an excellent system of drainage at a very 
reasonable expense. The locations of the railroads, particu- 
larly the Derljy road and the Northampton road, render 
necessary a modification of what would otherwise be the most 
natural and efficient plan. 

The surface drainage of the eastern portion of the city, 
comprising an area of about eight hundred acres, flows into 
Mill Kiver. That of the central district, about twelve hun- 
dred acres, flows southerly into the harbor. The western 
district, an area of about sixteen hundred acres, is drained 
by the West River. 

There is a very small area in the northern part of the city, 
the surface drainage of which flows at first northerly, but it 
passes into Beaver Pond I'.rook and ultimately into West 
River. 

The elevation of the central portion of the city— for in- 
stance, Church street between the Post Office and the City 
Hall— is about twenty feet aljove tide. The elevation of Col- 
lege street directly in front of the principal College buildings, 
is about forty feet .above tide. This plain rises very gradually 
in a northerly direetion. The elevation of the summit 
Ijetween the harbor and West River is about forty-five feet 
above tide at the intersection of Orchard street ancl Whalley 
avenue. 

Prospect Hill in the eastern district rises to .about one hun- 
dred .and lifty feet above tidewater, but the drainage of this 
part of the city is so simple and obvious, that it is hardly 
possible to adopt any other plan for it than the correct and 
natural one. The details of such a plan must be left till the 
streets are laid out. 

For convenience in describing and understanding the plan 
of drainage, the area of the city has been divided into five 
drainage districts. The boundaries of these are as follows : 

HIstrict No. I is bounded on the west by (Jlive street as far 
as Chapel street and by the Northampton Railroad from 
Chapel street to Trumbull street, thence by a line running to 
the junction of Sperry and Goffe streets, thence by Webster 
and Winter to Charles .street,thence by a line ruTmiiig to the 
junction otJ)ixwell avenue nnd Shellon avenue, and thence 
by Shelton avenue to Ivy. It is bounded on the north by 
Ivy street and Highland avenue to the summit of Prospect 
Hill. This district comprises all the city limits on the east 
side of Prospect Hill as far as Mill River. It is boumled on 
the east liy Nllll Kiver, and on the south by the harbor. 

District No. 2 is bounded on the west by West River; on 
the north it extends very nearly to the northern line of the 



city. It is bounded on the east by District No. i, as far as 
Sperry street, and by Sperry, Garden, Gill and Hay streets 
to West George street; and on the south by West George 
street and Derby avenue. 

District No. 3 is bounded on the north and east by Districts 
No. I and No. 2, on the south by the Derby railroad; and on 
the west by Daggett street to Congress avenue,Vernon street 
to Davenport avenue, Hubliard and Howe streets to George 
street, and by George street to 1 )ay street. It is proposed 
to locate the outlet for this district along an extension of 
Meadow street to the channel of the harbor. 

District No. 4 is boundeil on the north by District No. 2; 
east by District No. 3; on the south by the Derby Railroad; 
and on the west by West River. 

District No. 5 embraces all that part of the city south of 
the Derby Railroad. 

The foregoing description gives, in the language 
of the report itself, a general outline of the dis- 
tricts, without defining exactly the bounds of each. 
Slight changes have since been made in the bound- 
aries of the districts thus outlined; and another 
district was necessarily added to the system to 
provide for Fair Haven, which was comprehended 
within the city limits after Mr. Chesbrough began 
his studies. 

The sewage of District No. i is discharged into 
the harbor at the foot of East street through a 
sewer which is built out to the channel on piles, 
the bottom being of plank, the sides of stone, and 
the arch of brick. 

By an ingenious contrivance the East street 
sewer is relieved in case of a heavy rainfall by a 
sewer which crosses it at Laurel street and empties 
into Mill River. The contrivance consists of a dam 
which confines the sewage water, and forces it to 
flow through the East street sewer till the depth of 
water increases to twenty-three inches, when it 
overflows the dam and passes off into the river, so 
diluted with rain water as to be harmless. 

Two other overflows have recently been con- 
structed to relieve the East street main, one at 
Grand street and one at Greene street; the latter of 
creosoted wood where it is beneath the Foundry of 
Messrs. Wheeler & Mallory. 

There being no opportunity of relieving the 
main outlet in District No. 3 by an intercepting 
sewer, the whole volume of sewage from the cen- 
tral part of the town is brought under Meadow 
street, and under the track of the Consolidated 
Railroad to deep water in the harbor, where it is 
discharged through an outlet six feet in diameter. 

The three remaining tlistricis of the five included 
in Mr. Chesbrough's plan were to have their re- 
spective outlets into West River; and the i)lan in- 
cluded several such auxiliaries as District No. i 
has in the Laurel street overflow. Some changes 
have been made in the details of the plan as the 
work proceeded, the chief of which provides that 
the Boulev.ird sewer by the side of West River, 
shall discharge, not into West River, but into deep 
water on the east side of Oyster Point. This 
sewer, the construction of which is already com- 
menced, is to reach from Oyster Point along the 
western slope of the city to Westville, and is of 
greater size at its lower end than any other in the 
city, its transverse iliameter at the outlet being 
seven feet and its height five feet nine inches. 



SEWERAGE. 



415 



District No. 6 comprehends the territory be- 
tween Mill and (juinnipiac Rivers. It was not in- 
cluded in the plan of Mr. Chesbrough, because it 
was not within the limits of the city when the mat- 
ter was submitted to his consideration. The pres- 
ent plan includes for this district two main sewers, 
one discharging at the foot of James street, and the 
other at the foot of Poplar street, the latter being 
already constructed as far north as Grand street. 
Both these sewers are to be relieved by overflows 
into the two rivers which inclose the district. 

When the sewers which the Chesbrough plan, 
as thus supplemented by the studies of our own 
engineers, contemplates are all built, New Haven 
will possess the means of a very efllcient drainage. 
Already the sanitary condition of the city is im- 
proved by what has been done. since 1861. One 
after another, masses of filth are removed; and by 
connection with the sewers, one house after an- 
other escapes the disagreeable and dangerous gases 
which in the olden time rose from every home- 
stead, however inimical to filth its inhabitants 
might be. 

In some parts of the city, sewerage has been 
made to contribute to surface drainage. For e.x- 
ample, Commerce street was laid out where the bed 
of West Creek once was, and but for precautions 
taken, the earth with which the bed of the old 
^ creek was filled and raised to the desired level, 
would have been continuously moistened by the 
springs which had fed the creek with little streams 
from the east and from the west Rows of drain- 
ing tile were laid to intercept these streams and 
conduct the water immediately to the sewers, and 
with such success that few streets are drier than 
that which marks the course of the creek through 
which the first planters of New Haven sailed as 
far up as the foot of College street. 

Study of the sewerage of the city brings to view 
many ingenious devices and inventions of the civil 
engineers who conduct this subterranean work. A 
sewer-well is a device for discharging into a deep 
sewer one which is much nearer the surface of the 
ground. Such a well makes it possible to place a 
sewer only twelve or fifteen feet below the surface, 
which but for such an expedient must have been 
put at twice the depth. The cost of construction 
and of making connections is of course much less 
than if the sewer were twice as deep. 

Several contrivances have been devised for clean- 
ing and flushing the sewers. A wooden cylinder 
is t "ed for removing the constantly increasing sedi- 
men and the hard substances which by accident 
sometimes lodge in the sewers which are too small 
for the passage of a man. The cylinder being an 
inch less in diameter than the caliber of the tube, 
rises to the top when a cistern full of water is drop- 
ped through a man-hole behind it, and thus causes 
the water to scour the bottom of the sewer, the 
cylinder being kept under control by a cord reeled 
off at the surface. By this contrivance such velocity 
is given to the water that neither sediment nor 
brick-bat can remain in place. Brick sewers are 
cleaned by means of a specially designed truck. 



made adjustable to fit any size and shape, which 
runs through the sewer and transports the obstruc- 
tive matter gathered by the workman to man-holes, 
where the buckets are hoisted out. 

All sewers having an interior diameter of 24 
inches or more are built of brick. Those between 
1 5 and 24 inches are of brick or of vitrified stone- 
ware, at the discretion of the engineer, taking into 
consideration the prices of materials and the par- 
ticular requirements of the locality; brick sewers 
being more expensive, but preferable in damp 
places, because the material, though not sufiiciently 
porous to allow the escape of sewage, is always 
slowly, but surely, drawing off into the sewers from 
the earth above them, the excess of moisture. The 
smaller sewers are now made of vitrified stoneware, 
the use of cement pipes having been abandoned. 

Some of the streets in New Haven have so little 
elevation above the level of the sea, that the engi- 
neers have not been able to give the sewers as high 
a grade as is desirable. Of the sewers now built, 
that in East Water street, between Franklin and 
East street, has the least grade, there being but one 
foot fall in a length of 1,093 feet. The main outlet 
sewer on the extension of East street has a grade of 
one foot fall in 1,000 feet. The Boulevard sewer is 
to have in the lower part of its course only one foot 
fall in 2,500 feet. Experience has shown that the 
East street sewer is kept clean by the action of the 
tide; and it is confidently expected that Neptune 
will considerately render a similar service to the 
western side of the city when the Boulevard sewer 
invites him to enter. 

The aggregate length of sewers constructed to 
January i,i8S6, is forty-four miles. 

When the George street sewer was built, there 
was no law authorizing the city to assess upon ad- 
joining proprietors any part of its cost. A difticult 
part of the problem of sewerage was to determine 
what part of the cost should be borne by the public 
and what part by the owners of the land specially 
J benefited. It was finally settled that one-half of 
the whole cost should be paid out of the public 
treasury, and the other half assessed on the owners 
of the property whose value was enhanced by the 
sewers. But as large sewers were necessary in some 
streets and small sewers were suflficient in other 
streets, the expense of the whole system was esti- 
mated, and the aggregate divided by the number of 
feet. One half of this quotient, the other half being 
paid by the city, was the sum to be assessed on 
adjoming proprietors for every foot of sewer in 
front of their premises. By this rule the average 
cost of sewers, with all their appurtenances, being 
about $7 per foot, $1.75 is assessed on land- 
owners on each side of a street for every foot 
of sewer, an equitable rebate being allowed on 
corner lots which have been previously assessed. 

Maps are kept in the oflice of the City Engineer 
which show in every street the location, size, and 
material of the sewer; the grade of the street and 
of the sewer; the depth of such sewer below the 
surface of the street; and the height above mean 



41 1; 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



high water. Such a map shows the location of the 
man-holes, basins, culverts, and hubs for house 
connections, and indicates whether such connec- 
tions have been put in. Distances are accurately 
marked on the map, so that by measurement from 
the curb-stones and from the man-holes, any hub can 
be found with the least digging possible in the case. 
The Hon. Henry G. Lewis was the Mayor of 
New Haven when Mr. Chesbrough was employed 
to devise a system of sewerage. The city is greatly 
indebted to Mr. Lewis for the foresight which pro- 



vided the system, and the persistent energy with 
which the work of construction was prosecuted till 
the tide of public opinion had risen to strong ap- 
probation. 

Mr. Charles E. Fowler was City Engineer, or, as 
the officer was tiien styled. City Surveyor, and had 
charge of the work of construction till his lamented 
death. Mr. A. B. Hill, C. E., who had been his 
assistant, became his successor, and still superin- 
tends this, as well as other departments of public 
works. 



CHAPTER XXX 



HEALTH. 



BY PROKESSOR, W1IL.HA.M H. BRE-WER. 



''I^HE town of New Haven is a healthy one, and 
1^ its death rate very low as compared with 
other places of its size. This has been the case as 
a whole since there have been any statistics kept, 
and all the data we have indicate that this has 
been so ever since its first settlement. This fact 
might also be legitimately inferred from the nature 
of Its site and the character of its people. 

Soil and Topography. 

The natural features of soil, climate, topography, 
exposure and position are all favorable to health. 

The bay and harbor open southward to the 
Sound, which is here more than twenty miles wide, 
giving us free circulation of air in that direction, 
and in summer a maritime climate. The town 
incloses the bay from the old Light-house to West 
River, but most of the population live on a sandy 
plain or terrace not over fifty feet above tide-water, 
between the West and Quinnipiac Rivers. This 
plain extends southward across West River to the 
Sound, and northward into Hamden; and, taken 
as a whole, with its immediate surroundings forms 
a rather well-defined topographical region, having 
a distinctive character and most uncommon in- 
terest. 

The sandy terrace spoken of is bounded on the 
east by the sandstone and trap ridges of East 
Haven, granite forming the rocky shore from Morris 
Cove to the old Light-house. On the west it is 
bounded by the rounded, wooded hills which con- 
stitute the Woodbridge plateau; hills of moderate 
height, and consisting geologically of highly meta- 
morphic rocks which are much folded and con- 
torted. On the north it is bounded by the Mount 
Carniel range, a trap ridge, which is in places over 
eight hundred feet in height. 

-Mong the northern borders of the town, rising 
abruptly from this plain, are the four well known 
trap hills, or " Rocks," having wooded slopes on 
their far sides, but presenting bold precipices and 
picturesque crags toward tiie city. 

East Rock, three hundred and sixty feet high, 
lies between the Quinnipiac and Mill Rivers, rising 



almost in a single crag on its front, and extending 
northward a few miles as a low sandstone ridge. 
Immediatedly west of this is Mill Rock, two hundred 
and twenty-five feet high. Mill River flowing in the 
narrow gorge between the two and which is here 
dammed, forming the Whitney Lake, New Haven's 
present chief water supply. 

Pine Rock rises from the plain a mile and a half 
farther west, and is two hundred and seventy-one 
feet high, and a scant mile still farther west, and 
separated from it by Wilmot's Brook, is West Rock. 
Tliis is four hundred and five feet high, and extends 
northward some miles as a bold, rocky, wooded 
ridge, throwing off a spur on the eastern side which 
curves around to MountCarmel.and thus forms the 
northern boundary of this distinctive region. West 
River flows along the west base of this ridge. 

Beaver Meadows, or Beaver Ponds, is a narrow, 
peaty swamp which occupies a remarkable depres- 
sion in the plain between Pine and Mill Rocks, 
whose bases are a mile apart. This depression in the 
plain is a mile and a half long and from a few rods 
to one-fourth of a mile wide, mostly occupied by a 
deep, peaty bog, the bottom of which is below the 
sea level, and the existence and character of which 
is a problem to both sanitarians and geologists. 
It is ap])arently the remains of an old river channel, 
left unfilled when the great glacier left the valley at 
the time the region was wrought into its present 
shape. It is fed by pure springs; a considerable 
stream issues from it; and its sides are mostly 
abrupt, rising to the level of the dry sandy terrace 
above, which extends northward around these iso- 
lated hills and is continuous with the Hamden 
plains. 

Several low, rounded, gentle ridges, composed 
of soft coarse red sandstone, of triassic age, running 
in a general north and south direction, rise from the 
general level of the plain. One stretches northward 
from East Rock into Hamden, and two others 
extend southward from Mill and Pine Rocks into 
the city. The origin of these ridges is as interesting 
as their aspect is picturesque. The general features 
of this plain were determined, topographically, 
by the great glacier wiiich, in a former geological 




ijfc^-=5-^^ 



iOMaam 



/, ^YiUT^ 



HEALTH. 



417 



period, came from the far north, down the Connect- 
icut Valley and passed out oft' the coast, and which 
ground and scoured away the softer sandstones, 
while the harder trap rock resisted the abrasion. 
These two sandstone ridges stretch southward from 
Mill and Pine Rocks, just as on a planed board one 
sometimes sees a minute ridge of wood stretch from 
a slightly projecting nail which nicked the planing 
tool. Beaver Hill, a hundred feet high, south of 
Pine Rock and Prospect Hill, a hundred and fifty 
feet high, in the shelter of Mill Rock, were thus left 
by the great glacier which planed away the sand- 
stone on either side. 

At the time of the settlement, two small streams, 
which have now disappeared, crossed a part of the 
plain included within the city. 

West Creek llowed where Commerce street now 
is, crossing Chapel street near Park street, and 
vessels could then come up to above High street. 
The stream first disappeared at its upper part 
as the town grew, but between George and Oak 
streets it remained as a foul sluggish stream with 
swampy sides, a vexatious source of ill-health for 
some 240 years. The trouble lingered until about 
a dozen years ago, when a sewer was laid in its 
bed, the swamps were drained and filled up, and 
Commerce street laid out on its site, since which 
it has entirely disappeared as a surface stream. 

Between the head of this stream and the Beaver 
Meadows, there was Ibrmerly a series of remarkable 
depressions, to which the name "Kettle Holes ' 
have been given by geologists, their bottoms oc- 
cupied by peaty swamps or water, some of which 
have been troublesome sanitary problems, but as 
the city has spread about them they have been, or 
are being, filled up or drained. 

Another small stream, called East Creek, came 
down north of the present cemetery. This channel 
was enlarged into the Farmington Canal in 1828, 
which twenty years later gave way to the tracks of 
the Canal Railroad. In the old bed of this stream 
the railroads pass through the heart of the city, 
under the streets. The natural waters are now car- 
ried off through the sewers, so that the stream has 
disappeared from the surface. 

But these two old water-courses have been long- 
standing problems in the sanitation of the city, 
making the sewering much more difiicult, and in 
one way and another have had a curious and per- 
manent influence on the history of the place. They, 
in fact, determined the whole street plan of the city. 
Between them the original nine squares were laid 
out, and the direction of all the streets of the city, 
except those on Oyster Point, bears some natural 
relation to them. 

The sand and gravel of the plain are deep and 
stratified, and make dry building sites and dry 
streets. Good water can be found at a moderate 
depth, and wells constituted the only water supply 
for more than 200 years, and there are still nearly 
3,000 in use in the town. 

While this dry sandy soil is in many ways favor- 
able to health, and was of even greater relative 
value in the earlier history of the place than now, 
it has also its disadvantages. Its porous char- 



acter made cesspools so easily effective for con- 
cealing filth, that it delayed the time of sewering 
the city until the increasing soil pollution showed 
itself in a positive way on the health of the com- 
munity and in the character of the diseases, and 
since the introduction of city water has made 
sewers a sanitary necessity. 

The growing city has encroached on the bay. 
Streets now exist where formerly vessels went, and 
some sanitary problems incident to these made- 
lands are in store for the city to solve in the future. 

The native trees are mostly those incident to a 
dry, deep soil, the oak, chestnut, elm, ash, maple, 
etc., and in the streets of the city the American 
elm flourishes with especial luxuriance. As might 
be expected from the varied topographical features, 
the local flora is very rich in species, embracing as 
it does both coast and inland vegetation. A cata- 
logue prepared by local botanists enumerates more 
than 1,200 species of flowering plants growing 
spontaneously in the vicinit}', a very unusual num- 
ber to be found in one place, and amounting to 
nearly one-half of all the kinds which are found 
north of Virginia and east of the Mississippi. 

Salt meadows lie on either side. Those on West 
River formerly extended up three miles from the 
bay, through which the stream sluggishly mean- 
dered, but a dike built a century or more ago has 
restricted the area, and the stream is now being 
straightened. Those on the Quinnipiac are much 
more extensive. 

The city is sheltered from the full force of the 
winter winds by the high rocks and ridges which 
inclose it on the north and northwest, and with the 
southerly and southwesterly winds of summer tem- 
pered by the Sound and the ocean beyond, the 
climate is mild and salubrious. 

Such are the chief natural features of the region, 
which, if considered in detail, are wonderfully va- 
ried. In fact, I know of no other city in the whole 
wide world that has such a variety of topographical 
and geological features in its immediate vicinity. 
Excepting limestone, all the other great classes of 
rock which go to make up the crust of our planet 
are found here — granite, sedimentary sandstone, 
eruptive dikes, and metamorphic rocks of great 
variety of texture and composition. And the 
surface topography furnishes almost every kind of 
feature known to map-makers — coast and inland, 
sandy beach and rocky shore, salt-water bay and 
fresh-water land-locked lakes, both natural and ar- 
tificial. There are sluggish rivers winding through 
low salt meadows, and sparkling brooks leaping in 
bright cascades in the rocky hills; natural streams, 
artificial canals, and dry water-courses; there are 
barren sands and fertile valleys; there are rugged, 
though low, mountains and monotonous plains; 
there are gentle slopes, picturesque precipices and 
grand crags; there are rolling hills and abrupt 
steeps; there are woodlands, and fields and gar- 
dens, and farms and orchards, and all the fea- 
tures incident to a large city and its approaches by 
land and water, with its roads and railroads, and 
bridges and cuts, and embankments and wharves; 
there are deep navigable waters and shallow sand- 



418 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 






bars, and overflowed tide-lands and rocky reefs, and 
beyond all the broad blue Sound, stretching away 
to the horizon. In short, there is almost every vari- 
ety of feature, except glaciers and perpetual snow, 
which a topographer is ever called upon to portray 
on a map, and all within five miles of the City Hall. 
This wonderful variety of geological structure and 
topographic feature, imparts peculiar picturesque- 
ness to the landscape, and perhaps no other drives 
in the country of equal length present such a num- 
ber and variety of striking and beautiful views as 
those in East Rock Park. 

These picturesque and beautiful natural features 
have their healthful influences, and 1 doubt not are 
one important reason why this is a healthy city. 

Early Health History. 

The early health history must needs be very in- 
complete, from tJie scarcity of data. The healing 
art was crude, medical science in its mere infancy; 
sanitary science, as we now know it, had no e.xist- 
cnce, and official records relate to other matters. 
Without vital statistics we can have only a crude 
means of comparing the health of different places 
at one time, or of the same place at different 
periods, and such statistics are entirely lacking 
until after the Revolutionary War. In 1672, an 
act was passed in the colony providing for a 
record of the births and deaths, but it was not en- 
forced, and it appears to have been dropped from 
the statute books with the revision of 1 702. 

In the Conncctiaii Journal oi March 18, 1789, a 
medical man recommended that " an accurate regis- 
ter of the bills of mortality" be kept, as such a record 
"has been found to be of great utility in most 
civilized countries," but nothing came of it until 
many years later. Private letters, diaries, etc., give 
incidental mention of particular years when some 
specially dreaded disease became epidemic, or 
when there was more general sickness than usual, 
or when an unusual number of the better known 
citizens died, and these mere glimpses contain 
about all that is now known of the matter for the 
first hundred and si.xty years of the colonial history. 

The local newspapers give curiously little infor- 
mation on this point; only an occasional mention 
of some prevailing epidemic, which it assumes its 
readers know all about, is all that we find until the 
yellow fever epidemic of 1 794, which occupies 
more attention; the official action regarding it is 
published, and the next year tables of deaths begin 
to be published. 

Noah Webster published, in 1799, "A Brief 
History of Epidemic and Pestilent Diseases, "in 
which there are many detached bits of information 
as to epidemics in New Haven. Tiie Medical -So- 
ciety which was organized in the last century, be- 
gan to keep a list of deaths some time after 1800, 
which list is said to be still in existence, but it 
was necessarily very imperfect. In 1799 '^"^ Con- 
necticut Academy of Arts and Sciences was or- 
ganized, and one of its first works was to issue a 
circular asking for information pertaining to the 
town. As a result of this, Rev. Timothy Dwight, 



President of Yale College, prepared ' ' A Statistical 
Account of the City of New Haven." This paper 
appears to have been in preparation for many years, 
and was first published in 181 1. It has been 
made more accessible by republication in the City 
Year Book for 1S73, pp. 417 to 476. In this he 
appears to have collected all the information acces- 
sible, both as to epidemic years and death statistics. 
He collected the tables printed in the newspapers 
for the preceding sixteen years, and gives other fig- 
ures where he can get them. Some of the church 
societies had kept lists of their burials, and he 
prints that of the First Society for the twenty-four 
years from 1763 to 1786 inclusive. 

Inasmuch as most of the early lists related to 
burials, it often includes persons who lived out of 
the town, but who worshiped in it during their 
lives and were buried here, and thus went to swell 
the list. 

A new settlement has many conditions favorable 
to health, unless the natural features are bad. The 
colonial stock was a hardy and vigorous race of 
men, and their simple and regular lives, as well as 
moral habits, were favorable to health. The sparse 
population escaped the dangers incident to crowd- 
ing, the soil was not yet saturated with the filth in- 
cident to long occupation, and various other con- 
ditions lessened the dangers to which the older and 
denser communities of Europe were then subject. 
Filth diseases were less liable to break out, and J 
contagious diseases were easier controlled. \ 

There were some special dangers, but they were 
more than counterbalanced by the advantages. 
The hardships of the times were less destructive to 
life than is popularly believed, but the clearing up 
of the forest and disturbing a new soil brought 
malarial diseases; but in fact these appear to have 
been no more severe than have visited the town 
within the last twenty years. If the death rate was 
high at times, and epidemics raged which are now 
almost unknown, it is because our modern knowl- 
edge has given us better control over them, and 
this town was then no worse off than the rest of 
the world. 

There was then a much greater diflerence be- 
tween the mortality of different years than now. 
Certain of the zymotic diseases, then known under 
the general term of " fevers, " often became epi- 
demic and very fatal, and our health history, until 
the present century, consists almost entirely of the 
mention of the exceptional years of much sickness. 
These diseases, mostly arising from local causes, 
were often very local, so a bad year in one town 
might not be a bad one in another not far away. 
They were usually attributed to atmospheric in- 
fluences beyond our control. 

In 1647 there was a "malignant fever" here. 
In 1655 "a faint cough " was so jirevalent through- 
out New England that few persons escaped, "oc- 
casioned by a strange distemper of the air." In 
the spring of the same year, Mr. Davenport writes 
that "the winter hath been extraordinarily long 
and sharp and sickly among us," and that his own :] 
family had been spared "from the common sick- 
ness in this town. " Trumbull says that there was 



HEALTH. 



419 



great sickness and mortality throughout New Eng- 
land in 1658, that "the season was intemperate 
and the crops light." Webster says that "in 1668 
a comet appeared with a stupendous coma. This 
was attended with malignant diseases in America." 
For many years after this there are scarcely any 
data. President Dwight says that " antecedent to 
1735 and 1736, no particular account of the dis- 
eases in this town are recorded," and for the re- 
mainder of that century I cannot do better than to 
quote him, as but little has been added since to what 
he wrote. "About 1736 \k\& Angitm Maligna was 
prevalent and extensively fatal. It appeared in 
1742, and most of those whom it seized it carried 
oft". It visited the town again in 1773 and 1774, 
and was followed in the autumn of each year by a 
destructive dysentery." "The most prevalent 
autumnal disease is the dysentery. Its greatest 
ravages were in 1751, 1773, 1774, i775. '776, 
1777, and 1795." "In 1761 an inflammatory fever 
I prevailed here, which was fatal in a considerable 
number of instances. In East Haven it carried oft", 
the same year, about forty of the most robust in- 
habitants." "In 1794 the yellow fever appeared 
in New Haven; of 1 60 persons who were seized by it, 
64 died." " In 1805 a few cases resembling yellow 
fever appeared." "The typhus fever became epi- 
demic the autumn of 1805, and continued through 
the winter following." He says that for the past 
forty years ' ' the existing fevers have generally as- 
sumed a typhus character." "The measles were 
epidemic in 1739, 1748, 1758. i772, 1783. 1789, 
1790, 1795, and 1802. Influenza in 1737, 1747, 
1757, 1761, 1771, 1781, 1789, 1790, and 1802." 

The yellow fever in 1 794 created a great fear, and 
the newspapers of the day contain lists of the sick 
and the deaths, a kind of information they had not 
before published, and the epidemic led to better 
records after. The Connecticut Journal at the close 
of the year (January i, 1795) contained a list of the 
deaths the previous year, and this was the beginning 
of the publication of vital statistics here. They were 
continued each succeeding year, giving the deaths 
by months, and sometimes also by ages; but the 
classification by ages under twenty years was not uni- 
form, nor were they always given. T\\t Journal oi 
January 6, 1803, gives a list of the total burials for 
preceding years, back to 1789. President Dwight 
republishes these totals and adds other figures, 
amorig which is a table of deaths in the First 
(Church) Society for twenty-four years, 1 763 to 1 786. 

Comparison of Death Statistics. 

The difference between the mortality of diff'erent 
years was then very much greater than now, and 
along with this the distribution by season and by 
months was very different. Now, the deaths are 
more evenly distributed through the year, and it is 
very rare indeed that the deaths in any one month 
are but half of the average, or rise to twice the 
monthly average; but then there were often months 
with but a third of the average number, and others 
with three times the average. 

In illustration of this, I have compiled the fol- 



lowing table of deaths by months for the first ten 
years in which we have the figures, namely, 1794 
to 1803, inclusive. These figures are taken from 
the various numbers of the Connecticut Journal. 





















^ 






.1 








1 


rr, 




>^ 


c: 


>. 


3 
DA 


-a 
£ 

s. 


1 






Total. 




^ 


U. 

To 


s 


< 


S 


— . 


13 


< 
24 


m 





z 


a 






33 


21 


s 


3 


180 






8 


6 


6 


6 


7 


6 


'4 


W 


18 


9 


5 


■59 


I79S 


6 


1 


3 


3 


1 


3 


13 


11 


11 


6 


4 




"J 






6 


6 




6 


« 


2 


■; 


I 


^ 


9 


b 


58 




9 
6 


3 
7 
6 
6 


3 

7 
6 

s 


2 
3 

8 

3 


8 


3 


8 
5 
II 


12 

a 


13 


7 
7 


4 
6 


8 

s 


78 




69 


1800 


6 
6 


3 

6 


7 
13 


II 
16 


2 


6 

8 


7 

9 


79 


1801 


95 


iSoa , . 


3 
9 

56 


12 
4 

65 


8 
7 

68 


10 
5 


7 
12 


8 
20 

90 


6 
16 

8^ 


35 
■45 


18 
18 

186 


12 

II 

102 


6 


10 
5 

61 


106 




145 






•■ Total 


1,036 











In these 120 months there was 1,036 deaths, an 
average of 8.7 per month; but there are three 
months with but a single death, and 23 months 
in which the number did not exceed 3, scarcely 
a third of the average. On the other hand it was 
18, or more than twice the average on 11 months, 
three times above 30, and once it rose to 59, 
or more than six times the average. It is very 
noticeable also that August, September and Octo- 
ber are the fatal months. In 1794 the number is 
swelled by 64 deaths from yellow fever, and if 
the population was then 5,000, it is a death rate 
of 36 per thousand. In 1795, President Dwight 
tells us about 750 peisons had the dysentery, of 
whom 54 died. The death rate that year must 
have been over 3 1 per thousand. The Connecticut 
Journal of December 31st of that year, says that 
75 of the 159 deaths were from dysentery, and in 
its issue of January 4, 1797, it says that 16 of the 
67 deaths the next year were from the same cause. 
There was another epidemic of dysentery in 18 15, 
and again in 1879. 

The distinction between typhus and typhoid 
fever was not then well understood by physicians, 
and I suspect that the typhus epidemic of 1805 
was typhoid. There was a total of 126 deaths 
that year, 20 in September and 26 in October, and 
indeed, if the tables are continued the next ten 
years, we find that the autumn is the fatal season. 

A similar table of the deaths of the town for the 
last eleven years, 1875 to 1885 inclusive, which is 
the whole period during which the Board of Health 
has published its vital statistics, would show that 
in those 131 months there were 13,592 deaths, 
or an average of 103.7 per month. The lowest 
number in any month is 64, or 39 per cent, below 
the average, and the highest 186, or 78 per cent, 
above the average. Only four times has it sunk to 
70, and twice to above 150. In nine of these eleven 
years July was the most fatal month, made so by 
infantile diarrhcea in those sections of the city 
where poverty and filth most prevail. One year 
the largest number of deaths was in August, 
one year in March. 

This naturally suggests a comparison of the 
deaths by ages at these difTerent periods. 



420 



HISTORY OF THE CTTY OF NEW HAVEN. 



In these modern days child mortality is so very 
much greater in the large cities than in the 
country and in the smaller villages, that we 
naturally conclude it must be very much greater 
than it was a hundreil years ago, when New 
Haven was a mere village in population, but such 
does not ajipear to be the case. The first data 
we have, and when the population of the town 
was but three to five thousand, the child mortality, 
as compared with the total deaths, was greater 
than now. 

President Dwight gives us a table of the deaths 
occurring in the First (Church) Society during the 
twenty-four years, 1763 to 1786 inclusive, and 45I 
per cent, of those deaths were of persons under 
twenty years of age. And this society probably 
represented the better portion of the community. 
The population of the town was then about 
4,000. 

In the Connecticut Journal, the tables given in 
successive years from 1796 to 1809, inclusive, there 
is a classification by ages for all the years except 
1804 and 1805. In the other twelve years there is 
a total of 1,105 deaths, 48j-l per cent, of which 
were of persons under twenty years. The popu- 
lation then ranged from about 5,000 to a little less 
than 7,000. Of the 13,592 deaths in this town in 
the eleven years, 1875 to 1885, inclusive, 6, 134, or 
45 j*5- per cent, were of persons less than twenty 
years of age, a smaller proportion than at either of 
the earlier periods cited, and which represent all 
of our earliest data. 

No less interesting is a comparison of the deaths 
of old people at these two periods, that is, 1796- 
1809 with 1875-85. During the first period 9[''|| 
per cent, of the total deaths were of persons over 
seventy years of age, during the last period 12^"^ 
per cent. In the first period 3f\ per cent, of 
the deaths were of people over eighty years, in the 
last 4^"^ per cent. These averages show, in a 
striking way, the effects of better hygiene and 
modern public sanitation in preserving life. Dur- 
ing these last eleven years, 1,626 of the deaths 
were of persons over 70 years old, 662 of per- 
sons over 80, 97 over 90, and 3 over 100 years 
old. 

Small-pox. 

Of all diseases, small-pox was the one which was 
most dreaded and popularly caused most terror. 
And no wonder, for in the mother country, previ- 
ous to vaccination, it often caused a tenth of the 
deaths, and sometimes much more. Moreover, 
many of the survivors were maimed or disfigured 
for life, and every town had its blind beggars 
and its paupers, who had been made so by this 
scourge. More laws were passed in the colony to 
control or prevent this disease than all others put 
together. 

It first appears on the statute books of the colony 
in 171 1, and the laws, amended from time to time, 
were of extreme severity. The Selectmen, or tluy 
with the Justices of the Peace or the Civil Author- 
ity (the Justices of Peace and the Constables), as 



the law provided, might isolate the infected, take 
possession of any house to shelter them, impress 
nurses to take care of them, with penalties of fines 
and imprisonment for neglect without sufficient ex- 
cuse. A law of 1750 provided for cases of sick- ' 
ness which might even be suspected to be of small- 
pox, that signals be displayed, and to prevent the 
spread of the infection, that "all Owners of 
Dogs shall destroy their Dogs or cause them to be 
killed." 

Inoculation for small-pox was introduced from 
Constantinople into England in or about 171 9, and 
into Boston in 172 1. It met with great opposition, 
and even created riots in both places. I have no 
information as to its introduction into this town, 
but it evidently led to breaches of the peace in this 
State, for it came in direct conflict with the laws 
then existing relating to small-pox, and conse- 
quently it came before the Colonial Legislature at 
its session of March, 1 760, and after a long pream- 
ble, beginning with 

Whereas, Notwithstanding the Provision made in said Act 
for preventing the spreading of Small-Pox or other Infectious 
or Contagious Disease, and for tlie Prevention of the Inhab- 
itants from such Infection, divers Persons have presumed to 
go into the Practice of being Inoculated in order to receive 
Small Pox, and have invited others to bring the Infection 
into several Towns for the Purpose; and in some Instances 
have carried on that Practice without the Leave of and even 
in ( )iipcisition to the Minds of the Select-Men of the Town; 
to the great Terror of the Inhabitants and Disturbance of the 
Peace, etc. 

An act was passed forbidding the practice with- 
out first obtaining the consent of the Selectmen and 
the Civil Authority. This was modified in 1761, 
so that even they must first get the consent to give 
the permission by vote at a town-meeting, and 
later the same year, after a preamble which says of 
the practice "which hath greatly terrified many of 
the Inhabitants of this Colony; and if such Prac- 
tice should be continued would endanger the Peo- 
ple and create great Disquietude," etc., they passed 
an act forbidding it, in toto, under strong penalties. 
The act was to be in force until October, 1761, and 
was continued at successive sessions, but at last ap- 
pears to have been neglected, and the prohibition 
expired by limitation. 

Immediately after the Revolutionary War, in 1 783, 
there was a revision of the laws, and, by this time 
the practice having probably settled into some 
shape, it is again provided for, with the old limita- 
tions as to permission and precautions, and from 
that time on it was regularly practiced. The laws 
regulating it were moclified in 1796, and about that 
time, and later, advertisements in the newspapers 
tell of the authorized pest-houses where inoculation 
might be performed. Young people, more partic- 
ularly the boys, were thus treated; and often girls, 
the better to prepare them for very possible contine 
gencies of life. An item in the Imirnal tells of the 
death of a )oung bride, daughter of one of the 
most prominent families of the city, in the pest- 
house, whither she had gone to be inoculated, to 
be the better prepared to be the head of a house- 
hold where the pest might at any time come. The 
provisions for inoculation existed on the statute- 



HEALTH. 



421 



books until 1875, but it has not been practiced 
in tliis town since vaccination became well-estab- 
lislied, some sixty years ago, except in very iso- 
lated cases of persons who had been exposed to the 
small-pox and suspected that they might have 
taken it in the natural way. 

Vaccination was introduced here soon after the 
beginning of this century, and appears to have met 
less active opposition than in the Old World. The 
practice became legally authorized in May, 1821, 
when an act wasp.issed authorizing boards of health 
to vaccinate the public in certain contingencies at 
the expense of the town, and that statute remains 
essentially the same until this day. Under its bene- 
ficent working, and with the popular sentiment in 
favor of the practice, small-pox has practically dis- 
appeared, there rarely being any cases at all, and 
there have been but two deaths caused by it among 
our inhabitants during the last ten years, a marked 
contrast with the last century, when we are told of 
burials at midnight in the old grave-yard on the 
Green, the corpse wrapped in tarred sail-cloth, pre- 
ceded and followed by men with lighted lanterns 
giving warning to all whom they might meet, to 
keep away. 

Other Special Diseases. 

The cholera came to New Haven on its first 
visit to America, in 1832, and 32 persons died of 
it — not a large number for a city of over 1 1,000 in- 
habitants. There were also a few cases reported in 
1849. 

Consumption is now the most fatal disease, as 
indeed it is in most of the country. During the 
last eleven years there have been 1,977 deaths by 
"pulmonary consumption," or 14^ percent, of 
the total deaths. Large as this number seems, it 
is, in proportion to the living population, less than 
in most other places near us. In 1883, the Health 
Officer addressed a circular of inquiry on this 
matter to many cities, when it was found that our 
ratio of fatal cases of this disease compared with 
the living, was not only smaller than in most places 
in New England, but less than in such Southern 
cities as Washington, Wilmington, Richmond and 
Atlanta. It is also notable that the most of the 
deaths by this disease are of foreigners or persons 
of foreign parentage. This has been a matter of 
common experience in our monthly examination 
of deaths, but I have the complete figures for but 
three years, 1877, 1878, and 1881. In these three 
years there were 544 deaths by pulmonary con- 
sumption of persons whose nativity was known. 
Of these only 199 were of American parentage, 
while 345 were foreigners or of foreign parent- 
age. 

Typhoid fever was relatively much more common 
formerly than now, and it is diminishing as the 
sewers of the city are advancing. I have not the 
figures convenient previous to 1868, but from that 
year to 1874, inclusive, the deaths by typhoid fever 
constituted from 4 to 8^ per cent, of the total 
deaths, while for the last ten years they have been 
but i-jij to 2 ji'ii per cent., and have constituted less 
than 2 per cent, in seven of the ten years. 



Sanitary Administration. 

So far as I can learn, there were no public acts 
relating to the public health in our colony until 
171 1, when "An Act providing in Case of Sick- 
ness" was passed, "for the better preventing the 
Spreading of Infection," etc., already alluded to 
under small-pox, and giving the Selectmen certain 
powers to that end; and this body remained practi- 
cally the Board of Health until 1872. The actsand 
the powers of the Selectmen were modified from 
time to time; sometimes they had to act with the 
civil authority, at others independently of it, but 
they were the Board, or had the naming of the 
Board. An act of 1 795 empowered them to appoint 
a Health Officer, to whom they might delegate 
certain powers. This was an outcome of the 
yellow fever of the previous year, and is the first 
appearance of such an office on the statute books of 
the State. 

As previously stated, the year 1805 was one of 
much sickness. Webster and Dwight both speak of 
the typhus fever here (probably typhoid), and of 
cases resembling yellow fever, and a "-Board of 
Health " came into existence the coming spring. 
This term first comes into the statute books of the 
State in 1821, when an act was passed w^hich de- 
clared " that the Civil Authority and Selectmen of 
the several towns sliall constitute a Board of Health 
in their respective towns," that they might appoint 
health committees, health officers, etc. 

But we had a Health Board in fact and in name 
much earlier, whose volume of manuscript records, 
still in good preservation, begins thus: "At a meet- 
ing of the Board of Health in the town of New 
Haven, holden at the Office of Henry Daggett, Esq., 
on the 17th day of March, A. D. 1806, Henry Dag- 
gett, Esq., was (by ballot) elected President; Elisha 
Munson, Clerk. It was further voted that Noah 
Webster and Isaac Tomlinson be a committee to 
fix the boundaries ofquarantine in the harbor, and 
that Elizur Goodrich, Simeon Baldwin, and John 
Barker, Esquires, be a committee to devise a gen- 
eral scheme of regulations under the law ' providing 
in case of sickness, ' " etc. They adjourned to the 
20th, when quarantine boundaries were established, 
by-laws and regulations relating to the public health 
were made, a health committee established, its 
powers defined, a health officer provided for to 
visit the vessels, etc. They then adjourned to Maixh 
22d, when they chose (by ballot) Dr. John Barker, 
Noah Webster, Isaac Tomlinson, and Daniel Read a 
Health Committee, and Dr. John Barker, Health 
Officer. A Board of Health, essentially thus con- 
stituted, continued until, by amendment of the 
City Charter, July 1872, a special Board of Health 
was created as a department of the city government. 
Any list of the numerous officers of this old ]?oard, 
during the sixty-six years of its existence, would be 
entirely too long for this place. 

The new Board has jurisdiction over the whole 
town, and all the functions of the old Board except 
that of public vaccination, which, by a curious de- 
cision, based on supposed law rather than common 
sense, is alone left in the hands of the Selectmen. 



432 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



The Board thus constituted consists of six mem- 
bers (three of whom must be physicians) appointees 
of the Mayor, with the approval of the Aldermen, 
and the Mayor, e.x officio. It was organized August 
8, 1872. judge F. J. Iktts was elected President; 
Dr. H. A."Carrlngton, Health Officer; and C. R. 
Wheedon, Esq., Clerk. Hon. L. W. S perry was 
President 1873 to 1876, and Professor William H. 
Brewer from 1876 to the present time. Dr. C. A. 
Lindsley was chosen Health Officerin 1873, and still 
remains in the office; and Ward Bailey, Esq., became 
Clerk in 1886. The Board makes an annual report, 
and since 1875 has published annually the vital sta- 
tistics of the town. 



Present Health. 

For ten years, 1867 to 1876, inclusive, the death 
rate was from 16.14 (in 1867) to 24.95 (in 1870) 
per thousand living. By that time the public sani- 
tary improvements were well begun, and since then 
the death rate has not reached twenty. The figures 
are: for 1S77, 19.75; 1878, 17.99; i879. 16.73; 
1880, 17.82; 1881, 19.10; 1882,18.65; 1883, 
18.37; 1884, 17.55; and 1885,17.43 — truly a re- 
markable record for a city of its age and size, and 
which led the National Board of Health to publish 
the statement that New Haven had the lowest death 
rate of any sea-port of its size in the world. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



THE MUNICIPAL HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN. 



I. — The Town Government. 

BY PROFESSOR CHARLES H. LEVERMORE. 

A COMMUNITY, like a musical instrument, 
may possess a tone peculiar to itself; and the 
founders of New Haven breathed into their handi- 
work a harmony which, in some modulations, grew 
more distinct with the years. Though relatively 
small in size. New Haven has succeeded in pre- 
serving and continuously developing a strong indi- 
viduality throughout a quarter of a millennium. 

Resolving this personality into its original parts, 
we find the municipal customs and commercial 
ambitions of the merchants of London, the freest 
city of the realm; the usages of village life in Kent, 
the freest shire of the realm;* and uniting, molding 
the whole, the inflexible, lofty purposes of The- 
ophilus l-'.alon, together with the fervent Puritan- 
ism and scholastic zeal of John Davenport. 

The (Juinnipiac company, of about three hun- 
dred .souls, which landed at the foot of the Red 
Hills in April, 1638, was mainly the product of 
these influences, and it was the germ of the new 
municipality. 

From the formation of the company in 1636-37, 
until the autumn of 1639, the colony was probably 
governed by the officers and members of the joint- 
stock association of proprietors; but no trace ap- 
pears of any Court for judicature, or of even the 
name of a magistrate. However, there is a record 
of a Ceneral ('ourt of the town, or town meeting, 
held very soon after the landing. The legislation 
of that i)em()cratic folk-moot was the organic law 
of the colony for more than a year, and furnished 
the kernel for New Haven's future polity. All that 
is known concerning it was inscribed upon the 
opening pages of the Records in June, 1639, in 
these words: 

IVhireas, There was a cou' [covenant] solemnly maile by 
the whole assembly of free planters of this plantation the 

*" It is tioldun sufficicnl for a iii.in to avoide the objections of bon(j.tge 
tn s:iy that his father was Ijorn in the Shyre of Kent."— Lombard's Per- 
atnbnhition uf Kent, £d. of 1596, p. 566. 



first day of extraordenary humiliation w''' we had after wee 
came together, thatt, as in matters thatt concerne the gath- 
ering and ordering of a church, so likewise in all publique 
offices w''' concerne civill order, as choyce of magistrates 
and officers, making .ind repealing of lawes, devideing aU 
lottments of inheritance, and all things of Ukc nature, we 
would all of us be ordered by those rules, \s'^ the scripture 
holds forth to us. 

Secretary Thomas Fugill explains further, 

This covenant was called a ]ilantation covenant to distin- 
guish ilt from a church covenant, w'"" could nott att thatt 
time be made, a church not being then gathered, butt was 
deferred till a church might be gathered according to t'lod. 

Connecticut and New Haven, the two New Eng- 
land colonies which made, at the outset, no public 
acknowledgment of English sovereignty, constructed 
their civic machinery in a most leisurely manner. 
Connecticut waited three years. The founders of 
New Haven spent a year, after the adoption of the 
Plantation Covenant, in discussing and proving the 
foundations of ecclesiastic and secular authority. 
The most contested point was that of the proper 
suffrage qualification. Some of the settlers, among 
them the Rev. Samuel Eaton, desired to imitate the 
example of Plymouth and Connecticut, where any 
free planter might be admitted to the franchise. 
On the other hand, Mr. Davenport, Theophilus 
Eaton, and their followers argued that only church 
members should be made free burgesses. Mr. 
Davenport was not a Fifth Monarchy man. He 
expressly refused to affirm that " the right and 
power of choosing civil magistrates belongs to the 
Church of Christ," but he urged the bestowal of 
the franchise upon church members alone, because 
they alone could display a certificate of trustworthi- 
ness. * At the same time he insisted that the 
Church and the State, as institutions, must be en- 
tirely separated, and denied that his theory must 
necessarily subordinate the one to the other. As a 
matter of fact, in 1659, a deacopship in Davenport's 
church was held to disqualify Matthew Gilbert for 
the magistracy. 

* 'I'he roots of Davenport's political philosophy can he found partly 
in the writings of Thomas Cartwrighl, hut pre-eminently in those of 
Richard Hooker, " The Judicious Hooker." 



MUNICIPAL HISTORY. 



423 



The final decision was made in the second New 
Haven town meeting of which there is any record, 
June 4, 1639.* The object of the assembly was 
twofold. "All the free planters assembled to- 
gether in a generall meetinge to consult about set- 
tling civill government according to God, and 
about the nomination of persons thatt might be 
founde by consent of all fittest in all respects for 
the foundacion worke of a church which was intend 
to be gathered in Quinipieck." After solemn in- 
vocation, Mr. Davenport struck the key-note for the 
day. He counseled his hearers to "Consider se- 
riously, in the presence and feare of God, the 
weight of the business they met about, and nott to 
be rash or sleight in giving their votes to things 
they understoode nott, butt to digest fully and 
throughly what should be propounded to them, and 
witthout respect to men, as they should be satisfied 
and persuaded in their owne mindes to give their 
answers in such sort as they would be willing they 
should stand upon recorde for posterity." 

Mr. Davenport then presented six resolutions, 
or, as he called them, "Queries.'' In order to 
shut the door against the possibility of a misunder- 
standing, the planters voted twice upon each pro- 
posal by "holding up their hands;" first, when 
Mr. Davenport had read his "Qusery," and, 
secondly, when Mr. Newman had written the same 
in " carracters," and had repeated it to the people. 
Without a dissenting voice it was agreed that the 
Scriptures "Doe hold forth a perfect rule" for all 
the duties of men; that the Plantation Covenant 
was and should be binding; that all the free plant- 
ers desired to be eventually admitted into church- 
fellowship; and that they were all bound to estab- 
lish such "Civill order as might best conduce to 
the secureing of the purity and peace of the ordi- 
nances to themselves and their posterity according 
to God." The key- stone of the arch was the fifth 
" Qua?ry." "Whether they thatt are in the foun- 
dation worke of the Church shall be the free 
burgesses, and shall alone chuse magistrates and 
officers, make laws, and elect other freemen out of 
the like estate of church-fellowship." Mr. Daven- 
port delivered a short exposition of his own opinion, 
and "Then he salt doune, praying the company 
freely to consider whether they would have itt voted 
att this time, or nott." After a silence, Mr. 
Theophilus Eaton called for the question. There 
was no negative voice in the vote nor in its repe- 
tition. 

But Democracy w-as not to be changed into 
Aristocracy without a tardy plea for a more uniform 
freedom. One man, probably the Rev. Samuel 
Eaton, was ready to demonstrate with his voice his 
kinship with Hampden and with Vane. He granted 
that freemen and magistrates alike ought to be God- 
fearing men, and that in the Church such men 
should " Ordenarily " be found; " Onely att this 
he stuck, ' That free planters ought nott to give 
this power out of their hands. ' " A debate ensued. 
One individual answered that the free planters did 



* The place of assembly was probably Mr. Robert Newman's bam, 
situated on Temple street, between Elm and Grove. 



not lose their freedom, for everything was done by 
their consent. Mr. Eaton replied that the free planters ' 
ought to be able to resume power into their own 
hands again, " if things were nott orderly carryed." 
This was a perilous point, and Mr. Theophilus 
Eaton interposed with the remark, " In all places 
they chuse committyes, in like manner the com- 
panyes of London chuse the liveryes by whom the 
publique magistrates are chosen. In this the rest 
are not wronged, because they expect in time to 
be of y' livery themselves, and to have the same 
power." This was likely to be a conclusive appeal 
to the London auditors. Rev. Samuel Eaton 
would say no more after his brother's speech. 
When requested to explain his opinions more 
freely, he refused, and said they might nott ration- 
ally demand itt, seeing he lett the vote passe on 
freely, and did not speake till after itt was past, be- 
cause he would nott hinder whatt they agreed 
upon." The fifth " Qua;ry ' was then put to vote 
for a third time, and was again unanimously af- 
firmed. Then occured what modern political speech 
would term a "stampede." "And some of them 
professed thatt, whereas they did waver before they 
came to the assembly, they were now fully con- 
vinced thatt itt is the minde of God." 

Finally a committee was chosen which should 
select from among its own members the traditional 
number of seven men to be the first "Pillars" of 
the new Church, and the first burgesses of the new 
State. The seven proved to be Mr. Theophilus 
Eaton, Mr. John Davenport, Mr. Robert Newman, 
Mr. Matthew Gilbert, Thomas Fugill, John Punder- 
son, and Jerimy Dixon. 

All the "Quteries" together formed the famous 
" Foundamentall Agreement," the written Consti- 
tution of New Haven Colony. It received sub- 
sequently the finishing touch in the enactment 
" That all those thatt hereafter should be received 
as planters into this plantation should allso submilt 
to the said foundamentall agreement, and should 
sign their names thereto." Underneath are written 
one hundred and eleven names. It was a Puritan 
principle of general acceptation that the organiza- 
tion of a church ought to precede the establishment 
of civil government. 

Not until the 2 2d of August did the "Seven 
Pillars " frame themselves into a church. After two 
months more of waiting, October 25, 1639, they 
came together again and resolved themselves into 
a State. Their first act, after the opening prayer, 
was to abolish all public offices and trusts that had 
previously existed. Then certain "Members of 
approved churches " were made freemen, and took 
an oath of fidelity to "this jurisdiction," to "the 
civill government here settled," and to " the lawes 
and orders which, according to God, shall be made 
by the Court; " but not a syllable suggests fidelity 
to England or to England's laws. After words of 
Scriptural admonition by Mr. Davenpoit, Mr. 
Theophilus Eaton was elected to be magistrate "for 
the tearme of one whole yeare. " 

The first election sermon ever preached in New 
Haven was delivered by Mr. Davenport from the 
well-chosen text, "Judge righteously between 



434 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



every man and his brother, and the stranger that is 
with him. Ye shall not respect persons in judge- 
ment: ye shall hear the small as well as the great, 
ye shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the 
judgment is God's. " * 

As assistants to the Magistrate four Deputies were 
elected, Messrs. Robert Newman, Mathew Gilbert, 
Nathaniel Turner, and Thomas Fugill. Thomas 
Fugill also obtained a third honor, the post of 
" Publique Notary," or Town Clerk. "Marshall " 
was llie title given to Robert Seely, who performed 
the duties of a Constable. He was ordered to 
" Warne courts according to the direction of the 
Magistrate; to serve and execute warrants; to at- 
tend the court at all times, to be ready and diligent 
in his person or by his deputy to execute sentences; 
and in all other occasions to attend the service of 
the plantation in all things appertaining to his of- 
fice." The time of the yearly elections was fixed in 
the last week of October, and the Assembly ad- 
journed after one more affirmation of the Alpha and 
Omega of this political creed, "The worde of God 
shall be the only rule to be attended unto in order- 
ing the affayres of government in this plantation." 

So the birth of a State was achieved. Hence- 
forth those who were outside the Church's pale 
could exercise a freeman's privilege only in the oc- 
casional assemblies of the town or of its divisions, 
to decide upon the disposition of the common 
fields. Thus we read, "January 4, 1640. It is 
agreed by the towne, and accordingly ordered by 
the Court that the neck shall be planted or sowen 
for seven years." The organic legislation of the 
assembly in Newman's barn was never altered. It 
was the instrument of town government until 1643, 
and the kernel of colonial administration thereafter 
until it vanished before the charter of 1662. 

Secretary Fugill enumerated at the beginning of 
the Town Records the names of seventy freemen 
of the Court of New Haven; but, inasmuch as sev- 
eral of these names belonged to settlers at Milford 
or Stamford, it is probable that New Haven, or 
Quinnipiac rather, had no more than fifty resident 
burgesses. Their assembly was the ultimate source 
of sovereignty in the plantation, and was called 
"TheGenerall Courte." Its regular annual ses- 
sion, ujjon the last 'Wednesday in October, was 
known as the "Generall Courte of Elections." All 
free jilanters and burgesses were expected to attend 
the (ieneral Courts, but the burgesses alone could 
share in the transactions. The novelty of court 
meetings soon wore away, and attendance w'as en- 
forced by compulsory methods. After November 
7, 1642, any freeman who failed to put in an ap- 
pearance before the end of the roll-call, was fined 
IS. 6d; planters who were not freemen atoned for 
similar absence by the payment of one shilling. 

The Yankee intellect, however, managed to evade 
this law by tlcparting from the Court immediately 
after the roll-call. It was necessary to prohibit such 
action under pain of fines in February, 1645. Sub- 
secjucntly those who desired to leave the meeting 
sought, anil usually obtained, the permission of the 

* Deuteronomy i, 16, 17. 



Court. Sometimes the General Court itself took 
immediate cognizance of absentees and late-comers, 
as on the 20th of November, 164S, when " Mathew 
Camfield came late, but the Court past it by, be- 
cause he was forced to goe looke after some catle. " 
But usually the Town Clerk turned his list of fines 
over to the judgment of the Particular Court. The 
Magistrate summoned the General Court through 
the Marshal's warning, and the meeting assembled 
at the beating of the town drum. As the circum- 
ference of the township widened to include the 
newly-founded villages of Stamford and Southold, 
the New Haven Court assumed the functions with- 
out the name of a superior legislative authority, and 
it elected Constables and Magistrates for the depend- 
ent hamlets.* Meanwhile the local household was 
methodically set in order. The town plat was de- 
scribed and settled before the foundation of the 
State, and the interval that elapsed before the for- 
mation of the colonial government in 1643 was 
mainly devoted to the partition of the adjacent out- 
lands. 

A Court, in November, 1639, referred the " lay- 
ing out of allottments for inherritance, '' to a com- 
mittee consisting of the Rev. Samuel F.aton, Good- 
man Andrews, the Magistrate and four Deputies, 
or the ' ' Reeve and Four Best Men, " as a seeker 
after historical parallels might say. Three weeks 
later the Magistrate and four Deputies and Mr. 
Davenport were elected a Proprietors' Committee, 
to have the future disposal of all town lots, and power 
to admit any persons as planters in the town, or to 
reject the same. This committee of the commu- 
nity still holds its ground, a corporation with life 
and records unbroken for 246 years. 

At the same time, the first tax in the new State 
was voted for the purpose of building a meeting- 
house. The rate was 30s. on the hundred pounds, 
and the sum appropriated was /"500, which shows 
a total valuation of about /"35,ooo.t This was 
the last assessment upon the basis of the invest- 
ments in the Quinnipiac Company. The ensuing 
taxation was levied upon the land only, and it so 
continued until 1649. Owing to the reverses of 
fortune at Delaware and elsewhere, the incidence 
of taxation had then become oppressive, and the 
town voted to adopt almost bodily the Massachu- 
setts tax-law. There was a prolonged debate over 
the adjustment of rates upon polls and personal 
property in general. A committee representing the 
quarters of the town was elected to make all need- 
ful revisions and to sit as a Board of Relief The 
first grand jury lists w^ere thereupon issued in 165 i. 

The jurisdiction of the monthly Court of Magis- 
trate Eaton and his four deputies was at first wide 
and vague. He took cognizance of any matters 
that seemed to the magistrate worthy of immediate 
decision. He sent drunkarils to the whipping- 
post, registered wills and administered estates, heard 
civil suits, and established tlie watch with the reg- 
ulations appertaining thereto. 

In Courts of every description the influence of 

* For examples of the s.ime custom among English towns in the six. 
tecnth century, see Toulmin Smith's Parish, p. 509. 
t There is an allusion only to a previous tax of 25s. 



MUNICIPAL HISTORY. 



425 



tlie Magistrate was paramount. The four deputies 
chosen in the autumn of 1642 were expressly told 
that they mi[,rht assist the Court by way of advice, 
but should have no j)ower of sentencing. Even 
thisshadowy authority they retained only six months 
at a time; but, after 1645, ''"^y were electetl annu- 
ally, like other officers. The helm was not left en- 
tirely to Mr. Eaton's guidance. In the fall of 1641, 
Mr. Stephen Goodyear, an enterprising merchant, 
was elevated to the magistracy, and the two men 
occupied the chief places in the town, and after- 
wards in the colony, until 1657, the year of Eaton's 
death and of Goodyear's departure. 

In civil cases it was at first the consistent policy 
of the community, and of the Court itself, to en- 
courage the settlement of disputes by arbitration 
outside of Court. This time-honored custom of 
appeal was doubtless deemed especially decorous 
in disputes between members of one church body. 

When New Haven actjuired a colonial hege- 
mony in 1643, the town's territory was diminished, 
the authority of its town-meeting correspondingly 
shorn away, and the functions of its Courts more 
clearly defined. The Magistrates of the town, usu- 
ally four in number, were now elected by the 
Colonial Legislature, upon nomination by the free- 
men. New Haven's two deputies to that Legisla- 
ture were theoretically only equals of the repre- 
sentatives from each of the five other towns. But 
practically the pre-eminence and prominence of 
the General Town Court were enhanced. In the 
autumn of 1643 't was the Town Court that dis- 
patched a military contingent to the assistance of 
Uncas; and, in the next year, when an Indian out- 
break was feared, the Town Court did not hesitate 
to appoint a council of war for the colony. 

The work of the Monthly Court, however, was 
now explicitly marked out. It was ordered to sit 
every first "Third Day," or Tuesday, of each month 
at nine o'clock in the morning. It was given juris- 
diction over all civil causes involving no more than 
twenty pounds, and over any criminal cause, 
"when the punishment, by Scripture-light, ex- 
ceeds not stocking and whipping, or a fine of not 
more than five pounds. " The verdict depended 
upon the majority vote of the Court, ties being 
broken by the casting vote in the hands of the 
Governor or of the Deputy- Governor, or of the 
magistrates who were present. Appeals from the 
decision lay to the Court of Magistrates for the 
jurisdiction. In the personnel of the Bench the 
greatest alteration for the better took place. The 
four Deputies no longer constituted an advisory 
board, but were elected Judges, with full powers. 
This arrangement did not indeed introduce trial by 
jury, which Governor Eaton had rejected from New 
Haven,* but nevertheless it did establish a check 
upon the one-man-power of the Magistrate, and 
created a sort of standing jury of judges, a measure 
which does not lack advocates at the present day. 

Magistrate and Governor Eaton personally, how- 
ever, retained his pa/ria potestas until the day of 

* " Which was so settled upon some reasons urged by Mr. Eaton (a 
great reader and traveler) .against that way."- -Hubbard's History of 
New England. 
64 



his death, and the whole town was his family. No 
other New England leader came any nearer the 
ancient type of the village headman, or borshulder. 
In the Monthly Court he was judge, jury, lawyers, 
and law-books, all in one. His very first judicial 
act was to try a foreign Indian for murders alleged 
to have been committed within Connecticut juris- 
diction and in time of war. The Indian was be- 
headed, and the head was "pitched upon a pole 
in the market-place," the first ornament of the New 
Haven Green. Yet Eaton was not a severe magis- 
trate. As the Mosaic Code which he obeyed was 
much more lenient than the English law of that 
day, so Eaton himself was more lenient than the 
Mosaic Code. 

The executions for bestiality, which seem now so 
unnatural, were in consonance with the intelligence 
of that day; and the alleged criminals, who indeed 
confessed the crimes, belonged, with one exception, 
to the dependent population of the town and col- 
ony, which was by general admission of the very 
worst description. It was this nondescript rabble- 
folk that made crimes of drunkenness prominent 
in the judicial annals of the town. The wealth of 
the community helped to maintain a somewhat 
non-Puritan standard of high living. The mer- 
chants imported their own wines, and the town 
always had enough to eat and more than enough 
to drink. Drunkenness even invaded the precincts 
of the church and caused excommunications. 
James Heywood, after being cast out of the church 
for intoxication, was brought before the Court for 
secular punishment. Eaton's summing up is a fine 
sample of its kind. 

Local self-government did not stop with the two 
Courts that have been described. A still narrower 
division of the body politic was in part afiected 
within the squares, or "Quarters," of the town 
plot. These Quarters became rudimentary tithings, 
a result facilitated not only by the city idea that 
dominated the settlement, but also by the allot- 
ment of the Quarters in accordance with the local 
derivation of individuals of the company from 
England, as " The Herefordshire Quarter " or the 
"Yorkshire Quarter." It appears also in Southern 
England at that time the word " Quarter " meant 
a township, so that the term in New Haven proba- 
bly had more than a mathematical signification.* 
The Quarters were the units to which the divisions 
of the outland were assigned. 

The inhabitants of each Quarter assembled by 
themselves to determine the manner and means of 
division in severalty, and each Quarter was for a 
long time the proprietor of common lands. At 
sundry times the Quarters sought and obtained 
permission of the town to lease a portion of their 
lands to Indians, and in 1665, no little scandal 
arose in the town because "some Indians worked 
upon their lands in the Quarters upon the Sabbath 
day." Moreover each Quarter had its moots and 
its elected officers. 

In 1644, after the town had been " much exer- 

* See Worsley's History of the Ible of Wight, p. 210, quoted in 
Toulmi" Smitli's Parish, p. 497. 



426 



HIS TOR y OF THE CnT OF NEW HA VEN. 



cised with hogs distroying of come," the General 
Court ordered each Quarter to appoint its own 
fence-viewers. Tiiree years later it was proposed 
that the newly-created officers, called Haywards, 
should be " Payde by the severall Quarters which 
employ them, as they shall agree." The Court 
assented to the motion. "And it was agreed to 
meet in the severall (Quarters to put it in execu- 
tion." At the same time the (Quarter-moots were 
legally recognized thus: "If the Quarters have 
seasonable warning of a meeting, and if any come 
nott, yett the major part mayc agree any course 
for the good of the Quarter, provided it crosses no 
order of the Courte alreadie made."* Although 
fence-viewers were soon elected in town, rather 
than in (jiuarter, meetings, yet down to the time of 
the Revolution, these officers were said to be 
chosen for the various Quarters, the old nomen- 
clature of 1640 being preserved. 

Doubtless the first settlers saw in the Quarters 
the wards of their imagined metropolis, but, as 
poverty and misfortune overwhelmed them, the 
towns-folk forgot locality and lineage, lost sight of 
the fancy of a city, and drew closer together into 
a compact hamlet. 

The Puritan settlers were forced to realize their 
membership in the church militant. Every colony 
rallied around its Miles .Standish. In Massachusetts 
it was John Kndicott, in Connecticut it was John 
Mason, in New Haven it was Captain Nathaniel 
Turner, a Massachusetts soldier who had fought 
in the Pequot War. The military organization 
preceded the foundation of the State, and was 
(liiul)iless effected provisionally soon after* the 
landing at (juinnijiiac; at any rate the little army 
in complete array marches at once into historic 
view. November 25, 1639, the order was made 

Thatt every one thatt beares anncs [i.e., all males be- 
tween 16 and 60 years of age, if not exempted by office] 
shall be compleatly furnished with arms, viz., a muskett, a 
sworde, liandaleers, a rest, a pound of powder, 20 bulletts 
litteil to their nmskctt, or four pounds of jiistoU shott or 
swan shot! att least, and be ready to show them in the 
Markett I'l.ice, upon Mnnday, the l6th [?] of tliiN monetli, 
before Captaine Turner and I.ieutennant .Seuly, under pen- 
alty of twenty shillings fine for default or absence. 

The first plan contemplated a weekly s(]uadron- 
training, a monthly drill for all the militia, and a 
"view of armour" in every alternate month. But 
so much soldiering was deemed too onerous. It 
was finally detcrminetl that general trainings should 
occur at least six times between March and No- 
vember, a "strict view of armour" at least once 
in a (juarter, and squadron-trainings midway be- 
tween the general training days. A detailed 
schedule of fines for various degrees of lateness, 
absence, and of defective equipment caused the 
pence and wampum to accumulate in the Town 
Treasury. f Captain Turner was not formally in- 
ducted into office until the ist of September, 1640, 
the day on which the plantation was officially chris- 
tened New Haven. 

♦ Town Records, I, 26, 49, 126, 366; II, 225; III, 194. 
t Aflcr much Huctuation, the lines for .ibscncc or t,irdiness wurc fixed 
.11 y.. and is. rcspeclivcly, but the Court invariably used its discretion. 



The Captain was "empowered with the com- 
mand and ordering of watches, the exercising and 
trayning of soldiers, and whatsoever of like nature 
might be needful." 

Two years later the official roster was somewhat 
tardily completed by the choice of four Corporals, 
four Sergeants, and an "Ancient;" and I\Iarshal 
Seely was confirmed as Lieutenant. 

English traditions were obeyed in the order 
authorizing the Captain and Lieutenant to raise a 
general hue and cry against the Indian foe; no 
man could refuse to go, " though it should be to 
the extreme hazard of his life." Another venera- 
ble English institution which was reproduced, at 
least partially, in New Haven, was the town 
armor. No cuirass of steel was in use, but the 
town did own many made of cotton-wool, and 
disposed of them at public sale in the later part of 
the century. 

So early as 1642 the town was the possessor of 
drums, "great gunns, " and pikes, which latter 
were subsequently kept in a "chist ' in the meet- 
ing-house.* Beside these weapons, a coKmial law, 
which was probably framed to secure conformity 
with New Haven usage, ordered every plantation 
in the jurisdiction to provide " a partison for its 
Lieutenant, cullars for its Ensigne, and halberts 
for its Scrjants." 

Training days were proverbially holidays, and 
some persons may be surprised to know that Puri- 
tan New Haven established martial games by law. 
Target-shooting thrice in a year was stimulated by 
the oft'er of prizes of not more than five shillings 
value, while the laws of the jurisiliction (I'.aton's 
code) required the practice of cudgel-playing, 
back-sword, running, wrestling, leaping, " and the 
like manly exercises." However, the line must 
be drawn somewhere, and the General Court drew 
it at " stoole-bale, nine-pins, and quoits." "Such 
like games are forbidden until the niillilary exer- 
cise of the day be finished. " 

It was the fortunate lot of this carefully disci- 
plined band never to march in hostile array against 
any but distant foes and in defense of other colonies. 

After 1644, there was an artillery company aux- 
iliary to the militia, and for a few years prior to the 
dissolution of the colony, a cavalry troop, whose 
eciuijiinents were, after 1764, left in the care of the 
townsmen. Armed attendance at the meeting-house 
upon days of religious service was at first the duty 
of every man in the town who was a member of the 
watch ; but, after 1643, the four squadrons of the 
trained band in rotation performed this work. They 
came fully armed, and a few kept watch outside 
the house, while the major part kept ward within. 
July 7,1646, John Morse was fined ten shillings be- 
cause he shirked his duty of walking the rounds on 
the Lord's day, and instead tarried in the meeting- 
house. 

Captain Turner's absence at Delaware, and his 
early death in " the great shippe," rendered his cap- 
taincy of but little avail to New Haven. Not until 



♦ See Johns Hopkins LJniversity Studies in History ;iiid Politic.il 
Science, 1, viii. 



MUNICIPAL HISTORY. 



427 



1661 did the Town Court proceed to elect his suc- 
cessor, when Lieutenant John Nash was chosen. 
Whereupon he modestly declaretl tiiat he could not 
"feel a call of God to that place;" that he was 
entirely unworthy 6f such dignity; and desired to 
abase himself After mutual remonstrance, the 
matter was postponed. Lieutenant Nash thanked 
the town for sparing him, and said, " If God shall 
persuade my heart of His call to this work, I shall 
be willing to do the town service." More than a 
year passed before he was "persuaded." Will our 
public men ever use such language again } 

At the union with Connecticut, the control of 
the militia was transferred from the Town Court to 
the Legislature. 

The martial organization was completed in 1640 
by the establishment of a watch for night service. 
New Haven's first police force was under the im- 
mediate oversight of the Captain, and was so di- 
vided that the men of the town watched in turn from 
March to October yearly. Each night a guard was 
composed of si\ men and the master of the watch. 
In 1642 there were in all thirty-one separate 
watches, comprising two hundred and seventeen 
men. Every night at sundown the drum was 
beaten, and within half an hour the master of the 
watch must be " att the Court of guarde, ' which 
stood on the Green. Disorders were precluded by 
a provision that, in making up the watch, "young 
and less satisfying persons shall be joyned with an- 
other more ancient and trusty."* That such a curb 
was needful appears a few years later when the 
Court felt compelled to prohibit "any from sitting 
with the watch as it had been a custome to doe, 
whereby they idle away their time." 

Watch duty was esteemed burdensome, and there 
was a general endeavor to escape from serving 
either in the watch or in the militia. Officers in 
Church and State were exempt from the beginning. 
Farmers were allowed, for the sake of safet)-, to 
keep one man at home upon training days, but if 
the farmer owned a house-lot in the town plat he 
must furnish a member of the watch. Most of the 
members and traders gradually gained, upon one 
plea or another, exemption from watching, until 
those who could not avoid the service raised the 
cry of "Injustice." The petition of the ship car- 
penters for exemption provoked a general discus- 
sion, which resulted in a reference to the Massa- 
chusetts customs. Governor Winthrop forwarded 
a copy of the law of exemptions in that colony, 
which was, with slight modifications, accepted by 
the town in 1648. Thereby the persons excused 
from " trayning, watching, and warding" were 
Magistrates, Oeputies, Elders of Churches, deacons, all prof- 
fcssed schoole-niasters, physitians and surgeons allowed by 
authority in any of these plantations, the treasurer, officers 
of the Courts and of the military also. Masters of shipps and 
of other vessells above 15 tunn and upward, servants of re- 
mote farmes without y two mile, millers, and such as are 
discharged for bodily infirmity. Hut sonns and servants 
are nott freed except one sonn or one servant to every mag- 
istrate and teaching elder. Seamen and shipp carpenters 
must watch as others doe,and trayne twice a year. All these 
persons must have compleat amies in their houses, except 
magistrates and teaching elders. 

*Town Records, II, 31. 



During the oft-recurring expectations of war 
with the Dutch, these rules were abrogated, and 
every one was mustered into the watch except the 
very highest secular and ecclesiastic dignitaries. 
Despite the frequent fears, no Dutch or Indian foe 
ever disturbed the nightly peace of New Haven and 
its watchmen. The most vexatious enemy indeed 
was the natural one, slumber. The Town Court 
gravely proclaimed, in 1642, that "from hencefor- 
wards, none of the watchmen shall have liberty to 
sleep during the watch." Several years afterward 
there was a violent scandal in the town, because a 
certain late stroller, named Samuel Hodgkins, who 
had himself been fined for sleeping in his watch, 
had found not only the sentinel asleep at his post, 
but, inside the watch-house the master also slum- 
bering in his chair, and the men on the floor 
around him " all snortinge. " Within a month the 
disquiet was apparently allayed, but some one ob- 
served Hodgkins closely, and ere long he was 
hailed before the monthly Court to receive reproof 
" Because he attendeth not Ordinances upon the 
Saboth dayes, but it is said, stayeth at home and 
sleepeth away his time." 

After Manhattan passed into English hands, the 
watch gradually fell into desuetude. It was revived 
onlv temporarily upon occasions of panic, like King 
Phi'lip's War. 

Intimately connected with the military service in 
a community where every man was an armed 
])o!iceman, were the riot-quelling, peace-preserving 
functions of the Marshal. This officer at the out- 
set, in 1639, received a rather indefinite promise of 
additional duties, and the promise was fulfilled. In 
1642 he was desired to perform the part of a uni- 
versal Pound-keeper. ' ' Itt is ordered thatt who- 
soever findes any things thatt are lost shall deliver 
them to the Marshall, to be kept safe till theowners 
challeng them." Marshal Seely probably found 
his work too laborious to permit of his serving, as 
the other officials did, for honor only. After Janu- 
ary, 1643, he was authorized to receive fees, four- 
pence each for a warrant or summons, but for 
serving an "attachment," six-pence. Moreover, 
every unfortunate whom the Marshal jailed, must 
pay to him for turning the key, one shilling, a 
venerable bit of English custom. When the town 
had passed under a colonial government, its Mar- 
shal was invariably Marshal of the jurisdiction also. 
With the increase of dignity, a stated salary of three 
pounds per annum took the place of the former 
fees. In 1645, his duties as custodian of lost 
articles became more lucrative and more unpleas- 
ant. The Marshal was ordered to be also the 
Town Crier, and to receive one penny for every 
"cry" from the owner of the thing lost, if he could 
find him. Of all articles in his care he was enjoined 
to keep account in a "Paper booke, " and, if 
necessary to cry them twice on lecture-days; and, 
for a third time at the Fair, "when the greatest 
concourse of people may be present and hear it." 
For a short time after 1645, the melancholy des- 
truction of corn by " Hoggs," caused the Court to 
appoint the Marshal also as a Viewer of Fences. 



428 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



In October of the last mentioned year, he was 
named keeper of the hooks and hinges of the town- 
gates, " least they be lost." Finally this Marshal, 
Pound-keeper, Town Crier, and Fence Viewer, 
sustained in i)art the responsibility of a Tithingman. 
'rithingmen, strangely enough, were not imported 
into priiniiivc New Haven. Their traditional duties 
were divided between the Corporals and the Mar- 
shal. In 1650, the town voted that there should 
be a two-shilling fine upon any one who stands or 
sits without the meeting-house in the time of the 
Ordinances without sullicient reason, "and the 
Corporalls are desired to goe out now and then to 
prevent such disorders." * Three years afterward 
the Marshal received a general commission, enti- 
tling him to seek out and seize all straying boys on 
theSalibath, and to bring them into church. These 
commands were repeatedly enjoined upon the Mar- 
shal and the Corporals, so that a prevalent loo.se- 
ness of conduct may be imagined. 

A public servant peculiar to the times was the 
Town Drummer. At first, indeed, inasmuch as 
his principal tasks were connected with the Watch 
and Ward, he was supported by the members of 
the watch. But his drum announced any public 
assembly, and was a species of primitive town- 
clock, so that it was entirely proper to begin, in 
1642, the taxing of every planter for the support of 
the Town Drummer. The salary which he drew 
yearly from the treasury averaged from four to five 
pounds, a goodly compensation in those days. 

Robert Bassett, the most notable of the town 
drummers, was thus instructed in his duties. He 
must drum every evening at sunset, and every 
morning " halfe-an-houer before day in the market- 
place, and in some of the streets." The last watch 
was ordered to call him one hour before day, ant! 
"to walke with him as a guard while he con- 
tinues beatinge, " I'"urthermore he was desired to 
beat the drum twice upon " Lord's-dayes and Lec- 
ture dayes upon the meeting-house that soe those 
who live Air olf may hear it the more distinkly; and 
he promi.sed soe to doe." 

Robert ]5assett was a roving, lusty Fnglishinan, 
somewhat reckless of the higher ])owers, a ring- 
leader in merry makings among the lesser folk, 
and decidetily out of place in a Puritan "State, 
whose design is Religion." The Court Records 
for August I, 1648, afford a ludicrous picture of a 
spree at Bassett's house on the previous Friday. 
Ten men, mariners and ship-builders, had resorted 
to Bas.sett's after sunset, and like Falstaff, called 
loudly for sack, which the jovial host supjilied 
freely. "The miscariage continued till betwixt 
tenn and eleven of the clockc, to the great provo- 
cation of God, the disturbance of the peace, and to 
such a height of disorder, that strangers wondered 
at it." The owner of the pinnace grew tipsily 
jocular, and hailed the boatswain as "Brother 
Loggerhead." "They fell first to wrestling, then to 
blows, and tlu-rin grew to that fcircnes' that the 
master of the pinnace thought the boatswain would 



• Town Records, II, 17. 



have pulled out his eies, and theytoumbled on the 
ground, down the hill into the creeke and mire, 
shamfully wallowing therein. The owner of the 
pinnace, being sore afraid, ran about the streets, 
crying ' Hoe, the watch 1 Hoe; the watch !' The 
watch made hast, and for the present stopped the 
disorder; but, in this rage and distemper, the 
boatswaine fell aswearinge, 'Wounds and hart," as 
if he were not onely angry with men, but would 
provoake the high and blessed God." .Still later 
Bassett and the owner of the pinnace fell into 
altercation, "So that the disorder was verey great 
and verey offensive, the noyse and oathes being 
heard to the other side of the creeke." Verily, a 
fearful revel to intrude upon Mr. Davenport's 
dreams of a perfect Zion and a millennial glory ! 
It cost Bassett five pounds, but a man, ignorant of 
drumming, must surely have paid for the fault with 
a scarified back, or an enforced exile. Bassett soon 
after removed to .Stamford, where he was noted as 
a person seditious against the New Haven polity. 
The town drummer, however, flourished until the 
advent of the first bell in 1681, and even then he 
was but gradually superseded. 

As the years rolled on, the originally simple town 
administration was enveloped in a cloud of minor 
officials. When the town associated itself with 
others into a colony, and attempted to realize its 
commercial aspiration, the necessities of trade, the 
traditions and example of England anti the sister 
colonies, combined together to jiroduce Measurers, 
Weighers, Sealers, Keepers and Inspectors. 

•In 1640-41, when Lamberton's trade with Vir- 
ginia and Delaware was fairly under way, the Court 
chose Brother Peck to "Measure all the come 
that comes into the plantation to be solde, and, for 
that, a role to be made to strike the bushcll with." 
Asa loll. Brother Peck could receive "One halfe- 
peny" to every bushel. This by-law was practically 
superseded in 1643, when the Commissioners 
recommended a uniform standard of measures 
throughout the united colonies. Shortly afterwards 
the town deputed Richard Miles, William Davis, 
and Nicholas F.lsey to "See that all the measures 
in theToune be made according to the stande .sent 
from the Hay." This work was probably accom- 
plisheil in the meeting-house July 19, 1644, after 
which time the Sealers of measures became a fixed 
fact in New Haven's municipal economy. 

Sealers of leather were first elected in 1646, to 
examine and stamp leather for the fees of four-pence 
a " hyde " and two-pence a "skinc. " Oddly enough 
the leather of the first quality was to be marked 
" N. G.," that of inferior worth, " N. F." The New 
Haven tanners and shoemakers were very unsatis- 
factory workmen, and there were loud complaints 
against both the (luality and the i)rice of shoes. 
There is a pathetic gentleness about one of the or- 
ders in 164S: " Itt was propounded to the shooe- 
makers that, seeing hides are now neare as cheape 
as they are in England, that shoes might be sould 
more reasonable than they have bine; and the 
shooemakers pnimiscd they would consider of it. " 

One of the most humble, versatile, and appar- 



MUNICIPAL HISTORY. 



429 



ently successful of New Haven's first public ser- 
vants, was Goodman John Cooper, or Cowper. In 
1643, he became, by sanction of the Monthly 
Court, the first public chimney-sweeper, and was 
tjiven powers of inspection and control of all chim- 
neys in town, with a schedule of suitable fees. Af- 
ter three years the duty of the Town Crier was dif- 
ferentiated from the Marshal's oflice, and Cooper 
was chosen to cry in the Marshal's stead.* Good- 
man Cooper developed the true office-holding in- 
stinct, and made himself so generally useful, that 
the Court, in 1648, queried whether he might not 
be the man to solve the vexing problem of fences 
and cattle. 

The first pounds, two of them, had been built 
in 1643, and two pound-keepers had been chosen 
at that time. Each quarter had chosen its own 
Pdunders and Fence-Viewers, who, in 1647, were 
first called Haywards, and authorized to mend 
fences, as well as to secure straying animals. With- 
out dispensing with these othcers in any way. 
Cooper was appointed to be the first " Publique 
Pounder, " a sort of Town Superintendent. He 
was instructed to spend "Two dayes in a weeke to 
view all y' fences, and pound catle and swine, and 
to tell every man whose fenc is defective one every 
weeke." In return he should receive two- pence on 
every acre of corn-field within the two miles square, 
and Pounder's fees besides. Brother Cooper re- 
signed his oflice of chimney-sweeper, which was 
never filled again, f and applied himself vigorously 
to his new vocation. In one winter he summoned 
many of the most influential brethren in the town 
for defective fences, and complaints and fines began 
to rain in at the Court meetings. The Court was 
evidently not prepared for such diligence, for, al- 
though complimenting the zealous Cooper, it wiped 
out all charges, and began anew with a clean score 
for everybody. 

Road surveyors were first chosen in 1644, and 
were annually chosen for three years thereafter. 
The}' had power to impress men and teams for the 
work of repairs. An attempt was also made to 
create individual pride in the highways by com- 
manding every man throughout the town to repair 
and maintain the footpaths and the "road before 
his homelott the breadth of two rodds. " 

In accordance with a colonial enactment of 1654, 
the town provided itself from time to time with 
Gangers of Casks and with Viewers of Corn. 
Eaton's Code seeks in Deuteronomy and Micah a 
precarious authority for the enactment that "All 
cask used in trade shall be of London assize." 
There is little trace of the activity of these officers 
beyond the occasional records of their election, 
while of the official who, according to law, ought 
to have been chosen to keep the Assize of Bread 
there is no witness whatever, although in 1647 and 



* He had two successors in the office, which w.is continued till 1683, 
when the " New Sign Post '* seems to h.ive superseded it. The sign- 
post served for a century and, in turn, yiehled to the newsp.-iper. 

t Several etTorts were made by the Court to fill the position, but no 
man (ould be induced to accept it. In 1658 the townsmen finally in- 
formed the Court that they " could prevail upon no man to be chim- 
ney-sweeper." — Town Records, 11, 284 



in 1649 there was serious complaint of diminution 
in size of the baker's loaves. 

Obscure, but by no means unimportant function- 
aries, were the Supervisors and Branders of Cattle 
and Horses. It is probable that these officers were 
first chosen during the period of threatened hostil- 
ities with the Dutch in 1653-54, when the Legisla- 
ture forbade the departure of horses from the juris- 
diction without a license for the act. Five years 
later, the Court "having information of some indi- 
rect proceedings by some persons, " in branding their 
own horses, renewed the orders that such marking 
must be done by the town officer, and that horses 
bought or sold must be registered. Of the Hog- 
reeve, who figures in the public service of other 
colonies and of the mother country, there is no 
trace in New Haven. 

There were still a number of public trusts which 
were either of short continuance or were caused by 
peculiar local circumstances. Under the former 
characterization must be included the beer-brewer, 
Mr. Stephen Goodyear. In February, 1647, the 
Town Court authorized him to "Brew Beare for 
this Towne, all others excluded without the like 
liberty and consent of the Towne. " The monop- 
oly, however,* was abandoned at least by 1655. 
Still more ephemeral was the office of Truckmaster 
with the Indians, to which Mr. Gregson was chosen 
in 1640. The Quinnipiac native was not likely to 
afford much trade to any but the vendors of fire- 
water. The position of Town Ferryman at the 
Quinnipiac River was, however, an office of more 
moment and of longer duration. The first Ferry- 
man, Francis Browne, was elected to that post lor 
one year by the Town Court in 1645, and was re- 
quired to tend the ferry at the Red Rock every day 
from sunrise to sunset, "excepting Saboth dayes 
and other times of solemne publique worship of 
God." In return, beside the fees which were from 
time to time regulated by the town, he was allowed a 
house, three acres of land in the Oyster-shell Field 
(commons) rent free, and exemption from training. 
The public Ferryman existed for more than a cen- 
tury, but the Canoe Viewer, who was at first associ- 
ated with him, soon disappeared. There seems to 
have been but one election to such an office. 

The great care taken to relieve the Church as a 
body from any action not wholly religious in iis 
bearings, is evinced by the fact that the General Court 
of the town regularly elected the menial care-takers 
of the meeting-house. Indeed the freemen in the 
Town Court were all church members, yet the dis- 
tinction between a church-meeting and a town- 
meeting was evidently maintained with care. It 
was the Town Court, in April, 1643, that formally 
elected Sister Preston to "sweepe and dresse the 
meeting-house every weeke, and to have one shil- 
ling for her paines. " Four years later a similar 
Court intrusted to Brother Preston the "opening 
and shutting of the meeting-house dores. " Again, 
in 1660, the same authority elected "Sister Pecke, 
the widow, to sweepe the meeting-house in place 

*The first example of exclusive legislation occurred larly in 1640, 
when a license system was established. 'I'he town " Licensed Peter 
Brown to bake to sell, so long as he gives no oflTence in itt justly." 



430 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



of Sister Preston." These worthies, therefore, re- 
mained members of the town administration until 
the "unhallowed rule" of Connecticut swept away 
the old ilislinctions and reduced the Church to a 
dependent position. 

'I'iie collectors of college corn, chosen first in 
1644, as custodians of a voluntary contribution for 
the relief of poor scholars at Harvard College, were 
regularly elected until the troubles of colonial dis- 
solution impoverished the town. That which had 
been a free-will otfering came to be regarded as a 
necessary ta,\. The teacher of the Free School, and 
even the doctor, were also partially identified with 
the municipal service. Mr. Cheever, the first school- 
master, probably derived very little income from 
))rivale sources, inasmuch as he drew from the 
town treasury, in 1642, a salary of twenty pounds, 
which was alterwards increased to thirty pounds. 
The bargains with his successors, until the estab- 
lishment of the Hopkins School, were completed in 
the Town Court. The master employed in No- 
vember, 1651, obtained from the town such terms 
as these: "Twenty pounds, his chamber and dyet 
(at Mr. Atwater's valued at 5s. per week), 30s. for 
traveling expenses, libbertie once a year, in harvest 
time, to goe for his friends, and, if he be called 
away to some other employment for the Honnor of 
Christ, he may go."* 

Professional physicians were so scarce and valua- 
ble in those days, that when one came within reach 
the town treated with him as with a foreign poten- 
tate, and ofi'ered house, lands, and public salary. 
In one instance the Town Court forced a doctor to 
remain in town though against his will. But most 
of these characters appear to have been roving fel- 
lows, who were in such demand onl)' by reason of 
the principle that half a loaf is better than no 
bread. 

As the younger men of the town came into power 
the caste-like inlluence of the magistracy was cir- 
cumscribed. The Court of Five, or rather the 
magistracy as a class, held through the first decade 
not only juilicial but also the executive power. 
The multiplication of ailministrative oilicers created 
one species of check upon the magistracy. The 
very frequent meetings of the Town Court also pre- 
served a popular supremacy. But the obligations 
to attend town meetings from eight to ten times in 
a year was burdensome. The parish institutions 
of the mother country, and the usages of the sister 
colonies, suggested die means of relief. The Town 
Court of November 17, 1651, voted to follow tlie 
example set by Massachusetts and Connecticut ten 
years before, f 

Itt w.is propounded lh;it there inij;ht lie some mc-ri chosen 
to consider \\\m\ carry on the towne atTaires. that these meet- 
ings, which spend the towne much time, may not be so often, 
'liie Court approved the motion and chose one out of each 
Ouarler to this workc, viz.: I'rancis Newman, John Cooper, 
Jarvise lioykin, Mr. Atwater, William Fowler, Richard 
Miles, Henry I.imlon, Thos. Kimlierley, and Malhew Cam- 
field, which are to st.and in this Trust until the Towne Elec 
tions in May come twelvemonth; and they are by this Court 

*Town Records, II, 90,1'/ setj. 

t Howi'vcr, Townsmi-n in Connccncut were at first JiidKes, after- 
wards gained the cnru of common Kinds, and gradiuilly reached the 
modem status. — Conn. Col. Rec. I, 37, 214. 



authorized to be Townesmen, to order all matters abont 
Fences, Swine, and all other things in the generall occasions 
of the Towne, except extraordinary charges, matters of Flec- 
tion in May yearly, and the disposeing of the Towne's land. 

These were the first Townsmen or Selectmen of 
New Haven, members of the agricultural rather 
than of the wealthy merchant class. The number 
was soon increased to ten, the idea of district repre- 
sentation being preserved; "William Russell was 
chosen for the bankside against the harbor and the 
creek as far as Robert Pigg's." But in 1653 the 
list was diminished to seven, where, with some 
slight fluctuations, it has remained. Two years 
later it was ordered that hereafter they be chosen 
by "papers, as other ofticers are, without respect 
to them that have served before." In 1654 the 
town first voted that Townsmen might draw orders 
on the Treasurer in favor of those whom they em- 
ployed, and that such orders must be presented at 
the treasury within a month after the work was 
done. For the first few years the Townsmen were 
slow to act upon their own responsibility, but were 
continually demanding of the Town Court permis- 
sion for an intended deed, or sanction for an ac- 
complished one. The record of their doings was 
carefully kept, and entered in the lump upon the 
pages of the Town Records. In the spring following 
their first appointment, at a meeting of the Town 
Court, the initial orders of the Townsmen were 
read over, and "what was done was by silence 
confirmed." 

The Townsmen agreed among themselves to 
meet in public session on the first Monday of every 
month at five o'clock p.m.; "If any of the Towns- 
men be absent, or come not seasonably, they shall 
pay 2S. 6d. " The place of this assembly was the 
"ordinary," or tavern, as appears from the notice 
to that eftect, January 13, 1^159, and also from ac- 
cusations brought against them in 1675, at the 
town-meeting, of extravagant indulgence in liquors 
at the town's expense. Jeremiah Osborne, in the 
name of the townsmen, reported that they had 
spent thirty shillings upon the landlord's score in 
the last year, and was likely to spend as much 
more this year; if the town did not approve, the 
Townsmen would pay it themselves. There the 
Reform movement seems to have rested. 

The first conflict between the Townsmen and 
the Magistracy for local supremacy pertained to the 
subject of land-alienation, and resulted in a con- 
clusive triumph for the former. The by-law cre- 
ating the office of Townsmen had removed from 
their control the disposing of the town's land. 
This seemed to be a reservation in favor of the Pro- 
prietors' Committee, and its proper rights. But 
the Magistracy, the Elders of the Town, especially 
in the Winthrop case, tried to assume, for them- 
selves, control over domestic transfers. This the 
Townsmen resisted. In many towns in the other 
colonies the ancient village community law was 
enforced, by virtue of which any inhabitant, wishing 
ti) alienate his laml, must first oll'er the refusal (jf it 
to the town. New Haven had ])laced no restriction 
on exchange among the planters beyonil the neces- 
sity of registry. But the Townsmen, in the first 



MUNICIPAL HISTORY. 



431 



\ 



year of their existence, ordered that "None but 
admitted planters shall keep Swine or Cattell with- 
in the libberties of this Towne, without leave from 
the Towne, nor shall any planter let any of his 
common for swine or other Cattell to any that is 
not a planter without the Towne's consent." But 
the Townsmen first directly asserted their power 
over the sale or lease of town-lots when, in July, 
1656, "They sent to Mr. Hooke to desire him on 
y"^ Towne's behalf, that, if he sould his house, the 
Towne might have the refusall of it. " * 

In the winter of 1658-59, John Winthrop, Jr., 
decided not to become a resident of New Haven, 
and wished to dispose of his house, one of the 
finest in the town. When it was discovered that 
he contemplated leasing it to a man of no promi- 
nence, and without consulting the authorities, there 
was an uproar. Mr. Davenport wrote to him, re- 
monstrating, "This way of letting it unto such 
men will not be for your profit, nor for the Town s 
satisfaction." The Townsmen, on their part, 
maintained that the matter belonged to their pro- 
vince, and they asked Governor Newman to write 
to Mr. Winthrop a message similar to the one 
given to Parson Hooke. Mr. Davenport's immedi- 
ate friends, on the other hand, urged the claims of 
the Magistracy to treat with Mr. Winthrop. f In 
accordance with the latter view, Winthrop an- 
nounced that he would leave the house in the 
hands of Messrs. Newman, Gilbert, Davenport, 
and John Davenport, Jr. But the Townsmen re- 
solved that they "liked not that arrangement." 
They managed to see Winthrop, and to buy the 
property for the town. Whereupon their oppon- 
ents exclaimed that Mr. John Winthrop, a person 
of high rank and estimation, and of much-needed 
skill withal in medicine, had been driven away 
from the town. The whole dispute was ventilated 
in public meeting, August 8, 1659. 

Mr. Davenport said that Winthrop had always 
wished to retain liberty to live in New Haven. He 
moved that the bargain should not be carried out, 
but should be "stayed awhile, as some stones were 
come for the iron-worke, which might be an in- 
ducement to Mr. Winthrop to come hither. " The 
Townsmen replied that they would not dance at- 
tendance upon John Winthrop, and that, if he ever 
wished to reside again in New Haven, the usual 
road was open to him. For the first time in the 
history of the town or colony, Mr. Davenport was 
defeated. The town voted to sustain its represent- 
atives. 

Henceforward the Townsmen were supreme in 
New Haven's administration. In the next year, 
1660, they gained access to the financial manage- 
ment of the town. Previously the Magistracy, includ- 
ing the Monthly Court, had been annually elected 
auditors. The Townsmen were now empowered to 
keep account of all "rates, fines, rents, and other 
incomes of the towne," and to charge the Treas- 

* The Rev. Mr. Hooke was then on Ihe point of sailing for England, 
where he became a Court Chaplain to Oliver Cromwell. 

t The Plantation Laws of 1645 expressly surrendered the right of 
admitting planters, and of controlling sales and leases to strangers or 
non-planters, into the hands of the Magistrates, Elders and Deacons.— 
Town Records, I, 201. 



urer therewith; and " the Townsmen and the Court 
together shall be auditors." 

It is a significant fact, that, in the following win- 
ter, Mathew Gilbert and Robert Treat, leaders of 
the "Elder "or Conservative Party in town and 
colony, opened negotiations with Governor Stuy- 
vesant for an English emigration from New Haven 
to the banks of the Delaware. The negotiation was 
broken off, resumed, protracted through the char- 
ter troubles, checked by the downfall of the Dutch, 
renewed with Cartaret, and finally completed in the 
settlement of Newark in 1666. 

The unconditional surrender of New Haven Col- 
ony to Connecticut, December 13, 1664, was rati- 
fied by the New Haven town-meeting on the 7th 
of the following January. The actual condition and 
numbers of the body of freemen immediately after 
that event are doubtful. A feeling of bitterness pre- 
vented compliance with Connecticut's registration 
laws, and made the oath of allegiance to that colony 
a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. In 
1664, the Connecticut Council had voted not to 
press the "Actuall swearinge of freemen at New 
Haven at present." In May, two years later, the 
Assembly sent "Mr. Shearman to give the free- 
men's oath to any who would take it." He admin- 
istered the oath to just nine men. However, the 
" Constables, " in 1669, reported ninety-one free- 
men in New Haven, indicating a total population 
of about 500. With the year 1665, the town began 
to adapt itself to the new circumstances. The last 
echoes of the recent quarrel were heard in the res- 
olution that the town would aid Mr. (late Governor) 
Leete in his legal controversy with Bray Rossiter, 
the leader of the Guilford malcontents, and in the 
following vote: "The Town was acquainted that 
Connecticut expects we should beare our part of 
the charges of the Pattent. It was debated and 
concluded that we judge it not righteous nor reason- 
able that we should beare patent charges."* 

Until the middle of the following year, the town 
was occupied in administering upon the effects of 
the defunct colony. The sister towns desired some 
compensation for the money which they had formerly 
contributed to the colony school, now extinct, which 
sums they believed to have benefited New Haven 
alone. The town chanced to have in its keeping 
two cannon which had once maintained the honor 
and dignity of New Haven Colony against Dutch 
and Indians, by pointing out over the waters of the 
harbor. In a spasm of generosity the town voted 
to its ancient comrades all its right "in the two 
great gunns." But the Yankees of Milford, etc., 
were wide-awake also, and finally, in July. 1666, 
New Haven agreed to settle all accounts by the 
payment of twenty pounds. 

In March, 1665, the first summons to a Connec- 
ticut General Assembly was received, and John 
Cooper and Lieutenant Munson were elected to be 
the first Deputies from New Haven. The session 
was deferred, however, until April, and John Cooper 
and James Bishop, who were then elected, were the 

* Town Records, III, 65-6. 



432 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



first representatives who really sat in the Connecti- 
cut Legislature. In May, in compliance with the 
new laws, two Constables were chosen, although 
the office of Marshal was not discontinued until 
1670. Messrs. Jones, Gilbert, Nash and Bishop, 
who had been selected by the recent Legislature to 
fill the Magistracy at New Haven, took the oath of 
office in full town-meeting. The title, "General 
Court of the Town," was now generally replaced 
by that of town-meeting, and Mr. Jones was named 
by the town as the permanent moderator of such 
assemblies. His first public duty was the somewhat 
unpleasant one of reading the Connecticut Laws 
aloud to the people, August 14,1665. 

It was thereafter enacted that a Monthly Court 
should be held as ft)rnierly, " if occasion require, 
on the first third day of the weeke in every month, 
for tryall of all cases that may be tried by this Court 
without a jury; and in October, December, March 
and June, there shall be juries if any cases require 
it" "3s. 4d. must be payd for every action, be- 
side the jury fees, when the jury is called. Defend- 
ants shall have three days' warning, unless they 
agree otherwise." A suspicion that the golden age 
of Arcadian rule had departed may have lurked be- 
hind this order: "The Townsmen shall see that at 
least one roome of the prison be made safe for 
prisoners." 

On the 3d of October, 1665, the last vestige of 
the peculiar polity of Davenport and Eaton was re- 
moved. Trial by Jury became an actual fact, as it 
was already a legal one. The panel included only 
six men, "John Gibbs, Henry Rutherford, John 
Cooper, William Andrews, Henry Glover, and 
Thomas Munson, Foreman." This was the first 
Court of (Quarter Sessions at New Haven, although 
the division of the colony into four counties was 
not consummated until the ne.\t year, when New 
Haven altainetl the minor dignity of a county seat. 

On the 20tli of December, the year of first things 
closed with the first Coroner's Jury, again of si.'c 
men, who delivered upon the body of Henry Mor- 
rill a verdict of suicide. A probable reason for the 
rash act is suggested about a year later, when Goody 
Morrill was fined 3.S. for "Provoking and Striking 
an Indian," the magistrates, at the same time, 
somewhat boastfully "declaring themselves ready 
to doe justice as well to Indians as to English. " 

By 1668, the official machinery of the town was 
smoothly rolling. There were a few omissions 
and adilitions. Military ofilcers were no longer 
chosen in the town-meetings, and the Deputies to 
the Monthly Court were things of the past. The 
Secretary was called "The Recorder." Two Road 
Surveyors filled an olfice which had been re- 
vived in 1666, after an interval of twenty years, and 
a Board of four Assessors was elected under the 
clumsy name of "Listers for the estates of men." 
Hereafter also there were three Constables, two for 
New Haven and one for the " Iron-worke," as 
East Haven was called. The town-meetings were 
slill rather frequent, and the Townsmen often sub- 
mitted for approval the reports of their own month- 



ly meetings. There were three town election 
days in the year, one in the sjjring, when the greater 
number of offices were filled; one in September, to 
choose Deputies to the fall meeting of the As- 
sembly; and one in November, for the election of 
Constables. 

As yet the General Court of Elections for the 
colony was held at Hartford only, so that if all the 
freemen had assembled there yearly \s\\^^ had the 
right to a]>pear, Connecticut would have been as 
jiure a democracy as ancient Athens. But the cus- 
tom was cumbrous, and in May, 1670, the Assem- 
bly enacted that henceforth freemen might be pres- 
ent at Hartford by pro.xy. Henceforth the town 
election in the spring was divided into two parts. 
In the morning, after the choice of the Dei)utics to 
the Assembly, the proxies of the freemen were re- 
corded for the coming election of Governor, Deputy 
Governor, and Assistants at Hartford. The after- 
noon was set apart for the discussion and deter- 
mination of local business. The custom of " Read- 
ing the minutes of the last meeting " is now men- 
tioned, as though it were a new habit (1671). This 
election town-meeting sometimes had so much 
business to transact, that it sat from early morn till 
late at eve. Abuses crept in. Many went away 
as night came on, and the few who remained passed 
important laws, or one party tried to tire out an- 
other by long sitting. In 1701, some local Solo- 
mon moved, and it was voted, "That no town- 
meeting shall continue after the sun is no longer in 
sight, and the moderator shall determine when that 
is." This confidence in the moderator's good faith 
and eyesight endured till 171 3. Afterwards this 
town-meeting was prolonged through two days, the 
first, called " Proxies' Day, " being devoted to the 
election of t)fficers, the second to the transaction of 
town business. 

It had been Mr. Davcnp(.)rt's intention that the 
Church in his Town-State should be supported 
entirely by voluntary contributions. In Connecti- 
cut, on the other hand, the ministers were paid by 
a general town tax. Mr. Davenport's plan partially 
broke down so early as 1650-51, when some were 
found to pay nothing, while many more made the 
contribution-box the receptacle of bad wampum.* 
In 1667, Mr. Jones proposeil in town-meeting that 
the Elders should be made public officials, since 
their maintenance had been for ten years a source 
of scandalous trouble. The town did not hearken 
to Mr. lones, but ten years later, March 13, 1677, 
Deacon Peck, the Church Treasurer, repeated the 
motion and the argument. The town agreed and 
voted to raise yearly for the Elders' support, a tax 
of two-pence half-penny in the ])ound. Henceforth 
the Elder was a public functionary, and the Minis- 
ter's tax, usually of two-])ence in the pound, a reg- 
ular feature ol the annual budget. Even the 
charities which the Church had previously superin- 
tended, were haniled over to the town. In 16S4, 
the townsmen reported that the "Widow Banister 
had formerly been releeved by the Church Treasury 

* Town Records, II, 17, 90. 



MUNICIPAL HISTORY. 



433 



from the deacon, but now, there being no Church 
Treasury, shee must be supplied from the Toune. " 
And it was so done. 

The enforced attention paid to agriculture re- 
vived the question of land distribution, which had 
lain dormant for a generation. There were six 
divisions of the town lands between 1675 ^f"i 
1722, and the spacious township began to be 
dotted with farms and incipient villages. In 1670 
the northern portion of the New Haven purchase 
was set off to the "New Village," which was im- 
mediately incorporated as " Wallingford," and the 
resultant town boundaries of New Haven were 
first perambulated in 1683. The institution of 
this ancient custom is recorded April 2, 1683, 
thus: " The Townsmen desired Sergeant Winston 
to give Milford, Wallingford and Brandford, notis 
that the perambulation be made " around all the 
common boundaries with New Haven.* 

The relation between New Haven and the villages 
that sprang up beneath its shelter were, however, 
rarely so peaceful, and so quickly adjusted as in 
the case of Wallingford. With the hamlet of East 
Haven, including Fair Haven, a quarrel endured 
for more than a century. The outlying setdements 
might seek for separation in two ways: in one, as 
towns, they attained complete independence, main- 
tained their own church and school, and were in- 
corporated by the Legislature; in the other, as vil- 
lages, they were still subservient to the mother 
town, possessing- territorial independence only, 
with village commons of their own. East Haven 
made the first demand for village privileges at the 
Town Court of February 28, 1659. The subject 
was debated with great acrimony, although Mr. 
Davenport championed the cause of the would-be 
villagers. The matter was lost sight of in the en- 
suing troubles, but was brought to light again in 
1667. 

In 1679, the town incorporated East Haven as 
a village, but the East Haveners were not then 
contented. They wished to play "Town," so in 
1684, the village, without any authority, filled a 
list of town offices with only four different incum- 
bents for all, attaching to each this proviso, "If 
the Towne of New Haven shall appoint them." 
New Haven interposed no objection, and within 
two or three years both the village and the townlet 
naturally expired. This is believed to be the first 
and last instance wherein a subordinate portion of 
a town, with the consent of the whole town, but 
without authority from the Legislature, assumed 
the essential functions of municipal sovereignty. 
With the beginning of the eighteenth century. 
East Haven aspired again to township honors, be- 
came involved with New Haven in a dispute about 
the common lands, was disgracefully treated by 
the Legislature, and for seventy-five years persisted 
in calling itself a town, although forced to submit 
to New Haven's authority. Ecclesiastical inde- 
pendence it did obtain from Town and State in 

* Heaps of stones were the landmarks. In bounding the Indian 
land at Morris' Cove, 7ncre stones are mentioned. The old l'j''m is 
noteworthy. It is still in use in New Haven. Town Records, IV, 
444. See City Year Book, 1S75, 

65 



1709, thus becoming the pioneer for the parishes 
of West Haven and North Haven in 1715 and 
1716 respectively. 

The Marshal was now no more, and the mili- 
tary seem to have been no longer reliable for re- 
straining the light-minded persons in "y' meeting." 
The way was open for the appearance of the 
Tithingman. December 16, 1678, the town com- 
missioned "William Payne and Samuel Heming- 
way to take a stick or wand and smite such as are 
unruly, or of uncomely behavior in y° meeting, 
and to acquaynt their parents." Possibly these 
gentlemen performed such services during the re- 
mainder of their lives, for the office was not filled 
again until 1723, when the word "Tithingman" 
is first used, and when yearly elections to that 
oflice began. December i6th of that year seven 
Tithingmen were chosen in town-meeting: two 
each for the First Society, for West Haven, for 
East, Haven and one for North Haven. 

Five years after Messrs. Payne and Hemingway 
were appointed to watch children in the meeting- 
house, the Townsmen bestirred themselves also in 
the cause of juvenile discipline and morality. 
"The Townsmen agreed to goe to all the inhabit- 
ants of the towne and farmes to see how the 
children are educated in reading the word of God. 
Lieutenant Munson and John Chidsey took the 
square of the towne; John Cooper, Sr. , and Lieu- 
tenant Moses Mansfield, all the west side of the 
East River and so down to Goodman Dorman's; 
Sergeants Winston and Dickerman the subburbs, 
and the west side of the West River. " The need 
of such measures may be inferred from another 
entry in the Records at about the same time, 
wherein the Freemen of New Haven in town- 
meeting assembled, voted to recommend to the 
authorities that horse-racing on lecture-days ought 
to be prevented, and that on such days children 
and servants ought not to lounge around the 
taverns and tipple with strangers.* 

The attack of Randolph, Dudley, and Andros, 
in 1685, on the Connecticut Charter had been fore- 
seen. The Legislature advised each town in the 
colony to survey its territory and lawfully incor- 
porate itself under the Charter. In accordance 
with this advice. New Haven's Patent was obtained 
and read in town-meeting April 27, i6S6.t The 
township is granted by the "Governor and Com- 
pany of Connecticut Colony, in accordance with 
his late Majestiys gratious charter in the 14th year 
of his reign " to three Magistrates and three Towns- 
men. * * * " to be held according to the 
tenor of East Greenwich in Kent in free and com- 
mon soccage." The Patent was signed January 6, 
1686, "In the first yeare of the reigne of our 
Sovereigne Lord James the Second of England, 
Scotland, France and Ireland, King, Defender of 
the Faith, etc.," by Robert Treat, Governor, and 
by John AUyn, Secretary. Thus Connecticut rooied 
its famous charter among the local institutions of 
its people, and awaited the coming storm. 

* Town Records, IV, 63. 
t Ibid , 21-23. 



434 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



In 1703, when Dudley and Cornbury repeated 
the assault upon Connecticut, the Legislature again 
adopted the same measure and issued to the towns 
"Confirmations ' of their previous Patents. The 
Indian treaties, the Patent, and its confirmation, 
are New Haven's documentary titles to her terri- 
tory. Andros' brief sway made very little im- 
pression upon the town's history. ' ' The Lawes 
and Orders sent from Boston by his Excellencies 
command " were read and published. The sus- 
pension of the General Assemblies relieved the 
Freemen from the necessity of choosing Deputies, 
and town-meetings were not quite so freciuent. 

For the first time since the town's foundation, 
permission was granted that ohn Osbell and John 
Hancock, single men, might live by themselves 
" until the Towne see fit to alter it." 

Andros and his Council were prisoners on the 
1 8th of April, 1689. New Haven town-meeting 
assembled on the 3d of May, and the scribe, in 
his joy and fear, produced this unwieldy sentence: 

After the opeiiinij of the Town-meeting and prayer made 
for direction from God in this dangerous juncture, theTowne 
were informed of the late dissolution of the Government at 
lioston by the (Jovcrnor, Sir Edmund Andross, his resigna- 
tion of the same ; with surrender of the Castle and fifort into 
other hands intrusted till further order from the present pow- 
ers in England ; and this chang hastened by the discovery of a 
dangerous plot against Boston to destroy that place, as we 
are credibly informed, which great overture hath occasioned 
and necessitated the ffreemen in all or most places in this 
colony to choose their Deputies to meet together in y usuall 
place and at the usuall tyme of election to consider together 
what to doe, and to have the proxies of the freemen ready, 
if need be, in order to the Re-assuming and .Settlement of 
Government according to charter, to prevent anarchy and 
confusion and the Danngerous effects thereof, especially 
when we have grounds or cause to suspect Indian or other 
enemies. 

With the beginning of the French and Indian 
Wars, and the introduction of a soldier element, 
the town experienced an alarming increase of in- 
temperance. It may have been a common experi- 
ence of this sort that enabled the town, in 1701, in 
accordance with the new law of the cokiny,to elect 
for the first time Justices of the Peace (two of them, 
April 29th). 'I'hirteen years later, on December 
20th, the first (irand Jury was drawn. Liquor was 
sold in the town by a very easy license system. In 
October, 1701, the Colonial Legislature met, for 
the first time, in New Haven The additional ca- 
pacity for fluids wiiich the Magistrates and Depu- 
ties were expectetl to furnish may be gauged by the 
fact that the September town-meeting licensed" Five 
more men to sell Rum only while the Court sits." 
But a healthier public sentiment was already at 
work, and had already conducteil a successful agi- 
tation against the scandalous abuse of liquor- 
drinking at funerals. 

Through the first half of the eighteenth century 
the town shared in the lethargy with which Walpole 
enveloped the English world. The town govern- 
ment was practically as complete as it is to-day. 
The town rounded out the circles of its local, do- 
mestic life, and,likeall the great and small colonial 
unit.s, unconsciously husbandcil its growing strength 
for the struggle that was to follow. Public and 



private citizens wrangled over projected roads, 
erected public buildings,and waged a fierce warfare 
against sorrel, barberry bushes, and predatory geesel 

After 17 50, both foreign and domestic commerce 
sprang up, and wealth and population rapidly in- 
creased. The revival of business drew official 
attention for the first time to the development 
what has since been one of New Haven's leadir 
industries, the oyster trade. The town-meeting i^ 
February, 1762, enacted the first Oyster Laws,whichXJ 
were typical of the annual legislation upon the sub'j 
ject for a long time afterward. 

W/urc-as, Many persons have made a practise of catching 
and destroying the oysters in the harbor of New Haven, in 
the months of May, June, July and August, which is to the 
great detriment of the inhabitants of the town oi New Haven, 
which to prevent; 

I'oleii, That no person shall be allowed to rake up and 
catch any oysters in the harbor of New Haven, or the Cove, 
from the first day of May to the first day of Seplemlier.under 
a proportionate penalty of 20 shillings per bushel, but the 
Selectmen may allow any person to catch a small quantity 
of oysters in case of sickness or necessity. 

The same penalty was affixed to carrying off oyster- 
shells, and a committee of five was elected to 
" Prosecute Breaches of the Vote." Violations of 
the law were indeed sometimes punished, but 
always with a lenient hand. 

Commercial prosperity was accompanied, as 
usual, by social hardness of heart, and by depression 
of the lower classes. In 1763, the town's paupers 
were disposed of by auction to the lowest bidder 
for the ensuing year, and the practice continued for 
a generation. Nothing more is heard of friendly 
visits of inquiry and sympathy by the townsmen to 
the houses of the poor. Primitive solicitude is re- 
placed by ollicial conciseness. Irishmen and coals 
were both first imported into New Haven in 1763, 
and were probably both sold in the same public 
market; the advertisement of the human commod- 
ity at least is still extant.* 

But it was the commercial element, the new 
blood in the town, " Interlopers, ' as the individu- 
als were called, which took the lead in resistance 
to England. The town-meeting which first broachcil 
a revolutionary topic in New Haven was held under 
auspicious omens on the 2 2d of February, I7'i3, at 
which time the first Committee of Correspontlence 
reported the first non-imj)orlation agreement. Dur- 
ing the Stamp Act period the ilepartments of town 
government wherein the stamped paper was to be 
used were at a standstill, and a fortnight before the 
repeal of the Act, we find the town-meeting re- 
questing the "Said Courts, Magistrates, Justices, 
especially the Honorable Superior Court, by way of 
example to the others, together with the respective 
Officers of such Courts, and the Practitioners at the 
Bar " to proceed in the transaction of their usual 
business, according "To the Laws of this Colony." 

September 10, 1770, the town elected eight dele- 
gates to a colonial convention, summoned for the 
13th at New Haven, for the purpose of encourag- 
ing non-importation and domestic manufactures. 
The same meeting chose a committee of thirty- 
eight members to watch over the "Commercial 

* Barber's Antiquitieb, p. 113. 



MUNICIPAL ItlSTOkV. 



43§ 



Interests" of the town. When the Boston Port 
Bill came to kindle resentment into wrath, New 
Haven was prompt to act. The result of the public 
excitement upon the town government was mainly 
the creation of committees. Nearly every town- 
meeting appointed a new one, for purposes of 
"Consideration. " Eighteen prominent citizens were 
named as a Committee of Correspondence in the 
town meeting of May 23, 1774, which voted ac- 
cording to the customary formula : " That we will, 
to the utmost of our abilities, assert and defend the 
Liberties and Immunities of British America, and 
that we will co-operate with our sister towns in any 
constitutional measures, ' etc. 

Shortly after a Committee of Subscriptions was 
chosen. The officers of the town were still un- 
changed, except that one new department was 
added, viz.: "The Committee of Encroachment 
on Highways," a body which seems to have found 
abundant occupation. It appears also that the 
town had an Excise Master of its own. The Select- 
men were ordered to call town-meetings whenever 
the Committee of Correspondence desired it, but 
after November 14, 1774, the most important com- 
mittee in the town was the Committee of Inspection. 
This latter committee was chosen in accordance 
with the recommendations of the Continental Con- 
gress, and the town, in order probably to facilitate 
convenience of assembling, voted that the major 
part of the committee should be within the limits 
of the First Society. A by-law of the same year 
ordered that among the Selectmen, one must here- 
after be in the First Society, one in White Haven, 
one in the Church,* and one in Fair Haven. 

The labor of the Selectmen was so increased by 
the war, that in 1775 their numbers were changed, 
by permission of the Legislature, from seven to 
thirteen. The climax of committees was reached 
November 6, 1775, when, in addition to those al- 
ready existing, one was intrusted with the erection 
of a fort at Black Rock, another with the building 
of a beacon on Indian Hill, another with the pro- 
curement of floating defenses in the harbor, and 
another with the enforcement of the following reso- 
lution : 

I'ol^d^ That every person who looks upon himself as 
bound, either from conscience or clioice, to give intelHgence 
to our enemies of our situation, or otherwise take an active 
part against us, or to yield obedience to any command of 
his Majesty, King George the Third, so far as to take up 
arms against this town, or the United Colonies, Ix; desired 
peaceably to depart. 

Meanwhile the Committee of Inspection was ex- 
amining citizens for "Calling Gage an honest 
man," for " Declaring that Whigs are liars," and 
even for "Speaking slightly of the money emitted 
by our Assembly." 

Throughout this period, the Records of the Se- 
lectmen, which had become in general very con- 
cise and non-communicative, contain long columns 
of payments, and of disbursement of supplies for 
the soldiers and their families. The town offered 
as bounties to every volunteer two pounds, and 
"Annually for three years if they stay so long, ' 

* The Ecclesiastical Society of Trinity Church. — Editor. 



one pair of good strong shoes, one pair of good 
yarn stockings, and one shirt. In 1777, the Se- 
lectmen introduced public inoculation for small- 
pox, but it was unfortunate and was straightway 
forbidden until 1784. In December, 1777, the Se- 
lectmen recorded that they had set free the three 
negro slaves of Mr. Darling. The anti-slavery sen- 
timent in the town was strong, as appears from one 
of the many objections which the town-meetings of 
December, 1777, and January, 1778, respectively, 
urged against the proposed "Articles of Confed- 
eration of the United States of America. " "We 
object also to furnishing troops in proportion to the 
white inhabitants only, as we hope the time may 
be when the black man may be a freeman and the 
owner of property, and then he ought to bear his 
share of military burdens. " In 1782, the first 
attempt was made to find some better way of caring 
for the poor, but the result was failure, and in 
January, 1783, the Selectmen were again commis- 
sioned to "sell the Town poor, that they maybe 
supported in the cheapest manner. " In the next year 
the town signalized the advent of peace by setting 
to the rest of the State an example in the vexed 
question of treatment of Tories. Under the lead 
especially of Pierpont Edwards, the town voted to 
welcome all, excepting only those who had been 
engaged in unauthorized and lawless warfare. 

Already the town had withdrawn what had prom- 
ised to be a fruitless opposition to a renewed effort 
by the outlying parishes towards incorporation. 
While at the center of the township a new city was 
emerging, at its circumference the towns of East 
Haven, North Haven, Hamden and Woodbridge 
were leaving the chrysalis parish-state. The town 
set the seal of its final approval upon the division 
of its territory on the 28th of March, 1785; but 
the parish of West Haven, through the opposition 
of Milford, was debarred from town-privileges un- 
til 1822. 

After February 10, 1784, the City of New Haven 
was an organized fact, and henceforth the most im- 
portant portion of the township learned to derive its 
official life more particularly through the organs of 
the city than through those of the town. But the 
transfer of authority was made very gradually. The 
Act of 1784 secured to the infant city but little 
more than improved judicial machinery. The 
major part of what was deemed public duty was 
left with the town. As the city broadened out, 
and as its conception of public service widened, 
the responsibilities of the town government little by 
little diminished, especially as, after the separation 
of West Haven, the territory of the township out- 
side of the city became small in extent. But so 
late as 1855, the highest public salaries in the town 
were paid to members of the town government. 
The Town Agent headed the list with twelve hun- 
dred dollars per annum; the remuneration of the 
First Selectman had reached the flood-mark of 
eight hundred dollars, while the Mayor and the 
City Clerk each received but five hundred dollars. 
However, from that time the town government 
descended in the scale of comparison, and began 
to occupy its present subordinate rank. In i860, 



436 



HISTORY OF THE CITV OF NEW HA VEN. 



the Mayor and the City Clerk obtained respectively 
the salaries of one thousand and of eight hundred 
dt)llars. 

Both before and after the Revolution, the scourge 
of small-pox was the source of frequent municipal 
action. The town maintained a strict quarantine 
against vessels from New York in 1793 and 1794. 
In the latter year the town elected three physicians 
to be Health Officers of the Port. 

In 1788-89, the custom was adopted of farming 
out to some one person the most of the town's ex- 
penses, including the care of the poor. Previous 
to that time the care of paupers had cost the town 
about six hundred pounds yearly. Under the con- 
tract system the town's poor cost about ^^270. But 
the arrangement did not prove to be satisfactory, 
and was abandoned after a few years' trial. 

The first specimen of a balance-sheet of town ac- 
counts for the year was entered in the records for 
December, 1799. The total expenditure was six 
hundred and thirty pounds. Of that amount, the 
sum of five hundred and fourteen pounds was de- 
voted to the care of paupers. In 1819, a Board of 
Relief was differentiated from the Selectmen's office. 
Under the first three Presidents the town-meeting 
essayed to play a prominent part in national poli- 
tics. It assured \\'ashington that it would sustain 
his policy of neutrality. It forwarded to the House 
of Representatives its guarded approval of Jay's 
treaty. But it was most prolific of advice for 
Thomas JefTerson. In August, 1808, Elias Ship- 
man, Noah Webster, David Daggett, Jonathan 
Ingersoll, and Thomas Painter, Esqs , by order of 
the town, prepared and sent to the President a 
memorial of no less than forty-five hundred words, 
setting forth New Haven's opinion of the embargo, 
or, as it was popularly termed in New Haven, "the 
Dambargo. ' The town-meeting of January 28, 
1809, was far more revolutionary than the famous 
Hartford Convention, and proposed to "seek 
redress," to "oppose the torrent of oppression, ' 
etc. 

The town ratified the State Constitution of 181 8 
by a vote of 430 to 218,* and at about the same 
time officially and emphatically condemned and 
denounced slavery. In 1 84 1, the town appr^)priated 
$150 for a school for colored children, and in the 
following year established two such schools. 

During these two decades the election of Tithing- 
men became impartial. They were first chosen for 
the Baptist and Methodist societies in 1821, but 
Trinity had no Tithingmen until i833.f The 
Univcrsalist and Roman Catholic Churches received 
this token of official recognition in 1836. In 1849 
a special town-meeting was called, because the first 
election of Tithingmen must be made for the So- 
ciety of Mishkan Israel: or, as the Reconls express it, 
"For the Society of Miskin Israel." During the 

• In Ociobcr, 1818, William Bristol and Nathan Smith were the dele- 
gates to ihc Convention. Town Records. V[, 62. 

t "I'rinity Church had not needed Tithingmen. if its worshipers were 
generally as zealous as one who has been described. Spying a boy who 
was frivolously inchned lUiring the service, he rushed up to the oflendcr 
with the words, " Vou little rascal, how dare you behave so in a Church^ 
Vou ihoueht you was in a Presbyterian mceting-housc, didn't you, 
hey ■! "— N. H. Hist. Soc. P.ipers, 1, 68. 



following decade the town annually chose Tithing- 
men for about thirty congregations. In 1866, the 
election was relinquished to the congregations 
themselves, and some of them still make the annual 
selection. 

The special town-meeting of 1849, for " IMiskin 
Israel," was held in accordance with the require- 
ments of the latest revision of the By-Laws concern- 
ing town elections. This revision, made in 1835, 
ordered that the Town Clerk should open the 
meeting at 9 a.m., and, with the Selectmen, count 
the ballots for Moderator. Inspectors of the vote 
were to be appointed by the Moderator. Ballots 
might be cast for any number of Selectmen and 
Constables, not exceeding seven; for any number 
of Grand Jurors, not exceeding six; for any number 
of Surveyors of Highways, for "Tythingmen, Hay- 
wards, Gangers, Packers, Sealers of Weights and 
Measures, and Pound-keepers; for Town Clerk, 
Treasurer, Collector of Stale Tax, and of Town 
Tax." At nine the next morning the town-meeting 
reassembled for transacting business, and if there 
had been on the previous day a failure to elect at 
least five Selectmen, two Grand Jurors, or two 
Tithingmen in each congregation, the deficiency 
must be made good. 

In 1837, the town profited very materially by 
folly in high places. On January 1 7th it voted to 
accept its proportion of the Uniteil States surplus 
deposited with this State, in accordance with the 
conditions imposed by the Legislature, a|)pro]iriat- 
ing the interest of such moneys to educational pur- 
poses. New Haven's share was $27,427.67, which 
was forthwith loaned on New Haven real estate, 
and which has figured ever since in the annual 
town budget. Out of the proceeds of this fund 
the schools for colored children were supported. 

In the decade between 1840 and 1850, was be- 
gun the agitation which resulted in the establish- 
ment of the Town Liquor Agency. Previous to 
1840, the town had invariably maintained the spe- 
cial license system. In January loth of that year, 
free rum was thus introduced: 

Voted, That all persons be allowed to sell wines and spir- 
ituous liquors in the Town of New Haven during the cur- 
rent year. 

This by-law was several times re-enacted. In 
four years the Grand Jurors' fees for prosecutions 
increased from twenty-seven dollars in 1839 to 
nearly one thousand dollars in 1843; the town tax 
rate rose from two to three cents, and the balance 
in the town treasury decreascii from $3,000 to 
$301. These figures did not escape notice, and a 
vigorous anti-rum agitation was begun, especially 
under the leadership of Mr. Charles B. Lines. Be- 
tween 1843 and 1854 the battle wi\s fought mainlv 
in legislative halls. A State law was finally secured, 
by virtue of which towns might allow the sale of 
liquor only at certain agencies, antl then only for 
sacramental, medical, or chemical purposes. Mr. 
Lines thereupon presented the town-meeting of 
July 25, 1854, with motions that all existing li- 
censes should be revoked; that the Selectmen 



MUNICIPAL HISTORV. 



437 



should hire some one agent to sell whatever liquor 
might be needed; and that they should be empow- 
ered to draw from the treasury for that purpose. 

Jonathan Stoddard's proposal to table these res- 
olutions was approved by 803 to 671. The meet 
ing then adopted a series of resolutions offered by 
Stoddard, to the effect that the Selectmen might 
appropriate, in i860, the sum of six and one-quar- 
ter cents for the purpose mentioned, and that the 
money should be used in "the faithful execution 
of the law. " During the summer the fight was re- 
newed a second and a third lime. At the last Mr. 
Lines was successful by 1,640 yeas to 1,407 nays, 
and for a number of years thereafter the Town Liq- 
uor Agency formed a feature of the town adminis- 
tration, and its reports figured in the annual bud- 
get. The books of the agent are preserved, wherein 
the quarts and half-pints are entered opposite the 
purchaser's name in the proper column of " Sacra- 
mental, Medical, or Chemical. " It is easily inferred 
that the "medical" column was abundantly pa- 
tronized. The Town Liquor Agency had another 
name in colloquial speech, as appears by the town's 
action November 28, 1856. 

Voted, That Lucius Gilbert and Judson Canfield be a 
committet; to invesligate the affairs of the Town Agency, or 
Maine Law Grog-shop, and report to the Selectmen. 

In the ensuing spring the Maine Law Grog shop 
was closed, and with the admitted failure of prohi- 
bition throughout the State, the experiment of a 
public agency was abandoned. 

The Town Agent, measured by his present du- 
ties and fwwers, is a modern growth upon the an- 
cient trunk of town government. But though the 
special importance of the office is of recent date, 
its beginnings can be traced far back in the town's 
history. The general power to sue for the town 
was bestowed upon the townsmen in December, 
1700. The care of the poor had been enrolled 
among their responsibilities even before that time. 
Throughout the eighteenth century the townsmen, 
as a body, performed such offices, or delegated the 
labor to some of their own number. From 1800, 
through the first half of this century, the town, at 
its annual business meeting, usually divided the 
town agency between two of the Selectmen, and, 
for the first time, bestowed upon each the title, 
"Town Agent." For example, in 1800, the first 
Selectman, Jeremiah Atwater, was appointed an 
agent to sue and to be sued for the town; while 
Thomas Punderson, the Second Selectman, was 
chosen the Town Agent to take care of the poor. 
The usage was not invariable. In 1803-4 the Se- 
lectmen collectively were chosen agents to sue and 
to be sued, and to the First Selectman the duties 
of a Town Agent were not always given. 

But since 1848 there has been only one Town 
Agent. The increase at that time of the foreign 
population gave to him a responsibility and a power 
which caused the office to be regarded as a separ- 
ate department, although custom retained the agent's 
duties in the hands of the First Selectman. The 
Town Agent, since 1848, has received a larger com- 
pensation than anv other town officer. The an- 



nual distribution of large sums for what is called 
"Outside Relief" is virtually under his control. 
These facts have given him a hold upon a large 
body of voters, and have made his place the most 
influential one in the town government, much to 
be desired by the local Cajsars. Since 1878 each 
party has adopted the custom of designating upon 
its town ticket a candidate for the town agency. 
This is merely a political device, intended to ren- 
der the office more popular in its character, and to 
forestall any action by the Selectmen. The period 
of municipal expansion, and of the introduction of 
modern improvements, which witnessed the trans- 
formation of the city, saw no oflicial changes in the 
township. 

At the beginning of the Civil War, public action 
was mainly abandoned to individual initiative. In 
official circles sympathies were very much divided. 
New Haven sent to Congress, in i860, a petition 
for legislation that might satisfy the slaveholders. 
The first town-meeting which took energetic meas- 
ures was held on the 5th of August, 1862. Reso- 
lutions were adopted referring to the "Causeless 
war," and enabling the Treasurer to borrow $75,- 
000 for the payment of bounties, which had been 
fixed at $175 per capita. The issue of town bonds 
to the value of $180,000 was authorized. 

New Haven's quota of enlistments was not com- 
plete, and whispers of an impending draft occa- 
sioned some ugly talk. In the September town- 
meeting resolutions intended to prepare the way for 
a draft were opposed by Mr. James Gallagher, and 
were rejected. In the summer of 1863 the draft 
came, and too many of the people were ready to 
imitate New York's dreadful example, but the firm- 
ness of Mayor Morris Tyler, and of the authorities 
generally, aided greatly in preventing an outbreak. 
The town-meeting of July 23d voted that the town 
would hereafter purchase exemption for any con- 
script whose family necessities required his presence 
at home. Inducements of liberal individual offers 
finally relieved New Haven from the actual neces- 
sity of a draft, and in January, 1864, the Selectmen 
were authorized to pay $300 to set free any citizen 
from enrollment. 

The latest movement, which has taken the shape 
of an alleged reform in township government, is the 
agitation in favor of consolidating town and city 
under one Board of Officers. This effort was be- 
gun in 1852, when both town and city, the former 
leading the way, appointed committees to consider 
the possibility of abolishing the dual government. 
The only probable effect of the conference was ihe 
discontinuance, after November 12, 1855, of the 
separate town election meeting. Henceforth town 
officers w^ere elected by districts at voting places 
designated by the Selectmen. The practical result 
was that town and city elections were conducted at 
the same time and place and by the same machin- 
ery. The story of the city's growth, however, is 
necessarily a story of the absorption and relative 
wane of the township. A town-meeting in June, 
1865, voiced iis strong opposition to certain charter 



438 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



amendments which the city government was push- 
ing in the Legislature. These amendments were 
tliought to give the city too wide a jurisdiction. 
They were finally embodied in the charter of 1869. 
In July of the ne.\t year, 1870, the Fair Haven pe- 
ninsula was included within the city limits, and the 
Westville region was all that then remained exclu- 
sively under the rule of the town government. In 
1 88 1, however, the township was enlarged by the 
western and more important half of the town of 
East Haven, including the borough of Fair Haven, 
and all the lands bordering on the eastern siile of 
the harbor. The annexation of this territory, which 
had been set off from the old township for nearly 
one hundred years, was welcomed by New Haven 
especially, because it secured to her luller jurisdic- 
tion over navigation in the harbor and in the river. 
The annexation was made under condition that the 
consolidation should be with the town and not with 
the city. Petitions from the city to the Legislature 
in 1883 and 1884, looking towards the abolition of 
the dual town and ciiy government, have therefore 
aroused no slight resistance. However, the town 
government is too strongly rooted in the organic 
law of the State to be dislodged by anything but a 
constitutional amendment. It is probable that no 
further governmental consolidation will be practi- 
cable until the boundaries of the city and of the 
town are one and the same. 

Following is the list of offices to which the Free- 
men of New Haven Town annually elect one hun- 
dred and fifty-two incumbents. It is not to be sup- 
posed, however, that the nominating convention of 
each party spends its valuable lime in canvassing the 
merits of candidates for all these offices. Those 
assemblies of statesmen nominate only for the of- 
fices that are rendered attractive by money or by 
povkfer. The chairman, or some commitiee, is com- 
missioned to lill out the rest of the list at pleasure. 
The nine members of New Haven's Board of Edu- 
cation are elected for terms of three years each by 
the voters of the New Haven School District, which 
iiicluiles the whole township excepting Westville, 
and a small region at Southend. 

New Haven Town Officers are: 



7 Selectmen. 
Town Agent. 
Treasurer. 
Tax Collector. 
Town Clerk. 
Rejjistrar of Vital Statis- 
tics. 

2 Rej;istrars of Voters. 

3 Sealers of Weights and 

Measures. 
5 Members of the Hoard 

of Relief. 
5 Assessors. 



5 Managers of Town De- 
posit Fund. 
5 Poundkeepcrs. 

5 Haywards. 

6 Grand Jurors. 

7 Constables. 

7 Surveyors of Highways. 
7 Fence Viewers. 
7 Gangers and Inspectors. 
9 I'ackers. 
9 Weighers, 
56 Justices of the I'eace. 



Deputies from the Town of New Haven to the 
General Court of New Haven Colony. 

(I'irsI Session of the General Court, October 27, 1643.) 

1643. October -Captain Nathaniel Turner, Mr. Cieorge 

l.amltcrtoM. 

1644, April, Octolier - Captain Nathaniel Turner, Mr. Rich- 

ard Malbon. 



1645. April —Captain Nathaniel Turner, Mr. Richard Mal- 

bon; October— Captain Nathaniel Turner, Captain 
Richard Malbon. 

1646. April, October— Brother John Wakeman, Brother 

Ezekiel Cheever. 

1647. April— ; October— Mr. John Wakeman, 

Mr. Francis Newman. 

1648. May— Mr. John Wakeman, Mr. Jasper Crane; Octo- 

ber — 

1649. May, October— Mr. Jasper Crane, Mr. Francis New- 

man. 

1650. May — Mr. Jasper Crane, Mr. Francis Newman. 

1651. May — Mr. Francis Newman, Mr. Richard Miles. 

1652. May — Mr. Francis Newman, Mr. William Gibbard. 

1653. May —Mr. William Gibbard, Ensign Henry Lin<lon. 

1654. May— Mr. William Gibbard, Ensign Henry Lindon. 

1655. May— Mr. William Gilibard, Mr. John Wakeman. 

1656. May — Mr. William Gibbard, Mr. John Wakeman. 

1657. May —Mr. William ( libbard, Mr. John Wakeman. 

1658. May— Mr. William Gibbard, Mr. John Wakeman. 

1659. May — Lieutenant John Nash, Ensign Henry Lindon. 

1660. May —Mr. John Wakeman, [lieutenant John Nash. 

Ensign Lindon, if God should hinder either of the 
others. 

1661. May — Lieutenant John Nash, Mr. John Cooper. 

1662. May— Mr. John Cooper, Mr. James Bishop. 

1663. May— Lieutenant John Nash, Mr. James Bishop. 

1664. May — Ensign Thomas Munson, Mr. John Moss. 

Deputies to the Connecticut General Assembly. 

1665. April — Mr. John Cooper, Mr. James Bishop. 
May— Captain John Nash, Mr. James Bishop. 
October -Mr. James Bishop, Mr. John Cooper. 

1666. May — Mr. James Bishop, Mr. Thomas Munson; Octo- 

ber—Mr. James Bishop, Mr. John Cooper. 

1667. May, October— Mr. James Bishop, Mr. John Moss. 

1668. May— Captain John Nash, Mr. James Bishop; Ucto- 

ber— Mr. John Moss, Mr. Abraham Dowlittle. 

1669. May, October — Lieutenant Thomas Munson, Mr. John 

Moss. 

1670. May, October— Lieutenant Thomas Munson, Mr. John 

Moss. ■ 

1671. May, October — Lieutenant Thomas Munson, Mr. John 

Cooper, Sr. 

1672. May— Mr. Thomas Yale, Lieutenant Thomas Munson; 

October— Lieutenant Thomas Munson, Mr. Jeremy 
Osborne. 

1673. May, October — Lieutenant Thomas Munson, Mr. 

Jeremy Osborne. 

1674. May — Lieutenant Thomas Munson, Mr. Jeremy Os- 

borne; October— Lieutenant Thomas ^iunson, Mr. 
John Cooper. 

1675. May — Lieutenant Thomas Munson, Mr. Jeremy Os- 

borne; October— Sergeant Jeremy t>sborne, Mr. 
William Bradley. 

1676. May— Lieutenant Thomas Munson, Mr. William 

Bradley; October— Captain Thomas Munson, Cap- 
tain Moses Mansfield. 

1677. May, October— Cajitain Thomas Munson, Captain 

Moses Mansfield. 
167S. May Captain Thomas Munson, Captain Moses Mans- 
field; October— Mr. William Bradley, Mr. John 
Chidsey. 

1679. May— Mr. William Br.^dley, Mr. John Chidsey; Octo- 

ber—Captain I'homas Munson, Captain Moses 
Mansfield . 

1680. May, October— Mr. William I'.radley, Mr. John 

Chidsey. 
16S1. M,ay, October —Captain Thomas Munson, Captain 
Moses Mansfield. 

1682. May, October Captain Thomas Munson, Captain 

Moses Mansfield. 

1683. May — Mr. William Bradley, Mr. Abram Dickerman; 

Oclol)er Captain Moses Mansfield, Lieutenant 
Abram 1 >ickernian. 

1684. May, October -Captain Moses Mansfield, Lieutenant 

Abram Dickerman. 
1OS5. May — Captain Moses Mansfield, Lieutenant Abram 
Dickerman; October— Captain Moses ManslieUl, 
Mr. John Ailing. 



MUNICIPAL HISTORY. 



439 



1686. 

1687. 

1 688. 
1689. 

1690. 

1691. 

1692. 

1693. 
1694. 
1695. 
1696. 

1697. 
169S. 
1699. 
1700. 

1701. 

1702. 

■703- 
1704. 
1705 
1706. 

1707. 

1 70S. 

1709. 
1 7 10. 

1711. 

1712. 

'713- 
1714. 

1715- 
1716. 

1717. 

■ 718, 
1719. 



May, October— Captain Moses Mansfield, Lieutenant 
Abram Dickerman. 

May, October— Captain Moses Mansfield, Lieutenant 
Aliram Dickerman. 

Government of Sir Edmund Andross. 

October— Captain Moses Mansfield, Lieutenant Abram 
Dickerman. 

May - Captain Moses Mansfield, Lieutenant Abram 
Dickerman; October — Captain Moses Mansfield, 
Captain John Miles. 

May— Captain Moses Mansfield, Captain John Miles: 
October — Captain Moses Mansfield, Lieutenant 
Abram Dickerman. 

May — , Lieutenant Abram Dicker- 
man; October — Lieutenant Abram Dickerman, Mr. 
John Ailing. 

May, October— Lieutenant Abram Dickerman; Mr. 
John Ailing. 

May, October— Lieutenant Abram Dickerman, Mr. 
John Ailing. 

May, October — Lieutenant Abram Dickerman, Mr. 
John Ailing. 

May —Lieutenant Abram Dickerman, Sergeant James 
Ileaton; October— Sergeant James Heaton, Mr. 
John Ailing. 

May— Mr. Jeremy Osborne, Mr. John Ailing; Octo- 
ber Mr. James Heaton, Mr. Samuel Hemingway. 

May — Mr. John Ailing, Mr. Jeremiah Osborne; Octo- 
ber — Mr. Jeremiah Osborne, Mr. John Ailing. 

May, October — Mr. John Ailing, Mr. Abraham 
Bradley. 

May— Mr. John Ailing, Deacon Abraham Bradley; 
October— Mr. John Ailing, Deacon Abraham 
Bradley. 

May— Mr. Jeremiah Osborne, Lieutenant Thomas 
Talmadge; October— Mr. Jeremiah Osborne, Mr. 
John Ailing. 

May — Mr. Jeremiah Osborne, Mr. John Ailing; Octo- 
ber — Mr. John Ailing, Lieutenant Thomas Tal- 
madge. 

May, October— Mr. John Ailing, Lieutenant Thomas 
Talmadge. 

May— Mr. Jeremiah Osborne, Mr. Joseph Moss; Octo- 
ber — Mr. Abraham Bradley, Ensign John Bassett. 
-May, October— Mr. Jeremiah Osborne, Mr. Joseph 
Moss, Jr. 

May— Mr. Jeremiah Osborne, Mr. Joseph Moss, Jr.; 
October— Lieutenant Thomas Talmadge, Deacon 
Abraham Bradley. 

May— Mr. William Thomson, Deacon Abr.aham Brad- 
ley; Octolier— Lieutenant Samuel Smith, Deacon 
Abraham Bradley. 

May— Lieutenant Samuel Smith, Deacon Abraham 
Bradley; October— Captain Nathan Andrews, 
Deacon Abraham Bradley. 

May— Mr. Jeremiah ( »sl)orne, Mr. Abraham Bradley; 
October— Mr. John Todd, Ensign John Bassett. 

May-Mr. Abraham Bradley, Lieutenant Samuel 
Smith; October— Captain John Bassett, Mr. Samuel 
Bishop. 

May, October— Mr. Samuel Bishop, Mr. Nathaniel 
Yale. 

May— Mr. Samuel Bishop, Mr. Nathaniel Yale; Octo- 
ber— Lieutenant Samuel Smith, Mr. Samuel Cooke. 

May — Lieutenant Samuel Smith, Mr. Samuel Cooke; 
October— Mr. Nathaniel Yale, Mr. Samuel Cooke. 

May— Mr. Samuel Bishop, Mr. Samuel Cooke; Octo. 
bcr— Mr. Nathaniel Yale, Mr. Samuel Cooke. 

May— Mr. Samuel Bishop, Mr. Samuel Cooke; Octo- 
ber—Mr. Samuel Bishop, Mr. Nathaniel Yale. 

May— Captain Joseph Whiting, Captain Samuel 
Thomson; October— Mr. Nathaniel Yale, Captam 
Samuel Thomson. 

May, October— Mr. Nathaniel Yale, Captain Samuel 
Thomson. 
. May, October— Ensign Isaac Dickerman, Sergeant 

Theophilus Munson. 
, May— Ensign Isaac Dickerman, Sergeant Theophilus 
Munson ; Octolier-Ensign Isaac Dickerman, Ser- 
geant John Gilbert. 



1720. May — Ensign Isaac Dickerm,in, Sergeant Theophilus 

Munson; October — Ensign Isaac Dickerman, Ser- 
geant John Gilbert. 

1721. May, October — Ensign Isaac Dickerman, Sergeant 

John Gilbert. 

1722. May— Captain Joseph Whiting, Ensign Isaac Dicker- 

man ; October— Mr. Nathaniel Y'ale, Ensign Isaac 
Dickerman. 

1723. May, October — Mr. Nathaniel Yale, Captain Isaac 

Dickerman. 

1724. May— Captain Joseph Whiting, Captain John Mun- 

son; t)ctober— Captain Isaac Dickerman, Captain 
John Munson. 
1725 May, October— Captain Isaac Dickerman, Captain 
John Munson. 

1726. May, October— Captain Isaac Dickerman, Captain 

John Munson. 

1727. May, October— Captain John Munson, Captain Isaac 

Dickerman. 

1725. May, October— Captain Isaac Dickerman, Captain 

John Munson. 

1729. May, Octoljer— Captain John Munson, Captain Isaac 

Dickerman. 

1730. May, October — Captain Isaac Dickerman, Captain 

Jonathan Ailing. 

1731. May, (October- Captain Isaac Dickerman, Captain 

Jonathan Ailing. 

1732. May— Captain Isaac Dickerm.an, Captain Jonathan 

Ailing; October— Mr. Isaac Dickerman, Mr. Isaac 
Johnson. 

1733. May, October— Mr. Isaac Dickerman, Mr. Jonathan 

Ailing. 

1734. May, October — Mr. Isaac Dickerman, Mr. Jonathan 

Ailing. 

1735. May, October— Mr. Isaac Dickerman, Mr. Jonathan 

Ailing. 

1736. May— Mr. Isaac Dickerman, Mr. Jonathan Ailing; 

October-Mr. Jonathan Ailing, Mr. Joseph Mix. 

1737. May— Captain Jonathan Ailing, Mr. Joseph Mi.x; Oc- 

tober-Captain Isaac Dickerman, Captain Jonathan 
Ailing. 

1738. May, ( Ictober— Captain Isaac Dickerman, Captain 

Jonathan Ailing. 

1739. ^''^X' October— Captain Isaac Dickerman, Mr. John 

Hitchcock. 

1740. May, October— Captain Isaac Dickerman, Mr. John 

Hitchcock. 

1741. May— Captain Isaac Dickerman, Mr. John Hitch- 

cock ; ( )ctober— Mr. John Hitchcock, Captain Jon- 
athan Ailing. 

1742. May, October— Captain Jonathan Ailing, Mr. John 

Hitchcock. 

1743. May -Captain Jonathan Ailing, Mr. John Hitchcock; 

Octolier— Mr. John Hitchcock, Captain Jonathan 
Ailing. 

1744. May— Mr. John Hitchcock, Captain Jonathan Ailing; 

October— Captain John Hubbard, Mr. John Hitch- 
cock. 

1745. May, C)ctober— Captain John Hubbard, Mr. John 

Hitchcock. 

1746. May, October— Mr. John Hitchcock, Captain Samuel 

Sherman. 

1747. May— Mr. John Hitchcock, Captain Samuel Sherman; 

Octol)er -Captain Isaac Dickerman, Captain Sam- 
uel Sherman. 

1748. May, October- Captain Isaac Dickerman, Captam 

Samuel Sherman. 

1749. May, October— Captain Isaac Dickerman, Captain 

Samuel Sherman. 

1750. May— Captain Isaac Dickerman, Captain Samuel 

Sherman; October— Captain John Hubbard, Cap- 
tain Isaac Dickerman. 

1751. May— Captain Isaac Dickerman, Captain Samuel 

Sherman; Octotier- Captain John Hubbard, Mr. 
Chauncey Whittlesey. 

1752. May, < 'ctober— Captain Isaac Dickerman, Captain 

John Hubbard. 

1753. May — Maior John Hubbard, Captain Isaac Dicker- 

man; October— Major John Hubbard, Mr. Chaun- 
cey Whittlesey. 



440 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



1754. May— Major John Hubbard, Mr. Samuel Cooke; Oc- 

tober— Major John Hubbard, Mr. Chauncey Whit- 
tlesey. 

1755. May— Captain Samuel Sherman, Mr. Samuel Cook; 

( )ctobcr— Major John Hubbard, Mr. Chauncey 
Whittlesey. 

1756. May, I )ctotx:r— Captain Isaac Dickerman, Mr. Sam- 

uel Sherman. 

1757. May -Captain Isaac Dickerman, Colonel David 

Wooster; ( >ctober— Captain Isaac Dickerman, Mr. 

John Hubbard. 
175S. May, October— Colonel John Hubbard, Mr. John 

Whiting. 
1759. May— Mr. John Whiting, Mr. Daniel Lyman; ( )cto- 

l)cr— Colonel John Hubbard, Mr. John Whiting. 
17(X3. May— Mr. Daniel Lyman, Mr. Samuel Bishop; Hcto- 

ber— Colonel John Hubbard, Mr. John Whiling. 

1761. May, < )ctobcr— Mr. Daniel Lyman, Mr. Samuel 

Bishop. 

1762. May, October — Mr. Daniel Lyman, Mr. Samuel 

Bishop. 

1763. May, October — Mr. Daniel Lyman, Mr. Samuel 

Bishop. 

1764. May— Colonel John Hubbard, Mr. Enos Ailing; Oc- 

tober— Mr. Roger Sherman, Mr. Samuel Bishop. 

1765. May— Mr. Roger Sherman, Mr. Samuel Bishop, Jr.; 

October— Mr. Roger Sherman, Mr. Samuel Bish- 
op. 

1766. May— Roger Sherman, Esq., Mr. Samuel Bishop; 

( Ictober— Mr. Daniel Lyman, Mr. Samuel Bishop. 

1767. May, October— Mr. Daniel Lyman, Mr. Samuel 

Bishop. 

1768. May, October— Mr. Samuel Bishop, Jr., Mr. Joshua 

Chandler. 

1769. May, October— Colonel Nathan Whiting, Mr. Joshua 

Chandler. 

1770. May, October— Colonel Nathan Whiting, Mr. Joshua 

Chandler. 

1 77 1. May, Octolier— Mr. Joshua Chandler, Mr. James A. 

Hillhouse. 

1772. May, October — Mr. James A. Hillhouse, Mr. Samuel 

Bishop. 

1773. May— Mr. James A. Hillhouse, Mr. Samuel Bishop; 

I Ictober- .Mr. Samuel Bishop, Mr.Thomas Howell . 

1774. May— Mr. Samuel Bishop, Mr. Thomas Darling; 

Ocloljer— Mr. Samuel l5ishop, Mr. Joshua Chan- 
dler. 

1775. May, October — Mr. Samuel Bishop, Captain Jonathan 

Eitch. 

1776. May, October— Mr. Samuel Bishop, Jr., Colonel Jon- 

athan Eitch. 

1777. May, October— Mr. Samuel Bishop, Jr., Mr. Pierpont 

Edwards. 

1778. .May, October— Mr. Samuel Bishop, Mr. Eneas Mun- 

son. 

1779. May, Octolxir— Mr. Samuel Bishop, Mr. Eneas Mun- 

son. 

1780. May— Mr. Samuel Bishop, Captain James Hillhouse; 

October— Captain James Hillhouse, Dr. Eneas 
Munson. 

1781. May, October— Captain James Hillhouse, Dr. Eneas 

Munson. 

1782. May, October— Captain Henry Daggett, Captain Jesse 

Eord. 

1783. May— Captain Henry Daggett, Captain James Hill- 

house; October — Captain Henry Daggett, Captain 
Jesse Eord. 

1784. May, (JctotH;r — Mr. Pierpont Edwards, Captain James 

Hillhouse. 

1785. May— Mr. Simeon Bristol, Mr. Pierpont Edwards; 

October — Mr. James Hillhouse, Mr. Jonathan In- 
gersoll. 

1786. May— Mr. Simeon Bristol, Mr. Timothy Jones; Oc- 

tober — Mr. Timothy Jones, Mr. Samuel Bishop. 

1787. May — Captain Silas Kimlierley, Mr. Charles Chaun- 

cey; October -Mr. Pierpont Edwards, Mr. Charles 
Chauncey. 

1788. May— Mr. Pierpont Edwards, Mr. Elias Shipman; 

October — Mr. Jeremiah Atwater, Mr. Elias Ship- 



17S9. 
1790. 
179!. 
1792. 

'793- 
1794. 

1795- 
1796. 

1797- 
1798. 

1799. 
1800. 
1801. 
1802. 
1803. 
1804. 

1805. 

1806. 

1S07. 

1808. 
1809. 

1810. 

iSii. 
1812. 

1813. 

1814. 
1815. 
1816. 

1817. 

1818. 
1819. 
1820. 
1821. 
1S22. 
1823. 
1824. 
1825. 
1826. 
1827. 
1828. 
1829. 
1830. 
1831. 
1S32. 

'833- 
1834. 

>S35- 
18^6. 

>837- 



May— Mr. Pierpont Edwards, Mr. Charles Chauncey; 
October— Mr. Pierpont Edwards, Mr. Jonathan 
IngersoU. 

May— Mr. Pierpont Edwards, Mr. John Heyliger; 
October — Mr. Pierpont Edwards, Mr. Jonathan 
IngersoU. 

May— Mr. Jonathan IngersoU, Mr. David Austin; 
October-^Mr. Jonathan IngersoU, Mr. David Dag- 
gett. 

May— Mr. David Daggett, Mr. William Hillhouse, 
Jr.; October— Mr. David Daggett, Mr. David 
Austin. 

May, October— Mr. David Daggett, Mr. William 
Hillhouse. 

May— Mr. David Daggett, Mr. Isaac Beers; October 
— Mr. David Daggett, Mr. Abel Burritt. 

May, October— Mr. David Daggett, Mr. Elizur Good- 
rich. 

May, October— Mr. David Daggett, Mr. Elizur Good- 
rich. 

May— Mr. David Daggett, Mr. Elizur Goodrich; Oc- 
tober — Mr. Elizur Goodrich, Mr. Silas Merriman. 

May — Mr. Thomas Painter, Mr. Elizur Goodrich; 
October— Mr. Elizur Goodrich, Mr. Stephen Ai- 
ling. 

May — Mr. Elizur Goodrich, Mr. Isaac Beers; Octo- 
ber — Mr. Elizur Goodrich, Mr. Isaac Mills. 

May, October— Mr. Thomas Painter, Mr. Noah Web- 
ster, Jr. 

May — Mr. Isaac Beers, Mr. Jeremiah Atwater; Octo- 
ber — Mr. Elizur Goodrich, Mr. Tliomas Painter. 

May, October— Mr. Elizur Goodrich, Mr. Noah Web 
ster. 

May— Mr. Elizur Goodrich, Noah Webster; October- 
Mr. Thomas Painter, Mr. Jeremiah Townsend, Jr. 

May— Mr. Jeremiah Townsend, Mr Noah Webster; 
October— Mr. David Daggett, Mr. Jeremiah Towns- 
end. 

May — Mr. David Daggett, Mr. Jeremiah Townsend; 
October— Mr. David Daggett, Mr. Noah Webster. 

May, October — Noah Webster, Jr., Henry Daggett, 
Jr. 

May— Nathan Smith, Thaddeus Beecher; October- 
Nathan Smith. Noah Webster. 

May, OctoV)er — Thaddeus Beecher, Nathan Smith. 

May — Nathan Smith, Gideon Kimberley; October — 
Gideon Kimberley, Charles Denison. 

May— Charles Denison, Gideon Kimljerley; Octo- 
ber — Charles Denison, Roger Sherman. 

May, October — Charles Denison, Roger Sherman. 

May — Charles Denison, Thomas Painter; Octolier — 
Charles Denison, James Merriman. 

May — Charles Denison, James Merriman; October — 
Charles Denison, Thomas Painter. 

May, October — Charles Denison, Seth P. Staples. 

May, October— Charles Denison, Seth P. Staples. 

May— Charles Denison, William Bristol; October- - 
Charles Denison, Seth P. Staples. 

May — Charles Denison, Eleazar Eoster; October — 
William Bristol, Thomas Ward. 

May, October — Thomas Ward, Henry W. Edwards. 

Ralph I. IngersoU, Charles Bostwick. 

Charles Denison, Ralph I. IngersoU. 

Raljih I. IngersoU, William .Mix. 

Ralph I. IngersoU, William Mix. 

Ralph I. IngersoU, Cornelius Tuthill. 

Ralph I. IngersoU, Cornelius Tuthill. 

Ralph I. IngersoU, Dennis Kimberly. 

Dennis Kimberly, Henry Denison. 

Dennis Kimberly, Charles A. IngersoU. 

Dennis Kimberly, Joseph N. Clark. 

Dennis Kimberly. Philip S. Galpin. 

Henry W. Edwards, Joseph N. Clark. 

William Mix, Samuel Wadsworth. 

Dennis Kimberly, Silas Mix. 

Joseph N. Clark, Silas Mix. 

Is.aac II. Townsend, Philip S. Galpin. 

Dennis Kimberly, Philip .S. (lalpin. 

William W. Boardman, Levi Gilbert, 2d. 

William VV. Boardman, James Donaghe. 



MUNICIPAL HISTORY. 



441 



1838. William \V. Boardman, James Donaghe. 

1839. William W. Boardman, Leverett Candee. 

1840. Roger S. Baldwin, John B. Robertson. 

1841. Roger S. Baldwin, fames F. Babcock. 

1542. Thomas G. Woodward, Henry Peck. 

1543. Philii) S. Galpin, Eleazar K. Foster. 
1844. Eleazar K. Foster, Marcus Merriman, Jr. 
1S45. William W. Boardman, Levi Gilbert, 2d. 
1846. William W. Boardman, William H. Russell. 

1547. William H. Russell, Henry E. Peck. 

1548. Henry E. Peck, Philos Blake. 

1549. William W. Boardman, Aaron N. Skinner. 

1850, yV-^-y E. Peck, Henry Dutton. 

1851. Will m W. lioardman, Chauncey Jerome, Jr. 

1552. Stcpiien 1>. Pardee, Timothy Lester. 

1553. Charles B. Lines, Charles Ives. 

1854. Henry E. Peck, John Woodruff, 2d. 

1855. Allred Blackman, James E. English. 

1556. Charles R. Ingersoll, Charles L. English. 

1557. Charles R. Ingersoll, Ira Merwin. 
185S. Charles R. Ingersoll, Hiram Camp. 
1859. Harnianus M. Welch, lohn W. Mansfield. 
1S60. Harmanus M. Welch, John W. Mansfield. 

1861. Tames Gallai^her, Charles Atwaler, Jr. 

1862. Cornelius S.^Bushnell, David J. Peck. 

1863. James Gallagher, Thomas H. Bond. 

1864. John S. Farren, George H. Watrous. 
1S65. Eleazar K. Foster, Henry B. Harrison. 

1866. Charles R. Ingersoll, Tilton E. Doolittle. 

1867. Tilton E. Doolittle, .Vlfred W. Phelps. 
1S68. Henry C. Lewis, Alfred W. Pheljjs. 

1869. Samuel L. Bronson, Michael Williams. 

1870. Tilton E. Doolittle, Luzon B. Morris. 

1871. Charles R. Ingersoll, Henry Stoddard. 
1S72. James E. English, James F. Babcock. 

1873. James F. Babcock, Henry B. Harrison. 

1874. Tilton E. Doolittle, William C. Robinson. 

1875. Hobart B. Bigelow, Thomas D. Kennedy. 

1876. Samuel L. Bronson, Luzon B. Morris. 
1S77. Samuel L. Bronson. Thomas F. McGrail. 

1878. James Gallagher, William J. Mills. 

1879. Dexter R. Wright, John H. Leeds. 

1880. Luzon B. Morris, A. Heaton Robertson. 

1881. Luzon B. Morris, Cornelius T. DriscoU. 

1882. A. Heaton Roliertson, Timothy J. Fox. 
18S3. Alexander Troup, William H. Law. 

1884. Henry B. Harrison, William H. Law. 

1885. Alexander Troup, James P. Pigott. 

TOW.VSMEN OR SkLECTMEN OF THE TOWX OF NeW 

Haven. 

1651. November 17 — Francis Newman, John Cooper, Jar- 
vise Boykin, Mr. Atwater, William Fowler, Richard Miles, 
Henry Lindon, Thomas Kimberley, Mathew Camfield. 
Chosen to serve until May, 1652. 

1652. May 10— Francis Newman, John Cooper, Jarvise 
Boykin, Mr. Atwater, William Fowler, Richard Miles, Henry 
Lindon, Thomas Kimberley, Samuel Whitehead. William 
Russell "for the Bankside against the harbor and the 
creek as farr as Robert Piggs." 

1653. May 23 — Mr. Gibbard,John Cooper, Samuel White- 
head, William Russell, William Davis, John Punderson, 
James Bishop. 

1654. May 22— William Davis, John Punderson, James 
Bishop, John Gibbs, David .\twater, John Harriman, 
William Tompsoii. June 14 — John Cooper was chosen in 
the place of John Harriman, "' VVho was too busy."' 

1655. May 21 — William Davis, John Cooper, Henry Lin- 
don, John Gilibs, William Tompson, Lieutenant John Nash, 
William Peck. " It is ordered that hereafter they be chosen 
by Papers as other Officers are, without respect to them 
that have served before." 

1656. May 19— Henry Lindon. William Davis, John 
Gibbs, Samuel Whitehead.Thomas Munson, William Bradley. 
Jarvise Boykin. 

1657. May 18— Lieutenant Nash, John Gibbs, Jarvise Boy- 
kin, Thomas Munson, William Bradley, Samuel Whitehead, 
Roger Allen. 

165S. May 17 — ^John Gibbs, Henry Lindon, John Cooper, 



Samuel Whitehead, Jarvise Boykin, Thomas Munson, Will- 
iam Bradley. 

1659. May 16 — Roger Allen, Samuel Whitehead, Nicholas 
Elsy, James Bishop, John Cooper, William Davis, Abraham 
Dowlittle. "John Harriman was next in choice in case the 
Providence of God do hinder any of the others." 

1660. -Vpril 23 — William Judson, Roger Allen, Abraham 
Dowlittle, Henry Glover, John Harriman, John Cooper, 
Nicholas Elsy . " Ordered that Townsmen shall be chosen 
before the latter end of April yearly, and shall keep account 
of all Rates, Fines, Rents and other incomes of the Town 
and charge the Treasurer therewith; and the Townsmen 
and the Court shall be Auditors." 

1661. April 29 — Roger Allen, John Harriman, John 
Cooper, Sergeant Andrews, Henry Glover, Nicholas Elsy, 
William Paine. 

1662. April 28 — William Andrews, Thomas Munson, 
Roger Ailing, John Harriman, Henry Glover, William 
Bradley, William Paine. 

1663. April 27 — It was voted to have but five Townsmen. 
The first ballot showed a tie between Roger Allen and 
Thomas Morris. Upon the second ballot the tellers were 
unable to agree. Thereupon Goodman Allen's motion that 
both should serve prevailed, and the number of Townsmen 
was made six instead of five. The other four were Thomas 
Munson, Thomas Kimberley, Sr., John Harriman, William 
Russell. 

1664. April 28^Samuel W'hitehead, Thomas Kimberley, 
Sr., John Harriman, William Russell, Roger Allen, Thomas 
Morris. 

1665. May I — Roger Ailing, Henry Rutherford, John 
Cooper, John Gibbs, John Winston, John Harriman. 
May 22 — On account of union with Connecticut, the aforesaid 
SIX Townsmen were confirmed in office. July 25th they were 
re-elected, and Mr. Benjamin Ling was added. 

1666. April 30— Henry Rutherford, Benjamin Ling,Roger 
Ailing, John Harriman, John Gibbs, William Andrews, John 
Punderson. 

1667. April 29— Samuel Whitehead, Benjamin Ling, 
Roger Ailing, John Harriman, Abraham Dowlittle, Jeremiah 
Osborne. 

1668. April 29 — Benjamin Ling, Roger Ailing, Lieutenant 
Thomas Munson, William Bradley, Samuel Whitehead, Abra- 
ham Dowlittle, Jeremiah Osborne. 

l66g. April 26~John Cooper, Sr., John Harriman, Sr., 
William Bradley, Abraham Dowlittle, Jeremiah Osborne, 
John Winston, Abraham Dickerman. 

1670. May 2 — John Cooper, Sr., John Harriman, Sr., 
Henry Glover, James Heaton, Jeremiah Osborne, John 
Winston, Abraham Dickerman. 

1671. April 25 — Captain John Nash, John Cooper, Sr., 
John Winston, Jeremiah Osborne, Abraham Dickerman, 
James Heaton, Moses Mansfield. 

1672. April 30— Captain John Nash, John Cooper, Sr., 
John Winston, Jeremiah Osborne, Abraham Dickerman, 
Samuel Whitehead, Moses Mansfield. 

1673. April 29— Captain John Nash, John Cooper, Sr., 
John Winston, Jeremiah Osborne, Abraham Dickerman, 
Samuel Whitehead, William Bradley. 

1674. April 28— Moses Mansfield, John Cooper, Sr., John 
Winston, Jeremiah Osborne, Abraham Dickerman, Samuel 
Whitehead, William Bradley. 

1675. April 27— John Cooper, William Bradley, Jeremiah 
Osborne, John Winston, Abraham Dickerman, Henry 
Glover, Thomas Munson. 

1676. April 25 —John Cooper, William Bradley, Moses 
Mansfield, John Winston, Abraham Dickerman, Henry 
Glover, Thomas Munson. 

1677. April 24 — Mr. William Jones, Captain Thomas 
Munson, Lieutenant Mansfield, John Cooper, Sr., Henry 
Glover, William Bradley, Abraham Dickerman. 

1678. April 30— John Nash, Captain Thomas Munson, 
Lieutenant Mansfield, John Cooper, Sr., Henry Glover, 
William Bradley, Abraham Dickerman. 

1679. April 29— John Harriman, John Winston, John 
Chidsey, John Cooper, Sr., Henry Glover, William Bradley, 
Abraham Dickerman. 

1680. April 27— Thomas Trowbridge, John Winston, John 
Chidsey, John Cooper, Sr., Henry Glover, William Bradley, 
Abraham Dickerman. 



442 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



1681. April 26— Henry Glover, John Cooper, Sr., John 
Winston, Thomas Trowbridge, John Chidsey,Thomas Mun- 
son, Moses Mansfield. 

1682. April 25 — Abraham Dickerman, John Cooper, Sr., 
John Winston, Thomas Trowbridge, John Chidsey,Thomas 
Munson, Moses Mansfield. 

1653. April 24— .Vbraham Dickerman, John Cooper, Sr., 
John Winston, Thomas Trowbridge, John 'Chidsey, Thomas 
Munson, Moses Mansfield. 

1654. April 29 — Thomas Trowbridge, Moses Mansfield, 
Abraham Dickerman, John Winston, John Cooper, Sr., 
John Ailing, Jr., Thomas Kimberly. 

1685. April 28 — Thomas Trowbridge, Moses Mansfield, 
Abraham Dickerman, John Winston, John Cooper, Sr., 
John Ailing, Jr., Thomas Kimberly. 

1686. April 27--Thoraas Trowbridge, Moses Mansfield, 
Abraham Dickerman, John Winston, John Cooper, Sr., 
John Ailing, Jr., Thomas Kimberly. 

1687. April 26— Moses Mansfield, Abraham Dickerman, 
Thomas Trowbridge, Sergeant John Winston, Sergeant John 
Allen, Thomas Kimberly, John Punderson. 

1688. May 22— Abraham Dickerman, John Winston, John 
Allen, John Punderson, James Heaton, Ensign Daniel Sher- 
man. John Thompson, Sr., Joseph Moss. 

1689. May 3— Moses Mansfield, Abraham Dickerman, 
Daniel Sherman, John Allen, James Heaton, John Winston, 
Joseph Moss. 

1690. April 29— Moses Mansfield, Abraham Dickerman, 
Daniel Sherman, John Allen, James Heaton, Captain John 
Miles, Joseph Moss. 

l6gi. April 28— Moses Mansfield, Abraham Dickerman, 
Daniel Sherman, John Allen, Thomas Kimberly, Captain 
John Miles, Joseph Moss. 

1692. April — Moses Mansfield, Abraham Dickerman, 
Daniel Sherman, John Allen, Thomas Kimberly, Captain 
John Miles, Joseph Moss. 

1693. April — John Ball, Abraham Dickerman, Daniel 
Sherman, John Allen, Thomas Kimberly, Thomas Tuttle, 
Joseph Moss. 

1694. April 24— John Ball, Abraham Dickerman, Daniel 
Sherman, Abraham Bradley, Thomas Kimberly, Thomas 
Tuttle, Joseph Moss. 

1695. April 29 — Lieutenant Daniel Sherman, Sergeant 
John Ball, Sergeant John Cooper, Sergeant Thomas Tal- 
mailge. Sergeant James Heaton, Abraham Bradley, Ensign 
John Sacket. 

1696. April 28 — Lieutenant Daniel Sherman, Sergeant 
John Ball, Sergeant John Cooper, Sergeant Thomas Tal- 
madge, Sergeant James Heaton, John Morris, Ensign John 
Sacket. 

1697. April 27 — Lieutenant Daniel Sherman, .Sergeant 
John Ball, .Sergeant John Cooper, Sergeant Thomas Tal- 
madge, Sergeant James Heaton, John Morris, Ensign John 
Sacket. 

1(198. April 26 — Abraham Dickerman, Sergeant John 
Ball, Sergeant John Cooper, Sergeant Thomas Talmadge, 
John Ailing, John Morris, Ensign John Sacket. 

1699. March 20— Abraham Dickerman, Ensign John 
Sacket, Thomas Talmadge, James Heaton, John Ball, John 
Morris, Eliazer Brown. 

1700. March 11 — Lieutenant John Sacket, Lieutenant 
Thomas Talmadge, Sergeant John Ball, Sergeant Eliazer 
Browne, Mr. Samuel Bishop, Samuel Smith, Nathaniel 
Bradley. 

1701. March 10— Captain Nathan Andrews, Sergeant Eli- 
azer Browne, Mr. Samuel Bishop, Mr. Samuel Smith, Mr. 
Nathaniel Bradley, Mr. William Thomson, Mr. William 
Johnson, Sr. 

1702. March 16 — Captain Nathan Andrews, Lieutenant 
Th<iinas Talmadge, Sergeant John Cooper, Thomas Kim- 
berly, Mr. John Todd, Mr. William Thomson, Mr. Jonathan 
Atwater. December 21 — Captain Nathan Andrews, Lieuten- 
ant Thomas Talmadge, .Sergeant [ohn Cooper. Mr. |ohn 
Pain, Mr. John Todd, Mr. William Thomson, Mr. Jona- 
than Atwater. 

1703. December 20 -Captain Nathan Andrews, Lieuten- 
ant Thom.as T.almadgc, Ensign John Bassett, Mr. William 
Thomson, Mr. John Todd, Mr. Jonathan Atwater, Mr. John 
Mix, Sr. 

1704. December l8-Lieutenant Thomas Talmadge, Lieu- 
tcn.-int John Munson, Ensign John Bassett, Lieutenant Jo- 



seph Sacket, Mr. John Todd, Mr. Samuel Bishop, Sergeant 
John Thomson. 

1 705. December 24— Lieutenant Thomas Talmadge, Lieu- 
tenant John Munson, Lieutenant Joseph Sacket, Mr. Samuel 
Bishop, Sergeant John Thomson, Sergeant William Will, 
mott, Caleb Mix. 

1706. December 23 — Lieutenant Thomas Talmadge, Mr, 
Samuel Bishop, Sergeant John Thomson, Lieutenant Sam. 
uel Smith, Mr. John Todd, Mr. Nathaniel Yale, Samuel 
Thomson. 

1707. December 29 — Lieutenant Thomas Talmadge, Lieu. 
tenant Samuel Smith, Mr. Samuel Bishop, Mr. John Todd, 
Sergeant John Thomson, Mr. Nathaniel Vale, Mr. Samuel 
Thomson. 

1708. December 20— Mr. John Morris, Mr. Samuel Bish- 
op, Ensign John Bassett, Sergeant John Thomson, Mr. Sam- 
uel Thomson, Mr. John Gilbert, Mr. John Punderson. 

1709. December 19 -Lieutenant John Thomson, Mr. Sam- 
uel Bishop, Ensign John Bassett, Mr. John Morris, Mr. Sam- 
uel Thomson, Mr. John Gilbert, Mr. John Punderson. 

1710. December 18— Mr. Samuel Bishop, Lieutenant Sam. 
uel Thomson, Lieutenant Richard Miles, Sergeant John 
Gilbert, Nathaniel Heaton, John Punderson, Sergeant Abra- 
ham Dickerman. 

171 1. December 17 — Captain John Munson, Lieutenant 
Samuel Thomson, Ensign Eleazar Holt, Sergeant John Gil- 
bert, Nathaniel Bradley, Nathaniel Heaton, John Punderson. 

1712. December 15 — Mr. Samuel Bishop, Mr. Nathaniel 
Heaton, Sergeant John Gilbert, Sergeant Theophilus Mun- 
son, Sergeant Isaac Dickerman, Mr. Samuel Ml\, Mr. John 
Punderson. 

1713. December 21 — Mr. Samuel Bishop, Mr. Nathaniel 
Heaton, Sergeant John Gilbert, Sergeant Theophilus Mun- 
son, Sergeant Isaac Dickerman, Mr. John Mix, Lieutenant 
William Johnson. 

1714. December 13 — Ensign Isaac Dickerman, Sergeant 
Theophilus Munson, Nathaniel Heaton, Daniel -Sherman, 
Jr., John Mix, Samuel Ives, John Punderson, Jr. 

1715. December 12— Sergeant Abraham Dickerman, Ser- 
geant Theophilus Munson, Ensign Isaac Dickerman, John 
Punderson, Thomas Trowbridge, Samuel Ives, Sergeant 
Samuel Peck. 

1716. December — Sergeant Abraham Dickerman, Ser- 
geant Theophilus Munson, Ensign Isaac Dickerman, John 
Bradly, Thomas Trowbridge, Samuel Ives, Sergeant Sam- 
uel Peck. 

1717. December 18— Theophilus Munson, Abraham Dick- 
erman, Isaac Dickerman, John Bradly, Samuel Candee, Jo- 
seph Ives, Sergeant Samuel Peck. 

1718. December 22 —Captain Joseph Ives, Abraham Dick- 
erman, Isaac Dickerman, John Bradly, Samuel Candee, Jo- 
seph Mix, Nathaniel Hitchcock. 

1719. December 21— Captain Joseph Ives, Isaac Dicker- 
man, John Gilbert, Joseph Mix, Nathaniel Hitchcock, John 
Sherman, Caleb Hotchkis. 

1720. December Ig— Mr. Moses Mansfield, Joseph Mix, 
Caleb Hotchkis, Samuel Hotchkis, of East Haven, John 
Hitchcock, Joseph Bradly, Thomas Stevens. 

1721. December 1 1 — Mr. Moses Mansfield, Mr. Jonathan 
Mansfield, Sergeant Caleb Hotchkis, John Johnson, Ensign 
Thomas Painter, Samuel Todd, Samuel Goodsell. 

1722. December 17 — Captain Isaac Dickerman, Captain 
.Samuel Smith, Mr. Moses Mansfield, Mr. Jonathan Mans- 
field, Mr. Joseph Mix, Sergeant Joseph Turner, William 
Bradly. 

1723. December 16— Captain Is,aac Dickerman, Mr. Jon- 
athan .Mansfield, Captain Samuel Smith, Sergeant Jonathan 
Ailing, Sergeant Moses Blacksley, Thomas Allcock, James 
Tallmadge. 

1724. December 21 — Captain Isaac Dickerman, Mr. Jon. 
athan Mansfield, Captain Samuel Smith, Captain Thomas 
Smith, Ensign .Samuel Ives, James Peck, James Tallmadge. 

1725. December 20 — Captain Isaac Dickerman, .Mi. Jon. 
athan Mansfield, Capt.iin Samuel Smith. Sergeant John 
Hitchcock, Thomas Punderson, Joseph Holt, Samuel Brad- 
ley. 

1726. December 19— Ca|)tain Samuel Smith, Ensign The- 
ophilus Munson, Thomas Punderson, Thomas Ives, Samuel 
Goodsell, James Tallmadge, John Ball, Jr. 

1727. December 11— Captain Samuel Smith, Ensign The- 



MUNICIPAL HISTORT. 



443 



I 



ophilus Munson, Sergeant Gideon Andrews, James Tall- 
madtje. Sergeant John Ball, Jr., Joseph Cooper, Joseph 
Tuttle, Jr. 

1728. December 9 — Mr. John Prout, Captain Jonathan 
Alhng, James Tallmadge, Israel Bunnill, John Ball, Jr., 
John Hnmbcrston, Joseph Tuttle, Jr. 

1729. December S— Mr. Nathaniel Bradley, Captain Jon- 
athan Ailing, Captain Joseph Ives, Ensign Jonathan Mans- 
field, Mr. Samuel Hotchkiss, Lieutenant Abraham Dicker- 
man, Sergeant Israel Bunnell. 

1730. l3eceml>er 14 — Captain Isaac Dickerman, Lieuten- 
ant loseph Mix, Lieutenant Stephen Trowbridge, Caleb 
Mix, Israel Bunnell, John Denison, David Yale. 

1731. December 13— Captain Isaac Dickerman, Stephen 
Mimson, Robert Tallmadge, Thomas Punderson, Thomas 
Allcock, Lieutenant John Granniss, Ebenezer Smith. 

1732. December 1 1— Captain Isaac Dickerman, Lieuten- 
ant Samuel Smith, Lieutenant John Granniss, Mr. John 
Hitchcock, Mr. Stephen Howell, Mr. Ebenezer Smith, Mr. 
Robert Tallmadge. 

1733. December 10 — Mr. John Hitchcock, Mr. Stephen 
Howell, Captain John Granniss, Ensign Gideon Andrews, 
Ensign Joseph Smith, Mr. Stephen Slunson, Mr. .Samuel 
Goodsell. 

1734. December 9 —Captain John Granniss, Lieutenant 
Joseph Mix, Ensign Gideon Andrews, Mr. John Hitchcock, 
Ensign Joseph Smith, Mr. Stephen Howell, Samuel Bradley, 
of East Haven. 

1735. December 15 — Lieutenant Joseph Mix, Ensign 
Gideon Andrews, Mr. John Hitchcock, Sergeant Daniel 
Perkins, Ebenezer Smith, Isaiah Tuttle, Abraham Chidsey. 

1736. December 13 — Captain James Tallmadge, Lieuten- 
ant Daniel Perkins, Ensign Jonathan Mansfield, Mr. Thomas 
Allcock, Captain John Munson, Isaiah Tuttle, Deliverance 
Painter. 

1737. December 12 — Captain John Mmison, Lieutenant 
Joseph Mix, Lieutenant Israel Bunnell, Mr. Thomas Punder- 
son, Mr. Thom.is Allcock, Mr. John Hitchcock, Mr. Samuel 
Barnes. 

1738. December 11 — Captain James Tallmadge, Lieuten- 
ant Joseph Mix, Lieutenant Israel Bunnell, Ensign Jonathan 
Mansfield, Mr. Thomas Allcock, Mr. John Hitchcock, Mr. 
Samuel Barnes. 

1739. December 10 — Mr. James Pierpont, Captain James 
Tallmadge, Captain John Munson, Mr. John Hitchcock, 
Mr. Samuel Sherman, Lieutenant Samuel Sacket, Mr. Joseph 
Tuttle, Jr. 

1740. December 8 —Captain John Munson, Captain James 
Tallmadge, Lieutenant Joseph Mix, Mr. John Hitchcock, 
Mr. Samuel Sherman, Lieutenant Samuel Sacket, Mr. Joseph 
Tuttle, Jr. 

1741. December 14 — Captain John Munson, Captain 
Andrew Tuttle, Captain Samuel Sherman, Mr. John 
Hitchcock, Mr. Samuel Mix, Mr. Abraham Chidsey, Lieu- 
tenant Samuel Sacket. 

1742. December — Captain John Munson, Captain 
Andrew Tuttle, Captain Samuel Sherman, Mr. John Hitch- 
cock, Mr. Samuel Mix, Mr. Gideon Potter, Lieutenant 
Samuel Sacket. 

1743. December 12 — Mr. John Hitchcock, Captain 
Andrew Tuttle, Mr. Samuel Mix. Mr. Gideon Potter, Mr. 
Jonathan Mansfield, Mr. Joseph Pierpont, Captain Samuel 
Sherman. 

1744. December :o — Captain Andrew Tuttle, Captain 
Joseph Tuttle, Captain Samuel Sherman, Ensign Jonathan 
Mansfield, Mr. Samuel Mix, Mr. Joseph Pierpont, Sergeant 
James Peck. 

1745. December 9 — Mr. James Peck, Mr. Samuel MLx, 
Mr. Joseph Pierpont, Mr. Caleb Mix, Captain Beecher, 
Samuel 'Ihomson, Ensign Jonathan Mansfield. 

1746. December 8 — Mr. Jonathan Mansfield, Mr. Samuel 
Mix, Mr. Caleb Mix, Mr. Israel Munson, Mr. Samuel Sher- 
man, Mr. Joseph Tuttle, Jr., Mr. Isaiah Tuttle. 

1747. December 14— Mr. Samuel Mix, Mr. Caleb Mix, 
Lieutenant Israel Munson, Captain Joseph Trowbridge, 
Captain Daniel Ailing, Captain Joseph Tuttle, Jr., Mr. Isaiah 
Tuttle. 

1748. December 12 — Mr. Caleb Mix, Lieutenant Israel 
Munson, Mr. Caleb Hotchkiss, Lieutenant James Peck, Jr., 
Captain Daniel Ailing, Captain Joseph Tuttle, Lieutenant 
Theophilus Goodyear. 



1749. December II — Mr. Israel Munson, Mr. Caleb Mix, 
Mr. Caleb Hotchkiss, Mr. Joseph Peck, Jr., Mr. Theophilus 
Goodyear, Mr. Nathaniel Kimberley, Mr. Samuel Heming- 
way. 

1750. December 10— Mr. Caleb Hotchkiss, Mr. Caleb 
Mix, Mr. Israel Munson, Mr. James Peck, Jr., Mr. Rosewell 
Woodward, Lieutenant Nathaniel Kimberley, Captain 
Samuel Barnes. 

1751. December 9 — Mr. Caleb Hotchkiss, Mr. Caleb 
Mix, Mr. Israel Munson, Mr. James Peck, Jr., Mr. Rosewell 
Woodward, Lieutenant Nathaniel Kimberley, Captain 
Samuel Barnes. 

1752. December 11 — Mr. Caleb Hotchkiss, Mr. Caleb 
Mix, -Mr. Israel Munson, Mr. James Peck, Jr., Mr. Rosewell 
Woodward, Lieutenant N.ithaniel Kimberley, Captain 
Samuel Barnes. 

1753. December 10— Mr. Caleb Hotchkiss, Mr. Caleb 
Mix, Mr. Israel Munson, Mr. James Peck, Jr., Captain 
Joseph Tuttle, Mr. Nathaniel Kimberley, Captain Samuel 
Sacket. 

1754. December 19— Caleb Hotchkiss, Caleb Mix, Samuel 
Cook, Nathaniel Kimberley, Samuel Sacket, Stephen San- 
ford, Aaron Day. 

1755. December 8— Mr. Caleb Mix, Mr. Caleb Hotchkiss, 
Mr. Samuel Cook, Mr. Aaron Day, Mr. Samuel Thomson, 
Jr., Mr. Nathaniel Kimberley, Mr. Thomas Mansfield. 

1756. December 13 — Mr. Caleb Mix, Mr. Aaron Day, Mr. 
Nathaniel Kimberley, Mr. Thomas Mansfield, Mr. Rosewell 
Woodward, Mr. John Mix, Mr. Aimer Bradley. 

1757. December — Mr. Caleb Mix, Mr. John Mix, Mr. 
Rosewell Woodward. Mr. Thomas Mansfield, Mr. William 
Greenough. Mr. Amos Hitchcock. Mr. Deliverance Painter. 

175S. December 11— Mr. Caleb Mix, Mr. John Mix, Mr. 
Rosewell Woodward, Mr. Thomas Mansfield, Mr. William 
Greenough, Mr. Amos Hitchcock, Mr. John Thomas. 

1759. December 10— John Mix, William Greenough, Amos 
Hitchcock, Rosewell Woodward, Thomas Mansfield, John 
Thomas, Aaron Day. 

1760. December 8 — ^John Mix, William Greenough, Amos 
Hitchcock, Rosewell Woodward, Thomas Mansfield, Israel 
Kimberley, Aaron Day. 

1 76 1. December 14— John Mix, William Greenough, Amos 
Hitchcock, John Woodward, Thomas Mansfield, Israel 
Kimberley, Aaron Day. 

1762. December i ^ — William Greenough, John Mix, Amos 
Hitchcock, Thomas Howel, John Woodward, Joseph Pier, 
pent, James Peck. 

1763. December 12 — William Greenough, John Mix, Amos 
Hitchcock, Thomas Howel, John Woodward, Joseph Pier- 
pont, James Peck. 

1764. December 10 — William Greenough, Jonathan Mix, 
Amos Hitchcock, Thomas Howel, John Woodward, Joseph 
Pierpont, James Peck. 

1765. December 9— William Greenough, John Mix, Amos 
Hitchcock, Thomas Howel, John Woodward, James Heaton, 
Jr., James Peck. 

1766. December 8— John Woodward, Amos Hitchcock, 
John Mix, Amos Perkins, Stephen Ball, James Heaton, Jr., 
David Austin. 

1767. December 14 — ^John Woodward, Amos Hitchcock, 
John Mix, Stephen Ball, David Austin, Joshua Chandler, 
Esq., Andrew Bradley. 

1768. December 12 — Stephen Ball, Nathan Whiting, Esq., 
Phineas Bradley, Jeremiah Atwater, John Woodward, Joshua 
Chandler, Esq., Andrew Bradley. 

1769. December 11 — Stephen Ball, Nathan Whiting, Esq., 
Phineas Bradley, Jeremiah Atwater, John Woodward, Joshua 
Chandler, Esq., Andrew Bradley. 

1770. December 10— Stephen Ball, Nathan Whiting, Esq., 
Phineas Bradley, Jeremiah Atwater, John Woodward, Joshua 
Chandler, Esq., .\ndrew Bradley. 

1 77 1. December 9 — Stephen Ball, Benjamin Douglass, 
Phineas Bradley, Jeremiah Atwater, John Woodward, Joshua 
Chandler, Esq., Andrew Bradley. 

1772. December 11 — .Stephen Ball, Benjamin Douglass, 
Phineas Bradley, Jeremiah Atwater, John Woodward, Joshua 
Chandler, Esq., David Perkins. 

1773. December 20— Stephen Ball, Jeremiah Atwater, 
Stephen Mansfield, Timothy Jones, Jr., John Woodward, 
Joshua Ch.andler, David Perkins. 

1774. T>ecember 20— Stephen Ball, Jeremiah Atwater, 



444 



HISTORY OF THE CTTY OF NEW HAVEN. 



James Gilbt-rt, Isaac Doolittle, John Woodward, Joshua 
Chandler, David Perkins. 

1775. December 11 -Jonathan Fitch, Timothy Jones, Jr., 
Isaac Doolittle, James Gilbert, Amos Morris, Thomas Mans- 
field, Timothy Bradley. 

1776. December 9— Jonathan Fitch, Timothy Jones, Jr., 
Isaac Doolittle, James Gilbert, Thomas Howell, Ilezekiah 
Sabin, Abraham Auyer, Amos Morris, Nehemiah Smith, 
Thomas Manslield, Timothy Bradley, Samuel Atwater, Isaac 
Beecher, Jr. 

1777. Decemlier 8— Jonathan Fitch, Caleb Hotchkiss, Jr., 
Timothy Jones. Jr., Ilezekiah Sabin, James Gilbert, Abraham 
Auger, Isaac Doolittle, Amos Morris, Nehemiah Smith, 
Jesse Todd, Samuel Osborn, Samuel Atwater, Isaac Beecher, 

177S, December 14— Jonathan Fitch, Caleb Hotchkiss, 
Jr., Timothy Jones, Jr., "Jeremiah Atwater, James (;ill)ert, 
Abraham Auger, Isaac Doolittle, Amos Morris, Nehemiah 
Smith, Jesse Todd, Samuel Osborn, Samuel Atwater, Isaac 
Beecher, Jr. 

1779. December 13 — Jonathan Fitch, Timothy Jones, Jr., 
James Ciilbert, Abraham .\uger. Captain Joseph Trowbridge, 
Captain Stephen Smith, Nehemiah Smith, Ephraim Humer- 
ston, Samuel Osborn, Stephen Goodyear, Isaac Beecher, Jr., 
Charles Chauncey, Edwards Pierpoint. 

17S0. December 11 —Timothy Jones, James Gilbert, John 
Hubbard, Joseph Peck, Jr., Peter Johnson, Obed Hotchkiss, 
Newman Trowbridge, Stephen Smith, Nehemiah Smith, 
Jesse Todd, Stephen Goodyear, Jesse Ford, Peter Perkins. 

1781. December 10 — John Hubbard, Joseph Munson, 
Abel Burrit, Henry Daggett, Stephen Smith, Nehemiah 
Smith, Enos Todd, Jesse Ford, Asa Goodyear, Peter Per- 
kins. December 17— Mr. Lamberton Painter put in place of 
Nehemiah Smith. 

1782. December g -Deacon Thomas Howcl, Joseph Mun- 
son, Jeremiah Atwater, Joel Gilbert, Isaac Chidsey, Joseph 
Howel, John Austin, Isaac Beers. Lamberton Painter, Noah 
Ives, Jesse Ford, Peter Perkins, Jonathan Dickerman. 

17S3. December 8 —Joseph Howel, John Austin, Abraham 
Auger, loseph Bradley, Isaac Chidsey, Samuel Candee, 
Noah Ives, Jesse Ford, Simeon BristoU, Ezra Sperry, James 
Rice, Thomas Cooper, Jr., Michael Todd. 

1784. December 13— James Rice, Abel Burrit, Michael 
Todd, Abr>aham Auger, Isaac Chidsey, Samuel Candee, 
Simeon BristoU, Thomas Cooper. John Hubbard. 

1785. December 12— James Rice, Abel Burrit, Abraham 
Auger, Joseph Bradley, Samuel Candee, Simeon BristoU, 
Ephraim Humaston, John Hubbard, Samuel Mix. 

1786. December II — Stephen Ball, Elizur Goodrich, 
Samuel Candee, Thaddeus Beecher, Levi Ives, Elias Beers, 
Isaac Beers. 

1787. December 10— Stephen Ball, Elias Beers. Levi 
Ives, Zina Denison, Isaac Beers, Nathan Smith, F.rastus 
Bradley. 

1788. December 8— Stephen Ball, Elias Beers, Levi Ives, 
Captain Joseph Bradley, Jeremiah Atwater, Erastus Bradley. 

1789. December 14— Stephen Ball, Elias Beers, Levi 
Ives, Captain Joseph Bradley, Jeremiah Atwater, Erastus 
Bradley, Nathan Smith. 

1790. December — Levi Ives, Thomas Punderstm, Joseph 
Howell, Mark I^eavenworth, Azel Kimlierly. 

1791. December 12 — Levi Ives, Thomas Punderson, 
Joseph Howell, Simeon Baldwin, Thomas Painter. 

1792. December lo— Levi Ives, Th<);nas Punderson, 
Joseph Howell, Simeon Baldwin, Thomas Painter. 

1793. December 9 —Levi Ives, Thomas Punderson, 
Simeon Baldwin, Dyer White, Joseph Drake. Thomas 
Painter. 

1794. December 8 —.Stephen Ailing, Nathan Beers, Ileze- 
kiah Hotchkiss, William Powell, Anson Clinton, Thaddeus 
Clark. 

1795. December 14 — Peter Johnson, Nathaniel Fitch, 
Medad Osborn, Russel Clark, Anson Clinton. 

1796. December 12— Ebenezer Peck, Nathaniel Filch, 
Medad Osborn, Russel Clark, (jold Smith. 

1797. December II — Ebenezer Peck, Nathaniel Fitch, 
Medad Osborn, Russel Clark, Gold Smith. 

1798. December 10— Thomas Punderson, Medad Osborn, 
Gold Smith, Captain Honour Barney, Alexander Langmuir. 

1799. December — ^Jeremiah Atwater, Thomas Pun- 



derson, Edmond French, Gilead Kimberly, Medad Osborn. 
Francis Brown, William Brintnal. 

1800. December 8 — Jeremiah Atwater, Thomas Punder- 
son, Edmond French, Gilead Kimlx-rly, Medad Osborn. 
Francis Browne, William Brintnal. 

1801. December 14 — Jeremiah Atwater, Thomas Punder- 
son, Timothy Atwater, Ebenezer Townsend, Stephen 
Twining, Nathan Smith. Joseph Prindle. 

1802. December 13 — Timothy Atwater, Nathaniel Kim 
berly, Samuel Punderson, Stephen Twining. William Mc- 
Cracken, who was excused, replaced by Thaddeus I'erril. 
also excused. 

1803. December 12 — Timothy Atwater, Samuel Punder- 
son, Abraham Bradley, Samuel .Sacket, Ezra Smith, Sam 
uel Darling. 

1S04. December 10 — Abraham Bradley, Samuel Pun- 
derson, Samuel Darling. Samuel Sacket, Ezra Smith. 

1805. Decemlier 9— Samuel Punderson, Daniel Read, 
Henry Ward, James Merriman, Isaac Tomlinson. Decem- 
ber 23 — James Merriman excused, and Isaac Dickerman, 
Luther Bradley, Isaac Townsend, Jr., appointed. 

1806. December 8 — Samuel Punderson, Isaac Tomlin- 
son, Justus Smith, William Walter. 

1807. December 14 — Samuel Punderson, Jeremiah At- 
water, 3d. Jehiel Forbes and William BristoU were chosen by 
ballot, and by show of hands, Justus Smith, of West Haven. 

1808. December 12 — Samuel Punderson, Jeremiah At- 
water, 3d, Andrew Kidston, William BristoU, Justus Smith, 

1S09. December iS — Jeremiah Atwater, 3d, Samuel 
Punderson, Andrew Kidston, Eleazer Foster, Justus Smith. 

1810. December 10 — Samuel Punderson, Jeremiah At- 
water, 3d, Andrew Kidston, Eleazer Foster, Justus Smith. 

181 1. December 9— Samuel Punderson, Andrew Kidston. 
Eleazer Foster, Anson Clinton, Eli Hotchkiss. 

1812. December 14 — Samuel Punderson, Andrew Kid- 
ston, Eleazer Foster, Anson Clinton, Eli Hotchkiss. 

1813. November 22 — Samuel Punderson, Eleazer Foster, 
Mathew Read, Eliakim Kiml;erly, John Hunt, Jr. 

1814. November 23 — Samuel Punderson, Eleazer Foster, 
-Mathew Read, John Hunt, Jr., Eliakim Kimberly, 

1815. November 27 — Samuel Punderson, Kleazer Foster, 
Mathew Reed, John Hunt, Jr., Eliakim Kimberly. 

1816. November 25 — Samuel Punderson, Eleazer Foster, 
Mathew Read, Solomon Collis, Eliakim Kimberly. 

1817. November 24— Solomon Collis, Isaac Gilbert, 
Henry Ward, Lent Bishop, Anthony P. Sanford, Eleazer 
Foster, Charles Bostwick. 

1818. November 30— Isaac Gilbert, Anthony P. Sanford. 
Samuel Huggins, Ralph I. IngersoU, Thomas Ward. 

1819. November 22 — Elisha Punderson, Isa.ac Gilbert, 
Ralph I. IngersoU, Nathan Peck, Henry Denison, Thomas 
Ward, John Rowe. 

1S20. November 27 — Isaac Gilbert, Ksq.; Ralph I. Inger- 
soU, Esq.; John Rowe, William Mix, Esq., Normand Dexter, 
Lent Bishop, Esq., Aaron Thomas, Jr. 

1821. November 26— Isaac Gilbert, Esq., Ralph I. Inger- 
soU, Esq., John Rowe, William Mix, Esq., Jared Bradley, 
Lent Bishop, Esq., Aaron Thomas, Jr. 

1S22. November 25— John Miles, Isaac Gilbert, William 
Mix, John Rowe, William H. Jones. 

1823. November 24— William Mix, William H. Jones, 
Eli Mix, Sr., James Barnes, James English, Charles .-\. In- 
gersoU. 

November 22— William Mix, William H. Jones, 
Sr., John Rowe, James English, Charles A. In- 



November 21 —William Mix, William H. Jones, 
Sr., Scth Barnes, James English, Charles A. Inger- 



1824 
Eli Mix 
gersoll. 

1825. 
Eli Mix 
soli. 

1826. November 20— William Mix, William II. Jones, 
Charles A. IngersoU, Anthony P. Sanford, I'.li Mix. 

1827. November 19— William Mix, WUliam II. Jones, 
Charles A. IngersoU, Anthony P. Sanford, Eli Mix, Andrew 
Kidston. 

1828. November 29— William Mix, Willi.am H. Jones, 
[ames Brewster, Charles A. IngersoU, Anthony P. San- 
ford. 

1829. Novemlier 23— William Mix, William H. Jones. 
Janjes Brewster, Charles A. IngersoU, .Anthony P. Sanford. 

1S30. November 22— William Mix, William II. Jones, 
Sidney Hull, Charles A. IngersoU, .Anthony P. Sanford. 



MUNICIPAL HISTORY. 



445 



1831. November 21 — William Mix, Eli Mix, Anthony P. 
Sanford, Charles A. IngersoU, Sidney Hull. 

1832. November 26 — William Mix, Eli Mix, Anthony P. 
Sanford, Joseph N. Clark, Elias Gilbert. 

1833. November 18— William Mix, Eli Mix, Anthony P. 
Sanford, Joseph N. Clark, Elias Gilbert. 

1834. November 24— Benjamin Beecher, Levi Gilbert, 
Nahimi Hayward, Justus Harrison, Isaac Judson. 

1835. November 23— Benjamin Beecher, Levi Gilbert, 
Nahum Hayward, Justus Harrison, Isaac Judson, John 
Beach, Sidney Hull. 

1536. November 22— Benjamin Beecher, Levi Gilbert, 
Nahum Hayward, Justus Harrison. Isaac Judson, John 
Beach, Sidney Hull. 

1537. November 28 -Benjamin Beecher, Levi Gilbert, 
Nahum Hayward, Justus H.arrison, Isaac Judson, John 
Beach, Marcus Merriman, Jr. 

183S. November 27— Benjamin Beecher, Levi Gilbert, 
2d, Nahum Hayward, Isaac Judson, Marcus Merriman, Jr., 
Richard M. Clark, Phillip S. Galpin. 

1839. November 19 — Benjamin Beecher, Levi Gilbert, 
2d; Nahum Hayward, Isaac Judson, Elem Hull, Richard 
M. Clark, Wyllys Peck. 

1840. December 7 — Benjamin Beecher, Levi Gilbert, 2d, 
Nahum Hayward, Isaac Judson, Elem Hull, Richard M. 
Clark, Wyllys Peck. 

1841. November 29 — Benjamin Beecher, Nahum Hay- 
ward, Elem Hull, Jeremiah Barnett, Philip S. Galpin, Enos 
Sperry, John Peck. 

1842. November 21— Benjamin Beecher, Jeremiah Bar- 
nett, Enos Sperry, Alfred Daggett, Caleb Mix, Charles B. 
Lines, Leonard Pardee. 

1843. November 20 — Benjamin Beecher, Caleb Mix, Enos 
Sperry, Alfred Daggett, Charles B. Lines, Leonard Pardee, 
Marcus Merriman, Jr. 

1844. November 25— Benjamin Beecher, Caleb Mix, 
Henry A. Murray, Alfred Daggett, Charles B. Lines, 
Leonard Pardee, Marcus Merriman, Jr. 

1845. November 24 — Benjamin Beecher, Alfred Daggett, 
Charles B. Lines, Leonard Pardee, Benjamin R. Hitchcock 
Cyprian Willcox, Henry A. Murray. 

1846. November 23 — Benjamin Beecher, Charles B. Lines, 
Leonard Pardee, Cyprian Willcox, Henry A. Murray, James 
E. English, Frederick Croswell. 

1847. November 22 — Benjamin Beecher, Charles B. Lines, 
Leonard Pardee, Cyprian Willcox, Henry A. Murray, Mar- 
cus Merriman, Jr., Abram A. Thompson. 

1848. November20— Benjamin Beecher, Cyprian Willcox, 
Henry A. Murray, Abram A. Thompson, Elins Pierpont, 
Elias Gilbert (George street), James E. English. 

1849. November 19 — Benjamin Beecher, Abram A. 
Thompson, Elias Gilbert, James E. English, Chauncey 
Jerome, Jonathan Nicholson. 

1S50. November 25 — Cyprian Willcox, James E. English, 
Elias Pierpont, Charles P. Hubbell, Dennis Carrington, 
Henry L. Cannon. 

1 85 1. November 25 — Chauncey Jerome, Matthew Q. Elliot, 
Lucius R. Finch, James E. Enghsh. 

1852. November 23— Chauncey Jerome, Lucius R. Finch, 
Miles Tuttle, Alfred Daggett, Thomas W. Ensign, Guy C. 
Hotchkiss. 

1853. November 21 — Alfred Daggett, Miles Tuttle, 
Thomas W. Ensign, Henry L. Cannon, Morris Tyler, Wales 
French, Nehemiah D. Sjierry. 

1854. November 24— Alfred Daggett, Miles Tuttle, Wales 
French, William Lewis, Hiram A. Gray. 

1855. November 27— Alfred Daggett, William Lewis, 
Henry L. Cannon, John S. Farren, Russell Chapman, Philos 
Blake, James G. Hotchkiss. 

1S56. November 27— James E. English, John W. Mans- 
field, Stephen Gilbert, Newell C. Hall, William B. Johnson, 
Guy C. Hotchkiss, David M. King. 

1857. November 23— James E. English, William B. John- 
son, Stephen Gilbert, Newell C. Hall, Philander B. Hine, 
Guy C. Hotchkiss, Charles Lewis, Jr. 

1S58. November 29— James E. English, Stephen CHlbert, 
Newell C. Hall, Elmon Blakeslee, Charles Atwater, Jr., 
Charles Carlisle. 

1859. November 30— James E. English, Stephen Gilbert, 
Newell C, Hall. Hiram Camp, Charles Atwater, Jr., Charles 
R. Pope, Charles Ruickoldt. 



i860. December 21— James E. English, Stephen Gilbert, 
John Maher, Jr., Newell C. Hall, Augustus C. Willcox, 
David M. King, Charles R. Pope. 

1861. November 29— Russell Hotchkiss, Stephen Gilbert, 
Newell C. Hall, Nicholas Countryman, John Maher, Jr., 
Charles R. Pope, Patrick Burns. 

1562. November 28 — William B. Johnson, Nicholas 
Countryman, John Maher, Thomas Brinley, Charles R. 
Pope, John W, Roux, Stephen (Gilbert. 

1563. November 27 — Griswold I. Gilbert, Gains F. War- 
ner, Benjamin F. Mansfield, Hiram Camp, Willis Dickerman, 
Edward Bryan, William S.Johnson. 

1864. November 8— Lucien W. Sperry, William Hillhouse, 
William R. Shelton, Allen Mix, George W. Hicks, John B. 
Ludington, Joseph D. Payne. 

1865. November 7 — Lucien W. Sperry, William Hill- 
house, Wdliam R. Shelton, Allen Mix, Thomas Brinley, J. 
B. Ludington, Charles R. Pope. 

1866. November 6 — Lucien W. Sperry, William Hill- 
house, William R. Shelton, Allen Mix, Thomas Brinley, 
Michael Eagan, Charles R. Pope. 

1867. November 5— Lucien W. Sperry, William Hill- 
house, William R. Shelton, Allen Mix, Thomas Brinley, 
Michael Eagan, Charles R. Pope. 

186S. October 5— Wilham R. Shelton, Thomas Brinley, 
William Hillhouse, Allen Mix, Charles Ruckoldt, James P. 
Hart, Cleveland G. Smith. 

1869. October 4— William R. Shelton, Charles W. Allen, 
Anson Beecher, James E. Bishop, John P. Tuttle, Charles 
Ruckoldt, William B. De Forest. 

1870. October 3 — William K. Shelton, Thomas Brinley, 
Allen Mix, Charles Ruckoldt, William Hillhouse, James 
E. Bishop, Charles R. Pope. 

1871. October 2 — Willis M. Anthony, Frederick J. Belts, 
Ira Merwin, Martin Bergin, Joel A. Sperry, Charles F. Bal- 
bier, Horace S. Barnes. 

1872. October 7 — Willis M. Anthony, Thomas Brinley, 
Henry Killam, Charles F. Balbier, Stephen M. Wier, Alex- 
ander Foote, Henry L. Cannon. 

1573. October 6— Willis M. Anthony, Thomas Brinley, 
Henry Killam, Charles F. Balbier, Stephen M. Wier, Sam- 
uel Johson, Joseph B. .Sargent. 

1574. October 5— Benjamin F. Mansfield, Joseph B. Sar- 
gent, Charles F. Balbier, Samuel Johnson, Thomas Brinley, 
Henry Killam, Russell W. Norton. 

1875. October 4 — Benjamin F. Mansfield, Joseph B. Sar- 
gent, Charles F. Balbier, Samuel Johnson, Richard S. Mer- 
win, Russell W. Norton, Henry Killam. 

1876. November 7— Charles F. Balbier, James Punder- 
ford, Patrick McAveney, Edwin W. Cooper, Thomas Brin- 
ley, Thomas D. Jones, Russell W. Norton. 

1877. December 4— Charles F. Balbier, Russell W. Nor- 
ton, Edwin W. Cooper, Benjamin F. Mansfield, Louis Feld- 
man, Alexander Foote, Charles C. Dennison. 

1878. December 3 — Benjamin F. Mansfield, Louis Feld- 
man, Alexander Foote, Charles C. Dennison, Edwin W. 
Cooper, Patrick McAveney, Frank S. Andrew. 

1879. December 2— James Reynolds, Edwin W. Cooper, 
Frank S. Andrew, Philip Hugo, Louis Feldman, Franklin 
H. Hart, Henry W. Crawford. 

1880. December 9 —James Reynolds, Edwin W. Cooper, 
Frank S. Andrew, Philip Hugo, Louis Feldman, Franklin 
H. Hart, Alexander Foote. 

1881. December 6— James Reynolds, Edwin W.Cooper, 
Franks. Andrew, Philip Hugo, Louis Feldman, William S. 
Beecher, Elizur H. Sperry. 

1882. December 5— James Reynolds, Philip Hugo, Ed- 
win W. Cooper, Hudson B. Forbes, Louis Feldman, Will- 
iam S. Beecher, Henry W. Crawford. 

1883. December 4— James Reynolds, George F. Faul- 
haber, Julius Tyler, Benjamin R. English, John J. Treat, 
Louis Feldman, William S. Beecher. 

1884. December 2 — James Reynolds, Ernest Klenke, 
Julius Tyler, Isaac E. Brown, Louis Feldman, John L. 
Treat, William S. Beecher. 

1885. December i — ^James Reynolds, Ernest Klenke, Julius 
Tyler, John L. Treat, Louis Feldman, William S. Beecher, 
Isaac E. Brown. 



446 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VM. 



II. Thk Cut Government. 

BY PROFESSOR CHARLES H. LEVERMORE. 

It is probable that the first proposition for a city 
government resulted from the great stimulus im- 
parted to New Haven's commercial prosperity in 
and after the period of the Seven Years' War 
(1755-62). The "interloping" element of the 
population, led by such men as Roger Sher- 
man, David Wooster, and James A. Hillhouse, in- 
fused new life into the trade of the town. Look- 
ing doubtless to New York as their example, they 
initialed an agitation for urban honors, and pro- 
cured from the town-meeting of December 9, 1771, 
the following legislation: 

Whereas, \ motion was made to the Town that this 
Town might have the Privileges of a City, and that proper 
measures might be taken to obtain the same. It is thereupon 

I'oted, That Roger Sherman, John Whiting, Thomas 
Darling, Daniel Lyman, David Wooster, Joshua Chandler, 
James A. Hillhouse, Simeon Bristoll, Caleb Beecher, Esq., 
Samuel Bishop, Jr., ami Messrs. James Peck, Benjamin 
Douglass, Ralph Isaacs, Adam Babcock, Thomas Howell, 
Joel Hotchkiss, Samuel Clark, Jr., and John Woodward, he 
a committee to take the same into consideration and judge 
of the motion wliat is left for the town to do with regard to 
the same, and report thereupon to the town at another 
town-meeting.* 

The result of this committee's labors never 
reached the pages of the Town Records, and it is 
probable that the small local agitation was lost in 
the whirl of the wider national one. 

When the discussion was revived upon the return 
of peace, the central figure was still the same — 
Roger Sherman. His position in the community 
was almost autocratic, and his relation to the em- 
bryonic city was like that of Theophilus Eaton to 
the primitive town. The influence that he wielded 
was acquired by pure force of character. He left 
the shoemaker's bench to become a member of the 
Governor's Council, a Judge of the Superior Court, 
and a member of the Continental Congress. To 
the four most important documentary expressions 
of the new national unity — The Address to the 
King, The Declaration of Independence, The 
Articles of Confederation, and The Constitution of 
the United States — his name was appended. When 
the city was actually organized, the mayoralty was 
continued in his hantls until his death. When 
that event occurred, in 1793, he held the dignities 
of Mayor, Judge of the Superior Court, anti Sena- 
tor of the United States. He was a dominant 
element in the three chief political units— the 
Municipality, the State, and the Nation. 

As soon as the war closed, the more active and 
intelligent citizens renewed the discussion of " City 
Privileges." Inasmuch as so many of New 
Haven's wealthy inhabitants had entertained Tory 
sentiments, the municipal question involved and 
excited sharp i)olitical dissensions. In the autumn 
of 1783, a petition for the incorporation of New 
Haven as a city obtained two hundred and four- 
teen signatures.! '1 'le petitioners aver that the 
" want of a due regulation of the internal police" 

• J'own Records, V, 19. 

t See Professor F. B. Dexler's paper on " New Haven in 1784." The 
petition is preserved in the St.ile Library. 



obstructs the normal growth of New Haven's com- 
merce; also that " wharves, streets, and highways 
must be commodious for business, and must be 
kept continually in good repair." The Connecti- 
cut Assembly (deliberated upon the subject at its 
October session in 1783, and postponed it to the 
adjourned session in January. 

A town-meeting upon the 5th of January, 1784, 
instructed the town's representatives in the General 
Assembly to push on the incorporation of a portion 
of New Haven. The behest was speedily obeyed, 
for three days later an Act was passed incorporat- 
ing "The Mayor, Aldermen, Common Council 
and Freemen of the City of New Haven." The 
8th of January, therefore, is the city's birthday, 
although the new government was not organized 
until the i8th of February following. The forms 
of election were repeated on the ensuing ist of June, 
which was the beginning of the municipal year. 

The city was not divided into wards. The peo- 
ple elected a City Legislature, consisting of four 
Aldermen and twenty Councilmen. The number 
of Councilmen, how^ever, was a fluctuating quan- 
tity. Twenty was, by the Charter, the maximum 
limit. It was reduced to ten, increased to twelve, 
then to fourteen, and, in 1833, the original num- 
ber was restored. The Mayor and the Common 
Council were empowered in somewhat general 
terms to regulate local affairs, to maintain peace, 
and to afford security to property and person. The 
sentiment of that day was unfavorable to cities, 
and especially to popularly chosen executive ofli- 
cers. The Mayor of the city therefore, though 
chosen in the first instance by the suffrages of the 
community, held office during the pleasure of the 
State Legislature. Probate Judges, too, at that 
time were elected by the Assembly. The most 
noteworthy improvement wrought by the new 
ri'gime was the establishment of a City Court, and 
the most important functions of the Mayor were 
judicial. The Mayor and the two senior Alder- 
men presided in the City Court, and enjoyed the 
same jurisdiction as the Court of Common Pleas 
in all civil causes originating within the bounds of 
the city, except such as concerned titles to real 
estate. At least one of the parties must be a resi- 
dent of the city. The criminal jurisdiction of the 
Court was confined to oftenses against the city 
ordinances. The ordinary criminal justice of the 
ancient Monthly Court of New Haven was still left 
to the Justices of the Peace for the town. Finally, 
the Freemen, in city meeting assembled, were the 
ultimate arbiters of municipal questions. They 
alone could levy taxes, and their ratification was 
essential to every By-Law enacted by the Mayor 
and Common Council. F'ven then no By-Law 
was valid until it had been published for three 
weeks successively in " Some public newspaper in 
or near said city." This arrangement would seem 
suliiciently clumsy, but still one more possible 
check was provided. Any By-Law of the cit)' 
might be repealed, within six months after enact- 
ment, by any Superior Court holden in New Haven 
County, if the said Superior Court judged the 
By-Law to be unreasonable or unjust. 



MUNICIPAL HISTORY. 



447 



Such pains were taken to prevent arbitrary mu- 
nicipal rule, yet in one instance the Charter itself 
seems to have authorized a violation of the privi- 
leges of the New Haven Proprietors. The city was 
empowered to exchange or sell the northwestern 
portion of the Green, in order to secure other land 
or highways, or another Green. However, the re- 
mainder of the Green was confirmed as a common 
or public walk, to remain so forever, never liable 
to be laid out in highways or to be appropriated to 
any other purpose. These clauses were intended 
to notify the New Haven Proprietors' Committee 
that their authority over the public square was now 
vested in the city, and that they could no longer 
vote away building sites upon the Green.* 

President Stiles records in his journal, that out 
of about six hundred adult males within the city 
limits, 345 were qualified to become freemen. f 
Only 261 took the freeman's oath in time for the 
first election, and of this number 240 cast their 
votes for Mayor. Roger Sherman received 125 
voices, just enough to elect him; Thomas Howell, 
Deacon of the First Church, received 102 votes; 
and 22 freemen preferred Thomas Darling. 

The first Aldermen were Thomas Howell, Sam- 
uel Bishop, David Austin, and Isaac Beers. Josiah 
Meigs became the first City Clerk, and Hezekiah 
Sabin the Treasurer. The Sherifis chosen were 
Elias Stillwell and Parsons Clark. The first city 
tax of one penny in the pound was ordered on the 
3d of April, and David Austin, Stephen Ball, and 
Jeremiah Atwater were appointed to make a list of 
rates. The first By-Law prohibited the erection of 
buildings without a permit under the penalty of 
ten pounds, the heaviest amercement which the 
Council was allowed to enjoin. It was at first in- 
tended to assemble the City Council " by posting 
notices on each corner of the eight central squares. '' 
This somewhat rural method of convocation was 
discondnued in September, 1784, and the City 
Clerk was instructed to inform members of the gov- 
ernment of a meeting whenever the Mayor required 
it. The annual city meetings on the first Tuesday 
of every June, at 9 a.m., were summoned by the 
tolling of the State House bell. 

After the beginning of the municipal year on the 
1st of June, the Common Council earnestly set 
about filling up the frame of city government. In 
July, By-Laws were passed, creating a host of in- 
spectors and gangers. Articles offered for sale 
must be inspected and branded. There were enact- 
ments against nuisances, against obstruction of 
highways, and against disregard of sanitary precau- 
tions. One of the first Ordinances provided for the 
establishment of a public market. The Ordinance 
was from time to time suspended, until in the next 
year two city markets were built by subscription, 
one on the southeast corner of the Green, the other 
where the present city market stands. All retailing 
of butter, eggs, meat and vegetables elsewhere be- 

* the site of the present United Church was granted to the Fair 
Haven Church and Society in 1770, by vote of the Proprietors. 

t Suffrage was limited to those who held personal estate at least 
worth ^40. or real est.tte renting for ,^2 per annum. Tho^e who had 
remained loyal to the King during the Revolution might also be dis- 
franchised. 



tween sunrise and eleven o'clock of the forenoon 
was forbidden, under penalty of twenty shillings. 
Forthwith a great controversy arose among the citi- 
zens over the question of public markets vs. the 
old-fashioned peddlers' market in covered wagons. 
The peddlers triumphed, in 1826, by the repeal of 
the Market Ordinance, but the question remained 
an open one. President Dwight, a zealous cham- 
pion for the city market, called its overthrow "A 
striking example of the power of habitual preju- 
dice. " * 

In June of the initial year the Charter was found 
lacking in an unexpected manner. The little village 
city desired to grant the freedom of its privileges to 
the " Hon. William Michael St. John de Crevecteur, 
Consul-General to his Most Christian Majesty for 
the States of Connecticut, New York, and New 
Jersey," to his children, and to his wife, who bore 
the incongruous name of "Mehilabel." The 
Common Council requested Pierpont Edwards and 
James Hillhouse to secure from the General As- 
sembly an act empowering the city ,to bestow the 
freedom thereof upon any person or persons resid- 
ing without the limits thereof. The needful legis- 
lation was speedily obtained, and the distinguished 
strangers were duly honored. 

New Haven's welcome to strangers in those days 
was intended to be a warm one. Immigration was 
actively fostered. In September, 1784, a committee, 
including the most eminent citizens of the place, 
was chosen 

To assist all such strangers as come to this city for the 
purpose of settling therein, in procuring houses and land on 
the most reasonable terms; and to prevent such persons, as 
far as possible, from being imposed upon with respect to rent 
and the value of houses and land; and to give them such 
information and intelligence with respect to business, markets 
and commerce; mode of living, customs and manners as 
such strangers may need; and to cultivate an easy acquaint- 
ance of such strangers with the citizens thereof, that their 
residence therein may be rendered as eligible and agreeable 
as possible. 

If this programme was carefully followed, the 
home-seeker must have thought the New Haven 
community an Arcadia. In the previous generation 
the first Irish immigrants were sold at auction, yet 
the new regime did not succeed in attracting work- 
ing men of the better sort, unless indeed President 
Dwight's opinion of his fellow-citizens was untrust- 
worthy. Writing in the first decade of this century, 
he extolled the intelligence and virtue of the com- 
munity as a whole, but branded the artisan and 
laboring classes, both white and black, as hopelessly 
vicious. 

A glance at the list of civil offices which were 
called into existence between 1784 and 1790, will 
reveal the extent of the corporate endeavor to 
guarantee honest trade, and to regulate private 
greed or carelesness. Besides the Mayor, Alder- 
men, Councilmen, Sheriffs, and City Clerk, the fol- 
lowing officials were yearly elected: Gaugers of 
molasses, rum and other spirituous liquors; In- 
spectors of pot and pearl-ash; Inspectors and Cutters 
of hoops, staves, heading and ready-made casks; 
Inspectors and Cutters of plank, boards, clap-boards, 

* Dwight's Travels, I, 95. 



448 



HISTORY OF THE CITF OF NEW HAVEN. 



oars, shingles, and scantling ; Weighers of hay ; 
Inspectors and measurers of wood; Inspectors of 
wheat, rye, Indian corn, and flour; Inspectors and 
packers of beef pork, and fish : Inspector of 
tobacco; Pound-keepers. 

In September, 1784, the various roads, ways, 
and alleys in the town plat were dignified with 
permanent names, and the first year of urban exist- 
ence closed with an applicadon to the General 
Assembly for wider powers, especially in respect to 
the laying out of highways. The discussion of a 
proposed Workhouse began, and was continued 
until 1791, when a Workhouse was built. To it 
were consigned indiscriminately all kinds of petty 
criminals, beggars, insane persons, and both vicious 
and virtuous paupers. Such was the practice until 
1849, when the Rev. S. W. S. Button became tlie 
leader in an agitation which resulted in the transfer 
of the insane to Hartford, and the separation of the 
worthy poor from their evil associates. 

The first Fire Department of the city, a sort of 
universal Militia organization, was begun in 1788- 
89. Legislation concerning it was very frequent, 
and numerous fines for non-observance of the rules 
were often inflicted, but almost invariably repealed 
at the ne.xt session of the city meeting. 

The small-pox, which was more dreaded and 
seemingly more common than fire, caused the 
establishment of the first Board of Health in 1795. 
The fear of this disease compelled attention to the 
drainage of the city. The East Creek had become 
particularly filthy. A committee of ten persons, 
called "The Health Committee of the City of New 
Haven," was empowered to abate nuisances and to 
improve, as it saw fit, the sanitary condition of the 
city. The new Board of Health obtained permis- 
sion from the Legislature to establish a Quarantine 
for foreign ships. All the work of the Board was 
performed at its own expense. 

Individual enterprise and private subscriptions 
accomplished most of the public works of that day — 
roads, bridges, dikes, and even some streets. First 
and foremost in such good works were David Austin 
and James Ilillhouse, who were chiefly instrumental 
in fencing and adorning the Green; but the City 
By-Laws which auUiorized the.se improvements 
conclude with the words, "Provided the same be 
done without expense to the city." The commerce 
and wealth of the city were now rapidly increasing, 
yet both town and city were borrowing money to 
pay even running expenses. In 1790, the first City 
Treasury By-Laws vested in the City Clerk the sole 
I)ower to draw upon the treasury orders, which 
must first be certified by the Mayor. The Treasurer 
was also ordered to keep a registered list of bills 
presented, and pay them in due order. 

In 1 798 99, the city passed Ordinances to pro- 
tect the recently beautified Green from depredations, 
and the gentlemen who had been most active in 
the improvements were delegated to take care of 
their own work. The principal causes of their 
anxiety were unruly geese and Yale students. 
Straying geese and cattle, the storage of gun- 
powder, and the peril of fire, provoked almost con- 
tinual legislation. 



In 1800 the City Clerk was designated as the 
Clerk of the Common Council. The state of the 
finances grew worse instead of better. The City 
Court was intended to derive support from the 
fines levied in it, but the penalties were not care- 
fully collected. A step forward was taken in 1803, 
when the Common Council was emjjowered to 
appoint a City Attorney. The water supply 
furnished a vexatious question. In 1804 it was 
proposed in city meeting that an aqueduct should 
be built. Two years later the consent of the Gen- 
eral Assembly was received, and a committee, 
headed by Noah Webster, was appointed to 
manage the construction of the acjueduct. But 
poverty prevented the successful termination of 
their labors. The city stumbled along with what 
aid it could get from creeks and wells until the 
formation of a water company. Unavailing eflbrts 
were made to improve the quantity and quality of 
the water in the East Creek, and during the first 
few years of this century a small sewer was laid in 
Chapel street. 

In the year 1807, the first Methodist Church 
and Society were allowed to buy a building lot, an 
event of great significance. The embargo declared 
in the same year paralyzed the town's commerce, 
transformed New Haven into a manufacturing 
center, aud intensified the division between the 
local Federalists and Jeffersonians. 

Throughout the ensuing war, and until the time 
of Monroe's administration, the city slumbered. 
In the year 18 11 indeed, there is no record of a 
city meeting or of a session of the Court of Com- 
mon Council. In 1818, with the discussion of a 
new State Constitution, municipal activity recom- 
menced. The Common Council ordered side- 
walks on the principal streets, but the city meet- 
ing, three days later, vetoed the ordinance. In 
18 1 9, a By-Law directed the Common Council to 
elect a Sexton, a Leader of the Hearse, Bellring- 
ers, and other officers necessary to the service of 
burial. Two years later, the removal of the mon- 
uments of the old burying ground on the Green to 
the new Grove street Cemetery, was authorized. 

The Assize of Bread in 1820, recalls the similar 
assize of one hundred and seventy years before. 
At the same time a rudimentary Police Depart- 
ment was created by the establishment of a night 
watch. In July of the same year the city meeting 
placed the seal of its final approval upon the ordi- 
nance permitting the Methodists to build a church 
on the northwest corner of the Green. In 1821, 
the Fire Department was greatly improved. The 
Fire Wardens who had been all responsible hereto- 
fore, were now empowered to electa Chief En- 
gineer and five Assistant I'^ngineers. Hereafter 
buildings might be demolished, in order to prevent 
the spread of fire, by command of the Chief En- 
gineer, without waiting, as formerly, for the consent 
of the Mayor and the majority of the Aldermen. 
In the same year the numerous amendments to 
the City Charter were consolidated with it, and the 
General Assembly recast the charters of all the 
cities in the State into one Act.* In 1827, the 

* See Priv.ite Laws of Connecticut, III, p. 325. 



MUNICIPAL HISTORY. 



449 



city voted to give $5,000 and a site to the new 
State House, and, two years later, $100,000 were 
subscribed to the Farmington Canal. This sub- 
scription was a heavy weight upon the city, and 
sent the rate of taxation up to seventy mills on the 
dollar. 

In 1 83 1, the Mayor and citizens assembled in 
great excitement to protest against the proposed 
establishment in the city of a college for negroes. 
Strong language was used, and resolutions of 
warning were drawn up by a committee consisting 
of William Bristol. Simeon Baldwin, Ralph I. Inger- 
soU, Samuel J. Hitchcock, Jehiel Forbes, Samuel 
Wadsworth, John Durrie, Samuel Punderson, 
Augustus R. Street, and Isaac H. Townsend. The 
municipal service was increased in 1834 by the 
creation of the office of Superintendent of Side- 
walks, subject to appointment by the Common 
Council. Under the supervision of this officer the 
work of paving was begun, and went slowly on in 
the fice of determined opposition on the part of 
some citizens. The By-Laws relating to city 
elections were revised and improved in 1835, and 
the City Auditorship was established as a separate 
office. 

In the following year it was voted that the Watch 
should serve both day and night.* The labors of 
the watchmen were perhaps somewhat lessened, in 
1839, by the return of the Fair Haven territory to 
the jurisdiction of the town government. How- 
ever, it was a desire to economize, to save the 
annual expense of less than tw^o thousand dollars, 
which prompted the proposal, in June, 1842, to 
abolish the; Watch altogether. 'l"he motion was 
defeated by only three votes in a poll of two hun- 
dred and seventy-five. One year later the city 
meeting actually instructed the Court of Common 
Council to discontinue the Watch, and from 1843 
to 1848 the department remained in partial abey- 
ance. A night watch was retained, and in Jan- 
uary, 1845, on account of depredations by students, 
and others, the Mayor and Aldermen were com- 
missioned to increase, at their discretion, the num- 
ber of night-watchmen. Finally, a succession of 
incendiary fires scared the people back to common 
sense. 

Charter amendments, in 1842, were intended 
to reform the City Court. The judicial powers 
previously enjoyed by the Mayor and Aldermen- 
Judges were conferred upon a new officer called 
the Recorder. Ordinary police jurisdiction was, 
however, still left in the hands of the Justices of 
the Peace. But the amendment seems to have 
been partially nullified, for the Aldermen-Judges 
continued to figure in the yearly elections and to 
sit as side Judges with the Recorder, f 

During the mayoralty of the late Henry Feck 
(1846-50) began the series of changes and ad- 
vancements which transformed New Haven from a 
village into a city. The personal efforts of the 
Mayor were largely instrumental in procuring gas- 

*Jiine 20, 1836. 

tSome lawyers, the late Ralph I. Ingersoll among them, believed 
that this Court had no constitutional jurisdiction. 
57 



light for the city in 1848. New Haven was the 
second small city in the country to illuminate its 
streets with gas; Trenton, N. J., being the first. 
The opening of the New York and the Canal Rail- 
ways, in 1848, increased the business activity of 
New Haven, and brought an increasing Irish ele- 
ment into the population of the place. The New 
York road broke down a steamboat monopoly 
which had been oppressive, but the scepter of self- 
ishness was inherited by the Hartford and New 
Haven Railway Corporation, which had been in 
operation since 1839. Against the Canal Railway, 
in which, as the heir of the ill-fated Canal Com- 
pany, New Haven was deeply interested, the Hart- 
ford and New Haven Company waged unrelenting 
and unscrupulous warfare, finally preventing its 
connection with Springfield in a manner which an 
indignant city meeting at New Haven thus charac- 
ierized: "An act of cunning and high-handed op- 
pression, of doubtful legality, unworthy of honor- 
able men, and disgraceful to a corporation.'' 

From 1850 to 1852, the problem of a water sup- 
ply demanded solution. The proposal of a con- 
tract with the New Haven Water Company led to a 
city vote in 1850 to buy the water-works for the 
city. A counter agitation was begun, and city 
meetings were frequent and disorderly. The num- 
ber of voters was so great that the Mayor could not 
control the assemblage, and the tellers could not 
agree in their enumeration. In 1853 it was finally 
decided that the vote of the previous year was re- 
scinded, but the matter lingered until 1856, and 
ended in lawsuits which cost the city between fif- 
teen and twenty thousand dollars. It was proba- 
bly this unhappy experience that fortunately in- 
duced the abolition of the city ineeting. 

The revulsion of feeling was sudden, for, in 1849, 
the city forbade the Common Council to appropri- 
ate more than one hundred dollars without the ap- 
proval of a city meeting called for that purpose. 
This By-Law was shortly after repealed, and, in the 
spring of 1854, a city meeting resolved as follows: 

Tliat the Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council be re. 
quested to digest a Constitution or plan of government for 
tlte City of New Haven, to be submitted to the citizens, by 
which all the powers now vested in the municipal corpora- 
tion, styled the Mayor, Aldermen, Common Council and 
Freemen, shall be vested in a representative body or bodies 
to be chosen by electors residing in the City of New Haven, 
and that the same be prepared and submitted in season to be 
passed upon in city meeting, and, if approved, to be carried 
to the Legislature for its sanction. 

This resolution was the germ which developed into 
the Charter of 1857. 

In i860 the sanitary condition of the city had 
become alarming. It was practically devoid of 
sewers, the old water-courses were cesspools, the 
soil was tainted by thousands of private vaults, and 
the most efficient scavengers that the city could 
boast were the pigs, horses, and cattle, which 
roamed in the streets contrary to the ordinance. 
In 1 86 1 the swine and cattle were generally re- 
moved from the streets through the efforts, to a 
great extent, of the Hon. James F. Babcock, but 
the introduction of sewerage was a reform of slower 
growth. 



450 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



In the summer of iS6o, Samuel Peck brought 
suit against the city for damages on account of mu- 
nicipal neglect to provide sewers. Under this spur 
the city government went to work, and Mayor 
Welch lent vigorous aid, but there were numerous 
hindrances to progress. The nature of some of 
the obstacles can be conjectured from the ordinance 
of theCommon Council in 1861: "That in accept- 
ing l)ids for building the sewer [George Street], no 
contract should be made with any person not a 
citizen of New Haven, and that the whole, so far 
as practicable, should be in the hands of New Ha- 
ven citizens." Councilman Healey tried to add a 
provision that no laborer should receive less than 
a dollar a day. 

The Police and Fire Departments were remodeled 
in 1 86 1, and placed under the control of Boards of 
si.x Commissioners, each of whom held otlice for 
three years. Up to this time the Fire Department 
had been composed of volunteer companies, which, 
as in other cities, had acquired great political power 
and even social influence. Henceforth the Chief 
Engineer was subordinate to the Commissioners, 
and the Department consisted of paid companies. 
These reforms mark New Haven's transition from 
a village into a real city, although the sewerage 
system did not begin to approach completion until 
Mayor Lewis' term (1870-77). 

The various changes in the municipal service 
were not embodied in organic law until the Charter 
of 1869, New Haven's fourth charter. The Charter 
was drawn up by the Common Council in 1867, 
and granted by the Legislature in the ne.xt year. 
But a city meeting in September, 1S68, rejected it, 
apparently for the sole reason that it vested in the 
city all the title of the State to the tide-water flats 
within the city limits. In 1869, the Charter, shorn 
of this objectionable clause, was presented once 
more, and was adopted. 

Besides the usual enlargement of the duties of 
the Common Council, the most prominent feature 
of the Charter of 1869 was the establishment of the 
present City Court. The Recorder's Court was 
abolished, and both civil and criminal jurisdictions 
were entrusted to the City Court's Judge and Assist- 
ant Judge, chosen by the General .\ssembly. As 
before, the City Attorney was the appointee of the 
Court, but the functions of legal adviser to the 
Corporation were transferred from him to the newly- 
created officer, the Corporation Counsel. The 
annual city elections were hereafter to be held on 
the first Monday in October, and the municipal and 
calendar years were made coterminous. 

The fifth and latest City Charter, that of 1881, 
has fi.\ed the city election (or the first Tuesday in 
December, and has endeavored to improve the 
arrangement of the various departments, especially 
by insuring equal representation of the two political 
parties upon the Boards of Commissioners. Prior 
to 1853, the Ward system did not e.xist in New 
Haven; the four Wards of that year became six in 
1857. In 1870, the Fair Haven peninsula was re- 
united to the city, and the number of Wards in- 
creased to ten in 1874. Three years later, the city 
^yas rcdistricted into twelve Wards. 



New Haven's urban development has been 
marked by the careful conservatism so generally 
characteristic of the community. One hundred 
years ago some individuals of great enterprise and 
ability obtained for their city a transient promise of 
commercial greatness, and to their private initiative- 
was mainly due the municipal improvement of 
those years. The troubles with England destroyed 
the foreign trade and blighted the hopes of growth 
and wealth. Until i860, or at least until 1S48, 
New Haven was a quiet collegiate village rather 
than a city. Within the present generation. New 
Haven has begun to e.xert the public activities of a 
live and growing city, but it has progressed by 
hesitating steps rather than by hasty strides. It has 
been necessary to contend against a discouraging 
amount of stolid inertia in the successive struggles 
for pavements, lights, water, sewers, good streets, 
etc., and especially in the eff'orts to improve the 
municipal administration. 

About i860 there were concerted and intelligent 
attempts to amend the public service, and from 
that time a praiseworthy tendency to lengthen the 
official tenures has been evident in the political life 
of the community. At the present time the thirty- 
si.x Councilmen and the Treasurer are the only 
prominent members of the city government who 
are subject to annual elections. The Mayor, the 
twenty-four Aldermen, the City Clerk, Auditor, 
Sheriff, and the Corporation Counsel are among 
those who are chosen for tw'o years, while all the 
members of the Departmental Commissions and 
the Coroner serve for three years. The more recent 
endeavor to secure non-partisan Boards of Com- 
missioners was also well-intentioned, and was doubt- 
less the best thing that could be done with the 
existing clumsy departmental machinery. Neverthe- 
less very little has been accomplished in the neces- 
■sary work of releasing the city government from its 
dependence upon the management and intrigue of 
partisan politics. 

Principal Memuers of the Present ('ity Govern- 
ment. 



Elected by the People. 



24 Aldermen. 

Treasurer. 

Auditor. 



M.iyor. 



36 Couiieilineii. 
City Clerk. 
Sheriff. 



Elected by the Common Council, Separately or conjointly. 

6 Commissioners of Public Works. 
6 Commissioners of Police. 
6 Commissioners of Fire De])aitment. 
6 Commissioners of Finance. 
Corporation Council. 
4 Standing Committees. 
17 Joint Standing Committees. 
2 Hoards of Compensation, 3 members each. 

2 Boards of Commissioners of Sinking Funds, 3 mem 
bers each. 

Assistant City Clerk. 
144 Jurors of the City Court. 
Weighers, Measurers, Surveyors, Inspectors, and Con 

stables. 
.Scaler of Weights and Measures. 

3 .Supervisiirs of Steam-Boilers. 
Clerks and Janitor. 



MUNICIPAL HISTORY. 



451 



Appointed by Mayor, subject to confirmation . 

3 Commissioners of Public Buildings. 

2 Commissioners of East Rock Park. 
6 Commissioners of Public Health. 

Appointed in iSS i by Citizen Donors of the Park, sitliject 
to confirmation by the Mayor. 

3 Park Commissioners, who are afterwards self perpetu- 
ating. 

Elected by the various Commissions. 

All Subordinates in the Department. 

Elected by the Legislature of the State. 

Judge of the City Court— two years' term. 
Associate Judge of the City Court— two years' term. 
6 Harlior Commissioners— three years' term. 

Members of the Court of Common Council of 
THE CiTv OF New H.wek from the Organiza- 
tion OF the City Government, February io, 
1784, to January, 1885. 

City incorporated January 8, 1784. Divided 
into four Wards in 1853; into six in 1857; into ten 
in 1874; into twelve in 1877. 

The officers whose names are marked by a star, 
were elected February 10, 1784. There were two 
elections in that year, one in February, when the 
city government was organized, and another June 
1st, when the municipal year began. 

The dates in the list are inclusive. 

Adriance, John B. , Councilman, Second Ward, June, 1S70, 

to January, 1872. 
Ahern, Micliael, Councilman, Third Ward, 1S76. 
Allen, Charles J., Councilman, 1835-37, 1S43. 
Allen, Charles \V., Councilman, 1852, Fourth Ward, 1853. 
Allen, George S., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1873-74; 

Alderman, Fifth Ward, October, 1874, to January, 

1876. 
Allen, Heman B. , Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1857. 
Ailing, George, Councilman, 1852; Sixth Ward, i860; Sec- 
ond Ward, 1874. 
Ailing, Stephen, Councilman, 1799-180S. 
Altman, Frank, Councilman, Second Ward, June, 1870, to 

January, 1872. 
Anderson, Isaac, Councilman, 1844-45, 1849-50: Alderman, 

Sixth Ward, 1861. 
Andrews, Burr, Councilman, Third Ward, 1853. 
Andrews, Everett C, Councilman, First Ward, 1S67. 
Andruss, Henry F., Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1869. 
Anthony, Willis M,, Councilman, Third Ward, 1S54-56. 
Armstrong, Charles P., Alderman, Second Ward, 1878-80. 
Armstrong, Montgomery, Councilman, Second Ward, 1856, 

Third Ward, '1857-58; Alderman, Third Ward, 1859. 
Armstrong, Richmond W., Alderman, Second Ward, 

1883-84. 
Arnold, George S., Councilman, Second Ward, 1878-80. 
Atwater, Charles, Junior, Alderman, Fourth Ward, 1858. 
Atwater, Elihu, Councilman, lS34;.\lderman, 1S42-43, 1849. 
•Atwater, Jeremiah, Councilman, 17S4-87. 
Atwater, Jeremiah J., Councilman, First Ward, 1865. 
Atwater, William J., Councilman, Sixth Ward, June, 1870, 

to January, 1871, 1872; Alderman, Eighth Ward, 

187S-80. 
•Augur, .\braham. Councilman, 1784. 
Augur, J. Minott, Councilman, SLxth Ward, 1864-65. 
•Austin, David, Alderman, 1784-97. 
Austin, Eli B., Councilman, 1838-41. 
Austin, Elijah, Councilman, 17S7-91. 
Austin, Henry, Councibnan, Second Ward, 1854. 

Babcock, Avery C, Councilman, 1847. 

Babcock, John, 2d, Councilman, 1S27-33. 

Bailey, Daniel J., Councilman, Third Ward, 1869. 



Baird, Andrew, Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1883. 

Baldwin, Charles A., Councilman, First Ward, 1872-73; 
Alderman, Tenth Ward, October, 1874, to December 
31, 1876. 

Baldwin, Charles L. , Councilman, Second Ward, 1873-74; 
Alderman, First Ward, October i, 1874, to December 
31, 1S81, 1883-84. 

Baldwin, Robert E., Councilman, Tenth Ward, 1S76-77. 

Baldwin, Roger S., Councilman, 1826; Alderman, 1828. 

Baldwin, Simeon, Councilman, 1798-99; Alderman, 1800- 
15, 1823, 1S25, 1828. 

Baldwin, Simeon E., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1S67-68; Al- 
derman, January 1, 1876, to January 1, 1S7S. 

Baldwin, William, Councilman, 1819. 

Baldwin, William B., Councilman, 1850-52; Fourth Ward, 

1855- 
•Ball, .Stephen, Councilman, 1784-96, 
Barber, Joseph, Councilman, 1838. 

Barden, Llewellyn J., Councilman, Eleventh Ward, 1881. 
Barker, James P., Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1881; Alder- 
man, Fifth Ward, 1883-84. 
Barnes, Augustus B., Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1877. 
Barnes, Amos F., Councilman, Third Ward, 1855-56. 
Barnes, Henry D., Councilman, Seventh Ward, June, 1S70, 

to January 1, 1872. 
Barnes, Samuel H., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1882, Fifth 

Ward, 18S5. 
Barnes, Seth, Councilman, 1821-22. 
Barnes, T. Attivater, Councilman, Eighth Ward, 1881-82; 

Alderman, Eighth Ward, 1883-84. 
Barnum, Starr H., Councilman, Ninth Ward, April, 1875, 
to fill vacancy until January i, 1876. 

Bartlett, William T., Councilman, First Ward, 1876-77; 
Alderman, First Ward, 1S78-80. 

Basserman, George A., Councilman, Third Ward, i860. 

Bassett, Julius G., Councilman, Third Ward, 1874. 

B,issett, Samuel .S., Councilman, Second Ward, 1856. 

Bates, Charles, Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1865-66. 

Beach, George E., Councilman, Fii'st Ward, 1865-67. 

Be.ach, Henry O., Councilman, Fiist Ward, 1859-60; Alder- 
man, First Ward, 1861. 

Beach, John S., Councilman, First Ward, 1853. 

Beach, William, Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1S55-58: Al- 
derman, Fifth Ward, November 29, 1861-62. 

•Bearilsley, Ebenezer, Councilman, 17S4-87, 

Beckley, William \.^ Councilman, Eighth Ward, 18S0. 

Beebe, Philander B., Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1856; 
.\lderman. Eleventh Ward, 1878-So. 

Beecher, Benjamin, Alderman, 1833-38. 

Beecher, Benjamin, Jr., Councilman, 1S47-50, Third Ward, 
1856, Fourth Ward, 1857. 

Beecher. Thaddeus, Councilman, 1788-1817. 

Beecher, Mariner, Jr., Councilman, Third Ward, 1868. 

Beers, Amos J., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1868: Alder- 
man, Fourth Ward, 1869. 

*Beers, Isaac, Alderman, 1784; Councilman, 1785-1810. 

Beers, Nathan, Councilman, 1790-96. 

Beers, Thomas J., Councilman, Filth Ward, 1879. 

Beers, William A., Councilman, First Ward, 1S79. 

Belcher, John D., Jr., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1885. 

Benedict, Henry W., Councilman, 1S52; .Second Ward, 
1859-60. 

Benton, Herbert E., Councilman, Tenth Ward, 1880-81; 
Alderman, Tenth Ward, 18S2-85. 

Benton, William I., Councilman, Second Ward, 1859-60. 

Benton, Seth F., Councilman, Seventh Ward, June, 1870, to 
January I, 1S72. 

Bergin, Martin, Councilman, Fifth Ward, June, 1870, to 
January 1, 1S72: Alderman, Fifth Ward, 1873-74. 

Bigelow, Hobart B., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1863; Alder- 
man, Sixth Ward, 1864. 

Bishop, Abraham, Alderman, 1820-21, 1826. 

Bishop, James E., Councilman, Twelfth Ward, iSSo. 

Bishop, Jeremiah A., Councilman, 1S4S-52. 

Bishop, Jonathan M., Councilman, Tenth Ward, 1885. 

Bishop, Lent, Councilman, 1819-20, 1832-33, 1S35. 

Bishop, Lent L., Councilm.an, 1836. 

•Bishop, Samuel, Alderman, 1784-93. 

Bishop, Samuel, Alderman, 1822. 

Blackman, Elisha, Councilman, First Ward, 1853-55, Sec- 
ond Ward, 1862. 



M 



452 



HISTORY OF THE CITF OF NEW HAVEN. 



Blake, John A., Councilman, First Ward, 1856-57. 

Blake, Philos, Alderman, 1839-41, Sixth Ward, 1857. 

Hlakeman, George, Councilman, Sixth Ward, lS6g 71. 

Blakeslee, Charles P., Couneilnuin, Ninth Ward, 1884. 

Hlakeslee, Charles W., Councilman, Tenth Ward, 1884-85. 

Blakeslee, D. A., Councilman, Second Ward. 1881-S2. 

HIanchard, Henry W., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1866-67. 

lilatchley, Charles C, Councilman, .Seventh Ward, 1S72. 

Boarduian, William W., Councilman, 1824, First Ward, 
1864; Alderman, 1S25, 1827, 1829-31, 1850, 1865-66. 

Hohan, Patrick F., Councilman, Third Ward, 1882. 

Bohan, William, Councilman, Third Ward, 1872-73. 

Bohn, (Jeorge, Councilman, Third Ward, 1884. 

Booth, Natlumiel, Councilman, 1S30, 1S40. 

Booth, Wilson, Councilman, 1843-44, Second Ward, 1854. 

Bostwick, Charles. Councilman, 1818, 1823, 1825, 1834-35. 

Bowduch, Jonas B., Councilman, 1842 43. 

Bowman, Frank A., Councilman, Tenth Ward, 1883. 

Bowman, Horace, Jr., Councilman, Second Ward, 1865-66. 

Bradley, Abraham, Alderman, 1805. 

Bradley, Amos, Councilman, 1S37-38. 

Bradley, Beriah, Councilman, 1841-42; Alderman, 1843-46. 

Bradley, George, Councilman, 1S30, 1839. 

Bradley, l3a.ac. Councilman, 1832 33. 

Bradley, John C, Alderman, Eleventh Ward, 1884-85, 

*Bradley, Joseph, Councilman, 17S4, 1792-98. 

Bradley, Levi B., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1S55. 

Bradley, Nehemiah, Councilman, 1S27, 1830. 

Bradley, William H., Councilman, Third Ward, 1S55-56, 
Fourth Ward, 1857, F'ifth Ward, 1862; Alderman, 
Fifth Ward, June, 1870, to January, 1874. 

Bradley, William J., Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1882; Al- 
derman, Seventh Ward, 1883-86. 

Bradn.ack, James J., Councilman, Eighth Ward, 1882. 

Bree, Peter J., Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1875; Alder- 
man, Twelfth Ward, 1S7S-79. 

Brennan, John J., Alderman, Twelfth Ward, 1885-86. 

Hrernian, William, Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1877. 

Brewster, James, Councilman, 1828; Alderman, 1844. 

Brinley. John, Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1878. 

Brinlnall, Caleb, Councilman, 1826, 182S; Alderman, l8;i- 

38. 
Bristoll, William, Alderman, iSiS, 1821, 1826. 
Bristoll, William B., Councilman, 1834-36; Alderman, 

1839 40. 
Bristoll, Wyllis, Councilman, 1842-46; .\lderman, 1847, Third 

Ward, 1853-54. 
Bromley, Edward, Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1865-66. 
Bronson, Samuel L, Alderman, Second Ward, 1874. 
Broome, Samuel, Councilman, 1785. 
Brothers, Frederick J., Coimcilman, Sixth Ward, 1785. 
Brown, Benjamin F^, Councilman, F'.ighlh Ward, 1882-83; 

.\lderman. Eighth Ward, 1884-85. 
Brown, Daniel, 2d, t'ouncilman, 1824-27, 1S30-31. 
Brown, Daniel II., C'ouncilman, Twelfth Ward, 1885. 
Brown, Francis 11., ('ouncilman. Fourth Ward, 1856. 
Brown, Michael, Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1879. 
Brown, Roswell J, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 185S 59. 
Brown, Thomas, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1865 67. 
Brown, William II., Councilman, Fourth Ward, June, 1S70, 

to January i, 1872. 
Bryan, Etiward, .Mdcrnian, Second Ward, 1S78-79. 
Buckingham. Frederick 1.., Councilman, Seventh \Vard,l876; 

Alderman, Seventh Ward, 1877. 
Budington, Asa, Councilman, 1827-30. 
liunce. Jarvis P., Councilman, 1S41. 
Buiuiell, Henry H., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 186S-69; 

Alderman, Fourth Ward, June, 1870. to J.iiniary, 1873. 
Burchell, Richaril F., Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1875. 
Burns, Patrick, Councilman, Second W.ird, 1869, Third 

Ward, 1880. 
liurr, Josiah, Councilman, 17S9. 
•Burritt, Abc-l, Councilman, 1784. 
Burritt, Ransom, Councilman, 1826. 
P.urwcll, Beach, Councilman, Second Ward, 1874. 
BurwcU, David C, Councilman, Eleventh Ward, 1S78-80; 

Alderman, Eleventh Ward, 1881-S2. 
Bushnell, Nathan T.. .\lderman. Second Ward, 1873 74: 

First Ward, October, 1874, to January i, 1876. 
Busse, Francis T., Councilman, Twelfth Ward, 1878-79. 
Butler, Charles, Councilman, Fifth W.ud, 1S60 65. 



Butler, George A., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1S69: .\Uler- 

man. Ninth Ward, 1878. 
Butler, Sylvanus, Councilman, Third Ward, 1855-56; .\lder 

man. Fifth Ward, 1857. 
Byington, Charles, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1S57. Died in 

office. 

Cable, Julius C, Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1S77. 
Cadwell, Edward, Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1884. 
Cahill, Thomas W., Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1857-5.S. 

Alderman, Fifth Ward, 1859-61. 
Cahill, Daniel, Alderman, Sixth Ward, October, 1S74, to 

January 1, 1S78. 
Calhoun, David P., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1873-74; 

Ninth Ward, 1875. Died in office. 
Camji, Ellery, Councilman, Fourth Ward, iS74,First Ward, 

1875. 
Camp, Hiram, Councilman, Third Ward, 1853-54. 
Camp Leverett L., Alderman, Tenth Ward, October, 1874, 

to December 31, 1S77. 
Canada, William, Councilman, Second Ward, 1854. 
Candee, John D., Councilman, Second Ward. 1858. 
Canfield, Edward M., Councilman, Second Ward, 1867. 
Cannon, LeGrand, Councilman, Second Ward, 1855. 
Cannon, James, Councilman, Third Ward, 186S. 
Cannon, William T., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1862-64. 
Carlisle, Charles, Alderman, Fourth Ward, 1859. 
Carmichael, John J., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1S77. 
Carrington, John B,, Councihuan, 1851-52. 
Carrington, Henry A., Councilman, F'irst Ward, 1869, to 

January, 1870. 
Carroll, Daniel, Councilman, Third Ward, 1866, 1868-71. 
Carroll, Francis, Councilman, Twelfth Ward, 18S1. 
Carroll, James, Councilman, Third Ward, 1874. 
Case, Oliver F., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1873. 
Catlin, William B., Councilman, Third Ward, 1S67. 
Chandler, Noah, Councilman, 1846. 
Chapman, George A., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1860-61; 

Alderman, Fourth Ward, 1866-6S. 
Chapman, John G., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1S67 68. 
Chapman, Joshua E., Councilman, Eleventh Ward, 1878 79. 
Chapman, Russell, Councilman, 1852. 
Chase, Frederick A., Councilman, Eleventh Ward, 1878-79; 

Alderman, Eleventh Ward, 1880-Sl. 
Chattield, Lenian, t'ouncilman, 1824. 

ChatfieKl, Philo, Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1858-59; Alder- 
man, Sixth Ward, 1860-63. 
Chatterton, John H., Councilman, 1842-45. Died in 

office. 
Chatlerton, Thomas, Councilman, 1850-51. 
Chauncey, Charles, Councilman, 1784. 
Clancy, John, Alderman, Fmirth Ward, 1S82-S3. 
Clark, A. Noyes, Councilman, Tenth Ward, 1875-76. 
Clark, Henry W., Councilman, Secoiul Ward, 1S78-79. 
Clark, Wilson II., Alderman, Second Ward, 1869. 
Clarke, fJeorge C, Councilman, Ninth Ward, 1882-84. 
Clarke, Henry L., Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1864. 
Clarke, Joseph N., Councilman, 1820-28; .\lderm;in, 1829-31, 
Clarke, Parsons, ('ouncilman, 1793-95. 
Coburn, Alexander ()., Councilman, 1842-44. 
Cofl'ee. Richard H., Councilman, Third Ward, 18S2; 

Alderman, Third Ward, 1883-84. 
Coley, John H., Councilman, 1826-28. 
Collins, John W., Councilman, Third Ward, 1853-54. 
Collis, .Solomon, Councilman, 1835 38. 
Colt, Anson T., Councihuan, 1838. 
Coogan, James J., Conncilnian, Sixth Ward, 1878 So. 
Cook, George, Alderman, Sixth Wanl, 1858-5O. 
Cooley, George R., Councilman, Third Ward, 1879 80. 
Cooper, Daniel S., Councilman, Fourth Ward, lS()9 71. 
Countryman, Nicholas,Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1860-61, 

Third Ward, 1874; Alderman, Fourth Ward. October 

1874, to December 31, 1S76. 
Cowles, Riicl P., Councilman. Second Ward, X859. 
Crane, Robert, Councilman, Tenth Ward, 1879-80. 
Crane, Samuel R., Councilman, 1819. 
Cnman, John, Councilman, Third Ward, 1S72. 
Curtiss, Charles W., Alderman, 1842. 
Curtiss, George W., Councihuan, Tenth Ward, 1S75, 
Curtiss, Judson, Councilm.m, 1837. 
dishing, William L.. Councilman, First Ward, 1881 82, 



I 



MUNICIPAL HISTORY. 



453 



Daggett, Alfred, Councilman, 1832-38. 

Daggett, David, Councilman, 1791-1802. 

•Daggftt, Henry, Councilman, 1784-85, 178S: Alderman, 
1786 87, 1789-1818. 

Daggett, Henry, Jr., Councilman, iSog-17. 

Dailey, Hugh, Councilman, TeiUh Ward, 1884: Alderman, 
Tenth Ward, 1885-86, 

Darling. Joseph, Councilman, 1S05-8: Alderman, 1800-4, 
1S10-17. 

Dawson, Henry S., Councilman, Second Ward, 1857; Al- 
derman, Second Ward, 1858. 

Day, Wilbur F., Alderman, Ninth Ward, OctolxT, 1874, to 
December 31, 1877. 

Day, Zelotes, Councilman, 1835-38; Alderman, 1841. 

DeForest, William B., Alderman, Fourth Ward, 1865-66, 
.Sisth Ward, 1S67-68; also from June, 1870, to January 
I, 1872. 

Defrees, John F., Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1882-83; Al- 
derman, Seventh Ward, 1S84-85. 

Degnan, Patrick, Councilman, Third Ward, 1877. 

Deming, Lucius P., Councilman, .Seventh Ward, 1S74. 

Denison, Charles, Alderman, 1806-15. 

Denison, Charles C, -Vlderman, Seventh Ward, 1872, to 
January 1, 1S78. 

Denison, Henry,Councilman, 1826, 1828; Alderman, 1828, to 
fill vacancy. 

Dexter, Norman, Councilman, 1819-20. 

Dibble, Horace P., Councilman, First Ward, 1869-71. 

Dickerman, Elisha, Jr., Councilman, 1838-41; Alderman, 
1842. 

Dickerman, George L. , Alderman, Second Ward, 1885-86. 

Dillon, Michael, Alderman, Third Ward, 1874, 1880-81. 

Disbrow, John L., Councilman, Third Ward, June, 1870, to 
December 31, 1871. 

Diskin, Thomas, Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1878-89. 

Doane, Homer J., Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1878; Al- 
derman, Seventh Ward, 1879-80. 

Doerschuck, Franz, Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1879-80. 

Donnelly, Francis, Alderman, Seventh Ward, June, 1870, to 
January 1, 1873. 

Doohan, John J., Councilman, Twelfth Ward, 1878. 

Dorman, Harvey B., Councilman, Second Ward, 1875. 

Doty, Charles, Jr., Councilman, Seventh Ward, 187S; Al- 
derman, Seventh Ward, 1S81-82. 

Douglas, Benajah H., Councilman, Fourth Wai-d, 1862-65; 
Alderman, Fourth Ward, 1874. 

Dow, Edwin C, Councilman, Ninth Ward, 1876-77. 

Drake, Joseph, Councilman, 1803-4. 

Driscoll, Cornelius T., Councihnan, First Ward, 1874, Fifth 
Ward, 1877; Alderman, Fifth Ward, 1S7S-81. 

Dunn, Thomas, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1868-69. 

Durand, Mason A., Councilman, 1829. 

Durand, George A., Councilman, Si.xth Ward, 1869, 1872. 

Durrie, John, Councilman, 1829-30, 1840; Alderman, 1851- 

52- 
Dwight, William, Councilman, 1832-33. 

Eagan, Michael, 2d, Councilman, Twelfth Ward, 1882. 
Earle, Joseph C, Councilman, Second Ward, 1884-85. 
Edwards, Henry W., Alderman, 1822-27, 1830. 
Edwards, John W., Councilman, 1831. 
Edwards, NoyesE., Councilman, Ninth Ward, 1880. 
*Edwards, Pierpont, Councilman, 1784-90. 
Egan, John, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1859-60, 1S62; Alder- 
man", Fifth Ward, 1867-72. 
Egan, William, Alderman, Tliird Ward, 1879-80. 
Egan, Michael, Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1872. 
Filers, Henry, Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1879-81. 
Elliott, Lewis, Jr. , Councilm.an, Second Ward, 1881. 
Elliott, Matthew G., Councilman, 1844-47; Alderman, 1848- 

Elson, Henry, Councilman, Eighth Ward, 1878-79; Alder- 
man, Eighth Ward, 18S0-81. 
Embler, Andrew H., Councilman, Second Ward, 1885. 
English, Charles L., Councilman, 1851-52. 
English, George D., Councilman, 1848. 
English, James, Councilman, 1822-23, 1832-34. 
English, James E., Councilman, 1848. 
Eno, William H., Councilman, First Ward, 1869. 
Enscor, Michael R., Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1861. 
Ensign, Thomas, Councilman, 1839-42, 1849. 



Ensign, Thomas W., Councilman, Second Ward, 1S53. 
Ensign, Wooster A., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1855-56. 
Evart, Curtis F., Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1876. 

Fabrique, Charles, Councilman, First Ward, 1861-63; Al- 
derman, First Ward, 1864. 

Fairchild, Joseph, Councilman, 1830-34. 

Fairman, James, Councilman, Third Ward, 1853; Alderman, 
Second Ward, 1872-73. 

Falsey, Patrick, Councilman, Twelfth Ward, 1883 85. 

Farnam, Charles H , Councilman, Ninth Ward, 1879; Al- 
derman, Ninth Ward, 1880-81. 

Farnsworth, Frederick B., Councilman, Eighth Ward, 1880- 
81, Ninth Ward, 1876-77; Alderman, Eighth Ward, 
1882-83. 

Farrell, Francis, Councilman, Third Ward, 1875-76. 

Faughnan, Patrick J., Councilman, Third Ward, 1875. 

Faulhaber, George, Councilman, Third Ward, 1877-79; ^' 
derman. Third Ward. 1881-82. 

Finch, Lucius R., Councilman, 1844-47. 

Fish, Franklin W., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1857. 

Fisher, Francis S., Alderman, Eleventh Ward, 1885 86. 

Fitch, Jonathan, Councilman, 1784. 

Fitch, John W., Councilman, 1842-43; Alderman, Second 
Ward, 1857. 

Fitch, Nathaniel, Councilman, 1766-68. 

Fitzpatrick, Thomas F., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1S85. 

Flagg, James H., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1885. 

Flagg, Nahum, Councilman, 1830. 

Flanigan, John J., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1875-76; Al- 
derman, Seventh Ward, 1878. 

Flynn, Daniel, Councilman, Third Ward, 1883. 

Flynn, John J., Councilman, Third Ward, 1884-85. 

Foote, Isaac, Councilman, 1838. 

Foote, Joel B. , Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1858, 1 868. 

Foote, Truman S., Councilman, First Ward, 1875. 

Foster, Eleazar K., Councilman, 1S39-40; Alderman, First 
Ward, 1853. 

Foster, William L., Councilman, Eighth Ward, 1880. 

Frank, Henry, Councilman, Third Ward, 1872. 

French, Wales, Councdman, Second Ward, 1S61. 

Frisbie, Elijah H., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1865. 

Frisbie, William M., Councilman, Ninth Ward, 1884. 

Frost, Herrick P., Councilman, Second Ward, 1867-68; Al- 
derm.in. Eighth Ward, October, 1870, to December 31, 
1876. 

Fuller, William, Councilman, Third Ward, 1872: Alderman, 
Fourth Ward, 1878-79. 

Fulton, Thomas H., Councilman, Third Ward, 1S62; .M- 
dcrman, Third Ward, June, 1870, to January, 1S73. 

Fulton, Willis H., Alderman, Fourth Ward, 1S80-S1. 

Gallagher, [ames. Alderman, Third Ward, 1857-58. 

Gallagher, John C, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1883-84 

Galpin, Phili]) S., Councilman, 1S23, 1826, 182S-29. 

Gardiner, John, Councilman, Ninth Ward, 1878. 

Gaynor, Thomas F., Councilman, Third Ward, 1878. 

Geary, William, Councilman, F;ightli W.ard, 1875. 

Gerard, Charles E., Councilm.an, Fourth Ward, 1881-82. 

Gilbert, Eldad, Councilman, 1821-22. 

Gilbert, Elias, Councilman, 1824, 1829. 

Gilbert, Isaac, Councilman, 1818-20. 

♦Gilbert, Joel, Councilman, 17S4. 

(;ilbert, John, Councilman, 1827, 1830-31. 

Gilbert, Levi, Councilman, 1S40, 1842. 

Gilbert, Levi, 2d, Councilman, 1834 41. 

Gilbert, Lucius, Councilman, Second Ward, 1S55; .Alder- 
man, 1865-66. 

Gilbert, Sereno I., Councilman, Tenth Ward, 1S75. 

Gilbert, Stephen, Councilman, 1848 49; Alderman, 1850. 

Glenney, Daniel S., .\lderman. Fifth Ward, 1S76-77. 

Goebel, Henry F., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1SS3-S4; 
Alderman, Sixth Ward, 1885-86. 

Cloebel, Joseph, Councilman, Second Ward, 1877. 

Goering, George, Councilm.an, Nhith Ward, 1883. 

Goodrich, Elizur, Councilman, 1789-1802; Alderman, August 
19, 1783-99, 1825. 1828, elected, but declined. 

Goodrich, James, Alderman, 1823; Cimncilman, 1S26. 

Goodsell, Evelyn P., Jr., Alderman, Seventh Ward, June, 
1870, to January I, 1872. 

Goodsell, Jiihn D., Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1872, 1874. 



454 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



Goodsell, James II., Councilman, Twelfth Ward, 1SS4. 
(iorham, Frederick 1'., Councilman, Second Ward, 1855-56. 
Gorham, Samuel B., Councilman, 1846-47. 
Gower, George D., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1868-69. 
Granniss, Benjamin, Councilman, 1818-19; Alderman, 

1820-21. 
Granniss, Sherman E., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1866-67, 

1S74. 
Granniss, Smith, Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1872. 
Graver, John, Councilman, Second Ward, 1864. 
Graves, Charles E., Councilman, Eighth Ward, 1883-84; 

Alderman, Eighth Ward, 1S85-86. 
Graves, John S., Councilman, 1S48, 1S50. 
Gregory, (ieorge. Councilman, Eighth Ward, 1876-77. 
Greeley, Edwin S., Alderman, Eighth Ward, 1878-79. 
Griffin, Lyman B., Alderman, Ninth Ward, 1882-83. 
Griffing, John S., Councilman, 1848. 
Grinnell,'Kranl< D., Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1885. 
Griswold, Leverett, Councilman, 1826, 1831-33, 1849-50. 
Griswold, Samuel, 2d, Councilman, 1842-44, Sixth Ward, 

1858. 
Griswold, Samuel, Councilman, First Ward, 1865-66. 
Gunn, Charles W., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 18S4. 
Gunn, Jobamah, Councilman, Second Ward, 1854, 1857-5S. 
Gurner, Charles, Councilman, Eighth Ward, 1876. 
Gunning, Thomas, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1880. 

Hadlock, Levi, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1876. 
Hale, Henry, Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1859. 
Hall, Leman, Councilman, 1821. 

Hall, Nathan F., Councilman, 1851-52; Fourth Ward, 1853. 
Hallenbeck, Nicholas S., Councilman, 1846. 
Hamilton, Francis S., Councilman, Eleventh Ward, 1885. 
Hammell, Edward, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1868, 1873; 
Alderman, F^ighth Ward, Octolier, 1874, to December 

31,1875- 
Hancock, William H., Councilman, Ninth Ward, 1877-80. 
Harmon, George M., Alderman, Tenth Ward, 1878-80. 
Harris, Samuel H., Councilman, Second Ward, 1863-66. 
Harrison, Albert R., Councilman, Second Ward, 1853. 
Harrison, Alexander, Councilman, 1824-25, 1830. 
Harrison, Edward, Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1860-61; 

Alderman, Sixth Ward, 1862. 
Harrison, Francis E., Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1S75-76. 
Harrison, Francis J., Councilman, Twelfth Ward, 1880. 
Harrison, Henry A., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1872-73. 
Harrison, Henry B., Councilman, 1852. 
Harrison, Israel, Councilman, 1836-39. 
Harrison, Justus, Councilman, 1829. 
Havcy, James D., Councilman, Second Ward, 1884. 
Ilayden, John C, Councilman, Second Ward, 1853, 1855. 
Hayes, Ctiarles E., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1858 59. 
Hayes, Ezekiel, Councilman, 1847. 

Hayward, Nahum, Councilman, 1831, 1834 35, 1837 40. 
Healey, Bartholomew, Councilman, Third Ward, 1S61-62. 
Healey, Francis, Councilman, Twelfth Ward, 1878. 
Healey, John G., Alderman, Third Ward, 1872-73. 
Hemingway, James T., Councilman, 1S46 47. 
Hemingway, .Morris, Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1876. 
Hcrrick, Edward C, Councilman, 1841. 
Hicks, Cleorge W., Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1857-59; 

Alderman, Fifth Ward, 1866. 
Higgins, I'hilip, Coimcilman, Third Ward, 1878. 
Hill, Henry K., Councilman, Ninth Ward, 1882 S3: Alder- 

man. Ninth Ward, 1885-86. 
*1 lillliouse, James, Councilman, 1784, 1817. 
Ilillhousc, William, Councilman, 1791-92. 
Ildton, Charles IL, Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1881-82. 
Hine, Gilbert J., Councilman, First Ward, 1863-64, 1867 6S. 
Hinc, Philander li.. Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1854. 
llinman, Lucius B., Councilman, Second Ward, 1877. 
Hitchcock, Burrilt, Councilman, Second Ward, 1862. 
Iloadley, (leorge. Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1866-68. 
Hoa<Iley, Philemon, Councilman, 1849. 
Ilolcomb, George F., Alderman, Fifth Ward, 1878 80. 
Holland, P.atrick, Councilman, Fifth Ward, June, 1870, to 

January, 1872. 
ilollinger, Robert A., Alderman, Third Ward, 1885-86. 
Hollis, Thomas C, Jr., Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1884. 
Holmes, A. Wilson, Councilman, Tenth Ward, 18S2 83. 
Holt, Willis R., Alderman, Eleventh Ward, 1878-79. 



Hooker, Henry, Councilman, 1840-42. 
Horsfall,Thomas,Councilman, 1 850-52; Second Ward, 1853. 
Hosmer, George, Councilman, Eighth Ward, 1875. 
Hotchkiss, Andrew P., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1859. 
Hotchkiss, Charles F., Councilman, Third Ward, 1864-65. 
Hotchkiss, Edward W., Alderman, Fifth Ward, Uctolier, 

1874, to February 17, 1875. Died in office. 
Hotchkiss, Ezra, Councilman, 1834-37. 
Hotchkiss, Hezekiah, Councilman, 1796-99, 1801-18. 
Hotchkiss, Horace R., Councilman, 1828. 
Hotchkiss, John B., Councilman, Third W,ard, 1854. 
Hotchkiss, John G., Councilman, 1841. 
Hotchkiss, Obadiah, Councilman. 1805-8, 1819-22. 
Hotchkiss, Russell, Councilman, 1823-26, 1828-29, 1836: 

Alderman, Fourth Ward, 1853. 
Hotchkiss, Shelden, Councilman, 1843. 
Hotchkiss, Wooster, Councilman, 1846-48. Died in office. 
Howarth, Thomas H., Councilman, Second Ward, i860. 
Howe, Hezekiah, Councilman, 1815-17, 1823. 
*Howell, Joseph, Councilman, 1784. 
•Howell, Thomas, Alderman, 1784, 1788; Councilman, 

1786-87. 
Hoyt, Abijah, Councilman, 1843-44. 
Hubbell, Charles P., Councilman, 1843-46. 
Huggins, Edward E., Councilman, 1851. 
Huggins, Henry T., Councilman, 1838-39. 
Huggins, Samuel, Councilman. 1819. 
Hughes, William, Alderman, Fifth Ward, 1885-86. 
Hugo, Philip, Councilman, Filth Ward, 1873. 
Hugo, Frank, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1874; Sixth Ward, 

1875. 
Hull, Elam, Councilman, 1839. 
Hull, Elisha, Councilman, 1823. 
Hull, Louis K., Councilman, First Ward, 1885. 
Hull, Sidney, Alderman, 1832 33; Councilman, 1835-37. 
Hull, William, Councilman, 1S51-52; First Ward, 1853. 
Humiston, John G., Councilman, 1848-49. 
Hunt, John, Alderman, 1818 19. 
Hurlburt, Alfred IL, Councilman, Third Ward, 1876. 

Ingersoll, Charles A., Councilman, 1825; Alderm.an, 1832. 

Ingersoll, Charles R., Alderman, Second Ward, 1855-56. 

•IngersoU, Jonathan, Councilman, 1784, 1788. 

Ingersoll, Jonathan, Councilman, Fourth Ward, June, 1870, 
to January 1, 1872. 

Ingham, Stephen V., Councilman, First Ward, 1861-64. 

Ives, Hoadley B., Councilman, First Ward, 1865-66; Al- 
derman, First Ward, 1867-68. 

Ives, Levi, Councilman, 1818; Alderman, 1819 20, 1829. 

Jacocks, John H., Councilman, 1809-18. 
Jackson, William, Councilman, Ninth War<l, 1885. 
Jacobs, Walter E., Councilman, Eleventh Ward, iSSo Si. 
Jefferson, Thomas (S.W., Councilman, Twelfth Ward, 1SS2; 

Alderman, Twelfth Ward, 1883-84. 
Jennings, William, Councilman, 1845-47. 
Jerome, S. Bryan, Councilman, 1851 52. 
Johnson, Charles L., Councilman, First Ward, 1880. 
Johnson, Edgar A., Councilman, Eleventh Ward, 1882. 
Johnson, Peter, Councilman. 1797. 

Johnson, Samuel, Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1860-61; Al- 
derman, F'lflh Ward, 1863-65. 
Johnson, William, Councilman, 1849-51. 
Johnson, William B., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1856 57; 

Alderman, F-onrth Ward, i8fK3-6i. 
Jones, Charles T. , Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1875. 
Jones, Herbert, Councilman, F^leventh Ward, 1S82-83. 
Jones, Thomas 1)., Councilman, Seventh Ward, June, 1870, 

to December 31, 1S71. 
•Jones, Timothy, Councilman, 1784; Alderm.an, 1785 86, 

1788 99. 
Jones, William IL, Alderman, 1S22, 1S24-27, 1830; Coun- 

cihnan, 1 823, 1828. 
Jordin, Amaziah, Councilman, 1786-87. 
Judson, Isaac, Councilman, 1S30. 
Judson, L. B., Councilman, 1848. 
Judson, Willis G., Alderman, Fifth Ward, April, 1875, to 

Decemlier 3, 1877. Resigned. 

Kaehrle, William, Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1881 82. 
Kay, Henry, Councilman, Eleventh Ward, 1883. 



MUNICIPA L HIS TOR ) '. 



455 



Keating, Robert T., Alderman, Second Ward, 1876-78. 

Keefe, loseph 11., Councilman, Third Ward, 1867-68. 

Kehely', James T., Councilman, Second Ward, 1S75-76. 

Kelioe, Matthew, Councilman, Third Ward, 1S81-82. 

Kellam, Albert H., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1874. 

Kelley, William A., Councilman, Twelfth Ward, 1879-81; 
Alderman, Twelfth Ward, 1882-85. 

Kellogg, Henry, Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1863. 

Kellogg. Francis D., Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1873 74. 

Kelly, Daniel F., Councilman, Third Ward, 1883. 

Kennedy, James J., Alderman, Fourth Ward, 1884-85. 

Kennedy, Martin, Councilman, Third Ward, 1860-61. 

Kenney, lohn W., Councilman, Second Ward, 1885. 

Kent, Patrick, Councilman, Twelfth Ward, 1883-S4. 

Kettendorf, Henry, Alderman, Fourth Ward, 1876-77. 

Kidston, Andrew, Alderman, 1824. 

Kiernan, Tatrick F., Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1874. 

Kimball, John C, Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1861-62. 

Kiniberly, David, Councilman, 1821-22, 1824-25; Alder- 
man, 1831-33. 

Kimberly, Dennis, Councilman, 1823; Alderman, Novem- 
ber 7, 1825-29. 

King, George, Councilman, First Ward, 1854, 1858; Alder- 
man, First Ward, 1859. 

King, Nelson, Alderman, First Ward, 1873-74. 

Kinsella, James, Councilman, Fifth Ward, June, 1870, to 
1S72. 

Kirby, Samuel H., Councilman, Second Ward, 1882. 

Klein, Daniel, Councilman, Third Ward, 1859. 

Kleiner, Charles, Councilman, Fit\h Ward, 1885. 

Klenke, Ernest, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1877; Sixth Ward, 
1878-80; Alderman, Sixth Ward, 1S81-84. 

Knevals, Sherman W., Alderman, First Ward, 1855-57. 

Knevals, Stephen M., Councilman, First Ward, 1868. 

Knoth, William, Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1883-85. 

Krauss, Abraham, Councilman, Second Ward, 1868-69, 
1875-77- 

Landers, James P., Alderman, Twelfth Ward, 1880-81. 

Langley, Charles E., Councilman, Second Ward, 1883. 

Langley, Seth W., Councilman, Twelfth Ward, 1879; Al- 
derman, Twelfth Ward, 1881-82. 

Larkins, Ehlui, Councilman, First Ward, 1855-57. 

Latham, Joseph A., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1874, Ninth 
Ward, 1875, to fill vacancy. 

Law, Walter li.. Councilman, Tenth Ward. 1876-77. 

Law, William H., Alderman, F'irst Ward, 1882 83. 

Lawlor, Daniel, Councilman, Twelfth Ward, 1883. 

Lawrence, Edward, Councilman, Eighth Ward, 18S5. 

Lawton, James, Jr., Councilman, Third Ward, 18S0-81. 

Leavenworth, Mark, Councilman, 1786, 1788-90; Alder- 
man, 1787. 

Leaden, Michael, Councilman, Third Ward, 1867. 

IjcBars, Louis, Councilman, Third Ward, 1869. 

Leddy, Thomas, Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1879. 

Lee, Edwin, Councilman, First Ward, 1854. 

Leeds, John H , .\ldeiman, Third Ward, 1866-67. 

Lester, Timothy, Councilman, 1844. 

Lewis, Henry G., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1866. 

Lewis, William, Jr., Councilman, 1851-52, Fourth Ward, 
1853-54. 

Lincoln, William A., Councilman, First Ward, 1873-74. 

Lines, Augustus, Councilman, 1841, 1843-45. 

Lines, Frederick, Councilman 1832-37, 1840. 

Lines, George, Councilman, Second Ward, 1857. 

Loomis, Clark M., Councilman, Second Ward, 1872. 

Lord, Bela, Councilman, 1846-47. 

Ludington, Nelson A., Alderman, Seventh Ward, October, 
1S74, to December 31, 1875. 

Luft, Louis, Councilman, Eighth Ward, 1875. 

Lum, lienjamin C, Councilman, Ninth Ward, 1885. 

Lum, Frederick C, Councilman, Second Ward, 1878-79. 

Lutz, George, Councilman, Second Ward, 1880. 

Lyman, Daniel C, Councilman, 1784. 

Lyman, Henry W., Councilman, Filth Ward, i860. 

Lynch, James T., Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1878. 

Lyon, William, Councilman, 1788-96, 

Lysaight, Daniel, Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1884. 

Macheledt, John, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1878-79. 
Magie, Theodore B., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 18S0. 



Maher, John, Jr., Councilman, Third Ward, 1857-59, 1865. 

Maher, Michael, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1875. 

Maher, Thomas, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1861-63. 

Maltby, George E., Councilman, Second Ward, 1881. 

Maltby, George W., Councilman, 1852, Second Ward, 1853. 

Mansfield, Burton, Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1884 85. 

Mansfield, Giles, Councilman, 1824-25. 

Mansfield, John W., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1855. 

Mansfield, William, Jr., Councilman, 1851. 

Mansfield, Willis, Councilman, Third Ward, 1861-62. 

Mailhouse, Jacob, Councilman, Third Ward, 1869-71. 

Marlowe, William H., Councilman, Twelfth Ward, 1885. 

Marsh, Henry E., Councilman, Ninth Ward, 1881. 

Martin, (leorge B., Councilman, First Ward, 1884-85. 

Mason, James M., Councilman, 1850-52. 

Marble, Edwin, Alderman, Fourth Ward, 1863-64. 

McAlister, Alexander, Councilman, Second Ward, i86t 63; 
Alderman, Second Ward, 1864. 

McCaffrey, Thomas F., Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1862. Died 
in office. 

McCoy, Darwin L., Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1867. 

McDonald, Patrick, Councilman, Third Ward, 1879. 

McGann, James E., Alderman, Third Wanl, 1884-85. 

McGann, Thomas, Councilman, Third Ward, 1863-64; Al- 
derman, Third Ward, 1865, June, 1870, to December 

3I> 1*^71- 
McGovern, Michael, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1874. 
McGowan, James, Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1877. 
McGuire, William, Councilman, Third Ward, 1865-66. 
McHugh, Frank, Alderman, Third Ward, 1882-83. 
McHugh, Peter, Alderman, Third Ward, October, 1874, to 

December 31, 1877. 
McKiernan, Patrick, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1881-82. 
McLinn, Charles, Councilman, First Ward, 1874, 
McMahon, John J., Councilman, Fifth Ward, June, 1870- 

71, 1874. 
McMullen, Mark, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1865-66. 
McOueeny, Michael, Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1881-82. 
McWeeney, Thomas, Councilman, Third Ward, June, 1870, 

to December 31, 1871. 
Mealia, Michael, Councilman, Third Ward, 1883-84. 
Meigs, Richard W., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1880. 
Mellen, Samuel P., Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1859. 
Merrels, John W., Councilman, Eighth Ward, 1878-79. 
Merrick, John, Councilman, Eleventh Ward, 1884. 
Merrinian, James, Councilman, 1802-13. Died in office. 
Merriman, John, Councilman, 1838-40. 
Merriman, Marcus, Jr., Alderman, 1845-47. 
Mersick, Charles S., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1872. 
Mcrwin, George P., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1860-62. 
Merwin, Ira, Alderman, Fourth Ward, 1855-56. 
Merwin, Nathan W., Councilman, Second Ward, 1863-64. 
Mcrwin, Thomas P., Councilman, Second Ward, 1865-66. 
Miles, John, Councilman, 1S18-21. 
Miller, Adam, Councilman, Third Ward, 1874, Fourth 

Ward, 1S75; Alderman, Fourth Ward, 1876 77. 
Mills, Frank P., Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1883-84. 
Mills, Isaac, Councilman, 17971800; Alderman, 1801-4, 

1819-20. 
Mitchell, John S., Councilman, 1831. 
Mix, Allen, Councilman, Second Ward, 1856; Third Ward, 

1S57-58. 
Mix, Eli, Councilman, 1820-22, 1827, 1830. 
Mix, Eli, Councilman, Third Ward, 1873. 
Mix, Eli, Alderman, Second Ward, 1S82-83. 
Mix, Isaac, Councilman, 1S31-34; Alderman, 1835-37. 
Mix, Norris B., Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1861. 
Mix, Silas, Councilman, 1831. 
Mix, William, Councilman, 1819-20, 1822, 1825-26, 1830; 

Alderman, 1824. 
*Monson, Eneas, Councilman, 1784-85. 
Monson, Eneas, Jr., Councilman, 1804; Alderman, 1805, 

1819, 1828. 
Monson, Frank A., Councilman, First Ward, 18S1-83; Al- 
derman, First Ward, 1884-85. 
Monson, Henry, Councilman, 1820-21. 
Monson, Owen A., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1860-61. 
Morse, liennctt W., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1860-61. 
Morse, Charles T., Councilman, First Ward, 1878. 
Mor;e, William W., Alderman, Second Ward, June, 1870, 

to December 31, 1872. 



456 



HISTORY OF THE CITV OF NEW HA VEN. 



Morton, David, Jr., Councilman, Second Ward, 1874. 

Mosely, William, Alderman, 1 82 1 -23; Councilman, 1829-30. 

Moses, Newton, Councilman, 1848-52, First Ward, 1853; 
Alderman, First Ward, 1854. 

Morton, Horace, J., Councilman, 1837. 

Mullen, James T.," Alderman, Fourth Ward, October, 1874, 
to December 31, 1S75. 

Munday, Benajali, Councilman, 1844. 

Munsoii, Alfred 1'., Alderman, Fifth Ward, 1858; Council- 
man, Fifth Ward, 1867. 

Munson, Edwin IJ., Councilman, Second Ward, i860. 

Miuison, John E., .-Mderman. Twelfth Ward, 1878. 

Munson, Lyman E., Councilman, First Ward, 1878, 1882. 

Murdock Abraham, Councilman, 1834-35. 

Newgeon, Thompson W., Councilman, Second Ward, 1869. 
Nettleton, Charles A., Councilman, 1S42-46; Fourth Ward, 

1854. 
Nicholson, Jonathan, Councilman, 1842-44 ; Alderman, 

1845, 1847-48. 
Nolan, Michael, Councilman, tilth Ward, 1864, 1866. 
Noonan, William, Councilman, Third Ward, 1885. 
North, John G., Councilman, 1850-51. 

O'lirien, Lawrence, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1872, Sixth 

Ward, 1882. 
O'Brien, Patrick B., Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1869, 1873. 
O'Brien, Thomas, Alderman, Third Ward, 1873 74. 
O't'onnor, Patrick, Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1879-80. 
O'Donnell, Thomas, Councilman, Third Ward, 1S68. 
O'Donnell, William, Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1873. 
O'Keefe, John F., Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1880-81 ; 

Alderman, .Seventh Ward, 1882-83. 
O'Neil, Charles, Councilman, 1839-41. 
Oslwrn, Eli, Councilm.in, 1821-22. 
Osborn, Minott A. , Councilman, 1847-49. 
Osborne, Arthur D., Alderman, Second Ward, 1S59 60. 
Otto, Rcinhard, Councilman, Second Ward, 1859-60. 

Palmer, Charles W., Councilman, Tenth Ward, 1885. 

Palmer, James N., Alderman, First Ward, 1858. 

Panlee, Charles II., Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1862-63; 

Alderman, Fifth Ward, 1864. 
Pardee, Henry E., CoiiuLilman, Sixth Ward, 1861-62. 
F'ardee, John II., Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1877. 
Pardee, Leonard, Coinicilman, 1838, 1841 ; Alderman, 

F'ourth Ward, 1862. 
Pardee, William B., Councilman. Fourth Ward, 1866-67. 
I'cck, Charles, Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1864, 1866, 1872- 

7.S- 

Peck, Ebenezer, Councilman, 1805-14. 

Peck, Henry, Councilman, 1834 37; Alderman, 1838-40. 

Peck, Henry F., Councilman, Tenth Ward, 1877-78; Alder- 
man, Tenth Ward, 1880-81. 

Peck, Homer II., Councilman, FTrst Ward, 1858-60. 

Peck, John, Councilman, 1849-50. 

Peck, Lucius CJ., Councilman, 1845-48. 

Peck, Nathan, Councilman, 1816 18, 1823, 1S26, 1828-29. 

Peck, Nathan, Jr., .\lder)nan, 1849 51. 

Peck, Ozia.s W., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1867-68. 

Peck, Wyllis, Councilman, 1841-42 ; Alderman, 1S43-44, 
Second Ward, 1854. 

Perkins, Leonard H., Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1883. 

Perry, Horace B., Councilman, Tenth Ward. 1883 84. 

I'fuderer, Charles, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1865. 

I'hilc, Jacob 0., Councilman, Eighth Ward, 1876 77. 

Phillips, Charles M., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1878. 

Pliipps, I). GofTc, Councilman, Fourth Ward, i86g. 

Phipps, Francis G., Councilman, 1848. 

Pickett, Oranj;e M., Councilm.m. Second Ward, 1880. 

Pierpoint, Asahcl, Alderman, 1848. 

Pierpoint, Eli;is, Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1857; .Mderm.m, 
Sixth Ward, 1869. 

Pierpoint, Cornelius, Alderman, First Ward, June, 1870, to 
Dcccmljcr 31, 1871. 

l'ii;ott, Patrick, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1872. 

Piatt, Charles N., Councilman. Sixth Ward, 1875-77. 

Piatt, Frank S., Councilman, Tenth Ward, 1881-82; Alder- 
man, Tenth Ward, 1883 84. 

Piatt, Johnson 1'., Councilman, First Ward, 1869-71; Alder- 
man, First Ward, 1872-73. 



Plait, Richard, Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1859, 1862-64. 
Porter, Dwight, Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1873. 
Pohlman, John F., Councilman, Ninth Ward, 1885. 
Post, Joel K., Councilman, 1839-40. 

Prescott, Enos A., Councilman, 1834; Alderman, 1835-40. 
Punderford, James, Councilman, 1849-50; First Ward, 1855. 

(^)uintard, Eli S., Councilman, F'ourth Ward, 1S59, 1862-64; 
Alderman, Fourth Ward, 1865. 

Read, Daniel, Councilman, 1805-17. 

Redmond, John, Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1884-85. 

Redmond, Thomas, Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1876; .\lder- 
man. Sixth Ward, 1877, Seventh Ward, 1S80 81. 

Reed, George W. M., Councilman, Fourth Ward, June, 1870, 
to December 31, 1871. 

RciUy, Bernard, Councilman, Third Ward, 1859-61; Alder- 
man, Third Ward, 1862. 

Reilly, Bernard F. , Alderman, Sixth Ward, 1884-85. 

Keilly, James, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1868-69. 

Reilly, Patrick, Councilman, Third Ward, 1875. 

Reynolds, James, Alderman, Eighth Ward, 1877; Seveiilli 
Ward, 1878-79. 

Reynolds, James, Councilman, Third Ward, 1869 ; Alder- 
man, Third Ward, 1874-79. 

Reynolds, John, Alderman, Second Ward, October, 1874, 
to December 31, 1S75. 

Reynolds, Michael, Councilman, Second Ward, 1S67-68. 

Reynolds, William A., Councilman, 1843, 1846. 

*Rice, James, Councilman, 1784-S5, 1789. 

Rich, George B., Councilman, 1837. 

Riley, Edward H., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1872-73. 

Rittcr, John, Councilman, 1837-41. 

Ritter, John C, Councilman, First Ward, June 1, 1870, to 
December 31, 1871. 

Robertson, A. Heaton, Alderman, Sixth Ward, 1878-80. 

Robertson, John B., Councilman, 1836-38; Alderman, 
Second Ward, 1867-68. 

Robinson, Charles, Councilman, 1842-44; Alderman, 1851. 

Roddy, Mitchel L., Councilman, F'iflh Ward, 1864. 

Root, Lafayette F., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1854. 

Rounds, Marcus M., Alderman, Third Ward, 1863. 

Rowe, John, Councilman, 1820, 1823-24. 

Rowland, George, Councilman, 1S35-38. 

Rowland, Samuel, Jr., Councilman, 1839 ; First Ward, 

1854, 
Russell, Rufus G., Councilman, First Ward, 1868; Seconil 

Ward, 1872-73; Alderman, First Ward, 1869. 
Russell, Talcott H., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1872-74. 
Ruff, John, Councilman, Sixth Ward, June, 1S70 72. 

Sabin, Hczekiah, Jr., Councilman, 1790. 

Sanborn, William H., Alderman, Fourth Ward, 1873-74. 

Sanford, Anthony P., Councilman, Third Ward, 1853. 

Sanford, Edward L, Councilman, Third Ward, 1853. 

Sanford, Elihu, Councilman, 1S34-35, 1843. 

Sanford. Elihu, Jr., Councilman, 1844-50. 

Sanlord, Hervey, Alderman, 1851. 

Sanford, William E., Councilman, 1861. 

Sargent, Henry B., Councilman, First Ward, 18S1, 1883 84. 

Sanders, Philip, Councilman, 1821-22, 1824-25, 1827. 

.Scally, Michael, Councilman, Twelfth Ward, 1881-82. 

Scharf, William C, Councilman, Eighth Ward, 1S44-45. 

.Schorer, Charles F., Councilman, Third Ward, 18S5. 

Schlacter, Victor, Councilman, Fourth Ward, 18S3. 

Scolt, John, Councilman, 1820, 1827. 

Scott, Charles S., Alderman, First Ward, June, 1870, to 

December 31, 1872. 
Scraiiton, William T., Councilman, Sixth Ward, June, 

1870 72. 
Scully, Robert, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1S63. 
Seward, Frank, Councilman, .Ninth Ward, 1878. 
Sheldon, Joseph, Alderman, Ninth Ward, 1879-80. 
Shclton, Clark R., Alderman, Second Ward, October, 1874, 

to Decemlier3l, 1877. 
Shelton. William R., Councilman, Second Ward, 1856. 
Shepherd, Leverett, Councilman, 1839-42, Sixth Ward, 

.858. 
Sherman, .'\nlh<my II., Councilman, 1822. 
Sherman, Benjamin, Councilman, 1823-24, 1826. 
Sherman, Benjamin M., Councilmiin, 1841. 



MUNICIPAL HISTORY. 



457 



I 



Sherman, John S., Alderman, Ninth Ward, 1878-79. 

Sherman, Oscar M., Coiincihnan, Third Ward, 1866. 

Sherman, Roger, Alderman, elected 1S2S, but declined. 

Shields, Corniack, Councilman, Seventh Ward, 187S-81. 

*Shipman, Elias, Councilman, 17S4-1805. 

Shoninger, Simon B., Councilman, Fitth Ward, 18S0-81; 
Alderman, Fifth Ward, 1882-S3. 

Shustcr, John, Councilman, Eighth Ward, 1S77. 

Silliman, Benjamin, Jr., Councilman, i84i;-48. 

Silliman, Elislia L., Councilman, 1S34-38. 

Sisk, Patrick, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1S64. 

Sizer, Frederick \V. J., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1865. 

Sizer, Robert, Councilman, Second Ward, 1S54. 

Skinner, Aaron N., Alderman, 1841-43. 

Skinner, Roger S. , Councilman, 1823, 1828. 

Sliney, William F., Councilman, Ninth Ward, 1881. 

Sloan, John T., Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1874. 

Smith, Augustus, Councilman, 1847-48. 

Smith, Bernard, Councilman, Thirtl \Vard, 1S63, 1873. 

Smith, Bernard I'., Councilman. Fourth Ward, 1884. 

Smith, Carlos, Councilman, First Ward, June, 1870, to De- 
cember 31, 1S71; Alderman, First Ward, 1S72-74. 

.Smith, Harris, Councilman, 1846-47. 

Smith, Ira S., Councilman, First Ward, 1875. 

Smith, Joseph, Councilman, 1844-45. 

Smith, Eaban, Councilman, 1S14-18. 

Smith, Nathan, Councilman, 1801, 1S03-4. 

Smith, Nathan, Jr., Councilman, 1836; Alderm.an, 1846. 

Smith, Stephen R., Alderman, Sixlh Ward, June, 1870, to 
December 31. 1S71; CouncUman, .Si.\th Ward, i86g. 

Smith, Sylvester, Councilman, Second Ward, 1855. 

Smith, Terence, Councilman, Third Ward, 1866-67. 

Smith, Thomas L., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1856, 1858, 
1867. 

Spencer, Daniel, Councilman, 1845. 

Spencer, Stephen A., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1S58. 

Sperry, Frank 11., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1883. 

Sperry, Joel A., Alderman, Third Ward, i860 61. 

Sperry, Nehemiah D., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1853-54. 

Sperry, Peck, Councilman, Sixlh Ward, 1864-65. 

Spreyer, Charles, Councilman, Second Ward, 1S82-83; Al. 
derman. Second Ward, 18S4-85. 

Stackpole, Thomas F., Councilman, Third Ward, 1877. 

Staples, Seth B., Councilman, 1811-17. 

Starr, Francis, Councilman, Third Ward, 1862. 

States, James N., Councilman. Fourth Ward, 1877; Alder- 
man, Fointh Ward, 1S78-86. 

Steele, K.alph B., Councilman, 1839. 

Stetson, James E., Councilman, First Ward, 1S74, Ninth 
Ward, 1875; Alderman, Ninth Ward, 1877. 

.Stevens, Stiles, Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1858; Alder- 
man, Fourth Ward, June, 1S70, to December 31, 1871. 

Stevens, George A. Alderman, Fifth W'ard, 1881-82; 
Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1880. 

Stephens, Robert M., Councilman, Second Ward, 1883-84. 

Stiles, Henry B., Councilman, Third Ward, 1857, 1859. 

Stillman, George P., Councilman, First Ward, 1856. 

Stoddard, Ezekiel G., Councilman, Second Ward, June, 
1870, to December 31, 1871; Alderman, Second Ward, 
1S80-81. 

Stone, Benjamin W. , Councilman, 1840-41. 

Stone, Sidney M., Councilman, 1835-38. 

Stone, William W., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1862-63. 

Storer, Alexander, Councilman, 1847, 1852. 

Stout, Jerome L., Councilman, Second Ward, 1858-59, 1861. 

Street, Augustus R., Councilman, 1827-28. 

Strouse, Isaac, Councilman, Second Ward, 1873, Fifth Ward, 

18S3; Alderman, Fifth Ward, 1884-85. 
Studley, John P., Councilman, Tenth Ward, 1878-79; Al- 
derman, Tenth Ward, 1881-82. 
Sumner, William G., Alderm.an, Sixth Ward, 1874, Ninth 

Ward, October, 1874, to December 31, 1876. 
Swift, Edward S., Councilman, Eleventh Ward, 1883. 

Taylor, J. Henry, Councilman, Eleventh Ward, 1884-85. 
Thalheimer, Max, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1866-68. 
Thomas, Albert, Councilman, Seventh Ward, June, 1870, to 

December 31, 1872. 
Thomas, George S., Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1882. 
Thomas, Ransom II., Councilman, Third Ward, 1858, i860. 
Thomas, Sidney A., Coimcilmau, 1850, 1852. 
58 



Thomas, Lucius A., Alderman, Second Ward, June, 1870, 
to December 31, 187 1. 

Thompson, Abraham A., Councilman, 1839-42; Alderman, 
1848. 

Thompson, Charles, Councilman, 1842-45. 

Thompson, Frank 1., Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1882. 

Thompson, George E., Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1S73. 

Thompson, William A., Councilman, 1819. 

'Thomson, Joseph, Councilman, 17S4. 

Thomson, William H., Alderman, Seventh Ward, 1873-74. 

Thrams, Fieilerick, Councilman, P'ifth Ward, 1872. 

Tiernan, Francis F., Councilman, Third Ward, 1881. 

Tiesing, Frank W., Councilman, Eighth Ward, 1878 79; 
Alderman, Eighth Ward, the unexpired term of \Vm. J. 
Atwater (elected Police Commissioner), to Deceml«;r 
31, 1880, 18S3-84. 

*Todd, Michael, Councilman, 1784. 

Todd, Theron A., Councilman, Tenth Ward, 187S-S0. 

Towner, Noble, Councilman, 1832-33. 

*Townsend, Elienezer, Councilman, 1 784. 

Townsend, Alon.'.o A., Councilm.an, Ninth Ward, 1882; Al- 
derman, Ninth Ward, 1883-84. 

Townsend, George A., Councilman, 1834. 

Townsend, Isaac H., Councilman, 1S27 2g, 1832-33, 1S37. 

Townsend, James M., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1854. 

Townsend, Jeremiah, Councilman, 1804-5. 

Townsend, William K., Councilman, First Ward, 1879-80; 
Alderman, First Ward, 18S1-82. 

Treadway, Augustine R., Councilman, Third Ward, 1865. 

Treadway, George, Councilman, 1845. 

Treadway, Lyman, Councilman, 1850-51. 

Treat, Atwater, Councilman, 1835; Alderman, 1844-47. 

Treat, Jonathan, N., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1854. 

Treat, John L., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1859: Alderman, 
Sixth Ward, 1873-74, 1876-77. 

Treat, Lyman V., Councilman, Second Ward, 1876. 

Trowbridge, Henry, Jr., Councilman, 1845-47, 1S49. 

Trowbridge, Rutherfiird,Councilman,Eighth Ward, 1SS4 85. 

Trowbridge, Thomas R., Jr., Councilman, First Ward, 1884; 
Alderman, First Ward, 1885-S6. 

Tucker, Edwin A., Councilman, Third Ward, 1863-64. 

Tuttle, Asahel, Councilman, 1818, 1826. 

Tuttle, Benjamin N., Councilman, First Ward, 1858-59; Al- 
derman, First Ward, 1S60. 

Tuttle, (jcorge. Councilman, 1848-49. 

Tuttle, Isaac, Councilman, 1S31. 

Tuttle, John, Councilman, Fifth Ward, 1878-79. 

Tuttle, John P., Councilman. First W.ard, 1862-64. 

Tuttle, Smith, Councilman, 1825-38. 

Tuttle, Reuben G., Councilman, Eleventh Ward, 1884-85. 

Twining, Stephen, .\lderinan, 1S16 17. 

Twiss, Julius, Councilman, First Ward, 1866-68, Second 
Ward, June, 1870-73, Tenth Ward, 1881-82. 

Tyler, Julius, Cimncilman, 1845-46. 

Tyler, "Morris, Councilman, 1844-45; Alderman, Second 
Ward, 1861-63. 

Tyler, Morris F., Councilman, First Ward, 1879-80. 

UUman, Charles L., Councilman, Eighth Ward, 1883. 

Vail, Henry W., Councilman, Eleventh Ward, 1880. 

Van Name, Cornelius J., Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1S73. 

Vibbert, William E., Councilman, 1842-43. 

Waddock, John, Alderman, Sixth Ward, 1878-81. 

Wadsworth, Samuel, Councilman, 1820-22, 1827. 

Wagner, S. Harrison, Councilman, Sixth W;ird, 187S. 

Wagnon, Louis, Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1883. 

W'atlace, Thomas, Jr., Councilman, F'ourth Ward, 1875-77. 

Walter, William, Councilman, 1820. 

Wales, Leonard E., Councilman, 1817. 

Walker, John, Councilman, Third Ward, 1854. 

Walker, James, Councilman, Sixlh Ward, 1873. 

Ward, Patrick, Councilman, Third Ward, 1S63; Alderman, 
Third Ward, 1864, 1868-69. 

Warner, Birdsey, Councilman, Ninth Ward, 1883. 

Warner, Burton G., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1863-64. 

Warren, Truman A., Councilman, Sixth Ward, 1873-74. 

Waterbury, William A., Alderman, Eleventh Ward, 1883-84. 

Watrous, George H., Councilman, First Ward, 1860-62; Al- 
derman, First Ward, 1863. 



ibS 



HISTORY OF THE CITF OF NEW HAVEN. 



Watrous, George D., Councilman, First Ward, 18S5. 

Webb, Charles II., Councilman, First Ward, 1S76-77. 

Webster, Noah, Councilman, 1799-1804; Alilerman, 1806-9. 

Welch, Frank I)., Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1881-82. 

Welch, Harmanus M., .\Iderman, Third Ward, 1855-56; 
Fourth Ward, 1S57. 

Weld, Arthur J., Councilman, Eleventh Ward, i88l; Alder- 
man, Eleveiilh Ward, 1SS2-83. 

Whatcley, James, Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1883, 1885. 

Wheeler, Alfred N., Councilman, Eleventh Ward, 1S82. 

W'heeler, Edwin E,, Councilman First Ward, 1SS3. 

Wheeler, Newton, Councilman, 1827, 1830. 

Wheeler, William H., Councilman, Seventh Ward, 1875. 

White, Charles A., Councilman, First Ward, 1876 77. 

White, Dyer, Councilman, 1794-95; Alderman, 179S-1800. 

White, Henry, Alderman, 1849, 1852. 

VVhitc, Henry D., Councilman, Second Ward, 1866. 

Whitinir, Ceorge I., Councilman, 1822. 

•Whiting, John, Councilman, 17S4; Alderman, 1785. 

Whitney, Eli, Jr., Alderman, Ninth Ward, 18S4-S5. 

Whittemore, Franklin J., Alderman, Fourth Ward, 1872 73. 

Whittlesey, Charles B., Councilman, 1S49. Died in office. 

Whittlesey, Charles 13., Councilman, First Ward, 1855-57. 

Wier, Stephen M., Councilman, First Ward, 1859-61; Alder- 
man, First Ward, 1862. 

Wilcox, .Vugustus C, Councilman, Third Ward, l8«. 
Fourth Ward, 1860-61. 

Wilcoxson, David, Councilman, Third Ward, 1S53. 

Wildman, Cornelius, Councilman, 1845-46. 

Willis, Patrick, Councilman, Sixth Ward, 18S1; Alderman, 
Sixth Ward, 18S2-S3. 

Willoughby, Alvin L., Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1875-77. 

Wilmott, A. Burr, Councilman, Filth Ward, 1863. 

Wilson, Charles H., Councilman, Eighth Ward, 1881. 

Whichester, Oliver F., Councilman Fourth Ward, 1853. 

Wines, Edward, Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1876. 

Winship, James, Councilman, 1839-42, 1849-50. 

Winship, Leonard, Councilman, Fourth Ward, 1869. 

Wood, James, Councilman, Second Ward, 1S67-68. 

Wohlmaker, George. Councilman, Third Ward, 1873. 

Woodhouse, James H., Alderman, Twelfth Ward, 1879 80. 

Wolle, Isa.ac, Councilman, Fourth War<l, 1SS4 85. 

Woodruff, John, 2d, Councilman, 1850 52. 

Woodward, James M., Councilman, Second Ward, 1S61-64. 

Woolsey, Theodore S., Councilman, Ninth Ward. 1S79-80. 

Wright, Dexter K., Councilman, First Ward, 1S68, 1872-73; 
Alderman, Tenth V\'aid, 1877-79. 

Wright, Carter, Councilman, Ninth Ward, 1S75-76. 

Wrinn, James, Councilman, Third Ward, 1864. 

Wylic, John E., Councilman, Second Ward, 1S57-5S. 

Vale, Elihu, Councilman, First Ward, 1854-58. 

Mayors oI'- the City of Nf.w Haven. 

Before 1826 the Mayor was elected by the citi- 
zens, but held his office during the pleasure of the 
General Assembly. 

• Hon. Roger Sherman, from February lo, 1784, to July 2, 

1793- 

* Hon. Samuel Bishop, from August 19, 1793, to August 7, 

1803. 
ft Hon. Elizur Goodrich, from September 1, 1803, to 1S22. 
tl Hon. George Hoadley, from June 4, 1S22, to 1826. 

t Hon. Simeon I'.aldwin, from June 6, 1826, to 1827. 

t Hon. William Bristol, from June 5, 1827, to 1828. 

t Hon. David Daggett, from June 2, 1828, to 1830. 

t Hon. Kalph I. Ingcrsoll, from June i, 1830, to 1831. 

t Hon. Dennis Kiml)erly, from June 7, 1831, to 1832. 

t Hon. Ebene/er Secley, from June 5, 1832, to 1833. 
til Hon. Dennis Kimberly, from June 4, 1833. 

t Hon. Noyes Darling, from June 10, 1833, to 1834. 

t Hon. Henry C. Fl.agg, from June 3, 1834, to 1839. 

t Hon. Samuel J. Hitchcock, from June 3, 1839, to 1842. 

t Hon. Philip S. Galpin, from June 6, 1842, to 1846. 

t Hon. Henry Peck, from June i, 1846, to 1850. 

t Hon. Aaron N. Skinner, from Juno 3, 1850, to 1854. 

t Hon. Chauncey Jerome, from June 5, 1S54, to 1855. 

t Hon. Alfred lilackman, from June 4, 1855, to 1856. 

t Hon. Philip S. (Jalpin, from June 2, 1856, to i860. 



I Hon. Harmanus M. Welch, from June 4, i860, to 1863. 

t Hon. Morris Tyler, from June 2, 1863, to 1865. 

t Hon, Erastus C. Scranton, from June 6, 1865, to 1866. 

Hon. Lucien W. Sperry, from June 5, 1866, to 1869. 
t Hon. William Fitch, from June i, 1869, to 1S70. 

Hon. Henry G. Ixwis, from June 7, 1870, to January i, 
1S77. 

Hon. William R. Shelton, from January i, 1877, to 1879. 

Hon. Ilobart B. ISigelow, from January I, 1879, to 1881. 

Hon. John B. Robertson, from fanuarv i, iSSi, to 1SS3. 

Hon. Henry G. Lewis, from January i, 1SS3, to 1885. 

Hon. George F. Holcomb, from January i, 1S85. 

' Died while in office. J Deceased. 

} Resigned: Elizur Goodrich, June, 1822. 

George Hoadley, May II, 1826. 
Harmanus .M. Welch, June 2, 1863. 
II Refused to serve. 



111. — The City Seal and Flac. 

BY henry peck. 

The original seal of the city was, I believe, made 
for the town. The original was lost and the one 
now in use is owned e.xclusively by the city. It is 
like this : 




On all letter-heads and many official documents 
it is printed, as also on the envelopes used by the 
city. There has been a good deal of discussion as 
to the lost seal formerly used, but its history has 
become covered with obscurity. 

The city flag, si.xty by thirty-nine feet, was de- 
signed and procured by the present Auditor, John 
W. Lake. It is the first distinctive New Haven 
(lag ever made; it is of dark blue bunting, with a 
white field occupying about a quarter of its surface. 
On the obverse is the same design as seen on the 
city seal. The other side has the coat of arms of 
the State, and, by way of ornamentation, there are 
the three vines placed over it, on the white. It is 
used only on some great occasions of ptiblic inter- 
est, or when the city desires to pay honor to guests 
from other cities. On such occasions it has been 
shown from the City Hal), by a cord stretching 
from a window to an elm tree on the opjjosite side 
of Church street. 

There is owned, in addition, and used on certain 
public occasions when the Mayor and Common 
Councilnien take part, a small, silk, tinted .State 



MUNICIPAL HISTORY. 



4og 



flag, with a handsome staff, finished at the top with 
a spear-head. This is displayed by the City Sher- 
iff at times when the IMayor, in front of the City 
Hall, accompanied by other city officials, reviews 
great processions on public days. The Sheriff, hold- 
ing the flag-staff, stands near the Mayor. 

The city, however, on public days, flies from the 
Liberty Pole on the Green only the United States 
flag. One is also displayed, as occasion warrants, 
from a city liberty-pole on Broadway, and on the 
plaza at the head of Long Wharf, generally called 
Custom House square, the old Custom House hav- 
ing been on the corner of Fleet (now State) and 
Water street. 

j^ IV. — Civic Buildings. 

ffl 

From and after the union of the two colonies of 
Connecticut and New Haven, till 1701, the Colo- 
nial Legislature met at Hartford, both in May and 
in October. But in the May session of the year 
above mentioned, an act was passed as follows: 

Whereas, The General Courts and Courts of Assistants 
have formerly, in a constant way, been holden at Hartford 
in the months of May and October annu.illy; It is now or- 
dered and enacted by the Deputy-Governor, Council and 
Representatives in General Court assembled: 

That the General Court and Court of Assistants shall be 
holden at Hartford, in the montli of May only, from year to 
year; and that the (General Court and Court of Assistants 
that formerly liath been accustomed to be kept at Hartford 
in the month of October, shall lie annually kept at New Ha- 
ven, at the time accustomeil for the sitting oi' those Courts, 
viz., the Court of Assistants on the first Thursday in the 
month of October, and the General Court on the second 
Thursday in the same month, any law, usage, or custom to 
the contrary notwithstanding. 

Accordingly, the October session, in 1701. was 
holden at New Haven, and the October meeting in 
successive years, till after the Constitution of 1 818 
abolished October sessions, was in New Haven. 
When the October session of the General Assembly 
was thus removed to New Haven, there was no 
public building in the town except the Meeting- 
house. The same was true, indeed, of Hartford. 
Provision was made, in 171 7, for the building of a 
State House, so-called, in Hartford, and three Court 
Hou.sesin the Counties of New Haven, Fairfield and 
New London. Si.x hundred and fifty pounds was 
appropriated for the building in Hartford, and 
three hundred pounds for each of the three Court 
Houses. The map of 1748 shows the location of 
the New Haven Court House, and affirms that it 
was built in 1717. But perhaps the Act of the 
General Assembly in that year, appropriating money 
for the building, suggested the affirmation on the 
map. It is on record that, in 171 8, the Court of- 
Assistants held its October session in the library- 
room of the new College Building. Also it is on 
the records of the County Court, that the Court re- 
solved and concluded at its sessions in January, 

1719. 

That it is necessary for the service of his Majesty that 
there be adjoined to the present prison-house a timber house 
of forty-five feet in length and twenty-two feet in breadth, 
two stories high, with chimneys at each end; and agreed 
that there be such a building erected on this condition, that 
the town of New Haven provide a suitable piece of land to 
set it upon. 



Also it is on the records of the town, that at a town- 
meeting in New Haven, February 2, 1719, 

The town, by a full vote, granted an half-quarter of an 
acre of land in the market-place, at the old prison-hotise, to 
build an house upon for his Majesty's service, to be improved 
according to the order of the County Court in January last, 
to be laicl out by the townsmen as shall best accommodate 
the building. 

These records of the County Court and of the 
town, show that the map has antedated the comple- 
tion of the house, if those who drew the map meant 
that it was completed in 1717. 

Warham Mather and Samuel Bishop, Fsquires, 
and Captain Joseph Whiting, were appointed a com- 
mittee to undertake and manage the affair of build' 
ing the said house. In November of the same year, 

1719. 

The Clerk of the Court is hereby directed to make out an 
order to Captain Samuel Thompson, Treasurer of New Ha- 
ven County, to deliver and pay what money shall be in his 
hands of the county's tj Mr. Warham Mather, Mr. Samuel 
Bishop, and Captain Joseph Whiting, the committee ap- 
pointed for undertaking and managing the affair of the build- 
ing of a house adjoining to the present prison-house. It is 
also resolved that if subscriptions can be found sufficient to 
erect a twenty-foot addition lo the aforementioned house, 
that the same be done, undertaken, and managed by the 
aforesaid committee. 

It appears from the records that it was originally 
intended to join the new building to the prison, 
but for some reason the plan was modified, and 
the result was a building suitable for a Court House, 
but affording no additional security in the confine- 
ment of prisoners. The anne.x proposed, in case 
sufficient subscriptions should be offered, does not 
seem to have been built at that time. But in the 
May session of 1720, the General Assembly moved 
again for the secure keeping of prisoners. It 

ordered that the County Court in the County of New Haven 
take immediate care that a suitable house be erected near or 
adjoining to the jail, and a keeper of the said jail provided to 
live therein, and all such fines and forfeitures as are or shall 
be recovered in said county at or before the Assembly in 
May next, and are payable to the treasury of the colony, be 
applied by said Court to defray the charges of building the 
said house and putting the said jail and yard about it in good 
rejiair; and that what shall be wanting of such fines and 
forfeitures for the said service, or to defray the charges of 
said work, shall lie tlefrayed out ^{ the treasury of the said 
county; and the said County Court is hereby empowered to 
raise such money as shall be so wanting by a rate on the in- 
habitants of the said county; and the said Court is hereby 
ordered to keep an account of the charge they are at in do- 
ing said work, and the manner wherein it is defrayed, and 
lay it before the Assembly in May next. 

At the November session of the County Court in 
the same year (1720), 

This Court, considermg that the house already built is 
made use of and found suitable for a Court House, and that 
the General Assembly hath ordered that a prison-keeper's 
house be built in New Haven, and have ordered fines within 
said county for that; and this Court also concluding that it is 
necessary for the service of his Majesty in this county that 
there be adjoined to the present iirison-house in New Haven, 
where it now stands, or on the Common where it now 
stands, or on the Common at the town's end, if the said 
town of New Haven shall allow the amoving of said prison 
thither, a timber house of twenty-six feet long, twenty feet 
wide, and one story and a half high, with a chimney at one 
end; this Court order such a house to lie built, and the 
prison-house to be raised equal in height to said house, and 
appoint Warham Mather, John Hall, and Joseph Whiting, 



460 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



Esqs., a committee to undertake and manage the affairs of 
said building. 

The finances of the county did not come to ruin 
in consequence of these extraordinary expenditures 
for public buildings, for in April, 1727, 

The Court, considering that there is something necessary 
to lie done in the State House, and chairs needful for the 
same, and the cellar under the house still wants more to be 
done to it, all which affairs aie left to the civil authority in 
New Haven to do therein as needful, and the money to an- 
swer the charge thereof to be drawn out of the county 
treasury, and what money remains in the treasury to be let on 
good bonds on interest till this Court shall otherwise order. 

It appears that after both the houses were fin- 
ished, the county had money to let. 

There being no public building in New Haven 
before the erection of that which was called Yale 
College except the Meeting-house, the question 
arises, where did the General Assembly hold its Oc- 
tober sessions from 1 70 1 to 1718.' The deputies 
doubtless met in the Meeting-house, as did the free- 
men of the town when called together in town- 
meeting; and there is evidence on the records of 
the Colonial Court in 1702 and 1703, that the Up- 
per House sat in the ordinary or inn of Captain 
John Miles. In 1702 is the record: "This Court 
doth allow to Captain John Miles five pounds to 
pay for the colony expenses in his house by the 
Court C)f Assistants, and this General Court." The 
last clause may perhaps cover expenses for Com- 
mittee Rooms for the Lower House. In 1703, Cap- 
tain Miles' bill amounted to only three pounds. 

The building of which the County Court makes 
mention in November, 1720, as already built and 
fountl suitable for a Court House, and again in 
April, 1727, as the State House, was, if built ac- 
cording to the original plan, forty-five feet in length, 
twenty-two feet in breadth, two stories high, with 
chimneys at each end. It contained certainly a 
Council Chamber for the Upper House of the 
General Assembly, and perhaps a larger room for 
the House of Deputies. The "Old Council Cham- 
ber," is spoken of in the advertisements of the dm- 
nccliciil Journal 'iix.tx it had been converted into a 
printing-office. But the writer remembers no al- 
lusion to any apartment as belonging to the Lower 
House of the Legislature, neither has he been able 
to determine whether the County Court met in the 
Council Chamber or had the exclusive use of an 
apartment. 

The Prison-keeper's House, as it is styled in the 
order which the Court made for its erection, or the 
County House, as it was afterwards called, was 
joined to the prison which had been previously 
erected. The prison docs not seem to have kept 
its prisoners very securely after the keeper's house 
was joined to the prison, luit doubtless the new ar- 
rangement was better than the old. 

These buildings were contiguous one to another, 
and were between the site of the State House of 
1830 and College street. They were doubtless 
both of them on "the half-quarter of an acre of 
land in the market-place," which the town granted 
to build an house upon for his Majesty's service. 
Near to them was the Grammar .School, and prob- 
ably one and the same well served the three build- 



ings. Town-born citizens will perhaps remember the 
pump which once stood between the State 1 louse of 
1830 and College street. That pump doubtless 
marked the place where was the well of the first 
County House. 

About the time when the city was incorporated, 
these buildings were taken away from the Green. 
The State House was supplanted by a new edifice 
of brick, standing between the present sites of the 
Centre Church and Trinity Church; and the County 
House, with its prison attachment, was removed to 
the other side of College street, where the jail was 
walled in with a wall of timbers set in the ground 
close together, and of sufiicient height to oppose in 
some degree the disposition of prisoners to wander 
away in search of more agreeable quarters. Before 
the removal of the buildings they had been used 
for mechanical purposes. As has been already in- 
timated, the printing-office of the Conncclicul Journal 
was in the old Council Chamber from the establish- 
ment of the paper in 1767, till June 6, 1772, when 
it was removed to the second stcry of " the new 
store on the northeast corner of the President's lot, 
near the Old College, and opposite Mr. Beers' 
tavern." Afterwards the State House was used as a 
shop for the manufacture of metal buttons. 

In 1 800, arrangements were made for erecting 
new County Buildings in Church street, where the 
City Hall now stands. The lot had belonged to 
the Hopkins Grammar School for about a century, 
and the difficulty of obtaining any adequate income 
by means of short leases was one of the reasons 
which induced the committee, in 1801, to make to 
the County of New Haven a lease of that part of their 
land on which the County House was placed, for 
999 years. This conveyance was for a gross sum, 
in lieu of all future annual rents. 

It was at first proposed that the County House 
should be of two stories; but this plan seemed so 
unwise to some citizens, including James Hill- 
house, that they offered to add another story at 
their own expense, if the county authorities 
would not on other terms modify their plan. A 
meeting of the civil authority of the county was 
held at the State House on Monday, June 23, 
1800, to " consider the propriety of adding an- 
other story to the new County House and Jail, 
either at the expense of the county or of certain in- 
dividuals who have proposed to do the same at 
their own expense." The ilccision was to modify 
the original plan by adding ani>ther story, and to do 
it at the expense of the county. To the call for 
the meeting is added: " Dinner will be provided 
by Justus Butler at one o'clock." The County 
House was accortlingly built three stories high villi 
a prison attached to its rear, which was also at first 
three stories high; though it was afterward rebuilt 
on a modified plan which afTorded two tiers of cells 
for the isolation of prisoners. The original prison 
had apartments for debtors as well as criminals, and 
some debtors were accommodated in the third 
story of the front building where they were treated 
rather as guests than as prisoners, though the 
beams of the sun came into their apartments be- 
tween iron bars. 



MUNICIPAL HISTORY. 



4G1 



This County House, at least in its later years, 
contained no public offices, but only accommo- 
dations for the keeper of the jail and those whom 
he might, as an innkeeper, entertain. At an earlier 
date, however, there was a large room on the 
second floor occupied by the city for meetings of 
the Common Council. After the State House was 
completed, in 1830, this apartment was divided by 
partitions into bedrooms. 

In 1857 a new County Jail was built on Whalley 
avenue, and the dwelling-house of the keeper at- 
tached to the prison was not, as before, provided 
with accommodations for a tavern. The new 
prison IS, of course, much larger than the old, and 
the time of the jailer is fully occupied without 
undertaking to care for any but involuntary guests. 

In 1763 the colony built a State House. It was 
of brick, and stood a little north of the site which 
the town afterward granted to Trinity Church. It 
was not in line with the three churches now stand- 
ing on the Green, but was so near to the west line 
of Temple street that its steps projected into the 
street, as did the steps of the brick meeting-house 
erected by the First Church not long before. The 
cost of the building was borne by the county and 
colony in equal parts, each paying nine hundred 
and seven pounds, nine shillings, and three farthings. 

The First Society, having purchased a new bell 
for their new brick meeting-house, the bell which 
had hung in the turret of the old meeting-house 
was purchased for the State House. On the 
Records of the First Society is the following : 

Mr. Jared Ingersoll moving to this society to purchase the 
society's half of the old meeting-house bell at the price of 
twelve pounds ten shillings; 

Volt-d, That he have the same at the price of twelve 
pounds ten shillings, paying out what is wanting of sub- 
scriptions for the new bell, and the surplus, if any be, to the 
use of the society. The said Mr. Ingersoll having also ac- 
quainted the society that his views in purchasing said bell are 
in order to have the new State House building in this town 
accommodated therewith; 

Voted, That said Mr. Ingersoll be desired in b;half of this 
society to request the society of While Haven that they would 
sell their half of said bell to this society at the price aforesaid, 
and suft'er the purchase money to lie unpaid in the hands of 
this society at present, during the further pleasure of the said 
two societies and until they or either of them shall otherwise 
choose or determine, in consideration of said White Haven 
society having, as usual, the benefit and advantage of this 
society's present bell at funerals, etc., and of this society's 
expense in ringing the same on Lord's days, evenings, etc. 
And in case White Haven society will let this society have 
their half of said bell as aforesaid; 

Voled, That said Mr. Ingersoll may have that half ol said 
bell also, paying therefor other like sum as aforesaid. 

Some of the phraseology of this vote, which was 
probably drawn by Mr. Ingersoll, is better under- 
stood when one learns that he was on the Building 
Committee of the Meeting-house and also on the 
Building Committee of the State House. 

F'arly in the present century the State House 
was enlarged to nearly double its original capacity 
by an addition in the rear. The roof was changed 
from the form of a gambrel to that of two planes 
meeting at the ridge and surmounted by a cupola 
midway between the ends of the ridge. In the 
high basement was kept a store of wood for the 



winter's fuel. On the first floor, the front and rear 
doors opened into a hall, larger than one-half of 
the whole story, unfurnished with seats, but suita- 
ble for town-meetings. The south end of this 
story was partitioned off for a Court-room and jury- 
room. In the open hall, stairs ascended to the 
second story, where were accommodations for the 
two Houses of the General Assembly. 

In 1827, incipient measures were taken in the 
Legislature toward the erection of a new State 
House in New Haven. William Moseley, Charles 
H. Pond, and John Q. Wilson, Esquires, were ap- 
pointed a committee to superintend the erection of 
the building, and an appropriation was voted of 
$26,000, on condition that the City and County of 
New Haven should appropriate $10,000, and with 
the implied understanding that the State would ap- 
propriate a further sum of about $13,000 for the 
last bills. The County of New Haven appropri- 
ated the avails of a ta.x of one per cent, on the 
grand list, and the city, though dissatisfied with 
the action of the county, voted in a city meeting 
"that the City of New Haven will raise and pay 
the residue of said sum of ten thousand dollars re- 
quired by said Resolves of the General Assembly." 
The edifice was not entirely completed in May, 
1830, but with the aid of temporary steps was pre- 
parecl for the session of the Legislature at that 
time, and the Governor said in his message, "Not- 
withstanding the edifice at this session first occu- 
pied by the General Assembly is not entirely 
completed, it still affords increased and desirable 
accommodations and facilities in the transaction of 
the public business." 

The building is in the simplest style of the 
Doric order, is one hundred and sixty feet in 
length and ninety feet in width, and presents at 
each end a pediment supported by six massive 
columns. The basement, above which the build- 
ing rises two stories, is encrusted with white marble 
from Sing Sing, N. Y. ; the steps are of the 
same materials; the rest of the building is stuccoed. 
The basement was for several years occupied by 
the city and town for offices and public meetings. 
On the first floor were a Court-room, an apartment 
for the Governor, and committee-rooms. On the 
second floor were chambers for the two Houses of 
the General Assembly and committee-rooms. 

Since the building 'was vacated by the Legisla- 
ture it has received no repairs, and is now in such 
a state of decay as to be a disgrace to the city. 
The people of New Haven are divided in opinion 
on the question whether it shall be repaired or de- 
molished, but the opinion that it should be re- 
paired and used for a free public library till some 
generous citizen shall give for such a purpose a 
more suitable edifice on a more convenient site, is 
gaining ground. 

The earliest building belonging to the town was 
probably an Almshouse. It stood within the present 
limits of the College Campus and contiguous to 
the County House after the county buildings were 
removed to the west side of College street. It is 
said the saine building i? still standing on the west 



402 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



side of College street between Wall and Grove 
streets. In the Connecticiil fouinal of May 28, 
1880, is the following: " Died Sunday evening in 
this city, in the 51st year of his age, Mr. Joseph 
Peck, who for several years had been Keeper of 
New Haven County Jail and Overseer of the Poor 
House." Before the erection of this Almshouse, 
the town poor had been set up at vendue, as may 
be seen in an advertisement dated July 4, 1763, 
anil copied in the chapter on the Periodical Pre-s. 
The second Almshouse was built on the south 
side of Kim street, about thirty rods west of the 
place where now stantis the Orphan Asylum. It 
was built about the time when the County House 
in Church street was built, the same causes which 



population has induced the town to purchase a 
farm at the base of West Rock, at which place ac- 
commodations will ere long be provided for the 
town poor, and the edifice when completed and oc- 
cupied will be the Fourth Almshouse which the 
town has provided since the custom of "bidding 
off" the town poor came to an end. 

The City Hall, Town Hall, or Hall of Records, 
as it is variously called, was erected at the joint 
expense of the city and the town. It stands where 
stood the County House ami Jail built in 1800. 
The town purchased the land of the county in 
1856 for $25,000. June 23, i860, the town ap- 
pointed Philips. Galpin, Frederick Crosweli, David 





MI 



«is,|^fli!5!!|:i|'m 






I 



I '1 



m_ \\\ 



County Court House. 



City Hall 



occasioned the removal of the County Buildings 
being influential also in the removal of the Poor- 
house. At fir=t there was a building of wood con- 
taining eight rooms upon the first floor and the 
same above, the kitchen being in the basement. 
Another building was subsequently erected, which 
was occupied as a kitchen and for lodging-rooms. 
A further supplement was a stone building for a 
chapel, with a row of cells in the basement for the 
confinement of the refractory. These buildings 
were inclusetl in 1815 by a high stone wall, so that 
the only ingress or egress was through the gate with 
the permission of the keeper. 

The third Almshouse, first occupied in 1852, 
is of brick, and stands at the west end of Martin 
street. 

The great value of land so near the center of 



Cook, O. F. Winchester, Isaac Thomson and 
Sylvanus Butler, to co-operate with a similar com- 
mittee on the part of the city to procure plans and 
contracts for the erection of a suitable fire-pruuf 
buiidinn; for the .safe keeping of the public records 
of the Town, City and Prob.Ue District of New Ha- 
ven, and for the public use of said town, cit}' and 
probate district of New Haven, upon the lot of land 
known as the County House lot. The sum of 
$40,000 was also voted at this meeting as the pro- 
portionate share of the town toward the expense of 
the building. On the i)art of the city it appears 
tliat the Common Council on the 6U1 f>f July, 1S59, 
appointed a committee to confer with the Selectmen 
relative to a joint ownershi[) of the property on 
Church street, for tiie purpose of erecting thereupon 
a building for the Town Clerk's Office, Probate 



MUNICIPAL HISTORF. 



463 



Office, Council Chamber, and other requirements 
for city and town use, with authority to procure 
plans and estimates. This committee made their 
report to the Council on the 5th of September, 
1859, recommending that proper action be taken 
to erect the building. Subsequently a city meet- 
ing was called, at which votes were passed almost 
unanimously in favor of carrying on the work, and 
asking the Legislature to give power to the city to 
issue bonds to the amount of |i6o,ooo. A joint com- 
mittee was appointed to examine plans, procure esti- 
mates, and arrange for the proper accommodation 
of the several public offices. The plans of Henry 
Austin were adopted, and contracts made with 
Perkins & Chatfield for the mason-work, and with 
Nicholas Countryman for the carpenter-work. The 
building was completed according to contract Oc- 
tober I, 1862, and immediately occupied by the 
officers of the city and town. 

In 1873, a new County Court House, which the 
dilapidation of the State House after its desertion 
by the Legislature had made necessary, was com- 
pleted. The cost of the building was $120,000; 
the land was $48,000; and the furniture, curbing 
and all extras cost $14,000 in addition; so that the 
whole amount expended was $182,000. It adjoins 
the City Hall on the north, and is built in the same 
style, the front being of Nova Scotia stone. It is 
66 feet wide and extends about 1 20 feet from front 
to rear. The line doorway is Gothic in appearance 
and flanked by highly polished pillars of Scotch 
granite. On the first floor are the offices of the 
Sheriff; County Commissioners; Clerk of Court of 
Common Pleas, with vault; the Common Pleas 
Court-room, with retiring-rooms for the Judges, the 
Jury, and the members of the Bar. On the second 
floor are the offices of the State Attorney; Clerk of 
the Superior Court, with vault; a library and com- 
mittee-room; and the Superior Court- room, with re- 
tiring rooms similar to those on the first floor. The 
third floor furnishes apartments for the Yale Law 
School, consisting of a library, with librarian's and 
professors' rooms connecting therewith, and a lec- 
ture-room, 58 X 25 feet; also a Supreme Court- 
room with lobby and ante-room. 

Soon after the county had erected the Court 
House on the north side of the City Hall, the city 
bought a lot on Court street, at a cost of $20,000, 
and upon it constructed a building for the accom- 
modation of the Police Department. It is of Phila- 
delphia pressed brick, adorned with Nova Scotia 
and Portland stone. The entrance is flanked by 
two pillars of red Scotch granite. The building 
cost about $75,000. It contains rooms for the City 
Court, the Clerk of the Court, the City Attorney, 
the Board of Police Commissioners, the Chief of 
Police, patrolmen's headquarters, a large drill-room 
for the police, and two sleeping-rooms for patrol- 
men. It is 76 feet wide by about 60 feet deep, 
and is connected by galleries with the City Hall. 

More recently the city, for greater convenience, 
has erected a small precinct building in Grand 
street, between the Railro.id and East street, for 
the Police Department. ■ 



The United States owns the building in which 
are accommodations for the Post Office, the Custom 
House, and the United States Courts. It was 
erected about thirty years ago, but has been en- 
larged to accommodate the increasing work of the 
Post Office. 

V. — Police Department. 

BY HENRY PECK. 

The earliest settlers in New Haven were well dis- 
posed toward the firm establishment of a civil mag- 
istracy. Not only were there officers in the Church 
with special responsibilities and duties as preserv- 
ers of the peace on the Lord's Day, but there were 
also constables, who, in addition to being officers 
of the Court for the service of writs, were, by com- 
mon consent, to make arrests for violations of laws 
regarding public worship and for other misdemean- 
ors. These men were generally harsh in speech 
and manner, and their moral treatment of prisoners 
was what in these days would be called severe. 
They were important members of the body politic, 
and were chosen from year to year. 

When New Haven became a city, in 1784, the 
old Town Constable system of peace officers, to- 
gether with the existing arrangements regarding of- 
ficers inside the churches, was found sufficient for 
the public requirements for a long time. In 1820 
a city by-law was passed constituting the Night 
Watch, to be kept under the direction of the Com- 
mon Council, of not to exceed seven discreet per- 
sons as Superintendents, and the Watch not to ex- 
ceed fifty discreet citizens, to hold office at the 
pleasure of the Court of Common Council. The 
members of the Watch had the same authority as 
constables, and were appointed whenever expedient. 

In IMay, 1835, Henry C. Flagg being Mayor, the 
City Charter was so amended as to permit the Com- 
mon Council to appoint not to exceed twenty-five 
Special Constables. There was at that time a le- 
gal provision that any one who should abuse the 
Mayor, Citv Watch, or the Special Constables, 
should be subject to the same penalties as for abus- 
ing or resisting any Justice of the Peace, Sheriff or 
Constable. 

The Common Council met at the house of Henry 
Daggett on the 15th of August, 1803, and one of 
the transactions recorded was the appointment of 
Tilley Blakesley, whose name is spelled elsewhere 
" Blakeslee, " as an impounder of horses, cattle and 
small animals. It will be seen that with the body 
of " Marshalls " who served writs for the higher 
Courts, Constables, Special Constables, Tything- 
men of Churches, Night Watch and Impounders, 
New Haven was for many years amply furnished 
with officers to compel obedience to law. 

In 1842, a city meeting instructed the Common 
Council to abolish the regular standing City Watch, 
and discontinue the employment of regular Watch- 
men. During the mayoralty of Philip S. Galpin, 
in 1845, a Freemen's meeting authorized the em- 
ployment of a Special Night Watch. The main- 
tenance and management of a Watch was a fie- 



464 



HIHTORY OF THE CITV OF NEW HA VEN. 



quent occasion for debate at Common Council 
meetings, and it often happened that men doing 
duty as members of the Watch exercised a good 
deal of liberty as to their method of serving the 
public. 

At a Common Council meeting in September, 
1835, on motion of (leorge Rowland, Colonel 
Morse was authorized to employ Special Consta- 
bles to preserve order and keep the peace on train- 
ing days, at his own expense. Too often the old 
training days were the occasion of much drunken- 
ness, gambling, and indecorous conduct, and it is 
probable that it was found convenient to empower 
the soldiers to act as peace officers outside of their 
authority as militiamen. On one occasion during 
a parade of militia on the Green, a soldier employed 
as a guard to prevent the people from occupying 
the space required for the evolutions of the soldiers, 
had the misfortune to wound, with his bayonet, the 
R)ot of a man who persisted in encroaching upon 
the part of the Green devoted to the soldiers. The 
circumstance led to considerable discussion among 
citizens as to whether, in time of peace, and with- 
out particular orders from his superior officers, a 
soldier had any right to use his bayonet in such a 
manner. 

Samuel J. Hitchcock was Mayor in 1841, and 
in that year Zelotes Day, Wyllis Peck, and John 
Ritter were appointed to present a list of Special 
Constables, and in 1S45 the Common Council au- 
thorized the appointment of Special Watchmen to 
quell riots and suppress mobs and any noisy and 
tumultuous assemblages. There were frequent 
collisions between the students of Yale College and 
the young men of the city in those days. 

Lucius G. Peck, in April, 1847, was appointed 
to draft an act empowering members of the Sack 
and liucket Fire Company to act as Special Con- 
stables in preserving property at fires. In 1848 a 
Watch of ten men w-as appointed, consisting of 
Thomas Baggott, Walter Blakeslee, William Grant, 
Thomas A. Cadin, George L. Beardsley, William 
D. Campbell, Charles J. Belts, Robeit Grifling, 
Henry K. Shelly, and C. P. Church. Alderman 
Isaac Thomson was made Superintendent. This 
gentleman was at one time a Street Commissioner. 
In 1854 Uie Irish adopted citizens petitioned that 
some of their class might be appointed Special 
Constables. Their petition was tabled by the Com- 
mon Council, a course which would not be taken 
were a similar petition to be presented at this 
time. 

Jobamah Gunn was the first regular Captain of 
the Watch, the second being Hezekiah Gorham. 
He was followed in office by William Daggett, who 
served but a short time. Then Mr. Gorham's son 
became Captain; and in 1855, Lyman Bissell, who 
had been an officer in the regular army, and had 
been promoted as a reward for distinguished bra- 
very in the Mexican War, was at the head of the 
Watch. 

It was while he occupied this position that he 
went into the midst of a mob and quietly spiked 
the gun with which they meant to destroy South 
College. Mr. Henry Howe, in a little Outline 



History of New Haven, printed by Mr. O. A. 
Dorman in 1884, thus relates the story: 

Thirty years ago our only theatre, "Iloman's," was in 
the Exchange Building, where the town boys and students 
were wont to gather for amusement. C'oUisions Iretween 
them had arisen, the town boys crying, " Hustle the mon- 
keys out ! " — the students rarely retorting. Everything 
seemed ripening for a mob to culminate in a tragedy. The 
excitement grew intense, and furious threats filled the air 
from the town boys. t)n the night of the occurrence we are 
now to relate, about seventy stuilents were there for mutual 
protection, and when they issued from the hall a mob of 
thousands filled the street in front awaiting their exit. Our 
pohce force numbered, all told, only eight men, under Cap- 
tain Lyman Bissell. lie had been an oflicer in tlie Mexican 
War, and is to-day living in our city, a retired Major in the 
regular army. As the students came out they were greeted 
with insulting cries and threatenings. By the .idvice of Bis- 
sell the students moved together on the south pavement ol 
Chapel street in line, two by two, up toward the College. The 
mob rolled along beside them in the street filling the air with 
bowlings. The others marched on singing their great Col- 
lege song " Gitudt'iiiiiiis.'" 

When the students had got nearly to the top of the hill, 
just opposite the Club House, the leader of the mob, an 
Irishman, rushed forward and seized a student, a young man 
from Missouri, by the clothing under his neck, and l)egan to 
drag him into the midst of the mob. Suddenly he let go his 
hold, staggered liack, and then fell dead amidst the howling 
throng; a knife in the hands of the student had severed 
both ventricles of his heart. The police were present, and 
Bissell ordered his men to take the body to the police office, 
in the Glebe Building, Chapel street side, he going with 
them. The students, followed by the mob, reached the 
campus, and by the advice of Professor Silliman, retired to 
their rooms. Some little time clajiscd when Bissell, then in 
the police office, heard the rattling of the caisson of a piece 
of artillery passing in the street. .\n old soldier, he knew 
what that sound meant. He went along with the rioters. 
They loaded the piece to the muzzle with cannon balls, 
grape-shot, stones, pieces of brick, etc., and drew it up 
before South College to batter down the walls ; all was 
made ready, the gun duly pointed, the match lighted, and 
one of their number had got out his priming wire to make 
the connection free, when lo 1 he met with an obstruction, 
whereupon he exclaimed: "My God, boys, they have out- 
generaled us after all — the gun is spiked ! " He spoke the 
truth. Bissell had spiked the gun. 

Major Bissell was succeeded by John C. Ilayden, 
on July I, 1855, who served until June 4, 1S57. 
Frederick P. Gorham served from June 16, 1S57, 
to June 22, 1859; Elihu Yale from June 21st, of 
that year, to June 15, i860; and John C. Ilayden 
was again Captain until June 21, 1S61. 

]\Iany incendiary tires, in 1 84 7, led to a city meet- 
ing being called for taking measures of a protective 
character. There are citizens who remember the 
volunteer patrol, which included a number of the 
students of Yale College, the streets being guarded 
at night in a year of many fires. 

Fifty or sixty years ago the constabulary system 
was a terror to all boys fond of mischief. One of 
the most notable of the officials was Dr. John 
Skinner, who made arrests without warrant from 
Court or Justice of the Peace at his own pleasure, 
and New Haven children feared him mightily. He 
was distinguished by a black mark on a prominent 
nose, and by his sharp voice. Constable Munson 
was of the same school of oflicers, and Constable 
Jesse Knevals was also dreaded by evil-doers. 

When Ilarinanus M.Welch was Mayor, in 1861, 
John C. Hollister, David J. Peck, WiU'iam B. John- 
son, George II. Watrous, and George A. ChapmaUj 



MUNICIPAL HISTORY. 



465 



were appointed to examine "A Bill for the Organ- 
ization of a Police Department for the City of New- 
Haven," then pending before the (jeneral Assembly, 
and promote its passage. This was the beginnmg 
of the foundation of the present excellent police 
system as it now exists. The first meeting of the 
Board of Police Commissioners thus created, was 
held on July 6, 1861. Rules for the government 
o{ the police force were adopted, and Merritt Clarke 
and William Grant were appointed policemen. 
.\ugust 6th, the Mayor read to the Board of Com- 
missioners a communication from the Common 
Council, urging the appointment of policemen 
without delay. June 27th the Commisioners elected 
Jonathan W. Pond, Chief; Wales French, Captain; 
and Owen A. Monson, Lieutenant; and on the 
26th, these policemen: Darby Hanley, Treadwell 
Smith, Philip Reilly, Leverett Howell, Philip Roller, 
Luther P. Darrow, Peter Sheridan, George A. Bald- 
win, Jefferson B. Shaw, Henry S. Catlin, William 
D. Campbell, and James Brady, besides a number 
of supernumeraries, among whom was Thomas 
Kennedy, for years the policeman at the consoli- 
dated railroad depot. In September a uniform was 
adopted for the men. Commissioner John W. 
Fitch died, and was succeeded by Edward Har- 
rison. 

It was against the rules for an officer to hold 
office under the State or Federal Government, and 
there was much jealousy and trouble among the 
men regarding rewards paid for arresting soldiers 
deserted from the army. The venerable James 
Stuart, who is still on the pay roll, was one of the 
early appointments to the Force. William M. Hyde 
(now Captain), Mr. Stuart, and Patrick Gallagher 
were added to the Force November, 1861. Captain 
French resigned in 1862. The Board of Commis- 
sioners for 1864 consisted of Willis M. Anthony, 
Philo Chatfield, Atwater Treat, William H. Bradley, 
Henry B. Harrison (Governor in 1885-86), and 
Marcus M. Rounds. 

The Board voted, in 1863, that the Mayor would 
be justified in purchasing pistols for the men. 

In 1864 the Charter was amended. The Chiefs 
and Acting Chiefs under the organization dating 
from 1 86 1, were Jonathan W. Pond, from June 27th 
of that year, until July 16, 1864; Elihu Yale, from 
July 17th to October 10, 1865; and George M. 
White, from October nth to September i, 1866, 
William A. Lincoln was chosen September i, 1866. 
but after a time resigned, and was followed by Will- 
iam J. Bowen, who also resigned in a few months, 
when William D. Catlin became Acting Chief, con- 
tinuing in the office until July 6, 1871. William 
M. Hyde was thereafter Acting Chief, from July 7, 
1871, to December 14, 1872, inclusive. Captain 
Hyde had offered him at different times the place 
of Chief of the I*"orce, an honor which he never 
saw fit to accept, though actually called upon at 
various junctures in police affairs to assume the 
honors of the position. 

December 15, 1872, Charles W. Allen, who had 
formerly been the Chief of the Fire Department, 
was elected Chief and was in office until February 
19, 1879. His administration was notable for the 

5'J 



inauguration of a sort of military drill, which was 
thought to increase the efficiency of the policemen. 
Great care was taken in inspecting the uniforms of 
the oflScers, and much attention was paid to deport- 
ment. Chief Allen took great pride in having a 
fine looking body of men under his command. It 
was during his term of office that General Grant 
visited New Haven, the reunion of the Army of the 
Cumberland being held at the time. 

William M. Hyde once more became Acting 
Chief on the retirement of Chief Allen, and so con- 
tinued until the icth of March, 1879, when Charles 
Webster was chosen Chief He remained in of- 
fice until his death, January i, 1885, when Captain 
Hyde again became Acting Chief The composi- 
tion of the Board of Police Commissioners was on 
what has been designated the non-partisan plan. An 
equal number of Commissioners were selected from 
both the two great political parties, the idea of 
those who favored the plan being to avoid the 
domination of one party over the other in the 
matter of choosing policemen or dismissing them 
from service. The practical effect of the non- 
partisan scheme, however, was to greatly obstruct 
the business of the city in this department of public 
economy. There being three Democratic and 
three Republican Commissioners, neither party 
could elect a Chief as the public welfare required. 
By a Charter provision, the Mayor had no vote in 
case of a tie in an election of policemen, though 
he had a vote in cases of a tie, when ordinary 
matters were being acted upon. 

About half a century ago, the police lock-up was 
in what is now the American Theatre Building on 
Church street. It was moved to the other side of 
the street, a few doors below Chapel; thence to an 
upper room of the Glebe Building, corner of Chapel 
and Church streets; and afterward to the basement 
of the Old State House on the Green. 

When the City Hall was built, in 1861, the po- 
lice quarters. Police Court, and lock-up were mov- 
ed thither. A large building, exclusively for Police 
and City Court purposes, was built, at a cost of 
about $75,000, on Court street, in 1873, Hon. 
Lynde Harrison being the principal mover in the 
enterprise. In this building is a commodious Court- 
room, a large room for the assembling of the police- 
men, a room with beds for officers on night duty 
who must attend Court in the morning, and a large 
drill room, besides other rooms. In the rear is a 
fine brick barn for police horses and vehicles. 

The first police van, or " Black Maria," was put 
into service in 1873, and the same year the male 
and female prisoners were kept apart from each 
other. Another police building was erected on 
Grand street in 1883. 

May I, 1884, was introduced the Gamewell sys- 
tem of a police telephone and signal service, 
whereby electricity is made to do useful work and 
greatly improve the police protection of the city. 
At headquarters are the instruments and batteries 
for receiving and recording telephonic signals. In 
different parts of the city are station boxes for tele- 
phonic communication with the main office, and 
there are also a patrol wagon, ambulance, and 



466 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



plenty of horses for responding to calls. The 
Force consists of nearly a hundred men, and by a 
graded plan there are always supernumeraries 
awaiting promotion to the regular Force. 

Mounted officers are employed in summer at 
East Rock Park, where is located one of the signal 
boxes. There are regular detective officers who 
do no patrol duty, James P. Bremer and Philip 
Reilly being efficient in that line of police work. 

The matter of a morgue has been agitated for 
years, but thus far the only place for a temporary 
deposit of persons meeting death in an untimely 
or unusual manner, is in a dark cellar under the 
City Hall. 

There have been years when there has been no 
harmony between the Judges of the City Court 
and the Chiefs of Police, and justice has suffered 
in consequence; but of late years this has been 
reformed. Very few crimes are committed in 
New Haven in proportion to the extent of the 
population. 

The total cost of the police in 1884 was $104,- 
913.54, of which $97,427.45 was for the pay-roll 
and $398.75 for Sunday watchmen at cemeteries. 
Other expenses were: for the Park Police, $965.66; 
sundries, $996.72; board of horses, $699,96; rent 
of voting places, $350; telegraph and telephone 
service, $1,575; barn, $2,500. 

The total length of streets patroled in January, 
1885, was 131 miles, 17 miles being streets with 
paved roadways. 

The police are generally moral, intelligent, sober 
men, faithful to duly, and are a credit to the 
city. In one of his numerous reports to the Police 
Commissioners, the late Chief Webster very truly 
said: 

The duties of a policeman are arduous in the extreme. 
Tlirough rain and sunshine, storm and snow, he patrols his 
beat, and in all cases, if faithful to his trust, looks carefully 
to the safety of the person and jiroperty of citizens. His 
work is more carefully scrutinized than that of any office in 
any other branch of the city departments. If a mistake is 
made by any member of the Police Force it is open to criti- 
cism, and oftentimes the entire Force is unnecessarily blamed 
on account of the acts of an individual member of the de- 
partment. 

The Commissioners, apparently recognizing the 
truth of this, immediately put on trial any officer 
charged with dereliction, and if found guilty of any 
but trifling faults, dismissal is the result. Due 
notice of trial is always given an accused officer, 
and he is allowed opportunity to produce witnesses 
in his own defense, and to make such statements 
as he may deem expedient. 

The percentage of loss by robbery in New Haven 
is very much smaller than in most other cities. 

The present head of the Police Force, Charles 
F. Hollman, was elected Chief July 13, 1885. He 
is thirty-nine years of age,a native of (Jermany,and 
came to this country when young. He is a mem- 
ber of the Bar, and at the time of his election was 
in good practice, being also the Coroner for New 
Haven County. He was for a short time in the 
military service of the Government during the late 
war. He took office as Chief of the Department 
August, 1885, and has given general satisfaction. 



VI. — Fire Department. 4 

BY A. C. HENDRICK, CHIEF OF FIRE DEPARTMENT. 

The first fire companies in New Haven were 
ordered by the City Council in 1789. Two engines 
were then purchased, and companies formed to 
manage them. The machines were manufactured 
by Ebenezer Chittenden, of New Haven, and the 
firemen of those days and the citizens generally 
took great pride in them, primitive as they must 
have been. On the 3 ist of December, 1 789, JameSti 
Hillhouse, Jeremiah Atwater, Colonel Joseph 
Drake, Benjamin Sanford, Joseph Howell, and 
Josiah Burr were appointed Fire Wardens to take 
command at fires in the order named. At the same 
meeting Elias Shipman was appointed foreman and 
Russell Clark "second" of Engine Company No. 
I, and Colonel Hezekiah Sabin, foreman, and John 
Nicoll "second ''of Engine Company No. 2. At 
a subsequent meeting of the Council, held July 5, 
1 790, the following persons were indorsed as 
members of Engine Company No. i : Samuel 
Green, John Goodrich, Hanover Barney, Jacob 
Thompson, John Peck, Ambrose Ward, Jr., lohn 
Raymond, Nathan Beers, Isaac Guernsey, James 
Prescott, Henry Daggett, Jr., Stephen Ball, Jr., 
Jeremiah Atwater, 3d, Eli Hotchkiss, Ira Bar- 
tholomew, Nathaniel Fitch, Luther Fitch, and 
Alexander Langmuir. 

Those indorsed as members of F'ngine Com- 
pany No. 2 were : Henry York, James RIerriman, 
Samuel Merriman, John Chandler, Stephen Dum- 
mer, Nathan Dummer, F^dmund Smith, Nathan 
Fenton, Thoinas Davis, Jr., Solomon Davis, 
Stephen Miles, Torbus Coil, Noah Barber, John 
Woodward, Amaziah Lucas, Joseph Mix, Ezekiel 
Hayes, Jr., and F^ldad Mix. 

About this time the Fire Wardens were instructed 
to make examinations of fire-places, chimneys, 
ovens, etc., and of all dwelling-houses and build- 
ings, with regard to their safetv. In the event that 
any were found unsafe, the Wardens were author- 
ized to order repairs as needed. Occupants of 
dwelling-houses and buildings were recjuired to 
sweep or burn out all chimneys as often as once in 
every two months. A fine of ten shillings was im- 
posed by the authorities for neglect to comply 
with this law. Bonfires were not allowed within 
fifteen rods of any building, nor to burn after 
twelve o'clock at noon. 

In June, 1791, the working force of the File 
Department was increased. To each company was 
added three men, making twenty instead of seven- 
teen. 

In June, 1794, John Cioodrich, Joseph Peck, 
James Merriman, and Abraham Bishop, were ap- 
pointed Fire Wardens in addition to those already 
appointed, and were detailed as Sackmen to re- 
move all portable goods in case of fire to a i)lace 
of safety. 

On April 11, 1797, at a council meeting, l^lizur 
Goodrich, David Daggett and Simeon Baldwin were 
appointed a committee to promote the enactment 
of a bill by the General Assembly requiring house- 



MUXICIPAL HISTORY. 



46t 



holders to provide themselves and their houses with 

fire-buckets. This soon became a law, and fire- 
buckets were introduced, and every householder 
was required to provide himself with one, with his 
name prominently painted thereon; and in case of 
fire, by day ornight, these buckets were either taken 
by the owners, or, being thrown from the houses to 
the sidewalks, were carried by other persons to fires, 
where two lines were formed from a well to the fire- 
engine. One line passed full buckets of water, the 
other passed back the empty ones. After the fire 
they were deposited on the Green, near the town 
pump, where citizens went to pick out their own 
and carry them home for future use. In later years 
a man was appointed to return the buckets to their 
owners, for which the city paid three cents each. 
Persons failing to provide themselves with buckets 
were liable to a fine of fifty cents for every three 
months they were without them. 

In July, 1800, Elizur Goodrich, Dyer White and 
Stephen Ailing, members of the Council, were ap- 
pointed a committee to equip the firemen with fire- 
ladders and fire-hooks. After investigation, this 
committee recommended the purchase of a new 
fire-engine, six fire-ladders, and two fire-hooks. 
There was considerable delay in the purchase of an 
engine, as it was not completed until November, 
1801, when Elias Shipman, Dyer White and Isaac 
Beers were authorized to form a company to take 
charge of it. 

In February, 1801, a committee of the Council, 
comprising Elias Shipman, Simeon Baldwin and 
Isaac Beers, was appointed to prepare a plan of ta.x- 
ation upon property liable to destruction by fire, 
to be devoted to the use of the Fire Department. 
Later they reported a plan, which was adopted, and 
a tax was provided accordingly. 

On February 3, 1801, a brewery was burned in 
Brewery street near Water street, in that portion of 
the city called the new township, with a loss of 
115,000, and an insurance of $5,000. 

As a better mode for locating fires, the Council, 
in October, 1803, divided the city into six wards. 

At this time the Fire Wardens were instructed 
to wear thick leather fire-hats at fires, with the words 
" Fire Warden " painted thereon, so that they could 
be distinguished. Sackmen were given special 
powers while on duty at fires to insure the proper 
protection of property, and they were authorized to 
carry fire-trumpets. From 1803 to 1805, new and 
" large " fire-engines were purchased by the city, 
and their numbers ran in rotation from No. i to 
No. 4. During that time a cart was brought into 
requisition for carrying hooks and ladders, and Yale 
College provided fire-buckets for their premises by 
order of the city authorities. Firemen at this time 
wore strips of black leather across the fronts of their 
hats as badges by which they could be known at 
fires. 

In 1806, no person was allowed to carry a lighted 
cigar nearer than four rods to any dwelling-house, 
building or barn. The penalty for such an offense 
was $1. 

In 1810, the first hook and ladder company was 
organized, of which William Mix was foreman. 



In 1 813 he organized another company of eight 
men, who attended fires armed with axes. They 
were paid three dollars per year for their services. 
His pay was four dollars per year. The first leather- 
hose used by the Fire Department was bought in 
181 2. Each of the four engines were supplied with 
sixty feet. This hose was small, and was sewed 
together. 

On June 21, 1813, the Council attended the 
funeral of General James Merriman, a member of 
that body, and also Foreman of Engine Company 
No. 4. He died from natural causes. 

A company of Sackmen was formed on February 
22, 1814, and included the following named citi- 
zens: Abraham Bradley, Thaddeus Beecher, Will- 
iam Brintnall, Abraham Bradley, 3d, Charles Bost- 
wick, Solomon Collis, Timothy Chittenden, Samuel 
Darling, Abraham Dummer, Jehiel Forbes, F'.zekiel 
Hayes, William Leffingwell, Alexander Langmuir, 
Eneas Munson, Jr., Stephen Osborn, Flbenezer 
Peck, Jonathan E. Porter, Jesse Pardy, Archi- 
bald Rice, Roger Sherman, Anthony P. Sanford, 
John Scott, Jr., William Sherman, Jr., Isaac Towns- 
end, Jr., William Austin, Jeremiah M. Atwater, 
Isaac Tomlinson, Daniel Trowbridge, Gilbert Tot- 
ten, and William W. Woolsey. To these men the 
city distributed three hundred sacks, to be used at 
fires in saving portable property. Some members 
took as many as thirty-eight sacks and others only 
two or three. 

From 18 1 5 to 1820, the fire-engines were sup- 
plied with water for fires in the center of the city 
from the creek east of Fleet street, a lock having 
been placed there for the purpose. 

The city authorities, in January, 1816, passed a 
vole calling upon the Sheriff of the county and his 
Deputies, and the town Constables, to attend fires 
to preserve order. 

In February, 181 7, the Council passed a resolu- 
tion authorizing the Fire Department officials to 
pay the firemen for their services. Accordingly 
they received fifty cents for duty on " washing days, '' 
and one dollar for duty at fires. 

On October 27, 1820, the great fire on Long 
Wharf occurred. Thirty buildings, including many 
stores, and four lumber yards were destroyed, and 
one dwelling-house was pulled down to stop the 
progress of the flames. The loss was $70,000, in- 
surance, $3,000. 

In January, 182 1, action was taken by the Coun- 
cil to cause better and more general alarms of fire 
to be sounded. As a result, an arrangement was 
made to have all the church bells rung during the 
continuance of a fire. This duty was performed 
bv the sextons of the churches and by an assistant, 
who was designated by the Council. To further 
assist the firemen in locating the fires, the city ap- 
pointed two men to traverse the city on horseback 
when a fire occurred, who made an outcry of "fire," 
and designated its locality. 

The first allusion in the records of the city to a 
Chief Engineer was in 1822, when Samuel Ward 
and Luther Bradley were mentioned as " Principal 
Engineers." How the positions were created does 
not appear. 



4G8 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



\ 



On December 9, 1823, William Jones, William 
Brown and Daniel Smith were appointed Fire De- 
partment carmen. It was their duty to attend all 
tires with their horses and carts, and, under the 
directions of the Fire Wardens and Sackmen, to 
transport and move all portable goods from the 
burning buildings to a place of safety. They were 
paid by the city for their services. At the same 
meeting one of the city engines was condemned, 
and an effort was made to sell it to the village of 
Fair Haven. This failed, however, but the city 
purchased a new engine, known as No. 5. The 
company controlling it was under Russell Hotch- 
kiss, foreman, and the engine was located in the 
alley on the glebe land, now known as Gregson 
street, near Chapel street, and was placed in com- 
mission about July 7, 1824. 

In February, 1825, the Fire Wardens were in- 
structed by the Council to oppose and prevent the 
location of a confectionery establishment on Church 
street, near Chapel street, it being feared that a 
conflagration might occur from an over-heated 
oven or chimney, caused by the heavy fires used in 
the preparation of candies. This precaution was 
deemed necessary, as the locality was central and 
thickly populated. 

The old Liberian Hotel was totally destroyed by 
fire on September 17, 1825. It was situated at the 
foot of Greene street, upon the site now occupied 
by Mallory, Wheeler & Co., the lock manufacturers. 
The hotel was a notorious sailor dance-house, and 
its destruction was not regretted. "King" Lans- 
ing, a mulatto, was proprietor of the place. He 
afterwards kept a similar house on Fleet street. 

The increased demand for fire appliances caused 
the city to purchase a new hook and ladder truck, 
and form a second company of laddermen, on De- 
cember 13, 1826. Oliver Smith was appointed fore- 
man, and Elisha Dickerman, Jr., second. This ap- 
paratus was located on the Grammar School lot on 
Temple street. 

In 1827, the authorities enacted stringent laws 
regulating the .sale of gunpowder and its storage, 
as a precaution against explosion, accident and 
fire. Only certain merchants were permitted to 
sell it, and they were not allowed to keep on hand 
more than seven pounds at any one time. 

On April 14, 1829, the Council ordered the Fire 
Depirtment officials to purchase a quantity of leather- 
hose "secured with composition rivets." The fire 
apparatus was also ordered to be put in first-class 
order. As an incentive to competition, a bounty 
was offered to the company arriving first at a fire. 

On December 1, 1829, Engine Company No. 6 
was organized under David W. Buckingham as 
foreman. The company was made up of re])resent- 
ative citizens, and was a popular organization. In 
June, 1830, it was merged into Columijia Hose 
with an increased membership. They ran a hose- 
cart antl were k)cated on Union street, near Chapel 
street. 

In January, 1830, incendiary fires became very 
freciuent, and terri>r reigned among the citizens. 
Mayor Uavid Daggett, with the approval of the 
Council, offered a reward of $100 for the arrest and 



conviction of incendiaries. He appointed a special 
night watch, made up of fifty trustworthy citizens, 
who patroled the streets for weeks and prevented 
depredation. 

In August, 1832, the city entered into an agree- 
ment with George Rowland, the proprietor of 
Rowland's Mill, on Union street, by which a force 
pump was placed upon his premises with a capac- 
ity sufticient to supply the lire-engines with water 
in case of fire. The pump was run by water power 
connected with the mill, and was a source of water 
supply for the firemen for several years, at an annual 
rental of $50. The pump and attachments be- 
longed to the city. 

In September, 1833, a company of firemen was 
organized, known and designated as Engine Com- 
pany No. 6. The engine a.ssigned to their charge 
was one formerly in use by Engine Company No. 3. 
This action of the Council did not please the fire- 
men of No. 6, and they remonstrated, because they 
wanted a new engine. They were finally recon- 
ciled, and before many months a new one was pur- 
chased for them. 

During the fall of 1833, the Fire Department 
force was increased by an Act of the General Assem- 
bly, and after distribution and enlistments the vari- 
ous companies had the following membership: 

Kngine Company No. I 17 men. 

" " No. 2 17 " 

" " No. 3 .. .30 " 

" " No. 4 30 " 

" " No. 5 30 " 

" No. 6 30 " 

Columbia Hose Company 60 " 

The total force of firemen at that time was about 
300, including the Hook and Ladder-men, Fire 
Wardens, and Sackmen. 

A general transfer of firemen from one company 
to another took place in January, 1834. The 
members of Engine Company No. 3 were trans- 
ferretl to F'ngine Company No. 2, and the mem- 
bers of F-ngine Company No. 2 were transferreii to 
duty with a new company, known as Engine Com- 
pany No. 7, of which Jesse Knevals was foreman. 
This company had its headquarters on Chapel 
street, just back of South College. About the same 
time the city purchased 800 feet of leather-hose, 
which was distributed among the companies of the 
F'ire Department. 

The first regularly appointed Board of Engineers 
was organized by the Council on June 10, 1834, 
when Richard M. Clark was appointetl Chief 
Engineer, and the following Assistant Engineers: 
[ohn Babcock, first; Caleb Mi.x, second ; Ezra 
Hotchkiss, third; Henry Peck, fourth; Robert At- 
water, fifth. The Fire Wardens were continued 
and had the general supervision of the Fire Depart- 
ment, and occupied the same position relatively as 
the Board of Fire Commissioners have in later 
years. 

The first fire company in the village of Fair 
Haven was formed in August, 1835, of which 
Miles Tuttle was the foreman. The company was 
designated as Engine Company No. 8. The engine 
then in use is now in the possession of the X'eteran 
Firemen's Association of New Haven. 



I 



MUNICIPAL HISTORY. 



469 



Incendiaries again invaded New Haven about the 
holiday season in 1835. On December 23d of that 
year the Council passed a resolution authorizing the 
appointment of a special night watch. Prominent 
citizens volunteered their services and others were 
appointed. Fifty of these specials patroled the 
streets three nights in succession, and then their 
places were taken by others. 

Brewster & Collis, carriage manufacturers on 
East street, suffered by the burning of their estab- 
lishment on December 25 (Christmas Day), 1836. 
The loss was $65,000, insurance, $35,000. 

In March, 1836, at a meeting of the Council, 
the subject of furnishing the city with a water supply 
for fire purposes was discussed. The source from 
which water was to be obtained was the Farming- 
ton Canal. The plan had few supporters and was 
not brought to any successful termination. At a 
city meeting, held in May of that year, a vote was 
passed appointing Caleb Mix, Henry Peck, John 
Beach, Nathaniel Booth and Daniel Brown, a com- 
mittee to urge the General Assembly representatives 
to secure the passage of such laws as would enable 
the City of New Haven to make its Fire Department 
more efficient in the extinguishment of fires, and to 
add to the force by the appointment of citizens 
from eighteen years of age and upwards. Their 
efforts were afterward realized; for such legislation 
was procured, and plans were carried out as far as 
practicable. During the year new engines were 
purchased to replace those which had become 
unserviceable. A bounty of $5 was then given to 
hose companies and hook and ladder companies 
which were first to arrive at fires, and $10 was given 
the engine company which played the first stream 
of water upon the fire. 

In March, 1837, a hook and ladder company 
was organized in the village of Fair Haven under 
the foremanship of Seth F. Benton. In August of 
the same year the Committee on Fire Department 
of the Council reported in favor of several improve- 
ments, and as a result the Company of Engine No. 
2 were favored with a new engine-house on York 
street, near Broadway, and a new house was pro- 
vided for Engine Company No. 7 on Chapel street. 
On August 2, the great fire of 1837 took place. 
There were twenty buildings burned on Chapel and 
Orange streets, with a loss of $35,000, which was 
mostly covered by insurance. 

The Mayor and Aldermen oflered a reward of 
$100 for the arrest and conviction of incendiaries, 
owing to the revival of incendiary fires in the fall 
of 1837. The store of Henry N. Whitdesey on 
State street, was set on fire on the night of Septem- 
ber 7, 1837, and later, George H. Merriman, 
colored, was arrested and convicted of the crime. 
Charles W. Curtis, a citizen, was paid the above re- 
ward, as he detected and his testimony convicted 
young Merriman. 

The Fire Department authorities were greatly 
annoyed in January, 1838, by false alarms of fire 
which were caused early in the evening by the 
"public criers" employed by auctioneers. To 
avoid further annoyance in this direction, the 
Council were appealed to, and a law was enacted 



prohibiting "criers" from shouting on the streets 
after sundown. 

The steamboat New York, belonging to the New 
York and New Haven Steamboat Company, was 
burned to the water's edge while lying at her dock 
in New Haven on March 22, 1839. The loss was 
$52,000, and no insurance. 

The Council, upon recommendation of the Fire 
Wardens, decided to sell Engines Nos. i, 2, 4, and 
7, in May, 1839, and replace them with new and 
more modern machines of greater power. Engine 
No. 8, of Fair Haven, was thought to be of the 
proper build, and the new ones were to be similar 
in construction. 

At a city meeting held on January 20, 1840, the 
by-laws were so changed and amended that the 
Fire Wardens and Foremen of the different fire 
companies constituted a Board of Fire Wardens 
whose duty it was to enforce the laws relating to 
fire. They were qualified to organize engine, 
hook and ladder, hose, and sack and bucket com- 
panies as far as necessity demanded, and to appoint 
and designate foremen and " seconds " of each, and 
annually appoint a chief engineer, assistant engineer, 
a clerk, and treasurer. They were authorized to 
select from their own members a suitable number 
of inspectors, whose duty it was to inspect all dwell- 
ings and buildings at least once in each year, and 
also to examine stoves, ovens, chimneys, etc., as 
to their safety from fire; inspectors to receive $2 
per day while actually employed. The Chief Engi- 
neer had supreme command at fires, and the Board 
Engineers were ordered to wear badges at fires so 
that they could be distinguished from otlier officials. 

Charles W. Allen joined the Fire Department on 
April 29, 1 84 1, and was a member of Engine 
Company No. 3. He afterward became a chief 
engineer, and filled the position faithfully and ac- 
ceptably for many )ears. 

The following Fire Department officials were 
appointed on September 7, 1841 : Eli B. Austin, 
Chief Engineer; Assistants: Zelotes Day, First; 
Philip S. Galpin, second; Leverett Griswold, 
third; Henry Hotchkiss, fourth; Levi Gilbert, 
2d, fifth. 

The first fall review of the New Haven Fire De- 
partment occurred on October 30, 1841, and a 
memorable day that was to many an old fireman. 
The companies assembled on the Green at two 
o'clock in the afternoon and a trial of engines was 
had. Engine No. 7, whose house was on Chapel 
street, in the rear of Yale College, was placed at a 
reservoir in that vicinity, and played through a line 
of hose, laid on the south side of the Green in front 
of the State House, into Engine No. 8 of Fair 
Haven, which was playing on the Centre Church 
steeple. The students of Yale College were play- 
ing foot-ball upon the south side of the Green, and 
during their play came in contact with the firemen 
and trod upon the hose of Engine No. 7. They 
were asked to desist, but did not do so, and finally 
the two parties came to blows and the students 
were hustled off the Green by the firemen. They 
sorely felt their defeat, and later in the day, while 
the firemen were enjoying a supper in the State 



470 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



House, bricks were thrown against the doors and 
word came to the firemen that their hose was being 
cut. With this information the firemen rushed out 
and met the students who were doubly reinforced. 
A brief struggle ensued without any ver}' serious re- 
suhs, and the students were a second time driven 
from the Green. This put a stop to the quarrel for 
the day, but at midnight the students entered the 
house of Engine No. 7, and with a.Kes and hammers 
set to work to demolish the engine. They succeed- 
ed in seriou.sly damaging the apparatus, so that it 
was unfit for duty. The firemen discovered the 
depredators; an alarm of fire was raised; a large 
crowd assembled; and a riot was for a time immi- 
nent. Yale college paid seven hundred dollars to 
repair the engine and put it in first-class order, 
after which the company moved its quarters to 
Washington Hill, at the junction of Washington 
street and Congress avenue. 

At a city meeting, held in April, 1842, a by-law 
was passed restricting fire companies from running 
their apparatus upon the sidewalks, e.xcept by order 
of the Chief Engineer or an Assistant Engineer, 
when the roadways were impassable. 

In compliance with a petition of many citizens 
for the location of an engine in the northeastern 
portion of the city, on July 12, 1842, the Council 
ordered an engine-house to be built at the junction 
of Grand and State street, upon a triangular lot pre- 
sented to the city by George Dummer. Later, 
Engine No. 4 was transferred to that locality. 

The first firemen's excursion from New Haven 
was the trip of Engine Company No. 3 to New 
York, to attend the Croton Water celebration on 
August 29, 1842, on which occasion they were re- 
ceived and entertained by Empire Engine Com- 
pany No. 4 2, of New York. The Council permitted 
No. 3 to leave the city two days and one night on 
this occasion, the Company assuming all risk of 
damage to their machine. This was the beginning 
of a lasting hospitality which afterwards sprung up 
between the fire companies of New York and New 
Haven. 

Philip S. Galpin was elected Chief Engineer of 
the Fire Department on September 12,1842. He 
was also Mayor of the city at the same time. He 
remained Chief Engineer for fourteen months, 
when he resigned, and was succeeded by Leverett 
(jriswokl, who was promoted from First Assistant 
Engineer. 

The duties and responsibilities of the Chief 
Engineer were increased during 1843, 'i"'^ h'^ sal- 
ary was raised to two hundred dollars a year. In 
the fall of that year, Thomas C. Hollis, the present 
City Sheriff, was ai)pointed a Fire Warden. He 
was afterwards an Assistant Engineer. 

The rapid growth of New Haven demanded in- 
creased facilities for the Fire Department, and lib- 
eral appropriations were made in 1844 for new 
engines, engine-houses, hose, etc. 

A resolution calling for the reorganization of the 
Fire Department was introduced at a city meeting 
on August 7, 1847. 'I'lie subject was referred to a 
special committee, consisting of FZx-Mayor Philip 
S. Galpin, William 11, Ellis, Alfred Daggett, 



Nathaniel Booth, Morris Tyler, A. A. Thompson, 
Charles Robinson, James F. Babcock, J. T. Hem- 
ingway, and Henry Hotchkiss. This committee 
reported at a city meeting held in September of that 
year, and made the following recommenilations, 
which were adopted: That there should be one 
Chief Engineer and seven Assistant Engineers ap- 
pointed annually,and to remain in office until their 
successors were appointed, and they to constitute a 
Board of Engineers who had the general care and 
supervision of all Fire Department propert)-, audit- 
ed bills, and attended to the inspection of all build- 
ings, for which latter .service they received extra 
compensation of two dollars per day. They were 
authorized to employ a clerk, who kept a record of 
their doings and the accounts of the Fire Depart- 
ment, and annually made returns to the Board of 
Assessors of all its members, showing exempts from 
poll-tax. The Chief Engineer had charge of re- 
pairs upon the Fire Department apparatus and 
houses, and received one hundred dollars per year 
for such extra service. The Assistant Engineers 
were ordered to attend all meetings of the Board of 
Engineers, wear suitable badges of office, and see 
that orders were executed at fires. The Chief 
Engineer and his Assistants were clothed with 
ample authority at fires, and had power to call 
upon any citizen present to assist the firemen. 

Hiram Camp, afterward Chief Engineer of the 
Fire Department, joined Engine Company No. 4 
on May i, 1848. Mr. Camp is still living, and is 
the honored President of the Veteran Firemen's 
Association. 

The paint and oil store of Nathaniel Booth on 
State street, upon the Merchants' Hotel site, was 
burned out on January 8, 1849. This was a stub- 
born, hard fire to fight. The weather was exces- 
sively cold, and the work of the firemen was ac- 
complished with much hardship and under many 
difliculties. Two men were killed by falling walls. 
The old railroad depot, now the City Market, was in 
the process of erection at that time. The New York 
and New Haven Railroad Company sent a check 
for $50 to the firemen, in appreciation of their ser- 
vices in saving their depot property, and from this 
the Firemen's Benevolent Association, since estab- 
lished on a sound basis, originated. The first ben- 
efit paid was $15, to Charles Webster, a member of 
Engine Company No. 7, who was injured at a fire 
on September 24, 1851. Mr. Webster was after- 
ward Chief of Police, and died in 1S85, while hold- 
ing that office. 

The Marble Block on Chapel street was burned 
on February 13, 1849. Loss $3,900, insurance 
the same. 

Owing to numerous compiainls made of im- 
proper conduct, the Board of Engineers issued 
orders, in April, 1851, forbidding firemen to fre- 
quent or enter the engine-houses on Sunday except 
in case of fire. A violation of this order was equiv- 
alent to dismissal. 

Anilrew J. Kennedy, afterwards a prominent fire- 
man, and more recently the efficient Fire Marshal of 
New Haven, first joined the Fire Department on Sep- 
tember 1,1851, as a member of Engine Company 



MUNICIPAL HISTORY. 



471 



No. 2. Previous to this he had been a volunteer 
member of the same company, and had been a 
torch-boy for the Chief Engineer. 

The Old Museum, located on Olive street at the 
foot of Court street, where Home place is now cut 
through, was totally destroyed by fire on August 
21, 1851. The building, occupied by many ten- 
ants of the poorer class, was so filthy, pigs being 
kept in the attic and horses in the cellar, that its 
destruction was not regretted. 

The Council held a special meeting on June 16, 
1852, and passed a series of appropriate resolutions 
upon the death of Chief-Engineer James T. Hem- 
ingway, who was also a Councilman. Later, a 
substantial brownstone monument was erected in 
the Grove street Cemetery to his memory by his 
associate engineers, members of Neptune Engine 
Company No. 6, and other friends. Charles A. 
Nettleton, First Assistant Engineer, was promoted 
to the position of Chief Engineer, to fill out the un- 
expired term of Chief Hemingway. 

In compliance with a great demand for the loca- 
tion of a fire-engine in the northeastern portion of 
the city, the Council, in September, 1852, appro- 
priated $2,500 for the purchase of a lot and the 
erection of an engine-house for Engine Company 
No. ID on Hamilton street, near Grand street. In 
one year from that time the engine was located 
there and ready for duty. 

Bevil Sperry, aged twenty-five )'ears, a member 
of Engine Company No. 5, was killed at a fire in 
Simon Goodman's grocery store on State street, 
near Elm, on October 24, 1852. He was inside 
the burning building, holding the pipe and direct- 
ing a stream from the engine to w^hich he belonged, 
when the supports gave way that held a chimney, 
and in the crash he was caught and instantly killed 
while in the heroic discharge of duty. A hand- 
some monument in memory of him was erected by 
Engine Company No. 5 over his grave in Ever- 
green Cemetery. 

The city authorities became so well satisfied with 
the duties performed by the Fire Department, that 
in November, 1852, the Council voted to increase 
the pay. Each company with fifty men was paid 
$400 annually, and those with less, proportion- 
ately. The Assistant Engineers received $25 per 
year for their services. 

The mode of electing the Chief Engineer and 
Assistants was changed in May, 1853. As amended 
the law called for the election of a Chief Engineer 
and seven Assistant F^ngineers on the last Monday 
in September in each year, the election being by 
ballot, and enrolled members of the Fire Depart- 
ment being the only persons qualified to vote. 
Each company voted by itself, and the foreman, or 
some other officer of the company, made known 
the result of the vote in each company, and those 
having the highest number of votes were declared 
elected Chief Engineer and Assistant F^ngineers 
upon indorsement by the Council. The first Board 
of F'ngineers elected under this new law was as 
follows: Charles W. Allen, Chief F^ngineer; Assist- 
ants: Hiram Camp, first; John WoodruflT, 2d, sec- 
ond; Robert Edmondson, third; Howard B. En- 



sign, fourth; Leverett G. Hemingway, fifth; Philip 
Pond, sixth; Nehemiah D. Sperry, seventh. 

The Hon. John H. Leeds joined the Fire De- 
partment as a member of F^ngine Company No. 3 
in October, 1853. Mr. Leeds was afterwards a 
member of the Board of Fire Commissioners under 
the present system, and to him the citizens are in- 
debted in a great measure for the superior facilities 
provided in later years for their protection from 
fire. 

The bell of the First Ecclesiastical Society was 
cracked while being rung for a fire in the winter of 
1854, and in March of that year, the city paid 
$178.50 to have it recast. 

Upon recommendation of the Board of F^ngi- 
neers, on March i, 1854, a squad of Fire Police 
was appointed. Each F"ire Company designated 
four of its members to act in that capacity. 

Owing to frequent false alarms of fire in the 
early part of 1854, the Board of Engineers issued 
orders to the Fire Department, on March 8th of 
that year, that thereafter the Court street Church 
bell would be the signal bell, and all other bells 
were to strike the district from that bell. 

Chief-Engineer Charles W. Allen resigned his 
position in September, 1855. Later in the fall, a 
committee from the Council requested the with- 
drawal of his resignation. They informed him 
that the Council regretted his action and were well 
satisfied with his efficienc}'. Mr. Allen afterwards 
withdrew his resignation. 

The annual parades and musters of the New 
Haven F'ire Department at this time were very 
popular events. They were held in the fall of the 
year and attracted large numbers of visiting fire- 
men from other cities, and crowds of spectators. 
On September 6, 1856, a monster muster was 
held. There were trials of engines for prizes, and 
Rippowan Engine Company, No. i, of Stamford, 
won the first prize, $500: Damper Engine Com- 
pany, No. 4, of Hartford, the second prize, $200; 
and Phteni.x Engine Company, No. 1 2, of Brook- 
lyn, N. Y., the third prize, $100. 

At the fall election in September, 
Camp was elected Chief Engineer, succeeding 
Charles W. Allen. He served in that capacity for 
several years and was an honored and efficient 
official. 

By an accident on January i, 1858, James B. T. 
Benjamin, a son of Everard Benjamin, and a mem- 
ber of Croton F'ngine Company No. i, was run 
over by that machine while proceeding to a fire, 
and received injuries from which he died. He 
was an active and brave fireman, and his sad end 
was a severe blow to his comrades. His unbounded 
popularity called forth many tributes; among them 
was a set of resolutions from the Board of Engi- 
neers. 

At this era of New Haven's growth, the F'ire De- 
partment was frequently called upon to go to the 
adjoining villages in cases of fire. In January, 
1858, the officials adopted a rule designating what 
engines were to attend such fires. For Fair Haven, 
Companies No. 6 and No. 10 were to respond, and 
for Westville, Fjigine Companies No. 2 and No. 5 



1856, Hiram 



473 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



were detailed. No other apparatus was allowed to 
go in either direction, except by permission of the 
Chief Engineer or one of his Assistants. 

Thomas Bennett was the first Fire IMarshal of 
New Haven. He was appointed on January ii, 
1858. It was his duty to investigate the cause and 
origin of all fires occurring within the city limits, 
and see that the ordinances relating to the preven- 
tion of fires were properly enforced. 

Foreman William W. Hubbell, of Engine Com- 
pany No. 10, at the risk of his own life, bravely 
rescued several persons from a burning building at 
the corner of Grand and State streets in January, 
1858. His heroic conduct was recognized by the 
citizens of New Haven, and the Council voted 
him a handsome set of resolutions for his brave 
act. 

A row occured between the firemen and the 
students of Yale College on the evening of Febru- 
ary 9, 1858. Its origin was between the members 
of Engine Company No. 2, on High street, and 
the "Crocodile Club," which boarded at High and 
Elm streets. The club members claimed that 
water was thrown upon them as they passed the 
engine house, and a wordy altercation followed, 
which did not end until a fireman, William Miles, 
the assistant foreman of Engine Company No. 2, 
was shot and killed. A desperate fight took place, 
in which hose-wrenches, clubs, daggers, and pistols 
were used. An alarm of fire was raised and at- 
tracted a large crowd of firemen and citizens, and 
there was much excitement and danger of riot; but 
owing to the efforts of the police and the College 
Faculty no subsequent outbreak occurred. William 
H. McCuIloch, Neilson A. Baldwin, and R. K. 
Belden, all students, were arrested on suspicion of 
firing the fatal shot. McCulloch and Baldwin 
were afterwards discharged, but Belden was held 
under $2,500 bonds for the murder of Miles. 
The case never came to trial and the bonds were 
forfeited. 

In August, 1858, an agreement was made be- 
tween the City of New Haven and the New Haven 
Water Company for supjjlying the city with water 
for fire purposes, at the annual rental of $4, coo, 
for a term of twenty years. 

In .'September, 1S58, Engine Company No. 6 
went to Hartford, and by its superior power won 
the celebrated Charter Oak Silver Trumpet after an 
exciting contest. 

Walker's Building on Church street, was de- 
stroyed by fire on January 8, 1859. The fire 
broke out on the 7th and was apparently extin- 
guished, but on the following day, which was Sun- 
day, it rekindled, and the firemen had a stubborn 
fight in subduing it. The Council chamber was 
in this building. Loss $5,000, fully insured. 

The Fire Department lot on Artisan street, now- 
occupied by I'.ngine No. 2 and Hook and Ladder 
No. I, was purchased by the city in August, 1859. 
The price paid was $50 per front foot. 

The first introduction of steam fire-engines into 
the New Haven Fire Department was the outcome 
from a petition signed by James Brewster and forty- 
one other manufactures and tax-payers, and also 



by members of Engine Company No. 7, who wish- 
ed to have charge of such a machine. This was in 
February, 1 860, and two months later the Council 
appropriated $4,000 for the purchase of a steamer 
and attachments. In October, i860, a Portland, 
Me., machine was delivered to the city, and was 
located at the house of Engine Company No. 7, on 
Congress avenue. The engine was built by J. B. 
Johnson, and is still held in reserve by the New- 
Haven Fire Department. It had a lo-inch cylin- 
der, lo-inch stroke, reciprocating horizontal sleeve 
pump, 4^-inch plunger, and was an exception- 
ally good machine. A company was formed and 
Anson W. Francis was the foreman. He did not 
serve long, and John H. Pardee succeeded him. 
The machine was drawn to fires by horses, and 
Albert Stilhvell was appointed engineer. Petty 
jealousies sprang up among the volunteer firemen 
belonging to the other companies, and many ob- 
stacles were thrown in the way of the new steam 
system. The old associations of the firemen were 
broken up, and they looked with disfavor upon the 
new mode of fightmg fire. The first outbreak oc- 
curred at the Mount Pleasant Hotel fire on West 
Water street, on July 28, 1861, when an altercation 
took place between Engineer Stillwell, of Steam 
Engine No. i, and Foreman John Schwab, of En- 
gine Company No. 3, over the possession of a reser- 
voir. Blow-s were exchanged, but without fatal 
results. An investigation was held, and Foreman 
Schwab was dismissed from the Fire Department, 
Engineer Stillwell being sustained in his position. 

The old carpet factory on East street, recon- 
structed into tenement houses, was burned on De- 
cember 21, i860. It was occupied by families,some 
of whom lived upon the upper floors. Seven persons 
lost their lives. It was not known that any one had 
been killed until the following morning, when the 
firemen found the charred remains in the ruins. 
The new steamer did excellent service at this fire. 

The city contracted for two new- steam fire-en- 
gines in April, 1861, and during that year they were 
delivered. One of them was located in Artisan 
street, and was named H. M. Welch Steam Fire 
Engine Company No. 2, in honor of Mayor Har- 
manus M. Welch, w-ho was then in office. The 
engine was a first-class Amoskeag, built at Man- 
chester, N. H. It weighed 8,000 pounds and threw 
four streams of water. The other new engine was 
located at the coiner of Park and Elm streets, and 
was named Constitution Steam Fire P'.ngine Com- 
pany No. 3. This engine, like No. i, was built by 
J. B. Johnson, of Portland, Me., and had a lo-inch 
cylinder, 11 -inch stroke, reciprocating horizontal 
sleeve pump, 5-inch plunger, and weighed 6,700 
pounds. Both engines were drawn by horses, and 
companies of twenty men were formed and assigned 
to each engine. During that year the volunteer fire 
companies were disbantled and the steam fire-engine 
system was adopted upon a substantial basis, al- 
though the heavy expenses incurred created con- 
siderable discussion in the Council. 

Water for the Fire Department use was not suc- 
cessfully introduced until the summer of 1862, 
when post fire-hydrants with two openings and a 



MUNICIPAL HISTORY. 



473 



' four-inch valve were set, which afforded a good 
supply of water. 

The By-Laws of the city were amended in April, 
1862, reorganizing the Fire Department, and, as 
amended, called for the election of a Board of Fire 
Commissioners, comprising six members, to be 
chosen by the Council. The first Board of Fire 
Commissioners was elected by the Council on June 
16, 1862: Hiram Camp and Marcus W. Rounds 
for one year each; Gardner Morse and Joel A. 
Sperry for two years; and Henry W. Benedict and 
George A. Chapman for three years. After that 
two members were appointed annually for the term 
of three years each. In those days substitutes were 
appointed for each member, to act in case of resig- 
nation or death. The inaugural meeting of the 
Commissioners was held on June 17, 1862, when 
Mayor Harmanus ]M. Welch presided as president, 
ex officio. 

Charles W. Allen was chosen Chief Engineer 
[June 24, 1862; John E. Lewis, First Assistant En- 
jineer; and Howard B. Ensign, Second Assistant 
jlngineer. They were the first oflScers in charge of 
[the Fire Department under the new system. 

The estimate of the Fire Department's expenses 
'for 1863 was $9,000. 

A disastrous fire destroyed Treat & Davis' organ 
|manufactory, Henry Hale & Co's. carriage factory, 
.John F. Goodrich's carriage factory, Hugh Gal- 
braith's carriage hardware factory, and the Daven- 
port Church Society's Church, all in the vicinity of 
Franklin and Greene streets, on the night of May i, 
1864. The loss was $65,594, insurance, $28,950. 
On the night of August 24, 1864, the carriage man- 
ufactory of Durham tt Booth, at the corner of Chapel 
and Hamilton streets, was gutted. The loss was 
$57,924, insurance, $21,624. 

The term of office of Chief-Engineer Charles W. 
Allen expired on July 8, 1865, when Howard B. 
Ensign, an Assistant Engineer, was chosen to suc- 
ceed him. Mr. Flnsign resigned after serving two 
weeks, when Albert C. Hendrick was elected Chief 
Engineer, and has remained continuously in office 
since that time. He first became a fireman in July, 
1850, at the age of 17 years, when he joined Frank- 
lin Hose Company No. 4. In July, 1851, he be- 
came Treasurer of that Company, and in Septem- 
ber, 1852, was Secretary and Assistant Foreman. 
In that year he was promoted to be a member of 
Franklin I^ngine Company No. 4, and remained 
with that organization until July 6, 1854, when the 
authorities disbanded the Company. During the 
winter of 1854 and 1855, Mr. Hendrick spent con- 
siderable time in Memphis, Tenn., and worked at 
his trade of carriage-trimming. He returned to New 
Haven in the spring of 1855, and on February 8, 
1858, joined Mutual Hook and Ladder Company 
No. I, and was promoted to the position of Assist- 
ant Foreman during that year. In September, 1858, 
he was elected Foreman of the same Company. 
At the breaking out of the Civil War, j\lr. Hendrick 
was among the first to enlist in the three months' 
campaign. He went out as First Sergeant of the 
New Haven Grays, Company C, Second Regiment 

J I. Connecticut Volunteers, and afterwards re-enlisted 
I 60 



for three years and left for the front as First Lieu- 
tenant of Company C, Twelfth Regiment Connecti- 
cut Volunteers. After about two years' service he 
was promoted to be Captain of Company E. At 
the close of the war Mr Hendrick returned to New 
Haven and again became identified with the Fire 
Department, receiving an appointment as private 
in Hook and Ladder Company No. i, January i, 
1865. He was appointed to the position of Chief 
Engineer July 24, 1865.* At the same time, James 
W.Walter and George W. Corbusier were appointed 
Assistant Engineers, and, one year later, a third 
Assistant F-ngineer was appointed in the person of 
Charles C. Hall, who was promoted from Mutual 
Hook and Ladder Company No. i. The Board of 
Fire Commissioners at this time consisted of Gard- 
ner Morse, Marcus M. Rounds, Edward Bryan, B. 
H. Douglass, John H. Leeds, and Lewis Elliott, 

Jr. 

The first review and inspection of the Fire De- 
partment under the new system took place on Sep- 
tember 27, 1865. 

The New Haven Steam Saw Mill Company, at 
the foot of Chapel street, suftered a loss of $30,000 
by a partial destruction of their establishment at an 
early hour on the morning of September 28, 1865. 
The insurance paid was $21,000. 

The permanent members of Engine Company 
No. 3, when first located in their house at the cor- 
ner of Park and Elm streets, slept in bunks on one 
side of the engine-house floor, so that they were 
near at hand to their apparatus in case of night fires. 
This unhealthy arrangement was dispensed with by 
the Fire Commissioners, on recommendation of 
the Chief Engineer, adding another story to the 
engine-house in the fall of 1 865. Comfortable sleep- 
ing quarters were thus provided for the firemen. 

The carriage manufactory of George T. Newhall, 
at Newhallville, was partially burned on January 
10, 1866. Loss, $30,500, insurance, $10,500. 

The New Haven Clock Company's factory, at 
the corner of St. John and Hamilton streets, ex- 
tending to Wallace street, with considerable adjoin- 
ing property, including many dwelling-houses, was 
destroyed by fire on April 30, 1866, involving a 
loss to the Clock Company and adjoining property 
owners of $131,724, with an insurance of $1 14,067. 
The extent of this great fire, and its attendant loss, 
caused the Clock Company, manufacturers and res- 
idents in the vicinity to make urgent appeals to the 
Council for the location of a steam fire-engine in 
their neighborhood. As a result, §20,000 was ap- 
propriated from the city treasury for a lot on the 
corner of St. John and Wallace streets, and the 
erection ofa substantial engine-house upon it, and, 
in the fall of 1867, Steam Fire Engine Company 
No. 4 was organized and stationed there with a first- 
class Hunneman steam fire-engine, under the fore- 
manship of Tread well Smith, now Captain of Po- 
lice. 



* Mr. Hendrick received the unanimous vote of the Fire Commis- 
sioners, and his administration has shown that he was particularly 
adapted to, and qualified for, the position. The present high standing 
of the New Haven Fire Department is due in a great measure to the 
wise judgment and elTicient management of Chief Hendrick during the 
twenty years of his administration. — Ed. 



474 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



The Plant Manufacturing Company,at 241 Grand 
street, suffered by fire on the night of December 7, 
1866. Their loss was $190,079, insurance, $93,- 
107. 

On the night of December 31, 1866, one of the 
large tanks connected with Cowles & Leete's oil re- 
finery, on Long Wharf, exploded, and the entire 
works were destroyed by fire. The Superintendent, 
Frederick Thompson, was instantly killed by the 
explosion. 

Newell C. Hall's stockinet factory, on Prospect 
street, was burned out on October 11, 1867, caus- 
ing a loss of $54,000, upon which there was insur- 
ance of $31,675. 

In the latter part of the year 1867, the adoption 
of a telegraph system of fire-alarm became a neces- 
sity in the opinion of the Board of Fire Commis- 
sioners. In February, 1868, the Gamewell system 
of fire-alarm telegraph was adopted, at a cost of 
$10,000, and on October 3, 1868, a public test of 
the apparatus was given and the city accepted the 
plant. J. M. Fairchild, of New Haven, a com- 
petent electrician, was its superintendent. 

On May 4, 1868, Howard B. Ensign and Stiles 
Stevens were elected Fire Commissioners for a term 
of three years, and Chief-Engineer Albert C. Hen- 
drick was re-elected for three years, from July i, 
1868; and Leonard L. Bassett, John L. Disbrow, 
and Andrew j. Kennedy were appointed Assistant 
Engineers to rank in the order named. 

January i, 1869, in a blinding snowstorm and 
severe cold weather, the machine-shop and round- 
house of the New York and New Haven Railroad 
Company was almost totally destroyed by fire. 
The buildings were located near Long Wharf, just 
below the railroad crossing. Much valuable ma- 
chinery, several locomotives, and many cars were 
burned. Loss, $157,550, insurance, $64,550. 

John C. Woods, a music dealer, at 221 Stale 
street, was experimenting with gasoline on the 
morning of September 21, 1869, in the basement 
of his store, when a barrel of the liquid exploded 
and set fire to the premises, badly burning him, 
and gutting the entire building, the upper part of 
which was occupied by Tuttle, Morehouse &. 
Taylor, printers, who suffered greatly by the fire. 
The total loss was $58,884, insurance, $22,262. 

Four permanent hose-drivers were added to the 
Fire Department in November, 1 869. Heretofore 
the hose-drivers were call men. Their salary was 
made $50 per month. 

The carriage trimming factory of O. W. Swift, 
71 Hamilton street, was destroyed by fire on the 
night of February 7, 1870. Loss, $20,756, insur- 
ance, $14,456. 

The Fair Haven Keg and Can Company was 
totally destroyed by fire on August 4, 1870. Loss 
$23,600, wholly covered by insurance. 

The Fire Association of the Village of Fair Haven, 
by its agents, Charles C. Denison and Henry W. 
Crawford, on August 18, 1870, transferred to the 
City of New Haven its engine-house and hand- 
engine located on the corner of Pearl and Pierpont 
streets, in Fair Haven. This action was taken in 
consequence of the annexation of the Village of 



Fair Haven to the City of New Haven. The city 
afterwards purchased the lot upon which the engine- 
house stood for $1,525, and erected an engine and 
hook and ladder-house thereon, which was after- 
wards occupied by Engine Company No. 5, and 
Hook and Ladder Company No. 3. About this 
time Charles C. Denison was appointed an As- 
sistant Engineer, and was assigned to duty more 
especially in the annexed district. While the at- 
tention of the Fire Department was turned in this 
direction, the residents of Newhallville became 
anxious for protection in their vicinity. In accord- 
ance with their petition, the Board of Fire Com- 
missioners caused an engine-house to be erected 
on Division street to accommodate a volunteer hose 
company, known as Winchester Hose Company 
No. 6, which was maintained without expense to 
the city, except for hose and a second hand or 
reserve hose-carriage. 

Assistant-F'-ngineer Andrew J. Kennedy resigned 
his position on April i, 1872, and two days later 
William H. Hubbard, hoseman on Engine Com- 
pany No. I, was promoted to fill the vacancy. 
John H. Leeds and Lewis Elliott, Jr., were re- 
elected Fire Commissioners on July 30th, for terms 
of three years each. The Board of Fire Commis- 
sioners, at a meeting held on October ist, pa.'-sed 
an order requiring every permanent member of the 
Fire Department to provide himself with a uniform 
dress to be worn on all occasions while on duty, on 
or before January i, 1873. 

The great fire in Boston took place on the night 
of November 9, 1872. Intelligence of the confla- 
graUon reached New Haven on the morning of 
the loth, and assistance was tendered by Mayor 
Henry G.Lewis, Fire Commisioner John H. Leeds, 
and Chief-Engineer Albert C. Hendrick, which was 
prompdy accepted by Mayor Gaston, of Boston. 
The same day Steam Engine No. 2 of the New 
Haven Fire Department, with Elbert E. Gillette, 
engineer, was sent to Boston on a special train, 
under the charge of Fire Commissioner Lewis 
Elliott, jr., and Assistant-Engineer John L. Dis- 
brow, and was manned by twenty picked firemen 
from the New Haven Fire Department. After a 
quick passage to Boston, the engine and firemen 
rendered valuable assistance in checking a second 
extensive conflagration which broke out that night. 
Afterwards the city and fire authorities of Boston 
tendered hearty thanks for the timely aid. During 
the fire a volunteer ex-fireman from New Haven, 
John Richardson, was painfully injured by falling 
from a building while assisting the New Haven 
firemen. He was tenderly cared for by the Boston 
authorities, and afterward recovered. 

A gas carbonizer exploded in tiie basement of 
the jewelry store of Benjamin & Ford, on the cor- 
ner of Chapel and State streets, on January 4, 1S73, 
and set fire to the premises. Before the flames 
were extinguished, $26,238 damage was done, 
upon which there was paid the sum of $15,098 in- 
surance. 

In lanuary, 1873, the Fire Commissioners voted 
to increase the pay to the members of the Fire De- 
partment, as follows : 



aic 
.111, 

I lie 
li 

lib 
csm 
m 

ecte 



lat( 

ilCV, 

leriiii 



•oliii 



MUNICIPAL HISTORY. 



475 



ifoim 



ni;l: 
inlit 



lone, 



Per annum. 

Chief Engineer $2,500 

Assistant Engineers 250 

Engineers of steamers 1 ,200 

Drivers of steamers 840 

Drivers of hose-lenders 720 

Foremen and Stokers , 150 

Hosemen and Laddermen 130 

Foremen, Fair Haven 120 

Hosemen and Laddermen, Fair Haven. . . lOO 

On June 15, 1873, the boiler manufactory of H. 
B. Bigelow k Co., on River street, Fair Haven, was 
partially destroyed by fire. Loss, $67,065, insur- 
ance, $50,065. 

Eli Mi.'i was appointed Fire Commissioner on 
July 13, 1873, succeeding Stiles Stevens, whose 
term of office expired, he having been a member 
of the Board since May 4, 1S68. 

In January, 1874, the force of the Fire Depart- 
ment was increased by locating I^ngine Company 
No. 8 in Edwards street, corner of Nash street, in 
a new house. The engine was named A. C. Hen- 
drick, and, being fully manned and equipped, was 
put into commission in the spring of 1874, with 
James J. Bradnack as foreman. 

The large oyster-keg factory of Kellogg & Ives, 
on Ferry street, Fair Haven, was totally destroyed 
by fire on the night of March 11, 1874. The ori- 
gin was assigned to incendiarism. Loss, $25,885, 
insurance the same amount. The fires of 1 874 were 
large and disastrous. On September 7th of that year 
the works of the New Haven Wheel Coinpany on 
York street, corner of Ashinan street, were partially 
burned. The loss was $115,464, upon which there 
was paid $66,399 insurance. On October 1,1874, 
the Wooster place Baptist Church was burned. 
The fire originated in the organ loft while repairs 
were being made. The loss was $38,296, fully 
insured. 

In October, 1874, in accordance with amend- 
ments to the City Charter, the Board of Fire Com- 
missioners comprised five members instead of six. 
The Board appointed under that provision was 
John H. Leeds, Lewis Elliott, Jr.. Hobart B. Big- 
elow, Caleb B. Bowers, and George A. Basserman. 
On October 20, 1874, Andrew J. Kennedy was ap- 
pointed Fire Marshal by the Fire Commissioners, 
which position he has retained to the present day, 
having served the city efficiently and acceptably. 
In the absence of the Chief I^ngineer he is the 
next in command. Ezekiel G. Stoddard succeeded 
John H. Leeds as Fire Commissioner on June 28, 
1875. 

The pork-packing establishment of Sperry & 
Barnes, on Long Wharf, was partially burned on 
Sunday, November 26, 1876. Loss, $124,434, in- 
surance, $94,434. 

Benjamin R. English and John Ruft" were ap- 
pointed Fire Commissioners on January 2, 1877, 
in place of George A. Basserman and Hobart B. 
Bigelow, whose terms expired. 

The Firemen's Benevolent Association has 
erected a handsome monument in Evergreen Cem- 
etery in memory of deceased firemen of the City 
of New Haven. It was dedicated by the ac- 
tive Fire Department on July 9, 1877, in the pres- 



ence of a large assemblage. The Hon. John H. 
Leeds delivered an address, and Mayor William 
R. Shelton unveiled the shaft, which is of granite, 
with a life-sized fireman on its summit, and other 
appropriate emblems on its panels. 

One of the most destructive fires that has ever 
taken place in New Haven, was the burning of the 
buildings of the L. Candee Rubber Company on 
Greene, Wallace and East streets, on November 19, 
1877. A singular coincidence in connection with 
this fire was the fact that it broke out at about five 
o'clock in the afternoon, when Chief-Engineer 
Hendrick and all his Assistant Engineers were in- 
specting the premises, with a number of visiting 
firemen from other cities, who were present at the 
annual fall review of the Fire Department which 
occurred that day. They were being conducted 
through the various departments of the establish- 
ment by Superintendent Lewis Elliott, Jr., who was 
at the time President of the Board of Fire Com- 
missioners. While on the third floor of one of the 
buildings, where rubber boots were being manufac- 
tured, the fire broke out on the floor below them. 
It originated from the ignition of a pan of cement, 
which burned very rapidly, and soon spread the 
flames over the entire rooin. The flight of the vis- 
itors and employees was instant, there being no 
opportunity to suppress the flames, although appli- 
ances for the purpose were at hand. Hundreds of 
employes jumped from the windows and escaped 
by sliding down the conductor pipes, lightning 
rods, and adjoining trees, but in their wild eftbrts 
to get to a place of safety many of them were in- 
jured, and three persons lost their lives from their 
injuries. The alarm to the firemen was given from 
a private fire-alarm box on the premises, which 
summoned the entire Fire Department. The Chief 
Engineer took his position in front of the burning 
buildings, and gave out his orders to his subordi- 
nates so that every apparatus was stationed imme- 
diately upon its arrival. No time was lost, and 
every eflfort was promptly made to check the 
flames, but without success, as the fire swept 
through the entire establishment. The firemen 
prevented the fire from spreading to adjoining 
property. The loss was $520,905, insurance, 

$324,214. 

In February, 1878, Edwin B. Nichols and James 
T. Mullen succeeded Lewis Elliott, Jr., and Eze- 
kiel G. Stoddard, their terms having expired. 

Nothing of special importance in fire matters 
happened in 1878. In February, 1879, E. M. 
Reed and Charles A. Baldwin succeeded Caleb 
B. Bowers and Edwin B. Nichols as Fire Commis- 
sioners. 

The terms of oflice of Assistant-Engineers Leon- 
ard L. Bassett and Charles C. Denison expired on 
July I, 1879, and the Fire Commissioners con- 
cluded to dispense with their services. This action 
was deemed advisable, from the fact that the per- 
manent force of the Fire Department had been re- 
cently increased. 

The Veteran Firemen's Association was organ- 
ized on July 18, 1879, and at the present time its 
membership includes 591 names. This organiza- 



%. 



4t6 



HISTORY OP THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



tion was the outcome from a parade of veteran fire- 
men on July 4, 1S79, in honor of the one hun- 
dredth anniversary of the evacuation of the city by 
the British, and was a feature of great interest. 
The officers of the association are Hiram Camp, 
President; Fiank M. Lovejoy, ^Morgan N. Atwater, 
Charles Atwater, Charles E. Hayes, Henry L. 
Clark, VV. W. King, John H. Pardee, Miles Tut- 
tle, [oseph Cunningham. Charles Doly, Albert C. 
Hendrick, R. T. Merwin, H. H. Grannis, Charles 
A. Nettleton, George Treadway, Vice-Presidents; 
Albert R. Goodnow, Secretary; James W. Walter, 
Treasurer. 

In February, 1880, the terms of office of Fire 
Commissioners Benjamin R. English and John 
Ruff e.xpired, and they were succeeded by William 
Fuller and Robert A. Brown. In the same year, 
E. M. Reed, Fire Commissioner, resigned, and 
George F. Holcomb was appointed to fill the un- 
expired term. In February, 1881, Curtis F. Evarts 
was added to the Board of Fire Commissioners 
upon Mr. Holcomb's withdrawal. 

During 1 88 1, after urgent petitions from the res- 
idents and manufacturers of Newhallville, Steam 
Fire Engine Company No. 6 was located on Divis- 
ion street, at a cost to the city of $12,000. 

In May, 1881, owing to amendments to the 
City Charter, the Board of Fire Commissioners was 
reorganized, and consisted of six instead of five 
members, being non-partisan in its composition. 
The members were Robert A. Brown, James T. 
Mullen, Curtis F. Evarts, John Ruff, Benjamin R. 
English, and Charles A. Baldwin. Mr. English 
remained in the Board until February i, 1882, 
when John Redmond succeeded him. 

In the spring of 1882, several disastrous fires 
occurred, among which was the destruction of the 



dry goods store of Edward Malley & Co., on the 
corner of Chapel and Ten<ple streets. The loss 
was $189,873, insurance, $164,992. On March 
loth, the carriage manufactory of J. F. Goodrich 
& Co., 26 to 30 East street, was destroyed by fire. 
Loss, $32,458, insurance, $32,458. On March 
17th, the Calvary Baptist Church, on the corner of 
Chapel and York streets, was burned. Loss, $29,- 
750, fully insured. On June i6th, the factory of 
the New Haven Car Trimming Company, on 
Newhall street, was totally destroyed by fire. Loss, 
$38,668, insurance, $24,894. 

In February, 1883, Frank D. Welch succeeded 
Curtis F. Evarts as Fire Commissioner, whose term 
had expired. 

The New Haven Clock Company suftered a par- 
tial destruction of their works on the morning of 
April 26, 1883. The loss was $51,667, and insur- 
ance paid, $46,999. Artisan street manufacturers 
suffered by a destructive fire on Sunday, September 
2d, by which a loss of $48,749 was involved, upon 
which there was $45,789 insurance divided up 
among them. Later in the month the pork pack- 
ing-house of F. S. Andrew & Co. and S. E. Mer- 
win & Son was burned. The fire originated in the 
smoke-house of the first-named firm. The total 
loss was $32,858, insurance paid, $25,679. E. S. 
Wheeler it Co. 's iron rolling-mill, on Wolcott street. 
Fair Haven, was burned out on September 25, 
1883. Loss, $20,000, insurance, $15,000. 

Luther E. Jerome became a Fire Commissioner 
in February, 1884, and succeeded Charles A. Bald- 
win, whose term expired. 

On June 3, 1884, another permanent man was 
added to the Fire Department, by the appointment 
of Edwin S. Davis, who was chosen for the position 
of permanent Captain of Engine Company No. 2. 



BIOGRAPHIES. 



MAJOR LYMAN BISSELL. 

The village of Milton lies a few miles west of the 
village of Litchfield, but is ih the same town. The 
first is in a valley; the last is on a hill thirteen hun- 
dred feet above the sea, and higher than any other 
point in Connecticut outside of Litchfield County. 
On the morning of October 20, 181 3, the Congre- 
gational minister of Litchfield called at the house 
of Hiram Bissell, an ironmonger in Milton, to 
make a social visit, and found the family rejoicing 
over the advent of a man-child born the night be- 
fore. The little fellow was brought out for his 
admiration; and the pastor, being requested to 
name him, gave the child his own name — Lyman. 
He was a short, stout man, thirty-eight years of 
age, with a large social nature and a mixture of 
drollery in his composition. The June previous a 
son had been born to him, of whom the world has 
since heard much, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. 

Lyman Bissell grew into a stout lad, going to 
school in winter and working on the farm in sum- 



mer. At the age of fourteen he went with an older 
brother to Poughkeepsie to learn the art of house- 
painting. In six months their employer, panic- 
stricken, ran away from his creditors, when the 
boys returned home. Lyman followed the busi- 
ness of house-painting for years; first at Waterbury, 
and then at New Haven, where he came in the 
spring of 1836 and remained till the outbreak of 
the Mexican War. At that period he was Captain 
of the National Blues, as the city artillery com- 
pany was called. On the gih of April, 1847, he 
was commissioned First Lieutenant in the Ninth 
Regiment of Infantry, U. S. A. , a new regiment, 
consisting entirely of New England men. Its com- 
mander was Colonel Ransom, a graduate of Par- 
tridge's Military Academy at Middletown, and at 
the time of his appointment, principal of the Mili- 
tary Academy at Norwich, Vermont. 

Soon after his arrival in Mexico, Lieutenant Bissell 

was assigned to the duty of Quartermaster of the 

i brigade of General (afterwartl President) Pierce, and 

thouah in several minor actions was not in any 





^^3^-<L^j.<^^^ 



7^ 



Z^r 5 



i^^2'^f—j^>^ 



I 




\ m0^d. 



\ 




\ 







<s-, 



Municipal histoUy. 



4?7 



general engagement. He was, however, in Puebla 
de los Angelos when it was besieged by the Mexi- 
cans. About 3,000 men side with chronic diar- 
rhiea, had been left here by Scott on his march 
through to Mexico, of whom nearly one-third died. 
Bissell was among the invalids. The siege lasted 
twenty-eight days, when it was raised by (ieneral 
Lane. During the siege Bissell had command of 
a company of convalescents stationed on the flat 
roof of a lofty church, the walls of which, project- 
ing a few feet above the roof, served as a para- 
pet. 

On the Sth of September, 1847, Bissell was 
promoted to a captaincy. At the end of the war, 
his regiment being disbanded, he returned to New 
Haven, where he was appointed to the command 
of the newly organized Police Force. It was while 
he was Captain of the Police that he went incogniln 
into the midst of a howling mob and spiked the 
cannon with which they thought to demolish South 
College, as related in another part of this chapter. 

On the 3d of March, 1855, the regular army of 
the United States having been enlarged, Bissell was 
commissioned First Lieutenant in the new Ninth 
Regiment, which was sent the next December to 
Oregon in consequence of an Indian outbreak. 
There he remained with his company until after 
the close of the rebellion. On the 15th of March, 
1 86 1, he was commissioned Captain. During the 
last four years of the war he was stationed with his 
company on the Island of San |uan in Puget Sound. 
By treaty with Great Britain this island was, while 
the boundary question was pending, under the joint 
jurisdiction of the two powers. By agreement a com- 
pany of British soldiers were posted at the west end, 
and a company of American soldiers, under Bissell, 
at the east end of .San Juan, the two posts being 
fifteen miles apart. The island is a beautiful piece 
of ground, about eighteen miles long and three 
miles broad, alternating with dense forests of fir and 
open grassy prairies dotted with oak trees. Bissell 
and his soldiers lived in log huts with a block 
house for headquarters. For nearly four years he 
lived a very lonely life, all his fellow officers being 
in the East on recruiting service. There were a 
few families of French half-breeds on the island; 
and there were his soldiers, mostly Irish and Ger- 
mans. But of these he could not make compan- 
ions nor approach them in any conversation, ex- 
cept on business, lest he should break down that 
barrier of respect and authority which is essential 
to discipline. So for four years he lived in a sort 
of Robinson Crusoe isolation. Occasionally some 
of the British officers visited him, "jovial fellows,'' 
who brought mirth and laughter. With his spy- 
glass he could see the village of Victoria on Van- 
couver's Island, fifteen miles away, but was able to 
visit it but once. He drilled his men two hours 
each day, and tried to keep them out of mischief 
by occupation. Some of his own leisure hours he 
occupied in oil-painting, as he does to this day. 
He had an excellent garden where flourished every 
vegetable except those which grow on vines, as mel- 
ons, pumpkins, squashes and cucumbers; for these 
the nights were too cool. The potatoes, cabbages 



and corn were of superior quality, while the prairie 
furnished luscious beef and the best of milk. Three 
times a year a steamer came from San Francisco, 
blew off her steam and landed various stores. 

On the 4th of March, 1864, Bissell was commis- 
sioned Major; but it was more than a year later 
when, in the summer of 1865, he learned the fact, 
through an officer arriving from the War Depart- 
ment with an order for him to proceed to New 
York and join his regiment. 

On the 31st of December, 1870, while he was in 
Texas, 'he was placed on the retired list for " disa- 
bility in line of duty." He now resides at his 
homestead, 308 Crown street. New Haven. His 
disability originated in his Mexican experience, but 
was aggravated by a terrible march, in the winter of 
1860-61, from Fort Colville, on Columbia River, 
480 miles, to Fort Vancouver. The ground was 
covered with snow; the thermometer often below 
zero. On one occassion he broke through the ice 
of a stream and caught cold — a cold from which he 
has never entirely recovered. 

On the i2th of September, 1S35, Major Bissell 
married Miss Clarissa M. Skeele, of New Durham, 
Greene County, N. Y. Their only child was born 
in September the next year. He is the widely 
known Dr. Evelyn L. Bissell, a practicing physi- 
cian and surgeon of New Haven. In the War of 
the Rebellion he was Surgeon of the Fifth Connec- 
ticut; was in many battles; was twice taken pris- 
oner, and was for a time an inmate of Libby Prison. 

Major Bissell in his full prime was a splendid 
specimen of manly vigor. His weight is 2 10 pounds; 
his height about five feet ten inches; his chest 
measurement large; and his Webster-like head 
requires a larger hat than hatters ever keep in slock. 
He has keen black eyes, is of phlegmatic tempera- 
ment, and of reticent habits. With nerves of iron, 
he is as calm in moments of deadly peril as in time 
of perfect safety. 

CHARLES WEBSTER. 

The late Charles Webster will be long remem- 
bered as the efficient Chief of Police of the City of 
New Haven. A son of Samuel and Betsy Webster, 
he was born in Portland, Me., January 27, 1819. 
When he was four years af age his parents removed 
to Hartford, Conn., where he lived until 1845, 
when he took up his residence in New Haven. 

"Chief" Webster was educated to some extent 
in the common schools to which he had access, 
and while yet a mere boy learned the trade of mo- 
rocco-dressing, and later he was employed for a 
number of years by Mason Gross, a morocco- 
dresser, of Hartford. After his removal to New 
Haven, he was for some time in the employ of T. 
Ensign & Son, morocco manufacturers and dealers 
in hides, on George street. 

Mr. Webster's official and public career began 
when he became Keeper of the New Haven County 
Jail, a position which he filled with great credit for 
eighteen years. March 4, 1869, he was appointed 
Chief of Police, to succeed Charles W. Allen. He 
had formerly served as Police Clerk under "Chief" 



m 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



Hayden. To his astuteness and his long exper- 
ience with criminal classes, is aitributed the com- 
parative good order which prevailed in the city 
during his incumbency of office, and won him an 
enviable record for his remarkably able adminis- 
tration. 

September 24, 1851, Mr. Webster was made a 
Mason in Wooster Lodge, No. 79, F. and A. M. 
He served as Worshipful Master from December 
13, 1854, to December 26, 1855. He was exalted 
to the Royal Arch in Franklin Chapter, No. 2, 
November 9, 1854, and received the degrees of the 
Cryptic Rite in Harmony Council, No. 8, Novem- 
ber 17, 1854. He was created a Knight Templar 
in New Haven Commandery, No. 2, April 24, 
1856. 

Of a friendly, sympathetic nature, and hospitable 
to a remarkable degree, Mr. Webster was widely 
and favorably known, not only in his public ca- 
pacity, but in private life as well. 

He was married December 25, 1840, to Janet 
M. Clark, of Farmington, Conn. He died January 
1, 1885, leaving a widow and two daughters, one of 
the latter unmarried, the other, Mrs. Theron Todd, 
of Woodbridge, Conn. 

A. C. HENDRICK. 

The City of New Haven is justly proud of its 
admirable Fire Department. The credit for its past 
development and its present efficiency is largely due 
to the painstaking labor and executive ability of one 
man, Albert Cushman Hendrick. 

He was born in New Haven on the 7lh of March, 
1833. His father, Joel D. Hendrick, was a hard- 
working man, who reared a large family of nine 
children. The joung Hendrick received a com- 
mon school education at John E. Lovell's famous 
Lancasterian School, wherein so many of New 
Haven's citizens obtained their early training. At 
that time Henry B. Harrison, now Governor of the 
State, was the assistant teacher. When Mr. Hen- 
drick quitted school he entered the employ of Wis- 
well & Killem, and applieil himself to learning the 
trade of coach-trimming. 

His interest in the Fire Department began at an 
early date. Those were the days of volunteer ser- 
vice, and the various companies were active factors 
in both the social and political worlds. Mr. Hen- 
drick was but little more than seventeen years old 
when, in July, 1850, he joined the Franklin Hose 
Company. The hose companies were composed of 
young men who were considered as serving a sort 
of ap[)renticeship, preliminary to possible entrance 
into the engine companies. Of this organization, 
which was domiciled on the corner of Grand and 
State streets, Mr. Hendrick was elected Treasurer 
in 1851, and in the following year he was made 
Secretary and Assistant Foreman. In the same 
year he was admitted to membership in the Frank- 
lin ICngine Company, and retained his connection 
with that company until it disbanded, July 6, 1854. 

Soon afterwards he journeyed southward, and 
worked at his trade in the City of Memphis, Tenn., 
until the spring of 1855, when he returned to New 



Haven. Two years later Mr. Hendrick was again 
numbered in the New Haven Fire Department, be- 
ing elected a member of Hook and Ladder Com- 
pany No. I. Within a year's time he became Fore- 
man of the Company, which position he occupied 
at the breaking out of the Civil War. 

Mr. Hendrick's military service had begun upon 
his return from the South in 1855, when he joined 
the New Haven Gra}S as a private. He was pro- 
moted to the rank of Corporal, and was First Ser- 
geant of the Company when it volunteered, in the 
spring of 1861, for three months' service as Com- 
pany C of the Second Connecticut Volunteers. 
At the expiration of the term of service, ]\Ir. 
Hendrick was commissioned First Lieutenant 
of the Twelfth Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers, 
which was raised upon a three years enlistment. 
Lieutenant Hendrick served with his regiment 
under Butler in the Department of the Gulf It 
was the first to reach the City of New Orleans at 
the time of the capture of the place by Farragut's 
fleet. It performed garrison duty there for awhile, 
and was then sent into the field for more active 
service. It was especially noted for its steadiness 
and discipline, and shared in all the principal 
battles in the Department of the Gulf until it was 
sent north, with the Nineteenth ,\rmy Corps, to 
serve under Sheridan in the Shenandoah. Mean- 
while, November 8, 1863, Lieutenant Hendrick 
rose to the rank of captain. He took part in the 
battle of Winchester, and in the engagement was 
slightly wounded by a fragment of shell. In De- 
cember, 1864, Captain Hendrick's term of service 
expired, and he was mustered out, together with a 
large number of the officers of the regiment, which 
had been so depleted that it had become a 
battalion and fewer officers were needed. Thus 
ended I\Ir. Hendrick's long and honorable service 
in the field, but, since the war he has taken an 
active part in the organization of the National 
Guard. 

August 25, 1869, he received an appointment on 
the staff of E. E. Bradley, Colonel commanding 
the Second Regiment Connecticut Militia, was 
elected Captain of the Grays in November of the 
same year, and was promoted December 6, 1875, 
to be Brigade Adjutant, with rank of Lieutenant- 
Colonel, on the stafV of Brigadier-General William 
R. Smith, then the Commander of the Connecticut 
Brigade. Lieutenant-Colonel Hendrick resigned 
his position July 26, 1877. Since then he has 
been connected with the \'eteran Grays, and is now 
the commanding officer of that organization. He 
is also a charter-member of the Admiral Foote Post, 
G. A. R. 

Mr. Hendrick's long absence in camp and on 
battle-field had not diminished his interest in the 
workings of the Fire Department. He laid aside 
the Captain's uniform to don that of the fireman, 
and enrolled himself as a private in Hook and 
Ladder Company No. i. In the same year his 
faithful service and devotion to the interests of the 
Department, and of the city, were recognized by his 
elevation to the post of Chief Engineer of the Fire 
Department, in which position he has remained to 



\4 



POLITICAL PARTIES. 



479 



this day. New Haven's Fire Department was re- 
organized upon the basis of paid service soon after 
the war began and while Mr. Hendricli was fight- 
ing his country's battles. When he took charge of 
it, three years later, it was still only an experiment. 
Its force was inadequate, its apparatus was old, its 
accommodations were poor. 

Through the careful attention and fostering 
supervision of its Chief, it has now become a most 
prompt and serviceable department, equipped as 
well as any in the country with all the modern 



improvements. The telegraph system especially 
has been brought to a degree of unsurpassed per- 
fection, and is a model of its kind. Chief Hen- 
drick has reduced the administration of his depart- 
ment to a science, and has made the development 
thereof the work of his life. His enthusiasm for his 
profession, and his achievements therein, are recog- 
nized abroad as well as at home. He is a member 
of the National Association of Fire Engineers, was 
the President of the Association in 1875, and has 
been for eight years its Treasurer. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 

BY HON". LYNDE HARRISON". 



THE limits of this chapter will not permit any 
extended history of the different political 
questions and parties which have arisen, had their 
day, and passed away, since the foundation of the 
Town of New Haven. The tendency of human 
nature to discuss the questions of the day as they 
arise, and the disposition of men to divide and to 
oppose each other, have had their influence in New 
Haven since the days of Governor Eaton and John 
Davenport. The habit of discussing all kinds of 
questions concerning local government, in town- 
meetings, for more than two centuries, has made the 
Freemen of New Haven intelligent upon the polit- 
ical questions of the day and ready in their dis- 
cussion. The leaders in these town-meeting dis- 
cussions were the natural leaders of the respective 
political parties as they arose, and no man could 
hope for poliiical success unless he was sustained 
by the followers of his party in town-meeting dis- 
cussions, especially when they partook of a polit- 
ical character. The men who were elected as repre- 
sentatives to the General Assembly, or who held 
higher positions of public trust and honor, gener- 
ally made their first mark in the New Haven town- 
meetings. During the last forty years men have 
become prominent for other reasons, and political 
questions have been discussed otherwise, but the 
influence of the town-meeting continued for two 
centuries, and only ceased when the population 
became so large that town-meetings were imprac- 
ticable. 

Frcim 163S TO 1664. 

There were no political parties in New Haven, 
in the sense that they exist to-day, prior to the 
Revolution, but there was much sympathy with the 
political parlies of England, and the politico-religious 
discussions of the early days took their tone and 
color from the sentiments of the Puritan and Anti- 
Stuart parlies of England. If the civil war be- 
tween Charles the First and the Parliament had 
commenced a few years sooner, it is not probable 
New Haven would have had the same founders, or 
that the settlement would have been made as early, 



by many years. Davenport and Eaton sympathized 
with Cromwell, and very few of the early colonists 
would have dared to express feelings of adherence 
to the cause of Charles the First. The town-meet- 
ings of these early days were held to discuss ques- 
tions pertaining to local government and the good 
order and management of the aflfairs of the planta- 
tion. Governor Eaton, Mr. Davenport, Mr. Good- 
year, Mr. Newman, and Mr. Malbone were the 
leaders in the debates. There was no occasion to 
take action in the Colonial Assembly or town-meet- 
ing upon the political questions which divided the 
English people at that time. Neither Cromwell, 
nor the Crown, before 1760, claimed any right to 
interfere with the independent law-making power 
of the English settlements. Subject only to the 
limitations of their charters, the colonists were in- 
dependent, though it had been generally conceded 
that the Parliament in London might regulate the 
trade of the colonies. Before the union with Con- 
necticut, the New Haven colonists legislated in 
town-meeting or Colonial Assembly, and divided 
from time to time into parties, first upon questions 
of local government, and second upon questions 
connected with the attempts of the founders of the 
colony to make all civil government subordinate to 
the being and welfare of the churches. For the 
purpose of securing the latter, no one could be a 
voter unless he was a member of some one or 
other of the approved churches of New England. 
The New Haven colonists had no sympathy with 
the restoration of Charles the Second in 1660. If 
there had been more of the time-serving spirit in 
the colony, it is probable an independent charter 
might have been procured, and prompt action by 
Davenport and his associates in this direction might 
have made New Haven to-day, with the towns 
under its former jurisdiction, as independent a 
State as Rhode Island; but the leaders of the New 
Haven colony were neither courtiers nor poli- 
ticians. 

The Charter of 1662 united New Haven with 
Connecticut. Most reluctantly did New Haven sur- 
render its identity. For two or three years it was 
difficult to keep peace between the Connecticut and 



480 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



New Haven colonies. There were some insurrec- 
tions and tumults. A majority of the voters in 
New Haven opposed in various ways the union, and 
if the smaller towns under the jurisdiction of the 
New Haven colony had been willing to continue 
the conflict, civil war or a new charter would have 
resulted. After Guilford and Stamford had sliown 
a readiness to yield to the union, the Freemen of 
New Haven found it necessary to take some action. 
The affairs of the colony of New Haven, especially 
within the town itself, were exceedingly embarrassed; 
the public debt was increasing; taxes could not be 
collected; many were dissatisfied with the govern- 
ment and refused to pay their taxes, and when 
officers appointed by the New Haven authorities 
attempted to collect them, those who favored sub- 
mission refused to pay, and applied to the Hart- 
ford government for protection. 

Upon this question of the union with Connecti- 
cut, the first political division occurred in the New 
Haven colony. Governor Leete convoked a 
Special Court at New Haven on the 7th of Janu- 
ary, 1664. The assembly remained in session sev- 
eral days, and propositions were made from the 
Hartford authorities that New Haven should make 
no attempt to collect taxes from those who object- 
ed, until a conference could be held between the 
colonies. A majority of the Assembly were still 
opposed to the union, and Mr. Davenport and Mr. 
Street prepared a long paper for presentation to the 
Connecticut authorities, which they termed "The 
New Haven case stated." In this paper they set 
forth their deep sense of the injuries which the col- 
ony had suffered by the encroachments made by 
Connecticut upon their privileges. They declared 
that they settled at New Haven, with the consent 
of Hanford; had purchased of the Indians the whole 
tract of land which they had settled upon the sea- 
coast, and had quietly possessed it for more than 
twenty years. They said that they had expended 
great estates in clearing and cultivating the land 
without any assistance from Connecticut, and had 
formed ihemselves voluntarily into a distinct com- 
monwealth. They proceeded to state a great variety 
of instances in which Hartford, the other colonies, 
Parliament, Cromwell, the King, and his Council 
had recognized them as a distinct colony. They 
understood that while the Hartford people had pro- 
cured a patent including New Haven, they had done 
so without the concurrence of New Haven, contrary 
to their express wishes, and with the promise of the 
Hartford people not to include them in the Char- 
ter. They further said that Mr. Wintlirop, before 
his departure for England, had promised in his let- 
ters not to have New Haven included in the Charter, 
and that the Hartford Magistrates had agreed, 
if the [)atent should include them, they should be 
at full liberty to incorporate with them, or not, as 
should be most agreeable to their inclinations. 
They added that, contrary to all these promises, 
Connecticut proceeded to dismember New Haven 
by receiving members from Stamford and Guilford, 
and that alter such dismemberment they had pre- 
posterously pretended to treat with them relative to 
the union. They said that the reading of the 



Charter did not show on its face that New Haven 
was included, and that they had taken an appeal to 
the King to know his royal purpose. This remon- 
strance had no effect upon the continued eflforts of 
the government at Hartford to include New Haven. 
But the majority of the New Haven Freemen per- 
sisted, and on the 25th of May, 1664, elected their 
Civil Officers, including a Governor. When the 
General Court assembled, the colony had become 
so weak by the defection of individuals in New 
Haven and elsewhere, that the members either did 
no business, or else put nothing upon record. 

During the following summer. Colonel Nichols, 
acting under the Charter which King Charles had 
granted to the Duke of York, captured New York 
from the Dutch, and proceeded to take possession 
of the territory included in the Duke's patent of the 
1 2th of March, 1664. The description of the ter- 
ritory embraced, fairly included the larger part un- 
der the jurisdiction of Connecticut and New Haven. 
This called for prompt action in both Hartford and 
New Haven. On the nth of August, 1664, Gov- 
ernor Leete called a session of the General Court 
to determine what course ought to be taken to pro- 
tect their territory from the new danger that threat- 
ened, and further attempts were made to unite with 
Connecticut. The Commissioners appointed to in- 
vestigate and report, urged and advised a union 
with Connecticut as the best way to vindicate their 
liberties and hold their rights under the Wintlirop 
patent as against the later patent to the Duke of 
York. But the party of Davenport and Eaton 
was still in the majority in New Haven, and they 
insisted "that to stand as God had kept them to 
that time was their best way. " New Haven and 
Branford were fixed and obstinate in opposition to 
the union, and no vote to that effect could be ob- 
tained. Mr. Pierson, of Branford, and Mr. Daven- 
port were the leaders in the opposition. 

The Commissioners appointed to settle the bound- 
ary line between New York and Connecticut, how- 
ever, included New Haven in the Connecticut pat- 
ent. This determination of the Commissioners had 
such an effect upon the Freemen of New Haven, 
that, at a meeting of the General Court, and of the 
Freemen and inhabitants, held on the 13th of De- 
cember, 1664, resolutions were unanimously passed, 
submitting, under protest, to the Connecticut patent, 
but only in a spirit of loyalty to the majesty of the 
King. The union was made complete at the gen- 
eral election held May 11, 1665. The feeling in 
Branford had been so strong, that Rev. Mr. Pier- 
son, of that town, and almost his whole church 
removed to Newark, N. J. Because of this union 
several of the New Haven Freemen went into the 
Newark or Massachusetts jurisiliction, and Mr. 
Davenport moved to Boston. Soon after the union 
was effected the ])arty feeling over the question 
subsided, and thus the first political issue raised in 
New Haven passed into history. 

I'KOM 1665 TO 1775. 

During the century that followed the union of 
the colonies, no issues were raised to produce 



I' 



POLITICAL PARTIES. 



481 



political parties which should contend in any man- 
ner for the control of the government. In the 
contest that arose between the Stuarts and the 
defenders of Protestant succession in f^ngland, 
the Connecticut colonists were almost unanimous 
in their sympathy with William of Orange against 
James the Second, and with Queen Anne and her 
■successors in their conflicts with the Jacobites and 
adherents of the old and young Pretenders in 1716 
and 1 745. Because of the sympathy of France with 
the cause of the Stuarts, the English colonists were 
inclined to enter heartily into the wars that were 
carried on between France and England, and they 
freely contributed their money and their men to 
wage a warfare with the French colonists of Canada 
and Nova Scotia. The leading men of the colony 
had no thought of opposing the wishes of the 
crown and its ministers in these matters, and until 
1760 there was a strong feeling of loyalty and de- 
votion to the English King. 

Notwithstanding their freedom from political con- 
troversies, there were a sufficient number of ques- 
tions of local interest to keep the people excited 
upon public affairs. As the New Haven colony 
had looked upon the State as a means of support- 
ing and building up the Church, so the Connecti- 
cut authorities looked upon themselves as the 
"nursing fathers of the Church." Many questions 
which are now settled quietly among the several 
religious societies of the State were carried to the 
General Assembly, and the members engaged in 
heated debates and divided into temporary parties 
upon questions of the regularity of the settlement 
or rejection of ministers, the convocation of coun- 
cils, and the settlement of ecclesiastical questions 
and disputes of all kinds. Every year the time of 
the Legislature was occupied in settling disputes 
among the churches or their members. But the 
State proved to be a bad nurse for the churches. It 
meddled with everything, but it could settle noth- 
ing, for it had no power to enforce its decrees. 
Without the advantages of an Episcopal organiza- 
tion, it was called a "many-headed Civil Bishop." 
If the churches had been left to themselves, with- 
out interference on the part of the civil authorities, 
they would have organized and become consoci- 
ated. These controversies produced an apathy of 
religious feeling and a lower state of morals than 
had existed in the earlier days. 

After much discussion for several years, the Leg- 
islature, in May, 1 708, passed an act requiring the 
ministers and churches to meet and form an eccle- 
siastical constitution. As a result of this the Say- 
brook Platform was drawn up in September, 1708. 
A majority of the churches put themselves under 
this constitution, and the members of these churches 
for many years formed the dominant party in the 
colony. Episcopalians, Baptists, and other dis- 
senters from the standing order of churches, be- 
came a minority party in the State, and as such 
they were continually agitating for laws for their 
relief from ta.xation for the support of the regular 
churches, and for a recognition of their rights in 
other respects. 

Philemon Robbins, who was setded at Branford, 
1)1 



in 1732 ventured to preach in the parish of Wal- 
lingford without the consent of the minister of that 
parish. He was deposed from his office and de- 
prived of legal maintenance. But he condemned 
the injustice of the law, and a majority of the peo- 
ple of his church in Branford sustained him. I5en- 
jamin Pomeroy, of Hebron, preached in Colchester 
without having obtained consent of the local min- 
ister. And for this he, too, was denied the privi- 
lege of the civil provision for his support, but, as in 
the case of Mr. Robbins, he also was supported by 
his people. The action of the General Assembly in 
these cases made much trouble in Branford and 
Hebron in the collection of taxes, and the cases of 
these two gentlemen were before the General As- 
sembly at Hartford or New Haven for many years. 
So much feeling was aroused over the case of Mr. 
Robbins, that in many of the towns representatives 
were elected upon the "Robbins issue," as it was 
called. 

Before 1698 the Assembly consisted of but one 
House, but after that year there was a division, and 
the Governor and Magistrates composed the Upper 
House, while the representatives from the towns 
were called the Lower House. It was provided at 
this time that no law should be enacted or re- 
pealed, except by the consent of both houses. The 
leading man in New Haven in the latter part of the 
seventeenth century was William Jones, a son-in- 
law of Governor Eaton, and for many years either 
a Magistrate or Deputy Governor of Connecticut. 
He died in 1 706, at the age of eighty-two. The 
General Assembly was then sitting in New Haven, 
and voted that in consideration of the many good 
services of Mr. Jones, the charges of his funeral be 
paid out of the public treasury. 

From 1700 to 1731 there was a controversy with 
the colony of New York respecting the boundary 
line. Several sets of Commissioners were appoint- 
ed, and on the 14th of May, 1731, a complete 
settlement was made. The last work of the Com- 
missioners was done at Greenwich, Conn., Con- 
necticut surrendering a tract of 60,000 acres in the 
interior to New York, and receiving as an etiuivalent 
the tract on the Sound now known as Greenwich. 
This settlement was not made however without 
much opposition on the part of the minority party 
in this State, especially the residents of Litchfield 
County. 

In 1704, the people were very much excited over 
the efforts of Governor Dudley, of Massachusetts, 
and Governor Cornbury, of New York, to revoke 
the Charter of King Charles, and divide the terri- 
tory of Connecticut between those two colonies. 
Many charges were filed against Connecticut, alleg- 
ing that she harbored young men who belonged to 
the other jurisdictions, and that she refused to con- 
tribute toward the general welfare of the colonies. 
The General Assembly provided agents who repre- 
sented the cause of the colony successfully in 
London, and the public interest in these attempts 
to dismember the colony created as much excite- 
ment as the heated political contests of this cen- 
tury. 

To sustain the expedition against Canada in 



482 



HISTORY OF THE CITV OF NEW HAVEN. 



1709, the Assembly authorized an emission of bills 
of credit to the amount of /8,ooo. To provide 
for its redemption taxes were imposed to pay one- 
half at the end of one year and the other half at the 
expiration of two years. During the whole of the 
eighteenth century, when paper money was so 
readily issued by some of the colonies, the Asseni- 
blv of Connecticut was very conservative, and 
generally provided, by effective taxation, a means 
for the early redemption of all the bills of credit 
issued by the colony. 

In 1745, a more full and complete Charter was 
granted to Yale College, upon the application of 
the Rector and Trustees. This gave the College a 
better standing for the reception of donations, and 
its membership increased rapidly. Its religious 
interests were in great need of attention however. 
The Rev. Mr. Noyes was advanced in years, and 
his preaching in the old meeting-house was not 
considered satisfactory, either in language or doc- 
trine. The Corporation voted that they would 
choose a Professor of Divinity for the College as 
soon as they could procure a sufficient support for 
him. An apprehension arose in the colony that the 
Professor of Divinity selected might not be ortho- 
dox, and the matter came before the General 
Assembly. Upon this a minority of the people of 
New Haven, who seemed to be inimical to the 
government of the College, raised the objection 
that religion was not part of a college education, 
and therefore that no religious worship ought to 
be upheld, and that every student ought to be 
allowed to worship how or where he pleased, or as 
his parents or guardians should direct. To this the 
College authorities replied that it was absolutely 
necessary attendance upon religious exercises should 
be in one place, so that they could be present to 
observe the attendance and behavior of the stu- 
dents with their own eyes, and that if parents put 
their children at college under their control, they 
must be taught such religion as the authorities of 
the College prescribed. The Liberals replied that 
the students ought to be permitted to attend the 
worship of the Church of England, and that the 
Church of England is the established religion of 
the colony. To this the College authorities an- 
swered that the establishment of the Church of 
England was expressly limited to England and 
Wales, and that the statutes of England did not 
extend to the plantations. The objections of the 
Liberal party were answered at great length by 
President Clap, and the Assembly sustained the 
College authorities in the settlement of a Professor 
of Divinity in the College. Some of the principal 
men in New Haven were opj)osed to the .\ssem- 
bly's Catechism and the Confession of Faith, and 
they became fixed in their opposition to the College 
and to the settlement of a Professor of Divinity. 
Professor Daggett became, in 1756, the first Pro- 
fessor of Divinity, but this did not entl the opposi- 
tion. Pamphlets were issued against the College, 
its Charier, its President, and its government. It 
was said that there was corruption in the treasury 
and mismanagement of the funds; that the College 
authorities were not fit to manage its affairs; and 



that the Legislature ought to appoint auditors of 
its accounts and afliairs. In 1763, a memorial was 
presented to the General Assembly, representing 
that it was the founder of the College and had a 
right to appoint visitors and reform abuses. Jared 
Ingersoll and Samuel W. Johnson appeared as 
Counsel for the petitioners and against the College. 
The whole colony was divided into two parties 
upon the subject, and gentlemen representing them 
repaired to Haitford to hear the arguments of the 
Counsel on the one hand and of President Clap on 
the other.* A very large majority of the General 
Assembly of that date proved to be friends of the 
College and of its independence from colonial 
interference, and the petitioners were given leave 
to withdraw. 

From 1775 to 1787. 

This was the period of the Revolutionary War. 

While a very large majority of the people of New 
Haven were opposed to the Stamp Act and other at- 
tempts of the Crown to tax the colonists, most of the 
older men and the men of property in the colony 
were opposed to a resort to arms against the great 
power and wealth of i^ngland, sincerely believing 
that it could only result disastrously. When the 
news of the opening of the conflict in Massachu- 
setts reached New Haven, the town was nearly 
equally divided upon the question of taking part in 
the controversy. A town-meeting was held upon 
the subject, and it was only by the energy and elo- 
quence of Benedict Arnold that a vote was ob- 
tained expressing sympathy with their brethren in 
iNIassachu setts. When the war had fairly begun, a 
majority of the voters were steadily found on the 
patriot side, but there was always a large and re- 
spectable minority of Tories in New Haven who re- 
mained in the town during the war. Their num- 
bers and influence undoubtedly saved New Haven 
from the destruction that came upon Norwalk, 
New London and Fairfield at the time of the raid 
of Governor Tryon along the coast. At the close 
of the Revolutionary War, many of the Tories 
found it convenient, if not necessary, to remove to 
Nova Scotia or England. 

The prominent men of New Haven, leaders of 
the patriot party during this period, were Sam- 
uel Bishop, Colonel Jonathan Fitch, Dr. -F^neas 
Munson, James Hillhouse, Henry Daggett, Jesse 
Ford, Pierpunt Edwards, Simeon Bristol, Jonathan 
Ingersoll, and Timothy Jones. Some of these gen- 
tlemen afterwards became prominent in the coun- 
sels of the young nation. 

From 1787 to 181 8. 

A large majority of the people of New Haven 
were in favor of the adoption of the Federal Con- 
stitution. For many years the party of Washing- 
ton, Hamilton and Adams received a hearty sup- 
port from the voters of New Haven. The standing 



* Many of the arguments used since 1880 for a change in the consti- 
tution of the Corporation, or for the maintenance of the present sys- 
tem, are reburnished weapons from the arsenals of 1763. 



POLITICAL PARTIES. 



483 



order of churches, as they were called, meaning the 
Congregational churches of the State, sustained the 
cause of the Federal party in New Haven. The 
clerg}' of these churches believed that the cause of 
law and order, religion and morality depended 
upon the success of the Federal part)'. The Epis- 
copalians agreed with them, and such prominent 
men of the latter denomination as Judge Johnson, 
of Stratford, and Jonathan IngersoU, of New Ha- 
ven, were Federalists. 

Upon the organization of the Republican, or 
Jeffersonian, party in the year 1800, many of the 
Baptists and Methodists, and all the Free Thinkers, 
became members of that party. Abraham Bishop, 
of New Haven, became their natural leader. 
These men formed for many years only a small 
minority in New Haven.* 

The Federal party held absolute control of the 
politics of New Haven and Connecticut until 1814, 
at which time the unpopularity of the Hartford 
convention movement and their long exclusion from 
power at Washington had begun to tell upon its 
strength in Connecticut and New Haven. Those 
forces which are continually at work transforming 
a majority into a minority also tended to reduce 
the strength of the Federal part}-, and, in 1816, 
Judge Johnson and Mr. IngersoU were solicited to 
join in a combination of all the dissenting churches 
of Connecticut for the overthrow of the old Feder- 
alist party, and especially of what was known as 
the ' ' standing order. " These two gentlemen were 
not then ready to leave their old associates, and 
promptl}- rejected the proposition. At this mo- 

*Ad amount of personal abuse was used in the political battles of 
^lat period which would now cause revolt in any party which should 
attempt to build itself up by such means. An instance occurred in 
S805, which, by means of verse, stereotj-ped itself in the memory of 
many. The lather of Abraham Bishop was a deacon of the church in 
ibe united Societies of \Vhite Haven and Fair Haven. Dr. Levi Ives 
was another deacon of the same church. Both these two gentlemen 
took an early stand for Jefferson. At a Republican festival appointed 
fcr March 9, 1833, some songs were to be sung, and the Hart/ard 
Courani of March 2, proposed the following as appropriate for the 
occasion. It was privately spoken of as the production of Theodore 
Dwight. 

Ye tribes of faction join 

Your daughters and your wives, 
Moll Carey's come to dine 
And dance with Deacoo Ives. 
Ye ragged throng 
Of Democrats, 
As thick as rats. 
Come join the song. 

Old Deacon Bishop stands 
With well befrizzled wig. 
File-leader of the bands 
To open with a jig. 

With parrot toe 
The poor old man 
Tries all he can 
To make it go. 

Director Powell leans 

And takes a pinch of snuff : 
His words, like little beans. 
His- neighbors' pockets stuff. 
L^t all who please 
Their footsteps ply 
And from him fly. 
Or stay and sneeze. 

But oh, what human pen 

Can Abraham's self describe ! 
The 6rst of mortal men, 
The last of treason's tribe. 
With mighty voice 
The patriot cries, 
" Let earth and skies 
And hell rejoice : ! ! " 

These four stanzas are followed by eight others, which are not any 
Bore deferential to the Republicans than those already cited. — Ed. 



ment the Federal party should have rewarded the 
Episcopal wing of their organization for their loy- 
alty, but the conservatism of the Congregational 
clergv' prevented this, and their obstinacy brought 
about the downfall of their part)'. 

The Phenix Bank, of Hartford, desired a charter 
of incorporation, and was prepared to pay a liberal 
bonus for it To secure the co-operation of differ- 
ent political elements, it was proposed to divide 
the bonus between Yale College, the Congrega- 
tional ministry of the State, and the Episcopalians 
for the Bishop's Fund. The Episcopal leaders 
insisted upon the passage of the bill. The Meth- 
odists and Baptists opposed it. The old standing 
order was not willing to give the Episcopal Church 
this recognition. The Episcopalians and Federal- 
ists together were able to pass it Nathan Smith, 
of New Haven, made the closing speech in favor 
of the bill. It was one of the most eloquent ad- 
dresses ever heard in the House of Representatives. 
But the Federalists could not be brought over in a 
body to its support, and the bill was killed. There- 
upon the Episcopalians of the State abandoned the 
Federal party, and its vote in the State and in New 
Haven seriously diminished. A combination of 
all the religious sects opposed to the standing 
order, together with a few liberal Congregational- 
ists like Oliver Wolcott, was formed into the party 
known as the Toleration party. Jonathan Inger- 
soU, who had been made Lieutenant-Governor of 
the State in 1816 by the Federalists, joined the 
new party, and the next year a convention was 
called at Hartford, which gave Connecticut the 
Constitution of 18 18. William Bristol and Nathan 
Smith represented New Haven in this convention. 
Upon the question of adopting this Constitution, 
New Haven voted 430 in the affirmative and 218 
in the negative. The Count)- of New Haven gave 
a majorit)- of 813 in favor of its adoption, which 
was a little more than one-half of the total majority 
given in the State. 

It was during the period of Federal ascendancy in 
New Ha-ven, that the famous controversy took place 
between President Jefferson and the merchants of 
New Haven over the appointment of the father of 
Abraham Bishop to the position of Collector of the 
Port of New Haven, already given in exlenso in the 
chapter on the Custom House, pp. 321, 322. 
The son was so personally unpopular, that !Mr. 
Jefferson did not think it advisable to make him at 
once the Collector of the Port of New Haven. The 
merchants of New Haven also could not bear to 
see him sitting in their Custom House. They hated 
him above all the Republicans of his day. Mr. 
Bishop subsequently proved to be a ver)- good Col- 
lector, and was entirely acceptable to the merchants 
of New Haven. His political pamphlets had much 
to do with the later success of the cause of the 
Republican and Toleration parties in Connecticut, 
and he, w-ith Mr. Wolcott, of Middletown, were 
the active leaders of the Republican party for many 
years. 

Among the noted men of New Haven during 
this period w-ho were prominent as political lead- 
ers, were Elias Shipman, Jeremiah Atw-ater, Charles 



484 



HISTORY OF THE CITF OF NEW HAVEN. 



Chauncey, Jonathan Ingersoll, Pierpont Edwards, 
David Austin, David Daggett, Elizur Goodrich, 
Silas Merriman, William Hillhouse, Thomas Paint- 
er, Stephen Ailing, Isaac Beers, Isaac Mills, Thomas 
Painter, Noah Webster, Jeremiah Townsend, Henry- 
Daggett, Nathan Smith, Thaddeus Beecher, Gideon 
Kimberly, Charles Denison, Roger Sherman, James 
Merriman, Seth P. Staples, William Bristol, Kleazer 
Foster, Thomas Ward, Henry W. Edwards, and 
Abraham Bishop. 

Of these gentlemen, Messrs. Edwards, Daggett, 
Goodrich, Denison and Bristol were elected Speak- 
ers of the House for one or more terms by the Fed- 
eral party. Jonathan Ingersoll and Pierpont Ed- 
wards, who were Federalists for many years, joined 
the Toleration party in 1817, and were thereafter 
for several years prominent leaders in the Repub- 
lican party, which elected Monroe and John Quincy 
Adams Presidents of the United States. 

Henry W. Edwards was a son of Pierpont Ed- 
wards, and following his father into the Toleration 
party, he became one of the organizers of the Dem- 
ocratic party of Connecticut, when that party came 
into existence during the administration of Presi- 
dent Jackson, and by that party he was several 
times elected Governor of Connecticut. 

Nathan Smith was sent to the United States Sen- 
ate by the Federalists, and he never severed his 
connection with that party upon questions of na- 
tional politics. 

Abraham Bishop continued to act with the Re- 
publicans until 1828, when he followed Henry 
Clay and John Quincy Adams in their opposition 
to Jackson, and in the later years of his lile he was 
an ardent Whig. 

Most of the Federalists who took part in public 
affairs in New Haven after the dissolution of that 
party, became naturally, on account of their belief 
in a liberal construction of the powers granted in 
the Federal Constitution, members of the Whig 
party. They had opposed the doctrines of Jeffer- 
son and his party, and they saw nothing they could 
approve a few years later in the administration and 
policy of Andrew Jackson. 

A few of the younger Federalists of this period 
found the Toleration party of Wolcott and Inger- 
soll a convenient path by which to ally themselves 
with a national party which promised both power 
and patronage. 

From 1818 to 1854. 

During this period the old Federal and Repub- 
lican parties passed out of existence in New Haven, 
as well as in the country. Notwithstanding the 
large majority New Haven had given for the new 
Constitution, the Federal traditions were still strong 
in many of the voters, and when the Whig and 
Democratic parties came into existence, during the 
administration of President Jackson, the Federal 
theory of protection to American industries, and 
the feeling that President Jackson had erretl in ve- 
toing the Charter for the I'nited States Bank, built 
up the Whig party rapidly, so that from 1 834 until 
1854 they had control of the local offices of New 



Haven, and the town invariably gave decided ma- 
jorities for the candidates of that party. At no 
Presidential or State election between 1824 and 
1852 did New Haven give even a plurality of its 
votes for either the Jackson or Democratic parties. 

Manufacturing w-as in its infancy in New Haven 
during this period, and the doctrine of protection 
found ready believers among the working men of 
the city. Nearly all the old Federalists were bit- 
terly opposed to Jackson, and most of the Tolera- 
tion leaders were admirers of Henry Clay. The 
men of property, with few exceptions, looked upon 
Jackson as an unfit man for Pre.sident. But the 
sympathy of most Whigs with such legislation as 
restricted the sale of liquor, drove some men away 
from that party during the last twenty years of this 
period. 

The construction of the Northampton Canal, the 
building of railroads, and the increase of manufac- 
turing, brought a number of Irish immigrants into 
New Haven, and here, as elsewhere, these new cit- 
izens became members of the Democratic party. 
All property qualifications upon the right of suf- 
frage were abolished in 1845. The Mexican War 
of 1846-48 was popular with many young men. 

The Whig party was passing into a hopeless 
minority in national aflTairs. Free trade was then 
popular with the farmers in some of the country 
towns. The Whigs could not always control the 
Legislature. The State patronage was frequently 
in Democratic hands. All these causes tended to 
reduce the Whig majorities in New Haven, and at 
the close of this period the Democrats and Whigs 
were about equally divided in numbers, and the 
Free Soilers, who cast their first votes for Francis 
Gillett, in 1842, had gradually increased in num- 
bers, until they held the balance of power. 

A Maine Law, or Temperance party, came into 
existence in the State in 1853, and in 1854 it polled, 
in New Haven, 914 votes for Governor. 

Notwithstanding the overwhelming defeat of the 
Whig party in 1852, those in New Haven stood 
bravely by their organization, until the party itself 
was swallowed up by the new American party, 
which first made itself felt in the State by the elec- 
tion of a few representatives in 1854. 

During this period, the Palladium, under the 
management of James F. Babcock, and \\\e Journal 
and Courier, under the management of J. B. Car- 
rington, had become the organs of the Whig party. 
The Register, under the control of Minott A. Os- 
borne, was the organ of the Democratic party. The 
councils of the two parties were generally held in 
the ofl^ces of their respective newspapers, and the 
editors and owners of these papers had great influ- 
ence in shaping the policy and dispensing the pat- 
ronage of their respective parties. Mr. Osborne 
held the oHice of Collector of the Port of New Ha- 
ven for eight years as a reward for his services to 
the Democratic party, and he was succeeded for 
eight years by Mr. James F. Babcock, to compen- 
sate him for his services as a newspaper editor sup- 
porting the ^^'llig and Rejiublican parties. 

Among the prominent men of New Haven who 
held political office during this period were Henry 



POLITICAL PARTIES. 



485 



sip 



M 



W. Edwards, who was a representative for several 
years, and subsequently the most successful leader 
the Democrals had for many years, being Governor 
of the State in 1833 and in 1835-37; Jonathan 
Ingersoll.who was Lieutenant-Governor for several 
years when Oliver Wolcott was Governor; Charles 
Denison; Ralph I. Ingersoll, who was a Toler- 
ationist and Republican for several years, and by 
those parties chosen a representative from New 
Haven, Speaker of the House, and representative 
in Congress; after Jackson's second election, Mr. 
Ingersoll became a Democrat, and for many years 
was a trusted leader of that party. 

In 1827, Dennis Kimberly and Charles A. In- 
gersoll represented New Haven as Tolerationists or 
Republicans; a few years later, the former became 
a Whig, and the latter, from having been an op- 
ponent of Jackson, became one of his supporters, 
and an active Democrat. 

In 1829, Philip S. Galpin represented New 
Haven at Hartford, elected by the anti-Jackson 
party; he was later in life an ardent Whig, and still 
later he became a Democrat on the slavery issue, 
and was by that party made Mayor of New Haven 
for several terms. 

In 1830, William W. Boardman entered public 
life as Senator from the Fourth or New Haven dis- 
trict, that being the first year that Senators were 
elected by the several districts. Mr. Boardman was 
a prominent and wealthy lawyer. For many years 
he held public office at the hands of the Whig 
party, being representative from New Haven several 
years, and Speaker of the House in 1838, 1839 
and 1845. In 1851 he represented New Haven for 
the last time, because he bolted the nomination of 
Roger S. Baldwin for U. S. Senator and, thereby 
preventing an election, prepared the way for the 
election of Isaac H. Toucey, a Democrat. Mr. 
Broadman served as a Whig in Congress prior to 
that act, and he never subsequendy took much in- 
terest in public affairs,except that,as a Republican, 
he presided with great dignity over the State con- 
vention of that party at New Haven in 1865. 

Silas Mix was elected to the House from New 
Haven in 1832 as a Democrat. He was then a 
brilliant young lawyer, only twenty-one years of 
age, and popular with masses of the people. Hon. 
Henry C. Flagg represented New Haven in the 
Senate in 1835. In 1837, Hon. Roger S. Baldwin 
entered public life as a Whig, representing the 
Fourth District. At a later date he was made repre- 
sentative from New Haven; Whig Governor in 
1844-45; U. S. Senator until 1851; and Republi- 
can or Fremont elector in 1856. 

Mr. James Donaghe was a Whig leader for many 
years, representative in 1837-38, and Collector of 
the Port of New Haven under President Taylor. 
Mr. Leverett Candee, the successful manufacturer, 
was an active Whig, and represented New Haven 
in 1839. 

Hon. John B. Robertson was the junior Whig 
representative from New Haven in 1840. That 
party elected him Secretary of State in 1847-48. 
He was the Postmaster of New Haven under Presi- 
dents Taylor and Fillmore, from 1849 to 1853. 



Mr. Robertson was born in South Carolina, and 
joined the Democratic party upon the slavery issue 
after the election of Mr. Buchanan. He was elected 
Mayor of New Haven by the Democrats in 1880. 
and was one of the most popular officials ever 
elected to that office. 

Hon. Aaron N. Skinner was for many years a 
prominent Whig; he was Senator for the Fourth 
District in 1841, 1842, 1845, and at a later date 
Mayor of New Haven; it was in his term as 
Mayor that the controversy over the introduction 
of water into the city raged with great violence. 

Hon. James F. Babcock entered the House for 
New Haven in 1841 as a Whig, and served in the 
State Senate in 1845 ^^ ^^ American and Whig. 
He was the Whig candidate for Congress in 1849 
and 1851, but was defeated by a bolt in his own 
party. 

In 1842, Hon. Henry Peck, the founder of the 
firm of booksellers now represented by H. H. 
Peck, was a Whig representative from New Haven 
for the first time. He subsequently served for sev- 
eral terms as representative and Senator, and he 
also held the office of Mayor of the city. 

Hon. Eleazer K. Foster was for many years a 
leading Whig and Republican orator. He served 
first as a representative in 1843, was Judge of Pro- 
bate and State Attorney for many years, and Speak- 
er of the House in 1865. Except for his declina- 
tion upon the platform of the Republican State 
Convention at New Haven in February, 1861, he 
would have been nominated and elected the first 
war Governor of Connecticut. 

From 1842 to i860, two of the best managers, 
workers, and leaders of the Whig and Republican 
parties in New Haven, were Marcus Merriman and 
Stephen D. Pardee. Both served New Haven in 
the House, and the former was Senator from the 
Fourth District for several years. They canvassed 
and worked together from pure love for their party, 
and no men knew better how to get the last voter 
to the polls on Election Day. Their counsel in 
political or town aflfairs was always in demand. 

Hon. William H. Russell was a Whig represent- 
ative in 1846 and 1847. Upon the repeal of the 
Missouri compromise in 1854, he became active as 
one of the leaders of the movement which resulted 
in the organization of the Republican party. 

Hon. Henry Dutton was Whig Senator from 
New Haven in 1849, representative in 1850, and 
was elected Governor by a combination of Whigs, 
Free Soilers, and Maine Law men in the General 
Assembly of 1854. 

Hon. John S. Rice was for a few years an active 
young leader among the Whigs, and represented 
the Fourth District in the Senate of 1850. Hon. 
Griswold I. Gilbert, an old-fashioned, reliable Whig, 
was Senator in 1852. 

In 1853, New Haven, for the first time in many 
years, elected a politically divided delegation to the 
House. Hon. Charles B. Lines, an old Whig, 
afterward a leader in the Kansas colonization move- 
ment of 1856, w-as the senior representative, while 
the junior representative was Hon. Charles Ives, 
then a young Democratic lawyer and the active 



486 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NFW HA VFN. 



leader of a set of young men in that party who op- 
posed what they called the domination of the Reg- 
ister clique, which had for many years monopolized 
all the State and Federal patronage belonging to 
New Haven. 

In 1854, Hon. Henry B. Harrison entered pub- 
lic life as Whig Senator from New Haven, and 
John WoDdruff was junior Whig representative 
from New Haven. The career of these gentlemen 
in politics belongs to the following political era. 

During the whole of this era of Whig ascend- 
ancy in local politics, it was difficult for a Jackson- 
ian or Democrat to become prominent in public 
aflairs. The dominant party took all the offices it 
could lay its hands on. Civil .Service reform had 
not been dreamed of in those days, and the minor- 
ity party accepting defeat as gracefully as possible, 
made no complaint about their exclusion from 
office, and waited patiently for their term to come 
around. 

Before 1850, Judges of Probate and Justices of 
the Peace were elected annually by the General 
Assembly, and when the Democratic farmers of 
Windham and Litchfield Counties put their party 
in a majority, they religiously marched out of office 
all the Whig Judges of Probate and Justices in 
New Haven, and duly installed Democrats in their 
places. Among the prominent Democrats who re- 
ceived office in New Haven at their hands were 
Hon. .\lfred Blackman and Hon. Frederick Cros- 
well. 

Hon. James Gallagher began his political life in 
i860, as a Democratic Messenger of the Senate, 
then in session in New Haven. In those days the 
party organs in Hartford and New Haven received 
from their several parties, when in power, the oflSce 
of State Printer. The value of the office consisted 
in the fact that regular prices were charged the 
State, and the work was then sublet to a job office 
at a lower price. In 1850 and 1852, the fat con- 
tracts went to Messrs. Osborne & Baldwin as pro- 
prietors of the /Je^'/.s/tv, and in 1854 the turn of 
the political wheel gave them to Bahcock & Wild- 
man, as owners of the then Whig Palladiuvi. 

The vote for Presidential Electors in New Haven 
from 1820, to and including 1852, was as follows: 

1820. James Monroe 71 

III this election no one else voted for. Cheshire cast 60 
votes; Harlforfl, 61 ; Wallingford, 122 (largest in the State). 
Middlebury did not vote at all. 

1824. John '•). Adams 265 

Jackson, ) An electoral ticket seems to have 
Crawford, , been run, the highest elector get- 
Clay, ) ting 16 votes, lowest, I. 
Scattering 20 

1828. Adams 415 

Jackson 72 

1832. Clay, Whig 677 

Jaciison, Dem 164 

1836. llariiiOM, Whig '.039 

Van liuren, Dem 899 

1840. Harrison. Whig 1,407 

\'an Bnrcn, Dem 841 

1844. Clay, Whig 1,735 

I'olk, Dem 1,207 

Birney, Alx)lition 24 

1848. Taylor. Whig 1,777 



1848. Cass, Dem 1,213 

Van Buren, Free Soil 215 

1S52. Scolt, Whig 2,097 

Pierce, Dem 1,875 

Hall, Free Soil 96 

State voted for Pierce. 

The vote for Governor from 1820 to 1S54 was: 

1S20. Oliver Wolcott, Tol and Rep 455 

David Daggett, Federal 122 

Nathaniel Smith 50 

Scattering 5 

1821. Oliver Wolcott 291 

Scattering 4 

1822. Oliver Wolcott 126 

Scattering 2 

1823. Oliver Wolcott 101 

Scattering 8 

1824. Oliver Wolcott 94 

Scattermg 2 

1825. Oliver Wolcott 114 

David Daggett 56 

Timothy Pitkin 35 

David Plant 7 

Scattering 5 

Nathan Smith 3 

There was no organized opposition in New Haven to Oli- 
ver Wolcott until 1826, when the personal strength of David 
fJaggett gave that gentleman a large vote in the town. 

1S26. David Daggett 263 

Oliver Wolcott 140 

.Scattering 4 

1827. Oliver Wolcott 194 

Gideon Tomlinson 75 

Scattering S 

1828. Gideon Tomlinson, anti-Jackson 54 

.Scattering 2 

1829. Gideon Tomlinson 96 

Scattering 2 

1830. Gideon Tomlinson 271 

Scattering 3 

1831. John S. Peters 245 

Scattering 20 

1S32. John S. Peters, Whig 145 

Calvin Willey 18 

Henry W. Edwards, Dem 17 

Scattering 7 

1833. John S. Peters, Whig 205 

Henry W. Edwards, Dem 162 

Scattering 10 

1S34. Samuel A. Foot, Whig 954 

Henry W. Edwards, Dem 442 

Scattering 14 

1835. Samuel A. Foot, Whig 825 

Henry W. Edwards, Dem 754 

Scattering 12 

1836. Gideon Tomlinson, Whig 790 

Henry W. Edwards, Dem 652 

Scattering 2 

1837. William W. Ellsworth, Whig 1,051 

Henry W. F.ilwards, Dem 774 

Scattering 3 

1838. William W. Ellsworth, Whig 1,213 

Seth P. Beers, Dem 733 

Elisha Phel]i5 35 

1839. William W. Ellsworth, Whig 1, 129 

John M. Niles, Dem 836 

Elisha Phelps 31 

Scattering 2 

1840. William W. Ellsworth, Whig 1,346 

John M. Niles, Dem 857 

Scattering 2 

1841. William W. Ellsworth, Whig 1,215 

Francis H. NicoU, Dem 625 

George Reed 19 

1842. William W. Ellsworth, Whig 1,219 

Chauncey F. Cleveland, Dem 997 

Luther Loomis 25 

Francis tlillette, Abolition 12 

Scattering I 



POLITICAL PARTIES. 



487 



1843. Roger S. Baldwin, Whig 1,283 

Chauncey F. Cleveland, Free Soil. . . . 999 

Francis Gillette, Abolition 5 

Scattering 3 

1844. Roger S. Baldwin, Whig 1,484 

Chauncey F. Cleveland, Dem 1, 143 

Francis Gillette, Liberty 24 

1845. Roger S. Baldwin, Whig , 1,526 

Isaac Toucey, Dem 393 

Francis tlillette. LiVierty 27 

Scattering 20 

1S46. Clark Bissell, Whig 1,528 

Isaac Toucey, Dem 626 

Francis Gillette, Liberty 47 

Scattering II 

1847. Clark Bissell, Whig 1,634 

Thomas T. Whittlesey, Dem 981 

Francis Gillette, Free Soil 58 

Scattering 3 

184S. Clark Bissell, Whig 1,698 

George S. Catlin, Dem i,059 

Francis Gillette, Free Soil 40 

Scattering i 

1849. Joseph Trumbull, Whig 1,387 

Thomas H . Seymour, Dem 980 

John M. Niles, Free Soil 98 

Scattering i 

1550. Lafayette S. Foster, Whig i,445 

Thomas H. Seymour, Dem 1, 151 

John Boyd, Free Soil 83 

Scattering i 

1551. Lafayette S. Foster, Whig 1.512 

Thomas H. Seymour, Dem 1,428 

John Boyd, Free Soil 64 

Scattering , 6 

1852. Green Kindrick, Whig 2,013 

Thomas H. Seymour, Dem 1. 514 

Francis Gillette, Free Soil 38 

Scattering 2 

1853. Thomas H. Seymour, I Jem ',789 

Henry Dutton, Whig 1,525 

Francis Gillette, Free Soil and Maine 

Law 456 

1854. Samuel Ingham, Dem 1.441 

Henry Dutton, Whig 1,394 

Charles Chapman, Maine Law 914 

John Hooker, Free Soil 20 

The Period since 1854. 

The repeal of the Missouri compromise in 1854 
built up the Anti-Slavery party of Connecticut 
rapidly, although for three years the sentiments of 
the Anti-Slavery men were manifested in New 
Haven through the machinery of the American 
and Whig parties. The American, or Know-Noth- 
ing, party polled a large vote in New Haven in 
1855 and 1856, but while it drew many Democrats 
into its fold, a powerful minority of the Whigs, led 
by Henry B. Harrison, James M. Woodward and 
others, refused to unite with the new party, and 
nominated candidates of its own for the Legislature 
and local offices. This division of the voters who 
were opposed to the Democratic party gave that 
party a plurality of the votes, and for the first time 
in many years the Democrats of New Haven, in 
1855, elected both their candidates to the General 
Assembly. They were Messrs. Alfred Blackman 
and James E. English. 

In the spring of 1856, a mass convention was 
called in Hartford to organize the Republican 
party in Connecticut. Messrs. Charles L. English, 
George H. Watrous, and Henry B. Harrison took 
part m this movement, and were active throughout 



the State in the organization of the party which was 
destined for so many years thereafter to control the 
politics of Connecticut, although it has never been, 
with two or three exceptions during the war, in a 
majority in the town of New Haven itself. The 
carriage-making interest of New Haven was deeply 
interested in Southern trade. A number of other 
manufacturing industries of New Haven depended 
more or less upon Southern patronage. The anti- 
slavery feeling had never been strong in New 
Haven among its leading politicians of either party. 
Therefore, upon the organization of the Republican 
party, many of the old Whigs, including some of 
its best leaders, joined the Democratic party. The 
Republican party on the other hand received but 
few recruits from the Democrats. The increase of 
the Irish and German vote in New Haven, which 
has been rapid since 1854, increased the Demo- 
cratic party in numbers more rapidly than the Re- 
publican.* The legislation of the Republican 
party upon the subject of temperance has from 
time to time driven a few voters out of that party 
and into the ranks of the Democratic organiza- 
tion. 

During the war, a number of Democrals voted 
for the Republican candidates for State Officers, and 
some of the Democrats who then acted with the 
Republicans have continued with the party ever 
since. Between 1857 and i860 a number of Ger- 
mans joined the Republican party upon the anti- 
slavery issue, and they continued to act with them 
during the war and for a few years afterwards, but 
temperance legislation, so called, has sent many of 
them back into the ranks of the Democratic party. 
In 1866, Hon. James F. Babcock, who was then 
Collector of the Port, left the Republican party 
with a few followers, and they united their fortunes 
with the Democratic party on the reconstruction or 
" Johnson " issues as they were called. In 1872, 
when the nomination of Horace Greeley was in- 
dorsed by the Democratic Convention at Baltimore, 
a large number of Democrats in New Haven, in- 
cluding quite a number of Irish voters, refused to 
vote for Mr. Greeley, and voted for the Republican 
candidate. General Grant. A few of the Democrats 
who then joined the Republicans continued to re- 
main with that party, but most of the recruits of 
that campaign returned to the Democratic party be- 
fore the ne.xt presidential election. 

The Liberal-Republican organization of 1872 car- 
ried but few voters into the Democratic party. 
Most of the Republicans who voted for Mr. Gree- 
ley in 1872, came back to the Republican party be- 
fore 1876, upon the issues of hard money and pro- 
tection to American industry. Upon the latter 
issue a few Democrats in New Haven voted for Mr. 
Garfield in 1880. In 1884 a few Republicans in 
New Haven voted for Mr. Cleveland, or St. John 
the Prohibition candidate for the presidencv, and 
about an equal number of Irishmen and working 
men voted for Mr. Blaine upon the issue of pro- 
tection to American interests. 



* The existence and power of the Know-Nothing party, from 1S54 
to 1856, drove nearly all Catholics and others of foreign birth into the 
Detnocratic party. 



488 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



A Greenback party was organized in New Haven 
in 1876, and for several years it pelled quite a 
number of votes, but it passed out of existence as 
a factor of political strength in i88j. There has 
been a Prohibition party in existence in New Haven 
since 1872, and it has usually polled about one 
hundred votes. On several occasions in the past 
twenty years there has been a labor, or working 
men's, party, polling about as many votes in New 
Haven as the Prohibition party. Upon occasions 
affecting national politics, the voters of New Haven 
have generally united with either the Republican or 
Democratic party, and have adhered steadily in 
most cases to the party of their first choice. But 
few leading men of either party have ever changed 
their political affiliations. The Democratic party 
has steadily increased its majorities in New Haven 
for many years, for the reasons above given. In 
local and municipal politics many Democrats and 
Republicans frequently vote independently of their 
natural party affiliations; therefore on some occa- 
sions the Republicans have had control of the mu- 
nicipal government of New Haven; but whenever 
the Democrats have been united, or have made 
good nominations, they have had control of the 
local government. A majority of the Wards are 
controlled by members of the Democratic party, 
and for this reason the Common Council is usually 
Democratic. 

The Republican newspapers of New Haven at the 
present time are the Palladium, owned and con- 
trolled by a corporation consisting of many stock- 
holders, and X\\e Journal and Courier, owned and 
controlled by Messrs. Carrington, Pratt, and a few 
others. The Democratic organs are the Neiv Haven 
Union, controlled by Alexander Troup, the Col- 
lector of Internal Revenue of the District of Con- 
necticut, and the Nav Haven Register, owned by a 
corporation, the stock of which is controlled by 
members of the family of the late Minott A. Os- 
borne, who was editor and former proprietor. 

New Haven has furnished between 1854 and 1886 
many men for both political parties, who have been 
prominent and intluential leaders of either the Re- 
publicans or Democrats. 

Hon. James E. English and Charles R. Inger- 
soll have been elected Governors of Connecticut by 
the Democrats; and Hon. H. B. Bigelow and Henry 
B. Harrison have received the same high offices by 
the votes of the Republicans. 

New Haven has furnished several other gentle- 
men who have been Congressmen, Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernors, Secretaries, Senators, Judges, Spe.ikers of the 
House, Representatives, Postmasters, and Collectors 
of the Port. Most of them are still living and tak- 
ing more or less interest in the welfare of the par- 
lies to which they belong. 

In times of political excitement, for a few weeks 
good-natured, though sometimes heated, controver- 
sies are carried on, but with the settlement of the 
great slavery war and reconstruction issues which 
existed between 1854 and 1877, party passion and 
prejudice have almost dis.ippeared. 

There was a serious division in the Democratic 
party in i860; a majority of the New Haven Dem- 



ocrats voted for Breckenridge under the advice of 
the Neiv Haven Register, but by an understanding 
arpong the leaders of both wings of the party, Hon. 
James E. English, then in Europe, was advised to 
stay there until after November, so that he might 
come home later, and not having voted for either 
Douglass or Breckenridge, would be an available 
candidate to unite on for Congressman. Having 
acted on this advice, Mr. English found the subse- 
quent path of political promotion an easy one for 
several years. 

Hon. Henry B. Harrison would have been nom- 
inated and elected Governor of Connecticut in 1 866 ; 
but, at the request of friends of General Joseph R. 
Hawley, he declined to be a candidate at that time, 
and thereby postponed for eighteen years his elec- 
tion to that office. 

For many years thereafter an hostility, at times 
very bitter, existed between the Republicans of New 
Haven and Hartford. Because of it General Joseph 
R. Hawley was defeated for the U. S. Senate in 
1872; Hon. Henry B. Harrison was not nominated 
for Governor in 1873; Hon. Henry P. Haven, of 
New London, who was nominated by Hartford in- 
fluence, was defeated before the people at the elec- 
tion in April, 1873; New Haven lost her position as 
a semi-capital of the State at the election of Octo- 
ber, 1873; 'lid the Republican party lost its control 
of the Legislature from 1874 until 1877. 

Since 1877 the Republican party of New Haven 
and the State has been fairly free from sectional dis- 
sension. The exclusion of the Democratic party 
from Federal power and patronage, and generally 
from all State patronage, has kept it between 1861 
and 1885 in a state of comparative harmony. 

Until recendy permanent political clubs were un- 
known in New Haven. The Republicans now 
have two. The Republican League, which is or- 
ganized mainly for social purposes, and has a 
handsome club house on Chapel street, opposite 
Yale College, and the Young Men's Republican 
Club, which has its rooms in the Insurance Build- 
ing opposite the lower part of the Green. The 
Democrats organized a political and social club a 
few years ago, known as the JelTersonian Club, 
which has its rooms over the store of A. C. Wilcox 
& Co. on Chapel street. 

The vote for Presidential Electors in New Ha- 
ven from 1856 to 1884 was as follows: 

1S56. Fremont, Rep 2,769 

Tiuchanan, Dem 2,591 

Fillmore, Am 248 

i860. Lincoln, Rep 3.140 

Breckenridge, Pro-Slavery Dem 1,681 

Doui;lass, Regular Dem l>339 

Bell, American or Union 229 

1864. McC'lellan, Dem 3.720 

Lincoln, Rep 3.325 

1868. Seymour, Dem 5.505 

Grant, Rep 3,822 

Grant's majority in the State, 2,943. 

1872. Greeley, Lib. Rep. and Dem 4,706 

Grant, Rep 4.65 1 

O'Connor, Straight Dem 42 

Prohibition 5 

A fraudulent Grant ticket, upon which the names of the 



|: 



COMMERCE. 



489 



Republican electors were all spelled incorrectly, but which 
were intended for Grant, had 13 votes. 

1876. Tilden, Dem 6,669 

Hayes, Rep 4,794 

Cooper 411 

Prohibition 10 

iSSo. Hancock, Dem 7i9i5 

Garfield, Rep S>72i 

Greenback 107 

Prohibition 8 

1884. Cleveland, Dem 8,872 

Blaine, Rep 6,298 

Butler 190 

St. John 105 

The vote for Governor since 1854 has been: 

1855. Samuel Ingham, Dem 2,046 

William T. Minor, American i,743 

Henry Dutton, Whig 652 

1856. Samuel Ingham, Dem 2,309 

William T. Minor, American 1,712 

Gideon Weller, Rep 399 

John A. Rockwell, Whig 216 

Benjamin Silliman i 

1857. Samuel Ingham, Dem 2,720 

Alexander Holley 2,402 

Mr. Holley was supported by the Union of Americans, 
Republicans and Whigs who had voted for Fremont in 
1S56. 

1858. James T. Pratt, Dem 2,492 

William A. Buckingham, Rep 2,361 

Austin Baldwin, Am 40 

Scattering 2 

1859. James T. Pratt, Dem 2,783 

William A. Buckingham, Rep 2,671 

Scattering 3 

i860. Thomas H. Seymour, Dem 3. 90S 

William A. Buckingham, Rep 3i220 

Scattering I 

1861. James C. Looniis, Dem 3i567 

William A. Buckingham, Rep 3>078 

Scattering 8 

1862. William A. Buckingham, Rep 2,510 

James C. Loomis, l5em 2,355 

1863. Thomas H. Seymour, Dem 2,978 

William A. Buckingham, Rep 2,727 

Scattering i 

1864. William A. Buckingham, Rep 2,776 

Origen S. Seymour, Dem 2, 658 

1865. William A. Buckingham, Rep 3.049 

Origen S. Seymour, Dem 2,705 

Scattering I 

1866. James E. English, Dem 4.553 

Joseph R. Hawley, Rep 2,998 

1867. James E. English, Dem 5,035 

Joseph R. Hawley, Rep 3)235 

Scattering I 



1868. James E. English, Dem 5,777 

Marshall Jewell, Rep 3,524 

Scattering I 

1S69. James E. English, Dem S,020 

Marshall Jewell, Rep 3,363 

1870. James E. English, Dem 4>974 

Marshall Jewell, Rep 3.036 

1871. James E. English, Dem 5.267 

Marshall Jewell, Rep 3,720 

Scattering 6 

1872. Richard D. Hubbard, Dem 4,674 

Marshall Jewell, Rep 4,094 

Albert R. Harrison, Labor 135 

Francis Gillette, Pro 47 

Scattering 2 

1873. Charles R. IngersoU, Dem 5.534 

Henry P. Haven, Rep 1,771 

Henry D. Smith, Pro 177 

Scattering 4 

1874. Charles R. IngersoU, Dem 5. 1 1 1 

Henry B. Harrison, Rep 3.549 

Henry D. Smith, Pro 256 

Scattering 2 

1875. Charles R. IngersoU, Dem 5,665 

James Lloyd Greene, Rep 3.404 

Henry D. Smith, Pro 133 

Scattering 5 

1876. Charles R. IngersoU, Dem 4.302 

Henry C. Robinson, Rep 3.275 

Charles Atwater, Greenback 1,260 

Henry D. Smith, Pro 87 

Scattering 3 

For the part term to January, 1877. 

1877. Richard D. Hubbard, Dem 6,619 

Henry C . Robinson, Rep 4, 259 

Scattering, Pro., and Greenback 343 

For the two-year term. 

1878. Richard D. Hubbard, Dem 3,732 

Charles B. Andrews, Rep 3.55' 

Charles Atwater, Greenback 2,272 

Jesse G. Baldwin, Pro 45 

Scattering 5 

1880. James E. English, Dem 7,8i i 

Hobert B. Bigelow, Rep 5.794 

Henry C. Baldwin, Greenback 102 

George P. Rogers, Pro 10 

Scattering 5 

1S82. Thomas M. Waller, Dem 7,871 

WUIiam H. Bulkeley, Rep 4,803 

Abel P. Tanner, Greenback 47 

Scattering 30 

George P. Rogers, Pro 9 

1884. Thomas M. Waller, Dem 8,919 

Henry B. Harrison, Rep 6,386 

James Langdon Curtis, Butler Candi- 
date 137 

Elisha H. Palmer, Pro 67 

Scattering 2 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



COMMERCE-FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. 



THE New Haven Colony in its earliest days had 
some special advantages for commercial en- 
terprises. The port was safe, accessible and ample, 
as well as convenient for the vessels of that age. 
The foremost men were persons of large estates 
who had been trained in England to commercial 
pursuits. Theophilus Eaton was not only the 
Governor of the Colony by the choice of the 
people, and its foremost man in wealth, abilities 
and manifold experiences, but he had been a pros- 
perous merchant of London, and held in high 



esteem in that great city. He had also resided on 
the Continent as the deputy of the Fellowship 
of Eastland Merchants, and had always and every- 
where acquitted himself honorably in affairs en- 
trusted to him, and in every enterprise which he 
had taken in hand. 

Doubtless he had in some respects no equal in 
the place; but there were other men of good abil- 
ties. Indeed the character of the company was 
such, in virtue and wealth, that the utmost efforts 
were made in Boston to induce it to remain within 



490 



nSTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



the jurisdiction of Massachusetts Bay. Hutchinson 
said of them: 

Their chief view was trade; and, to be better accommo- 
dated, they built on small house-lots near the sea, and fairer 
and more commodious houses than those in the other colo- 
nies. They built vessels for foreign voyages, and set up 
trading houses upon lands which they purchased at Dela- 
ware Bay for the sake of the beaver. 

The Virginians had previously invited the Puri- 
tans of New England to occupy lands at Delaware; 
but the invitation had not been accepted. Very 
soon, however, after the planters of New Haven 
had made a settlement at that place, a company of 
its colonists under the leadership of Captain George 
Lamberton, embarked for Delaware Bay to estab- 
lish stations at which furs could be purchased of 
the Indians who annually followed the Delaware 
and the Susquehannah Rivers from their sources to 
the ocean. Lamberton took with him a Pequot 
Indian to be his interpreter, and thus he was able 
to buy for _^6o all the land from Cape May to the 
mouth of the Delaware River on the east side of the 
bay. He also established posts for trade at several 
of the many convenient places, and made prepa- 
ration for a large commerce with the Indian trap- 
pers. Three years later, in 164 1, as the owner of 
the Cock, the first vessel recorded as owned in New 
Haven, he sailed in that vessel for the bay, and 
took with him about twenty New Haven people 
who desired to settle in the new colony. When 
the company reached New York, the Dutch Gover- 
nor there ordered them to return, or to promise al- 
legiance to the Dutch, who claimed the lands about 
the bay as belonging to the Dutch West India Com- 
pany. They promised all due allegiance should 
they settle on Dutch soil, and went on their voyage. 
One of the company was Captain Nathaniel Turner, 
who had leave of the New Haven Court to go to 
Delaware and reside there "for his owne advan- 
tage and the publique good in settling the affayres 
thereof' 

Within two years after Captain Turner's arrival, 
the Dutch sent two armed vessels to drive the En- 
glish settlers from the shores of the Delaware. 

The Swedes claimed the land on the western side 
of the bay, and were also hostile to the New 
Haven men. They had prejudiced the Indians 
against them, and had seized Lamberton, and im- 
prisoned and fined him. 

The New Haven people were sadly disappointed 
in the expectations of trade; but they were not dis- 
posed to defend their purchase by force. They sur- 
rendered their property to the Dutch, who burned 
their storehouses, but allowed them to carry their 
goods to New Haven. This enterprise resulted in 
the loss of some ;^i,ooo, an am(nint which the 
colony was not well able to lose in those early days. 
Lamberton and others made subsequent voyages 
to the Delaware, but it does not apj)ear that any 
posts were established after the destruction made 
by the Dutch in 1643. Our colony claimed 
"divers pieces of land on both sides of the Dela- 
ware Bay " until 1664. Mr. Eaton and Mr. Greg- 
son, the Commissioners of the New Haven Colony, 
at the meeting of the Commissioners of the United 



Colonies of New England, complained of the 
wrongs done to Lamberton and his company, and 
asked for redress. The New England Commission- 
ers authorized Lamberton to go to the bay, and 
gave him authority to determine the case with the 
Swedes; but his mission seems to have been fruit- 
less. 

The commercial enterprise of those early days is 
indicated by the great number of petitions laid be- 
fore the New Haven Court in regard to laws and 
regulations pertaining to the commerce of the 
place. As early as 1639, Lamberton was sailing 
for trade to Virginia, and Goodman Tapp was 
bringing cattle from Massachusetts Bay. The ne.xt 
year a law was passed forbidding masters of ships 
from throwing ballast into the harbor, and it was 
ordered that "shipwrights be excused from military 
duty." Brother Leeke also received " liberty to 
draw wines for them that work at the shipp. " In 
1644 "come Richard Malbon, John Evance and 
George Lamberton to inform the Courte, that 
having seriously considered the damages which the 
towne doth in many ways suffer from the flattes 
which hinder vessels from coming near the towne, 
they will undertake (upon conditions named) to 
builde a Wharfe,to which at least Botes may come 
to discharge their cargoes." They were authorized 
to build a wharf on the present site of the City 
Market. 

As early as 1641, the Court ordered, "that 
Comodytes well boughte in England for ready 
money shall be sold here not above 3d. on the 
shilling for profitt and adventure above what ihey 
cost with chardges, when solde by retayle; when 
solde by wholesayle lesse proffit may suffise. But 
Commodytes of a perishing nature subject to waste 
and damage fall not under the former rate; yet the 
rates be so ordered that neither buyer or seller suffer 
losse. " In the same year, it was ordered: "who- 
ever shall cut any trees where spruce masts grow, 
without leave from the Governor, shall pay twenty 
shillings for every such default. " Laws were also 
made to regulate the lighterage of goods to and 
from the vessels at anchor in the harbor, and par- 
ticular attention was given to the cutting and hew- 
ing of timber for ship-building. In fine, the early 
records of the town abound with entries relating to 
its commercial interests, and before the place was 
named New Haven, the Court had made a con- 
siderable body of laws to regulate the commerce 
of the port. 

This commerce was foreign as well as coastwise. 
Soon after the founding of the colonv, vessels sailed 
to England, the Barbadoes, the Bermudas, and the 
Azores, as well as to Boston, Salem, Connecticut, 
New Netherlands, Delaware Bay and Virginia. The 
latter was, even then, comparatively an old colony; 
and there was an extensive trade with it. In 1640, 
George Spencer, John Proute (not lhc]o\m Proute), 
and Henry Brasier endeavored to steal Lamberton's 
vessel, the Cock, the evening before she was to 
sail for Virginia. They intended to take her to 
Jamestown; but the godly colony of New Haven 
had another mind, and gave these bad fellows a 
public whipping and put them in irons. There 



COMMERCE, 



491 



was no general disposition to make the place com- 
fortable for thieves. 

The first decades were marked by commercial 
enterprise, but not by great prosperity. The lead- 
ers of the colony were accustomed to the life of the 
great cities of England, and they lived too expen- 
sively for their new conditions. As Hubbard says: 

They built some shipping and sent abroad their provisions 
into foreign parts, and purchased lands at Delaware and 
other places to set up trading-houses for beaver, yet all 
would not help; they sank apace, and their stock wasted, so 
that in five or six years they were very near the bottom. 
Yet being not willing to give over, they did, as it were, gather 
together all their remaining strength to the building and 
t loading out one ship for England. 

This ship, known as "the Great Shippe, " has 
for nearly two and a half centuries been a theme 
for story and romance. Her burden was perhaps 
one hundred tons. She was built in Rhode Island, 
purchased by the "New Haven Merchants' Com- 
pany," brought here, and, by the united eflTorts of 
the people, loaded for England. She sailed for 
that country in the cold tempestuous winter of 
1645. ^' does not appear that she was known by 
any other name than "the Great Shippe. " The col- 
onists were very generally interested in the venture. 
The appraisement of several estates mentions the sum 
in "the Shippe" as ^50, /'30 or/'2o; and in each 
instance a large part of the estate was in this vessel. 

Governor Eaton, Stephen Goodyear and Richard 
Malbon were directors of the company of mer- 
chants that fitted her out. The brothers George 
and Lawrence Ward had made a suit of blocks for 
her. Payment had been delayed, and on the zd 
of November, 1647, they sued the company. The 
loading of the ship was estimated to be worth 
jCSfOOO. This included the plate, of which a large 
quantity was put on board, several hundred West 
India hides, thousands of feet of planks, great store 
of beaver, and some corn and peas in bulk. She 
and her cargo included a large part of the property 
of the town — probably one-fifth of the whole, possi- 
bly one-fourth; for there was a woful shrinkage of 
estates in those days. Governor Eaton's ^"3,000 
in 1643, 'i^d become .^^1,440 in 1658. Mr. Good- 
year's /"i,ooo declined to ;^8o4. Francis Brew- 
ster's /"i,ooo in four years, from 1643 'o '647, went 
down to ;^6o5. This decrease does not include 
the value of some 250 acres of land owned by each, 
and not reckoned in the former valuation as it was 
in the latter. 

"The Great Shippe" sailed away and no tidings 
ever came from her. Gradually the people felt not 
discouragement so much as despair. The sea had 
swallowed far more than their property. Seventy 
of their fellow townsmen were gone. Many of 
them were eminent both in the Church and in all 
civil affairs. Among them were Mr. Gregson, Cap- 
tain Turner, and George Lamberton, the unfortu- 
nate commander of the ship, whose virtue, intelli- 
gence, wealth and enterprise made him one of the 
most prominent persons in the community. 

The loss of this vessel gave rise to the " Phantom 
Ship," supposed to have been seen off our harbor in 
the air one day in June of the ne.\t year. This 
phantom ship was supposed by the superstitious 



to have been sent by Providence to make certainly 
known the loss of the "Great Shippe'' and all on 
board. ^ ■» ■" ■ - • s ■ - >. 

This loss was almost an end of foreign commerce 
on the part of the first generation. Another at- 
tempt was made to found a settlement and estab- 
lish a permanent trade on Delaware Bay; but this 
suffered the same fate as the former one, and from 
the same causes. 

In 1656, Cromwell offered land in Jamaica to 
New Englanders who would settle there; but the 
people of New Haven declined the offer. 

During those years of adversity, there was one 
man here who well merits the title which has been 
given him, "The Father of New England Com- 
merce." The fifth name subscribed to the May- 
flower compact, November 11, 1620, is Isaacke 
Allerton. On that roll he is next after Brewster 
and next before Miles Standish. He was a man of 
eminent parts and financial skill. His early years 
had been given to commercial pursuits in England. 

Miles Standish returned in 1626 to the Plymouth 
Colony from London, where he had resided for 
some time as the agent of the colony. Mr. Aller- 
ton was then the factor of the London merchants, 
entrusted with their colonial interests. His fellow 
colonists requested him to proceed to London as 
their agent. He did so in the autumn of the same 
year. His principal business was to settle with the 
London company to which the colony was heavily 
bonded. The colonists feared the merchants might 
claim a voice in the jurisdicdon, and they wished 
to make such an arrangement as would certainly 
preclude the company from any civil power in the 
colony. Mr. Allerton was absent from Plymouth 
on this agency for seven months. He paid /'300 
of the colony's debt, and engaged the merchants to 
agree to relinquish all their interests in Plymouth 
for /"ijSoo. It was with no small pains and trouble 
that he made this arrangement, and he received the 
thanks of the colonists for his successful manage- 
ment of the business. The next year he returned 
to London, and took with him enough beaver to 
satisfy some engagements made during his previous 
visit, and also nine bonds of ;,i'200 each, for which 
the merchants canceled their claims on the colony. 
He was not merely the agent in this important 
transaction; he was also one of the nine Plymouth 
men who made themselves personally responsible 
for ;^200 each, and who were known as the "Un- 
dertakers." 

He returned to the colony in 1628, and brought 
with him the conveyances of the company, and 
also a patent for a trading station on the Kennebec 
River. Three months later he sailed once more 
for London to obtain a patent for Plymouth antl to 
facilitate the removal of the Leyden church to the 
colony. He soon returned; in the main unsuccess- 
ful. But the same vessel that brought him over, 
carried him back to London; and when he re- 
turned the next time, many of the Leyden brethren 
came with him. But the colony did not seem satis- 
fied with the result of his efforts, and ceased to em- 
ploy his services. The charter which he had ob- 
tained for Plymouth was deemed less favorable than 



492 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



the patent of Massachusetts. He was also accused 
of being "too lavish of money." He considered 
himself unfairly used, and left the colony, sailing in 
1631 for England. There, hiring the ship on which 
he had just crossed the sea, he filled her with goods, 
sailed for the Kennebec and Penobscot, where he 
established trading posts; but almost as soon as he 
left the latter place, the French came and killed his 
agents and clerks, burnt his buildings, and carried 
away all his possessions. He was not a man to be 
cast down. He removed to Salem, and in 1633 
was engaged in the fisheries. He fished at Marble- 
head and had not less than eight boats employed. 
He was also engaged in mercantile pursuits, and 
was a shipowner. In the memorable tempest of 
August, 1635, his ship was lost on Cape Ann. 
Among the twenty persons drowned were the Rev. 
Mr. Aver)', his wife, and si.x small children, who 
were emigrating to Salem. 

In 1636, he went in his barque to Penobscot 
on a trading adventure. On his return he was cast 
away on an island, where his vessel, as Winthrop 
says, "beat out her keel, and so lay ten days; yet 
he gote help from Pemaquid, and mended her, and 
brought her home." 

Subsequently he went to the New Netherlands, 
where he resided for some time; but in 1646 he 
made his home in New Haven. He had suffered 
many reverses, but he had not ceased to be a man 
of means, vigor and enterprise. He became forth- 
with a commercial leader here, and remained, until 
his death, very prominent in the maritime affairs of 
our town. He built by the creek his famous man- 
sion, the " house of the four porticos." It stood at 
the junction of Fair and Union streets. His ware- 
House was opposite his residence and stood, as 
warehouses generally did at that time, on the bank 
of the creek, over the bed of which now pass the 
trains of the consolidated roads. It was access- 
ible by such small vessels as were at that time and 
long afterward comprised in the sea-going fleet 
of New Haven. He sent his vessels from this 
port to Massachusetts Bay, Virginia, Delaware 
Bay, and after to "the Barbadoes. " With the 
latter he had a considerable interest, and as late 
as 1655, he and Ensign Bryan, of Milford, the 
owner of the great brig, complained to the New 
Haven Court, "that by reason of bad biskit 
and flower they have had from James Roggers at 
Milford they have suffered much damage, and like- 
wise the place lyes under reproach at Virgenia and 
Berbados, so as when other men from other places 
can have a ready market for their goods, that from 
hence lyes by, and will not sell, or if it doe, it is 
for little above halfe so much as others sell for. " 
The finding of the Court was, that "if after this 
warning, James Roggers his flower or breaii prove 
bad, he must expect that the damage will fall upon 
him, unless it may be proved that the defectiveness 
of it came by some other meanes. " 

The Dutch Governor of New Netherlands re- 
quested Mr. Allerton and John Underbill, the 
famous Indian fighter, to raise here, by authority 
of the Court, one hundred soldiers to be led by 
Captain Underbill against the Indians. The Court 



did no more than determine to consider the matter 
during the spring of the ne.xt year. 

Mr. Allerton resided in New Haven until his 
death in 1659. After thirt3'-nine years of incessant 
labor, tireless zeal, and indomitable perseverance, 
his end was the sad one common to the most of 
the New Haven pioneers; he died insolvent. His 
creditors were many, his debtors few. His will 
was proven October 19, 1659. The inventory was 
small. So greatly had property fallen in value, 
that his famous house, his barns, and two acres of 
land were appraised at ^"75 only. He came to 
New Haven in the days of its adversity; and here, 
for thirteen years, he endeavored right manfully to 
do his part in retrieving the diminished fortunes of 
the town. His body was laid to rest in the old 
burying ground on the Green, not far from the site 
of the Centre Church. 

Perhaps the most prominent man in the mari- 
time interests of New Haven in those years, except 
Mr. Allerton, was John Evance. He was one of 
the earliest settlers, and a signer of the Quinnipiac 
Compact of June 4, 1639. For eighteen years he 
was one of the most enterprising and energetic of 
the New Haven planters. He had a large estate, 
and as late as 1649 paid a trade tax on ^^550. His 
grant of land was where the Battell Chapel now 
stands, at the southwest corner of Elm and College 
streets. He was often chosen a deputy of the town, 
and was always engaged in commerce. The place 
was indebted to him for many valuable plans and 
undertakings. For example, he was one of the 
first to propose the building of a wharf, in order to 
facilitate the landing of goods from sea-going 
vessels. He owned at difterent times several vessels 
which he sent to various places that were in com- 
mercial relation with New Haven. He began one 
of the most important of the early cases of litiga- 
tion. One of his vessels had been cast away, and 
he sued the master, John Charles, for carelessly 
allowing her to be wrecked. She was homeward 
bound from the Azores, and was wrecked off Guil- 
ford Point, and with her " certayne pipes of Ma- 
deira wyne, " and other goods — the whole valued at 
/"too. Mr. Evance " acquaynted the Courte that 
at the first hearing of the said losse, he appre- 
hended it as an afflicting providence of God 
immediatelye sent for his exercise." But after 
questioning his captain, he thought it best to 
invoke human arbitration. The suit was long and 
tedious. It was settled by Captain Charles paying 
to Mr. Evance "three score and seaven pownds 
and ordinary Court chardges. " In 1649, ^'f- 
Evance had another lawsuit — this time with the 
old Dutch mercliant, William Weslerhousen — 
about one of Mr. Evance's vessels which had got 
into trouble at the INIanhadoes. 

Neither Mr. Allerton nor Mr. Evance had any 
pecuniary interest in " the Create Shippe. " Prob- 
ably their practiced eyes saw such imperfections in 
her construction or lading as to convince them that 
the adventure would be fatal. The ship was "walty 
sided " and i)erha|')s the cargo was so badly stowed 
as to render her " tender " and unseaworthy. 

Mr. Evance remained here until 1654, when he 



COMMERCE. 



493 



became disheartened and returned to London. 

His fate was no exception to the fate of most of the 
colonists. His houses, lands and all his interest 
in different ships were attached by Mr. Van Good- 
enhousen. For nearl\- twenty years he lived a 
busy, active life here, and then went home to Eng- 
land a needy man. He was seen in London five 
years later, but there is no sure record of him 
after 1661. The ne.xt year an English ship, the 
Glorious Restoration, sailed from London for St. 
Christopher's with settlers. The name of one of 
them was J. Evance, and it is not improbable that 
this man was our New Haven merchant, who, with 
his old-time energy and enterprise, was resolved to 
exert himself in that fertile island of the Caribbean, 
and there seek the success which he had well mer- 
ited and nobly striven for, but failed to gain, in 
New England. 

Several other merchants living here in those 
years must be at least briefly mentioned. 

Nicholas Auger, besides practicing medicine, 
maintained an extensive trade with Boston and 
Plymouth, and left an estate when he died, in 
1677, appraised at £\fi'i^. 

Stephen Goodyear was a West India merchant, 
and among the ships that he owned was the famous 
Zwoll, the cause of a tedious pen-and-ink warfare 
between Governor Eaton and Governor Stuyvesant, 
of New Netherlands. 

John Hodson, the Barbadoes trader, the owner 
of the Speedwell, left when he died, in 1690, an 
estate of nearly /'2,200 sterling, the largest, if I 
mistake not, which was settled in the colony till as 
late a period as 1701. He left to the First Church 
of New Haven a legacy of ;^5, "\vith which to 
buy plate,'' a piece of which (probably the only 
piece presented), with the name of the giver there- 
on inscribed, is still used and greatly prized by 
this church. His remains lie in the crypt of the 
church. 

Ephraim How, the owner of the Hopewell, 
which he often sent to Delaware and Virginia, died 
October 30, 1680. He left an estate of 2*3 52- 

Nathan Whelpleys, a Barbados merchant, while 
visiting that island in command of his barque 
Laurel, died and was buried there in 1680. 

Henry Rutherford, the Virginia and Barbados 
merchant, whose quaint little warehouse stood in 
Fleet street, was the owner and occupant of the 
only structure which has come down to us from 
the first setders. 

Benjamin Ling, who owned the Beaver Ponds, 
was a merchant. He died in June, 1670, leaving 
an estate of ;^939. His house stood at the corner 
of College and Grove streets. 

Two valorous Knickerbockers, Samuel Van 
Goodenhousen and William Westerhousen, came 
from the Manhadoes and dwelt here many years. 
They maintained during the time an extensive 
commerce with foreign ports. 

With the passing away of the first generation of 
merchants and ship-owners, the foreign commerce 
of New Haven nearly or quite ceased for a long pe- 
riod. Now and then a vessel passed to and fro 
between New Haven and Barbados or the Azores. 



The arrival of the Polly, in 1697, gave Cotton 
Mather the materials out of which he constructed 
the wonderful story found on page 254 in the sec- 
ond volume of his " Magnalia. " Had he lived in 
these days he would have thought of Munchausen 
before writing it. But there is an account of one 
voyage of a New Haven ship in those old times 
that may be retold here. 

In October, 1653, Captain Carman sailed from 
our port in his ship of 1 80 tons, laden with clap- 
boards, bound for the Canary Islands, and "being 
earnestly commended to the Lord's protection by 
the Church of New Haven. " On nearing Las 
PalmOS, he was met in sight of the city by a Sallee 
rover of 300 tons and 26 pieces of ordnance, 
and a force of 200 men. Captain Carman had 
but twenty men and seven pieces. But he fought 
the Turks three hours, being unable to use his mus- 
kets because they "were unserviceable from rust." 
The author who describes the battle says that 

The Turk lay cross his hawse, so as he was forced to shoot 
through his own hoodings and by these shots killed many 
Turks. Then the Turk lay by his side and Ijoardjd him 
with one hundred soldiers and cut all his ropes; but his shot 
having killed the captain of the Turkish ship and broken his 
tiller, the Turk took in his own ensign and fell off from him, 
but in such haste as he left about fifty of his men aboard 
him. Then the New Haven men came up and fought with 
those titty hand to hand, and slew so many of them as the 
rest leaped overboard. The master had many wounds on 
his head and body, and divers of his men were wounded, 
yet but one slain; so with difficulty he got to the island 
where he was very courteously entertained and supplied with 
whatsoever he wanted. 

The Turkish account of the engagement having 
never been received, we must accept Captain Car- 
man's report as untraversed. 

After the earliest generation of the maritime men 
of New Haven had lost most of their fortunes and 
ended their lives, the foreign commerce of the port 
nearly ceased. The vessels employed were few and 
small. Indeed the sea-going vessels in that re- 
mote age seem to us in these days almost incredibly 
small. In 1642, Mr. Richard Malbon went from 
New Haven to Windsor, and bought a horse for 
one of his friends in Barbados. He engaged the 
owner of a New Haven vessel to carry the horse to 
that island. But when he brought his horse to the 
ship, she was not large enough for the purpose. 
In 1660, Mr. Mould built at his ship-yard, in New 
London, three vessels for foreign commerce. They 
were severally of twelve, seventeen and twenty tons 
burden. The largest of these, the Endeavor, made 
several voyage to Barbados, and was sold there, 
April 10, 1666, for 2,000 weight of sugar. In 1669, 
Captain John Proute, of County Devon, England, 
came to this country in his large ship of seventy 
tons, the America. He sold her in New London 
to Mr. Richard Lord and John Blackheath, of 
Stratford, for ^"230. He then came to New Haven 
and took a grant of land. His house stood nearly 
opposite the street which now bears his name. His 
remains and those of his wife lie in the Centre 
Church crypt. 

The vision of New Haven as an opulent and 
prosperous mart, deriving support and wealth from 



494 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



tratJes with foreign countries, faded away. The 
place was compelled to turn to agriculture for sus- 
tenance. This eventually proved in some degree 
successful. The surplus products of the soil were 
sent for the most part to Boston and Salem. Several 
pinnaces and ketches carried grain and beaver to 
those places, and brought back such foreign ar- 
ticles as the people here could afford to purchase. 
But at onetime, in 1740, " the whole navigation 
of New Haven consisted of two coasters and one 
West India vessel." Five years later, the ketch 
Speedwell left this port for the Azores. The small- 
ness of the commerce of that period is manifested 
by the fact that her cargo, which included "six- 
teen quarts of rum for the master," amounted to 
but £() 4s. 6d. New Haven then contained about 
200 buildings and 1,200 inhabitants. 

The decay reached its lowest point before the 
end of the French power in America. After the 
fall of Quebec and the cession of Canada to Great 
Britain in 1763, commerce somewhat revived; and 
the very next year, the brig Derby, of Derby, a 
vessel of forty tons, came here from Dublin, bring- 
ing a cargo of twenty tons of coals, and also 
thirty-eight Irish servants. This is the first record 
of the arrival of Irish emigrants in our town, and, 
I think, of coals. 

The same year saw- a diminutive brigantine, 
named the Fortune, sail for Martinique. She was 
owned and commanded by one who was at the 
time respected and trusted by his fellow townsmen, 
but who some years thereafter became known to 
all Americans as the traitor, Benedict Arnold. His 
name often appears in the Custom House records 
of those days. Adam Babcock and Benedict Ar- 
nold owned three vessels known as sea-going ships: 
Fortune, forty tons; Charming Sally, thirty tons; 
Three Brothers, twenty-eight tons. They were 
sailing, until the Revolution, to the French and 
English islands of the West Indies. Arnold's store 
was, in July, 1763, on Chapel street, "south of 
College Green, " afterward near the corner of George 
and Church street^, and still later in front of the 
"Arnold house " in Water street. 

At that time. New Haven vessels were sometimes 
sent to England and France. The McAulays sent 
their little schooners to Lisbon with wheat, to re- 
turn with cargoes of salt and wine. There were 
some thirty foreign voyages a year. 

The country near New Haven raised in those 
days large quantities of flax. The fiber was used 
in making linen at hoine, and the seed was exported 
to luirope. This seed was used largely as a medium 
of exchange. * Many advertisements in ihe. Jnurmi/ 
contain a statement that " cash or flax-seed is re- 
ceived in payment for goods." Captain Peter Bon- 
tecou, in his barque Hawke, forty tons, made sev- 
eral voyages to Cork, Ireland, with New Haven 
flax-seed for his cargoes. Others did the .same. They 
returned by the West Indies, bringing thence their 
tropical products. 

This route home has been known for nearly 
three centuries as the Southern Passage; and until 

* Connecticut Gazette, July 9, 1763, 



recently it was generally followed by ships bound 
westward from Europe. 

The long depression seemed to be ending in the 
decade previous to the beginning of the Revolution- 
ary War. The population and wealth of the town 
increased. New mercantile houses were established; 
larger and more costly vessels were used; exports, 
that did not exceed a few thousands of dollars in 
1750, rose to the value of $142,000 for the year end- 
ing May I, 1774. These exports that year included 
150,000 lbs. of flax-seed, 15,000 bushels wheat, 20,- 
000 rye, 33,000 Indian corn, 2,000 oxen, 1,400 
horses. The exports and imports were then nearly 
equal in value. 

When the w-ar broke out, commerce became ex- 
tremely hazardous. In December, 1776, the brig 
Liberty sailed from this port and fortunately reached 
Martinique, where her master received almost a 
fabulous sum for her cargo. He returned in safety, 
and his success caused three other vessels to be fit- 
ted out for a similar voyage. But an English frig- 
ate captured them, and all were condemned. 

Many of the vessels of the town were taken 
up the Quinnipiac, the Housatonic, and elsewhere, 
and there dismantled and laid up. 

The war caused great privation. In 1779, Presi- 
dent Stiles notified the students of Yale College, 
"that on account of the great difficulty in procur- 
ing bread and flour, the vacation would be extended 
a fortnight longer." Jacobs & Israel, the distillers, 
gave notice to the citizens that "they were prepared 
to turn all of their Corn Stalk Juice into Rum on 
shares or otherwise." That accommodating firm 
also oftered to "distill any cider which families 
might have on hand." 

During the Revolution, the commerce of New 
Haven, for the time then being, ceased. 

The West India Islands had depended for an 
hundred and fifty years upon the American col- 
onies for their supply of food. But they were com- 
pelled, by the Revolutionary War, to seek it at 
great cost in Canada and Europe. The people of 
those islands generally were in distress on this ac- 
count for seven weary years. Our country, for the 
same reason, was destitute of all imported goods. 
The return of peace, therefore, forthwith restored 
commerce. New Haven so promptly entered into 
this exchange of commodities, that the departures 
and arrivals at our ports during the decade from 
1783 to 1793 averaged seventy a year. The pojju- 
lation of the place had ri.sen, in 1787, to 3,820, and 
the registered shipping of the district was 7, 2 50 tons. 
During these ten years many new commercial 
houses were organized, and many vessels were 
built in the three ship-yards of the town, and for 
the first time in its history New Haven was the 
proud owner of a fiiU-rigged ship of one hun- 
dred tons. Commerce had become so important 
that a bank was necessary. Accordingly the New 
Haven Bank was organized, in 1792, with a cap- 
ital of ^So,ooo; and soon after, the New Haven 
Marine Insurance Company, with a capital of $50,- 
000. The same causes produced, a little later, the 
New Haven Chamber of Commerce, with Mr. P".lias 



COMMERCE. 



495 



Shipman, President; and William Powell, Secretary. 
It held its weekly sessions in F.benezer Parmalee's 
"front room on the first floor," for the use of which 
the Chamber voted to pay him eight shillings each 
night, he to furnish good candle light and good 
fire. 

In 1 790, there was need of a larger wharf, and 
the Directors resolved to petition the General As- 
sembly to authorize " the setting up of a lottery to 
raise ^"3,000; the money, if received, to be used in 
repairing and extending the wharf " The Directors 
probably saw prospective dividends resulting from 
their action in this matter, and they directed Mr. 
Lyman, the tavern-keeper, ' ' to increase hereafter 
at their meetings the quantity of his sling and 
toddy. " 

The commercial prospects of New Haven were 
exceedingly bright; but in 1793 the baleful effects 
of the French Revolution began to be felt. Two- 
thirds of the New Haven commerce derived its life 
from the \\'est India Islands, and their waters were 
soon filled with the war vessels of the contending 
powers. The French were very destructive to New 
Haven vessels. From their seizures and confisca- 
tions arose those interests which have been known 
for over three quarters of a century as " the French 
Spoliation Claims." For the destruction made by 
the French, our Government demanded compen- 
sation. The French made a counter claim, and 
charged us with disregarding the alliance between 
the two nations. We could not maintain the alli- 
ance without war with Great Britain; and this was 
strenuously opposed by President Washington. 
Finally a settlement was made by an "offset." 
France released us from the obligations of the 
treaty, and the Government of the United States 
promised to pay its citizens for the damage the 
French had done them. Our Government has 
never paid its citizens. The matter presents "a 
most shameful neglect of a sacred obligation." 

The respect then shown to the American flag 
was very much less than it receives to-day. No 
place suff'ered more than New Haven in proportion 
to the capital invested in foreign trade. Nearly all 
the commerce of our port was with the islands of 
the Caribbean, and nine-tenths of it with the col- 
onies of the contending powers. The slightest sus- 
picion that an American vessel contained any En- 
glish or French property made her seizure inev- 
itable. She was sent to some port of the belligerents 
for adjudication, and adjudication generally meant 
condemnation. Within a few months after the out- 
break of hostilities many New Haven vessels had 
been seized, condemned, and sold. In April, 1794, 
there were in the harbors of Antigua, Saint Chris- 
topher, and Barbados one hundred and fifty-two 
American vessels awaiting the decision of the Brit- 
ish Courts of Admiralty. Eleven of these were 
New Haven vessels. There were, at the same time, 
in the harbors of Martinique and Guadaloupe one 
hundred and two American vessels awaiting the 
decision of the French Marine Court, and eight of 
them were New Haven brigantines. Great indig- 
nation and sorrow filled our town in May, 1794, 
when a small vessel from the West Indies brought 



intelligence of the seizure of six New Haven brigs 
there, namely, the Cy.gnet, Sally, William, Neu- 
trality, James, and Anna. These were filled with 
e.xceedinglv valuable cargoes, and had been seized 
on their way to English West India ports by the 
French, and sent to Guadaloupe for trial. They were 
so effectually tried that only one was released. The 
others were condemned and sold. 

The British and French cruisers in the Atlantic 
were so numerous, that many a neutral ship was 
boarded several times on a voyage to and from 
ports in the Caribbean. The New Haven brig 
Anne, for example, was boarded twice by French 
and thrice by British war vessels on her passage 
home from the Danish island of Santa Cruz. A 
French officer ordered his men to carry off nearly 
everything eatable on board of her, and when the 
captain asked what he and his people were to do 
for food, he was told by the French officer to "eat 
pine shavings," and was also informed that this 
juicy and nutritious diet "was proper food for 
Yankees." Fortunately for the vessel she was from 
a neutral port and aftbrded no pretext for seizure. 

Captain Gad Peck, a veteran shipmaster and ship- 
owner of New Haven, was not so fortunate. He 
was captured three times while commanding as 
many different vessels. He owned one quarter 
of the ship Mohawk, built in 1793 at our Oliver 
street ship-yard. The other owners were mainly 
New Haven merchants. Soon after it became 
known here that the British had captured Martin- 
ique, the owners of the Mohawk loaded her with 
flour, and, under the command of Captain Peck, 
she was headed for that island. When near the 
end of the passage a large French privateer came in 
sight, gave chase, -and captured her. A prize crew 
of a lieutenant and twelve seamen were put on 
board and ordered to carry her into Guadaloupe, 
about five days' sail from the place of her capture. 
The following night Captain Peck managed to con- 
verse with each of his crew, and it was arranged 
that the next evening they would retake the ship 
or lose their lives in the effort. Accordingly at 
eight o'clock, soon after the French watch had been 
sent below, Captain Peck (while conversing as well 
as he was able with the Frenchman in command) 
said: " I think '' (or probably I guess) " I'll go be- 
low and turn in.'' The French lieutenant bade 
him a courteous "good night,'' and into the cabin 
went our New Haven captain. Knocking down 
the sentry who was stationed inside of the door, and 
grasping a broad-sword belonging to the officer, he 
gave the signal agreed upon between himself and 
crew, rushed upon deck, and seized the Prize-Mas- 
ter, who saw over his head his own sword in the 
hands of a desperate man, and so yielded at once. 
In the same moment the New Haven crew had 
overpowered the six men composing the French 
watch, as well as secured the hatches to prevent the 
other six from coming on deck, and forthwith the 
Mohawk was again under the command of her 
original master. The voyage to Martinique was 
abandoned, and putting her on the starboard tack, 
the ship was headed for St. Eustatius, which island 
was reached the fifth day after the recapture. 



496 



HISTORY OF THE CTTY OF NEW HAVEN. 



The news of Captain Peck's courage and achieve- 
ment soon reached America, and gained for him 
much renown; and when he returned home, bring- 
ing his fine ship in safety into our port, and gave 
his fellow-townsmen a true account of the adven- 
ture, their admiration found expression in the old 
Anglo-Saxon style by giving him a "public din- 
ner. " A few weeks later he sailed again in the Mo- 
hawk, bound for a French island; but was captured 
by a ikitish frigate (on suspicion of his having on 
board French property), and sent into Tortola, 
where an Admiralty Court was occasionally held. 
The cargo was confiscated, but the ship released. 
It may be that he saved his ship by having ' ' a friend 
at court." 

So many war vessels of the belligerents in the 
West India waters made commerce between Amer- 
ica and the islands of the combatants too hazard- 
ous, and there was a necessity for a neutral port 
where our vessels could safely discharge their car- 
goes, and be themselves safe from capture. 

The demand throughout the West Indies for 
American cereals was great in times of peace, and 
became, in those years of war, enormous. The 
body of consumers was vastly increased by the ac- 
cession of the navies and armies of European pow- 
ers. Over fifty thousand soldiers were stationed in 
the British islands for many years, and full as 
many in the French colonies. During the military 
and naval operations of the English against Saint 
Domingo, from 1794 to 1798, not fewer than 
twenty thousand British soldiers were buried. At 
different times during the war, Jarvis, Hood, Saint 
Vincent, Cochrane, famous hunters of Frenchmen, 
were with their fieets pursuing their enemy through 
the nooks and hiding-places of the West India 
waters. Nelson, with his powerful squadron of 
seventy-fours, was there only four months previous 
to his death at Trafalgar. And the French in those 
days were not far behind their foes, either in the 
number of ships or of men. Villeneuve was in 
Martinique with a splendid fleet of forty-five men- 
ofwar. Most of these carried eighty guns each. 
Twelve thousand French soldiers, in addition to the 
.seamen, were in the fieet wherever it sailed; and 
cruising there also was the veteran French Admiral 
Missiesay.with his flying squadron of ten fifty-gun 
frigates and 5,000 troops, the latter under the com- 
mand of Count La Grange. 

All these men had to be fed. The natural source 
of food to supply them was the United States; and 
hundreds of American vessels bent their course 
thitiier, running all risks of capture and confisca- 
tion in order to obtain the high prices paid for 
breadstuffs in the islands. American provisions 
were imported into Jamaica in 1800 and 1801 to 
liie value of/"i05,88i for the use of the troops 
only, and to the value of /"i 15,692 for the use of 
the navy; and far greater was the value of Ameri- 
can provisions purchased for the army and navy at 
the head([uarters of the Windward Islands in Bar- 
bados. The prices there were almost fabulous. 

The New Haven vessels had their share in the 
transportation of these provisions, and large expor- 
tations were made, during the first years of the 



war, from our port. The shipping of our district 
in 1800 registered more than 11,000 tons. Ships 
were unceasingly built to take the place of the cap- 
tured. 

At the commencement of the present century, 
New Haven had a considerable commerce with 
European ports. Our vessels imported costly car- 
goes of wines and brandy from Marseilles. They 
also brought ship-loads of rich French goods from 
Bordeaux. One vessel, the Esther, brought a cargo 
of claret wine and silks which paid a duty of 
nearly $9,000. They brought hither from Cadiz 
several cargoes of wine, opium, oil, etc., and from 
London myriads of articles of British manufacture. 
Our ships at that time brought direct from Eng- 
land nearly everything that our city required from 
abroad. The maritime interests of the place 
rapidly advanced from 1800 to 1804. During these 
years we imported 781,620 pounds of tea; 518,- 
000 pounds of coffee; 5,805,000 pounds of sugar; 
1,596,938 gallons of rum; 197,681 gallons ot 
wine; 38,600 gallons of gin; and Si, 000 gallons 
of brandy. No w^onder that the flip-bowls seen 
here and there in our ancient houses are so enor- 
mously large. 

This enlargement of our commerce soon ceased. 
In November, 1806, Bonaparte issued an order of 
this kind: The British Islands are in a state of siege; 
all commerce or correspondence with them is for- 
bidden. No ship coming from any English port 
or colony will be allowed to enter any port. All 
trade in English goods is prohibited. Any ship 
seeking by false declarations to evade this order is 
to be confiscated with her cargo the same as it 
British property. 

England of course was not backward in making 
reprisals, and an order in Council was issued, )anu- 
ary 7, 1807, forbidding neutral vessels to enter 
any port belonging to France or to her allies or 
under her control. Every neutral vessel violating 
this order is liable to seizure of ship and cargo. 
Still more destructive to neutral commerce was a 
second order in Council issued November 1 1, 1807. 
It had respect to all harbors and places of France 
and of her allies in Europe and the colonies, as 
well as of every country with which Great Britain 
was at war, or from which the British flag was ex- 
cluded. It placed them all under the same restric- 
tions as if blockaded by a British licet. The 
response of Bonaparte was his Milan decree, that 
any vessel of whatever nation, that had been 
searched by a British ship, that had been sent on a 
voyage to a British port, or that had ever paid any 
duty to the British government, should be regarded 
as denationalized and treated as British. He sup- 
plemented this by the Fontainebleau decree, which 
ordered the destruction of all British property by 
burning or otherwise. 

Then began the intolerable searching of Ameri- 
can ships by British and French vessels-of-war. It 
continued till the close of our later and, we trust, 
last war with Great Britain. 

The hostile cruisers captured American vessels 
almost within sight of Sandy Hook light-house and 
the shores of Cape Cod. Several large ships with 



COMMERCE. 



497 



valuable cargoes from British East India ports, after 
having sailed half round the globe in safety, were 
captured by insignificant French letters-of-marque 
which ranged up and down our coast, boarding our 
ships and seizing those that had British clearances. 

Our Government could not protect the commerce 
of the country nor properly resent the insults in- 
flicted upon our flag. The navy had been meanly 
reduced to fifteen ships, carrying 366 guns only, 
the two largest vessels, the Constitution and the 
Constellation, having a battery of forty-four guns 
each, while the merchant marine measured 876,912 
tons. At the beginning of this century it was the 
custom of nearly all our sea-going merchantmen 
to carry an armament of one to twenty guns each. 
But in 1805 Congress passed an act whereby armed 
vessels were forbidden to leave the ports of the 
Unite i States, unless by special permission, under 
penalty of forfeiture. The Government sought to 
maintain peace by abandoning the right of the 
people to carry on even lawful trade with foreign 
nations. 

In those years of severe restriction, our New 
Haven foreign trade was mainly with Saint Eusta- 
tius, one of the West India Islands belonging to 
the Dutch. Many of the curious and interesting 
articles of glass and pottery now owned by repre- 
sentatives of our old families, we are told on in- 
quiry, "came from Statia." Half the fleet of our 
port was sometimes seen in the spacious harbor of 
that island. A venerable citizen of New Haven 
informed me, a few years since, when he was in 
his ninetieth year, that he counted one day, near 
the beginning of this century, thirty New Haven 
vessels moored together in that fine harbor. It was 
there that the American flag received its first salute 
from a foreign nation. The place was so important 
for only ten to fifteen years, and while it was re- 
garded as a neutral port. In 1809, a British fleet 
under Admiral Cochrane, with a powerful body of 
troops under Sir George Beckwith, seized the 
island, and it was held by the British Government 
until the treaty of Paris in 18 14, when it was re- 
stored to the Dutch, who have retained it ever 
since. 

During those troublous times there was granted 
to each New Haven vessel sent into the Caribbean, 
a Municipal Letter, of which the following is a 
specimen. It was printed in English, French, and 
Dutch, and appended to the regular Custom House 
clearance. It would be deemed to-day as useless 
as it is obsequious. Thus: 

Mo it .Serene, Most Puissant, lliyli, Noble, Illustrious, 
Honorable, Venerable, \Vi!.e and I'rudent, Lords, Emper- 
ours, Rings, Republics, Princes, Dukes, Earls, Barons, 
Lords, Kurgomasters, Schepens, Counselors, as also Judges, 
Officers, Justiciaries, and Regents of all the good Cities and 
Places, whether Ecclesiastical or Secular, who shall see these 
Patents or hear them read. 

ffV, Samuel Bishop, Mayor, make known, that the Master 
of the Catherine, of 84 tons burthen, which he at present 
navigates, is of the U. S. of .\merica, and that no subject of 
the present belligerent Powers has any part of or portion 
therein, directly or indirectly; and as we wish to see the said 
Master prosper in his lawful afiairs, our prayer is to all the 
before named, and to each of them separately, where the 
said Master shall arrive with his vessel, they may be pleased 
G3 



to receive the said Master with goodness, and treat him in a 

kind, becoming manner, permitting him upon the usual tolls 
and expenses, in passing and repassing, to pass, navigate 
and frequent the Ports, Places and Territories, to the end to 
transact his business, where, and in what manner, he shall 
judge proper. 

In which we shall be willingly indebted. 

(Signed) Samuel Bishop, Mayor. 

The clearance to which the above is appended is 
signed by George Washington and Edward Ran- 
dolph, and bears date February 3, 1796. This style 
of sea-letter was used tell 18 12. 

The Sealini; Fleet. 

In the period of transition from the last to the 
present century, a prominent part of the maritime 
interests of New Haven was the sealers. The fleet 
was composed of fine, stanch vessels. They were 
large for that day, and full-rigged ships. None 
better sailed from American ports. Their com- 
manders were the peers of any seamen on the 
ocean. They were manned by American sailors, 
most of them natives of our own town or county, 
who had shares in the ventures, and knew that their 
own individual advantage depended upon the suc- 
cess of their toil. Nearly every one looked hope- 
fully forward to the day when he would command 
a ship or own a "snug" farm near New Haven. 
All were proud of their beautiful ships, which were 
as good as could be obtained, generally new, 
models of symmetry, having lines and dimensions 
that caused them to attract attention in whatever 
quarter of the world they were seen. There were 
not more than twenty vessels in the fleet. The 
names, dimensions and armaments of the most fa- 
mous were: 

Tons. Guns. 

Neptune, ship 350 20 

Oneida, " 223 "6 

Hope, " 200 12 

Sally, " 236 16 

Betsy, " 265 20 

Huron. " ". 230 20 

Augusta, •• 280 20 

Triumph, " , 3°$ 2° 

Zephyr, " 33° '^ 

Polly, brig 210 6 

Each of these sailed from New Haven, circum- 
navigated the globe, and returned to our harbor in 
safety. Each carried a crew of about forty men 
and boys, and also a surgeon, supercargo, car- 
penter, blacksmith and cooper. Each had an ar- 
mament of six-pound guns, muskets, cutlasses, 
boarding-pikes, etc. These ships made voyages 
of twenty to thirty months. So great was the skill 
of their masters and crews, that not a vessel was 
lost, and but one suffered from an accident. 

After leaving our port and the Sound, they sailed 
through the Atlantic to the Falkland Islands. There 
they remained several days, or longer if necessary, 
and men and vessels were prepared for the severe 
weather likely to be experienced in passing Cape 
Horn. As soon as they were safely around that 
stormy point they were headed for the Saint Felix 
Islands, the Galapagos, or even as far north as 
Nootka Sound. In the earlier days of the New 



498 



HISTORY OF THE ClTi' OF NEW HAVEN. 



Haven sealing, they rarely sailed north of the Saint 
Felix group. 

The seals were taken in this way: The men de- 
tailed for the purpose watched near the sandy beach 
till the seals at the proper time of the tide had left 
the water and crawled up to the dry sand. This 
the animals did in some places by scores and even 
hundreds. Then the men ran between them and 
the lower edge of the beach and dispatched them 
by a blow on the head. The skins of 2,142, by 
actual count, were taken from those that were killed 
bv the men of the New Haven ship Hope, on the 
island of Juan Fernandez, at one tide. 

As soon as the animals were killed, their skins 
were taken off and sent to the ship. These, after 
"breaming" (that is, removing the fat, which was 
used for fuel), were salted and packed in the hold 
of the vessel. After a large number of skins had 
been taken the ships sometimes sailed to the main 
land, where the pelts were sun-dried on the beach. 
There was, on the coast of Patagonia, a tract of 
land nearly two miles long, used by New Haven 
captains to dry the seal-skins taken in the Atlantic. 
It was pleasantly called, in those days, " the New 
Haven Green." 

When the ships were laden, they sailed by way 
of the Sandwich Islands for Canton. Here the 
skins were sold through the American factories, and 
cargoes of tea and silks were taken on board, and 
with great joy the homeward voyage began, which 
was to end within Montauk Point. 

There was much romance about those South 
.'^ea ships, which were "bound around the world." 
Many young men in the town were lured to enrol! 
themselves in the companies that manned them. 
They did this to increase their worldly store and to 
see foreign lands; to be able to say to their friends 
at home that they had been "round the Horn," 
and to "the place where Captain Cook was mur- 
dered. " Such a voyage, ninety }'ears ago, was 
something to boast of in New Haven. Every ship 
that left our port for the Pacific carried representa- 
tives of the most respected families in the place. 
Those days shine in the history of American ships 
and American seaman. 

The most eminent of the commanders of New 
Haven's East India fleet was Captain Daniel 
(ireene. lie was born in Boston, and came to our 
town at an early age. He was soon employed on 
a vessel sailing to the West Indies, and was success- 
ful from the first. Before he became of age, he 
commanded one of the largest ships sailing from 
our district. In his thirtieth year he took command 
of the shi]) Neptune, .sailed for China, and made 
the most profitable voyage as yet recorded in New 
Haven. 

On his return from Canton in the Neptune, he 
brought with him several curious Chinese paint- 
ings on glass. They were generally of a patriotic 
or Masonic type, and so captivated the eyes of 
many of his fellow-townsmen as to cause several 
persons to request him, should he return to China, 
to bring them duplicates. Some, however, wished 
alterations in the colors and figures, and so per- 
plexed the Captain that he was obliged to call in a 



friend, who was an artist, and also a deacon in the 
church, to consult with him about his commissions. 
After the artist had carefully inspected several of. 
the paintings, and given his opinion as to the pos- 
turing, coloring, and other particulars of those to 
be ordered, the Captain quietly presented to the 
Deacon's view two very elaborate pictures of a de- 
cidedly Oriental type, saying, "Deacon, what sug- 
gestion as to the color of these .'' ' The pure- 
minded Deacon, more accustomed to criticize 
Amos Doolittle's patriotic engravings, was of course 
shocked. He closed his eyes, raised his hands in 
horror, and e.xclaimed, "How would I paint 
them ? Black ! Yes, black. Captain Greene ! as 
black as black can be." 

After the sealing voyages were discontinued, 
Captain Greene sailed often to the West Indies. 
While in command of the ship Draper he was 
overtaken, after a long chase, and captured by a 
French frigate. His vessel and cargo were confis- 
cated and sold at one of the French islands. 

The Captain was a rich man. and during the War 
of 1812-14, when our commerce was paralyzed, he 
invested extensively in the lands of the Western Re- 
serve, intending to remain there, and pass his declin- 
ing years in that part of New Connecticut. Hut he 
did what has so many times been disastrously done 
by ship-masters who have for a while retired from 
sea life, he undertook to make ' ' one voyage more," 
which he said should be his last; and having made 
it, and returned to New Haven, he would, he 
said, take his family to Ohio (New Connecticut). 
He sailed from our port soon after the blockade 
was raised, embarking from a little wharf that 
stood in front of his house in Water street. His ves- 
sel, called the Grace, after a member of his family, 
was owned by himself His eldest son was his 
first officer, and the Spanish Main was their desti- 
nation. A few days after he sailed the entire coast 
of New England was swept by a violent gale, and 
as no tidings of Captain Greene were ever received, 
it is supposed that his ship foundered during the 
tempest. A monument erected to the memory of 
the father and the son, is to be seen in the old 
burying ground. 

r)ther commanders of the sealing ships were 
Caleb Brintnall, of the Oneida, the 'I'riumiih, and 
the Zephyr; John Hurlbut, of the Oneida, on her 
second voyage to China; William Howell, <-)f the 
Betsy and the Draper; Gilbert Totten, of the splen- 
did ship Constellation; Amos Townsend, of the 
ships Frances Ann and Clarissa; Nathaniel Storer, 
of the ship Sally; James Ray, of the Huron and the 
Hope. All these were famous sea captains in their 
day. 

Many New Haven merchants were interested in 
these voyages. The most prominent was Ebenezer 
Townsend. He was for more than half a century 
engaged in commercial undertakings from our port. 
Born here in 1742, he became early interested in 
foreign commerce, and was for many years the 
most extensively active merchant in the city. His 
ships were the largest, his cargoes the most valu- 
able; and for many years, as a ship-owner, he was 
called " the fortunate man." He had been so sue- 



COMMEkCE. 



49S 






cessful in his enterprises, that when one of his 
friends remonstrated with him for risking so much 
property as he did in sending his ship Neptune, in 
1796, to the South Seas, he replied, "If all should 
be lost I shall have plenty left." He sent out the 
first of the New Haven ships that sailed into the 
Pacific. Daniel Greene was her captain. 

In i8oi and 1802, Mr. Townsend sent his ships 
Frances Ann and Clarissa to the Spice Islands in 
the Indian Ocean, and they brought back valu- 
able cargoes, which were unloaded in our cit)', 
stored in thecellar of his house on East Water street 
(previously the Broome house,and subsequently the 
Hoadley house), and in due time shipped to New 
York. The Frances Ann was so long on her voyage 
that Mr. Townsend had abandoned all hope of ever 
hearing of her again, but late in the spring of 1 803 
a strange ship — she had been purchased in New 
York and had never been in our port — was seen 
sailing up our harbor, causing much speculation as 
to her character. She anchored midway between 
Long Wharf and Tomlinson's Bridge, and there- 
upon Captain Townsend with his supercargo was 
rowed in a small boat from the ship to the Broome 
house, and these officers reported to the owner, 
Mr. Ebenezer Townsend, the safe arrival of his 
vessel from Batavia and Paulo Pinang, with a car- 
go of pepper valued at over one hundred thousand 
dollars, after a voyage of one hundred and ninety- 
five days. 

Mr. Townsend had a pecuniary interest in many 
of the sealing ships besides the Neptune. He not 
only sent ships to hunt for the fur seals, whose 
skins were to be taken to Canton, but also others 
to bring the skins of hair seals to New Haven. One 
of his vessels, the Sally, came from the Pacific early 
in 1803 with 48,000 skins, which were sold to the 
tanners of the town and vicinity. 

He imported many and valuable cargoes from 
the West Indies and from Europe, and for several 
years the duties on goods brought in his ships far 
exceeded in value those paid by any other three 
commercial houses in the city, " the Derby Fishing 
Company " alone excepted. 

He died at his residence in New Haven at the 
age of 82 years, after a long life of activity and 
enterprise. He sleeps in the old cemetery. 

Other owners of the sealing ships, or their car- 
goes, were Thomas Atwater, Henry Dennison, Elias 
Shipman,Thaddeus Beecher, Henry Daggett, Ward 
Atwater, the Cowleses, of Farmington; Thomas 
Painter, of West Haven; Ebenezer Peck, Enos 
Monson, Phelps & Sanford, Kneeland Townsend, 
and Elihu Mix, who died at Honolulu in 1804 
on board the New Haven ship Triumph, of which 
he was part owner and supercargo. 

Memorable days in the history of New Haven 
were those on which the first sealers left our port 
for their long and perilous voyages, as well as those 
on which they returned home after their protracted 
absence. Sometimes the business of the place was 
almost wholly suspended, and a large part of the 
people gathered at the wharf to see the departure 
of the ships; to give their friends a good "send- 
off " and afterwards a ' ' welcome home. " 



The most famous of all those voyages was that of 
the Neptune. She was throughout a New Haven 
vessel, built at the Olive street ship-yard, measur- 
ing 350 tons, a " Great Eastern " for that day. She 
had an armament of twenty twelve-pounders, and 
a crew of forty-five young, active, sturdy New 
Haven County men. who generally belonged to 
respectable families ot the town and vicinity. One 
of them, Mr. Thomas Howell, had been graduated 
at Yale College but a few months before the ship 
sailed. He was a classmate of the late President 
Day and of Stephen Twining. Captain Greene's 
first officer was Mr. Leverett Griswold; Mr. Driggs, 
of Middletown, was surgeon; and Mr. Ebenezer 
Townsend, Jr., supercargo. 

Amidst the cheering of the citizens and the firing 
of cannon the sails of the Neptune were sheeted 
home, and with anchor weighed the ship sailed 
down the harbor, through the Sound, and was soon 
in the open sea, where a course was laid for the 
Falkland Islands, which were reached in due time. 
She remained there two weeks, and then steered for 
Cape Horn, which was soon doubled, and, for the 
first time, the Pacific was furrowed by the keel of a 
New Haven ship. Good fortune was found at the 
seal islands in collecting skins; and at Juan Fernan- 
dez several men were left, Thomas Howell being 
one, to collect and dry skins to fill another ship 
which the enterprising owner of the Neptune in- 
tended to send out the next year. 

Having obtained her cargo, the Neptune sailed 
to the Sandwich Islands, and thence to Canton, 
where the great price of three and one-half dollars 
each was received for the 80,000 skins which the 
ship contained. Three months were required to 
discharge and reload the vessel. Then she was 
placed upon the homeward course for New Haven, 
bearing 3,000 chests of tea; 54,000 pieces of nan- 
keens, costing §24,000; a large quantity of silks, 
and 547 boxes of China-ware. She reached her 
port in safety on the 14th of July, 1799, after a 
passage of six months and two days from Canton. 

The result of the vo3'age was most satisfactory, 
the profits astonishing even the shrewd projector 
himself — for Mr. Townsend received for his share 
one hundred thousand dollars, a vast sum in those 
days; the supercargo, son of the owner of the ship, 
received fifty thousand dollars; and all others in- 
terested had proportionate amounts. There were 
a considerable number who could say, " My ship 
has come in." Never was a vessel so heartily wel- 
comed here as was the Neptune after her voyage of 
nearly thirty months. 

A few days after her arrival, IMr. Green, the editor 
of the yo«/7w/, made the following report: 

Last Tluirsday arrived the ship Neptune, Captain Daniel 
(ireene, master, in six months from Canton. 

This ship is owned in New Haven and Hartford, and is 
richly laden with silks, teas, and nankeens. We do not 
recollect to have observed more general joy diffused among 
our citizens than on the return of this ship, with the captain 
and his crew, after an absence of two years and eight 
months. 

We join in congratulations to the owners, who are by this 
event receiving the just reward of honest enterprise; to 
friends and parents, whose hearts are gladdened at the re- 
turn of friends and sons from a long, tedious and hazardous 



500 



HISTORF OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



voyage: and to our citizens at large, on this first arrival ol 
so valuable an Indiaman. 

While we witness the general joy, we sincerely sympathize 
with the friends of Mr. Levcrolt Griswold, of this city, mate 
of the ship, who died on the homeward passage, a young 
man of very promising talents, aged twenty-three years. 

The same newspaper published, a few days later, 
tlie following communication, written doubtless by 
.\braham Bishop, the Collector of the Port, and 
given to the public a few months before the presi- 
dential election of 1800. We should now call it a 
"campaign document.'' 

Mr. Editor, — The ship Neptune, lately arrived from Can- 
ton, pays to the revenue of the United States about $75,000 
in duties. 

This sum is at least $20,000 more than the civil list tax of 
the whole State of Connecticut for any one year within the 
last ten years. 

These duties arise on teas, silks and nankeens. 

No man is obliged to buy either of these articles, and, of 
course, no man is compelled to pay any part of this sum. 

Now, I beg to ask the farmers of our neighborhood, if they 
have any just reason to oppose a Government which obtains 
its revenues from luxuries? On reflection, is it not a fact 
of importance, that a single ship should pay more taxes than 
the whole taxable property of Connecticut, which by our 
grand levy appears to be about six millions of dollars ? 

A. B. 

In the autumn of 1799 '''^ Neptune sailed again 
on a sealing voyage and returned in safety June 29, 
1801. She brought a cargo which paid $35,000 
duties; but the voyage was not a pecuniary profit, 
owing to the low price of the seal skins in Canton. 
The price of $3.50 each in 1798 was far the high- 
est ever paid to a New Haven ship. On the sec- 
ond voyage of the Neptune her 77,000 skins were 
sold for less than one dollar each. 

The first voyage of the Neptune caused several 
ships to be purchased and fitted out for the same 
purpose. The Oneida, commanded by Caleb 
Brintnall, sailed in October, 1799. She made the 
voyage and returned to this port June 17, 1801, 
bringing a cargo that paid duties to the amount of 
$27,540. Soon after the departure of the Oneida, 
the Betsy sailed, under the command of Captain 
William Howell. She was owned by Ebenezer 
Townsend and Captain Daniel Greene. They had 
purchased her in New York. She made the voy- 
age in about two years, and brought home a cargo 
of tea and silks which paid a duty of %^^, 135-74, 
the third largest ever paid in our district. 

I may say here that the largest amount of duty 
ever paid by a New Haven vessel on one cargo was 
that of the brig Ann. She arrived from Liverpool 
soon after the close of the war in 18 14, bringing a 
cargo of hardware only, consigneii to some fifty 
merchants residing in every part of the State. The 
duty amounted to $87,430.78. The ne.\t largest 
was that of the Neptune on her first sealing voyage, 
$75,000. The third was paid by the Betsy, in 1801, 
namely, more than $44,000. 

Several other ships were sent to the Pacific about 
the same time, and for the same purpose. They all 
returned in safety. This fact is highly creditable 
to the commanders; for they had only imperfect 
charts, and nautical instruments not far in advance 
of Drake's astrolabe. Yet they found their way 
through almost unknown seas around the world. 



The magnitude of the trade at that time between 
New Haven and China may be indicated by the 
fact that, in 1800, three ships, the Huron, the Hope 
and the Draper, paid into the depleted purse of 
Uncle Sam over $60,000 in duties. Our good 
Uncle gained more by the several China adventures 
than did any one else, except those who were inter- 
ested in the first voyage of the Neptune. 

Another of these sealers was the Sally, of 236 
tons and armed with twenty-four pounders, com- 
manded by Nathaniel Storer. She took 45,000 
fur seals and 8,350 hair seals. She found the Chi- 
nese market full of seal skins, and received only 
87A cents each. This was a great disappointment, 
for $3. 50 each had been expected. The master 
was obliged to make drafts at ruinous premiums 
on the owners in New Haven, and also on the 
Cowleses in Farmington, who were part owners. 
It is needless to say that the voyage was wholly un- 
successful. 

l\Iany houses and individuals had shares in these 
ships. The merchants of New Haven were not 
the only persons engaged in the enterprise. Hart- 
ford, Wethersfield, Middletown, East Haddam, 
Farmington, Derby, Litchfield, Mdford, Branford, 
Stratford, were largely interested in several of the 
earlier ships; so too were New London and Provi- 
dence. Thirty-six merchants in different parts of 
the State were owners of the cargo of tea and silks 
brought home in 1801 by the Sally. There were 
eleven owners of the cargo of the Betsy. The case 
was similar with other cargoes. 

This trade continued vigorously until 1 806, ani.1 
at intervals until the War of 18 12; but it was not, 
on the whole, remunerative. So many vessels 
were engageil in it from Salem, Providence, and 
Boston, as well as New Haven, as to fill the Canton 
market with seal-skins and reduce the price to a 
very low figure, and very soon these New England 
sealers nearly exterminated the seals. Only two 
or three of the New Haven ships made a second 
voyage. 

The last voyage of this kind was made in the 
Zephyr, soon after the War of 181 2. She w'as a 
beautiful ship of 330 tons, built at Middletown. 
whence she came to New Haven as soon as she was 
launched, to be fitted out for a sealer. She was 
commanded by that veteran navigator, Caleb Brint- 
nall, who made more voyages to the Pacific than 
any other New Haven ship-master of his day. In- 
terested in her were several New Haven and Provi- 
dence merchants, who had determined to make one 
more attempt at sealing in the Pacific. She carried 
twelve twelve-pounders, two large swivel guns, mus- 
kets, [likes, etc. She had a crew of thirty-seven men. 
They were young men of Connecticut. Most of 
them had seen service on some privateer or other. 
They hid shares in the venture, and were resolved 
that there should be no lack of hard work, care and 
watchfulness to make the voyage prosperous. 

The vessel was thoroughly equipped when she 
sailed from our port early in the morning of Oc- 
tober 25, 18 1 5, with many citizens at the pier-head 
to see her departure. 

She was a rapid sailer. When oft" Cape Saint 



COMMERCE. 



501 



Roque she was chased by a swift French man-of- 
war, but she made fourteen knots an hour by the 
log with wind abeam, and ran the Frenchman out 
of sight. 

Having entered the Pacific, the commander was 
greatly disappointed at finding no seals, though he 
\isited all the islands where in earlier years they 
were so abundant. He resolved to find them, and 
sailed into the Northern Pacific, carefully searching 
the (Jalapagos, the Gulf of California, Guadaloupe, 
and other islands. His search was vain. He then 
consulted his officers, and thereupon determined 
to find seals, as he said, if he had to search the Pa- 
cific from Cape Horn to the North Pole. He 
steered for Nootka Sound, then almost an unknown 
region — to New Haven navigators at least. 

Only a few days later the Zephyr encountered a 
tempest whose severity exceeded anything ever ex- 
perienced by those on board. After an unsuccess- 
ful effort to make headway against the gale, the ship 
was placed before it, and for nearly twenty-four 
hours the fury of the storm increased. Through- 
out the night and the following day the sea ran so 
high and the wind blew so violently that it was peril- 
ous for the sailors to attempt to reach the yards. 
Sails were blown into ribbons. The sea poured 
into the cabin through the doors and broken dead- 
lights. The men were all drenched, and it was 
impossible to keep a fire in the galleys. During 
the second night the gale continued to increase, 
and many of the crew gave themselves up as lost. 
To lighten the ship, several of her guns, spars and 
casks were with great difficulty and danger thrown 
overboard. The vessel was under bare poles, and 
no one could any longer live on deck unless lashed 
there. Thus, in that almost unknown sea, this New 
Haven vessel lay reeling, plunging, and half sub- 
merged in the volumes of water that filled and 
swept the decks. Morning came at last, but with 
it no abatement of the tempest. The wind now 
veered to the north, caught the ship at an unfor- 
tunate moment, and practically dismasted her. In 
that dismal plight she remained until the following 
day. The storm then abated; the sea fell; the sun 
came forth; the wreck was partially cleared; the 
fires were relighted in the galleys; jury masts were 
rigged; old sails were bent upon them; and in this 
forlorn condition the voyage to the North was 
abandoned, and the Zephyr was headed for the 
Sandwich Islands. It was seventy-two days after 
the disaster, and thirteen and a half months after 
leaving New Haven, that she brought her discour- 
aged and exhausted company to drop anchor in 
Kealakekua Bay, where Captain Cook had been 
murdered not many years before. 

The ship was there refitted, and became once 
more the showy cralt that had attracted so much 
attention while she was lying in our harbor. But 
she had now been absent nearly eighteen months at 
great expense and had earned not a dollar. The 
captain was desirous of retrieving the disastrous 
voyage, and made for this purpose what he con- 
sidered a very advantageous arrangement with the 
King of the Sandwich Islands. The latter, a parti- 
ally clothed savage, hired the Zephyr to cruise 



around his islands for one year, her master to rank 
as admiral, and for this service he agreed to give a 
very handsome consideration. The contract was 
signed, and for twelve months the Zephyr was con- 
stantly cruising around the Islands. There were 
bright expectations on board, for my venerable 
fiiend, to whom I am indebted for these details, and 
who was a lad on board of the Zephyr, informed 
me that the commander anticipated a sum large 
enough to mend a broken voyage, "but which," 
my friend added, "never was mended." 

The Hawaiian chief, at the time of Captain 
Brintnall's arrival, was fearing an attack from the 
warriors of a neighboring island. The reward 
promised to the captain of the Zephyr was sufficient 
sandal-wood to load the ship. This was a com- 
modity of great value in China. The quantity re- 
ceived was six and a half tons! The savage viola- 
ted his contract and paid almost nothing to Captain 
Brintnall for his arduous services throughout a 
whole year. In this breach of faith the king pur- 
sued a losing policy, for many of the American 
shipmasters who touched at the islands refrained 
for several years from making the customary pres- 
ents to him, being offended at his bad faith in his 
dealings with the captain of the Zephyr. 

When it became evident that no recompense was 
to be obtained from the king, the ship sailed for 
Canton, though she had no funds wherewith to 
purchase a cargo for New Haven. Consequently a 
freight was taken for a European port. Thence 
she sailed for Providence. She reached this latter 
place after a perilous passage, and an absence oi 
three years from America. 

The voyage was a signal failure, a very large sum 
of money having been lost in the venture. The 
seamen received little or nothing for their long and 
dangerous cruise. My respected informant told me 
that when his account was submitted to him he 
found himself indebted to the ship five dollars, but 
he was so desirous to reach home that he "argued 
not" (the debt, however, was forgiven him), but 
with his bag on his back he started on foot, and 
made good time in reaching New Haven. A few 
weeks thereafter he was again afloat. He has since, 
as owner and master of his ship, carried the Ameri- 
can ensign at his mast-head into most of the princi- 
pal ports of the world, and has done honor to his 
country, his State, and his native city, a worthy 
specimen of a New Haven shipmaster. 

With this voyage of the Zephyr ended all com- 
mercial intercourse between our city and China. 
Several of the ships which had been employed in 
that interest fell into the hands of the French and 
English cruisers in West Indian waters, some were 
sold in New York, and the Zephyr was eventually 
employed as a whaler, and was seen at New Bed- 
ford in a good state of preservation not many years 
since. 

Many pieces of blue and white china, as well as 
the plain white, having the initials of the original 
owners, to be found in some of the old houses of 
New Haven County, were brought here by the offi- 
cers and men who navigated the vessels known as 
the old "New Haven China ships." 



502 



HISTORV OF THE CITV OF NEW HA VEN. 



.\s related to the capture of seals, though some- 
what later, there was another maritime interest of 
New Haven to which I may here briefly allude. 
In 1820, a number of merchants interested in 
foreign commerce formed a company, though not 
incorporated, to prosecute whaling in the North 
Pacific. Two ships were purchased, the Henry and 
the Thames. They were fitted and sent out in 1822, 
and preparations were made to build other ships 
for the same purpose. Large quantities of ship- 
timber were brought from the adjacent country and 
deposited at Tomlinson's Wharf, the site since oc- 
cupied by Mr. Benedict's coal-yards, at the foot of 
Brewery street. The owners waited the return of their 
two ships before building others; and, sooner than 
expected, these vessels appeared in our harbor, filled 
with cargoes of oil and bone. But unfortunately 
for the enterprise, prices had fallen so low (to 
a point almost never reached before or since) that 
no profit was made. It became known that large 
fleets of whalers were fitting out at New London, 
New Bedford, and Stonington. The New Haven 
Company "feared that no whales would be left in 
the Pacific," abandoned the enterprise and sold the 
ships. 

It was the New Haven whaler Thames, Captain 
Crosby, that carried, on her way to the North Pacific, 
the second band of missionaries who left America 
for the Sandwich Islands. These pioneers of the 
Christian civilization of the Hawaiian kingdom 
took with them three natives of those islands who 
had been educated here. They embarked from 
Tomlinson's Wharf, December 19, 1822, and after 
a safe antl pleasant voyage reached their destination 
the ne.\t spring. The king, Kamehameha II, wrote 
the following welcome: 

C.vi'TAi.N Croshv, — Love to you. This is my comnmiiica- 
tioii to you. You have done well in bringini; hitlier the 
new teachers. You shall pay nothing on accoiuit of the 
harbor — nothing at all. ( Jrateful atTection to you. 

l.IHOLino loLANl. 

Perhaps the day of the sailing of "the Create 
.Shippe, " in 1645, was the only time in which our 
city has ever beheld such a manifestation of warm 
affection and kindly feeling as our people witnessed 
at the departure of these missionaries, who were 
leaving their country to toil lor many years, and 
perhaps for life, in educating the inhabitants of 
those far off isles of the sea. They were not sent 
away with benedictions only. The sum of one 
thousand three hundred and fifty-four dollars was 
given them for their use after landing; and abun- 
dant supplies of provisions and other necessaries 
were put in the ship for their relief and comfort 
(luring the long and dangerous voyage. The es- 
tablishment of tins Christian mission in the Sand- 
wich Islands is most intimately related to the 
foreign commerce of New Haven. It was Captain 
Brintnall who brought Henry Obookiah, in 1808, 
from the harbor of Kealakekua, where Captain 
James Cook was killed in 1771). Henry was a 
bright youth, and soon learned the object of Vale 
College, and was found one day sitting on the 
doorstep of one of its buildings weeping because 
he was nut able to acquire tlie knowledge there 



imparted. The next year Samuel J. Mills wrote 
from New Haven to Gordon Hall, and, in view of 
Obookiah's case, suggested that missionaries should 
be sent to those islands. Henry's friend and teacher, 
Mr. Edwin W. Dwight, of New Haven, became the 
principal of a school for the instruction of Haw'aiian 
youths and others of heathen birth. Five of the 
ten earliest pupils in his school at Cornwall were 
boys that had been brought from the Sandwich 
Islands. Subsequently the death and published 
memoir of Obookiah created a more general interest 
in those islands. Then came the offer of Hiram 
Bingham and Asa Thurston, students of theology, 
to commence a Christian mission there. Thurston 
was a graduate of Yale, famous for his athletic 
qualities and achievements, known to be, as Bing- 
ham also proved himself to be, well fitted to begin 
the work of turning the savage islanders into a 
Christian nation. So they and other Americans, 
with Hopu, Kanui, and Hanuri, three educated 
Hawaiians, were sent to the Pacific for this pur- 
pose in the autumn of 1819. Both Hopu and 
Kanui were brought to New Haven by Captain 
Brintnall at the same time that he brought Oboo- 
kiah. These young men were natives of difierent 
islands of the group, and were indebted to the 
commerce of New Haven for the most romantic 
and interesting parts of their voyage of life, from 
which issued not a few influences and events of im- 
portance. 

Retracing our steps to 1807, we find that the 
exports and imports of our district had been yearly 
increasing in value. For several years about that 
time the duties averaged $150,000 annually, and 
every year full one hundred foreign-bound vessels 
sailed from our port. The value of trade increased, 
in spite of the heavy losses by seizure and confis- 
cation of vessels and cargoes. 

This increase of trade caused improvements in 
the city, which then contained about 6,000 souls. 
New streets were opened and old ones widened 
and straightened. A contract was signed to make 
Long Wharf solid and continuous to the end. 
The Green was inclosed by a "neat wooden 
fence." Many new brick buildings were erected, 
the side-walks of the principal streets were paved, 
and on every hand were seen evidences of increas- 
ing wealth and culture. 

The foreign commerce of the United States was 
suddenly destroyed by an act of Congress of De- 
cember 22, 1807, establishing an embargo, and the 
consequent instructions given by President JetTer- 
son, January 7, 1808, to the officers of the revenue 
and the navy. Thus all foreign commerce was 
utterly prohibited, and all coastwise trade greatly 
restricted and embarrassed. 

The chief object of the embargo was to punish 
Great Britain for searching American vessels and 
impressing American seamen. This had been lione 
to such an extent, that in September, 1808, there 
were 3,218 American seamen forcibly detained in 
the Britisli navy. The-se were more than twice as 
many as the 1,425 employeil at the same time in 
the American navy. 



COMMERCE. 



603 



The makers of the embargo hoped that it would 
cause great distress in the British West India Islands, 
whose food came mainly from the United States, 
and that this distress would compel the British 
government to accede to the American demand, 
"that American vessels should forever be exempt 
from search by British cruisers." The hope was 
disappointed. The islands suffered, but this did 
not do away with the search. The islanders did 
something to supply their wants. All American 
vessels in those regions were seized and forced to 
land their cargoes. The number of these may be 
inferred from the fact that thirty one American 
vessels laden with flour and grain were lying in the 
Bay of Barbados when the news of our embargo 
was received there. They were all compelled to 
discharge their cargoes. Those islanders gave notice 
at once lo all our people that cargoes of provisions 
could be landed there free of all cost to the vessels 
taking them, and these provisions might be sold 
for the owners. Premiums were offered to those 
ship-masters who should bring the largest cargoes 
of bread-stuff's. In a word, nothing was left undone 
to induce American merchants to send supplies to 
the West Indies. Commanders of British naval 
vessels were ordered by their government not to in- 
terrupt American vessels laden with provisions, 
cattle or lumber, bound for any British port, and 
custom-house officers were required to overlook 
the fact should clearances and registers of Ameri- 
can vessels be irregular. 

These great and manifold inducements made not 
a few ship-owners eager to obtain the fabulous prices 
of the \^'est Indies for American cereals. In the 
early days of the embargo many vessels from North- 
ern ports succeded in getting to sea. Two brigan- 
tines from our city eluded President Jefferson's gun- 
boats, and sailed to the West Indies. They sold 
their cargoes of flour at St. Christopher's for S54 
per barrel, and made 550 per cent, profit. These 
two cases were New Haven's only ventures. The 
foreign commerce of the country was practically 
dead, and the coastwise navigation most dreadfully 
crippled. This was of course penury and starvation 
to many thousands of people, and the indignation 
of New York and New England was unspeakable, 
for in July, 1808, there were 666 American vessels 
shut up in New York to rest in idleness; in Boston, 
310; in Baltimore, 335; in Philadelphia, 190; in 
Portland, 187; in Newburyport, 160; and in New 
Haven, 78. 

The embargo soon caused great distress in our 
city. "Month after month passed away and not 
a sail was allowed to be unfurled in our lately cheer- 
ful and busy harbor. Not a ship was to be seen 
discharging her cargo at our wharves. The stores 
and warehouses of our merchants were well nigh 
deserted and empty. Their merchandise was value- 
less. The cheerful voice of the sailor and the ham- 
mer of the shipwright were to be heard no more. 
Their figures, as they scowled upon the wharves, 
or wandered listlessly along the streets, told too 
plainly that their occupation was at an end." 

The case was no better in some other places. In 
Salem, with a population of 9,560 persons, 1,200 



were daily fed at the public soup-house. The same 
thing was done in Portland as well as in our own 
town. 

There were few citizens of New Haven in 1807 
who were not either direcdy or indirectly dependent 
upon foreign commerce. About one hundred 
shipwrights were living in the place. Eighty-two 
vessels were engaged in trade with foreign lands. 
Thirty-two commercial houses in foreign trade were 
on Long Wharf and State street. It is no wonder, 
in view of the suffering caused by it, that the em- 
bargo was frequently called in the New Haven ver- 
nacular " the dambargo;" and it is not surprising 
that some of our merchants, having little or no 
•business, held in constrained and depressing idle- 
ness, fell into evil ways. But an increasing use of 
stimulants only caused a loss of ability to with- 
stand the depression. 

The general indignation found utterance in a 
town meeting, held August 20, 1808, of which 
Elizur Goodrich was the moderator. It was unani- 
mously voted thai Elias Shipman, Noah Webster, 
David Daggett, Jonathan IngersoU and Thomas 
Painter, Esquires, be a committee to prepare an 
address to President Jefterson, praying for a modi- 
fication or suspension of the embargo laws. This 
committee prepared a long and earnest appeal, 
which clearly set forth the evils of the embargo, 
and entreated the President to use the power vested 
in him by Congress for the purpose, and immedi- 
ately suspend the several laws imposing an embar- 
go. The President replied on the loth of Sep- 
tember, saying, that no one knew better than him- 
self the inconvenience caused by the embargo, but 
that the Legislature alone could prescribe the 
course to be pursued. 

The consequence was, that our ship-owners dis- 
mantled their vessels and laid them up to await 
the advent of more propitious times. ^Iany of our 
seamen went to the British Provinces and remained 
there until the embargo ceased. Others, who had 
families, remained and subsisted on the public 
charities. 

Governor Trumbull, the General Assembly of 
the State, and Mr. Hillhouse, our representative in 
Congress, all e.xerted themselves to the utmost to 
effect a repeal of the injurious and obno.xious Acts 
of the National Legislature. 

Early in 1809, the President proclaimed the em- 
bargo at an end, but announced that an act of non- 
intercourse would take effect on the 20th of May, 
by which British and French vessels would be shut 
out of American ports, and the laws of the embargo 
were to be observed until that day. 

By the loth of June the regulations of the new 
policy permitted a partial restoration of our com- 
merce, and vessels that had been a long time " laid 
up," were loosed from their moorings, taken to the 
wharves and outfitted for sea. The four rope-walks 
of the town were busy again. The numer- 
ous mechanical trades which are so intimately allied 
to navigation found employment once more. The 
farmers of the adjoining towns brought their 
staples, which were readily purchased. In a word, 
the wheels of industry moved. In one month after 



504 



HISTORy OF THE CITF OF NEW HA YEN. 



they were set free thirty-three vessels had been re- 
fitted, loaded, and sent to the Dutch and Swedish 
islands of the Caribbean, whence fast-sailing British 
and French schooners carried goods designed for 
the Windward Islands. Only a few months after 
our ships were released the American ensign was 
flying from the gaffs of New Haven vessels in the 
ports of Saint Petersburg, Cronstadt, Hamburg, 
Lisbon, Cadiz, Bordeaux, Liverpool, London, 
Cork, Madagascar, along the Spanish Main, and in 
the far distant ports of Paulo Penang, Batavia and 
Canton. Some of these vessels were carrying 
freight for New York merchants, but far the 
greater part were making their voyages under the 
direction of their New Haven owners. 

But the non-intercourse and non-importation 
acts caused great bitterness of feeling throughout 
Xew England. Though different from the em- 
bargo, they were galling shackles upon the limbs 
of commerce. They would not permit an Ameri- 
can vessel to sail for a British West India colony, 
nor a British vessel to bring the produce of the 
islands to an American port. Great Britain of 
course retaliated, and American ships could not re- 
ceive cargoes of the produce of British islands or 
colonies in any of those places, unless they had 
come there laden with the produce of the United 
States. It was not until I\Iay, 1810, that these op- 
pressive acts ceased to be enforced. 

As soon as they were once more free, New Haven 
ships were sent to the Windward Islands. There 
was great eagerness to see which of the numerous 
vessels in our harbor could be first made ready to 
proceed on a voyage. The ship Julius Ca-sar was 
the fortunate vessel, followed three hours later by 
the bark Maria, Captain James Goodrich. 

For the next two years our commerce with all 
the British West Indies was extensive, and generally 
successful. Many ship-owners, tempted by the 
enormously high prices paid for American produce 
in the blockaded ports of the French and the Dutch 
West Indies, endeavored under cover of night to 
run through the blockade. They succeeded in a 
few instances, but they often paid a heavy penalty, 
losing their vessels and cargoes by capture and con- 
fiscation. This was the fate of the fine new brig.s. 
Mercury, Julia, and Argo, of this port, all of which 
were captured the same day by the same frigate, 
sent to Jamaica, and confiscated, to the great loss 
of their owners. 

The autumn of 1810 brought the delightful news 
that the French Cjovernment had revoked the Berlin 
and Milan decrees, which had caused the loss of 
many New Haven vessels. This repeal increased 
our foreign commerce. Our merchants became 
owners of vessels of larger dimensions than those 
of earlier days. Many new ships were built here, 
and others were purchased elsewhere and brought 
to our port for registry. 

The "Derby Fishing Company" was organized 
January 15, 1807, with a capital of $50,000. This 
was soon increased to ,$200,000, the increase being 
allotted in shares of $25 each. The stock was 
owned in New Haven and Derby. Several New 
Haven men were directors, Mr. Ebenezer Town- 



send being the most prominent. The Company 
fished on the Newfoundland Banks, took the fish 
to Europe and the West Indies, and brought home 
the products of those countries. -Several of its ves- 
sels sailed regularly to Lisbon and to ports in the 
Mediterranean, returning to New Haven with car- 
goes of wine, oil and salt. The Company used 
the latter in preparing its fish. 

The duties which it paid for several years were 
equal to those paid by the three largest houses of 
the port. Among its handsome vessels were the 
Victor, Naugatuck (which disappeared at sea), 
Charles, Housatonic, Lark, Sally, Patriot, Derby, 
and Keziah. This latter ship, in 18 10, brought 
sixty Irish emigrants to New Haven direct from 
Belfast. 

After a few years of prosperity the tide ebbed. 
Several of the ships were lost at sea, others were 
seized and sold by the British and the French, goods 
were sold to men who could not pay for them, and 
in the summer of 181 5 the Company failed. Dur- 
ing its first years its Directors voted its President a 
salary of $1,500 a year. Their vote made it, the 
last year, six and a quarter cents ! 

■On the 4th of April, 181 2, President Madison 
laid an embargo on all vessels for ninety days, un- 
der a penalty of twenty thousand dollars for each 
vessel that sailed to any foreign port. Soon after 
came rumors that war between the United States 
and Great Britain was probable. Our merchants 
were among the earliest to order their ships to re- 
turn home with such cargoes as they could obtain 
in the ports where they chanced to be. One ninety- 
ton brig brought from Saint Martin's gin and sugar 
only. Several New Haven vessels brought from 
West India ports exceedingly valuable cargoes. 

The declaration of war was made by the Presi- 
dent, June 19, 18 1 2. The Governors of Pennsyl- 
vania, New York, and most of the New England 
States issued proclamations and appointed days of 
fasting and prayer. A few of our ship-owners ven- 
tured to send their vessels to the French West In- 
dies; but commerce generally ceased. Several of 
the smaller vessels were taken up Dragon River as 
far as North Haven for safety, and there dismantled. 

There were more than six hundred seamen then 
living in New Haven. Some of them entered the 
navy; some manned privateers, fitted out here and 
elsewhere ; and others formed themselves into a 
company known as the " Ring- Bolt (Juard, " 
which did good service in assisting to build the rude 
fortifications on Beacon Hill. A few had charge 
of the Block House at the extreme end of the pier, 
and some were on the gun-boats that patrolled the 
lower part of our harbor at night to prevent the 
patriotic citizens of our town from carrying supplies 
to the British squadron blockading the Sound at its 
entrance. 

As soon as the war began, the cruisers and pri- 
vateers of both nations swarmed on our coast. In 
the first three months of it the British seized one 
lunnlretl and eighty-five vessels. They sent 109 to 
Halifax and Bermuda, burned 22 at sea, lost 7 at 
sea, released n, and had 14 retaken by Americans. 
Only four of all these were New Haven vessels. 



COMMERCE. 



505 



During the same three months our countrymen 
captured precisely the same number of British ves- 
sels (185). Of these 116 were sent into American 
ports; some of them were exceedingly valuable 
prizes. 

Several privateers sailed from New Haven, but 
they generally came home poorer then they went 
out. Among these privateers were the Quinnipiac, 
Saucy Talk, Teazer, Wasp and Actress. The 
Actress was commanded by John Lumsden, cap- 
tured by the Spartan, and sent to Halifax. The 
Holkar came here from New York under command 
of Captain Rowland, in order to enlist sixty men to 
complete her crew of one hundred and sixty. These 
were soon selected and shipped from New Haven 
and the adjoining towns. This privateer made 
many captures, but none of great value. From 
one she set free two hundred convict women bound 
to Botany Bay. She was at length captured by the 
Romulus and sent to St. Helena. The Sabine was 
manned in large part by New Haven sailors, and 
did good service. She captured the Countess of 
Harcourt in the British Channel, off Dover — one of 
the most valuable prizes captured during the war. 
A part of the crew of the Sabine rowed in a whale 
boat all the way from Charleston, S. C, to New 
York. 

Soon after the war began, the British government 
gave notice that neutral vessels might enter certain 
blockaded ports of the United States. New Haven 
■was one of these ports, and for several months 
Spanish, Swedish, Portuguese, Norwegian and even 
Russian vessels crowded into our harbor. They 
all came from the West Indies, except a few from 
Lisbon. Many of them were British and some 
American vessels in disguise. This so-called neu- 
tral trade was so extensive, that in one day, July 10, 
1813, sixteen foreign ships entered and twenty 
cleared at this port. 

This trade soon attracted the attention of Presi- 
dent Madison, and on the 20th of July he sent to 
Congress a confidential message recommending an 
embargo. The House approved of it by a vote of 
eighty to fifty. It failed in the Senate. The vote 
was sixteen to eighteen. 

This attempt to destroy all trade with foreign 
countries roused New England, and caused the 
celebrated "Hartford Convention," which met on 
the 15th of December, 1814. Its aims were for- 
merly supposed by some persons to be treasonable, 
or at least unpatriotic. But this charge was not 
brought against Isaac Hull, a New Haven County 
man, whose exploits, as commander of the Con- 
stitution, have never ceased to be the subject of 
history and song. Some of the choicest treasures 
of the New Haven Colony Historical Society are 
various articles that were formerly the personal 
property of the famous commodore. 

Many interesting events sprang from the war and 
the blockade, and the movements of privateers and 
other vessels in those perilous times. Such, for 
example, was the capture of the New Haven packet 
Susan, Captain John Miles, by the British brig 
Dispatch, and the fruitless attempt to recover her 
by the Eagle, Captain Lee. 



There was much suffering in New Haven, espe- 
cially during the winter of 18 14-15, on the part of 
many of those who had been dependent on the sea 
for their livelihood; but relief came on the 13th of 
February, 181 5, with the welcome news that a 
treaty of peace between Great Britain and the 
United States had been signed at Ghent on the 
24th of December, 1814, and that it had been 
ratified on the 30th of the same month by the 
Prince Regent. The treaty was extremely gratify- 
ing in America and most unpopular in Great Brit- 
ain. Within an hour after the news reached New 
Haven the church bells were rung; cannon were 
soon fired on the Green; at night the illumination 
of the city was complete — there was not a house 
without its candle at every window — and the re- 
joicings extended in many ways for nearly a 
week. 

The return of peace was a priceless benefit to the 
people generally; but it caused so sudden a depre- 
ciation of prices that many commercial houses 
were swept away by the rapid ebb. Tea fell a dol- 
lar a pound in one day, sugar from twenty-six and 
a half to twelve cents a pound, tin from $80 to 
$25 per box, and specie from twenty-two per cent, 
to two per cent, premium. United States six per 
cent, stocks rose from seventy-six to eighty-eight 
per cent., and bank shares throughout the country 
in similar measure. 

Many of our New Haven merchants had consid- 
erable stocks of imported goods; but nearly all 
maintained their credit, and speedily made prepa- 
rations for renewing their relations with foreign 
ports. 

There was a recurrence of the activity which fol- 
lowed the repeal of the embargo and non-inter- 
course acts. Ships were brought from their moor- 
ings. Twenty-four sea-going vessels were taken to 
the wharf in one day, and many of them were 
quickly sent on voyages to various ports of Europe, 
the West Indies, and the Southern Slates of our 
own country. 

Various restrictions, hindrances, discriminations 
and needless burdens to commerce were main- 
tained by the Governments of Great Britain and the 
United States for several years after the war. In- 
deed these unwise hostilities did not cease until 
the latter part of the year 1830. But commerce in 
the main resumed its way. 

Before closing this chapter, it may be proper to re- 
call the names of the men who were engaged in 
the foreign commerce of New Haven during those 
troublous times, and employed more than one 
hundred ships, whose keels furrowed every sea on 
their peaceful missions, and furnished the means of 
livelihood to many hundreds of American seamen 
and their families. Prominent among these mer- 
chants and shipowners of our city were 



Elnathan Atwater. 
Ward Atwater. 
Walter Buddington. 
John C. Bush. 
Bradley & Mulford. 



Kidston & Bishop. 
Samuel Langdon. 
Birdseye Norton. 
Aaron N. Ogden. 
Thomas Painter. 



From this period (18 15) till the present, the for- 
eign commerce of New Haven has steadily in- 



506 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



creased, and the capital now invested in ships and 
trade with foreign countries is greater than at any 
time in the history of our city. Much of the com- 
merce is transacted through New York, but the 
capital is owned and kept here. 

Among the merchants who have been engaged 
in foreign commerce since the war with England 
in 1S15, are the following, most of whom have 
been interested with the various West India Islands 
and South America. 

Armstrong Brothers. Samuel Palmer. 

P. P. Avery & Son. Ebeuezer Peck. 

Henry Beecher. Gad Peck. 

J. A. Bishop. Peck Brothers. 

Timothy Bishop. Anthony PeriL 

James Clark. Frank G. Phipps. 

Toseph N. Clarke. Enos A. Prescott. 

Eben 11. CoMins. Harry Prescott. 

Samuel Coll is. Prescott & Sherman. 

Henrv Dagtrett. Elihu Sanford. 

Lockwood UeForest. William Sheffield. 

Shipman & Dennison. N. F. Thompson. 

R. M. Everitt. Isaac Tomlinson. 

Jehiel Forbes. Gilbert Totten. 

Samuel Forbes. Theron Towner. 

N. H. Gaston. Caleb A. Townsend. 

James Goodrich. Ebenczer Townsend. 

Ammi Harrison. William Townsend. 

Justus Harrison. VVm. & Wm. B. Townsend. 

Abram Heaton. Henry Trowbridge. 

James Henry. Stephen Trowbridge. 

Simeon Hoadley. H. Trowbridge's Sons. 

Elias Hotchkiss. H. Trowbridge's Sons & 
Ezra Hotchkiss. Dwight. 

Russell Hotchkiss. Smith Tattle. 

WilHam S. Hotchkiss. Samuel Ward. 

Hotchkiss Brothers. Thomas & Henry Ward. 

Hull & Foote. Noah Whecdon. 

Frederick Hunt. Chauncey Whittlesey. 

James Hunt. Thomas Woodward. 

The coastwise commerce consists chiefly in 
bringing lumber and other building materials from 
Maine and from the Western and Southern States, 
and, since the change from wood to anthracite for 
the production of heat, in conveying to our wharves 



the coal with which we warm our dwellings and 
drive the machines in our shops. 

The lumber interest of New Haven is of great 
magnitude, and to prosecute it recjuires a large 
amount of capital. The timber is brought here 
from our own and Dominion ports, and occupation 
is given to a large fleet of vessels. Many houses are 
engaged in the trade, some of whom have for many 
years been importing all descriptions of lumber. 

Of all the articles of domestic commerce, no 
one item is as great in value, and none gives so 
much employment to vessels as coal; and though 
the rates of freight are low, still large and expensive 
vessels are constantly built to bring the immense 
quantity required for consumption in and about 
New Haven. 

Not many years ago, a cargo of 1 50 tons of coal 
was called a good sized shipment. Now one can 
see cargoes of 1,500 tons discharging from the 
ships at the various docks about our water front. 
The total importation of this article is not far from 
a million tons yearly. 

Other importations are, rags in large quantities 
from Egypt; salt from Spain and the West Indies; 
plaster from Nova Scotia; iron, hardware, carriage- 
makers' materials, and other commodities from 
England. 

As before stated, the commerce of our port is in 
a very satisfactory condition, and will doubtless 
continue to increase. The Government is doing a 
great work in deepening the harbor channel, and 
in the splendid system of breakwaters which are 
now in course of construction near the mouth of 
the harbor; and the thanks of our people are due 
in a great measure to the unceasing efibrts of our 
enterprising townsman, Charles H. Townshend, who, 
having seen the splendid results brought about in 
European harbors by this system of breakwater, has 
done good service by interesting the Government 
authorities in the New Haven harbor. 



BIOGRAPHIES, 



THOMAS RUTHERFORD TROWBRIDGE 

bears the names of two of the primitive settlers of 
New Haven Colony^ — Thomas Trowbridge and 
Henry Rutherford. Born in this city on July 17, 
1 8 10, he completed his education at Partridge's 
Military Academy at Middletown, Conn., and then 
entered the counting-house of his father, the late 
Henry Trowbridge. 

From that period (1826) till the present (1886), 
over si.xty years, Mr. Trowbridge has been, with 
the exception of occasional absences in the West 
Indies and elsewhere, always at his office in the 
unpretentious hereditary counting-room of " The 
Trowbridges on Long Wharf " He is emphatic- 
ally a merchant, of far-seeing and wide views, and 
though large and important interests in other direc- 
tions demand much of his time, he still prosecutes 
extensive commerce with the various West India 
Islands in company with his sons and grandsons. 



Mr. Trowbridge has often been obliged to de- 
cline positions of high trust in his State and City, 
contenting himself with his own affairs and the 
numerous family trusts which he has guarded for 
many years. 

His record during the War of the Rebellion is 
an enviable one. He was a friend of the soldier 
and of the soldiers' families, always ready to respond 
to the constant calls upon his purse and sympa- 
thies. 

It was at his suggestion that the Mechanics' 
Bank (of which he has been a valued Director for 
many years) tendered the use of $50,000 to Gov- 
ernor Buckingham when the days were dark and 
the Union in danger. 

HENRY TROWBRIDGE. 

was the second son of Henry and Harriet (Hayes) 
Trowbridge, and was born in New Haven April 
22,1816. 



Ss.-^. 




•''^•nlei-son Cnsan'i *"-'""' 



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'^'-br 








7 



#^/-^^ 





^^ 



COMMERCE. 



507 



During his minority he entered his fathers' count- 
ing-house, and on becoming of age was admit- 
ted as a partner in the house of H. Trowbridge, 
Son & Dwight, a house largely and prosperously 
engaged in the West India trade. 

On the dissolution of that firm, by the withdrawal 
of Mr. Dwight in 1847, he became a member of 
the house of H. Trowbridge it Sons, who succeeded 
to the business of the older firm, and, in 1849, on 
the death of his father, he and his three brothers 
established the firm of H. Trowbridge's Sons. He 
continued an active partner in this firm until his 
death, May 28, 1883. 

His well-earned reputation for sagacity, integrity 
and practical efficiency, led him to various positions 
of trust and distinction in social life. For forty- 
five years he was a director (fifteen of which he 
was vice-president) of the New Haven Bank, and 
both in the Town and City of New Haven he was 
called, from time to time, to places of active and 
more or less responsible service. 

He united himself with the First Church in New 
Haven, May 31, 1840, by a public profession of 
his religious faith, and continued a loyal and active 
member of this church till his death. 

In more private life he was gentle and quiet in 
manners, sympathetic and genial in his companion- 
ship, and eminently domestic in his preferences 
and habits. 

He was twice married. His first wife was Miss 
Mary W. Southgate, a granddaughter of Noah 
Webster. The children of this marriage were five 
daughters, and one son who died in early boyhood. 
His second wife was I\Iiss Sarah C. Hull, daughter 
of Edward Hull, Jr., of Brooklyn, N. Y. Of her 
three children, but one (a son) survived his father. 
In memory of the other two, a son and daughter, 
he founded the Reference Librar\' in the Theolog- 
ical Department of Yale College, a hint for which 
he obtained from observing a somewhat similar in- 
stitution in England. 

This tribute of parental affection well illustrates 
the general tone and tenor of his life, and attests 
his habits of quick and appreciative observation, 
his practical forecasting judgment, his elevated 
taste, and his Christian beneficence. It has thus 
most undesignedly, yet most fitly, become a lasting 
monument of his personal character and worth. 

EZEKIEL HAYES TROWBRIDGE. 

Among the representative and successful business 
men of New Haven, none better deserves a notice 
than Ezekiel Ha3'es Trowbridge. 

He was the third son of Henry and Harriet 
(Hayes) Trowbridge, and was born in New Haven 
April 21, 1 8 18, and has always resided in that 
city. 

At an early age he entered the counting-house of 
his father, who was engaged in the West India 
trade, and there received his first ideas of business, 
and was by him instructed in those high principles 
of integrity, honor, and thoroughness of e.xecution 
which have ever characterized him. He learned 
that to be successful as a merchant it was neces- 



sary to master thoroughly the details, as well as the 
general principles, of business, and has always had 
before him the motto, that "Whatever is worth 
doing is worth doing well," and has acted up to 
this principle. 

At the age of nineteen he was sent to the West 
Indies to familiarize himself with that part of the 
business, taking with him a full power of attorney 
from the house to transact important matters in- 
trusted to him. On arriving at his majority he 
was admitted as a partner into the firm of H. 
Trowbridge, Sons & Dwight, afterwards H. Trow- 
bridge & Sons; and, on the death of his father, in 
1 849, the firm of H. Trowbridge's Sons was formed 
by his three brothers, Thomas R., Henry, Winston 
J., and himself 

An active member of the firm, he pursued the 
business, an eminently successful one, with all the 
ardor and energy which a man of strong constitu- 
tion, great determination, hopeful temperament, 
and a mature judgment could do. He remained 
an active partner until May i, 1885, when, owing 
to the death of his brother Henry two years pre- 
viously, and to the multiplicity of his private aftairs 
requiring his personal attention, he, with his only 
surviving son, E. Hayes Trowbridge, Jr., retired 
from the business. 

Although devoting himself with untiring energy 
and ability to the best interests of the firm, he has 
been called into many positions of trust, being 
largely interested in railroads, banks, and other 
corporations. 

In 1855, he, with others, organized the Elm 
City Bank of this city, now the Second National, 
and has been and still is, an active and influential 
Director in that most successful institution. He is 
a Director in the New York, New Haven and Hart- 
ford Railroad Company, which position he has held 
for the past twenty years, and by his far-sighted 
judgment has been of great service to that large 
corporation, as well as to the other organizations 
comprising its system, in each of which he still re- 
mains a director. He is Yice-President of the 
Shore Line Railroad Company, and holds oflicial 
positions in other corporations, where his business 
sagacity and wise counsel have been beneficial to 
their successful advancement. 

In the execution of all these important public 
and private trusts his ardent zeal for success has 
always been regulated and controlled by his most 
scrupulous regard for honest and honorable man- 
agement. 

Mr. Trowbridge married, June, 23, 1840, Sarah 
A., daughter of Zelotes and Eliza Atwater Day of 
this city, of good New England ancestry. "They 
have had five children. 

He is a loyal member of the First Congregational 
Church, which he joined in 1842, and is a liberal 
contributor to charitable objects. 

In politics he has always been a Whig and Re- 
publican, never seeking or holding political office, 
and was a stanch supporter of the Government by 
act and pecuniary aid during the Rebellion. 

Mr. Trowbridge is a man of domestic tastes, 
social in his disposition, positive in his character, 



508 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



warm in his friendships, careful and considerate in 
his dealings, and successful financially. 

ELIHU LEONARD MIX, 

the son of Elihu and Nancy (Attwater) Mix, was 
born in New Haven on the 14th of May, 1807, and 
was baptized in the Centre Church as Leonard 
Mix. 

In the following winter, on January 16, 1808, 
Mr. Elihu Mix died suddenly at the Sandwich 
Islands, while he was the supercargo and part 
owner of the New Haven sealing ship Triumph. 
It is supposed that he was poisoned in revenge for 
the interest that he had taken in bringing two na- 
tives to this country to be educated. These men, 
Henry Obookiah and Thomas Hooper, came, how- 
ever, to the United States in the ship Triumph, 
were trained in our schools, and the latter, Thomas 
Hooper, returned to the Sandwich Islands with the 
first missionaries in 1819. Henry Obookiah died 
while a member of the Mission School at Cornwall, 
Conn. 

After his father's unfortunate fate, the boy Leon- 
ard received the additional name of Elihu, in com- 
memoration of the parent thus suddenly taken from 
him. He obtained an education at the Hopkins 
Grammar School, and at the Lutheran Academy at 
Nazareth, Penn. 

When fifteen years of age he began his long mer- 
cantile career in the capacity of a clerk in New Ha- 
ven, but after three years he removed to New York 
and entered the employ of Eli Hart & Co. This 
firm was largely interested in the Western commis- 
sion business and controlled a large trade in flour. 
When the Erie Canal was completed in 1826, they 
established the line of tow-boats or barges on the 
Hudson River which superseded the large Albany 
sloops. One of the elalsorate ceremonies that sig- 
nalized the final opening of the Erie Canal, was the 
bringing of a barrel of Lake Erie water from Buf- 
falo to New York, and the mingling of that water 
with the briny waves of old ocean. This barrel of 
water was carried from New York City to Sandy 
Hook on board the ship Hamlet, of which Mr. 
Mix's brother was commander and part owner. As 
one of the assistants in these solemn festivities, Mr. 
Mix received an ajipropriate medal, neatly inclosed 
in a cedar box, and this interesting token is still in 
his possession. 

In June, 1825, soon after entering the service of 
Eli Hart & Co., Mr. ISIix was transacting some 
business for his employer at the Mechanics' Bank 
in Wall street, and was paid, by mistake, one thou- 
sand dollars too much. This sum he promptly re- 
turned, and, in acknowledgment of his unwavering 
integrity, the cashier of the bank, Archibald Craig, 
gave him a gold medal suitably inscribed — a valu- 
able testimonial to an act of rectitude. Soon after 
the power of attorney for his employer was given 
him, which he retained until he went into business 
on his own account. Mr. Hart became his firm 
friend and always assisted him greatly. 

While he was still a clerk for E. Hart & Co. the 
New York "flour riot" of 1830 occurred. That 



firm was holding a large quantity of flour for the 
millers of Rochester, when the mob, angered by 
the effort to raise its price, broke into their store- 
house situated in Washington street, near Cort- 
landt, and rolled hundreds of barrels out into 
the street. There they were broken open and the 
flour carried away. The tumult was quelled only 
when the military were ordered out, but the city 
was obliged to pay for the loss sustained. 

May 5, 1829, Mr. Mix married Miss Ann Maria 
Barney, daughter of Captain William Barney, of this 
city. Captain Barney was in business in Peru, and 
therefore when Mr. Mix became interested in for- 
eign commerce his attention was naturally called 
to South America. Close application to his in- 
creasing and prosperous business so impaired his 
health that he was constrained to seek the benefit 
of a sea vo3-age for himself. Purchasing and freight- 
ing the bark Express, he sailed for the Pacific. 
The captain disliking to double the Horn, deemed 
it advisable to pass through the Straits of Magel- 
lan. When off Port Famine, in the Straits, they 
observed the flag of Chili flying on shore, and 
stopped to exchange civilities with the commander 
of the post. It was a penal settlement which had just 
been established by the Chilian government, and 
the Express was the first foreign vessel to discover 
its existence. The passage through the Straits was 
slow and perilous. Finally, at the Western en- 
trance, near Cape Monday, they anchored for the 
night. At midnight a terrible gale arose, and on 
the next morning, April 30, 1844, the ship parted 
both anchors and drifted upon the rocky shore. In 
a narrow passage between two rocks she stuck fast, 
and there she left her timbers. Mr. Mix and his 
men escaped to shore; built a house under the 
shelter of the rocks; secured the provisions and 
cargo from the wreck and prepared to spend the win- 
ter. The Chilian commander at Port Famine, on 
information of the misfortune, sent six soldiers to 
Mr. Mix as a guard against Indians, with the ad- 
vice to shoot any natives who came near. This 
summary policy Mr. Mix refused to adopt, but 
when the Fuegians stole the axes and tools with 
which he was building a boat, he chased them to 
their village and captured a number of their women, 
in return for whom the Indians were glad to sur- 
render the missing property. After several months 
Mr. Mix was taken on board a Chilian transport, 
and was eventually landed at Valparaiso, from 
whence he made his way to Lima. Mr. Pickett, 
the U. S. Minister to Peru, made him the bearer of 
despatches to the United States Government, and 
Mr. Mix returned home via Panama. 

Landing at Savannah he proceeded to Washing- 
ton and delivered his despatches to Hon. John C. 
Calhoun, and then returned to New York. He 
reached home on tlie last day of the year 1844, and 
was welcomed as one restored from the dead. 
Subsequently Mr. Mix re-engaged in business in 
New York City in the Western trade, and steadily 
followed his vocation with honor and success 
through a period of twenty-five years. In 1868 he 
retired finally from business, having obtained a well- 
earned competence, and maintaining through all 




,?'.■' V, 



* 






"il 



I 



i 



COMMERCE. 



509 



his life that which is better than riches, a good 
name. 

In 1864 he made a summer residence of the 
Stone Cottage at Westville, the ancestral property 
of his wife, having been built in the last century. 
When he threw business cares entirely aside he de- 
termined to make this his permanent home, and 
there he has since remained, a venerable citizen, 
honored by the community, still watching with all 
interest the unexampled growth of our national in- 
dustries, which he knew in their infancy, and which 
he has labored all his life long to promote. 

In 1830 Mr. Mix became an attendant at St. 
Thomas' Church in New York, where Dr. Hawks 
was the rector, and upon Mr. Mix's return from 
South America he was elected a vestryman. For 
fifteen years, until he removed from the city, he 
shared in the continual prosperity of that church 
and contributed thereto; and when its new and 
costly edifice, at Fifth avenue and Fifty-third street, 
was consecrated in 1883, Mr. Mix was present, the 
only surviving member of the old St. Thomas' Ves- 
try. Both before and after the removal of the 
church from its old to its new home, Mr. Mix was 
the Treasurer of the Church Society. He was also 
for fifteen years one of the Wardens and Vestrymen 
of St. James' Church at Westville, but finally re- 
turned with his family to worship at Trinity Church, 
where, in former years, both his wife and himself 
had been confirmed. 

Mrs. Mix died at her home in Westville, Decem- 
ber I, 1 88 1. For fifty-two years she had walked side 
by side with her husband, and had borne him ten 
children, of whom four died in infancy, and one, 
Elihu, Jr., attained to man's estate, and died at 
Lambayeque, Peru, where he was the United States 
Consul. 

Mr. Mix was for many years a Director in the 
Hanover Fire Insurance Company of New York, 
one of the companies which bore the brunt of the 
losses by the great fires of Boston and Chicago. In 
many other corporate enterprises he has taken an 
active interest. He has also been able to travel for 
pleasure, as well as for business, and while in Eu- 
rope with his family was admitted to an audience 
with Pope Pius IX, and was particularly pleased 
with the benignant bearing of His Holiness. 

He has now in his possession a most interesting 
relic of colonial times, a silver quart tankard, which 
has long borne the name of "The Attwater Tank- 
ard." It has been handed down as an heirloom 
from generation to generation, and is, by custom, 
always retained by the eldest of the family. Thus 
Mr. Mix inherits it from his grandfather, Thomas 
Attwater. In his boyhood days the Attwater 
tankard was always brought out at Thanksgiving 
and Christmas time, filled with flip, and passed 
around from mouth to mouth. Family tradition 
has sought to derive the origin of this tankard from 
a mysterious treasure-trove of silver concealed in a 
keg of nails. The nails were supposed to have been 
bought in Boston in the latter part of the seven- 
teenth century, and used in the erection of the Att- 
water homestead in Fleet, now State, street, where 
the Attwater Block now stands. It is certain that, 



at a later day, a member of the same family, Mr. 
Jeremiah Attwater, did find a sum of silver money 
in the middle of a keg of nails, and gave a portion 
of it by will, in 1732, to procure a baptismal font 
for the Centre Church. 

Mr. Mix's mercantile career has been a most 
eventful one. He is a survivor of the old-time race 
of traders w'ho sent the United States merchant 
marine into every sea, and covered two oceans 
with the stars and stripes. His commercial interests 
were not only local, but international. His deal- 
ings, whether at home or abroad, have been scru- 
pulously exact and prompt. Quickly observant 
and steadily persistent, he has accomplished well 
his life-work, and has been w-ise enough to devote 
his later years to the rest and relaxation which he 
has richly deserved. 

RICHARD MANSFIELD EVERIT 

is descended on his father's side from one of the 
earliest settlers of Long Island, in the defense of 
which his grandfather was engaged in the War of 
the Revolution, and was taken prisoner. On 
his mother's side he is descended from Richard 
Mansfield, who came to New Haven in 1639, and 
was a man of prominence in the colony. 

The subject of this record was born April 9, 
1824, on what is now Grand street, a short distance 
east of the Barnesville or Mill River Bridge, on the 
property which for several generations was owned 
by his maternal ancestors, from whom, in marrying 
into the family, his father purchased it. Like nearly 
all the New Haven boys of the time, he attended 
the Lancasterian School, under John E. Lovell, until 
about twelve years of age, when for a while he was 
a pupil of S. A. Thomas, on the corner of Wooster 
and Olive streets, but completed his school educa- 
tion at the Fair Haven Academy, an excellent in- 
stitution, under Joshua Pearl. 

He prepared for college, but being taken sick at 
the time for entering, he was prevented from so 
doing, and instead entered upon a business career. 
On February i, 1841, he began as a clerk, under 
the late Charles H. Oaks, at the corner of George 
and State streets, with whom he remained nearly 
five years, during the last of which he w^as sent to 
the West Indies for the first time. On his return 
he was employed by the brothers Nathan, Wyllis, 
and Henry E. Peck, and acted as their agent for 
three years, when, in connection with J. A. Bishop, 
he made his first venture on his own account. 
Altogether he passed seven winters in succession in 
the islands, where then, as now, nearly all the for- 
eign trade of New Haven was concentrated. 

Early in 1851 he became associated with Russell, 
Henry O., and Edward Hotchkiss, who succeeded 
their father on Long Wharf, and embarked in a 
little schooner of 98 tons for Brazil, to see what 
could be done there in the way of business. At 
Para, on the Amazon, then a place little known to 
Americans, he remained eighteen months, and fully 
established a trade there, which was the means of 
introducing into that region for the first time many 
articles of American growth and production that 



510 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



before were wholly unknown. The spirit of mer- 
cantile enterprise and sagacity thus illustrated is 
most admirable. 

Soon after returning from Brazil, he became a 
partner in the house, under the firm name of 
Hotchkiss Brothers k Co., which continued until 
i860, when, desiring a larger field for commercial 
operations than New Haven afforded, and for other 
reasons, he went to New York, where with Charles 
P. Burdett, who was engaged in a like business, 
and whose partner had just died, he formed a co- 
partnership under the name of Burdett & Everit, 
■which lasted for nine years, during which their bus- 
iness not only with Brazil, but with the West In- 
dies and Europe, was constantly increasing, and 
became large and profitable. 

In 1869, in the full tide of prosperity, Mr. Everit, 
at the early age of 45, retired from business, solely 
in consequence of impaired health. He returned 
to his native city. New Haven, and made for him- 
self a beautiful home, a fine residence with ample 
and handsomely laid out grounds. This is on a 
level plateau, on the east side of Whitney avenue 
(No. 281), only half a mile distant and in full and 
grand view of the precipitous front of East Rock, 
the park itself extending nearly to his grounds. 
With health greatly restored, Mr. Everit lives to 
enjoy the esteem and respect in a marked degree 
of all those with whom he has been associated in 
his business life; and not only this, but he is ever 
a pleasant thought in the minds of many for his 
numerous acts of kindness and charity. 

His parents were Richard, born in New York, 
December 23, 1772, died in New Haven, March 
4, 1863, and Sarah (Mansfield) Everit, born April 
4, 1791, died July 23, 1875. Their children are 
Richard M. (the subject of this record), William 
Lyon, and ]NIary Mercein, wife of John H. Coley, 
now of Emporia, Kan. 

On February 5, 1861, he then being in his thirty- 
si.xth year, Mr. Everit married Miss Mary Talman 
Lawrence, daughter of Watson E. , of New York, 
and Augusta Alaria (Nicoll) Lawrence, of New 
Haven. They have four children living: Richard 
Lawrence, Arthur Mansfield, Annie Coley, and Ed- 
ward Hotchkiss. 



HARRY PRESCOTT 

is a native of New Haven, and was born February 
13, 181 1, the son of Enos A. and IVIary (Carring- 
ton) Prescott. His father throughout his life was 
a shipping merchant on Long Wharf. 

Harry attended school under Leonard A. Dag- 
gett, in the Glebe Building, and was then sent to 
the Military Academy at ^liddletown, under Cap- 
tain Allen Partridge. In 1827 he went into his 
father's business on Long Wharf, where he has con- 
tinued to the present day. 

Mr. Prescott entered the shipping trade the same 
time as Thomas R.Trowbridge, and they alone sur- 
vive of the Long Wharf merchants of that day. 

The shipping business of New Haven is now 
carried on with ports in Europe, South America, 
the Gulf of Me.xico — as New Orleans and Galveston 
— and the West Indies. There is also at the same 
time an extensive coasting and domestic trade. The 
Cuban freights are in sugar and molasses, brought 
us in return for coal and cooperage mostly carried 
out. Lumber and cotton enter into the Gulf trade, 
with ice, coal and railroad iron. In sickly seasons 
northern ports are alone called at. 

The New Haven trading craft are sailing vessels, 
mostly three-masted schooners. Mr. Prescott is 
interested in some nine of them. 

While the foreign trade of New Haven with the 
West Indies has fallen off as compared with early 
days, having been transferred to New York, the 
domestic and coasting traffic has increased, and the 
tonnage of the port is greater than ever before. 

In connection with his business he has visited 
most of the trading ports of our coast, and traveled 
extensively through the British provinces. 

He married, in 1S32, Mary Ann P. Wilcox, 
daughter of Alvan Wilcox, of New Haven. They 
have one child, Minnie O., the wife of Dennis 
Beach, residing in New York. Mrs. Prescott died in 
May, 1880, after a married life of forty-eight years. 

Mr. Prescott has always been a man of quiet, do- 
mestic habits, fond of his own fireside, and content 
with its happy retirement. No man to-day has been 
longer and more intimately identified with the ship- 
ping business of New Haven. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

TRAFFIC— WHOLESALE AND RETAIL. 



AS one looks back upon the history of trade in 
New Haven, he cannot fail to observe that there 
has been in some respects great improvement in its 
morals. President Dwight testifies that in his day it 
was conducted in a manner fair and honorable. 
" A trick in trade," he says, "is rarely heard of, 
and when mentioned, awakens alike surprise and 
indignation." But though merchants may have 
been as honest in Dr. Dwight's generation, and in the 
generations which preceded him, as they now are, 
one is astonished to see with what unconsciousness 
of wrong they sold intoxicants, lottery tickets, and 



human beings. Reform had indeed commenced 
before Dr. Dwight came to the presidency of the 
College in 1795. His predecessor, before his elec- 
tion to the presidential chair, had been the pastor 
of a church in Newport, Rhode Island, and when 
invited to send a venture in one of the vessels trad- 
ing between that flourishing sea-port and the coast 
of Africa, had bought and sent out a barrel of rum. 
He was to receive in return whatever his friend the 
supercargo should chance to acquire in barter. 
When the ship returneil, the supercargo brought to 
his reverend pastor a negro boy as the avails of 



mar; 

rrinj. 
eiiic 



mto 
Cap- 
)kis 

con- 

ane 



;nca. 
Son 
ame 
The 



ilk 




^ye 



( 




t 



TRAFFIC. 



511 



his venture. It does not appear, though perhaps 

it might appear if we could question the negro boy, 
that any person discovered any wrong in the trans- 
action. The supercargo was accustomed to the 
slave trade, and the clergyman knew that his par- 
ishioners were engaged in it. Mr. Stiles' first 
thought that any wrong had been done, came into 
his mind one day when going into his kitchen and 
hearing Newport, for so he called this new mem- 
ber of his Iiousehold, sobbing, he inquired what 
was the cause of his grief, and learned that the boy 
was thinking of his mother. From that hour Stiles 
was a converted man, repenting of his own par- 
ticipation in the wrong, and laboring for the aboli- 
tion of the slave trade. After his removal to New 
Haven, he co-operated with other gentlemen like- 
minded in establishing " The Connecticut Society 
for the Promotion of Freedom and the Relief of 
Persons Unlawfully Held in Bondage," and was 
the first president of that society. 

A little digression may perhaps be allowed here 
to give a few remarks about this boy, whom 
Stiles named Newport. He came with his master 
to New Haven and remained here till his death, 
surviving Dr. Stiles many years. One of the anec- 
dotes which President Day, who graduated at the 
next Commencement after the death of President 
Stiles, used to relate was, that in his Freshman year 
he was one day walking behind President Stiles, 
and heard him tell a gentleman with whom he was 
walking, that he wished he were as sure of heaven 
for himself as he was for Newport. But Newport, 
though so saintly in his character, and so respon- 
sive to a mother's love, had in him a well of fun 
which sometimes bubbled on the Lord's day. 
Many years after Mr. Day had heard Newport 
commended by Dr. Stiles, and after he had him- 
self become one of the dignitaries of the College, 
he was on his way to the almshouse on a Sunday 
afternoon, probably to conduct a service of worship 
with the inmates, when he was overtaken by Dr. 
Skinner, the constable, who had a lock-up at the 
almshouse. As the two walked together they must 
needs go by Newport's house, who seeing them 
approach went out to the gate, and as they were 
passing, said to the constable in a stage whisper, 
" Whom are you taking to the lock-up now? " 

New Haven never imported slaves from the coast 
of Africa, but the files of the Connecikut jfimrnal 
show that the sale of negroes was as common as 
the sale of other domestic animals. A few ex- 
amples of the many advertisements of such mer- 
chandise may be seen in our chapter on the Peri- 
odical Press. 

The mention of Dr. Stiles' venture, by means of 
which he became a slaveholder, suggests that a 
change has taken place in public sentiment in re- 
gard to the traffic in into.xicants as well as in re- 
gard to the slave trade. No conscientious person 
would now send a barrel of rum to the coast of 
Africa to be bartered for any kind of merchandise, 
however legitimate the possession of it might be if 
legitimately acquired. 

A similar change has taken place in regard to 
lotteries. At the beginning of the present century 



the most respected men in New Haven bought and 
sold lottery tickets. A very common way of pro- 
moting a public work was by procuring authority 
from the Legislature to issue a scheme for collect- 
ing money and distributing, by a wheel of chance, 
some portion of the sum collected, to a few of the 
contributors. Thus bridges, wharves, churches and 
academies were erected. Lotteries helped to build 
the Long Wharf Two schemes were granted to 
the Episcopal Academy in Cheshire, and that there 
might be no sectarian exclusiveness, a gentleman who 
was a member of the oldest Congregational Church 
in New Haven, and not long afterward an officer 
in the same church, served as one of the managers. 
On the record book of the First Ecclesiastical So- 
ciety is this memorandum: 

New Haven, Janu.iry 28, 1791. 
The number (5514) of a ticket in Boston .State Lottery, 
given to the First Society by Mr. Charles Chauncey, Mr. 
James llillhouse. Doctor Leverett Hubbard, Mr. James Rice, 
and Thomas Howell. The above ticket drew eight dollars, 
which netted seven; which seven is put into the Wharf Lot- 
tery stock, and [is] with Mr. James Rice, Nos. 10401 and 
10402. 

A great change has taken place also in the mode 
in which traffic is carried on, by reason of the con- 
stantly increasing subdivision of traders into classes, 
each confining itself to a narrow line of goods and 
relinquishing to other classes everything out of its 
line. Within a few years there has indeed been a 
reaction toward the methods pursued a century ago, 
and necessarily continued 'oy the country merchant 
of to-day. A few large shops, whose staple is dry 
goods, have added books, crockery, tin-ware and 
miscellanies to their stock, so that one is reminded 
of a sign-board which in the second decade of this 
century astonished the children who passed through 
Chapel street with the announcement; "Almost 
everything bought and sold here." 

Another change in the methods of traffic consists 
in the more frequent employment of middle-men 
or brokers. The writer has found but a single in- 
stance in which a broker offers his services in the 
Connecticut Journal before the beginning of the 
nineteenth century. The issue of December, 1784, 
contains the following advertisement: 

William Carter, Broker and Auctioneer, has removed to 
the store of Mr. Stephen Allen [Ailing ?] near the head of 
the Long Wharf in Fleet street in New Haven, where any 
person wanting to purchase houses or lands, and any person 
wanting to sell the same, or wanting to buy, sell or charter 
vessels, or any kind of commodity bought or sold, or any 
kind of business transacted in New York, Qiay apply and 
have their names and the business they want transacted, 
entered in a book kept for that purpose; and they may be 
assured no pains and attention will be wanting to complete 
their wishes as soon as possible. Several houses, lands and 
convenient places for building in this city are now offered 
for sale; the terms may be known by applying at said store, 
Likewise any kind of goods will be received and sold at 
vendue. The sales in futm-e will be on Monday and Thurs- 
day of every week. 

New H.wen, 29th November, 1784. 

It is not known that Mr. Carter's venture was 
successful, or that he became a permanent resident 
in New Haven. More likely he was incited by the 
activity attending upon the close of hostilities with 
Great Britain to hope for New Haven,as others did, 



5ia 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



a rapidity of growth too great to become real. We 
do not hear anything further of brokers during the 
eighteenth century; and during the first quarter of 
the present century sales and exchanges of property 
were usually effected, if at all, without the media- 
tion of a third party. 

At present there are in New Haven two classes 
of middle-men, who may properly be called brokers, 
viz., dealers in real estate and dealers in stocks and 
bonds. Sales of merchandise seldom or never take 
place in our city otherwise than by direct traffic be- 
tween the buyer and the seller, and other forms of 
brokerage well known in the greater marts of trade 
have not appeared among us. Often the line is 
not as sharply drawn between one kind of broker- 
age and another as in a larger city, the same dealer 
negotiating a loan to be secured by mortgage, or 
undertaking to sell, as his instructions may re- 
quire. 

One of the earliest brokers in New Haven was 
Joel Walter, who had an office in the Glebe Build- 
ing, his residence Iseing on the corner of Temple 
and Crown streets, in the house afterward occupied 
by Amasa Porter. It is believed that he was en- 
gaged in this business as early as 1820. Nearly 
contemporary with him was a man named Turner, 
sometimes called Dr. Turner. He is described by 
a correspondent as a tall, large man, using a cane 
like a setting-pole. He lived in College street, and 
was intimate with Hanover Barney, William Hill- 
house, and Mr. Gilbert, of Hamden Plains. Robert 
McNutt, a native of Ireland and a book agent, liv- 
ing in Hughes lane and afterward in Olive street, 
is said to have done some curbstone brokerage. 
Elihu IMonson, an auctioneer, is also mentioned 
as a negotiator. The three last mentioned were, 
so far as the writer has ascertained, peripatetic 
brokers, displaying no sign-board or advertisement 
of their business. 

Lucius Atwater, a man with one leg amputated, 
had a broker's office in Church street in a one-story 
building, where Alfred Walker afterward had a large 
repository of furniture, and retired from that busi- 
ness into brokerage, and where Rlassena Clark still 
has an office for brokerage. Mr. Atwater was also 
a dealer in lottery tickets. 

About 1825, Henry Eld commenced business as 
a broker, and followed it to the end of his life. His 
residence was at Cedar Hill, in a cottage standing 
near an extensive grove of pine trees, which have 
now disappeared before the woodman's axe. His 
place of business was in Church street. Contem- 
porary with him was Jonathan Hillcr, who, coming 
to New Haven as a journeyman carriage-maker, 
afterward engaged in the book trade and then in 
brokerage. He resided in College street and had 
an office in Chapel street. 

Samuel Wadsworth, a bookbinder and bookseller 
on the south side of Chapel street, gradually worked 
his way into brokerage. Afier he left the book 
trade, his office was in Dwight Building, now Board- 
man Building, corner of Chapel and State streets. 
As weaUh increased and bank facilities were more 
freely offered, loans and purchases and sales of real 
estate were more and more etfected through brok- 



ers, whose ranks were recruited by elderly men re- 
tiring from more active and exhausting pursuits 
to the comparative quiet and ease of a sedentary 
life. 

With these preliminary remarks on the changes 
of method which have taken place, we proceed to 
sketch the present condition of traffic in New 
Haven, both wholesale and retail. 

Agricultural Tools and Supplies. 

The agricultural warehouse of Robert B. Bradley 
& Co., 406 and 408 State street, and 77, 79 and 81 
Court street, was founded by the present proprietor, 
Robert B.Bradley,in 1858. The premises consist of 
a four-story brick building, 40 by 1 1 5 feet in dimen- 
sions, with an annex in the rear. The stock of 
agricultural and horticultural implements embraces 
the best and most improved tools for farmers and 
gardeners. This firm has the exclusive sale of a 
number of patented agricultural implements, and 
in the extent of its trade is the most extensive 
establishment of its kind in the city. 

Builders' Supplies. 

The Morgan Humiston Company was organized 
in 1 88 1 with a capital stock of $10,000, and suc- 
ceeded to the business established by the firm of 
Bowman & Co., in 1870. This Company deals, at 
wholesale and retail, in doors, sashes, blinds, mold- 
ings, paints and window-glass, occupying the 
premises 146 and 148 State street, consisting of a 
four-story brick building 25 by 75 feet in dimen- 
sions. Their goods are manufactured in the 
southern part of the State of New Hampshire. 
Frederick J. Morgan is President of the Company. 
The business of the house extends all over the 
State. 

Carpets. 

The largest and oldest carpet-house in New 
Haven is that of H. B. Armstrong & Co. This bus- 
iness was founded in 1842 by the Foster Brothers, 
and was continued by them until 1877, when the 
present firm succeeded to the plant, since which 
time the facilities of the house have been largely in- 
creased. The premises consist of two buildings, 
one on Chapel street, 40 by 165 feet, and one on 
Orange street 50 by 400 feet, each having four 
floors. H. B. Armstrong, the sole proprietor of 
this house, is a native and life-long resident of 
New Haven. 

The business of the firm of H. W. Foster & 
Co., dealers in carpets and mattings, was estab- 
lished in 1847 by Marble & Foster. In 1877, 
H. W. Foster succeeded to the business, and con- 
ducted it alone until S. R. Hemingway became a 
partner, under the present firm name. This store 
is located at 72 Orange street. 

H. B. Perry, dealer in carpets, oil-cloth and paper- 
hangings, 914 Chapel street, began business in 1870, 
as successor of Sherman Smith, who started in a 
similar line in i860. 



TRAFFIC. 



513 



Coal. 

Anthracite coal was first introduced into this city 
in 1827, by Harrison & Reynolds, who were the 
ao'cnts for its sale. Much ridicule was cast upon the 
agents who had the sale of it. It was not believed 
it would burn. It was first used in the Tontine 
Hotel and burned in grates.* It was several years 
after this date before coal began to be very exten; 
sively used. At the present time there are nu- 
merous firms and individals engaged in the coal 
traffic. 

About the middle of this century, the firm of T. 
Benedict & Co. were the largest dealers. They were 
the predecessors of the present firm of Benedict, 
Pardee k Co. The latter firm was organized in 
1870. They deal in coal wholly by the cargo, and 
represent one of the largest coal jobbing houses in 
New England. The individual members of the 
firm are H. H. Benedict, F. W. Pardee and G. E. 
Maltby, all of whom are residents of New Haven 
and closely idendfied with its commercial pros- 
perity. 

Alonzo A. Townsend first embarked in the coal 
trade in 1866, as a member of the firm of E. E. 
Downs & Co. For a number of years William A. 
Briggs was associated with him, under the firm 
■name of Townsend & Briggs. For about a year 
Mr. Townsend has conducted the business alone. 
His trade is mostly confined to supplying private 
families with coal and wood. His office is located 
at 114 Church street; yard, 145 Long Wharf 

The firm of Benedict & Co., composed of George 
W. L. Benedict, Frank W. Benedict, and George 
T. Bradley, represents one of the substantial coal 
and wood firms in the city. Their office is located 
at 80 Church street; yard, 112 Water street. 

The firm of F. A. & D. R. Ailing, wholesale and 
retail merchants, was formed in 1877, and succeed- 
ed to the business established in 1866 by Case k 
Ailing. Their yards are located on East street, and 
consist of store-houses, shed, and wharf, covering 
an area of 200 by 125 feet. 

In 1864, the present coal and wood business of 
Enos S. Kimberly was established by the firm of 
Kimberly & Goodrich, who were succeeded by the 
present proprietor in 1S81. 

Drugs. 

Drug stores did not e.xist as a separate and dis- 
tinct branch of trade before the era of the American 
Revolution. Benedict Arnold was a druggist in 
New Haven, and his sign is still displayed in the 
rooms of the Historical Society. But he also kept 
a general assortment of West India goods, and oc- 
casionally made a voyage to the islands to replenish 
his stock. His store was at one time on Chapel 
street, fronting the Green; at another time near the 
corner of George and Church streets; and still later 
on East Water street. 

From an early period there was a drug store in 
Chapel street, a little east of College street. Before 



* Mr. Joseph L. Deming states that his mother, the widow 
Deming, was one of the first to try the stone coal. 
65 



of Oliver 



the Revoludon it was kept by Dr.Leverett Hubbard. 
He was succeeded by Dr. David Atwater, who was 
killed at the battle of Cumpo Hill,in 1777, fighting 
as a volunteer. Dr. John Goodrich then conducted 
the business dll, in 1793, he sold out to Dr. 
Joseph Darling, who continued it for a quarter of 
a century or more. In 181 2, Dr. Darling erected, 
in place of the old building in which his predeces- 
sors had sold drugs, the substantial brick building 
in which are now the quarters of the University 
Club. Dr. Samuel Darling, a brother of Joseph, 
had a drug store in State street, nearly opposite 
Cherry street. Dr. Obadiah Hotchkiss started a 
drug store in Chapel street, nearly opposite Miles' 
Tavern. Advertisements of drugs for sale near or 
at the same place by Dr. Hezekiah Beardsley are 
e.xtant, and probably Dr. Beardsley preceded Dr. 
Hotchkiss at the same stand. The business was 
continued after Dr. Hotchkiss' death by his son, 
Lewis Hotchkiss. 

An organized effort to secure uniformity in the 
manner of putting up prescripdons was made in 
New Haven in 1821, by a number of physicians, 
who formed a company and opened what has been 
from that time to the present known as Apothecaries' 
Hall. They employed Isaac Beers, a son of Deacon 
Nathan Beers, to manage the business. Apothe- 
caries' Hall was controlled by the physicians who 
insdtuted it for a dozen years or more, when it 
was sold to Samuel Noyes, who conducted it for 
himself till 1880, when E. A. Gesner became the 
proprietor. Apothecaries' Hall was first located a 
few doors from its present place, but was afterward 
removed to Exchange Building. In 1861 it was 
again removed, and settled in its present place. 

Mr. Gesner, the present proprietor of Apothe- 
caries' Hall, began the drug business as clerk for 
J. H. Klock, with whom he remained twelve 
years, after which he commenced business for him- 
self in partnership with Klock. This partnership 
continued for five years, when he sold his interest 
to his partner and bought a drug store under the 
Elliot House, which had been begun by Alfred 
Daggett. Here Mr. Gesner remained for three 
years, when he purchased Apothecaries' Hall. 

Among the early druggists were M. A. Durand, 
Lucius K. Dow, Augustus Lines, Alonzo Wood, 
Booth & Bromham, and Luman Cowles. Probably 
the oldest living druggist not now engaged in the 
business is David Smith. The oldest druggist at 
present carrying on the business is James Olmstead, 
who commenced in 1843, on the corner of York 
and Broadway. 

The drug store of J. H. Klock, corner of Chapel 
and Church, represents one of the oldest pharmacies 
in the city. Here S. E. Gorham carried on busi- 
ness for several years, with whom Mr. Klock com- 
menced as clerk in 1849. Mr. Gorham sold out 
to Wilkins & Eager, of whom Mr. Klock after- 
wards purchased. 

The pharmacy of C. B. Whitdesey was established 
by D. H. Ely in 1840. George N. Seagrave suc- 
ceeded to Mr. Ely in 1841, and C. B. Whittlesey 
to D. H. Ely in 1845. Under Dr. Whitdesey's 
management a wholesale department was added, 



514 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NE W HA VEN. 



while the retail business was largely developed. 
Since his death, in 177S, the business has been 
conducted by his family. 

The house of Cowles iS: Leete was established in 
March, 1 849. the names of the partners being Luman 
Cowles and Charles S. Leete. Mr. Cowles died in 
December, 1872, and Mr. Leete has since, with the 
exception of very brief partnerships, conducted the 
business alone. Both wholesale and retail depart- 
ments are included. 

In 1885 a wholesale drug business was com- 
menced in State street by Francis & Hewitt, which 
in 1886 passed into the hands of Mr. Hewitt, under 
the firm name of E. Hewitt and Co. 

W. A. Spalding has carried on the drug business 
at 89 Church street since 1874. He has been en- 
gaged in this business for twenty years, first at Pitts- 
field, Mass., and then at Waterbury, from which 
place he removed to New Haven. 

Henry S. Higby opened a pharmacy in 1881, at 
the corner of Chapel and York streets, removing 
from Milford, where he had been in the same busi- 
ness for fourteen years. 

In 1875, C. B. Storer opened a drug store at 10 
Park street, and in 1878 removed to his present 
place, 99 Di.xwell avenue. Mr. Storer is a native 
of New Haven, and served an apprenticeship with 
Dr. V. M. Dow. He is a member of the Connecti- 
cut Pharmaceutical Society. 

Willis Benedict has been established for several 
years as a druggist at 303 Congress avenue, corner 
of Howard avenue. He is a native of New Haven 
and served his country for three years as a soldier 
in the war for the preservation of the Union. 

Henry M. Bishop commenced the drug business 
in i860, on the corner of State and Bradley streets, 
where he remained until 1874, when he removed to 
his present location, 890 State street. 

William L. Everit, Jr., commenced the drug 
business on the corner of Orange and Grove streets 
in 1883. He had previously been employed as 
clerk in drug stores in this city for eight years. Mr. 
Everit is a member of the New Haven Pharmaceut- 
ical Society. He was born in Akron, Ohio, and 
came to New Haven in 1865, where he has since 
resided. 

Dry Goods. 

A. C. Wilcox is the oldest dealer in dry goods 
in the city. The firm of which he is the senior 
member was established by him in 1835. 

The dry goods house of Bolton & Neely, 
represents one of the laregst concerns in this line of 
trade in the city. It was established by Edward 
Malley in 1852, and conducted by him until 1882, 
when William Neely became a partner, under the 
firm name of E. Malley & Co., and continued as 
such until 1883, when the business was purchased 
by Samuel Bolton and William Neely, and has 
since been conducted under the present firm name. 
Mr. Bolton came from New York in 1880, and 
opened a new dry goods store as a member of the 
firm of Brown, Bolton & Co. He disposed of his 
interest to the present firm of F. M. Brown A Co. 
previous to his connection with Bolton & Neely. 



The dry goods house of E. INI. Brown & C 
was established in 1 S80, and is now composed 
F. M. Brown and D. .S. Gamble. They carry , 
larger assortment of silks and dress goods than ai i 
other retail store in the Slate. 

The dry goods house of Monson & Carpent 
was founded in 1852, and has been continued at tl 
same location, 764 and 768 Chapel street, ev 
since. The original proprietors were Leonard Wii 
ship and Samuel E. Barney, under the firm name 
Winship & Barney. They were succeeded in 1 86 
by Charles Monson and Daniel L. Carpenter, ui 
der the present firm name of Monson & Carpente 
which remained unchanged, when, in 1884, Charh 
M. Walker became a member of the firm, 
specialty of their trade is dress goods and silk: 
Messrs. Monson & Carpenter have been identifie 
with the dry goods trade since 1853, the forme 
having been employed for a number of years by th 
firm of Winship & Barney, and the latter by R. i 
J. M. Rice. 

The firm of J. N. Adam & Co., jobbers and re 
tailers of dry goods, commenced business in thi 
city in 1874, in stores 886 and 888 Chapel street 
They were succeeded June i, 1886, by Stephen A 
Howe and John G. Stetson, under the firm name 
of Howe & Stetson. 

Willis Hemingway, dry goods merchant and mer- 
chant tailor, commenced as clerk for R. Rowe A 
Co. in 1834. They conducted a similar business on 
the corner of Grand and South Quinnipiac streets. 
At the same location Mr. Hemingway commenced 
business for himself in 184 1, and has continued it 
ever since. He is now at the head of the oldest 
mercantile house on Grand street. 

Crockery and Glass-ware. 



In 1 85 1, E. S. Minor opened a crockery and 
glass-ware store in New Haven, which he continued 
untrl 187S, when he was succeeded by his son, 
Alfred W. Minor, who is still engaged in the busi- 
ness at 51 Church street. His establishment is one 
of the largest in the city. 

The wholesale crockery store of Charles G. Kim- 
berly, 232 and 234 State street, was founded in 
1876. His store comprises a commodious building 
containing five floors and a basement, 25 by 80 
feet in dimensions. A number of traveling salesmen 
are employed, representing the interest of the house, 
the trade of which extends thoroughout this and 
adjoining States. 

George W. Robinson, importer and jobber of 
crockery, glass and china-ware, 90 Church street, 
established his present business in 1876. A specialty 
of his trade is hotel and restaurant outfits. 

Fish. 

The firm of A. Foot & Co., dealers in fish, 353 
State street, composed of A. Foot, Lozelle Foot, 
and A. Kelsey Jones, was founded in 1857 by A. 
Foot. In 1867 the firm was formed as at present 
constituted. They are the largest dealers in fish, 
clams, oysters and lobsters in the city. 



TRAFFIC. 



515 



own i c 



Wcany 



"ai)en|i 



Elford and Elliott Bradley, under the firm name 
of Bradley Brothers, have carried on the meat, fish 
and vej!;etable business since 1865. They were lo- 
cated for fourteen years a few doors above their 
present place, 24 Grand street, and for a short time 
on the opposite side of the street. In 1880 they 
moved to their present location. They also sell 
milk, keeping their own cows for the purpose, raise 
most of their vegetables, and slaughter their own 
beef. 

Flour, Feed and Grain. 

Among the large dealers in flour, feed, hay and 
grain, is the firm of D. B. Crittenden & Co., 156 
and 158 State street, and no Congress avenue. 
This house was established in 1834 by D. B. Crit- 
tenden. In 1879, Abner Hendee became a partner, 
under the present firm name. Their main ware- 
house is located on State street. The Congress 
avenue store is more especially devoted to retail 
trade. 

The firm of N. W. Merwin &. Co., wholesale 
flour, feed, and grain merchants, was formed in 
1859. ^' is composed of N. W. Merwin and J. T. 
Fitch. They occupy a four-story building, 60 by 
40 feet in dimensions, at 178 and iSo State street, 
and I, 3 and 5, George street. Both members of 
this firm are life-long residents of New Haven, and 
closely allied with the growth and prosperity of the 
city. Their trade extends thoroughout the State. 

The wholesale flour dealers, S. D. Miller & Co., 
commenced business in 1S62. At present the firm 
is located at 1 5 Custom House square. They carry 
a full stock of the best brands, including wheat, 
rye, Graham and corn flour, and oat and corn- 
meal. Their trade e.xtends thoroughout the State, 
and is also largely local. Mr. Miller has been a 
resident of New Haven for nearly forty years. 

Edward Boyhan, dealer in grain, flour and feed, 
521 to 525 Grand street, established his present 
business at 529 Grand street in 1868. In 1885 he 
erected his present building. Besides flour, feed 
and grain, hay and straw are dealt in. Mr. Boyhan 
was born in Ireland, and emigrated to this country 
in 1849, since which date he has resided in New 
Haven, where he has built up a successful business. 

The firm of Smith & Fowler, flour, grain and 
feed dealers, composed of F. M. Smith and W. .S. 
Fowler, was formed in 1880. They conduct their 
business at 361 Congress avenue. 

Fruit. 

Henry R. Loomis has been engaged in the whole- 
sale fruit business in this city since 1874. At pres- 
ent he is located at 134 Olive street. He deals in 
foreign and domestic fruits and vegetables. Mr. 
Loomis was born in Hartford in 1842, and has re- 
sided in New Haven since 1844. During the Re- 
bellion he served with Company E, 165th New York 
Volunteers, in the second battalion of Duryea's 
Zouaves. Since the war he has been conspicuously 
identified with the State Militia, and at present is 
Lieutenant-Colonel of the Second Regiment, Con- 
necticut National Guard. 



J. D. Bradley has been for the last ten years one 
of the largest retail fruit dealers in the city. He is 
located at 930 Chapel street. 

Groceries. 

The wholesale grocery house of J. D. Dewell & 
Co., located at 235 to 239 State street, was estab- 
lished in 1850, near the present house, by Nathan 
T. and Cornelius S. Bushnell, under the firm name 
of Bushnell & Co. Cornelius S. Bushnell afterward 
retired, when J. D. Dewell became a partner, under 
the firm name of Bushnell & Dewell. The present 
firm came in possession in 1877. Four entire floors 
and a basement, each 60 by 90 feet in dimensions, 
are occupied as salesrooms and warehouse. A gen- 
eral line of staple and fancy groceries are dealt 
in, a specialty being made of flour and salt. Their 
trade e.xtends over this and adjoining States. Six- 
teen employees, including seven traveling salesmen, 
are required in the transaction of their business. 
The individual members of the firm are J. D. Dew- 
ell and F. C. Bushnell, long identified with the 
commercial interests of the city. 

The firm of Yale, Bryan & Co., now one of the 
oldest wholesale grocery houses in the State, is lo- 
cated at 105 to III State street. It commenced 
business in the fall of 1857, under the firm name 
of Stout, Yale & Co., at No. 55 State street, opposite 
the old passenger depot, the individual members 
of the firm being Jerome L. Stout, Edward P.Yale, 
and Lucius R. Finch. Within two years Mr. 
Finch sold his interest in the business to Mr. 
Edward Bryan, the firm name remaining the same. 
Soon after they moved into the new Sheffield Block, 
153 and 155 State street, where Mr. Stout retired 
from the firm at the end of two years, and they 
changed the title to Yale & Bryan. They built up 
a large trade at this stand, and continued in the 
same store for a term of about twenty years, and 
then moved into the new building, owned and built 
by the firm, where they are now doing a very large 
trade, under the firm name of Yale, Bryan & Co. , 
the individual members being E. P. Yale, Edward 
Bryan, R. J. Miner, and S. H. Read. The diflTer- 
ent branches of their business are now divided 
among the four partners, and with special railroad 
facilities, steam engine, elevators, etc., they are able 
to compete with any Eastern house in the same 
line. Their trade lies principally in Connecticut and 
Massachusetts. They are the sole agents for several 
of the largest flouring mills in the West, and make 
a specialty of coff'ees, teas, and canned goods, corn, 
salt, molasses, etc. 

Among the largest wholesale grocery houses in 
New Haven is that of Stoddard, Kimberly & Co., 
306 to 312 State street, established in 1825 by Eze- 
kiel Gilbert. He was succeeded by his son, Lucius 
Gilbert. In 1865, E. G. Stoddard, of the present 
firm, became associated with Mr. Gilbert as a part- 
ner, under the firm name of Lucius Gilbert & Co. 
This partnership continued for three years, when 
Mr. Stoddard purchased the entire business and 
managed it alone until 1875, when C. P. Merwin 
became a partner, under the firm name of E. G. 



516 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



Stoddard & Co. Three years later A. H. Kimberly, 
of the present firm, became a partner. Mr. Mer- 
win retired in 1882, and in 1884 the firm as at 
present constituted was formed, composed of E. 
G. Stoddard, A. H. Kimberly, and C. B. Stoddard. 
Their large premises, consisting of a four-story 
building, 40 by 100 feet in dimensions, are wholly 
devoted to their business. They sell a general line 
of groceries, a specialty being made of flour and 
molasses, the latter commodity being imported 
from Porto Rico. Several thousand hogsheads are 
annually sold. Their yearly sale of flour amounts 
to from fifty to si.xty thousand barrels. Four travel- 
ing salesmen are employed, their journeys being 
confined mostly to this State, but large quantities 
of molasses are also sold in the States of New York 
and Massachusetts. 

The second oldest wholesale and retail grocery 
house in New Haven, still conducted by the orig- 
inal proprietors, is that of Johnson & Brother, who 
established at their present location, 411 and 413 
State street, corner of Court, in 1861. They oc- 
cupy the first floor, cellar and basement of the 
building referred to, which is 100 by 24 feet in di- 
mensions. Flour is largely dealt in and forms an 
important element in this trade, while the stock of 
fancy and staple groceries in their variety and qual- 
ity is excelled by no other house in the city. 

The firm of Amos F. Barnes & Co., wholesale 
grocers, 293 and 295 State street, was established 
in 1 84 1, under the firm name of Finch & Barnes. 
From 1855 to 1869, Amos F. Barnes conducted the 
business alone, under his own name. At the latter 
date his son, Thomas Altwater Barnes, became a 
partner, under the present firm name. The busi- 
ness is conducted in the same store it was com- 
menced in in 184 1. 

The wholesale grocery, tobacco and wine store 
of M. Zunder & Son, 249 and 251 State street, 
was established by the senior partner in 1852, on 
Church street. The firm is now composed of Mr. 
Zunder and his son, Albert. For the last eighteen 
years Mr. Zunder has been a member of the Board 
of Education. He is also President of the Na- 
tional Savings Bank. 

The firm of Gilbert & Thompson, fancy grocers, 
918 Chapel street, succeeded to a similar business 
established by the firm of William T. Bradley & 
Co. at the same location in 1859. In 1868 they 
sold out to Beach Brothers, who, in 1870, disposed 
of this business to the present firm, composed of 
John Gilbert and Frederick B. Thompson. Mr. 
Gilbert w-as a clerk in the firm of William T. Brad- 
ley & Co. from 1 86 1 to 1868, and from the latter 
date to 1870 was bookkeeper for F. A. Gilbert. 
Mr. Thompson for seven years previous to the for- 
mation of the firm of Gilbert & Thompson, was em- 
ployed by the firm of Spencer & Canfield. Both 
of the members of the firm of Gilbert ct Thompson 
have had jiractical experience in their line of trade, 
and are energetic and successful business men. 
Their trade is confined to fancy groceries, wines, 
and cigars. 

In 1876, Lewis D. Chidsey and W. P. Stone com- 
menced the grocery business at i Church street, 



under the firm name of Lewis D. Chidsey & Co., 
which continued until the death of Mr. Stone. 
For two years after, Mr. Chidsey 's brother was a 
partner, but the business is now conducted solely 
by Lewis D. Chidsey, the original firm-name being 
retained. 

Robert A. Hollinger, dealer in groceries, pro- 
visions, wines, ales and liquors, commenced busi- 
ness at 258 Davenport avenue in 1877. From 1869 
to 1873 he carried on the liquor business. Mr. 
Hollinger was born in the City of New York, and 
came to New Haven when a boy. He served for 
over three years in the late Civil War in Company 
K, 13th Regiment Connecticut Volunteers, and is 
now a member of the G. A. R. In 1884 he was 
elected Alderman. 

Bernard Reilly has been engaged in the flour, 
feed and grocery business in New Haven since 
1849. His store is located at 171 Congress ave- 
nue. Mr. Reilly settled in New Haven in 1835. He 
has done considerable contract work, having built 
a portion of the Air Line Railroad, and opened 
and graded a number of streets. Since this notice 
was first WTitten, Mr. Reilly has passed into the un- 
seen world. 

One of the oldest grocers in the city is Patrick 
Creegan, who has been engaged in the grocery, 
meat and provision business at 140 Carlisle street 
since 1851. Mr. Creegan emigrated from Ireland 
in 1848 and located in New Haven. 

William Greary established a grocery and pro- 
vision store at 858 State street in 1866, and has 
continued the same business ever since. 

James B. Smith, wholesale grocer and commis- 
sion merchant, 285 and 287 State street, has fol- 
lowed his present business in New Haven since 
1864. He does a general commission business, 
besides handling groceries and flour at wholesale. 
His premises consist of a store, 35 by 90 feet in di- 
mensions, of which he occupies three entire floors. 
Mr. Smith is a native of New Haven, where he 
began his successful business career. 

Charles Shelton was for many years engaged in 
the wholesale grocery trade at the head of Long 
Wharf, beginning business in 1840. He held the 
office of United States Surveyor of the Port of New 
Haven during the terms of Presidents Pierce and 
Buchanan. 

The grocery and meat market of Nelson W. 
Allyn, 199 Exchange street, was established in 
1877 at 100 Poplar street. 

The present grocery firm of A. L. Chamberlain 
& Co., 24 and 26 Grand street, was established by 
A. L. Chamberlain in 1856. In i860 Joseph L. 
Deming became a partner, under the present firm 
name. 

Hardware. 

The oldest hardware store in New Haven is that 
of John E. Bassctt & Co., which, being founded 
in 1784, has been continuous from that time. 
Although many changes have occurred in the status 
of the firm, at no time has it entirely changed its 
personnel. In 1855 the present firm name was 
adopted, and John E. Bassett is now sole pro- 



TRAFFIC. 



517 



prietor. He has been connected with it all his 
life. The premises consist of two stores, 22 by 100 
feet and 24 by 100 feet in dimensions respectively. 
The first is located at 754 Chapel street, and the 
other at 318 and 320 State street. 

The hardware store of N. T. Bushnell & Co., 
712 Chapel street, was started in 1872 by Matthew- 
man &. Co., who conducted it until 1879, when 
the present firm succeeded to the business. The 
individual members of the firm are N. T. Bushnell 
and Edward A. Todd. 

The house of C. S. Mersick & Co., importers 
and dealers in iron, steel and hardware, was 
founded over fifty years ago, and after various 
changes in the personnel of the firm, the present 
one succeeded to the business in 1875. They 
occupy a four-story brick structure, 45 by 100 feet 
in dimensions, at 286 to 292 State street. Their 
large trade extends throughout the New England 
States, and is represented by several traveling sales- 
men. They make a specialty of manufacturers' 
supplies. The individual members of the firm are 
C. S. Mersick and L. H. English, both natives of 
New Haven. 

The firm of Wooster A. Ensign & Son is one of 
the oldest hardware houses in the city. It was 
founded in 1847 by Wooster A. Ensign, the senior 
member of the firm, on Chapel street, from whence 
he moved to the present location in 1876. A gen- 
eral line of hardware is dealt in, a specialty being 
made of manufacturers' supplies. Mr. Ensign's 
son, Wooster P., became a partner, under the pres- 
ent firm name, in 1874. 

The hardware store of F. S. Bradley & Co., 410 
to 414 State street, was established in 1866. A 
general line of hardware and manufacturers' sup- 
plies are dealt in. The members of the firm are 
Franklin S. Bradley and Oscar Dikeman. The 
former is President of the Yale National Bank. Ar- 
rangements have recently been made for the re- 
moval of the business to 294-302 State street. 

Lumber. 

The firm of W. A. Beckley & Co., lumber deal- 
ers, was founded in i860, and from that date until 
1864 consisted of W. A. Beckley and Nathan H. 
Sanford; and it now comprises W. A. Beckley, one 
of the original founders, and his brother Elihu. All 
kinds of hard and soft lumber are dealt in. The 
firm has remained at the same location, 167 Water 
street, since its formation. 

In 1867, A. C. Halsted and Samuel Ailing be- 
came partners in th^ lumber business, and located 
at 109 Water street, i^ few years later Mr. Ailing 
died, w^hen Henry and Charles Ailing became 
partners with Mr. 'Halsted. In 1883, the firm 
of Halsted, Ailing & Harmount was formed, 
which continued until the death of ]\Ir. Ailing 
in 1885, when the present firm of Halsted & 
Harmount was formed, consisting of A. C. 
Halsted and A. G. Harmount. Lumber of all kinds 
is sold at wholesale and retail, although a specialty 
is made of hard woods. A business of about $100.- 
000 is annually transacted. 



Among the most extensive wholesale lumber 
dealers in this city is the firm of White, Clarkson 
& Co., established in 1879. The trade of this firm 
extends throughout New England and New York, 
and as far south as Philadelphia, Baltimore and 
Washington. The individual members of the firm 
are Charles A. White, W. D. Clarkson, James N. 
Willard, Jr., and D. H. Wellman. Their office is 
located in Room 20 of the New York, New Haven 
and Hartford Railroad Depot. 

Danforth O. Lombard has been timber agent for 
the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad 
Company since 1883. He occupies a room in the 
Union depot. INIr. Lombard enlisted in the 21st 
Regiment Connecticut Volunteers in 1863, and 
served for three years in the War of the Rebellion. 

Mason-Bvilders' Materials. 

One of the largest dealers in mason materials in 
New Haven is E. G. Chatfield, located at 90 to 94 
State street. Mr. Chatfield commenced business in 
1870 in partnership with M. S. Munn, under the 
firm name of Munn & Chatfield, on State street 
near the corner of Fair. They afterward removed 
to the old Quinnipiac Bank Building. In 1874 Mr. 
Chatfield purchased his partner's interest in the 
business and has since carried it on alone. In 
1883 he built the three-story brick building, 70 by 35 
feet in dimensions, now occupied by him at the 
place designated. Mr. Chatfield deals in mason- 
builders' and foundry and rolling-mill supplies. He 
is also interested in the manufacture of fire-bricks, 
but most of those dealt in are imported by him, as 
is true of most of the cement sold. A trade is trans- 
acted embracing the whole of the New England 
States. Mr. Chatfield is a native of New Haven 
and a greater part of his life has resided here. 

]\lE.-iT. 

The transportation of Chicago-dressed beef has of 
late years grown to immense proportions. The 
largest wholesale dealers in this beef in this city are 
Lee & Hoyt, established in 1869. They occupy a 
three-story building, 30 by 60 feet in dimensions, 
at 3 Custom House square, w hich affords accom- 
modation for ice-houses and the storage of a large 
stock. Several wagons are required in distributing 
beef to the trade in the city and vicinity. The in- 
dividual members of the firm are James H. Lee and 
Nehemiah H. Hoyt, Jr., both of whom are long 
residents of New Haven. 

Samuel H. Barnes has been engaged in butcher- 
ing in this city since 1874. He occupies a stall No. 
I City Market. Mr. Barnes was born in this city 
in 1845. His parents moved to Oyster Point when 
he was two and a half years old, at which time the 
house occupied by the family was the only one on 
the Point. Mr. Barnes has been a member of the 
City Council three times. 

The firm of F. S. Andrew & Co., wholesale and 
retail dealers in meats and provisions, was estab- 
lished in 1868. Office and stalls, 8 to 38, City 
market; packing-house corner of Crescent and 



518 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



Henry streets. The individual members of the firm 
are F. S. Andrew and Benjamin A. IJooth. 

Musical Instruments. 

The firm of B. Shoninger & Co., manufacturers 
of pianos and organs will be referred to in the 
chapter on Productive Arts. They have a store 
in this city, established in i860, devoted to the 
sale of their own manufactured goods, besides 
being the State agents of the Weber, Emerson, 
and Wheelock pianos. They were first located 
on Church Street, but for the last thirty years have 
carried on business at 801 Chapel street. Branch 
stores of this firm are located at Bridgeport, Water- 
bury, South Norwalk, Ansonia, and Winsted. 
They represent the oldest established business in 
this line in the city. The individual members of the 
firm are M. Sonnenberg, Simon B. and Joseph 
Shoninger. Mr. Sonnenberg has had the entire 
charge of the New Haven store since 1866. He 
was born in Germany and came to America in 
185S, since which, with thee.xception of a few years in 
the State of Michigan he has resided in New Haven. 
He has been a successful business man and is a 
highly esteemed citizen. 

C. M. Loomis for the last twenty-one years has 
conducted a music store in New Haven, devoted to 
the sale of music and musical instruments of all 
kinds. In 1865 he purchased the music store of 
Dudley & Coops, located next to Apothecaries' Hall 
on Chapel street. In 1872 he removed to his pres- 
ent location, 54 Orange street. He has the agency 
for the Chickering & Sons and Mathushek pianos. 
Branch stores have been established by him at 
Meriden, Bridgeport, and Danbury. Mr. Loomis 
was born in New York State in 1829, and when a 
young man came to New Haven, where he worked 
at carriage-building until 1861, when he was one 
of the first to enlist in the 6th Regiment of Con- 
necticut Volunteers and remained with the army of 
the Potomac until Lee's surrender. Several musical 
publications owe their existence to his munificence, 
among which is Loomis Musical Journal, an ad- 
vocate of the highest style of music as an art, which 
has accomplished much in the improvement of 
musical taste in New Haven. 

The piano- forte ware-rooms of M. Steinert & 
Son, 777 Chapel street, were established by M. 
Steinert about twenty years ago. The firm is gen- 
eral agent for Steinway & Son, Ernest Gobler, 
Bach, and other well-known piano makers. A 
varied stock of organs is also carried. Branch 
houses of the firm have been established in Provi- 
dence, Hartford, and Bridgeport. 

Paints, Oils and Glass. 

Early in the present century, Gardner Morse and 
Charles Peterson, under the firm name of Morse & 
Peterson, were engaged in the paint, oil and glass 
business on Chapel street, and continued there 
until 1868, when the business was conducted by 
G. F. Peterson. At this time the store was re- 
moved to 241 and 243 State street, now occupied 



by Spencer & Matthew, who succeeded Mr. Peter- 
son in 1 87 1. This is one of the oldest houses in 
this line of business in the city, and both a whole- 
sale and retail trade is done. The stock consists 
of paints, oils and glass, a specialty being made of 
manufacturers' supplies, including lubricating oils 
and acids. In the latter articles they have the largest 
trade of any house in the city. The entire build- 
ing, located as above stated, is devoted to the re- 
quirements of their business. The individual 
members of the firm are Francis E. Spencer and 
Charles M. Matthews. 

The wholesale and retail paint, oil, glass and 
painters' supply house ofD. S. Glenney & Son, 270 
and 272 State street, was founded in 1835 by 
Peterson & Glenney, who were succeeded by D. S. 
Glenney in 1843. In 1873, his son, D. S. Glenney, 
Jr., became a partner under the present firm name. 
The trade of this house has grown to extensive 
proportions, and extends through Western Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut. Mr. Glenney, Sr., is a 
native of Milford, Conn., where he was born in 
1 8 19. He has resided in New Haven since 1835, 
and has become closely identified with the indus- 
trial interests of the city. 

Paper. 

The New Haven Paper Company, consisting of 
J. L. and G. A. Matthews, was organized in 1872, 
and was located at No. 68 Orange street. The 
Company not only deal in paper, but are closely 
allied to several prominent paper-mills in the coun- 
try. All kinds of book, news, and job paper are 
extensively handled. Their present location is at 
375 and 377 Slate street. 

H. J. Atwater & Co., 960 Grand street, are 
dealers in writing and wrapping-papers. The house 
was founded by the late Mr. Henry J. Atwater, 
and since his death the business has been con- 
ducted under the old firm name. 

F. S. Bradley & Co. have a paper \varehouse at 
294 and 296 State street, adjoining the hardware 
store of the same firm. 

Printers' Supplies. 

The Elm City printers' warehouse of G. D. R. 
Hubbard was founded in 1876 by H. P. Hubbard. 
In 1882 the present proprietor purchased the 
business. Every article used in a printing-oflke, 
including type, ink and presses, is sold. Mr. Hub- 
bard also manufactures roller composition, card- 
culters, and bronzing-pads. Business was com- 
menced on Centre street, and after several changes 
removed to present quarters, second floor of No. 
379 State street. 

Stoves and Furnaces. 

The stove and furnace store of S. E. Dibble, 
639 Grand avenue, was founded by E. B. Dibble at 
the same location in 1852. E. B. Dibble died in 
1865, when S. E. Dibble purchased the business, 
and has since conducted it. He has largely added 



TRAFFIC. 



519 



to the extent of the business since he has been 
proprietor. The building has been enlarged, and 
he now occupies the entire premises, which consist 
of three stories. Originally the business was con- 
fined to dealing in stoves, but under Mr. Dibble's 
management not only these, but ranges, furnaces, 
tin, copper and sheet-iron ware are dealt in, while 
plumbing and gas-fitting forms an important 
branch of his work and gives employment to from 
fifteen to twenty men. Mr. Dibble was born in 
Newtown, Conn., in 1842, and came to New Haven 
in 1863. 

The firm of E. Arnold & Co., 236 to 240 State 
street, dealers in stoves, furnaces, ranges, and gal- 
vanized cornices, was formed in 1846, and has 
been located on the same street ever since. They 
are also engaged in tin-roofing, plumbing, and 
gas-fitting. The individual members of the firm 
are E. and George J. Arnold. 

The following firms are also dealers in stoves: 
Beardsley & Story, Crane and Franklin Stove 
Company and S. W. Lounsbury on Chapel street; 
A. H. Buckingham, Clerkin & McDonald, Her- 
man Hoflfmeister, T. P. Rourke, Nelson S. John- 
son, and C. E. Bray on Grand avenue; S. Galpin, 
John R. Garloch, and John B. Ray on State street; 
Geo. W. Hazel & Co. , Henry Hendricks and 
Adolph HoflTmeister on Church street; and a few 
others in various parts of the city. 

Tea, Coffee, and Spices. 

The wholesale tea, coflee and spice house of 
Bennett & Sloan, 280 and 282 State street, was es- 
tablished in 1S64 by Samuel Benjamin and Robert 
Peck, under the firm name of Benjamin ct 
Peck. In 1865 A. H. Kellam became a partner. 
Shortly after Mr. Peck died, when the firm became 
Benjamin & Kellam, afterwards A. H. Kellam & 
Co. In 1S77 P. S. Bennett purchased the busi- 
ness, and for a short time conducted it alone. A. 
P. Sloan became a partner in 1878, when the pres- 
ent firm was formed. Their premises in this city 
consist of a brick building 22 by 100 feet in dimen- 
sions, four stories high, with a basement. In the 
rear of the main building a smaller one is devoted 
to the use of the coffee and spice-mills, which are 
operated by steam power. In 1881 a branch store 
was opened in New York, at 44 Broadway and 82 
Thomas street, since which date the bulk of their 
business has been centered in that city, and it is 
now regarded as their commercial headquarters. 
The firm also have a packing establishment at 
Guilford, Conn., devoted to canning fruits and 
vegetables. This was established in 1881. The 
staff of the firm consists of about thirty-five em- 
ployees, together with six travelers. Teas, coffees, 
spices, grocers' supplies, and cigars are the princi- 
pal goods dealt in. They sell more of the latter 
commodity than any similar concern in the Stale, 
aggregating $400,000 annually from their house 
here, while the combined sales of both establish- 
ments reach f 1,000,000. Both of the members of 
this firm have had long experience in the business, 
and have been successful in building up a trade 



excelled by no other similar concern in the 
State. 

The wholesale tea, coffee and spice house of 
Alexander Emery, 29 and 31 Crown street, was es- 
tablished about the middle of the present century 
by George Steele and Samuel Halliwell, under 
the firm name of Steele & Halliwell, whose 
store at that time was located at 147 State street. 
In 1872 the firm of Steele &. Emery, consisting of 
Joseph H. Steele and Alexander Emery, was form- 
ed, and succeeded to the business. In 1877 they 
removed to their present location. Mr. Steele 
retired in January, 1886, since which time Mr. 
Emery has conducted the business. Teas, coffees, 
spices, and fancy groceries form the principal arti- 
cles sold. Mr. Emery also manufactures the Czar 
Baking Powder. Four traveling salesmen are em- 
ployed by this house, the trade of which extends 
over a wide territory. 

Augur & Tuttle, wholesale dealers in teas, coffees, 
and spices, 245 and 247 State street, began business 
in 1876. The trade of the house is entirely whole- 
sale, and is mainly confined to this State. The 
individual members of the firm are John P. Augur 
and VV. P. Tuttle, both long residents of this city. 

The wholesale tea, coffee, and spice house of 
Coburn & Co., was established in 1850 by A. O. 
Coburn & Co., whom the present firm succeeded. 
The members of the firm are William F. Coburn 
and Riley R. Palmeter. 

Wall-Paper. 

For several years the most extensive dealer in 
wall-paper in the city has been F. A. Gilbert, lo- 
cated at 853 Chapel street, who succeeded to the 
business he conducts in 1868, it having been 
founded by Franklin Andrews in 1847. While 
these pages are passing through the press, Mr. Gil- 
bert is making arrangements to give his attention 
wholly to electric lighting, in which from the first 
he has been interested. Other dealers in wall- 
paper are H. B. Armstrong, E. R. Jeffcott & Co., 
and Horace B. Perry on Chapel street; Hills & 
Stone, L. H. Beardsley on State street; Piatt & 
Thompson, on Orange street; and Jeffcott & Brad- 
ley, Grand avenue. 

Wines and Liquors 

For a number of years Hugh J. Reynolds was 
salesman for the firm of A. Heller k. Brothers, 
of New York, wholesale liquor dealers. In 1881 
he commenced business for himself at 152 and 154 
Crown street. He carries on a wholesale trade in 
wines, liquors, and cigars, and is the sole agent for 
the New England States of A. Heller & Brothers. 
He makes a specialty of Hungarian and Tokay 
wines. Mr. Reynolds is a native of Ireland, and 
has resided in New Haven since 1857. 

Patrick McKenna, wholesale liquor dealer, estab- 
lished his present business at 301 Wallace street in 
1863, but is now located at 438 East street and 164 
Franklin street. Mr. McKenna was born in Ire- 
land and came to America in 1852. He obtained 



520 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



employment in New York City as a grocer's clerk, 
and a few years later had charge of a wholesale 
liquor store until 1863, when he came to New 
Haven. Mr. McKenna has been successful in 
business and is now largely interested in real 
estate. 

Julius Tyler was engaged in the wholesale liquor 
trade from 1858 until a short time ago, when he 
disposed of his interest in the firm of Tyler & Hine 
to his partner, who now conducts it. Mr. Tyler 
founded this house, and continued in the business 
associated with different partners until 1879, when 



Charles W. Hine became one of the members of 
the firm. 

James E. McGann, retail liquor dealer, corner 
of Congress avenue and Hill street, commenced 
business in 1883. He is closely identified with 
politics in New Haven, and in 1883 was elected 
Alderman for a term of two years. In 1885 he 
was defeated by a small majority for the office of 
City Clerk. 

Edward Tobin, 177 Meadow street, makes a 
specialty of liquor dealers' supplies in the way of 
glass-ware. He is also a large dealer in bottles. 



BIOGRAPHIES. 



HENRY W. BENEDICT 

was born in New Haven August 16, 1820, and 
died November 25, 1877, being instantly killed in 
a railroad accident on the line of the New Jersey 
Central Railroad Company. His father was 'IVu- 
man Benedict, who was born April 19, 1798, and 
died April 14, 1880. His grandfather was John 
Benedict, born in West Haven in 1766. Both of 
these gentlemen were highly esteemed for their 
honesty and Christian character. 

The subject of this sketch will be remembered 
by our elderly citizens as a clerk, when but a small 
boy, for his father, who conducted a grocery busi- 
ness at the corner of Water and Brewery streets, 
where he commenced the sale of coal as earlv as 

1833- 

In the year 1840, Mr. Benedict became associated 
with his father as a partner, under the firm name 
of T. Benedict & Son, and until the time of his 
death was engaged in the sale of coal, the firm 
name being changed in 1857 to H. W. Benedict 
& Co., when his father retired from active busi- 
ness. 

About the year 1843, Mr. Benedict commenced 
the importation of Newcastle coal, but it was then 
only used for blacksmith purposes. A few years 
later the firm imported coal in large quantities, and 
supplied a number of gas corporations in New 
England and New York. Foreign gas coal was 
gradually displaced by American coal, so that at 
the time of his death Mr. Benedict was engaged 
in the sale of these coals, now marketed by his suc- 
cessors, Messrs. Benedict & Downs. 

Mr. Benedict's business was not confined to 
coal. He was for years an active Director of the 
Waterbury and Bridgeport Gas Companies, and the 
Yale National Bank, of New Haven, and was promi- 
nent in many business enterprises. He was largely 
engaged for a quarter of a century in the coastwise 
vessel trade, and will long be remembered by many 
seafaring men for his uniform kindness and 
generosity. 

Mr. Benedict had no political aspirations, but 
was for some time a member of the Common 
Council. He was especially active in the intro- 
duction of steam fire-engines into the city, being 



one of the first to call the attention of the Council 
to their necessity. 

He was an active temperance worker, and often 
upon the platform advocated its cause, and was 
highly esteemed for his benevolence and unselfish- 
ness. 

From his early life until its sudden termination, 
Mr. Benedict was a consistent Christian, and will 
not soon be forgotten by a large acquaintance, both 
in and out of the city, who loved him and sincerely 
mourned his death. 

AMOS F. BARNES. 

Amos Foot Barnes, the subject of this sketch, 
was born in Watertown, Litchfield County, Conn. , 
April I, 1818. At the age of eleven, being desir- 
ous of securing a better education than was af- 
forded by the schools of his native town, he availed 
himself of Hartford's educational advantages. He 
commenced his studies at the old Stone School- 
house, and for seven successive winters he was 
constant in his attendance. 

The summer months of each year were devoted 
to labor at home upon the farm of his father, the ^ 
late Captain Merritt Woodruff Barnes, who was I 
throughout his life an honored resident of Water- '' 
town. In 1836, having arrived at the age of eight- 
een, he became desirous of entering upon a mer- 
cantile life, and accordingly applied for and ob- 
tained a situation as clerk in the grocery store of 
Harry Ives, which was situated in Broadway, then 
one of the principal business centers of the city. 

On May 6, 1841, he was married (by the Rev. 
Dr. Leonard Bacon) to Miss Nancy Richards Att- 
water, of New Haven, and in the following August 
entered into business on his own account at his 
present location, now 293 and 295 State street, as 
a member of the firm of Finch & I3arnes, wholesale 
grocers. 

By prompt and careful attention to the wants of 
their customers, the new firm soon established a 
successful business. The firm dissolved partner- 
ship in 1855, and Mr. Barnes assumed sole charge, 
retaining tlie old stand. He continued the bus- 
iness under his own name until 1869, when he 
associated with him his son, Thomas Attwater 






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TRAFFIC. 



521 



Barnes, the only survivor of seven children, the 
firm name becoming Amos F. Barnes & Son, 
which it still continues. The name has become a 
familiar one to the business world of New Haven 
and other cities, and it is everywhere recognized as 
the representative of integrity, probity, and credit. 

Politics and political honors have had little at- 
traction for Mr. Barnes, but nevertheless he has 
always possessed firm convictions as to his duties 
in this respect. His public services have consisted 
of two terms as Councilman, in 1855-56, and of six 
years' service, at two different times, as a member 
of the Board of Education. 

When the bill establishing a national banking 
system became law, Mr. Barnes was one of five 
gentlemen who organized the First National Bank, 
in which he has been a Director from the begin- 
ning. He has also been for many years one of the 
Trustees of the Connecticut Savings Bank. 

Since his residence in this city, Mr. Barnes has 
been a constant attendant at the Centre Church, 
and has at various times served the Ecclesiastical 
Society of that church in positions of honor and 
trust. 

JAMES D. DEWELL. 

New Haven has cherished the ideas of trade and 
commerce ever since the days when Davenport and 
Eaton led thither their company of London mer- 
chants. 

The history of the city's growth has been the 
history of its commercial prosperity. Prominent 
among the New Haven business houses to-day is 
the firm of J. D. Dewell & Co. Mr. Dewell's 
father was undoubtedly of Scotch descent. In 
early life he emigrated from Dutchess County, N. 
Y., to Norfolk, Conn., where he engaged in the 
manufacture of scythes. He married Mary Hum- 
phrey; and to them was born at Norfolk, Septem- 
ber, 3, 1837, a son, James Dudley Dewell, the sub- 
ject of the present sketch. 

On account of reverses in his father's business, 
young Dewell was obliged to content himself with 
a very limited common school education, and at 
an early age he entered actively into the struggle 
for existence. In the spring of 1858, while he was 
yet but twenty years of age, he left the Norfolk 
hills and came to New Haven, resolved to enter 
upon a mercantile career. He found employment 
with Bushnell & Co., wholesale grocers, who were 
located on the northwest cornerof State and Crown 
streets. Two years later, in i860, he became a 
member of the firm. 

On the 2d of July of the same year he married 
Miss Mary Elizabeth Keyes, of Norfolk. Five chil- 
dren live to bless the union. After Mr. Dewell 
was admitted to a share in the councils of Bush- 
nell & Co., his energy and ability aided greatly in 
extending the business. In 1864 the firm name 
was changed to Bushnell & Dewell, but subse- 
quently it was again altered to J. D. Dewell & Co., 
in which form it has now for many years been fa- 
miliar to the mercantile world. 

As one of New Haven's successful business men, 
Mr. Dewell has desired to bind his own good for- | 

66 



tunes closely with those of the community around 
him. No sincere effort for public improvement or 
for social amelioration has failed to enlist his warm 
interest and generous co-operation. 

JOHN E. BASSETT, 

of the firm of John E. Bassett & Co., dealers in 
manufacturers' supplies and general hardware, 754 
Chapel street, and 318 and 320 State street, was 
born in Hamden, Conn., ISIarch 31, 1830, a son 
of David and Mary A. (Jarvis) Bassett. At the age 
of nine he removed with his father's family to New 
Haven, which has since been his home. Before 
this he had attended school in Hamden. He con- 
tinued his studies in the public schools of New 
Haven and finished them, when between fifteen and 
sixteen years old, at the Lancasterian School, then 
under the management of Mr. John E. Lovell. 

Not long afterward he entered the hardware store 
of Mr. E. B. M. Hughes, as a clerk, thus beginning 
a career with that establishment which has been 
unbroken to the present time, marking him as hav- 
ing been longer in one place on Chapel street than 
any other man now in business there. That was 
in 1846, and Mr. Bassett looks back over the sun- 
shine and shadows of nearly forty years' association 
with the spot formerly known as 236 Chapel street, 
but now as 754, during more than thirty years of 
which period he has been a proprietor in the enter- 
prise. 

The establishment for many 3'ears known as that 
of John E. Bassett & Co., is without doubt one of the 
oldest of its kind in New England which has had a 
continuous existence. Its history is specially inter- 
esting, and was given fully and in attractive form in 
a pamphlet issued by the firm in 1884 (at which 
time the house entered upon its second century), 
under the title of " V Historie of an Old Hard- 
ware Store," which has had quite a large circula- 
tion, and from which we glean the following im- 
portant facts: 

In 1 784, Titus Street, then a young man, opened 
a small general store at the corner of Chapel and 
State streets, beginning business with the usual as- 
sortment of a country store, "in the corner of the 
big lot where now Street's building stands, in the 
structure which was his residence as well * * * 
and displayed perseverance and enterprise beyond 
the comprehension of the conservative merchants, 
his competitors;" and "in spite of melancholy 
prophecy, Mr. Street flourished and must have at- 
tained mercantile distinction, since he counted 
among his customers such distinguished names as 
James Hillhouse, Jonathan IngersoU, Pierpont Ed- 
wards, Rev. Ezra Stiles, President of Yale College, 
David Daggett, and others. He continued business 
alone until 1792, when, taking as partner Mr. Sam- 
uel Hughes, together they conducted the business 
under the firm name of Street & Hughes, until 
1802, from which time, until 1 82 i,a period of nine- 
teen years, owing to the unsettled condition of mer- 
cantile affairs incident to the War of 18 12, mak- 
ing it exceedingly difficult to collect money, they 
deemed it prudent to dissolve and re-form at inter- 



522 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



vals, as a means of facilitating settlements. Under 
such conditions the style of the lirm was succes- 
sively Street, Hughes & Co., Street, Sherman &Co., 
Hughes, Siierman & Co., and Hughes & Sher- 
man, ^Ir. William Sherman representing an interest 
in the firm during the years in which the changes 
occurred." 

Mr. Street retired from active business in 1821 
and died in 1S41. " He was a descendant of the 
Rev. Samuel Street, the first settled Congregational 
minister in Wallingford, and his father, also named 
Samuel, resided there. * * * Titus Street is re- 
membered as a tall old gentleman of courtly man- 
ners, fastidious in dress, and was considered at the 
close of his business career as one of the three 
wealthy men in the city; the others being Mr. Eli 
Whitney and Mr. William Leffingwell.'' 

Mr. Samuel Hughes, who was first clerk and then 
partner with Mr. Street, continuing the business 
after the latter's retirement, had a career which 
marked him as a self-made man, since "beginning 
* * * in obscurity he * * * during his 
life created two fortunes, one of which was lost in 
ill-paying investments." He has been described as 
"a born merchant." At his death, in 1838, his 
large fortune and business were the inheritance of 
his son, E. B. M. Hughes, who, since the retire- 
ment of Mr. Street, in 182 1, had been associated 
with his father as partner. The son was a quiet, 
unobtrusive man, shrewd and enterprising, but not 
given to large ambition, successful in business and 
ranked one of the wealthiest men of his day. 
From the death of his father, he conducted his 
business alone, until 1855, at which time, with the 
admission of Mr. John E. Bassett to the firm, its 
style became as at present, IMr. Hughes remaining 
as senior until his death in 1864. In 1865, IMr. 
H. N. Jarvis became associated with Mr. Bassett as 
partner, remaining as such during three years, 
when he removed to Denver, Colo., where he has 
since lived, engaged in farming operations. 

It will be noted that since the foundation of this 
business, in 1784, it has never been sold out, a sur- 
viving partner always carrying it forward. The 
small wooden building in which it had its origin is 
but a memory now, but its successor, a little above, 
by repeated additions and enlargements, now ex- 
tends from 754 Chapel street to 318 and 320 State 
street, thus appropriately encircling its birthplace. 
Mr. Bassett, as the head of this business, has suc- 
ceeded in making its name a .s) nonym throughout 
New England for enterprise, integrity and magni- 
tude in the hardware trade. He takes great pleas- 
ure in speaking of the antiquity of his iiouse, and 
in showing to curious visitors the little old safe, 
which was the only one in use in the store until the 
death of Mr. E. B. M. Hughes, and the quaint old 
ledger and blotter in which Titus Street kept the 
record of his daily mercantile transactions. 

The success of Mr. Bassett illustrates the advan- 
tage of thoroughly learning one business and stick- 
ing to it, as well as of continuing associations 
which have proved to be advantageous, and 3ielding 
to no temptation to form new alliances, which, at 
best, must be uncertain in their outcome. In short 



it may be said that his motto has been, practically, 
to deserve the public esteem, e.xert himself to the 
utmost for tried friends, and to " let well enough 
alone.'' 

Exceptionally genial in address, he has many' 
and warm personal friends among the leading busi- 
ness men of New Haven and other cities. He is a 
Democrat, but not a politician; an attendant upon 
the services of the Episcopal Church; and a citizen 
of public spirit and progressive ideas. 

He was married to Sarah B. Pratt, of Greenport, 
L. I., in June, i860, and has a son and three 
daughters. 

Mr. Bassett has not interested himself largely in 
enterprises outside of his own trade, but has been 
connected in one way or another with a few first- 
class concerns, notably with the New Haven and 
Centreville Horse Railroad Company as one of its 
incorporators, and as its Treasurer and President. 

WOOSTER A. ENSIGN. 



Through the greater part of this century the 
name of Ensign has been honorably famous in the 
business history of New Haven. Thomas Ensign 
was a young man when he came here from Hart- 
ford and formed a partnership with Jeremiah Bar- 
net. Barnet & Ensign were engaged for more than 
forty years in the manufacture of morocco leather, 
and were located upon George street, which was 
then popularly known as Leather lane. Wooster 
A. Ensign, a son of Thomas and Esther Ensign, 
was born June 11, 1823, in the house then stand- 
ing on what is now the corner of George and Dow 
streets. He is therefore entitled to rank among the 
town-born, a distinction which once carried with it 
a certain pre-eminence, and which is still highly 
prized. 

Mr. Ensign attended the famous Lancasterian 
School, then under the charge of that renowned 
educator, John E. Lovell. At the age of fifteen he 
left school and entered upon the more arduous 
discipline of actual business life. He was first em- 
ployed in the hardware store of English it Mi.x, 
situated on State street, near Chapel. He re- 
mained with this firm just nine years. On May i, 
1847, he began business for himself on Chapel 
street, as a di.aler in iron and steel goods, and ob- 
tained the success which his industry and integrity 
deserved and insured. After twenty-nine years of 
honorable and successful activity, he built, in 1876, 
the spacious store at 53 Orange street, where he 
has since remained. 

The perpetuation of his business name into still 
another generation is assured, for he has associated 
with himself his eldest son, under the firm name of 
Wooster A. Ensign & Son. His only remaining 
son is also employed. 

Mr. Ensign married, on June 24, 1S46, Miss 
Charlotte A., daughter of Roger Sherman Pres- 
cott, of New Haven, by whom he has three chil- 
dren. 

For about twenty-five years he has been a Direc- 
tor in the City Bank, and is also a Director in the 
Maryland Steamboat Company, of Baltimore. He 




I 



J//^r-zr^ L^^^ 



^^^^;^ ^ 




TRAFFIC. 



523 



holds the offices of Vice-President and Director in 
the New Haven Watch Company. 

Mr. Ensign is fairly entitled to a first place 
among New Haven's prominent men of business. 
His mercantile career is rounded out with nearly 
half a century of busy life. Very few merchants 
who are still in business were his contemporaries 
in 1847, when he laid the foundations of his pres- 
ent prosperity. The beginnings were small; the 
business to-day has branched out in every direction, 
and very many large manufacturers are represented 
by the firm. This flattering success is Mr. Ensign's 
life-work and achievement. 

HON. CHARLES L. ENGLISH 

is descended from Benjamin English, who removed 
from Salem, Mass., to New Haven, early in the 
last century. He was born August 5, 1S14, the 
son of James English and Nancy, daughter of 
Samuel Griswold, of New Haven. Of the father's 
amily, consisting of six sons and three daughters, 
all save one have married and resided in New 
Haven. His great grandfather, Benjamin English, 
was killed in his own house during an invasion of 
Connecticut by the British troops under General 
Tryon in 1779. 

Mr. English was educated at the public schools 
of the city, his father being actively identified as 
trustee with the first school established on the 
Lancasterian system, and taught by John E. Lov- 
ell, who is now living at the advanced age of nine- 
ty-two He also attended two private schools, one 
kept by Mr. Merwin in the Glebe Building, and 
the other by Mr. Jarman in Orange street, who 
taught navigation, then a practical matter for New 
Haven youth, when the city was devoted to com- 
merce, and the young men of vigor and enterprise 
became sea-captains. 

Upon leaving school, Mr. English was appren- 
ticed for three years to Knevals, Townsend & 
Hull, merchant tailors. The confinement prov- 
ing prejudicial to his health he left them, and then 
for a time recontinued his studies with General 
James N. Palmer, a man of great force and intel- 
lectual vigor, from whom he derived a taste for 
history and the natural sciences, which he has cul- 
tivated through life. 

In I S3 1, he entered the grocery business with 
the firm of Harry Ives & Co., as clerk, Mr. Ives 
being the only active partner, and Elam Hull, a 
wealthy proprietor, furnishing the capital. 

Three years later, while yet a minor, having 
passed his twentieth year, he was set up in business 
for himself by Mr. Hull, and, continuing in the 
same store, had full charge of the firm, trading un- 
der the name of Charles L. English & Co. They 
were located on Broadway, which was then one of 
the most important mercantile centers in the city. 
There was no railroad at that time, and traffic 
came in from the north, brought by country teams, 
The introduction of steam travel carried trade after- 
ward down to a lower part of the city. 

He continued in this business, associated with 
his brother, George D. English, until 1842. That 



year he left it and went into the lumber business 
with another brother, James E. English, on Water 
street, where he continued two years. There was 
then an amicable and fraternal dissolution of the 
partnership, and to serve the family interest, Mr. 
English purchased a property and established a 
lumber-yard on the same street. After a few years 
John P. Tuttle came in as partner, and the firm 
became English & Tuttle, afterward English & 
Holt, upon the entrance of Albert S. Holt. 

About this time a new business was established 
by Calvin Gallup & Co. Charles L. English fur- 
nished the capital and attended to the sales and 
finances of the concern. They dealt in hard- 
wood at wholesale. The operations were with 
Canada, Ohio, and extensively with Indiana, 
where the lumber was produced. They shipped 
largely of black walnut to San Francisco, one- 
third going by all rail route and two-thirds by 
water from New York via Cape Horn. They were 
the fir^t to make all rail shipments of lumber to the 
Pacific Coast. Mr. English remained in this busi- 
ness until 1876, and it is still carried on by his 
son, under the same firm name, English k Holt. 

In 1877 he was elected President of Yale Na- 
tional Bank. The confinement did not agree with 
his health, accustomed as he was to an active 
outdoor life, and, after one year had expired, he 
decided, much to the regret of the Directors and 
Stockholders, to resign the position, while still con- 
tinuing one of the Directors. 

At this time he visited for his health the Hot 
Springs of Arkansas, but without gaining special 
benefit. 

Mr. English married Minerva J., daughter of 
Asa Bronson, ofWaterbury. Their two children 
died in childhood. After her death he married her 
sister, Sarah W., who died without issue. He 
then married Harriet D., daughter of Philemon 
Holt, Esq., of East Haven. They have one son, 
Edwin H. and one daughter, Julia A. living; 
Charles L. died in early manhood, and another 
son died in infancy. 

Mr. English has been identified from early life 
with the public affairs of the city. In 1837 the 
Fire Department of New Haven was organized 
under a Board of Fire Wardens and Engineers, 
and in July of that year Mr. English was appointed 
Fire Warden. In 1840, upon the resignation of 
Charles Robinson, Esq., he was elected Secretary 
of the Board. The bills for the Department were 
audited and approved by this Board, and then went 
to the Common Council. Of that Board, consist- 
ing of nineteen members, he alone survives at the 
present day. Mr. English served also as a mem- 
ber of the Common Council. 

At the organization of the New Haven and Derby 
Railroad, Mr. English was chosen a Director, and 
in 1875 was elected Vice-President, and has con- 
tinued in that office to this day. 

He has always taken an active interest in politics. 
In 1856 he left the Democratic party and served as 
Chairman of the first Republican Convention in the 
State, and was soon after a delegate from that con- 
vention to the National Convention which nomi- 



624 



HISTORY OF Ttit: City OF NEW HA VEN. 



nated Fremont. He there served on the Com- 
mittee on Platforms and Resolutions. He was also 
a member of the Republican State Central Com- 
mittee in 1856, and the same year was sent to the 
State Legislature to represent New Haven. He 
took a prominent part there and was Chairman 
of the Republican Legislative Caucus, and also 
Chairman of the House Committee on State 
Prison. 

There was at that time, 1856, a three-fold divi- 
sion in politics and a breaking up of old party 
lines. The Know-Nothings claimed America for 
Americans, with prejudice to foreigners. The 
Democrats were in sympathy with the South. The 
Republicans, made up of Whigs, Free Soilers, 
and some Democrats, were the new party strug- 
gling up into power, and making ready to settle the 
one great political question of slavery. 

Mr. English was radically opposed to carrying 
slavery into the territories, and was one of the 
signers of the famous remonstrance sent at this 
time, by Dr. Nathaniel Taylor and others, to Pres- 
ident Buchanan, calling the executive attention to 
the difficulties in Kansas. 

Through these exciting times Mr. English was in 
the front of the fight in building up the new party. 
He was one of the founders of Republicanism in 
Connecticut, and still remains identified with that 

He has several times been the nominee for the 
State Senatorship, and was nominated and re- 
ceived the full party vote for Lieutenant-Governor 
in 1874. 

Mr. English was early in life a member of the 
Young Men's Institute, which he joined in 1840, 
and has served on its Committees. He was 
elected a Life Member and Director of the His- 
torical Society at its first meeting, and has kept 
up an active interest in this institution. He has 
been, since 1835, a member of the Chamber of 
Commerce, which is one of the oldest institutions 
of its kind, dating back to 1800. 

Mr. English has been a Vestryman of St. PauTs 
Church through a long course of years, and many 
times a delegate to the Diocesan Convention. 

WHXIAM ATWATER, 

son of Jared and Eunice (Dickerman) Atwater, 
was born at Cedar ILll, in the town of Hamden, 
Conn., June 17, 1805. He was the tenth in a 
family of twelve children. In his eighth year his 
father died. 

At the age of sixteen he came to New Haven to 
learn the joiner's trade of his brother Elihu. After 
attaining his majority, he carried on the building 
business in New Haven for about ten years; then, 
buying a farm in Hamden, he removed there and 
remained about eighteen years. Returning to New 
Haven he entered into mercantile business with his 
sons, under the firm name of H. J. Atwater & Co. , 
the partners being Henry J., William J., and Will- 
iam Atwater. 

From time to time he has made purchases of 
real estate, until he is quite an extensive owner. 



He has erected many fine residences and business 
structures in different parts of the city. 

Mr. Atwater married Eliza, a daughter of Joel 
and Eunice Ford, of Hamden, May 21, 1S28. 
His two well-known sons, Henry J. and William 
J. Atwater, and his daughter, Mrs. H. D. Clark, 
of New Haven, were born of this marriage. Mrs, 
Atwater died April 7, 1878, and April 15, 1S79, 
Mr. Atwater married for his second wife Mrs. Maryl 
C. Hemingway, of Fair Haven East. I 

In religion Mr. Atwater is a Congregationalist I 
He and his first wife united with the Chapel street] 
Congregational Church soon after the erection ofi 
its house of worship. Removing to Hamden they 
joined the Whitneyville Congregational Church, j 
under the pastorate of the Rev. Austin Putnam. ; 
Returning to the city they identified themselves' 
with the Third Congregational Church of New Ha- 
ven. In 187S Mr. Atwater joined the Humphrey 
street Congregational Church while it was yet a 
mission and its house of worship merely a chapel, 
under the impression that he could do more prac- ■ 
tical good as a worker in that new field. To the 
building up and sustenation of this church, Mr. At- 
water has contributed largely. 

He is a Republican politically, and ever since the 
organization of that party has cast his vote and used 
his influence in favor of its principles. Before its 
organization he voted with the Free-Soil party; 
commencing to do so when there was only one 
other man in the town of Hamden equally ad- 
vanced in anti-slavery principles. 

He owes the success he has won in life to his 
own industry, skill and good character; and he is 
held in high esteem by a wide circle of acquaint- 
ances. His public spirit has led him to contrili- 
ute his full share toward the general improvement 
and progress of the communities in which he has 
lived. His life has been upright, busy, and useful 
to himself, his family, and his fellow men. 

FRANCIS DONNELLY. 

This well-known citizen and business man was 
born in Ireland, November i, 1816, and came to 
America in 1836, locating in New Haven, where 
he soon found employment and began to lay the 
foundation of the permanent success which he has 
so worthily attained. 

After two years passed as an employee in the 
wholesale grocery of John Nicholson, during which 
he had been familiarizing himself with the trade, 
in 1843 he embarked in the grocery business on 
his own account, on the site of the City Hotel, at 
the corner of Union and Wooster streets, and in 
that trade he continued, with augmenting fortune, 
for eighteen years. 

Later, in company with Mr. John Nicholson, he 
entered real estate speculation, in which he was suc- 
cessful for fifteen years, operating at different times 
in conjunction with Messrs. John E. Wylie, of New 
York, Charles A. Warner, John A. Dibble, H. S. 
English, John S. Farren, and others. In connec- 
tion with some of the above-named gentlemen he 
owned considerable property on Ferry street thirty 




'77wta/yY\ ,Jfvy]F^^:t^ 



m 





-j?zy^_ 



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Traffic. 



525 



years ago and later. Many houses were built and 
numerous lots sold. Under his supervision Ferry 
street was straightened and graded, and bordered 
with most of the trees which now render it so at- 
tractive. Though practically out of speculation in 
that line, Mr. Donnelly owns considerable real es- 
tate at this time in Fair Haven and other parts of 
the city. 

Mr. Donnelly purchased the East Haven brown- 
stone quarries in 1879, and has since quarried and 
furnished stone very extensively for building in 
New Haven and elsewhere. Among conspicuous 
edifices built of this stone are several of the Col- 
lege buildings of the sightly and artistic Yale 
group. 

Politically Mr. Donnelly was formerly a Demo- 
crat, but his ardent adherence to the cause of the 
North at the outbreak of the rebellion made him 
an outspoken and practically helpful "war man." 
He now ranks himself as an Independent, with 
freedom to support such men and measures as 
promise to enhance the public good. He has 
served his fellow citizens as Alderman, Ward Com- 
missioner, a Member of the Board of Relief, and in 
other official capacities. He is a Trustee of St. 
Francis' Roman Catholic Church and of St. Fran- 
cis' Orphan Asylum. 

He was married in 1844 to Alice Gallagher, of 
New Haven, and has had eight sons and four 
daughters, of whom four sons and three daughters 
are living. 

AUGUSTUS C. WILCOX, 

the son of Curtis and Martha (Hull) Wilco.x, was 
born in Madison, August 22, 1812. His mother 
died in 18 16, and of a family of six children he 
alone survives. His father was a merchant in 
Madison, and Augustus, as a child, was accus- 
tomed to the routine of such country business as 
he carried on. 

He attended school through his boyhood at the 
Lee Academy, then under the charge of Major 
Samuel Robinson. 

At the death of his father, Mr. Wilcox came to 
New Haven, and entered the store of William 
Thompson as clerk, and continued with the firm 
of Smith & Graves. He next entered the service 
of Washington Yale. In 1836 the firm of Yale & 
Wilcox was established, which afterwards became 
and is now (1886) Wilcox & Co. 

At the age of seventeen, in a company of one 
hundred and ten converts, he united with the Con- 
gregational Church in Madison, then under the 
pastorate of the Rev. Samuel N. Shepard. Upon 
removing to New Haven he took a letter to the 
Centre Church, but afterward resumed member- 
ship with the Madison Church. 

Mr. Wilcox married, June 20, 1837, Catherine 
Amelia Cruttenden, of Madison, who died in 1881. 
He has one adopted daughter. 

In politics, Mr. Wilcox has maintained the prin- 
ciples of Jefferson. He represented his native 
town in the Lower House of the Legislature in 
1872, and in 1873 ^^^^ Senator for the Sixth Sena- 



torial District. While in the Senate, he was Chair- 
man of the Banking Committee, a position he was 
fully qualified for by his business knowledge. 

In city politics he has been a member of the 
Common Council and of the Board of Selectmen 
of the town. He was one of the committee for 
building the City Hall, and to many public and pri- 
vate charities he has been a substantial and gener- 
ous benefactor. 

DANIEL L. CARPENTER, 

of the dry goods firm of Monson & Carpenter, was 
born in Bennington, Vt. , July 20, 1829, a son of 
Richard and Betsey (Austin) Carpenter. 

John Austin, his mother's father, saw active ser- 
vice in the Revolutionary War and died at a very 
advanced age, highly respected by an extensive 
acquaintance. Mr. Carpenter's father was a tailor 
by trade and successful as a business man, though 
his means were so limited that he could do little in 
the way of giving his son anything like a financial 
start in life. 

Bright and studious, Mr. Carpenter graduated 
from the old Bennington Seminary at the age of 
fifteen, and soon after became a clerk in the store 
of Reuben Rice, of New Haven. Later he was 
for a time in the employ of T. P. Merwin tt Co. 
He advanced rapidly in a knowledge of the re- 
quirements of the dry goods trade, and in 1865 
began business for himself as a member of the firm 
of Monson & Carpenter, which then succeeded to 
the business of the old house of Winship & Barney 
at 246 (old number) Chapel street. On the same 
ground the house has continued enlarging the 
business, which was begun with two clerks, more 
than four-fold, until it now occupies 764-768 
(new numbers) Chapel street, giving employment 
to thirty-five clerks in its wholesale and retail de- 
partments, reaching a large annual aggregate. The 
firm of Monson & Carpenter unquestionably has 
the distinction of being the oldest dry goods firm in 
New Haven, when the number of their successive 
years of business is considered. 

Mr. Carpenter was married in 1880 to Miss Car- 
rie O. Hall, of New Haven, a step-daughter of Mr. 
George H. Scranton. 

A Democrat in politics, he was for eight years 
chairman of the Democratic Congressional Com- 
mittee, and during a considerable period was active 
as a politician, though he never sought or accepted 
office of any kind, preferring to devote all his ener- 
gies and time to the development of his own im- 
portant business. 

He has ever been liberal and enterprising in the 
support and advancement of all worthy public ob- 
jects, and ever to be safely counted on as a helpful 
promoter of the best interests of the city. 

With his family he is an attendant upon the ser- 
vices of Trinity Church. 

He was for seven years a Sergeant in the New 
Haven Grays, and for a time a Lieutenant in the 
Veteran Grays. He has been for twenty years a 
Mason and a member of Hiram Lodge No. i, the 
oldest lodge in the State. 



526 



HISTORV OF THE CITV OF NEW HA YEN. 



CHARLES MONSON, 

senior member of the firm of Monson ct Carpenter, 
was born in Litchfield, Conn., February 14, 1836. 
His father was William Monson. 

He began his business life as a clerk with the 
firm of Winship A Barney, which was succeeded by 
that of Monson & Carpenter. 

He is a Republican politically. 

In October, 1875, he married Miss Hubbell, of 
Philadelphia. 

CHARLES SHELTON 

is a native of Cheshire. He was born in 18 18, the 
son of Charles and Lucinda (Cornwall) Shelton. 

His mother was the daughter of Dr. Thomas T. 
Cornwall, of Cheshire; and his grandmother was 
the daughter of the Rev. John Foote, of Cheshire, 
sister of Governor Foote, whose son was Admiral 
Andrew H. Foote. His grandmother was a fa- 
mous student and prepared for college, but upon 
being urged to enter refused on account of her sex. 
She studied Hebrew with President Stiles as an 
inmate of his house, and a complimentary diploma 
was given her by Yale College, which is deposited 
in the Historical Society's rooms. His father was 
a physician, a graduate of Yale College, and studied 
medicine with Dr. Cornwall, whose daughter he 
married, and practiced at Cheshire. His grand- 
mother, on the father's side, was a daughter of the 
Rev. Christopher Newton, of Huntington. 

Charles Shelton was educated at the Cheshire 
Academy. He became clerk to his uncle, in a 
country store in Cheshire, at the age of fifteen. 
After three or four years there he studied medi- 
cine in his father's oflice for six months, till his 
father died. Being thus thrown suddenly upon his 
own resources he gave up the idea of becoming a 
doctor and went South, and engaged in mercantile 
business during the next ten years. He then re- 
turned to his native town and was a country mer- 
chant for six )'ears. 

He was appointed Postmaster for one term, then 
Town Clerk and Town Treasurer, being also Treas- 
urer of the Special Town Deposit Fund for Che- 
shire. 

He sold out the store interest in 1842, and com- 
ing to New Haven went into the wholesale grocery 
business with his brother William at the head of 
Long Wharf. His health failing after a few years, 
he left the business upon the advice of his physi- 
cian. 

He was then appointed surveyor of the Port un- 
der President Pierce, and held the post also during 
Buchanan's administration. He then took up the 
business of brokerage and the settling of estates. 
He was also assessor of New Plavcn for a number 
of years. 

In 1875 Mr. Shelton purchased a farm in West 
Haven, and has since spent his summers upon it. 

He married Caroline M. Casilear, of New York 
City. His brother, who has been for two years 
Mayor of New Haven, married another sister in the 
same family. 



Mr. Shelton, acting as conservator, trustee, and 
executor of estates, continues to lead, as from the 
outset, an active and useful life. 

ALEXANDER FOOTE. 

The first of the family of Foote in America of 
whom there is any record extant, seems to have 
been Nathaniel Foote, from Colchester, England. 
He married Elizabeth Deming and died in 1664. 
His son, Robert, born in 1627, went first to Wal- 
Jingford and then to Branford. He died, aged fif- 
ty-two years, in 1681. 

Elihu Foote, grandfather of Alexander Foote, 
was of the sixth generation in America. He was a 
resident in Northford. He married Lucy Williams, 
daughter of Rev. Warham Williams, the first settled 
Congregational minister in Northford, who was a 
lineal descendant of the Deerfield Williamses; they 
had two daughters and two sons, named in the or- 
der of their nativity, Edwin, Delia, Warham Will- 
iams and Anna. 

Warham Williams Foote was married, in 1822, 
to Lucinda Harrison. He was a respected farmer 
of Northford. His children numbered thirteen, 
nine of them being sons. Of the latter, Alexander 
Foote was born February 9, 1S24, in the house in 
Northford which had been built by his grandfather, 
and in which his father had been born. 

Drawing his life-blood from the Footes, Will- 
iamses, Harrisons, Houghs and Inghams, it will 
be seen by any reader acquainted with the good old 
Connecticut stock, that his origin should be a mat- 
ter of pride to him, for surely no more honorable 
names are known than those above mentioned. 

Mr. Foote's educational advantages were good for 
the time and locality, and he improved them in a 
very creditable manner. He gained the rudiments 
of his education in the common school, and later 
for a time attended a select school. So far had he 
advanced, that in the fall of 1842 he taught a term 
of school in his own neighborhood with such suc- 
cess, that he was prevailed upon to undertake a 
second term the following year. After thit, feeling 
the need of more extensive knowledge in some im- 
portant branches than he possessed, he entered as 
a student, for a term, an old time well-known edu- 
cational institution at Munson, Mass. The follow- 
ing winter he taught a school at Greenwich, Mass., 
teaching later at Woodwardtown and North Haven 
during the winter months, working diligently during 
the summer, and for a time had charge of a farm in 
Waterbury. 

February 28, 1853, he married Miss Sarah A. 
Kelsey, a native of Madison, Conn. They have 
four children: Carlton Alexander, born January 9, 
1859; Nettie INI., born January 8, i86i;'Mary K., 
born September 27, 1863; and Myron Philo, born 
November 21, 1865. 

Mr. Foote early identified himself with the Con- 
gregational Church, and, with his family, later con- 
nected himself with the Church of the Ascension, 
and more recently with Trinity Church. 

In politics he was formerly a Whig, and since 
the formation of the Republican party has been a 



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C^.'X-AcJ 





I 

1 

I 



I 



JOHN STARR GRI?"^FING 



TRAFFIC. 



527 



member of that organization. He has never taken 
any active part in politics, and has repeatedly re- 
fused to yield to the solicitations of his friends to 
become a candidate for positions of public trust 
and responsibility. He has, however, consented 
to act as Grand Juror and Constable in Northford, 
and has served as a member oi the Board of Select- 
men of the Town of New Haven. He was at one 
time a candidate for the office of Alderman of that 
city. 

It is owing to his long and prominent connection 
with the fish and oyster trade that Mr. Foote is 
best and most widely known. In partnership with 
Mr. Eber H. Kelsey, he entered this trade in 1854, 
and they began business with the fish market May 
28, 1857. November 13, i86r, Mr. Foote suc- 
ceeded the firm of Kelsey & Foote. In 1867, the 
firm of A. Foote ct Co. was formed, and has existed 
to this day, the present members being Alexander 
Foote, his brother Lazelle, and his nephew A. 
Kelsey Jones. The trade of this house has long 
been very extensive, placing it high on the list of 
the leading business houses of the City of New 
Haven. Mr. Foote was one of the organizers of 
the Long Wharf Fish Company in 1862, and has 
since been one of its proprietors. 

Rev. Warham Williams, from whom Mr. Foote 
is descended, was one of the most interesting 
personages in the history of Connecticut. He 
was a son of Rev. Dr. Stephen Williams, pastor of 
the Congregational Church in Long Meadow, Mass. , 
and a descendant of Robert Williams, one of the 
first settlers of Roxbury. His further history is 
much of it a part of the history of the establishment 
and maintenance of religious worship in this part 
of the State, and his many descendants have been 
numbered among the most prominent and respected 
of their generations. 

JOHN STARR GRIFFING. 

The family of Griffing has been prominently 
and honorably connected with the local history of 
Guilford for nearly a century and a half. Originally 
from Southold on Long Island, one of the con- 
federated settlements that constituted the Colony of 
New Haven, the marriage into a Guilford family of 
a grandson of Jasper Griffing, the first of that 
name who emigrated to America, seems to have 
been the occasion of transferring the name of Grif- 
fing into Connecticut. 

Jasper Griffing, of Guilford, the grandson of the 
first settler, and grandfather of the subject of this 
notice, seems to have led rather an eventful life. 
When quite a young man he was impressed, in 
New York Harbor, into the English fleet, then 
lying there under the command of Commodore 
Warren. The influence of friends procured the 
promise of his release and return by a pilot-boat 
when the fleet reached Sandy Hook. In those 
days, when the English navy was largely and al- 
most necessarily manned by impressment, it was 
much easier to make a promise of this kind than 
to remember to fulfill it, and young Griffing soon 
found himself a sailor on the West India station. 



Swimming ashore with two other deserters, they 
found refuge in an American merchantman, where 
they were soon discovered and arrested. Tried for 
desertion, he and his companions were convicted 
and sentenced to be hung. In this unexpected 
emergency, he sent a written statement of his case 
to Sir Peter Warren, remonstrating against the in- 
justice of his sentence. Fortunately for him his 
statement was corroborated by an American Lieu- 
tenant then on the flag-ship, and having sworn to 
be loyal to his sovereign and serve him faithfully in 
future, his life was spared, while his fellow deserters 
were swung from the yard-arm. A few weeks 
afterwards, young Griffing sat on the main-top 
truck of Warren's ship when it entered the harbor 
of Louisburg under the fire of the French. Escaping 
in disguise from further naval service, he finally 
reached Guilford, where he soon afterwards was 
married, and ultimately became one of its wealthiest 
citizens. 

In the last year of the colonial history of Con- 
necticut, he became, by purchase, the owner of the 
famous "old stone house," still standing in excel- 
lent preservation, in Guilford, and in the possession 
of one of his descendants, Mrs. Sarah B. Cone, of 
Stockbridge, Mass. This house, probably the oldest 
building in the LInited States, was erected by Rev. 
Henry Whitfield in 1640, and is cared for with re- 
verent pride by its present owner. 

Captain Joel Griffing, the son of Jasper, and 
father of John S. Griffing, was a successful merchant 
and a public-spirited citizen in his native town, 
where John, being the youngest but one of eleven 
children, was born, August 8, 18 15. With the best 
elementary education that an intelligent com- 
munity, always priding itself upon the excellence 
of its schools, could provide, he came to New Haven 
when sixteen years of age and became a clerk in 
the store of Mr. Jonathan Nicholson. When he 
attained his majority he entered into partnership 
with his older brother, Jasper, under the firm name 
of J. ct J. S. Griffing, carrying on an extensive trade 
in iiuilding materials. After the death of his brother, 
in 1846, he became the senior member of a new 
firm, Griffing & Law, who ultimately transferred 
their business to the late Mr. Nelson Hotchkiss. 

During the years of his mercantile life Mr. Grif- 
ffing had become interested in a number of private 
corporations, in one of which, the Swedish Iron 
Company, of Milwaukee, one of the largest manu- 
facturing establishments in the West, he was a 
prominent Director, and which ultimately de- 
manded his undivided attention. 

In addition however to the care of his personal 
interests, he discharged a number of public trusts 
with ability and conscientious fidelity. He was one 
of the original Directors of the Merchants' Bank 
of New Haven, and became its Vice-President when 
reorganized as a National Bank, and continued in 
that office till his death, July 31,1869. He was 
also for several years President of the Mutual Secur- 
ity Insurance Company of New Haven,. As a 
member of the Board of Education he rendered 
valuable service to the public schools of New 
Haven during the years he remained in office. 



528 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



Mr. Griffing was united in marriage August 26, 
1844, to Mary Matilda Coley, daughter of John 
H. Coley, a graduate of Yale College, and for 
many years a prominent merchant of New Haven. 
His widow and four of their seven children survive 
him, one of them being the wife of Mr. Herbert 
H. Bancroft, the able and exhaustive historian of 
the Pacific Coast. 

In estimating the character of individuals, entire 
justice is not always done to hereditary traits and 
tendencies. How far the self-reliant temper and 
personal courtesy of manner, eminently character- 
istic of Mr. Griffing, was the result of an hereditary 
tendency, it may be diflicult to say. The original 
Welsh settler we know to have been a man of 
enterprise. Of his son, the first of the name of 
Grifting born on American soil, it is on contempo- 
rar)- record that he was "a man of most agreeable 
conversation and greatly beloved." 

Slightly reserved in manner, never obtruding 
himself upon the notice of others, with a high ap- 
preciation of whatever was becoming in character 
or morals, and gifted with an acute discernment of 
all unfounded pretensions, Mr. Grifiing secured the 
general respect of the community by the integrity 
of his business methods; the personal regard of his 
intimate friends by his genial disposition; and the 
affectionate attachment of his domestic circle, by 
his devotion to that pleasant home, to which his 
apparently uncompleted life has been a prolonged 
sorrow. 

Mr. and Mrs. Griffing were among the guests 
who were invited to visit the Pacific Coast by the 
Directors of the Union Pacific Railroad on the 
completion of that great undertaking. Near the 
junction of this road with that leading to Salt Lake 
City, Mr. Grifiing left the train and walked, under 
a hot sun, to Ogden, a distance of nearly two 
miles, in the e.xpectation of finding letters from his 
home. He was much exhausted by his exposure, 
and five days after, having reached Chicago, was 
attacked with brain fever and died in that city on 
the 31st of July, 1869, having nearly completed the 
fifty-fourth year of his life. 

WnXIAM AUGUSTUS BECKLEY 

was born at Cedar Hill, Hamden, Conn., October 
16, 1827. He was the oldest son of Silas and 
Amelia (Atwater) Beckley. 

The first twelve years of his life were spent at 
Cedar Hill and VVhitnej-ville. While living with 
his parents there, he attended John E. Lovell's 
Lancasterian School for three years. He afterward 
lived with his parents on two different farms in 
Orange, Conn., attending school for two seasons 
at Amos Smith's, New Haven. 

When seventeen years old, he left .school to learn 
the carpenter and joiner trade of Russell Ailing, 
where he lived untd he was twenty-one, receiving 
as compensation $30 a year for the first year, with 
an advance of $5 a year until he had finished his 
time. He then spent one and a half years in Twins- 
burgh, Ohio, where he attended school one winter 
at Rev. Samuel Bissell's Seminary, 



Returning to New Haven, where he has lived 
ever since, he married Cordelia Wheeler on No- 
vember 12, 1 85 1. 

Mr. Beckley carried on the building business for 
twelve years, erecting over three hundred buildings 
in New Haven and vicinity. In the year i860 he 
went into the lumber trade with Nathan H. San- 
ford, the firm name being Sanford & Beckley. 
After four and a half years he bought his partner 
out, and shortly after associated with himself his 
brother, Elihu A. Beckley, the firm name being 
W. A. Beckley & Co. He has been in business 
on the same corner for over a quarter of a cen- 
tury. 

GEORGE H. FORD. 

To the citizens of New Haven who appreciate 
the beautiful in art, there has been for many years 
a charm about the southeast corner of Chapel and 
State streets. The spacious windows which reveal, 
to all who pass by, beaudful statuary, bronzes, deli- 
cate porcelains, and other cosdy products of artis- 
tic skill, have become so familiar to the public, 
that only if the display were forever removed would 
the daily pleasure and instruction derived from it 
be correctly measured. For this collection of the 
rare and dainty wares of cunning workmen. New 
Haven is indebted mainly to the tact, taste, and 
energy of George H. Ford. 

Mr. Ford is a descendant of Thomas and John 
Ford, who were among the original setUers of the 
town of Milford. Conn. In that town he was born 
in 1848. 

In 1 864, Mr. Kverard Benjamin, who since 1831 
had conducted the business of a watchmaker and 
jeweler, needed the services of an assistant who 
would reside in his family and work in his store. 
The position was offered to Mr. Ford, who soon 
developed a remarkable aptitude for the work be- 
fore him. His progressive spirit and vigorous ap- 
plication rendered him indispensable to the busi- 
ness. Five years from the date of his first employ- 
ment, being twenty -one years old, he was admitted 
into partnership, and the firm name became Ben- 
jamin & Ford. 

His advent into the firm was immediately signal- 
ized by the remodeling and enlargement of the 
store. The course of prosperity was marred, in 
1873, by a fire which destroyed their entire stock. 
In the same year occurred the death of Mr. Ben- 
jamin. Mr. Ford then became sole pro[)rietor,but 
retained the old firm name until the completion of 
the first half century of the house in 1881. 

Fifty years ago the establishment could exhibit 
a few thousand dollars' worth of Yankee clocks, 
watches, silver s[)oons, and plain gold rings. 
Now it is filled with the choicest of diamonds, 
precious stones, gems, gold and silver ware, and 
articles that have been imported from France, 
Germany, Spain, Austria, England, China, Japan, 
and other countries. This collection itself is 
a witness to Mr. I-ord's cultured artistic sense 
and judicious discrimination in selection. He 
visits Europe annually, gathering objects of art 




WILLIAM A REYNOLDS 



TRAFFIC. 



529 



and fully familiarizing himself with the beautiful 
masterpieces of the Old World. The fruit of his 
labor and painstaking examination is an accumu- 
lation of treasures which is conceded to be without 
a rival anywhere in New England outside of Bos- 
ton. 

In 1 88 1, Mr. Ford was appointed by Governor 
Bigelow, Commissary-General of the State, and 
served upon the Governor's staff throughout his 
two years' term of office. For five years he has 
been Chairman of the Donation Committee for the 
New Haven Orphan Asylum. He holds the posi- 
tion of Director in the New Haven Chamber of 
Commerce, also that of Director in the Young 
Men's Institute, and for ten years has served as a 
Director in the Grilley Company. 

Mr. Ford married, in 1871, Miss Lewis, a 
daughter of the late Hon. John Calhoun Lewis, 
of Plymouth, who was at the time of his death 
(1849) Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

WILLIAM A. REYNOLDS, 

formerly and for a long time known in New Ha- 
ven business and social circles, was born in Wal- 
lingford, Conn., April i, 1800, a son of Hezekiah 
and Martha (Davenport) Reynolds. His mother 
was a direct descendant of John Davenport. 

He came to New Haven at the age of si.xteen 
years, and began his active business career as a 
clerk in a store. Later in life he became and con- 
tinued prominent as a dealer in real estate, of which 
he handled large amounts in the city and vicinity. 

Mr. Reynolds was married December 25, 1831, 
to Jane D. Lynde, of New Haven, a daughter of 
John Hart Lynde, a lawyer once conspicuous in 
his professional, social and family relations. The 
residence on Elm street in which he lived so long, 
and which is still the family mansion, was bought 
by him about forty years ago. It originally be- 
longed to John Davenport, the first of that family 
in America. 

Mr. Reynolds died in November, 1S74, leaving 
a widow, two sons, and two daughters, all of whom 
are living. 

He was Democratic in his political affiliations, 
though in no sense an active politician; yet his po- 
sition was such that he was at times chosen as a 
member of the Common Council, and otherwise to 
assist in the development, progress and government 
of the City of New Haven, in which he took a 
lively interest. 

He was, during the latter portion of his life, 
identified with St. Paul's Church. 

For many years he was a Director in the New 
Haven Bank, and the founder of the New Haven 
Historical Society, its first meeting being held at 
his residence. He was also one of the founders of 
the Chamber of Commerce in this city. 

JOHN W. BISHOP. 

The first representative of the family of Mr. John 
W. Bishop in New Haven of whom any record 
can be found, was Mr. Bishop's grandfather, Lent 

67 



Bishop by name, and a carriage-maker by trade, 
who had a shop at one time on Whitney avenue, 
and at a later period at the corner of Grove and 
State streets. His homestead was a little west of 
the latter location on Grove street. He was an in- 
dustrious, enterprising man, respected widely for 
his upright character. His wife was Lucinda Barnes. 
They had twelve children, nine of whom died in 
infancy. The survivors were Abel, Lent L., and 
Samuel S. Bishop. 

Abel Bishop, father of John W. Bishop, was born 
in 1 801, became a carriage-smith, and worked at 
that trade during his early life. Though not a 
highly educated man, he had a logical mind, and 
was gifted with rare oratorical powers. His sym- 
pathies with humanity were so broad and so deep, 
his impulse to help his fellow-men at any cost to 
himself so strong, that he was practically unfit for 
a business life. He was an honorable and generous 
man, and his chief fault (if it could be so called) 
was that he was too unselfish in his thoughts and 
sympathies. The historic agitation of the temper- 
ance question at the time of the great Washington- 
ian movement, drew Mr. Bishop's attention to that 
subject. Here, certainly, was scope for his sym- 
pathies; before him was a field for labor. When- 
ever he spoke publicly on the temperance question 
he aroused wonderful enthusiasm, and he was in- 
duced to cast aside all other aff'airs and become a 
professional advocate of the cause. Into this work 
he threw all of his energies and more strength than 
he could afford, as was shown by the result, for he 
exhausted his physical powers and died in 1843, ^' 
the age of forty-two, leaving a widow and six chil- 
dren. His wife was Mary C. Burns, of Milford, 
Conn. 

John W. Bishop was born September 25, 1823. 
His educational advantages were limited, and when 
a mere lad he entered actively upon the struggle 
for existence. From ten to twelve he was working 
in a paint shop, doing a little of everything, and, 
in the aggregate, much more than such a boy ought 
to do. He passed the time until he was fourteen 
as assistant in a store. From fourteen to sixteen 
he was toiling on a farm, working early and late, 
and doing more than the work of an average man. 
Those were days of bitter trial such as few have 
known. 

But it was neither as a painter, as a merchant, 
nor as a farmer that Mr. Bishop was destined to 
make his mark in the world. He was possessed of 
remarkable native mechanical genius, and his ap- 
prenticeship, at the age of sixteen, to John Douglas 
offered him his first opportunity to develop it. His 
instructor was a man of note in his time, a recog- 
nized mechanical expert, consulted by inventors 
and mechanics of reputation as well as by scientists 
upon intricate questions of mechanics. Under 
such a master, ]\Ir. Bishop may be said to have 
graduated at the age of twenty-one, a mechanic of 
extraordinary skill and inventive powers. 

He opened a shop on Orange street, and began 
manufacturing machinerj', pumps and steam fix- 
tures. His business prospered, and in about four 
years he removed it to Union street, and thence, 



530 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



about four years later, to State street. In i860 lie 
erected the' Bishop Building on State street, and 
continued manufacturing until 1S63, when he re- 
tired. He had began life as a worker, and intent 
on his business and thinking little of his physical 
being, he worked so much beyond his endurance, 
that at thirty he was obliged to relinquish active 
pursuits for a time and travel in the West to regain 
his health. Returning partially restored, he again 
gave personal attention to his business until a 
second giving way of his physical powers compelled 
his retirement at the date mentioned. 

He has been interested in some manufacturing 
enterprises at different times in a pecuniary way, 
and has done much to befriend young and worthy 
mechanics who were struggling for a foothold in 
life. Several such he has assisted to embark in 
business for themselves. Among other enterprises, 
he has been identified with the Grilley Company, 
manufacturers of cap-screws, picture-knobs, and 
harness-trimmings, founders of the Grilley Screw 
Capping Company, widely and favorably known as 
a successful manufacturing house. As a member 
of the firm of Larkins & Bishop, he was interested 
in the manufacture and sale of lumber, and he 
represents a large amount of real estate in Connect- 
icut and elsewhere. 

Some years ago, Mr. Bishop's attention was 
drawn to the inadequate and uncertain means for 
the extinguishment of fire in popular use, and he is 
the inventor of numerous devices for the protection 
of property against serious damage by fire, known 
as the "automatic system," which cover a larger 
field than all others combined, and meet the ap- 
proval of underwriters and the favor of the public. 
The inventive genius necessary to the conception and 
perfection of these contrivances, and their practical 
application to the uses for which they were designed, 
is something as noteworthy as that of men whose 
reputation is world wide; and it is predicted that 
the practical utility of his inventions will in good 
time place Mr. Bishop's name high on the roll of 
America's inventors. 

To him also must be given the credit of having 
been the first to direct public attention to the para- 
mount advantages of East Rock as a place of public 
resort, and its availability as a city park. He was 
the owner of considerable real estate embraced 
within the present limits of, and adjacent to the 
park, and in 1870 he made a proposition to the 
City of New Haven to give one hundred acres as a 
nucleus to what is now being made one of the 
handsomest pleasure grounds in America. A survey 
of this ofiered tract demonstrated that it afforded 
space for miles of beautiful drives. The acceptance 
on the part of the city authorities of Mr. Bishop's 
proffer promised to Ise so tardy, that at the ex- 
piration of six months it was withdrawn, and for 
some time thereafter he held the property at $45,- 
000, until, in 1880, at the solicitation of inlluential 
friends, who assured him that the work of construct- 
ing the park he had so long desired to see should 
be speedily begun, he transferred to the city some 
fifty acres of the tract he originally offered, which 
when East Rock Park is fully improved, must, 



from its location and peculiar natural advantages, 
be one of its most attractive portions. 

September 7, 1845, I\Ir. Bishop married Mary 
C. Brown, of New Haven. They have had three 
sons and five daughters. Their sons are all dead. 

He began his political life as an old-time Dem- 
ocrat, but united with the Republican party in 
i860, and has acted with that organization ever 
since. 

Mr. Bishop has been a member of the Baptist 
Church since he was seventeen, having early taken 
a stand for Christianity, morality, and temperance. 
He was one of the constituent members and incor- 
porators of Calvary Baptist Church, and contrib- 
uted toward the erection of its house of worship. 

Among the self-made men of New Haven, Mr. 
Bishop may proudly take his position, and among 
its progressive public-spirited citizens as well. He 
has fought a stern fight against many reverses, ask- 
ing no favors to aid and no sympathy to cheer 
him. He has met misfortune manfully, and his 
life would have been a success had it won him no 
other reward than the respect of his fellows. 

DANIEL SACKETT GLENNEY 

was born in Milford, Conn., September 29, 18 19, 
the son of Captain Daniel Glenney, who was for a 
long time in the West India trade, and later mas- 
ter of a packet running between Milford and New 
York. His mother was Amy, daughter of Abra- 
ham Clark, a prosperous farmer of Milford. 

On November 7, 1835, he entered as a clerk 
with Charles Peterson, who carried on the oil, 
paint and glass business on the north side of 
Chapel street, second door east from Orange street. 
The corner was noted at that day as the Saunders' 
corner, where an eccentric, but upright, merchant, 
Philip Saunders, had his store, with a public hall, 
'•Saunders' Hall," on the second story. 

In the fall of 1839, Mr. Glenney went south to 
Augusta and Columbus, Ga. , and the next sum- 
mer returned to the store of Mr. Peterson. In 
January, 1843, he was taken in as partner, the firm 
name being Peterson it Glenney. Later the busi- 
ness was entirely conducted by Mr. Glenney under 
his own name, although for some years the other 
retained an interest. 

In the fall of 1839, Mr. Glenney was married to 
Miss Adeline L. Richards, of West Haven. She 
died in the ensuing summer, leaving a daughter of 
the same name, now Mrs. George \V. Harper, of 
Alexandria, Va. In the fall of 1843, ^Ir- Glenney 
was again married, to his second wife, Mehitable, 
daughter of Thomas Macumber, of New Haven. 
Of six children by this marriage only one survives, 
Daniel Sackett Glenney, Jr. He was born May 6, 
1854, was educated at Russell's Collegiate and 
Commercial Institute, and, on graduating, entered 
into business with his fither. 

More than a quarter of a century since, Mr. 
Glenney built the store 270-272 State street, which 
he has occupied from that to the present time. 

He has served in various public capacities; has 
been Vestryman of St. Paul's Church, was two 





I 




'^^ 



y 




I 




c^^eA ,j¥^i.<f^L^i:^ 



I 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



S3l 



years a member of the Board of Aldermen and 
President of its Board of Finance. He was Presi- 
dent and Treasurer of the Mansfield Elastic Frog 
Company, and on its going into liquidation was 
appointed Assignee and Trustee to wind up its af- 
fairs. 

Mr. Glenney is of light, spare, symmetrical 
frame; height, 5 feet 6 inches; weight, 125 pounds; 
his features are cleanly cut. His eyes are black, 
and his hair, once the same, is now white as 
newly-fallen snow. His temperament is calm, his 
speech mild, and he meets one with a quiet smile. 
When a young man, in parading with the Grays, 
of which he was a member, he was prostrated by a 
sunstroke. The right side of his body was en- 
tirely paralyzed; although his case seemed hope- 
less, his recovery was complete. 

EBENEZER ARNOLD. 

The late Ebenezer Arnold was a son of Captain 
Ebenezer Arnold, of IMjddletown Conn., and was 
the fifth in direct line bearing this name. He was 
born May 25, 181 7. 

His educational advantages were somewhat lim- 
ited and scanty, though he obtained a rudimentary 
knowlege of the branches then taught in the 
schools of his native place ere he applied himself 
to the acquisition of a knowledge of the stove 
trade, entering an establishment in Middletown 
with that object in view. This was the beginning 
of his long connection with a business in which he 
rose to be one of the most prominent merchants in 
New Haven. 

Mr. Arnold came to New Haven in 1S46, and 
became a partner with the Derby Brothers. This 
connection was severed five years later, and during 
the two succeedins: vears he was associated with 



Lyman Treadway. Thereafter, for a few years, and 
until 1856, he conducted a large and increasing 
business alone. During this year he formed a co- 
partnership with his brother-in-law, Mr. \V. H. 
Sears, under the firm name of E. Arnold & Co., 
locating at his well-known stand at the corner of 
State and Crown streets. Here his business as- 
sumed larger proportions than it had before at- 
tained. 

In 1S69, his son, George S. Arnold, was admit- 
ted to a partnership in the enterprise, the style of 
the firm remaining unchanged, as indeed it has 
since, in spite of later changes, the trade name of 
E. Arnold & Co. being as familiar in New Haven 
of to-day as it ever was during Mr. Ebenezer 
Arnold's life and active connection with the busi- 
ness, which has long been recognized as one of the 
most extensive of its kind in the State. Mr. Ar- 
nold retired from business in 1872 on account of 
ill-health, and Mr. Sears withdrew in 1879, since 
when Mr. George S. Arnold has been sole propri- 
etor. 

Mr. Arnold was a self-made man. Striking out 
bravely in the battle of life at an early age, his 
sterling qualities and genial, friendly disposition 
won him at the same time friends and success. 
During his long business career his integrity was 
never called in question, and his word was more 
highly regarded than many another merchant's 
bond. His devotion was divided only by his busi- 
ness and his home. 

A Republican, he was not active in politics and 
took no interest in public affairs, except as a close 
observer of men and measures, and an intelligent, 
public-spirited citizen. 

He was married, in 1846, to Anna Eliza Sears, of 
Middletown, Conn., and died May 26, 1876, leav- 
ing a widow, a son, George S., and two daughters. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 



THE PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



WrrHIN ten years after the arrival of the En- 
glish planters at New Haven, there were in 
the settlement, sawyers, carpenters, ship-carpenters, 
joiners, thatchers, chimney-sweepers, brick-makers, 
brick-layers, plasterers, tanners, shoemakers, sad- 
dlers, weavers, tailors, hatters, blacksmiths, gun- 
smiths, cutlers, nailers, millers, bakers, coopers and 
potters. To these classes of artisans should be add- 
ed the most numerous class of all, some of whom 
were to be found in every home, the spinsters, who 
made woolen and linen thread to be woven into 
cloth. 

Iron-works were projected as early as 1655. 
John Winthrop, interested in mining, and Stephen 
Goodyear, interested in every enterprise which prom- 
ised to be advantageous to New Haven, united in 
setting up a bloomery and forge at the outlet of 
Saltonstall Lake. The people of New Haven fa- 
vored the undertaking by contributing labor in 



building a dam and by conceding the privilege of 
cutting on the common land all the wood needed 
for making charcoal. They hoped that the works 
would bring trade, and that Winthrop would fix his 
residence in New Haven. The ore was transported 
from North Haven, where it was found in bogs, 
partly by boats down the Quinnipiac and up Farm 
River, and partly by carts. After two or three years, 
Goodyear having died and Winthrop having ceased 
to think of New Haven as a place of residence, 
the works were leased to Captain Clark and Mr. 
Payne, of Boston. Iron continued to be made for 
some years; but the institution did not fulfill the 
hopes of its projectors or of the public. 

With the exception of the workmen at the iron- 
works, and the miller who ground the wheat, the 
rye and the maize into meal, the New Haven artisans 
of the seventeenth century wrought almost e.xclu- 
sively with the hand. Even the sawing of a log 



532 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



into boards was accomplished without the aid of 
any other power than that of the top-man, who stood 
above the log, and the pit-man, who stood in an ex- 
cavation beneath it. 

Etymologically, to manufacture should signify to 
make by hand; but in common parlance it means 
to make with the aid of machinery and of power 
extrinsic to man. To avoid the ambiguity which 
might result from the use of the word manufacture, 
we use the phrase " productive arts " as the title of 
this chapter, and include under it those arts in 
which the producer works with his hands only, and 
those in which the workman makes use of ma- 
chinery and is aided by the forces of nature. 

To the first planters of New Haven, their grist- 
mill was a very important institution. It was at 
Whitneyville, and the lane through which grists 
were carried to mill, sometimes on horseback and 
sometimes on an ox-cart, they called Will Lane. 
Their posterity have changed the name to Orange 
street, and might have changed it again to Central 
avenue if its breadth had been equal to its beauty. 

For more than a century the artisans of New 
Haven worked almost exclusively with their hands. 
When the hostilities of the revolution commenced, 
there was a call for powder; and as the manufacture 
of powder required the use of machinery, a powder- 
mill was set up in Westville. Barber's " History" 
states that there were two mills in that suburb, one 
in the upper and the other in the lower part of the 
village. The business was carried on by Isaac 
Doolittle, Jeremiah Atwater and Elijah Thompson. 
It ought perhaps to be mentioned in this connec- 
tion, that about a year before the manufacture of 
powder was commenced, Mr. Doolittle, who was a 
brass-founder and a maker of brass-wheeled clocks, 
had added to the arts practiced in the town that of 
casting bells. Thus gradually did the sphere of 
business enlarge, and, as it grew, included not only 
more establishments, but such as required more 
laborers and more capital under one management 
than the people had been accustomed to see. The 
war stimulated domestic manufactures. In May, 
1775, Samuel Huggins advertises that he has en- 
tered into the business of making bayonets; and 
in July, 1776, the Connecticul Journal, apologizing 
for the necessity of printing only a half sheet, says: 
"There is now a paper-mill erecting in this town 
and we expect after a few weeks to be supplied with 
such a quantity as to publish the Journal regularly 
on a unifurm sized pajjcr. " 

Captain l*'.zekiel Hayes, in whose loins was a 
future President of the United States, was a manu- 
facturer of axes and scythes in what had been 
called Queen street, and was afterwards denomi- 
nated Congress street, and iinally Slate street. An 
advertisement which he put into the Journal ex- 
poses to view the difiiculty he experienced in 
prosecuting his business under the regulations by 
means of which the civil authority attempted to 
make bills of credit as good as gold. 

TO BE SOLD AT rUIil.lC VENDUE. 
The House and Blacksmith's Shop of the subscriber, sit- 
uated in New Haven, on the ijreat road from the Hayscales 
to the Long Wharf. The house is almost new, two stories 



high and two stacks of chimneys, but partly finished. Thei 
vendue will be on the first day of June next (except sold at 
private sale before) on the premises, and may be entered on 
immediately, as the subscriber is then going to move out Of 
town. 

N. B. — If any person chooseth to purchase at private 
sale, they may know the terms by applying to me, and have 
immediate possession. 

The subscriber begs leave to inform the public that he is 
under the necessity of removing to his house in Branford, in 
order to prosecute his usual business of making axes and 
scythes, the authority of this town having stated those arti- 
cles at a less price than the materials out of which they are 
manufactured, cost. As foreign steel, the only kind that is 
fit for my business, is not stated, I am obliged to give higher 
for it than the regulated prices of other articles. The public 
therefore must either allow me 75 per cent, on my work 
and the first cost of my stock, or I must infallibly heave up 
my trade. 

I am, the public's humble servant, 

EzEKiEL Hayes. 

New Haven, April 28, 1775. 

This advertisement, whether so intended or not, 
seems to have resulted in the continuance of Cap- 
tain Hayes at New Haven. 

During the revolutionary struggle there was re- 
siding at New Haven a very ingenious mechanic 
named Abel Buell. . He was a native of Killing- 
worth, and in that town learned of Ebenezer Chit- 
tenden the trade of a silversmith. While yet resi- 
dent in his native town lie used his ingenuity 
feloniously, altering a Connecticut bill of credit 
from five shillings to five pounds. For this he was 
punished by branding on the forehead with the 
letter C, cutting off the right ear, imprisonment 
in the Norwich jail, and confiscation of estate. In 
view of his youth and mitigating circumstances, 
he was soon released on bond. At first he was 
bound to live in and not to leave Killingworth. 
In 1766, his petition "to trade and deal without 
penalty " and to go where he pleased was granted, 
a bond being required 01^200 for good behavior. 
In October, 1769, Buell again addressed the Leg- 
islature, stating that he had discovered the art of 
type-founding, and asking encouragement in the 
form of a lottery or in some other way, that he might 
erect a foundry and prosecute the business. To 
prove the value of the discovery, and as a speci- 
men of his abilities, his memorial was "impressed 
with types of his own manufacture." The Assem- 
bly, in accordance with the report of a committee, 
voted to loan him ^100 for seven years, he "to 
set up and pursue within one year the art of letter- 
founding in this colony." After twelve months 
;^ioo more were to be loaned for seven years. 
Buell then removeti to New Haven and employed for 
his foundry the Sandemanian meeting-house in 
Gregson street, where he had fifteen or twenty 
boys making types. The attempt was a failure, and 
in August, 1777, "said Buell having wholly failed 
to set up and practice the art of type-founding, 
and become insolvent and absconded," the Assem- 
bly voted to accept from Mrs. Aletta Buell "the 
one hundred pounds which she had procured with 
the utmost difiiculty," and to discharge the ;^200 
bond held by the State. 

But this was not the end of Buell. In 1785, 
several gentlemen applied for and obtained from 
the General Assembly liberty to establish a mint 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



533 



for making copper coins, or coppers, as they were 
called. Among them were Samuel Bishop, James 
Hiilhouse, and John Goodrich, of New Haven. 
They alleged that there was a great and very prev- 
alent scarcity of small coins in the State, in conse- 
quence of which "great inconveniences are se- 
verely felt, particularly by the laboring class, who 
are the stay and staff of any community." Abel 
Buell was one of this "Company for Coining 
Coppers," and invented a machine by means of 
which he was able to coin one hundred and twenty 
coppers in a minute. In the course of two years 
there had been inspected by a committee appoint- 
ed by the State, and consisting of Roger Sher- 
man, James Wadsworth, David Austin, Ebenezer 
Chittenden, and Isaac Beers, 28,944 avoirdupois 
pounds of coined coppers, whose value amounted 
to /"3,90s 6s. 8d. Of this amount the State re- 
i'tiioi,kj ceived one-twentieth part. The coppers had on 
'C;?.'! one side a man's head with the circumscription 
AUCTORI CONNECT, and on the other 
side the emblem of Liberty holding an olive 
branch in her hand with inscription I N D E E T 
LIB : 1785. 

Afterward the "New Haven Mint" was em- 
ployed to make copper coins for Congress. In 
1787, the Board of Treasury was authorized to 
contract with James Jarvis for three hundred tons 
of copper coin of the Federal standard, to be manu- 
factured at his own expense, he "to allow to the 
United States on the amount of coin contracted for, 
not less than fifteen per cent." The devices on this 
coin, as fi.xed July 6, 1787, were on one side, thir- 
teen circles linked together, a small circle in the 
middle with the words UNITED STATES 
around it, and in the center, WE ARE O N E ; 
and on the other side, a dial with the hours ex- 
pressed on the face of it, a meridian seen above, 
on one side of which is to be the word F U G I O, 
and on the other the )ear in figures, 1787; below 
the dial the words, MIND YOUR OWN 
B LI S I N i- S S. Jarvis removed from New York 
to New Haven, and availed himself of the ingenuity 
and experience of Buell, and of the plant which the 
company for coining coppers had already estab- 
lished. The mint was on East Water street, near 
Sargent's Foundry, where, as Dr. Bronson in- 
forms us in his essay on Connecticut Currency 
read to the New Haven Colony Historical Society 
and published in the first volume of the Society's 
Papers, "the boys were wont to find coppers," 
forty years before the writing of his paper. The 
New Haven Colony Historical Society has a map 
of the home-lot bought by Captain Daniel Greene 
in 1795. On that map is marked " Copper Store. " 
The copper store is on the north side of Water 
street, and adjoins the west end of the dwelling- 
house. 

In 1789, Buell went to Europe, ostensibly, it is 
said, to purchase copper for coining, but really to 
obtain a knowledge of the machinery used in mak- 
ing cotton-cloth. When he returned he brought 
with him a Scotchman named William Mcintosh. 
Buell, Mcintosh, and some New York capitalists, 
erected a large building at Westville, and com- 



menced the manufacture of cotton cloth. The 
enterprise was thought so important that the Gene- 
ral Assembly granted a subsidy of $3,000. It is 
said to have been " one of the first " cotton-mills in 
America. For a few years it produced large quan- 
tities of cotton-cloth, but for some reason its ma- 
chinery was changed so as to produce woolen-cloth 
instead. Afterward the same building was used as 
a paper-mill. It was consumed by fire in 1837, 
but the site is again occupied by a paper-mill. 

Barber, in his " History and Antiquities of New 
Haven," says that calico printing was carried on at 
the cotton-mill in Westville; but printing on cloth 
antedated the weaving of cotton in New Haven at 
least ten years. In 1 780, appeared an advertise- 
ment of Amos Doolittle <.t Co., in which they say; 

It has been a general complaint that the calicoes and 
linens printed in America are liable to fade. The sub- 
scribers having been at unwearied pains, labor, and fatigue 
in making experiments with several colors for these two 
years past, can now assure the public that they have found 
out colors that are handsome and durable. We would rec- 
ommend to those who are desirous of wearing their own 
manufacture, and who spin and make cloth for that purpose, 
that they may have it printed in a variety of figures that 
will be handsome and durable, either for curtains, gowns, 
handkerchiefs, etc., by the people's most obedient, humble 
servants. 

They subjoin that clean old linen, that is not loo 
much worn, will do very well for printing. Mr. 
Doolittle seems to have retired from this business 
before long; for, about a year later, his partners 
advertise that: 

Calico printing, which was formerly carried on by Doo- 
Httle and Company, at John Mix's, is now removed to the 
house of Kiersted Mansfield, opposite to the Rev. Mr. Ed- 
wards: where cloth will be taken in for that purpose, and 
also at the house of John Mix, Junior, opposite the market 
in New Haven. 

In October, 1790, John Mix, Junior, who had 
probably relinquished the business of printing cloth, 
and was now a tavern-keeper in Court street, 

Informs the public that he has at considerable expense, erected 
a factory for making buttons, adjoining the City Assembly 
Room, Court street. New Haven ; where gentlemen, mer- 
chants and others, may be supplied with hard metal buttons, 
both plain and figured, of different sorts and sizes, as cheap 
or cheaper than they can be imported, of the same goodness 
and quality. 

His advertisement seems to have awakened the 
emulation of his neighbor. Captain Phineas Brad- 
ley, who in the next issue of the Journal, 

Informs the public that he was the first inventor of the white 
hard metal button in this country, and that he carries on 
that business in an extensive manner at his shop in Court 
street. New Haven, where all persons may be supplied with 
any quantity on the shortest notice, and as cheap as can be 
purchased in New York, or any other place on the continent, 
of equal goodness. As there have been many buttons of an 
inferior quality, something resembling the genuine ones, 
hawked about the country, as he is informed, in his name, 
he informs the public that those of his make in future will 
have the initial letters of his name on the bulge of the eye. 

After the lapse of another week, Mr. Mix publishes 
his rejoinder. He 

Informs the public that he carries on the manufacturing of 
the white hard-metal buttons in a larger and more extensive 
manner than any one in the State. He has made at his 
factory more than one thousand gross of buttons, which he 
has disposed of to individuals upon terms that have been 



534 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



pleasing and satisfactory to them, and to the public in gen- 
eral, and have been invariably offered for sale in his name, 
and his name only, wStliout one exception to the contrary; 
and for the most part for months back, with few exceptions, 
there has been a hand-bill put on each gross, and for the 
future, to save any evil surmises or informations, every gross 
will be accompanied with a hand-bill signed by him. And 
as he is daily improving and enlarging his works, and has 
lately furni>hed himself with a number of elegant and 
fashionalile stamps, for the purpose of stamping buttons, 
which are most approved of, he therefore flatters himself he 
shall be able to supply all those gentlemen who please to 
favor him with their custom, with GENUINE BUT- 
TONS, equal in goodness and on as good terms as any 
made in the State of Connecticut. Cash given for old 
copper, pewter and block-tin. Five or six active lads of the 
age of 16 or 18 years may find constant employ by applying 
at said factory. 

N. B. — Mr. Martin Bull of Farmington, made the first 
white hard-metal buttons in this State, and the subscriber 
was the first proposer of making said buttons in New Haven. 
Mr. Samuel Deimison, and the subscriber, in partnership, 
cast the first white hard-metal buttons in New Haveii, in 
moulds that were solely the property and belonging to the 
partnership of the subscriber and said Dennison. Mr. Amos 
Doolittle was the first that made the skeleton rim button in 
New Haven. John Mi.\, Junior. 

In 1785, the Connecticut Silk Society was estab- 
lished, having for its object the promotion of silk 
manufacture throughout the State. Mulberry or- 
chards were planted in New Haven and other towns 
in the vicinity, and considerable silk was produced 
for sewing and knitting. President Stiles was zeal- 
ous in this movement, having brought with him to 
New Haven, from Newport, an interest in the pro- 
duction of silk. Dr. Aspinwall, of Mansfield, was 
a co-laborer with Stiles. He had a large mulberry 
orchard at Mansfield and another at New Haven. 
About fifty families in New Haven were engaged in 
the care of silk-worms in 1790; while in Mansfield 
the business had acquired such permanence that it 
has never been abandoned. The tamily of Presi- 
dent Stiles had fabrics woven in England of silk of 
their own raising. In 1788 the President himself 
appeared at Commencement in a gown of this 
domestic silk. 

The General Assembly of Connecticut, at its May 
session in 1790, granted a lottery for the purpose 
of aiding the manufacture of glass in New Haven. 
The lottery was drawn in two schemes or classes, 
under the management of Jonas Prentice and Peter 
DeWitt, but the w-riter, after inquiring of some of 
the oldest inhabitants, has not found any tradition 
that glass was once manufictured in New Haven. 
There was a pottery in East Water street at the 
beginning of the present century, where glazed jars 
and jugs were made, and the conjecture that the 
attempt to manufacture glassware resulted in this 
humble establishment is well worthy of considera- 
tion. 

Among the advertisements of the Cimneclicul 
Journal, in 1790, is that of Jotham Fenton, opti- 
cian, manufacturer of telescopes, microscopes, etc. 
"He maybe seen at his house in Grove street, 
facing College street." 

Some time in the latter part of the eighteenth 
century, a brewery was established in Brewery 
street by Messrs. Bakewell. Their ale was con- 
sidered by many as the best in the market. The 



building was destroyed by fire in 1806, and the 
business came to an end. 

Passing now into the nineteenth century, we take 
notice of the manufacture of woolen-cloth at Sey- 
mour, or, as the place was then called, Humphreys- 
ville, by Colonel David Humphreys, who resided 
during the later years of his life at New Haven. 
For this reason his mill was, in some sense, a New 
Haven institution, though located outside of the 
town. President Madison took care to be provided 
for his inauguration, in 1809, with a coat made of 
the cloth manufactured by Humphreys, as Presi- 
dent Jefterson had taken care to be similarly pro- 
vided for a New Year festival in the last year of his 
presidency. 

The correspondence between President Jefferson 
and Abraham Bishop, Collector of the Port of New 
Haven, in regard to the cloth for the President's 
New Year coat, is preserved in the archives of the 
New Haven Colony Historical Society, in the orig- 
inal papers, which are interesting, among other 
reasons, because they illustrate the change in the 
method of purchasing at a distance which has re- 
sulted from the establishment of E.xpress com- 
panies. 

Washingto.n, Nov. 13, 08. 

Sir, — Not knowing whether Colonel Humphreys would 
be at present at or in the neighborhood of New Haven, 
or in Boston, I take the lilierty of addressing a request to 
yourself. Homespun is liecome the spirit of the times. 
I think it an uselul one, and therefore that it is a 
duty to encourage it by example. The best fine cloth 
made in the U. S. is, I am told, at the manufacture of Col" . 
Humphreys in your neighborhood. Could I get the favor 
of you to procure me there as much of his best as would 
make me a coat ? I should prefer a deep blue, but if not to 
be had, then a black. Some person coming on in the stage 
can perhaps be found who would do me the favor of taking 
charge of it. The amount shall be remitted you the moment 
you shall be so kind as to notify it to me; or paid to any 
member of the legislature here, whom yourself or Colonel 
Humphreys' agent shall indicate. Having so little acquaint- 
ance in or near New Haven, I hope you will jiardon the 
liberty 1 take in proposing this trouble to you; toward which 
the general motive will perhaps avail something. 

I salute you with esteem and respect. 

Th. Jefferson. 
• Mr. Abraham Bishop. 

New Haven, Nov. 30, 1808. 
Sir, — Since the receipt of your favor of 13th inst., I have 
waited for the return of Col. Humphreys from I'hiladelphia, 
upon the suggestion of his agent that the Col. would lie 
ambitious to select, personally, such cloth, as might do 
justice to his factory and your expectations. 

The Colonel returned this evening and says that four 
weeks at least will be necessary for furnishing a piece of 
superior quality, which is in hand. 

As soon as it shall be received, I will have the satisfaction 
of forwarding it according to your request. 
I have the honor to be, 

with the greatest respect. 

Sir, y obi serv>, 

Abr". Bishop. 
President Jefferson. 

Washington, Dec. 8, 08. 

Sir, — Your favor of Nov. 30 is duly received, and I thank 
you for your kind attention to the little commission respect- 
ing the cloth. 

I shall be glad to receive it whenever it can come, but a 
great desideratum will be lost if not received in time to be 
made up for our new-year's-day exhibition, when we expect 




itke I 




/?^^^6d^!^ .^^^j;^^^^' 




PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



535 



every one will endeavor to be in homespun, and I should be 
sorry to be marked as being in default. I would sacrifice 
much in the quality to this circumstance of time; however 
I leave it to the kindness of Col". Humphreys and yourself. 
I presume that if put into a very light box, no larger than 
to hold the cloth closely pressed in, and addressed to me, it 
may come safely by the stage, or even by the mail, if that 
be necessary to save our distance. 

Accept my salutation and assurances of esteem and re- 
spect. Th. Jkffekson. 
Mr. Bishop. 

N. H., 14 Dec, 1808. 
Sir, — According to y' request under date of 8 inst., you 
will receive by the mail which conveys this 5^ yds. narrow 
superf. cloth, from Col. Humphreys' factory, being of ^th 
merino wool, price S4.50 per yard. Mr. E. Bacon of the 
House of Rep. will do me the favor to receive from you the 
amount expressed in the enclosed receipt. The Col. laments 
that it is not in his power to furnish you at this time with 
cloth of a superior quality. 

I have the honor to be. 
With gt. resp.. 
Sir, 

y. mo. ob. serv., 

Abrm. Bishop. 
Pre. Jefferson. 

Washington, Jan. 20, '09. 
Sir, — This is the first moment I have been able to make 
the acknowledgment of the receipt of the cloth you were so 
kind as to procure me, in good condition. The cost was 
paid to Mr. Bacon according to your permission, and I pray 
you to accept my thanks for the trouble of this commission, 
with the assiu-ances of my esteem and respect. 

Th". Jefferson. 
Mr. Bishop. 

J. Humphreys, Jr., ReC for President Jefferson's cloth, 
pd. 1S08. 

President Jefferson, Dr. 
To 5^ yds. cloth, Bot. of Col. Humphreys, at $4.50 S24.75 

Rec^ payment m full of Abraham Bishop, Esq., for Col, 
Humphreys. John Humphreys, Jun". 

New Haven, Dec. 26th, 1808. 

Having brought the history of the productive 
arts in New Haven into the present century, we 
mention two large manufacturing establishments 
which were once in existence, but have now ceased 
to be, and then proceed to a survey of the several 
industries in which the artisans of New Haven are 
at present engaged. 

One was a carpet factory, located at first in 
Water street and afterward in a long, narrow wooden 
building, in East street, near the place where that 
street is now intersected by St. John street. Several 
weavers came from Scotland, and carpets of excel- 
lent quality were produced; but the enterprise was 
relinquished, because its carpets could not compete 
in the market with inferior, but equally well-ap- 
pearing goods. The other was an ax factory on 
the site where the L. Candee Company now make 
india-rubber goods. The building was of East 
Haven sandstone, 50 by 100 feet in size, one story 
high, open to the lofty roof, which was surmounted 
with three large ventilators. It contained three 
forges of four blasts each, for twelve forgers 
and twelve strikers; large grind-stones and emery- 
wheels, and a steam engine for blowing the forge 
fires. One year after commencing work, the axes 
took the first prize at the Fair of the American In- 
stitute in New York. In another chapter we have 
mentioned the visit of President Jackson to this 



establishment in 1833, and the cheers with which 
the workmen received him. In a communication 
received since that account was written, Mr. A. \V. 
Harrison, a son of the principal proprietor of the 
ax factory, states that President Jackson was pre- 
sented "with a dozen of the axes, in a velvet-lined 
box of old hickory wood, which he gracefully ac- 
knowledged. '' Until the time of the President's 
visit, the factory had been a success, but it could 
not endure the financial storm which followed the 
removal of the public deposits from the United 
States Bank in the autumn of that year. 

In canvassing the industries which at present 
occupy the artisans of New Haven, we shall ar- 
range the artisans alphabetically, so that the reader 
may easily turn to those of which he is in quest. 

Agricultural Implement Makers. 

The firm of C. Pierpont ctCo. , manufacturers of 
fodder and ensilage cutters, was established in 1865. 
The four-story frame building, at the corner of 
Crown and Park streets, occupied by the works, is 
40 by 100 feet in dimensions. A 50-horse power 
engine drives the machinery, and about twenty- 
five persons are employed. The firm also manufac- 
ture rubber-bucket pumps, well-curbs, and a money- 
drawer secured with an alarm and combination 
lock. Dwight W. Baldwin is Superintendent of 
this establishment. 

CORNELIUS PIERPONT 

was born in Litchfield, Conn., August 15, 1829, a 
son of James N. and Sila (Harrison) Pierpont. 

His early years were passed on his father's farm, 
and his education was obtained in the public 
schools of his native town. His father dying while 
he was yet a mere lad, he was thrown measurably 
on his own resources. ,\fter leaving home he 
taught school a short time, and in 1854 established 
himself in the grocery trade in Broadway, New Ha- 
ven. He did business on that street continuously for 
thirty years, retiring in 1884. During the earlier 
years of his mercantile career, when it was custom- 
ary for grocery men to retail liquor with their other 
goods, Mr. Pierpont, from the decided stand he 
took against that custom, was known as " the tem- 
perance grocer. " 

The house of C. Pierpont & Co., manufacturers 
of fodder and ensilage cutters, pumps, money- 
drawers, well-curbs, etc., was established in 1866, 
with Mr. Pierpont at its head. Its trade has ex- 
tended not only over every State in the Union and 
the Canadian provinces, but has reached Mexico, 
South America, P^urope, Australia, and other re- 
mote countries. 

Mr. Pierpont is a progressive, public-spirited 
citizen, who takes a lively interest in the growth and 
development of New Haven's important interests, 
with many of which he has from time to time been 
identified. His prominent connection with the New 
Haven and Centreville Horse Railroad Company 
is well known, and has done much to advance the 
standing and business of that line. 



536 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



Architects. 

Previous to the opening of the present century 
there was little pretension to skill in architectural 
design or architectural drawing, and what was at- 
tempted in that line was usually by carpenters. 
Utility without ornamentation was the end sought. 

Ithiel Town came to reside in New Haven in 
1810, and was its first professional architect. He 
was a progressive man, and in his work designed a 
wooden truss-bridge, which found favor in various 
parts of New England and yielded him a con- 
siderable royalty. Mr. Town made the drawings 
for Trinity Episcopal Church and for the Centre 
Church in 1813, both erected during the war. He 
also designed the State House in 1828, and plans 
of his drawing are in existence for a building for 
the Eagle Bank at the corner of Church and 
Chapel streets, dated 1825. The elevation had 
much the appearance of the State House on the 
Green. This new building was in course of erec- 
tion when the bank failed. The materials which 
had been put together were removed and the pres- 
ent Exchange Building erected upon the founda- 
tion. Mr. Town died in 1844, aged si.xty years. 

Sidney M. Stone was the next professional archi- 
tect, and began work in 1833. He designed the 
College street Church, Wooster place Baptist 
Church (afterwards burned, but not essentially re- 
modeled when rebuilt), the Third Congregational 
Church on Church street, now the First Presbyter- 
ian Church, the Orphan Asylum, and the residence 
of the late Pelatiah Perit on Hillhouse avenue. 

Henry Austin began business in 1837, and has 
since continued as the father of architects. Nearly 
all of the present architects of the city have served 
time under his teaching, and he has left the marks 
of his skill in almost every street in the city. 
Among the first of Mr. Austin's works was Mitch- 
ell's Building on Chapel street. Among the more 
prominent buildings of the city designed by him 
during the forty-five years he has been in business, 
are the College Library, City Hall, Yale, Trades- 
man's, Mechanics', and Merchants' Banks, the New 
Haven Savings Bank (one of the finest banking- 
rooms in the country), Eaton School, Trinity 
Home on George street, New Haven House, En- 
trance to the City Burial Ground, and the Register 
Building on Chapel street. Among the more no- 
table private residences of the city designed by Mr. 
Austin are those of O. B. North, Willis Bristol, H. 
M.Welch and Nelson Hotchkiss, on Chapel street, 
and the Sheffield residence on Hillhouse avenue. 
In 1881, Mr. Austin admitted his son, Fred. D. 
Austin, to the firm, the title being Henry Austin 
& Son. 

D. R. Brown worked eighteen years with Henry 
Austin, and began business in 1865. From 1880 
to 1884 C. H. Stillson was associated with him. 
Mr. Brown designed the County Court House on 
Church street, the Glebe Building, Church of the 
Messiah, Church of the Redeemer, and the Armory 
on Meadow street. 

R. G. Russell was with Mr. Austin for several 
years, beginning business himself in 1862. Among 



the more prominent buildings designed by him are 
the Police Building on Court street. Calvary Bap- 
tist Church, Howard avenue Church, and the 
Davenport Church. ■ 

RUFUS G. RUSSELL. \ 

Among the few citizens of New Haven vvhosa i 
talents have been exerted in behalf of the beautiful 
as well as of the useful, the name of Rufus Gusta- 
vus Russell stands pre-eminent. 

He was born September 5, 1823, in that portion 
of Waterbury which was afterwards set off to formal 
the town of Prospect. His father. Ransom R. Rus-t| 
sell, was in early life a farmer and school-teacher, '|| 
but afterwards engaged in manufacturing. His l| 
family comprised four sons and one daughter. The 
second son is the one whose life-story is here nar- 
rated. 

During the first twelve years of his life he attended] 
the public schools of the neighborhood, and worked! 
on the land and in the factory. When fourteen, hej 
made the first trial of his fortune in the busy world! 
outside. Coming to New Haven he obtained a] 
situation in A. H. Maltby's book store in the old' 
Glebe Building. Tiring of this after a year, he 
returned home and resumed his former labors. 

In 1839, he attended through a winter's term at 
the F3piscopal Academy of Cheshire, which was then 
under the direction of Rev. Dr. FZ. E. Beardsley,now 
of this city. He was a quiet, studious youth, and 
the bent of his mind towards books and reading 
was strongly marked. Even in his boyhood he had 
gathered together a library. Again he left home 
and went to Binghamton, where he applied himself 
to learn the carpenter's trade. After a few years 
spent in acquiring the desired knowledge, he came 
back to New Haven and was engaged by Charles 
Thompson to work upon the College Library 
building. 

In 1845 he married Miss Elizabeth Sanford, a 
native of Woodbridge, by whom he has had three 
children. One died in youth and two are still liv- 
ing — a son, the Rev. B. G. Russell, now in Ver- 
mont ; and a daughter, the wife of Mr. Oscar 
Dikeman, of New Haven. Soon after his marriage, 
Mr. Russell became a resident ofNaugatuck, Conn., 
where for some years he was occupied in manufac- 
turing and in the practice of his trade. 

So early as when he lived in Binghamton, Mr. 
Russel's mind had received, from suggestions in 
a letter by his father, a strong impulse towards 
the study of architecture. F"rom that time on the 
purpose of becoming an architect shaped itself more 
and more clearly, and was the controlling idea of 
his life. To that end his studies were directed, 
and although other occupations were for a time 
necessary, they were always regarded as temporary 
pursuits. In 1852, he moved from Naugatuck to 
New Haven, and entered upon the preliminaries of 
his chosen profession, working at building, wood- 
carving, and as an amateur architect. Several 
months of the year 1856 were devoted to traveling 
through the West as far as Jefterson City, but the 
broad Western country failed to attract Mr. Russell, 




PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



537 



'rie returned home well-contended to abide in New 
flaven. 

In the following year he entered the office of 
Henry Austin, the architect, and was the assistant 
3f that gentleman for nearly seven years. At the 
expiration of that time he opened an office for him- 
self in the Street Building, but soon removed to his 
present quarters, at 852 Chapel street. 

Mr. Russell cast his first presidential vote for 
Henry Clay, and joined the Republican parly in the 
beginning of its career. He has served the com- 
munity in a number of important municipal offices. 
In 1867-68, he was elected to the Board of Council- 
men, and in the following year was an Alderman. 
He was Chairman of the Committee on Squares 
and Lamps, and was a member of the Sewer Com- 
mittee. Afterwards, having moved into another 
ward, Mr. Russell was again chosen Councilman 
for one year (1S72), and in the ensuing year he was 
once more an .Alderman, thus concluding five years 
of honorable and meritorious public service. Mr. 
Russell has been a prominent member of the Sons 
ofTemperance, both in Xaugatuck and New Haven. 
In each place he held the dignity of Worthy Patri- 
arch, and was for several years Deputy G. W. P. 
He is a member of Hiram Lodge of Masons, and 
has also been influential in the Good Templar or- 
ganization. 

The products of Mr. Russell's labor and skill are 
scattered widely through the land, and appeal to 
the eye of every beholder. He has studied to build 
practical, sensible structures, that would continually 
deserve anti retain favor. The ornate and gaudy 
style of building, which first surprises and then 
wearies the eye, he has avoided. His success wit- 
nesses how thoroughly he has carried out his in- 
tentions. His ideas appear to the world clothed in 
the most substantial of forms. 

A great many church edifices have been designed 
by him, prominent among which are the Calvary 
Baptist, the Davenport and the Howard Avenue 
Congregational in New Haven; the Garfield Mem- 
orial and the Unitarian in Washington, D. C. ; the 
Unitarian in Buffalo, N. V. ; the Methodist and 
the Baptist in Meriden, Conn. ; and the Congrega- 
tional in Wallingford, Conn. 

Numerous other public buildings are memori- 
als of his handiwork, among them the Police 
Building, the Gas Company's building, the Elliott 
House, the Woolsey School, and the Second 
National ]5ank in this city; the noted Morgan 
.School at Clinton, Conn. ; and the High School at 
Middletown. The private dwellings which he has 
planned are to be seen at every turn in this city, 
and similar products of his industry abound in 
town and city elsewhere. 

L. W. Robinson, also a pupil of Mr. Austin, 
has designed the Welch Training School, the Town- 
send Building at the corner of Orange and Crown 
streets, and a number of school buildings. 

Other architects of the city, more recently estab- 
lished, are H. W. Lindsley, J. D. Roberts, John 
Galwey, C. H. Stilson, George C. A. Brown, and 
the firm of Allen & Tvler. 



A.MMoxi.v Manufacturers. 

The ammonia works of Edward H. Wardell, 349 
Chapel street, were started in 1877. It is the only 
concern of the kind in the State. Formerly the 
making of muriate and sulphate of ammonia con- 
stituted the principal product. At present concen- 
trated ammonia forms the chief article of manu- 
facture. This is made from the animoniacal liquor 
extracted from coal. The products of these works 
are sold principally to the Solvay Process Company 
of Syracuse, N. Y., and are used by them in making 
soda ash. David J. Gilmartin has been manager of 
these works since they wgre started. He was form- 
erly employed for several years in the same busi- 
ness in the City of New York. 

Arsiorers. 

Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton-gin, 
having relinquished all hope of emolument from 
that invention, turned his attention to the manu- 
facture of fire-arms. Having, in 1798, made aeon- 
tract with the United States for 10,000 stand of 
arms, lie purchased a tract of land at the place 
now called Whitneyville, two miles from the center 
of New Haven, and erected a gun-factory, with a 
row of cottages for his workmen. The premises 
have been used from that time to this for the manu- 
facture of arms. The present company — the Whit- 
ney Arms Company — was organized in 1864. Its 
officers are Eli Whitney, the son of the inventor of 
the cotton-gin. President and Treasurer; and Eli 
Whitney, Jr., Assistant Treasurer and Secretary. 
The jilant, under the west 'shadow of East Rock, 
consists of a tract of several acres. An engine of 
125 horse-power drives the machinery. About two 
hundred operatives are employed. Tlie arms manu- 
factured here have the peculiarity invented and in- 
troduced by the elder Whitney, of making all parts 
alike, so as to be interchangeable. This plan was 
adopted by the ignited States Government in the 
early years of this century, by Great Britain in 1 855, 
and later by other European nations. The trade 
of the Company is world-wide. 

The establisiiment of the Winchester Repeating 
Arms Company is one of the largest of its kind in 
the world. The original Company was a stock 
company, organized by a special act of the Legisla- 
ture in May, 1 866. I'he personnel of the Company 
were O. F. Winchester, E. A. Mitchell. John En- 
glish, J. A. Bishop and Morris Tyler. The name of 
the original organization was the Henry Arms Com- 
pany, but was changed to the Winchester Repeat- 
ing Arms Company the following year. O. F. Win- 
chester was the first president, holding that position 
until his death in 1880. Governor Winchester was 
succeeded by W. W. Converse, who now holds that 
position. The Company first began operadons in 
Union street, but moved to Bridgeport, and occu- 
pied a part of the premises of the Wheeler and Wil- 
son Company. The present buildings were erected 
for the most part in the summer and fall of 1870, 
and were occupied by the Company in January, 1871. 
They now employ over si.x hundred hands, and the 



538 



HISTORV OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



buildings cover about five acres of floor room. 
The Company have executed a large number of or- 
ders for some of the prominent nations of Conti- 
nental Europe. During the Turkish war both the 
Russian and Turkish Governments were heavily sup- 
plied with arms and ammunition from this Com- 
pany. Connected with this establishment are Will- 
iam" I\Iason, Master-Mechanic; R. M. Russell, M. 
C. Reade, George L. Sanford, John B. Haines and 
Frank Jewell, Contractors. 

The Strong Fire-arms Company was organized 
in February, 1884, being previously known as the 
Strong Cartridge Company, organized in January, 

1 88 1, and located in Artisan street. The Cartridge 
Company was burned out in 1883, when it was re- 
organized under the present title, and removed to 
Park street. The Company's interest in the car- 
tridge business was sold to the Combination, con- 
sisting of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, 
of this city: the United States Cartridge Com- 
pan)', of Lowell, Mass., and the Union Cartridge 
Company, of Bridgeport. A specialty is made of 
the manufacture of Dickerman's hammerless shot- 
gun and rifle, and breech- and muzzle-loading yacht 
and field cannon. The officers of the Company 
are, H. H. Strong, President; H. D. Bristol, Secre- 
tary and Treasurer; and A. Dickerman, Superin- 
tendent, 

The Marlin Fire arms Company, incorporated 
with a capital of $200,000, is a comparatively new 
establishment. The plant, situated on the corner 
of Willow and Nicoll streets, consists of substantial 
brick buildings. Officers are, Charles Daly, Presi- 
dent; J. M. Marlin, Treasurer; C. F. Demmer, Sec- 
retary. 

The Kelsey Cartridge Company was organized in 

1882, and commenced the manufacture of metallic 
cartridges at 22 Artisan street, but in 1885 removed 
to West Haven. While here, conical, brass 
shot-shells and paper-shells were made; and spe- 
cial attention was given to the manufacture of car- 
tridge-shells for target practice. Forty-five men 
were employed. George R. Kelsey, of West Ha- 
ven, is largely interested in this Company, where 
the work is now successfully carried on. 

GEORGE R. KELSEY. 

The subject of this sketch was born May 15, 
1820, in Upper Middletovvn, now Cromwell, Conn. 
His father's name was Zebulon, whose ancestors in 
a direct line, for three generations, were named 
Israel. They were natives of that place, and were 
hardy and vigorous people. His mother was 
Sally, daughter of Daniel F.dwards, of Cromwell. 
Of her children, who grew to adult years, there were 
five sons and one daughter. 

When he was ten years of age his parents re- 
moved to Ohio, and with their boy's help cleared 
up many acres of heavy timber land for farming 
purposes. He remained with his parents eleven 
years, and during that time learned the carpenter's 
and joiner's trade. 

He returned to Middletown in 1842, and soon 
r.fter his attention was called to the demand for 



clothing and suspender buckles, which, previous to 
this date, were all imported from FZngland, France, 
and Germany. 

Mr. Kelsey began their manufacture in 1843, in a 
small way, at Middletown, with comparatively no 
capital, and peiformed all the work by hand. Other 
parties attempted the business about the same time, 
but yielded to the strong foreign competition, leav- 
ing the field to Mr. Kelsey. He struggled with 
persistent energy for ten years to establish the busi- 
ness, and during that lime met with reverses which 
would have crushed less resolute men, being twice 
burned out. But by perseverance the business was 
re-established, and by the introduction of new ma- 
chinery and patented improvements in buckles, he 
succeeded in producing a stock of such excellent 
quality that it entirely broke down importation. 
The field being thus cleared of foreign rivals, capi- 
talists in this country became the new competi- 
tors. 

The following, taken from the lives of the iNIanu- 
facturers of Connecticut, shows the high confidence 
reposed in Mr. Kelsey during a period of misfor- 
tune and depression. 

In the fall of 1847, Mr. Kelsey, then of Middletown, lost 
all his stock, tools and machinery by fire, which reduced him 
to poverty. Having no insurance he at once proposed to 
his creditors to close up the business, as his accounts receiv- 
able were barely sufficient to pay his indebtedness. He 
frankly told them that there were jjarties in Watertown and 
Waterbury who had just engaged in the same business, with 
sufficient capital to compete successfully. To this his cred- 
itors replied: " Go on, try again; we will furnish you mate- 
rial: pay when you can." 

With such encouragement he bent his whole energies to 
the re-establishment of his business, and in about four 
months' time, was manufacturing again in the town of Crom- 
well, where he continued successfully until 1S52, when com- 
petition rapidly increased, and so many embarking in the 
business made it unprofitable, and broke down nearly all 
who were engaged in it. 

Of these only two or three succeeded. With 
them Mr. Kelsey united, with a view to mutual 
protection; first with the Waterbury Buckle Com- 
pany, in 1855, of which he accepted the presidency, 
and soon after look the direct management of the 
West Haven Buckle Company, and has held his in- 
terest in these two companies to the present time. 
Both have built up a business and reputation worthy 
of American manufacturers. 

With a nominal capital of $17,000 the West Ha- 
ven Company, under his management for twenty- 
seven years, has paid dividends to its stockholders 
of over $750,000; while the Waterbury Company, 
during the same time, has also paid large dividends 
to its stockholders. 

The American ]5uckle and Cartridge Company, 
recently organized in West Haven, is a plant of 
Mr. Kelsey's, and is under his direct management,' 
assisted by his two sons. With the increased wants 
which the progress of the times has created, buckles 
have become a convenient and indispensable ar- 
ticle. Although now applied to a great variety of 
uses, their manufacture is comparatively recent. 

Buckles were introduced into England in the 
reign of Charles the Second, and took the place of 
strings for a variety of purposes. They soon be- 
came fashionable, attained enormous size, and 



I { 



A 




^^/^/^ 




PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



539 



were made largely of silver, sometimes set with di- 
amonds and other precious stones. In the latter 
half of the last century, buckle-making became an 
important industry of Birmingham, England. Not 
less than four thousand people were employed in 
the work, and about two and a halt million buckles 
were produced annually. When the trade was at its 
height, fickle fashion changed, and in 1791 the 
buckle-makers were obliged to petition the Prince 
of Wales for sympathy, on the ground that the in- 
troduction of shoestrings had nearly ruined their 
trade. 

Foreign buckles have now almost ceased to be 
an article of importation, and their manufacture 
has become an important American industry. 
Much ingenuity is shown in the almost endless va- 
rieties which are j)roduced to meet the demands of 
trade. Dirt'erent materials are workeil, chiefly brass 
and steel, and many are for plating with gold, sil- 
ver, and nickel. 

In the course of his business career, Mr. Kelsey 
has taken out ten patents for improvements in 
buckles and the machinery for their manufacture. 

The history of a great business enterprise enters 
largely into the biography of the proprietor who 
has made the business successful. It is observed 
that when great difliculties have been overcome, 
the strong and excellent elements of human char- 
acter and its noble traits are brought out. 

Mr. Kelsey, in the course of a long and labori- 
ous business career, has shown himself to be, in a 
marked degree, .sagacious, energetic, upright, and 
faithful in all the relations of active life. Nor has 
he confined his attention to the immediate field of 
business interests. The village of West Haven is 
pleasantly located, and affords excellent facilities 
for carrying on industries, and has resources capa- 
ble of development, making it a desirable place of 
residence. 

Soon after settling in this village, JNIr. Kelsey be- 
came interested in its public welfare, and has been 
largely identified with the enterprise and spirit of 
the place. In 1S58 he represented the town of 
Orange, in which West Haven is a borough, in the 
General Assembly. For several years he was First 
Selectman and Town Agent for Orange. He has 
not, however, devoted himself permanently to poli- 
tics, preferring the more congenial occupation of 
his own business, and being interested in the de- 
velopment and improvement of West Haven village 
and vicinity. 

He was instrumental in inaugurating and build- 
ing the horse railroad, leading from New Haven 
through West Haven, to Savin Rock. He also 
furnished largely the means to accomplish this en- 
terprise, which has greatly benefited the village, 
bringing it rapidly forward, and making it the 
most pleasant and attractive suburb of New Haven. 
In his desire to make the horse railroad a success 
he purchased Savin Rock and largely of its sur- 
roundings. He then built the Sea View House and 
several dwelling-houses, and succeeded in making 
it a successful and well-known watering place, vis- 
ited by people from almost every State in the 
Union. 



Mr. Kelsey is a zealous working member of the 
Congregational Church and Society; has been on 
the Standing Committee, and had charge of the 
salary fund for more than twenty years. 

He has not only struggled through depression 
and reverses in business, but has survived a long 
and dangerous prostration of health, from which 
his indomitable courage and will have raised him 
up to prosecute anew the varied labors of an active 
and successful life. 

;\Ir. Kelsey married, in 1845, Virginia W., daugh- 
ter of Captain Doty I-. Wright, of Clinton, Conn. 
They have two daughters, Harriet V., the wife of 
Frank W. Kimberley, and Georgia W. ; and two 
sons, Israel A. and Horatio G., who are associated 
with their father in business. 

The Ideal Manufacturing Company, 187 St. John 
street, was organizeii in 1885. This Company make 
aspecialty of cartridge-reloading implements. John 
H. Barlow, Manager, was for thirteen years a con- 
tractor for the Winchester Repeating Arms Com- 
pany. All of the implements made by the Ideal 
[Manufacturing Company are secured by patents 
obtained by Mr. Barlow. Their superiority has 
been recognized wherever tested. Eight men are 
employed in their manufacture. 

Bakers. 

Fifty years ago James and John Graham estab- 
lished a cracker bakery on York street, where is 
now the bakery of S. S. Thompson. The shop 
afterwards changed proprietorship, being known as 
Graham & Peck's until 1852, when the New Haven 
Baking Company was formed by Matthew A. Smith, 
William A. Ives, and some of the workmen. In 
1862 the bakery was moved to State street, where 
it now is, having greatly enlarged the production of 
crackers and fancy cake. Upon the death of Mat- 
thew .\. Smith, his brother .Slvester took charge of 
the business, became President of the Company, 
and has continued in that position till the present 
time. The other officers are, C. C. Smith, Treas- 
urer, and T. J. Lawton, Secretary. The Company 
occupy the large store at 1 18 and lafi State street, 
running to the rear about three hundred feet. 
About fort\-five hands are employed, including dri- 
vers and packers. A 30-horse power engine fur- 
nishes the propelling power. The capacity of the 
bakery is 15,000 barrels of Hour per annum. 

S. S. Thomp-son & Co. succeeded to the stand 
occupied by the New Haven Baking Company, at 
99 York street, in 1877. The members of the firm 
are S. S. Thompson and Carlos Smith. 

Philander Ferry established a bakery in i860, 
and has been located at different times on .State 
and Chapel streets before locating on Church 
street, near the Post Office, where he is at present. 
Mr. Ferry is one of the oldest, as well as one of 
the most extensive, bakers in the city. 

In June, 1844, Amos Munson began the making 
of Connecticut pies in Wall street, which were sold 
in New^ York in a depot opened by Mr. Munson 
at the corner of Nassau and Beekman streets. The 



540 



HISTORY OF THE CITV OF NEW HA VEN. 



product of the factory in this city was drawn from 
day to day from the steamboat to the depot in New 
York in a hand-cart. In four years the trade in these 
pies had so increased as to warrant the building of a 
factory in New York. During the fourth year of 
the manufacture of pies in New Haven the freights 
upon the steamboat amounted to $1,300. In ad- 
dition to the New York factory, Mr. Munson con- 
tinued the baking of pies on Wall street until 
1873, when he removed to his present location on 
Exchange street, at the corner of James street. The 
present style of the firm is S. M. Alunson & Co. The 
bakery in this city consists of a building 63 by 4 7 
feet, with large additions. There is a capital of 
$75,000 invested in the business, which employs 
three double and three single teams in delivering 
pies to the several railroad stations and the dealers 
of the city. Pies are sent to most of the large 
cities of the State, and the larger towns of Massa- 
chusetts. The bakery in New York is still con- 
imued on East 21st street. William H. Preston, 
of this city, is bookkeeper for this firm. 

AMOS MUNSON. 

The New Englander is known the world over as 
an eater of pies. To an expatriated Yankee the 
the mere sound of the name recalls fond memor- 
ies of luncheon in the hayfield; of barn floors 
heaped with golden vegetables; of apple-barrels 
standing in a row; of the .Saturday cookings; and 
of "mother's" matchless culinary skill. The reign 
of the pie has not been unchallenged and unop- 
posed, but the New England institutions have con- 
quered the country during its century of existence, 
and in the front rank has marched iN'^ew England 
pie. New Haven has preserved the New England 
type with uncommon fidelity, and hence the part 
it has taken in the production and popularization 
of the savory Yankee dessert is most fitting. 

In New Haven, the first manufactory of pies for 
public sale was established, and this enterprise was 
the work of one of New Haven's own citizens, a 
native of the town and a descendant of one of 
New Haven's earliest families, the late Mr. Amos 
Munson. The Munsons enjoy a frequent and 
honorable mention in the history of New Haven. 
The records show that on the 3d of October, 1665, 
after the junction of the two colonies, Thomas 
Munson was the foreman of the first jury that ever 
sat in New Haven. During the first part of this cen- 
tury also, Elisha Munson, Esq., was a very prom- 
inent municipal office-holder, and remained in 
public office throughout a generation, deserving 
and receiving the universal satisfaction and appro- 
bation of the community. 

Amos Munson was born in New Haven in 
the closing year of the last century. As he 
grew to manhood, he learned the trade of a 
blacksmith, and worked for some time in the em- 
ploy of James Brewster. As a mechanic he won 
approval and distinction, being esteemed one of 
the best filers in the country. But assiduous ap- 
applicalion ruined his health. He was a heavy 
man, and continual standing caused a sore to 



form on his leg which became a permanent afflic- 
tion. Being obliged to abandon his trade, he spent 
several years in the endeavor to recover his health, 
and for a portion of the time worked at farming. 
At that time his oldest son, Lucius, a keen-witted 
and energetic youth, was an office boy in New 
York, in the shop of Jedediah Morse, the father of 
American geography. In the same notable estab- 
lishment, Mr. Amos Munson's brother, Henry, was 
a foreman. The boy Lucius was homesick for the 
sweets and goodies of mother's pantry, and was 
struck by the thought that if there were many 
others in New York like himself, the sale of the 
good old-fashioned pie would be remunerative. 
The idea approved itself to both his uncle and 
father, and the latter determined to make a trial of 
it. At that time there were no bakeries in New 
England devoted to the production of pies, and 
probably not in the country. 

On the loth of June, 1844, Mr. Munson started 
his factory in Wall street. It remained upon the 
same spot until 1874, when it was removed to the 
more commodious quarters now occupied by S. M. 
Munson & Co. During the first two months Mr. 
Munson's boys drew the pies in a little wagon down 
to the steamboat dock for the New York market, 
but after that time the increase and assured success 
of the undertaking justified the employment of a 
horse as the motive power. Almost the entire 
output of the bakery was sent to New York, for 
the only restaurants in New Haven tlien were small 
lunch-counters at the old railway station and at 
Tomlinson's bridge. Meantime, in the Metropolis, 
on the corner of Nassau and Beekman streets, there 
had been opened a small lunch-room called the 
Connecticut Pie Depot. The delicacy met with 
instant appreciation, and triumphantly indicated 
the foresight of Mr. Munson and his son. It es- 
tablished its sway over the mouths and purses of 
the multitude, so that all the bakers in New York 
began to produce Connecticut pies. This game 
was checked by the original proprietors, who 
changed the name of their product to Munson's 
Connecticut Pies. 

Mr. Munson's brother was at first associated with 
him, under the name of A. Munson & Co.; but, 
after a short period, Mr. Munson took the control 
of the whole business, and conducted it in his own 
name. The rapid increase in the number of restau- 
rants created a continually enlarging demand for 
pies. Within five years, Mr. Munson was running 
wagons in New Haven, and producing a thousand 
pies a day. The freight bills of the steamboat com- 
pany had become so large that it seemed advisable 
to establish a manufactory in New York for the 
trade there. Accordingly, in the spring of 1849, 
he erected a building on Twenty-first street, near 
Third avenue, and the business has been conducted 
there from that time to this. Mr. Munson made his 
enterprise a complete success. He bore the risks of a 
pioneer in business; his carefulness and executive 
ability were exerted to the utmost, and he obtained 
the appropriate reward. 

His latter years were spent in the enjoyment of 
a well-earned competence, and he saw the business 









,^/a/? 



'^^i^^TT-Z, 



"> 



"¥ 










PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



541 



which he had founded widely extended and univers- 
ally recognized. Many of the most successful men 
in the same line, in this and other cities, learned 
their trade with him and trace their business origin 
to his house, among whom are H. H. Olds, of 
New Haven; Klisha Case, of Case, Martin & Co., 
Chicago; and J. E. Perry, of Providence. In 1874 
he gave up the business in New Haven to his son 
Samuel, but retained control of the New York 
establishment until his death, in September, 1877. 

Mr. Munson was twice married. His tirst wife 
was Miss Jones, of New Haven, by whom he had 
one daughter. She died, and, in 1825, he married 
Rebecca Dickerman, who was born in Westville in 
1797, and who is yet living. To them were born 
four sons, Lucius, John, Charles, who now conducts 
the New York manufactory, and Samuel Merwin; 
also one daughter, Mary, who married Mr. Frisbie, 
of D. Frisbie & Co., an inventor and a manufacturer 
of hoisting apparatus. 

Mr. Munson was a man of a remarkably cheerful 
temper, who loved dearly a good Joke and a good 
friend. He was open-handed, and a generous con- 
tributor to the wants of the needy. But his dispo- 
sition was quiet He preferred retirement and 
shunned display. His patience was unbounded. 
He endured with resignation his final sickness, dur- 
ing which he lay partially helpless for ten months, 
dying slowly of inanition, and he left behind him 
a fragrant memory, and many sorrowing frientls. 

Much of the development and prosperity of Mr. 
Amos Munson's business has been due to his 
youngest son, Samuel Merwin Munson, who was 
eleven years old when the enterprise was begun. 
From that time on he has been engaged in it. He 
was his father's efficient coadjutor until (in 1868) 
he entered into partnership with II. H. Olds, with 
whom he continued until the fall of 1872. In the 
following spring he established himself in business, 
and in 1874 the full control of his father's New 
Haven enterprise passed into his hands. It has 
since been conducted under the firm-name of S. M. 
Munson & Co. , and its good reputation and extent 
have increased with each year, agencies and wagon- 
routes being maintained in the principal cities. 

In August, 1854, Mr. S. M. Munson married 
Mi^s F.lizabeth ^lunson, of New Haven. They 
have had two children, both sons, of whom only 
one is now living. 

H. H.Olds and wife began the manufacture of pies 
in a small way in F^ast street, in 1859. They sought 
to create a demand by making a good article, and 
were successful, the rate of production at the close 
of the first jear being from two to three hundred 
a day. As business increased, additions were made 
to the factory in the rear, and thence south to Chapel 
street It now extends 200 feet north from the 
Chapel street front. From this humble beginning 
the establishment has grown till from eight to ten 
thousand pies a day are now turned out. The ovens 
have a capacity of baking 800 an hour. About 
seventy-five men are employed, and §100,000 is 
invested in the business. ^Ir. Olds employs five 



double teams delivering pies to the stores of the 
city, and three delivery teams to the various depots 
and express offices for shipment. A i 2-horse en- 
gine furnishes the necess.iry power to carry forward 
the work. 

HENRY II. OLDS 

was born July 6, 1824, in the old Cutler residence 
(now the Adams House) on George street, at the 
head of Orange. His father was Homer Olds, a 
native of Southwick, Mass., and his mother was 
Clarissa Avery, a native of Wallingford, Conn. 

About 1838, Mr. Olds, then a lad of fourteen, 
began active life as a farmer's boy, in the employ 
of Captain Samuel Thompson, at luist Haven Cove. 
Thence he went to New York and became an errand 
boy for his Uncle, F>astus Beach, in that gentle- 
man's livery office. There he remained two years 
and a half, when he returned to New Haven, where, 
during the succeeding two years, he worked at 
blacksmithing and boiler-making. After that he 
was employed for about two years running station- 
ary engines. He later learned the molder's trade, 
and was employed in molding until 1851. 

In that year Mr. Olds entered the pie-bakery of 
Amos Munson, and learned pie-making in all iis 
branches. There he was emi)loyed eight years. In 
1859 he established a pie-bakery at Providence, R. 
I., but not prospering there to his satisfaction, 
owing principally to local causes, he returned to 
New Haven before the close of that year and opened 
a pie-bakery on East street. In 1861 he built his 
present commodious and well equipped establish- 
ment on Chapel street. From the day of its begin- 
ning in New Haven, the business has lieen one of 
steady growth, and it now stands as the second of 
its kind in the United States, there being only one 
larger pie-bakery, which is located in Now York. 
The superiority of his pies over any others to be ob- 
tained is conceded by consumers and the trade. 

Mr. Olds was married July 6, 1855, to Elizabeth 
Campbell, who was born near Belfast, Ireland, the 
daughter of Irish Prsbyterian parents of Scotch des- 
cent. She had been connected with some of the 
best pie bakeries in the country, and to her thorough 
knowledge of pie-making, and her personal super- 
vision of his bakery, Mr. Olds attributes a good 
measure of his success. 

Mr. Olds is a quiet, retiring man, of domestic 
temperament and strict business habits. He has 
avoided all connection with politics and public af- 
fairs. 

.\dlierents of the Universalist faith in religion, Mr. 
and Mrs. Olds are attendants upon the services of 
the Church of the Holy Spirit at the corner of 
Davenport avenue and Ward street. 

Anion Brown, West Haven, makes home-made 
bread, which is delived in wagons marked A. 
Brown. His trade mark, A. B. ,was registered at 
Washington October, 22, 1878. 

J. Deibel, caterer, 825 Chapel street, produces a 
great variety of cakes. 

George H. Ives makes a fine quality of bakers' 



543 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



supplies at his famil}- bakery in State street, corner 
of Elm. 

George Petrie, George street, has been long es- 
tablished and maintains a high reputation. 

George Root & Son, 859 Grand street, do an ex- 
tensive business and employ a number of wagons, 
which distiibute the produce of their ovens. 

Barytes Grinders. 

Burgess ct Newton, manufacturers of barytes. 
Brewery street, are successors to the Stamford 
Manufacturing Company, who began this enter- 
prise in 1852, and were succeeded by the present 
firm in 1880. The product of the factory is pre- 
pared from the crude sulphate of barytes, and is 
used by the manufacturers of paints and colors. 
The process consists of crushing, bleaching, and 
grinding to a fine powder. Burgess & Newton use 
only foreign ores, and their factory is the only one 
in the country in this respect. About twenty hands 
are employed, and the factory has a capacity of 
about 125 tons a week. George H. Burgess and 
F. A. Newton are the proprietor.-:. In this connec- 
tion we give a biograpliical sketch of Mr. John H. 
Leeds, who for many years was the representative 
in New Haven of the Stamford Manufacturing 
Company. 

JOHN H. LEEDS. 

The Leeds came from the City of Leeds, England, 
in which the family, centuries since, was an impor- 
tant one. In 1680, three brothers Leeds emigrated 
to New England, one of whom settled in Stamford, 
Conn. A descendant of the last was Joseph H. 
Leeds, a farmer, resident at the Leeds place in 
Darien, where his son, the subject of this sketch, 
John Harris Leeds, was born March 4, 1836. 

It was not, as is said of many, an accident that 
determined the course of his life, but the preven- 
tion of an accident. The New York and New 
Haven Railroad had been opened but a few months 
and had but a single track. Just at dusk, June 24, 
1849, John H. Leeds, then 13 years of age, chanced 
to be on its line, at a cross-road half way between 
Darien and Stamford, when he heard a train com- 
ing from the east. He knew there was also a train 
coming from the west, although it was hiilden from 
sight by a deep cut and a sharp curve. All the 
horrors of a collision were inevitable unless he 
could prevent it. He would try. In an instant 
he sprang on to the track, and facing the New York 
bound train waved his hat to attract the attention 
of the engineer, and then bounded to one side, 
barely escaping being crushed as it went thunder- 
ing by. As it passed him in its lightning speed he 
pointed to the west, and shouted to the engineer, 
"Another train is coming this way." The engineer 
at once reversed his engine, and whistled "down 
brakes," and then blew a long and loud alarm. 
The other train was still unseen, but its engineer 
was on the alert, and, hearing the signal, in turn re- 
versed his engine and whistled "down brakes." 
But such was the speed of both trains and the 



feebleness of the brakes then in use, that when the 
trains stopped they were only an engine's length 
apart. When the boy gave the warning they were 
rushing for each other at full speed. On board 
the two trains were five hundred people — men, 
women, and children. It is fearful to contemplate 
the horrors that were inevitable had not the lad 
been at that cross-road and done e.xactly the 
right thing. He certainly had not been born 
in vain, and the passengers thought so as they 
shuddered at their narrow escape. The railroad 
company, acting upon their sense of obligation, 
gave him a free pass over their road good for life, 
and also presented him with an elegant silver goblet 
with this inscription: 

Presented hy the President and Directors 

OF 

Thi; New York and New Haven Railroad Company 

TO 

JOHN H. LEEDS. 



"Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined." 

Annexed is a copy of the letter from the Com- 
pany accompanying the present, together with 
young Leeds' reply. 

.Stamford, August 15, 1849. 

My Dear Young Friend, — The President and Directors 
of the New Y'ork and New Haven Railroad Company, by a 
unanimous resolution, have assigned to me the pleasing 
task of presenting to you the accompanying Cup, as a slight 
testimonial of their approbation of your manly conduct in 
preventing a collision of their trains. 

May the impulse which prompted you then continue to 
animate you, cheered with the pleasant recollection of having 
done inito others as you would they should do unto you. 
Your F'riend, 

H. J. .^ANFORD, Director. 

To Master John H. Leeds. 

Darien, August 17, 1849. 
Mr. H. J. Sanford, 

Sir, — I acknowledge with feelings of gratitude and pleas- 
ure the receipt of the very handsome present from the New 
York and New Haven Railroad Company through your 
hands, but beg to disclaim any merit for an act which the 
impulse of the moment prompted and duty urged me to do. 
Probably the lives of some of my fellow creatures were 
saved through my humble endeavors, and the consciousness 
of that is a sufficient reward. 

Yours very respectfully, 

John Harris Leeds. 

The railroad company did not lose sight of the 
lad, for three years after he removed to New Haven 
and went into their service to learn to be a mechan- 
ical and constructing engineer, beginning as appren- 
tice and going up through all departments. At 
one period he ran an engine on the road. He re- 
mained in their employ until i860. At that date 
he engaged with the Stamford Manufacturing Com- 
pany as their Superintendent and Consulting Engi- 
neer, taking charge of the mineral branch of their 
business, they being the oldest and largest manu- 
facturers of chemical and dyeing extracts in the 
United States. He has continued with them to the 
present time. 

Mr. Leeds ever has been, and now is, an exceed- 
ingly busy man. He has largely served the public 
in many and varied capacities, and how worthily 
is shown by the testimonials bestowed upon him 




■£ng ^ly HACKbcvoets^ 




^. i^^ 



i 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



5-13 



by his associates. The positions which he has held 
have been such, that while of invaluable service to 
the community, they have been generally with no 
recompense save in the consciousness of well doing. 
We enumerate some of them. He w^as Alderman 
in 1863-64, and was Assistant Judge of the City 
Court for two years, this officer being then selected 
by law from the Board of Aldermen. During the 
construction of the Derby Railroad, which occupied 
two years, he was its City Director. He was for 
many years a member of the Volunteer Fire De- 
partment. In 1862, when the Department was re- 
organized, he was one of the first Fire Commis- 
sioners under the new regime, and was President 
of that Board for about fifteen years. Steam fire- 
engines, fire-alarm telegraphs, and paid firemen 
were introduced under his presidency. One of the 
new steam fire-engines, by order of the Board, was 
named in his honor "John H. Leeds." When the 
imposing Firemen's Monument in Evergreen Ceme- 
tarv was dedicated, he was appointed orator of the 
day. He was for several years President of the 
Board of Steam Engines and Boilers; Chairman of 
the Fire and Water Departments of the City for two 
years; and represented the city in making contracts 
for water supply. 

In 1875, owing to increased business duties, and 
the claims of the Stamford Manufacturing Com- 
pany, which required his services abroad, he with- 
drew from all public offices. Upon this the city 
passed and presented highly complimentary resolu- 
tions, signifying their sense of his eminent services. 
These were ordered to be engrossed and presented 
in a permanent framed memorial. The Fire De- 
partment also presented a magnificent and costly 
badge, a miniature steam fire-engine and fire appa- 
ratus, with the city coat of arms highly embellished 
with diamonds and rubies. Rarely has any citizen 
on his withdrawal from public service been so 
honored. 

In 1879-80, he was sent to the Legislature as 
the city's first representative. His colleague. Colonel 
Dexter K. Wright, was chosen Speaker of the House. 
It was the first Legislature that met in the New State 
House. He was one of the Committee on Rail- 
roads, and one of the peculiarly important Com- 
mittee on the Construction of the Dome of the 
State House. 

j\lr. Leeds was Slate Director of the Wethersfield 
Penitentary for six years, from 1879 to 1S85. He 
is now a Director of the '\'ale National Bank, the 
New Haven Savings Bank, the New Haven Water 
Company, and managing Director of the Stamford 
Manufacturing Company, in whose business he has 
passed most of his time for years in Europe and the 
Orient. 

Mr. Leeds' first trip to FLurope was in 1876, when 
he opened a barytes mine on the south coast of 
Ireland. Since then his time has been mostly 
spent in matters of a commercial and productive 
nature that are found onlv in the Orient, where he 
obtained many of the supplies of crude materials, 
such as dyes, drugs and chemicals, that are used 
by the Stamlord Alanufacturing Company. 

He is a most extensive traveler, the nature of his 



business requiring him to go to rarely visited places 
and among half civilized and rude people. Besides 
every country of Europe, he has visited Asia Minor, 
Syria, Northern Egypt, nearly every island of the 
(Jrecian Archipelago, all the cities of the Seven 
Churches of Asia, as well as Tarsus, Antioch, 
Aleppo, and the whole of Palestine. 

In the two years, 1884-85, he passed over 80,000 
miles, by steamship, railway, horse, canal and on 
foot. 

His business transactioits have been with all the 
tribes of the Orient, Turks, Greeks, Armenians, 
Bulgarians, Koords, Bedouins, Arabs and Egyp- 
tians. His experiences have impressed him with the 
conviction that as a body they are commercially 
and politically dishonest, morally corrupt; while 
religious fitnaticism is the controlling element of 
their lives. 

Mr. Leeds was married January 27, 1858, to 
Miss Frances A. Hine, of Milford. 

Ph)sically he is one of the largest anil most pow- 
erful of men. He stands 6 feet il inches, has 
heavy broad shoulders, a chest measurement of 46 
inches, and weighs 250 pounds, but not accom- 
panied with extraneous fiesh. His eyes are light 
and his hair auburn. His health is vigorous and 
his constitution is one capable of long sustained 
and continuous labor. He is of a serious turn of 
mind, and being full of business, has little time for 
the lighter conversation and frivolities of life. This 
record shows that he has had a wide acquaintance 
with men, and a useful and hi^)noral)le career, work- 
ing with and upon those material forces that move 
civilization on its ascending pathway. 

BlRD-C.\GE MAXlFACTtKEKS. 

The firm of A. B. Hendryx & Co. are the only 
manufacturers of bird cages in the State, and pro- 
duce at least three-fifths of all this class of goods in 
the world. The business was established in Anso- 
nia, and moved to this city in June, 1879, and 
occupied the then vacant factory on Wall street, 
near Orange. The work has since been removed 
to Audubon street. About two hundred and fifty 
persons are employed, the firm manufacturing goods 
under about forty different patents. While the pnn- 
cipal product is cages, of which the factory has a daily 
capacity of 1 50 dozen, a large variety of brass goods 
are made, with which manufacturers of other goods 
are supplied. Several tons of metal are used daily. 
The machinery, which comprises the best known 
for the purpose, is driven by a 40-horse power en- 
gine. The market for their goods is world-wide. 

Boat- and Siiii'-biilders. 

Ship-building was an important factor in the 
manufacturing interests of New Haven in the early 
period, when the London merchants who fotmded 
the city were still alive and active. So it was also 
before and after the Revolutionary war, and down to 
the War of 1 81 2. Captain Charles H. Townshend, 
in the chapter he has written for this volume on 
the Harbor and Wharves, has given many interest- 



544 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



ing particulars concerning the ancient ship-yards. 

We need not therefore go back further than 1820, 
when Birdsey Brooks commenced work as a boat- 
builder. His yard was located near the foot of 
Olive street. In 1844, E. H. Thatcher, who is at 
present engaged in boat-building at 38 Chestnut 
street, became a partner with Mr. Brooks, under 
the firm name of Thatcher & Brooks,and continued 
as such for twenty years, since which time Mr. 
Thatcher has carried on the business alone. Mr. 
Brooks died in 1S74. 

Among the earlier ship-builders who were largely 
engaged in tlie business were George W. Baldwin, 
Warren O. Nettleton, W. N. Gessner, and Post & 
Griswold. Mr. Baldwin has built ninety sailing 
vessels, but at present is not engaged in business 
for himself 

The most extensive ship-builder in New Haven 
at present is H. W. Hanscomb, who commenced 
the business in 1879, since which he has built ten 
sailing vessels, known as the Henry Sutton, Bessie 
C. Beach, Charles H. Mitchell, Abbey C. Stubbs, 
Jacob Reid, Horace P. Shares, John M. Brown, 
Thomas L. James, John H. Pingle, and Charles 
H. ^'alentine. Tliese are all three-masted schooners, 
ranging from five to eleven hundred tons burden. 
His vessels are recognized as the fastest-sailing crafis 
along the coast. He employs at times seventy-five 
to one hundred men. At present Mr. Hanscomb's 
dock. River street, foot of Ferry, is used by John 
Doyle, who is constructing a three-masted schooner. 

William A. Wright, foot of Meadow street, has 
been engaged in ship-building and repairing for the 
last ten years. At present his son, Victor E. Wright, 
is associated with his father, under the firm name 
of W. A. Wright & Son. Their business consists 
mainly in repairing. William A. Wright was born 
in Westbrook, Conn., 1832, and came to New 
Haven in 1839. 

George M. Graves has been engaged in steam 
and sail-yacht building at Fair Haven since 1864. 
At present his business is principally confined to 
steam oyster-dredge building. He built the first 
one in New Haven. He employs most of the time 
from eight to ten men. Mr. Graves was born at 
Guilford, Conn., 1832. 

Among the boat-builders of New Haven deserv- 
ing of mention are William S. Barnes, 82 South 
Water; James McDonald, junction of Bridge and 
Water street: and John Keast, Chapel street, the 
latter of whom confines his business to the con- 
struction of racing-shells. 

Alfred C. Manning has followed the business of 
shi{)-chandlerand caulker at Fair Haven since 1862. 
He was born in Kdenton, N. C. , in 1812. 

Book Publishers, Printeks, Electrotvpers, and 
Binders. 

During the closing years of the last century and 
the opening years of the present, there were a num- 
ber of printers in New Haven whose imprint ap- 
pears upon books still in existence, but who could 
not be called publishers. Oftentimes an author 
issuing a work u])on his own responsibility con- 



tracted with a printer to do the work of bringing 
it out. 

Josiah Meigs was one of the earliest publishers. 
He issued for a number of years the Neiv Haven 
Gazelle and Connecticut Magazine, the imprint stating 
that he was located "at the southwest corner of 
the Green, ' opposite ' the market, " where the Glebe 
Building now is. 

George Bunce was an early publisher, a copy of 
"Scott's Lessons in Elocution " being in existence 
bearing the date of 1789. 

In the early 3'ears of the present century. Increase 
Cook ct Co. were prominent publishers in the State, 
issuing an edition of "Cicero's Orations, " edited 
by Duncan, in 18 11. 

A few years later than this, Nathan Whiting pub- 
lished the Religious Intelligencer, and also some 
religious books, among w-hich were " Life of White- 
field," "Life of Christ," and other subscription 
books. 

About this time Sidney Babcock was located in 
Congress avenue, at what was then known as Sodom 
Hill. The establishment was known as Sidney's 
Press, and in earlier years his father, J. Babcock, 
was associated with him. 

Durrie tt Peck, who were the founders of the 
present house of Henry H. Peck, on Chapel street, 
near Church street, were established in 1818, and 
for many years were prominent publishers. The 
firm was located just south of the Glebe Building, 
on Church street. They published a large line of 
school books, among which w'ere "Lovell's Read- 
ers," the author being John E. Lovell, of the Lan- 
casterian School of this city, who is remembered by 
many of the prominent business men of New Haven 
to-day with respect and affection. These " Read- 
ers" had a large sale, not only here, but through- 
out the country, being republished in Philadel- 
phia by Horace C. Peck. Durrie & Peck also 
published several subscription books which had an 
extensive sale. Among these were "The Family 
Book of History," by Olney, of Southington; "The 
Mariner's Chronicle," a book of marine stories; and 
Baxter's works, in two volumes, edited by Leonard 
Bacon. In 1824 they published the "Musical Cab- 
inet," by Ailing Brown, at that time chorister of 
CenterChurch; also the "Association Hymn Book," 
a compilation of hymns for the Congregational 
Churches of Connecticut, edited by a committee of 
the General Association. They continued in busi- 
ness until the death of Deacon Durrie, in 1857, when 
the firm was reorganized under the style of Peck, 
White & Peck, the partners being Henry Peck, Will- 
iam White and Lorenzo Peck. They continued the 
publication of the books issued by their predeces- 
sors. The old firm of Durrie & Peck moved about 
1828 to the store now occupied by their successor. 

In 1863, Horace C. Peck, who had been carry- 
ing on a publishing concern in Philadelphia, re- 
turned to his native town and purchased the busi- 
ness of Peck, White & Peck, which he conducted 
until 1867, when, on account of ill-health, he re- 
tired, and liis son, Henry H. Peck, purchased the 
business, in which he still continues. Many of the 
books of the old list have passed out of use, but 



PRODUCrnE ARTS. 



545 



such as have not are still published by the present 
house. ]\Ir. Peck has also added several new works, 
and publishes the "Connecticut Almanac '' annu- 
ally. 

Upon the dissolution of the firm of Peck, White 
k Peck, Mr. White was associated for several years 
with E. P. Judd in the book-selling business, but 
the firm did not publish. 

Another publisher of some note in these early 
years was A. H. Maltby, who was located in the 
west end of the old Glebe Building in iSio. He 
published subscription and text-books. In 1S22 
"Jamicson's Grammar of Logic" was issued by 
him, and he was in business as late as 1843, when 
he published the first numberof the A(W.£'//<'/</Wtv. 
In 1830 Dr. Murdock's "Elements of Dogmatic 
History " appeared, and " Lindley Murray's Gram- 
mar" in 1824. 

• Isaac Beers began to sell books at the corner of 
College and Chapel streets soon after the peace of 
1783, having been previousl}' an inn-keeper at the 
same place. Mr. Beers took his nephew, Hezekiah 
Howe, into partnership, the firm being called Beers 
& Co. until 1806, when the name was changed 
to Beers & Howe. In 1809 it became Beers, Howe 
& Co., and so remained about a year. 'I'he older 
style of Beers & Howe was then resumed, and so 
continued until 181 2, when Mr. Beers sold his part 
of the stock to ]Mr. De Lauzun De Forest, and the 
firm became Howe it De Forest. After several 
years under this name Mr. De Forest retired, and 
for a time the firm was Howe & Spalding. Still 
later, Mr. Edward C. Herrick. afterward Treasurer 
of Yale College, who had long been an employee 
of Mr. Howe, became a partner. After the death 
of General Howe, I\Ir. Herrick took IMr. Benjamin 
Noyes into partnership, under the style of Herrick 
& Noyes. After the retirement of Mr. Herrick, 
Mr. Noyes received his brother into the firm, the 
style being B. t\: W. Noyes. This house, during 
General Howe's connection with it, published 
Day's Algebra, and Olmsted's Natural Philos- 
ophy. 

Other publishers of more or less importance, but 
not having a list of publications, were Sherman 
Converse, who published, in 1821, Dr. Morse's 
Universal Gazetteer; and W. Storer.wlio published, 
in 1824, a History of the American Revolution. 
Fragmentary publications are still in existence bear- 
ing the imprint of Whitmore A: Buckingham, Hud- 
son A: Woodward, Oliver Steel, (Jeorge Tuttle, G. 
B. Basset, Thomas H. Pease, and J. H. Benham. 
John W. Barber was a publisher to the extent of 
bringing out his " Historical Collections'' of Con- 
necticut and of other States, and also several books 
of religious emblems. Mr. Barber did his own 
engraving and his own writing, and made contracts 
with printers for the printing of his books. 

The publishing business of the present time is 
confined to a narrow limit and to works unim- 
portant in the realm of literature. 

Price, Lee & Co. publish a line of Directories, 
embracing nearly all the cities of the State. 

The International Advertising Agency, under the 
proprietorship of H. P. Hubbard, has recentlypub- 

G9 



lished a " World's Cyclopedia of Newspapers and 
Financial Institutions," in two volumes. 

From the printing establishment of Tuttle, 
Morehouse & Taylor, on State street, books are 
issued, but under contracts with the authors. The 
firm do most of the college and city work. The 
latter includes the "Year Book," published an- 
nually. 

Other printing establishments, which either by 
age or extent should be noticed, are the Stafford 
Printing Company, L. S. Punderson, formerly 
Punderson & Crisand, who makes a specialty of 
lithographic work; Hoggson & Robinson and O. 
A. Dorman. There are about thirty other estab- 
lishments where printing is done, many having 
specialties in visiting and business cards, others 
confining themselves to commercial printing. 

The more prominent printing houses have bind- 
eries attached to them as a part of the business. 
There are, however, several book and pamphlet 
binderies besides. These are Leopold Lall, on 
Crown street; A. C. Raymond, 16 Center street; 
and Henry H. Peck, on Chapel street. 

The process of electrotyping was begun in 1867, 
but not until ten years later did the present pro- 
prietors, E. B. Sheldon & Co., succeed to the 
then established business. The plant occupies the 
third and fourth floor of the Stafford Building, on 
State street. About twenty hands are employed, 
and the machinery is driven by a 1 5-horse power 
engine. They are owners of some valuable patents, 
combining the most largely used processes for re- 
producing the type-setter's art. The firm consists 
of E. B. Sheldon, C. S. Butler, and E. H. Park- 
hurst. 

Brass-founders. 

Pearly in the present century there were several 
brass founderies in New Haven. 

The writer remembers the establishment of 
Nehemiah Bradley in Artisan street. In the 
rear of the principal shop was a bell foundry, in 
which church bells of large size were cast. The 
casting of a bell attracted all the boys of the 
neighborhood, and the melting of the metal re- 
quired so much time that notice of the casting 
was extensively circulated. Besides, Saturday, 
boys' day, was for some reason appointed for tap- 
ping the furnace. In the brass-foundry, castings 
were made almost every day. Andirons, handles 
for tongs and shovels, and knobs for door-latches 
were the principal products. All these articles 
were cast in halves, which were soldered together 
and afterwards trimmed by means of lathes. 

When brass andirons and knobs went out of 
use, this industry declined for a time. But in 1861 
Mr. James Graham established a brass-foundry in 
Wooster street, and the building has been enlarged 
from time to time as the business expanded. In 
1880 Jaines Richardson and C. E. Graham were 
admitted to the firm. They employ in active times 
about twenty-five men, and the range of work is 
from a casting weighing a fraction of an ounce 
to one weighing half a ton. The specialties of 



546 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



the firm are their patent nickel-bronze centre car 
journal-bearings and rabbit miters. The trade ex- 
tends throughout the United States, and the bear- 
ings have been adopted in Australia by the govern- 
ment , , • r 

In 1870 lames Reynolds began the busmess ot 
brass-founding at 41 and 43 Orange street the 
building having been previously used as a bath- 
house. The productions of the foundry are all 
kinds of brass, bronze, composition, nickle, silver, 
white and soft metal castings. Mr. Reynolds is 
the owner and sole manufacturer of the famous 
Curtis fire-hose coupling, which is extensively used 
by fire departments throughout the country. 

A. M. Hill conducts a brass-foundry at 573 
Di.xwell avenue, where a general line of foundry 
work is skillfully done. 

A. M. Schappa conducted a brass-foundry and 
made light carriage iron-work at 169 East street 
for a short period. He is now principally em- 
ployed by the firm of W. & E. T. Fitch, who con- 
duct his former business. 

The New Haven Car Trimming Company, 71 
and 73 Goffe street, whose establishment is de- 
scribed among the specialties of carriage-making, 
includes brass-founding among the branches of its 
business. Although car trimming and carriage 
hardware receive much attention, they make all 
kinds of brass, bronze, and soft metal castings, in- 
cluding fire sets and fenders. 

Brewers. 

In the old New Haven Colony a brew-house was 
an essential part of a homestead, and beer was on 
the table as regularly as bread. On the New- 
Haven Town Records, under the date of Decem- 
ber, 1662, we find that ''Deacon Peck informed 
the town that they were much troubled to supply 
the elders with wheat and malt, and he feared there 
was want: therefore desired the town to consider of 
it. The deputy governor urged it that men would 
endeavor to make a present supply for them.' At 
an earlier date than this, "liberty was given Mr. 
Stephen Goodyear to brew beer for this town, all 
others excluded without the like liberty and consent 
of the town." 

This constant use of beer, however, seems to 
have given place to cider, as soon as the apple or- 
chards had grown so as to supply it in sufficient 
quantity, and there is no evidence that beer was a 
common drink during the eighteenth century. In 
the latter part of that century a brewery was estab- 
lished in New Haven. The buikling was destroyed 
by fire in 1 806, and the business not being resumed, 
there was no brewery in the city till after 1850. 
The building which was burned bequeathed to one 
of our streets its name, lirewery street. 

Between 1850 and i860 four breweries were 
established. 

John Solly manufactured what he called ' ' Home- 
brewed ale, as we made it at our old farm-house 
m Kent, England." 

About the same time John J. Phelps commenced 
the manufacture of ale and porter at the corner of 



Chapel and East streets, in the premises now oc- 
cupied by the New Haven Brewing Company. 

In 1852, Philip Fresenius, born in the village of 
Neder Wiessen, in Hesse Darmstadt, in 1825, came 
from New York, where he had been for some time 
employed as a brewer, to New Haven, and com-| 
menced brewing on his own account. His first 
brewery was situated on the same ground where 
his present large establishment is located. He 
commenced by carrying his beer to his customers 
in kegs strapped across his shoulders. In 1874 his 
business had grown to such proportions that his 
principal brewery, fronting on Congress street, was 
erected. The ice-house, 225 by 50 feet, was com- 
pleted in 1878, the dwelling-house and saloon in 
1881. In 1883, still further additions were made, 
and at present his structures occupy a superficial 
area of about 34,000 feet, with a frontage on Con- 
gress avenue of 150 feet. The brewery affords fa- 
cilities for making 100,000 barrels of beer annu- 
ally. 

Another early brewer was Charles Nicholas, who 
began in the upper part of Oak street. For the last 
three years this brewery has been conducted by 
Joseph Weibel, and is now known as the Oak 
Brewery. 

George A. Basserman commenced the brewing 
of lager, ale and porter in 1868, when he built 
what is known as Rock Brewery. It is located at 
the foot of East Rock, under which he has ex- 
cavated a cellar, 200 feet deep, 24 feet wide, and 
16 feet high, for storing his brewings. The average 
production of this brewery amounts to from 1 5,000 
to 20,000 barrels a year. The brewery proper com- 
prises a three-story building, partly of stone, 185 
by 50 feet in dimensions, while the attached sheds 
and barns cover an area 688 by 50 feet. Mr. Bas- 
serman manufactures his own ice by machinery. 
A large park adjoins his brewery property, adjacent 
to East Rock Park, provided with a pavilion and 
accommodations for summer gatherings. Mr. Bas- 
serman was born in Germany in 1832, and came 
to New Haven in 1851. His handsome residence 
overlooks the valley of the Quinnipiac. 

The New Haven Brewing Company is a joint 
stock company, incorporated in 1883, with a cap- 
ital of $30,000. Its officers are C. H. Osborne, 
President; George Russell, Vice-President; and 
W. E. Van Name, Secretary and Treasurer. Ale 
and porter are brewed. The production for 1885 
amounted to 26,000 barrels, the larger portion 
of which was sold in New York, Hartford, and 
to supply local trade. The brewery is located 
on the corner of Chapel and East streets, in which, 
for many years, J. J. Phelps & Co. carried on 
a similar business. 

The malt-house of the New Haven Malt Co., 
58 to 66 East street, is the only one in the State. 
This Company was incorporated in 1885, with a 
capital of $12,000. Last year, 64,000 bushels of 
barley were manufactured into malt. All of the 
barley used is bought in Canada direct from the 
farmers. The officers of the company are M. C. 
Moran, President; William Chapman, \^ice-Pres- 




RESIDENCE OF GEORGE A, BASSERMAN. 



-"%.- 




-4^ 



"VtyHiCKoe 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



547 



ident; Joseph Devlin, Secretary; and C. H. Os- 
borne, Treasurer. 

The establishment of William Hull & Son, 
brewers of ale and porter, 14 Whiting street, was 
established in 1S70 bv William Hull and his son. 
William H. Hull, 'in 1S7S, WiUiam H. Hull 
succeeded to the business, but retained the old firm 
name. iMr. Hull brews ale and porter, a specialty 
being made of stock ale and porter. From year to 
year he has made additions to his facilities to meet 
the demand of an ever increasing trade. The pro- 
duction for 1885 amounted to 10,000 barrels. 

At the Quinnipiac Brewery of Schleippmann & 
Spittler, on Ferry, River and East Pearl streets, 
lager, ales and porter are brewed. 

There are a few small establishments for the pro- 
duction of weiss beer. 

Brick-makers. 

In 1876, J. R. Grossman commenced to make 
fire-brick at 17 Kossuth street. In 1S80, the New 
Haven Fire Brick Company was formed, composed 
of J. R. Grossman and H. jM. Howard. This 
company continue the business started by Mr. 
Grossman. New Jersey clay is used in making 
these bricks, of which 300,000 are annually made, 
necessitating the employment often men. This is 
the only brick manufactory in New Haven. At the 
same location an earthenware factory was conducted 
for many years. 

Building bricks are made in large quantities in 
North Haven, a few miles north of the city. Of 
those who are engaged in this manufacture, the fol- 
lowing have offices in the city: William E. Davis & 
Co., 961 Grand street; Quinnipiac Brick Company, 
78 Church street; Horace P. Shares, 90-94 State 
street; F. L. Stiles & Son, 306 State street. 

HORACE P. SHARES. 

Brick-making is an ancient art in New Haven. 
Some of the earliest settlers engaged in their manu- 
facture, and the town records for 1640 tell of "a 
way over the river between the brik-kills.'" In 1651, 
John Benham asked the town to appropriate for his 
benefit "twenty shillings to pay for looking for 
Clay to make Bricks when the plantation began." 
From that time to this the manufacture of bricks 
in the Quinnipiac Valley has never wholly ceased, 
and within the present generation it has become 
one of the great industries of that region. The 
citizen of New Haven who has been most success- 
ful in improving and devoloping the business is Mr. 
Horace Putnam Shares. He was born in Hamden, 
Conn.. May 8, 1S36. the son of Daniel W. and 
Jennette (Bassett) Shares, both of whom are now- 
living. Mr. D. W. Shares is known as the inventor 
of several valuable agricultural implements. 

Young Shares received a common school educa- 
tion, and after a period of travel into different parts 
of the country, came home and married, on the 2d 
of October, 1854, Miss Ives,daughter of Mr. Alfred 
Ives, of North Haven. The young couple settled 
at first upon a farm, but, after a year or two, Mr. 



Shares engaged with his father-in-law in the manu- 
facture of bricks. About 1 859 he took charge of the 
yards of the Warner, Mansfield ct Stiles Brick Com- 
pany at North Haven Center, and retained that 
position until 1863. At this time Mr. Shares was 
" prospecting "' in the Quinnipiac meadows, and he 
discovered large deposits of clay hitherto unknown. 
Availing himself for a few years of his father's finan- 
cial aid, he established himself in business with a 
yard of his own, to which, in 1868, he added the 
lower yard of the Warner, Mansfield & Stiles Brick 
Company, and he has since operated the two. 

At that time also Mr. Loyal Ives became a silent 
partner in the ownership of the newly purchased 
yard. Mr. Shares employs through the season from 
seventy-five to one hundred men, and has never had 
trouble with them. When he entered the business, 
thirty years ago, one million bricks was considered a 
large total production for one year; the two yards 
now produce about nine millions annually, while 
the total yearly production of all the North Haven 
yards is about thirty millions. This great expansion 
has been largely due to improvements in manufac- 
ture which Mr. Shares was the first to introduce 
into this vicinity. He has traveled into other sec- 
tions of the country to watch the process of brick- 
making in vogue there; has taken pains to observe 
what the various industrial expositions could teach 
upon the subject; and the new ideas thus obtained 
he has had the sagacity to appreciate and the enter- 
prise to adopt. 

He was the first to import, in 1875-76, the Phila- 
delphia repress system, by means of which the best 
of pressed brick is made here. The residence of Mr. 
Anderson, on Orange street, of Mr. H. P. Frost, and 
of Mr. G. S. Leete, on Chapel street, are examples of 
this product of Mr. Shares' yards. Fouryears later, 
Mr. Shares was also the first to make use of the 
pallet or frame system of drying bricks. He estab- 
lished the plan at a considerable cost, but it was so 
successful that all the other manufacturers here 
soon followed his example. In 1885, he found at 
the New Orleans Exposition some Western inven- 
tions, a pug-mill and sander, both of which he 
made use of in his own yards immediately after his 
return home. They are labor-saving and time- 
shortening machines, and the first successful ones 
of the kind in this region. The pug-mill receives 
the clay, tempers it, and passes it directly to the 
brick-machine; the sander is a revolving cylinder 
which picks up the moulds and sands them. Of 
the pallet brick which is produced by the aid of the 
machinery in Mr. Shares' yards, a fine example may 
be seen in the house of Mr. E. S. Wheeler on Hilf- 
house avenue. 

As this biography shows, Mr. Shares has been 
diligent in business, yet he has found time to travel 
extensively in this country, in Mexico and in the 
West India Islands. He is a constant worker in 
Church and Sunday-school, and has been for many 
years a Sunday-school Superintendent. Deserving 
charities have never appealed to him in vain. But 
he does not love notoriety, and carefully obeys the 
Scripture rule to hide from the one hand what the 
other doeth. 



548 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



Into his home six children have been horn, all of 
whom are living. 

Bridge Builders. 

IthielTowne was the earliest professional bridge- ^ 
builder in the city. He came here in 1812, and 
built the Center Church and Trinity Church. By 
profession an architect, he designed a wooden 
truss-bridge, which came to be extensively used 
throughout New England and some other parts 
of the country. This bridge was known as 
Townes patent, and the inventor for many years 
had a ■ royalty upon these bridges. One of them 
is now in existence at Whitneyville, and one or 
two have recently been removed from over the 
Merrimac River in Massachusetts. There are now 
no establishments in the city which confine them- 
selves exclusively to bridge-building, but several 
of the firms contracting for heavy wbrlc include 
that; and short spans of iron bridges are made by 
the Yale Safe and Iron Works, and by A. A. Ball 
& Son. 

William E. Ailing, contractor, 152 Putnam street, 
has for several years been engaged in building 
docks and all kinds of wood bridge work. 

The firm of R. Redfield & Sons (Edward R. & 
Charles S. ) build bridges, docks, dams and rail- 
roads. 

ROBERT REDFIELD 

was born in Derby, Conn., November 20, 1832, 
the son of Sylvester and Clarissa (Bronson) Redfield. 
His mother was the daughter of Harvey Bronson, 
of Derby. His father was a native of Clinton, his 
family being among the first settlers of that town. 
He died in 1841, when Robert removed to Orange, 
attended the district school, and worked on a farm 
with Elizur Bradley until sixteen years of age. 
About that time, gold being discovered in Califor- 
nia, he was taken with the gold fever and went 
among the first emigrants to that State. He saw 
hard times, for years living in the mountains and 
working in the gold mines. Returning in 1851 to 
Connecticut, he took up the occupation of a stone- 
mason. 

Mr. Redfield married, October 3, 1852, Betsey, 
daughter of Caleb S, Stone, of Danbury, and settling 
in that town, carried on his business as a mason 
until 1870. 

He began after 1857 to make contracts as a 
master builder and mason. In i860 he took the 
contract for the reservoir in Danbury borough, and 
in 1 86 1 made his first engagement in railroad work 
—the earlii-work, masonry, and bridge-work on the 
branch road from Danbury to Brookfield. About 
this time he bought lots and built several houses in 
Danbury, and was engaged in contract work on 
stone buildings in and around that town. 

Mr. Redfield took as partner, in 1868, Ebenezer 
Whittlesey, of Danbury. That year the firm made 
a contract on the Boston, Hartford and Erie Rail- 
road, now tiie New England road, and built the 
mason work until forced to stop, in 1869, by the 



financial failure of the road. In 1870 they took a 
contract at Yonkers to build an avenue with three 
50-foot stone arches in it, with retaining or approacli 
walls each side about four hundred feet, on each 
side of the arch. This was said by the engineers 
at that time to be one of the finest pieces of bridge 
mason work in Westchester county. It occupied 
nearly twenty two months, employed one hundred 
and forty men, and cost $140,000. 

Returning to Danbury in the fall of 1872, the j 
firm took a contract on the Shebaug road, from 
Bethel to Hawleyville, for the bridge mason work, 
which lasted through the winters of 1871-72, and 
employed one hundred workmen. In 1872 they 
built the stone church of St. James' Episcopal 
Society of Danbury. 

In the fall he went to Bound Brook, N. J., on a 
contract for the Perth Amboy Railroad, and was so 
engaged from September to May, 1873, and em- 
ployed over two hundred men. 

Mr. Redfield was next engaged upon the Fourth 
avenue underground improvements in New York 
City, and built eleven blocks, from 56th to 68th 
streets, called the beam tunnel. Beams were laid 
along the wall and arches were sprung from side to 
side between the outer and inner walls. This oc- 
cupied from May, 1873, 'o October, 1875, and 
employed from two to four hundred men. It is 
one of the most extensive and important works of 
masonry of late years in New York City. 

In 1875, Mr. Redfield dissolved partnership with 
Mr. Whittlesey, and came to New Haven. He 
bought a farm in Orange and built a house, with 
other buildings, at an outlay of $15,000. 

In the fall of 1S75 he built the Lehigh and 
Wilkesbarre Coal Dock in New Haven. In 1876 
built two bridges in Branford and the stone arch 
bridge in Clinton; also a supension bridge at Zoar, 
Conn., on the Housatonic River. The same year 
Mr. Redfield bought a quarry, situated in New 
Haven and employed there, in quarrying stone, 
some ninety men. 

He went in 1877 to Staflbrd Springs, and worked 
all the summer with a large force of men in re- 
building the dam, washed away by the remarkable 
freshets of that year. In 1878 he was engaged on 
the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad 
on bridges, and every year since has done more or 
less bridge work for this road. He also built a 
reservoir for Ansonia in the town of Seymour, 
employing three hundred men on the various works. 

In 1879 hs ^"i't ^ large bridge over the Farming- 
ton River for the Northampton Railroad, and also 
a reservoir for the borough of Shelton in Hunting- 
ton, and three bridges on a branch road for the New 
Haven and Northampton Company. 

In 1880, Mr. Redfield was engaged on the New 
York and New Haven Railroad, building arches 
and bridges. In 188 1 he went to the Danbury and 
New England road, and took a contract to build 
the masonry on the road through the town of 
Danbury. He built all the masonry of seventeen 
bridges (seven of these being stone arches) on the 
Northampton road, employing about five hundred 
workmen on all the roads. 






t 

i 



PkODVCTIVE AktS. 



o49 



A difficult work was done in 1882 in tunneling 
through under the New York, New Haven and 
Hartford road, at an angle of forty-three degrees, 
to build abutments for the extension, on a lower 
grade, of the Danbury and Norwalk road. All 
this time forty or more trains were passing over- 
head daily, and none were stopped or made to 
slacken speed. In other cases ^Ir. Redfield has 
undertaken perilous and difficult works, entering 
foundations where others had faileti, and once, 
working alongside, he coped successfully with the 
Raritan River. On building the extension of the 
Northampton road in Massachusetts, he carried up 
stone from his New Haven quarry. At this time 
he built on the shore line at Westbrook a stone 
arch with a span of forty-five feet. 

In 1883, Mr. Redfield took in his two sons as 
partners. This year they did a good deal of stone- 
work in the City of New Haven, including the West 
Chapel Street Bridge, with quite large abutments, 
and the Lamberton Street Bridge, piers and abut- 
ments; erected a stone arch on the Shore Line Rail- 
way at Saltonstall Lake; also a drawbridge for the 
town highway of South Norwalk, the ma.sonry for 
the abutments being laid in twenty feet of water. 

In 1884 they were engaged for the New York 
and New Haven road, and built a drawbridge for 
the town of Westport for the highway bridge, car- 
rying stone from Mr. Redfield's own quarry; also 
the Grand street bridge for New Haven; and sev- 
eral railway bridges for the New York, New Haven 
and Hartford road. 

In 1885, the firm built a railroad bridge for the 
Northampton Company; and mason work for the 
New Haven sewer; and the Tomlinson Bridge, 
where the masonry stands in thirty feet of water, 
and removed the old structure there. 

This outline shows how busily Mr. Redfield has 
been occupied for the last thirty years, and proves 
his skill and success in carrying through some of 
the most responsible and difficult public works in 
his profession. His reputation for substantial and 
durable work is such that often no inspector has 
been called to pronounce upon it, and, when this 
has occurred, it has been rather for form's sake. 
He has the characteristics of a firm and ready man- 
ager of men. 

He is now (1886) building the reservoir for the 
borough of West Haven at a cost of near $10,000. 

Mr. Redfield has had five children: of these there 
survive two sons, who are associated in business 
with him, Ldward R. and C. S. Redfield, and one 
daughter, Dora B. Redfield. 

Broom Makers. 

The only broom manufactory in New Haven is 
that of Charles Mix & Son, lo Hill street, which 
was established about seven years ago on Oak street. 
Employment is furnisheil to four men. 

Brush Manifacturers. 

The American Brush Company was organized in 
1868. Removing to East Haven, its buildings at 



the outlet of Lake Saltonstall were destroyed by 
fire. In 1878 it resumed operations at Westville, 
and continued in the business till 1883. During 
the latter part of the time the brushes were made by 
the Diamond Match Company. Finally the busi- 
ness was sold out and removed to Southington. 

Candle Makers. 

The manufacture of candles can almost be said 
to be extinct in New Haven. But up to the intro- 
duction of the various burning fluids in 1840, it 
was quite an important industry, and formed one 
of the leading articles of the West India trade. 
About the beginning of the present century, Elam 
Hull and Robert Brown were the leading candle 
manufacturers in New Haven. Hull occupied the 
soap factory of W. H. Beecher & Co., 278 Elm 
street, the head of which firm, in 1868, with Dexter 
Alden as partner, succeeded Mr. Hull. The latter 
partnership continued until 1877. Mr. Alden has 
recently died. W. H. Beecher & Co. now carry 
on the manufacture of candles, but in a limited 
way, and are the only manufacturers in the city. 

Carmen. 

Probably the oldest carman in New Haven is 
Edward AlcOowan, who has followed this business 
for thirty-six consecutive years. He makes a spe- 
cialty of moving heavy machinery, such as engines, 
boilers and safes. 

N. Boughton has been engaged in doing general 
carting in this city since i860. He employs five 
teams. His principal business is carting rubber 
goods for L. Candee & Co. 

Carpenters. 

On Mr. Joseph Brown's map of New Haven as it 
was in 1724, is the name of Henry Caner, house- 
wright. Mr. Caner was an Englishman, who first 
appeared in Boston in connection with the enlarge- 
ment of King's Chapel about 1 7 13. He was induced 
to move to New Haven in 171 7, to superintend the 
erection of the College Hall and Rector's House, 
which the Trustees had voted to build, with the 
advice of Governor Saltonstall and Deputy Gover- 
nor Gold "concerning the architectonick part of the 
buildings." Whether Governor Saltonstall, Deputy 
Governor Gold, Mr. Caner the housewright, or 
Rector Cutler, who was not to live in the Rector's 
house, deserves most credit for " the architectonick 
part," does not appear. Jointly they produced a 
hall, satisfactory not only to themselves, but to all 
the friends of the Collegiate School who wislied to 
have it located at New Haven. A few days after 
the frame was put up, the Trustees wrote to Mr. 
Jeremiah Dummer, who had procured for them the 
generous patronage of Governor Elihu Yale. 

We are in hopes of having shortly perfected a splendid 
Collegiate House, which was raised on the 8th instant. We 
liehold its fair aspect in the Market Place of New Haven, 
mounted in an eminent place thereof, in length ten rods, in 
breadth twenty-one feet, and nearly thirty feet upright; a 



550 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



spacious hall and an equally spacious lilirary. all in a little 
time to tic splendidly completed. 

The Rector's house, on ths site where the Col- 
lege Street Church now is, stood about twenty feet 
back from the street. It was \\\ feet in front, by 
38 feet in depth, and had two stories with an attic. 
It was buih by Mr. Caner, in 1722, for ;^6oo. But 
the contract price is stated in the depreciated cur- 
rency of the colony. President Clap informs us 
that the house and land cost in all £i(iO sterling, 
the land having been bought of the First Church 
in New Haven for j[,i,T,. The President's house 
would more nearly have satisfied the taste of 
the moderns than would the College Hall. In 
planning it, the builders had the advantage of 
comparing their plans with those of many similar 
edifices; but the projectors of the College Hall 
worked in an untried field. 

The first Court House, County House, or State 
House, as it was variously called, was built between 
1717 and 1722; and though there is no record that 
Mr. Caner built it, the probability that he did 
amounts almost to certainty. 



Mr. Caner, who was a widower when he came to 
New Haven, married Abigail, the widow of Jona- 
than Cutler. He had two sons, one by his first 
wife and one by his second, who graduated at Yale 
College and became Episcopal Clergymen. He 
diedini73i. On the map of 1748 is the name of 
Widow- Carver. The Editor of this volume is so 
sure that this is a typographical error, that in mak- 
ing a copy of the map he has taken the liberty of 
changing the name to Caner. 

The map of 1748 shows names and residences of 
two joiners, Josiah Thompson and James Tall- 
madge. Josiah Thompson, corner of Meadow 
street and Congress avenue, was not only a joiner, 
but the son of a joiner. His father, William Thomp- 
son, died in 1741. At the time when the map was 
drawn by General Wadsworth, Josiah Thompson 
was fifty-nine years of age. 

It is not easy to fill the gap between 1748 and 
1790, when Elisha Dickerman became of age. 
Josiah Thompson had a son, or grandson, by the 
name of Benjamin, who learned the joiner's trade 
of Hezekiah Augur,and having married one of his 




The Rector's or President's House. 
(By permission of the Publishers of "The Yale Book.") 



daughters, altered the shop in which he learned his 
trade into a dwelling-house, lived there till his 
death, and bequeathed it to his son, Minott, who 
still resides in it at 31 Whalley avenue. 

Benjamin Thompson was a baby in the cradle 
when the British invaded New Haven on the 5th of 
July, 1 779. Some soldiers came to the house and 
ordered his mother to get dinner for them. She 
went into the cellar to make preparation, when one 
of them took up a book from the mantel-shelf and 
finding it to be the Book of Common Prayer of the 
Church of England, said to his comrades, when 
Mrs. Thompson reappeared, "These are not rebels; 
let us get our dinner somewhere else," and thevall 
W'cnt away. 

Hezekiah Augur, of whom Benjamin Thompson 
learned his trade, was partly contemporary, though 
about twenty years older than Elisha Dickerman. 
He died in 18 18 at the age of si.\ty-eight years. 

It IS tiie opinion of a gentleman who was born 
in 1 802, and has himself been a builder in New 
Haven, that for some \ears before Ithiel U-owne ' 
began to build in New Haven, Elisha Dickerman i 



monopolized all the best jobs in the city, and was 
even so obliged to spend much of his time build- 
ing fences and repairing decays. 

President Dwight, in his survey of business in 
New Haven in 181 1, which was about the time 
when Mr. Towne came here, reports the number of 
carpenters and joiners as fifty. This includes all 
persons working at the'craft as apprentices, journey- 
men, and masters. A large majority of the fifty 
must have belonged to the two classes first named; 
and of the master workmen, probably only one or 
two were competent to make any working drawing 
however rude, or to undertake the erection of an 
ordinary dwelling-house. 

Ithiel Towne come to New Haven, uniting in him- 
self the qualifications of an architect and a practical 
builder. He built the Joseph Darling house, now 
occupied by the University Club; the house on the 
corner of College and Wall streets, owned and oc- 
cupied by Alfred Walker; Centre Church, Trinity 
Church, and perhaps a few less conspicuous build- 
ings, and then gave himself exclusively to the busi- 
ness of an architect. 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



551 



Elihu Atwater, having learned his trade of his 
uncle, Elisha Dickerman, and spent a year in 
" New Connecticut " working as a journeyman, re- 
turned to New Haven in 1S09, and commenced 
business for himself; but for several years had no 
opportunity to contract to build any house of more 
than average cost. His first considerable venture 
was a substantial brick house for Amaziah Lucas 
on Chapel street, a little east of St. Paul's Church. 
Long before the death of the contractor it was de- 
molished to give place for the palatial residence 
now occupied by Mr. O. B. North. Another house 
built by Mr. Atwater, which had a similar fate, was 
erected in Elm street a little west of St. Thomas' 
Church for William W. Woolsey. It was demol- 
ished to give place to the Sheffield Block, in which 
is the club-house called "The Cloister." Other 
residences erected by Mr. Atwater were for Russell 
Hotchkiss, on Meadow street; Lewis Hotchkiss, on 
Temple street, and for Rev. Thomas F. Davies and 
Cleveland j. Salter, both on York street. He also 
built Street Building and other blocks of stores. 
His last contract was for the re-erection of the 
Brewster & CoUis Carriage Factor)- in East street, 
fronting Wooster. It having been destroyed by fire, 
Mr. Atwater contracted to rebuild it in ninety days 
and fulfilled his agreement to the letter. The phce- 
ni.x which symbolized its reappearance is still visi- 
ble, though few understand its significance. 

Asahel Tuttle was one of the principal builders 
in the city in 18 12, when he built the old Glebe 
Building for Hon. David Daggett, who had ob- 
tained from Trinity Church a long lease of the 
land. 

David Hoadley came here from Waterbury in 
1S13 to build the North Church, having underbid 
Mr. Towne. He also built the De Forest house, 
now owned by Mr. Sargent; the Nathan Smith 
house, since occupied as a young ladies' school by 
the INIisses Edwards and their successors, Misses 
Orton and Nichols; the Dexter House, now occu- 
pied by offices, under the name of Law Chambers; 
and, at a later date, the Tontine Hotel. 

Timothy Ailing was contemporary with Elihu 
Atwater, Asahel Tuttle and David Hoadley. He 
built a house for himself in High street, afterward 
owned and occupied by Professor Denison Olm- 
sted, and still later by Lucius (jilbert. He built 
on the opposite side of the street a house for Isaac 
Beers, of Apothecaries' Hall, which is still, more 
than half a century after Mr. Beers' decease, the 
residence of his widow. 

Nahum Hayward built for James A. Hillhouse 
the mansion still standing in Sachem's wood, and 
for the Hon. Ralph I. Ingersoll the house on the 
corner of Elm and Temple streets, now occupied 
by ex-Governor Charles R. Ingersoll; the Salisbury 
house, the Stephen Whitney house, the house now 
occupied by Miss H. E. Peck in College street, and 
the First Baptist Church, now the New Haven Op- 
era House, were also the work of ^Ir. Hayward. 
He removed the Coffee House from the site of the 
Tontine Hotel to the place where it now stands in 
Church street, between Wall and Grove. There he 
resided in the building before it became the home 



of the Rev. Dr. Bacon. Though not strictly in the 
line of carpentry, it is thought worthy of record thai 
he set the iron fence which incloses the Green. 

A little later than Mr. Hayward were Sidney M. 
Stone, Atwater Treat, Ira Atwater, Nelson Hotch- 
kiss and Charles Thompson. 

Mr. Stone soon ceased to'take contracts, and de- 
voted himself to the business of an architect in dis- 
tinction from a builder, furnishing drawings and 
specifications, and superintending the work in be- 
half of the owner. But before he had given him- 
self to this specialty he had built St. Paul's Chapel 
as a Chapel of Ease for Trinity Church; the Doric 
edifice, which was the nucleus of the Hospital; the 
Solomon Collis house in Wooster street, now occu- 
pied by e.x-]\Iayor Lewis; the Gerard Hallock house 
and the house of the Rev. Dr. Croswell in Crown 
street, since enlarged and now owned and occupied 
by the Hon. Caleb B. Bowers. 
' Atwater Treat built Alumni Hall, East Divinity 
Hall, West Divinity Hall, the Reference Library, 
which is between the two divinity halls, the Ex- 
change Building, President Woolsey's house in 
Church street, the William Johnson house in York 
square, the Caleb S. Maltby house in Howe street, 
and the Art Gallery. 

Ira Atwater built many churches in country towns, 
including New Mitford, Old Milford, New Britain, 
Meriden and Guilford. He built the Chapel street 
Church, the College Chapel which preceded the 
Battell Chapel, and North College. 

Nelson Hotchkiss commenced business in part- 
nership with Ira Atwater. They built the Collins 
house in Hillhouse avenue and a double English 
basement house on the corner of York and Library 
streets. Mr. Hotchkiss afterward forming a part- 
nership with Charles Thompson, they removed to 
Trenton, N. |. , and remained there fifteen months. 
During that time they built a church and seven 
houses. Mr. Hotchkiss, not long after his return 
from Trenton, became a partner with William Lewis 
in a planing mill in Water street. 

Charles Thompson, after his separation from Mr. 
Hotchkiss, built a block of stores on State street 
and a block of houses on Elm street, in both cases 
for Mr. Sheffield. He also superintended the erec- 
tion of the College Library Building, the workmen 
being paid by the day. He formed a partnership 
with H. B. Oatman in 1852, which continued till 
1867. They rebuilt and enlarged the Ithiel Towne 
mansion for Mr. Sheffield in Hillhouse avenue, re- 
constructed the old Medical College into Sheftield 
Hall for the Scientific School; erected the Sheffield 
Building on Chapel street, and the Wilcoxon house 
on West Chapel street, now the residence of Mrs. 
E.C. Scranton. Since then, either in company with 
Mr. Oatman or alone, Mr. Thompson has built 
North Sheffield Hall, Trinity Church Home, Chapel 
and Parish School, with the four dwelling houses 
attached to the institution, and Battell Chapel. 

James E. English learned his trade of Atwater 
Treat, and having during his apprenticeship ac- 
quired skill in architectural drawing, began to take 
contracts as soon as he was of age. He built a 
house in Wooster place for the Rev. Stephen Jew- 



552 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



itt, now owned by the family of the late B. Man- 
vil'le. Mr. English soon retired from building, 
and established himself as a dealer in lumber. 

Leonard Pardee built the Foote house on Whit- 
ney avenue; the house of E. C. Reed on the same 
avenue, but nearer to the town; the Du Bois house 
on Howard avenue; a house for Dr. Wells on 
Whitnev avenue; and the Government Building for 
the Post Olhce, the Custom House, and the Federal 
Courts. Mr. Pardee left the business to become 
the proprietor of a planing-mill. 

Tuttle & Augur built the ^Merchants' Bank, the 
residence of Henry E. Peck in Meadow street, and 
others. 

James McQueen built the Elliot House and 
many private residences. His son, John B. Mc- 
Queen, is a member of the firm of Smith t<c Mc- 
(}ueen, who have recently built a house in Church 
street, next north of the residence of Justus S. 
Hotchkiss. 

Chauncey Wells, who died at an early age, built 
a double house on Chapel street, fronting Wooster 
place, and a block of si.K houses on the corner of 
George and High streets. 

Nicholas Countryman built the South Congre- 
gational Church, now the Church of the Sacred 
Heart; the Howard Avenue Church; St. Thomas' 
Church; St. John's R. C. Church; the City Hall; 
the block of stores on State street, which contains 
J. D. Dewell's immense stock of groceries; and the 
residences of Pelatiah Perit, Massena Clark, and 
F. S. Bradley. 

Charles A. Osborn built a cottage for Everard 
Benjamin in the upper part of Orange street; a 
similar cottage for George Gabriel in Dwight street; 
IMitchell's Building in Chapel street; the fine resi- 
dence of Mr. O. B. North on the same street, a 
little east of St. Pauls Church; and the mansion of 
Lieutenant-Governor Winchester on Prospect street. 
Mr. Osborn died in the midst of his days. 

Joseph B. Baldwin built the church in Court 
street, now owned and occupied by Mishkan Israel 
as a Hebrew synagogue; the residence of Judge 
Miller, in Howe street, for Wyllys Warner; and the 
residence of Charles L. English on the corner of 
Dwight and Chapel streets. 

Lyon A: Brown built Brewster Building on the 
corner of State and Chapel streets, now, by reason 
of a change of proprietors, called Simpson Build- 
ing; the residences of Willis Bristol and Judge 
Charles A. Ingersoll; and the Mechanics' Bank. 
Mr. Lyon removed to Bridgeport. 

William Doolittle built for Messrs. Anderson & 
Ailing the twin houses in Orange street between 
Humphrey and F'dwards streets. 

Chauncey A. Dickerman, succeeding his father 
as College joiner, afterward became a builder. He 
built the brick block opposite his residence in 
York street and in the rear of Calvarv Baptist 
Church. 

George Merriman learned his trade of Charles 
Thompson. He built the College street Church 
and the residence of Thomas R. Trowbridge on 
Elm street. He removed to one of the Southern 
States. 



Of builders who have passed away we may have 
omitted some names, partly from imperfection of 
memory and partly for want of space; but our list 
includes, we think, all the prominent housewrights 
from the beginning of the nineteenth century to 
the present time. 

Wilson Booth and Robert Treat Merwin have 
retired from business, the former by reason of old 
age, and the latter by reason of ill health. 

Mr. Booth built two houses in Crown street for 
Oliver Bryan; the S. L Baldwin house on the cor- 
ner of Crown and College streets; the house on 
the opposite corner, now owned and occupied by 
Dr. Hubbard; and the house of the late Philemon 
Hoadley. 

Robert Treat Merwin began operations in 1837. 
During this long period he has been one of the 
most active builders in the city. He built the 
Church of the Redeemer; Yale National Bank; 
Masonic Temple; Second National Bank; Con- 
necticut .Savings Bank; Young Men's Institute; 
Webster, Wooster and Skinner Schools; besides a 
great number of private and public buildings. 
For many years James H. Leeds was foreman for 
Mr. Merwin. He is now engaged in business for 
himself, with office and shop on Water street. 

Henry W. Clark has built many residences in 
the southwest part of the city. 

Beach Burwell has built a house in York street 
for Samuel Blackman: a house for Gaius F. War- 
ner in Chapel street, now occupied by the Repub- 
lican League; and several carriage factories. 

William P. Dickerman built the edifice recently 
vacated by the Tliird Congregational Church; the 
residences of E. H. Trowbridge and his son, E. 
Hayes Trowbridge; the Trinity M. E. Church; 
the L. Candee Factory; the store of Yale & Bryan; 
the First Church Home for Aged Women; the 
station house of the consolidated railroad; and the 
freight depot at the steamboat dock. 

George Rockwell, who had been foreman to 
Charles A. Osborn, became his successor. He has 
built the mansion of Congressman Mitchell on 
Townsend avenue, the old house of Mr. R. J. 
Maine, which preceded it, being hardly worthy of 
mention m a history of the present edifice; the 
Charles Farnam house on Hillhouse avenue; that 
of J. M. Davies on Prospect street; the house of 
Enos S. Kimberly on Orange street; and the house 
of Mr. E. Heaton on York street. 

Elihu Larkin has built the house of the late Mr. 
R. S. F"eIlows; Sargent's first large factory; a block 
of houses on Whalley avenue; the First Methodist 
Church; Calvary Baptist Church; a Church in 
Waterbury; Durfee Dormitory and Farnam Dor- 
mitory. 

James A. Church has built the Sloane Labora- 
tory, and is now at work on Lawrance Dormitory. 

Clark & Thompson, a firm consisting of Spencer 
A. Clark and F. R. Thompson, have built a house 
for the late Mr. Edwin Hotchkiss on the corner of 
Chapel and Howe streets ; Mrs. Hadley's house 
on the corner of Whitney avenue and Trumbull 
street; and are now bringing toward completion 
Dwight Hall on the College Campus. 



Jat/^ f^ 



■I 




r 







PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



553 



Hubbell & Merwin have built Atwater block at 
the junction of Grand and St John streets, and 
several residences in various parts of the city. Their 
shop is furnished with machinery by the aid of 
which they do a large amount of jobbing. 

A. N. Clark has built the Dormitory for the 
Nurses at the Hospital, and many private residences. 

Edward P. Brett came into Artisan street as an 
apprentice in 1855, and established himself in 
business in the same street in 1863. He had charge 
of the wood-work on the first buildings erected by 
the Winchester Arms Company, and also of the 
large addition built one year later. He does a 
large amount of shop-work by machinery, especi- 
ally in manufacturing wooden bo.xes. 

Charles E. Brown was for many years a partner 
with Mr. Brett. The partnership was dissolved in 
1880, and each has a shop of his own, both of 
them on Artisan street. Mr. Brown, either in 
partnership with Mr. Brett or alone, has erected 
the origin.il buildings of the Winchester Repeating 
Arms Company; five large buildings for the L. 
Candee Company; and buildings for Sargent k Co., 
Peck Brothers & Co., the New Haven Gas Light 
Company; besides numerous dwelling-houses and 
stores. 

Lucerne L Thomas was born in New Haven 
in 1850. Attended the Washington and Webster 
schools. Commenced business in 1874, his first 
contract being for a dwelling-house for Town 
Clerk Shuster. He does all his own designing 
and drawing. Besides being an enterprising 
and successful builder, he has shown genius in 
military affairs, and has, by successive promotions, 
risen from the ranks of the National Blues to be 
the Captain of that ancient organization. 

Warren Robinson commenced building in New 
Haven in 1851. He built the Methodist Church 
in Dixwell avenue; reconstructed Skiff's Opera 
House; built the hotel, formerly called the Madi- 
son House, now the Sheldon House, in State 
street, and many private residences. 

James A. Thorpe commenced business on Ex- 
change street in 1875, and has since then built 
sixty houses; thirty-one of the sixty were for S. R. 
Blatchley & Sons, real estate agents. 

As the population of the city increases, the 
number of master-carpenters muUiplies. Among 
those who are now pressing toward the front rank 
are Martin Allen, W. A. Beard, James F. Beebe, 
J. M. Bradley, A. H. Cargill, David H. Clark, 
James A. Fogarty, G.W. Hazard, James Hodson, 
William H. Hubbard, Samuel Johnson, W. A. 
Lincoln, Charles D. Loveland, Thomas F. Lowe, 
E. A. Prince, Andrew C. Smith, and Miles L. 
Smith. 

DAVID H. CLARK 

is a native of Stratford, Conn., where he was born 
July 24, 1850. His father died when he was two 
years old, and at the age of nine he removed to 
Oranoke, a village in the north of Stratford, and 
set out to work his own way in the world, upon the 
usual terms to many a self-made man, of board, 
clothes, and schooling. 

70 



In the quiet hamlet of Oranoke there was no 
chance to go astray, and the natural surroundings 
seem to have instilled their own faithful character 
into his; for he learned there the principle, which 
he has endeavored to maintain through life, of ful- 
filling every engagement. 

After six years, he engaged for a term of two 
years with the widow of Thaddeus Curtis, receiv- 
ing eighty dollars per year and winter schooling. 
At the age of fifteen he had the full charge of the 
farm for the Widow Curtis. He could mow an 
acre of grass before breakfast, and cradle and do 
well all manner of farm-work. In the spring of 
1867 his value had so increased to Mrs. Curtis, that 
he was able to engage with her for the summer on 
the more favorable terms of $1. 50 a day and board. 

In the fall of 1867, he spent a short time with 
his uncle, Philo Birdsey, of Oranoke, and took at 
a venture his uncle's interest in the shad fishery on 
the Housatonic River, which was then a somewhat 
lucrative source of gain. The profits of the fishery 
he turned to his education, and bought a scholar- 
ship in the Bryant & Stratton Business College, 
at ISridgeport. He obtained at this school a prac- 
tical knowledge of book-keeping, banking, and com- 
mercial law, and learned the general order of bus- 
iness usage. At the close of the scholarship course 
he engaged with the Cartridge Company of Bridge- 
port for about a year, and then, thinking to ad- 
vance himself in the knowledge of mechanical af- 
fairs, went into the employ of the Howe Sewing 
Machine Company. Here he could make on piece- 
work as much as three and four dollars per day. 
There came on a strike at the Howe works, and, 
influenced by the uncertainties of trade disturb- 
ances, he resolved to apply himself tu some more 
stable business. 

His Sunday-school teacher at the Methodist 
Church in East Bridgeport, Calvin P. Hall, was a 
practical carpenter and builder. He went to him 
and informed him. To his astonishment he was 
told to come with overalls, hammer and two-foot 
rule, and go to work for him at one o'clock that 
very afternoon. This he did, and worked out in 
the rain from noon till night. He remained with 
Mr. Hall two years, his wages having increased 
from $9 per week at the outset, to $15 per week at 
the close of that period. 

A dissolution of partnership, in 1869, left an 
unfinished building in West Stratford ; this Mr. 
Clark took up and completed. All work, as mold- 
ing and the like, was then done by hand, and work- 
ing through the day he would often continue his 
labor by candle-light into the night. 

January 18, 1872, Mr. Clark married Emm^ F, 
Beers, of New Haven, by whom he has one son, 
born February 14, 1876. 

In the spring following he removed to New Ha-: 
ven and took a situation with William J. Pratt, the 
builder. He then sub-contracted with Darrow & 
Hague, working with them through the spring and 
summer of 1S73. In 1875 he was engaged with 
R. T. Merwin on the Second National Bank Build- 
ing, and then, also with Mr. Merwin, on the build- 
ing for Governor English on the comer of Church 



554 



HISTORY OF THE CITF OF NEW HA YEN. 



and George Streets, working as a journeyman up to 
this time, 1876. 

That same vear, Mr. Clark associated himselt 
with John H.' Brown, under the firm name of 
Brown & Clark, carpenters and builders, who es- 
tablished themselves in the rear of 325 Grand street. 
Outgrowing this place in two years, they removed 
to the corner of St. John and Olive streets, on the 
Charles Osborne property. He continued with Mr. 
Brown until March 31, 1882, and during that 
period they erected the building on the corner of 
State and Court streets, and built residences for 
Judge S. A. York, W. \V. Woodrufl", and George E. 
Osborne; also the Quinnipiac Building on Chapel 
street, the Kensington Flat on Orange street; the 
English and Mersick Building; the Kellogg store, on 
the corner of Elm and Slate streets, and the Mount 
Carmel Public Building. 

In 1882, owing to the failure of Mr. Brown's 
health, there was a dissolution of the partnership, 
and, assuming sole control, I\Ir. Clark erected the 
building for Governor English, occupied by Proc- 
tor, Gross & McGuire. Sometimes working on 
quicksand — now having to shore up and support 
one part of a buiUhng, perhaps full of running ma- 
chinery, while demolishing and renewing the other 
part of it — so, under great difficulties, he has pushed 
forward the enlargements of the growing city, and 
has borne the numerous and ve.fing responsibilities 
of a large builder in a flourishing town. 

Mr. Clark has had long business relations with 
and has put up numerous buildings for Governor 
James E. English, among them a block of ten 
houses on Wooster and Warren streets; also a block 
of four the same year for Lyman M. Law; a new 
building for the New Haven Clock Company; and 
rebuilt, after the fire, for this Company, three 
large buildings in the burnt district, and residences 
on Howe stieet. In 1885 he erected the Ferry 
street Church, donated by Hiram Camp to the 
Cedar Hill Union Mission Society, and a four- 
siory building on Church street, near George. 

Reviewing his business career since 1876, Mr. 
Clark finds that he has added 140 buildings to the 
growth of the city, at a cost of $420,000, and has 
been identified with many of the largest building 
enterprises of New Haven. He employs from 
thirty to fifty men in the various departments. 

Starting at the outset with no facilities, and ham- 
pered by the disabilities of the methods of twenty- 
five years ago, I\Ir. Clark now commamis the fullest 
facilities for making houses complete without going 
farther than his own doors for all the necessary 
ecjuipments. He thus combines dispatch with 
economy of labor, and maintains the indepen- 
dence, which has been, all through his life, a 
characteristic of the man. Mr. Clark's career, if 
somewhat uncommonly prosperou.s, is an excellent 
illustration of the success that attends faithful 
effort, when combined with the skillful direction of 
one's fortune at the turning point of life. 

THOMAS F. LOWE 
is one of the most enterprising and progressive of 
New Haven's many competent carpenter-builders, 



and, though yet a comparatively young man, has 
done more than his part in contributing to the 
city's visible growth. Especially is this true of Fair 
Haven, where he has his residence, and where evi- 
dences of his enterprise are to be seen on every 
hand. 

Mr. Lowe learned his trade in Waterbury, and 
later was employed in Bridgeport, until he took up 
his residence in New Haven in 1872. In 1874 he 
embarked in business for himself, and since that 
time has erected many elegant residences and large 
factory buildings and business blocks, his opera- 
tions having included the building of the residences 
of Mr. H. P. Frost on Chapel street, and Mrs. John 
Mansfield on Center street (Annex); the rebuilding 
of E. Malley's store; and the erection of a large five- 
story addition to B. Manville & Co. 's carriage-factory 
on Wooster street. He has purchased many lots, 
notably in Fair Haven, and built comfortable houses 
on them upon speculation, which he has sold to 
home-seekers to his own and the city's benefit. 
He began business with shops on Exchange street, 
and in 1882 removed to his present location, 229 
Lloyd street His increasing business demands 
the employment of upwards of twenty men, who 
find in him an employer at once liberal and con- 
siderate. 

Mr. Lowe's distinguishing characteristics are en- 
terprise and integrity. He is in every sense a 
worthy and useful citizen, standing deservedly high 
in the esteem of all classes of his fellow-townsmen. 
Of him it may be truly said that he is, in the usual 
acceptation of the term, a self-made man, who with 
work as his watchword and honesty as his guide, 
has been quick to see or make and ready to grasp 
his opportunities. 

Though too busy to mingle much in political 
life, he takes a deep interest in the growth and 
prosperity of New Haven, and since taking up his 
residence within its borders has manfully and with 
a liberal hand contributed to the estiblishment and 
maintenance of worthy objects designed to enhance 
the public welfare. He is frank of speech and af- 
fable of manner, and readily wins friends among 
all classes of men, and his most prominent charac- 
teristics have gained him the respect and confidence 
of the entire business community. 

Wiih the introduction of machinery, carpentry, 
like other work, is subdivided into specialties, such 
as sawing, planing, making doors, sashes, blinds, 
and stairs. 

The sash, door and blind factory of the Thomas 
Ailing Company, 136 East Water street, was 
founded about forty years ago by Ira Atwater. It 
was afterwards sold to Leonard Pardee, who con- 
ducted it until 1865, when George and Thomas 
Ailing and William Converse purchased it, and 
for one year business was carried on under the 
firm name of G. & T. Ailing & Co. At the expi- 
ration of that time Hiram Painter and J. Gibbs 
Smith became members of the firm, the title of 
which remained the same. In 1883 the firm was 
composed of Thomas Ailing, J. Gibbs Smith, and 
Albert Ailing. The business was then consolidated 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



555 



with that of George Ailing & Son, now conducted 
under the name of The George AUing's Sons' 
Company. This imion continued until 1885. 
In February, 1886, a stock company was formed, 
under the title of the Thomas Ailing Company, 
composed of Thomas Ailing, J. Gibbs Smith, and 
E. J. Ailing. The executive officers are Thomas 
Ailing, President, and J. Gibbs Smith, Secretary and 
Treasurer. Their factory is one of the largest in 
the State. The work executed consists of doors, 
sashes, blinds, wood-turning and scroll-sawing. 
Employment is furnished to sixty-five men. 

The planing, wood-turning, and scroll-sawing 
mill of the George Ailing Sons' Company, 100 
East Water street, is the successor of the business 
established by George Ailing & Son. The prem- 
ises of the Company have a frontage on Water 
street of 280 feet, and run back 600 feet to the 
harbor. The main building is of brick, two stories 
high, 222 by 200 feet in dimensions. There are 
several sheds for storage purposes, in which large 
supplies of hmiber are kept, as well as what is used 
for manufacturing purposes, amounting to from 
five to six million feet annually. In the manufac- 
turing dep.irtment an engine of 1 50-horse power 
is the motor. About seventy-five men are em- 
ployed. A large business is done in planing, 
resawing, general wood-work, such as fitting up 
stores and furnishing the interior wood-work for 
buildings of all kinds. The principal work, how- 
ever, consists in manufacturing wintlow frames, 
bases, jambs and casings, which are sold through- 
out the State. Their stock of lumber is the largest 
in variety of any yard in the city, a leading spe- 
cialty being made of Southern pine flooring and 
North Carolina pine. The annual turn-out of the 
establishment amounts to about S400,ooo. George 
Ailing, the founder of this business, died in 1883. 
The officers of the Company are Charles E. Ailing, 
President; George A. Ailing, Treasurer; and E. H. 
Barnum, Secretar)-. 

GEORGE ALLING. 

The late George Ailing was born in New Haven 
October 15, 1820, and died January 26, 1883. His 
parents were Thomas and Lydia ( [ohnson) Ailing, 
the former having been a prosperous farmer. He 
had four brothers and one sister. His education 
was finished in the old Lancasterian School, which 
is so pleasantly remembered by many prominent 
gentlemen of New Haven. As a practical prepar- 
ation for his life struggle he mastered the joiners' 
trade, after a thorough apprenticeship, and worked 
at it until he engaged in business as a contractor 
and builder. 

In I 846. he formed a partnership with his brother, 
Thomas Ailing, which existed until 1S48, when he 
sold his interest to the latter and entered into part- 
nership with Isaac Anderson, opening a coal and 
lumber-yard on Water street, and a branch office 
in New Boston, Conn., under the management of 
Henry P. .\lling. Their business became quite 
extensive. In 1856, Mr. Ailing severed his rela- 
tions with Mr. Anderson and went to Davenport, 



la., and entered into the lumber business on an 
extensive scale, about the same time building a 
large sawing and planing-mill in Florence, Neb. 
This business proved very successful, and Mr. Ai- 
ling continued it till 1S60, when he disposed of his 
interest in the West and returned to New Haven. 

He now again formed a partnership with his 
brother, Thomas Ailing, in the lumber business, on 
Water street, the firm being known as George Ailing 
& Co. They did a very large business for several 
years, during which Mr. Ailing was, for a time, in- 
stalled also in the lumber trade in Chicago, 111.; 
and, during the war, with Montgomery Armstrong 
in the carriage business, under the firm name of 
I\I. Armstrong & Co. The latter firm had large 
contracts to furnish ambulances, etc., to the United 
States Government, and for several years did con- 
siderable exporting business, having a large repos- 
itory at Melbourne, Australia. 

In 1866, the firm of George Ailing & Co. pur- 
chased the sash, door and blind business of Leon- 
ard Pardee & Co., and, under the style of G. & T. 
Ailing & Co., continued it very successfully until 
1883, when Mr. Ailing, having purchased the busi- 
ness of the Lewis & Beecher Co., retired from the 
firm of G. & T. Ailing & Co., and thereafter, until 
his death, was connected with his son, George A. 
Ailing, under the firm name of George Ailing & 
Son, in the lumber and milling business, on Water 
street, succeeding the Lewis & Beecher Co. at their 
old place of business. 

Charles E. Ailing, the eldest son of George Ai- 
ling, who had for some )ears been interested in the 
business of G. & T. Ailing & Co., after his fither's 
death sold his share in that concern, and, with his 
brothers, George A. and Arthur N. Ailing, organ- 
ized a joint-stock company, under the name of the 
George AUing's Sons' Co., to continue the busi- 
ness. This firm rank with the leading business 
houses of New Haven, having a large planing and 
saw-mill, and wood-turning and scroll-sawing es- 
tablishment, and being extensive wholes.ile and re- 
tail lumber merchants and manufacturers of mold- 
ings and building materials. 

Mr. Ailing was married May 20, 1845, to Miss 
Mary E. Alversen, of New Haven, who survived 
him only about a year. Their three sons, Charles 
E., (]eorge A. and Arthur N. Alhng, members of 
the George AUing's Sons' Co., are well known and 
highly respected. 

I\Ir. Ailing was genial and companionable, and 
during his long and busy career made many stead- 
fast friends. He was public-spirited, helpful and 
•charitable. 

A Republican politically, he was too thorough-go- 
ing a business man to take part in politics, nor did 
his tastes induce him to do so, though he was in- 
duced to become a member of the Common Coun- 
cil of the City of New Haven, and held other offi- 
cial positions. 

From time to time he was in some manner iden- 
tified with diflerent business and commercial enter- 
prises, and his advice was sought by many-, his 
judgment being implicitly relied on. At the time 
of his death he was a Director in the Mechanics' 



656 



til STORY Of TtiE CITY Of N£W tiA VEN. 



Bank. He was a man of sterling integrity, just, 
enterprising, and deservedly successful. 

For many years a prominent member of the First 
Baptist Church, he was devoted to all its interests 
and contributed liberally toward its maintenance 
and extension. 

The New Haven Steam Saw-Mill Company is a 
joint stock organization, and was formed in 1854 
with a capital of $50,000. The premises are located 
near the crossing of Chapel and East streets, on the 
bank of I^Iill River. The mill is 80 by 100 feet, with 
ample room for the floating of logs. A 250-horse 
power engine furnishes the motive power. The Com- 
pany have a side track, connecting with all the rail- 
roads leaving the city. Their trade has a wide range 
throughout this State, New England, and New York. 

C. B. Curtis, 88 Winchester avenue, began the 
manufacture of doors, sashes, blinds and moldings 
in 1869. His trade is both local and also e.xtends 
throughout the State. 

The Porter Stair Company was founded by the 
late H. F. Porter, in 1833, the business increasing 
in amount as the taste for artistic wood-work was 
gradually developed. The production of the factory 
consists not only of stairs and their several parts, 
but hard-wood mantels, cabinet trimmings, wains- 
coting and doors. The ground occupied covers 
an area of 640 by 250 feet on Grand street, near 
the Barnsville Bridge, upon w^hich is a factory, a 
two-story frame mill, 100 by 100 feet, in which five 
distinct branches are carried on. About seventy 
men are employed. A 50-horse power engine drives 
the machinery. The officers of the Company are 
E. L. Goodale, President; William T.Porter, Secre- 
tary and Treasurer; and William T. Porter, Samuel 
Johnson, and E. L. Goodale, Directors. Capital 
stock, $80,000. 

Carpet Weavers. 

At the present time the only work in this branch 
of the industrial arts is done by the old-fashioned 
hand-loom, working up the refuse rags of the econ- 
omical house-wife into what is known as "rag 
carpet." There are four of these looms now in 
operation, the owners taking the material and weav- 
ing it at so much per yard. 

In 1830, Philips Galpin began the manufacture 
of ingrain carpets. He was joined in 1833 by Hon. 
J. B. Robertson, under the firm name of Galpin & 
Robertson, and a new factory was built, where the 
business was carried on for some years with a con- 
siderable degree of success, but finally proved a 
failure. Mr. Robertson retired in 1849, and the 
manufacture was continued for a short time by 
Daniel Mitchell, who was for many years foreman 
for Galpin & Robertson. Mr. Mitchell finally gave 
up, since which time there lias been no attempt at 
carpet weaving, excepting of the character men- 
tioned above. 

Carriage-Building and its Branche.s. 
From the early years of the present century, car- 
riage-building has been an important element in 
the mdustrial pursuits of New Haven. There have 



been periods in its history in this city when more 
persons were engaged in it, when the amount of 
capital invested in it was greater, and its product 
more valuable than any other two branches of the 
industrial arts. The last twenty-five years, however, 
have seen a great change in the methods of manu- 
facture, the business being divided into numerous 
collateral branches, each of which, though distinct 
in itself, is yet dependent upon the others. Thus 
we find manufacturers of axles, bodies and hard- 
ware, which are again subdivided into such articles 
as springs, wheels, steps, tops, poles, and trimmings. 
This division of the work, by its natural tendency 
to produce skilled workmen for every part, has also 
tended to system, superior workmanship, beauty of 
finish, and cheapness; and has thus created for New 
Haven carriages an enviable reputation throughout 
the world. 

The earliest coach-maker in New Haven of whom 
we have any record, was John Cook. He began 
business in 1794, in a small shop in the rear of 
Chapel street, where Orange street now is, and near 
the present site of the furniture establishment of the 
Bowditch & Prudden Company. 

The elliptical steel spring, now invariably attached 
to the axle of a carriage, was invented by a citizen 
of New Haven soon after the beginning of the pres- 
ent century — Captain Jonathan Mix, who resided 
at the corner of College and Elm streets, where East 
Divinity Hall now stands. He was one of the forty 
heroes who started at once for Cambridge when the 
news of the massacre at Lexington reached New 
Haven. He obtained a patent, February, 1807, 
for "a spring of elliptical form, placed parallel to 
the axle, to which it was screwed in the center." 

After 1 800, there were several small shops in New 
Haven where carriages were made, some of them 
devoted entirely to blacksmith-work, and others to 
the wood-work. The productions of these early 
craftsmen were rude and unpretentious, and did 
not, up to 1 8 ID, aggregate an annual sale of over 
$30,000, which included road wagons then in gen- 
eral use. 

In 1809, James Brewster chanced to be traveling 
from Boston to New York, and was detained in 
New Haven by an accident to the stage-coach. 
While waiting for the necessary repairs to be made, 
Mr. Brewster visited Cook's carriage shop, and, 
after interviewing the proprietor, was impressed with 
the availability of New Haven as a carriage-building 
center. In 18 10 he put his opinions into practical 
form by starting a factory at the corner of Elm and 
High streets, on the lot where the photograph gal- 
lery now is. * At that time the carriage journeymen 
received their wages in trade, and as they were very 
generally of drinking habits, the work was inferior 
and unsatisfactory. The advent of Mr. Brewster 
began a new era in carriage-building in New Haven 
so real and marked, that he has well been called the 
father of the trade. He sought to raise the standard 
of workmanship by calling the best workmen to 



♦ President Dwigbt, of Yale College, in a st.itistical account of New 
Haven, published in 1811, states that there were at that time seven 
carriage iiiannfactories. This number must have included blacksmiths' 
shops which did some carriage-work. 



I 



PRODVCflVE AkfS. 



55? 



New Haven, by paying good wages in cash, and 
seeking in many other ways to raise them to a greater 
sense of responsibility and to a higher grade of 
mental and moral culture. The progress of this 
establishment will be noticed in its proper place, 
and this brief mention of Mr. Brewster's early work 
is for the purpose of giving a glimpse at the begin- 
ning of this great industry. 

Another epoch in the history of carriage-build- 
ing in New Haven dates from the introduction of 
steam machinery into the trade by George T.Newhall 
in 1855. While visiting Providence, R. I., he be- 
came impressed with the fact that steam was used 
for many purposes as power, and that it could be 
utilized with advantage in carriage-building. Act- 
ing upon this idea, he purchased a small engine, 
and placed it with the requisite machinery in his 
factory at Newhallville. His experiment, for such 
it was, was looked upon with incredulity, and his 
creditors became anxiously filled with the idea that 
he was doomed to insolvency, or the retreat for the 
insane. The success of the enterprise was, how- 
ever, soon apparent, and Mr. Newhali continued 
the business in this way, followed gradually by 
other manufacturers in the city, until at the break- 
ing out of the war nearly every factory had steam 
power and machinery. The growing use of power, 
and the inventive genius of the time, have created 
many improvements and possibilities, but the credit 
of its introduction belongs to Mr. Newhali. 

The brightest period of carriage-building in New 
Haven was from 1840 to the breaking out of the 
war in 1861. During this time New Haven car- 
riage-makers had established a large trade through- 
out the Southern States. The war not only ob- 
literated this trade, but caused very serious losses to 
the manufacturers in the obligations then due and 
maturing. Since that time a number of large firms 
have passed out of the carriage business, and their 
factories are either used to-day for other purposes, 
or are standing idle, while other establishments have 
been enlarged and expanded on every side. 

Richard Stone's factory, on Chapel street, near 
Day street, is now used for dwellings, as is also 
Dickerman's factory, at the corner of George and 
York streets; Newhall's factory, at Newhallville, and 
Grinnell's, on Garden street, have been burned. 
Ingram's, and more recently James Cooper's, on 
Garden street, are practically unoccupied. Dibble's 
establishment, on Park street, is used for the manu- 
facture of oleomargarine, and Blackman's and 
Randell's, on the same street is occupied by New- 
man's corset factory. David Wilcoxson's build- 
ing, on Park street, is used for manufacturing fire- 
arms and wire-work. The shop of Stevens & 
Gilbert, on Temple street, has been supplanted by 
the Electric Light Company. 

Hubbell, Strout & Hooker were pioneers in car- 
riage-building, in Park street, putting up, in 1821, 
the factory for forty- five years past occupied by 
J. J. Osborn. An old house then standing upon 
the site was moved to the corner of Webster street 
and Dixwell avenue, where it still stands. 

Of the more ancient factories that have passed 
away and not been alluded to, were Parker's, near 



West Bridge; Zelotes Day's, in York street, burned 
about thirty-five years ago; and a factory standing 
where Olmstead's drug store now is, at the corner of 
York street and Broadway, occupied at times by 
James Brewster, James Bradley, and Moses Perkins; 
and that of Isaac Mix & Son, where the New 
Haven clock shop now^ is. 

There is a lack of reliable statistics to show the 
progress of the carriage business from the early 
days of Brewster to the present time. The census of 
i88oreturns the number of establishments engaged 
in the manufacture of carriages, wagons and ma- 
terials at 43; the amount of capital invested, $1,- 
309,599; number of persons employed, 1,204; 
amount paid for wages annually, $679, 128; value 
of material used, $954,501; value of manufactured 
products, $2,005,829. 

The following is an historical statement of houses 
now engaged in the manufacture of carriages and 
attendant branches in the city. 

William H. Bradley & Co., carriage manufactur- 
ers. This house was established by James Brewster 
in 1827. In the introduction to this section allusion 
has been made to the impetus which James Brewster 
gave to the carriage business of the city. Hestarted 
on the lot at the corner of Elm and High streets, 
and was afterwards located at the corner of York 
street and Broadway; later, at the old stand of John 
Cook, in Orange street; and still later in Plast street, 
fronting Wooster street, in the building now occu- 
pied by W. & E. T. Fitch, where the business re- 
mained until 1850, when it was removed to its 
present location on Chapel street. Soon after the 
establishment of Mr. Brewster in this city, he opened 
a repository in New York under the care of John 
R. Lawrence, the firm name there being Brewster 
& Lawrence. In 1830, Solomon Collis was admit- 
ted as a partner in the New Haven house, the firm 
being Brewster & Collis, the firm of Brewster & 
Lawrence remaining the same in New York. It 
was during the next ten years that the great reputa- 
tion of this firm for the manufacture of fine carriages 
was established. In 1837, Mr. Brewster retired, 
Messrs. Collis and Lawrence conducting the busi- 
ness, under the title of Collis & Lawrence in New 
Haven, and Lawrence & Collis in New York. This 
arrangement continued until 1850, when Mr. Collis 
sold his interest here to William H. Bradley, and 
in New York to Mr. Lawrence. The latier associ- 
ated with him S. A. Dearborn, and his son, John 
Lawrence, the firm being known in New York as 
John R. Lawrence & Co., and in New Haven as 
Lawrence & Bradley. In 1857, William B. Pardee 
became a member of the firm, it being then known 
as Lawrence, Bradley & Pardee. Mr. Pardee re- 
mained until 1872, when he retired, and the firm 
has since been known as William H. Bradley & Co. 
The premises on Chapel street consist of a three- 
story building, 40 by 180 feet, divided into the 
several departments necessary to carry on the work. 
The house, from its establishment by the honored 
Mr. Brewster to the present time, has occupied a 
prominent place in the carriage business of New 
Haven. 



558 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



JAMES BREWSTER, 

the carriage manufacturer, was born in Preston, 
Conn., August 6, 1788, and died in New Haven, 
November 22, 1866. 

He was of the seventh generation in direct descent 
from Elder William Brewster, one of the Pilgrim 
Fathers, who came over from England in the May- 
flower, and landed at Plymouth in 1620. His 
father, who died when he was quite young, had 
eight children — five sons and three daughters — of 
whom the subject of our sketch was the second. 
His mother lived to the advanced age of ninety-two 
years, and died September 24, 1854. 

The early death of his father, leaving the family 
with but limited means, made it necessary for James 
to follow a trade ; and, after a district-school 
education, he was apprenticed, in 1804, to Colonel 
Charles Chapman, of Northampton, Mass., to learn 
the trade of carriage-making. On attaining his 
majority, he was offered an interest in his employer's 
business; but this he refused, preferring to go into 
business by himself. Circumstances led him to 
New Haven, where, in 18 10, he commenced in a 
small one-story shop, then standing on the lot at 
the corner of Elm and High streets. His skill as 
a mechanic soon secured him a large patronage, 
and his undertaking proved quite successful. 

At that time few carriages were in use, one-horse 
wagons being generally employed. Even Governor 
Strong, of Massachusetts, rode into Boston on 
election day in a one-horse wagon. Mr. Brewster 
undertook the improvement of the styles, and soon 
became known as the manufacturer of "Brewster 
wagons," which then came into general use. He 
made a specialty of the better class of vehicles, and 
was the first maker in the United States to send a 
paneled carriage to the .South. In time he estab- 
lished a very large business in the improved forms 
of buggies, pha-'tons, victorias, coaches, and similar 
modern vehicles. 

Mr. Brewster early adopted the custom of p.iying 
his workmen every Saturday evening in cash, in- 
stead of continuing the old practice of giving orders 
for goods. His great respect for religion com- 
pelled him to realize his responsibility to those in 
his employ. Drinking habits prevailed among the 
journeymen to an unfortunate e.\tent, and he strongly 
advocated temperance. Before there were any as- 
sociations formed for the suppression of intemper- 
ance he took a strong position against the habitual 
use of into,xicating drinks, and especiallv against 
the customary use of it in the shops, where it was 
allowed by the common consent of both employer 
and employee. He prohibited its use in his own 
shop, and by his efforts inaugurated a great refor- 
mation among the mechanics of the city. 

In many ways he endeavored to educate his em- 
ployees. He organized an association called the 
Voung Mechanics' Institute, and rented a room in 
the (Jlebe Building in which thev held their meet- 
ings. Here he frequently dclivercd'evening addresses 
to liis workmen on moral and practical subjects. 
Later he erected a public hall for lectures, and 
called It Franklin Hall. He then instituted a course 



of scientific lectures by such men as Professors 
Olmsted, Shepard, and Silliman, of Yale College. 
These lectures cost him $5,000 annually, and were 
of great benefit to all who heard them. His efforts 
in behalf of the mechanic attracted to New Haven 
a superior class of workmen. 

In 1827, Mr. Brewster opened a branch of his 
business on Broad street. New York, near the pres- 
ent Stock Exchange, associating with himself Mr. 
John Lawrence as his partner, under the firm name 
of Brewster & Lawrence, which firm continued for 
some years. 

In 1833 he became interested in railroad build- 
ing, and with a number of citizens of New Haven 
obtained a charter for the construction of a railroad 
between New Haven and Hartford. The interest 
which the enterprise awakened in the public mind 
was so great, that when the survey was completed, 
and the books were opened in New York to receive 
subscriptions to the stock of the road, si.x million 
dollars were subscribed in one day — si.x times the 
amount needed. The great fire in New York, 
which occurred in 1835, made it impossible to 
collect a large portion of the funds subscribed, and 
Mr. Brewster gave up a fine business in order to 
devote his entire energies to the building of the 
road, giving his time and services for four years to 
the accomplishment of this enterprise. He was 
elected President of the Company, and gave, with- 
out remuneration, such land belonging to him over 
which the road passed. The rails with which this 
road was built were imported from England at an 
e.xpense of $250,000, and for this large sum Mr. 
Brewster became responsible, as the importer would 
not deliver them without. 

Resigning the presidency of the Railroad Com- 
pany after four years of faithful service, he resumed 
his chosen occupation, and, in 1838, again estab- 
lished a carriage business, associating with him his 
son, James B. Brewster, who afterward became the 
head of the New York house, now known as J. B. 
Brewster & Co., of 25th street. 

By honesty, industry, and faithful devotion to 
his business, Mr. Brewster accumulated a handsome 
competency, much of which he used in his endeavor 
to make others happy. He was closely identified 
with many of the interests of New Haven. The 
suffering poor, and the orphan children found a 
warm place in the affections of his heart. This was 
attested in his improvement of the Almshouse, and 
by his munificent gift of an Orphan Asylum to the 
city, which stands as a worthy monument to his 
generosity and his sympathy for the unfortunate. 

He was a lover of the beautiful in Nature and 
Art, and was the possessor of several valuable his- 
torical paintings, executed for him by distinguished 
artists. Among these were the "Landing of the 
Pilgrims at Plymouth," now in the possession of his 
oldest son, James B. Brewster; "Founding of the 
New Haven Colony;" and "Washington Parting 
with his Mother to Assume the Duties of President 
of the United States," with others of like interest 
and value. 

For many years Mr. Brewster was accustomed 
to keep an extended diary, and to the ordinary 







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PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



559 



events of each day he would add his " Moral Re- 
flections." In his sixty-eighth year he wrote his 
Autobiography, a volume of marvelous beauty and 
excellence, never given to the public, but kept as 
a souvenir by the family, for whose benefit it was 
written. It also contains his Lecture before the 
Young Mechanics' Institute. The entire volume 
is in writing, elegantly executed. 

In 1825, Mr. Brewster joined the Church of the 
United Society in New Haven, under the pastoral 
care of Rev. Samuel Merwin, of which he remained 
a faithful member until his death. His religious 
character was exemplified in his daily life, not only 
in his family, but in his business transactions with 
his fellow man. He was honored and beloved by 
all who knew him, and in his death was greatly 
lamented. His body reposes in the old New Haven 
Cemetery. 

In 1 8 10, Mr. Brewster was married to Miss Mary 
Hequembourg, of Hartford, Conn., alady of French 
descent. To them were born six children, one of 
whom died quite young. The surviving children 
are Mrs. Mary Pease, of New Haven; Mrs. Rebecca 
D. Cone, of Hartford; James B. Brewster, of New 
York; Rev. Joseph Brewster, of Mount Carmel, 
Conn., and Henry Brewster, of New York. Mrs. 
Brew.ster died March 18, 1868. 

James B. Brewster, the oldest son, now in his 
seventieth year, and in vigorous health, is the head 
of the house of J. B. Brewster & Co. , of 25 th street. 
New York. Henry Brewster, the youngest, is the 
senior member of the firm of Brewster & Co., also 
of New York, the two leading carriage manufactur- 
ers of the United States. 

Charles P. Hubbell and Horace Morton began 
to build carriages in 1839, in a shop in Brewery 
street, which had before been occupied by Stevens 
k Francis. The business increased and was in 
every way successful till the commencement of the 
war, when it declined, and remained in such a de- 
pressed condition that the proprietors, who had al- 
ready acquired a competence, chose to relinquish 
it, which they did, in 1867, selling out to Norton 
&Co. 

H. J. MORTON. 

This gentleman is a native of Hatfield, Mass. 
He was born in 1815, and is a lineal descendant of 
some of the early settlers of that State. His boy- 
hood was passed on a farm, and his education was 
obtained in the common schools of the time and 
place. In 1830 he came to New Haven, and 
entered the shop of his uncle, Zelotes Day, to learn 
carriage-making. Upon arriving at his majority 
he spent one season in Charleston, S. C. , and on 
his return to New Haven began the manufacture 
of carriages. 

By close attention to business, and scrupulously 
keeping ail his financial engagements, he soon ac- 
quired a credit which was as useful to him as ready 
money to the same extent would have been. In 
1840,' Mr. C. P. Hubbell, Mr. Morton's brother- 
in-law, became associated with him in business, at 



which time the afterwards well-known firm of Hub- 
bell & Morton was formed. There was no dissolu- 
tion of this partnership until 1871, when Mr. Hub- 
bell died. At that time the firm enjoyed the dis- 
tinction of being the oldest carriage manufacturing 
house in New Haven. 

The business of Messrs. Hubbell & Morton had 
been very extensive. Before the rebellion they had 
carriage repositories in Savannah, Ga., and Mobile, 
Ala., in which they carried a large stock to supply 
their Southern trade, most of which was lost to 
them during the war, their stock in Savannah having 
been confiscated by the Government of the Con- 
federate States of America, receipt being given the 
firm promising payment three years after the recog- 
nition of the Confederacy as an independent govern- 
ment. 

Mr. Morton is not a politician, and has never 
willingly permitted the use of his name for political 
purposes. Indeed he is too independent in his 
views to be a party man. But he has been pre- 
vailed upon to serve the city on several occasions, 
notably in the Board of Engineers of the old Fire 
Department, and in the Common Council. He 
has been solicited many times to accept other im- 
portant trusts, but has declined to do so. He has 
been for many years a Director in the Merchants' 
Bank, and one of the Trustees of the Connecticut 
Savings Bank. 

Since the death of Mr. Hubbell, Mr. IMorton has 
not been actively engaged in business, but has 
busied himself in settling up the affairs of the firm, 
and caring for some trusts that have been confided 
to him. 

He married Miss Elizabeth Barnett in 1840. 
They have had two children. Their only son they 
lost by death. Their daughter is the wife of Mr. 
H. A. Warner, of New Haven. 

Henry Hale is, at the present writing, the oldest 
man in the carriage business here, having begun in 
1846, near what is now Fitch's factory on East 
street. Mr. Hale had associated with him at that 
time Frederick B. McMahon. A year later the firm 
moved to where Hooker's carriage factory now is, 
and there remained until 1850, when S. Y.. Water- 
bury entered into partnership under the style of 
Hale & Waterbury, and they moved to the rear of 
the present factory of Henry Hale & Co. In 1864 
the factory was entirely destroyed by fire, when Mr. 
Waterbury's interest was bought by Mr. Hale, and 
two young men, Andrew J. Hull and J. H. Moore, 
were taken as partners, the firm being known as 
Henry Hale & Co. After the fire of 1864 the pres- 
ent factory was built, having a frontage of 76 feet 
on Franklin street, four stories high, with an L 86 
feet long and 30 feet wide. In February, 1879, 
this new building was partially burned, but in the 
repairs no essential changes were made. In 1880, 
Mr. Moore was released from the partnership, and 
Samuel K. Page admitted to the firm, which com- 
position it still retains. The factory has a capacity 
of sixty hands, and no machinery is used. The 
firm manufacture a large line of coaches and family 
carriages. 



560 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



HENRY HALE. 

Robert Hale, the ancestor of the Hale family in 
America, was of the family of that name in the 
Countv of Kent, England, where it existed as early 
as the days of Edward the Third. The name 
was originally spelled with a final s, which was 
dropped. 

Robert Hale was born in 1610; emigrated to 
America in 1632; and settled at Charlestown.Mass., 
where he founded and became Deacon of the first 
Congregational Church. He died July 19, 1659. 
His descendants have been numerous in successive 
generations, and many of them have been distin- 
guished in various walks of business and profes- 
sional life, notably in the pulpit of the Congrega- 
tional Church. 

Of this family, so old and so honorable, Mr. 
Henry Hale, who is unquestionably the oldest car- 
riage-builder now in active life in New Haven, is 
one of the most conspicuous present representa- 
tives. His great-grandfather was a Congregational 
minister of Ashford, Conn., where John Hale, his 
son, and grandfather of Henry Hale, was born, 
and lived the useful and honorable life of a farmer. 
Mr. Hale's father, Frederick Hale, was also a 
farmer, and it was as a farmer's boy that Mr. Hale 
begun his active life. His mother was Abigail 
(Warner) Hale. They were married in 1807, and 
had seven children, of whom Henry was the third. 
He was born in Otsego County, N. Y., April 23, 
1813. 

All of the toils, sufferings and privations mcident 
to life on the then frontier of New York State, he 
learned from hard daily experience, and remembers 
it only too well. Yet it is with a feeling of just 
pride that he reverts to the fact that from this hum- 
ble, this seemingly undeiirable, beginning he has 
risen to be recognized as one of the foremost busi- 
ness men and successful manufacturers of his city 
and time. He removed to North Haven in 1835, 
and in 1840 came to New Haven, where he was 
destined to make his record upon the municipal 
growth and progress, and in adding to his own 
material prosperity, to enhance that of thousands 
around him; for so entangled are men with each 
other in all of the relations of business and commer- 
cial life, so dependent each one upon all the others, 
that the advancement of one must be the gain of all. 

Mr. Hale found employment, until 1816, in the 
carriage factory of his elder brother, Warner K. 
Hale, then and later well known to the carriage 
trade centering in New Haven. In the year last 
mentioned, with a partner, under the firm name of 
Hale & McMahon, he began the manufacture of 
carriages on a somewhat extensive scale. In 
1850, the interest of Mr. McMahon was pur- 
chased by Mr. S. E. Waterbury, and the business 
was continued by Hale & Waterbury until i860, 
when Mr. Hale succeeded to the entire proprietor- 
ship and management, and organized the firm of 
Henry Hale & Co., which has since existed and 
transacted a large and generally increasing busi- 
ness. They make a specialty of fine work in all its 
branches. 



Though always devoted more particularly to his 
own important business interests, Mr. Hale has) 
constantly taken a helpful and intelligent interest) 
in the public prosperity, both municipal and na-i 
tional, and while never inclined to mingle in poli-j 
tics, and never seeking any official elevation, hell 
has generally contributed his portion to the devel- 
opment and establishment of New Haven's benefi- 
cial and charitable interests. As a steadfast friend 
and helper of the working classes, his position is 
too well known to require comment in this con- 
nection. 

Mr. Hale has been twice married. First, in 
1840, to Miss Ellen A. Barnes, daughter of Dea- 
con Bayard Barnes, of North Haven, who died 
April 17, 1869; and the second time, October 31, 
1870, to Mrs. F^lizabeth A. Barnes, formerly a Miss 
Hemingway. He has had three children, two 
sons and a daughter, only the last mentioned of 
whom is living. His two sons were exceptionally 
bright and promising young men, and in their un- 
timely death Mr. Hale met one of the severest 
afflictions of his life. 

A self-made man in the best and truest sense, ' 
Mr. Hale enjoys the respect of a wide circle of 
friends and business associates, and can look back 
upon a long life well spent, and see in it little to 
regret. 

J. H. Moore & Co., corner of James and River 
streets, make a specialty of fine light two-seat car- 
riages. The firm is a comparatively new one, being 
only established since 1881. The factory of the 
firm consists of a three-story building, 75 by 85 feet, 
with an iron-working department in the rear. 
Twenty-five persons are employed in the different 
departments. The members of the firm are J. H. 
Moore and Stephen Shiner. 

The carriage factory of M. Armstrong & Co., 433 
Chapel street, was established in 1859 by M. Arm- 
strong, George AUingand Thomas Ailing, under the 
present firm name. They were located for the 
first five years on Temple street, opposite St. Mary's 
Church, after which they removed to the lower end 
of Temple street, where the business was carried on 
until 1882, when the present commodious building 
was erected. The firm remained unchanged until 
1 867, when George and Thomas Ailing retired, from 
which time Mr. Armstrong has conducted the busi- 
ness alone, but still retains the original title. Mr. 
Armstrong confines his work to what is known as 
heavy carriage-building, making four and six-seat 
rockaways cabriolets, victorias, phaetons, coupes, 
landaus, and landaulels. This trade is largely 
centered in New York City, furnishing nearly all 
the leading hotels with carriages. He has also a 
considerable export trade. This house has one of 
the best arranged carriage factories in the city. The 
buildings are of brick, with six floors devoted en- 
tirely to manufacturing. Employment is furnished 
to forty men. Mr. Armstrong has been engaged 
for forty-seven years in carriage-building. He was 
born in New York City in 1822, and came to New 
Haven in 1842, where he has since resided. He rep- 
resented the Third Ward as Councilman and Al- 



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PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



561 



dernian for several years. His two sons, Edward 
M. it Elmer L. , are prominently identified wiih the 
management of their fither's business, and to them 
no little credit is due for the high standing of the 
house. 

The firm of Cullom & Spock, io8 Eranklin street, 
was founded, in 1867, by Miller & Cullom. Mr. 
Miller retired in 1874, when P. Cullom took a 
partner, W. 11. Spock, under the title of Cullom & 
Spock. This house make a specialty of light car- 
riages, and employ in good times twenty-five men. 
The factory on Franklin street is four stories high, 
8fi by 160 feet in dimensions. 

Charles T. Townsend manufactures carriage 
bodies exclusivel)', at 246 Di.xwell avenue. He em- 
ploys twenty-five hands, his factory covering an 
area of 75 by 150 feet, and the machinery is op- 
erated by an engine of 1 5-horse power. Mr. Towns- 
end began business about thirty years ago, and 
since 1870 has confined himself to his present 
specialty. 

Mention has already been made of George T. 
Newhall's introduction of steam and machinery into 
the manufacture of carriages. He began carriage- 
building in what was then known as Gaston's 
baryles factory at Newhallville, in 185 i. As busi- 
ness increased the factory was enlarged, until at the 
breaking out of the war it was said to be one of the 
largest in the world. The main building was 235 
feet long and 35 feet wide, three stories high; and 
there was still another building, 150 feet long and 
45 feet wide. Mr. Newhall manufactured horse- 
cars in this second building. The factory was com- 
plete in itself, his aim being to concentrate in one 
proprietorship all the different parts of carriage 
manufacture. The introduction of power was a 
success, but having a large trade South, the war 
caused very large losses and almost a complete 
revolution in the business. Mr. Newhall con- 
tinued carriage-making until 1 87 1, when he retired, 
and became agent for a large publishing house in 
New \'ork. He remained in this employ for eight 
years, when he returned and formed the G. T. New- 
hall Carriage Company, now located in Blackman's 
old factory on Park street. Mr. Newhall has con- 
nected with him, as partner, David Carrington. The 
specialty of the firm is the manufacture of cheap, 
low-priced carriages, the proprietors claiming that 
New Haven can successfully compete with Western 
cities in this line. Alter Mr. Newhall's retirement 
in 1 87 1, the factory at Newhallville remained idle 
for some time. Afterward it was occupied by the 
New Haven Car Trimming Company, who used 
it until June 18, 1882, when the building was 
burned. 

The house of J. J. Osborn & Co., 132 and 134 
Park street, was founded, in the early days of car- 
riage-building in New Haven, by Hubbell & Hook- 
er, in 1827. The firm was succeeded by Hooker 
& Osborn, and later by J. J. Osborn, the present 
proprietor. The factory on Park street is a three- 
story wooden building, 75 by 200 feet in dimen- 
sions. The work is divided into four departments: 
iron, wood-working, trimming and painting. Twen- 
ty-five hands are employed, the production cover- 

71 



ing a large variety of styles and a general line of 
phxHons, rockaways, road wagons, and pleasure 
carriages. 

JOHN JOEL OSBORN 

was born in the town of New Haven, Conn., on 
the 1 8th of December, 181 7. He is a direct de- 
scendant, in the eighth generation, of Thomas Os- 
born, who settled in New Haven in 1638, and the 
youngest of si.x children of Jacob Osborn, who was 
a farmer and manufacturer of woolen goods. His 
grandfather was Captain Medad Osborn, who served 
in the War of Independence. 

At the age of eight he had the double misfortune 
to lose his father and his health. He was confined 
to the house for the ne.xt seven years. Upon his re- 
covery he was sent to the then well-known school 
at Wilbraham, Mass. 

In 1833, young Osborn returned from school. 
At that time New Haven was becoming a center for 
the carriage business in the United States. The 
two leading firms in the city were James Brewster 
and Isaac Mix & Sons. Upon the advice of his 
brother, Robert H. Osborn, a lawyer, he became 
an apprentice to the latter firm, who were doing 
business on St. John street, the present site of the 
New Haven Clock Shop. 

During the panic of 1837, Mix k Sons failed. 
Mr. Osborn then found employment in a carriage 
factory in Milford, and in 1839 he bought out his 
employer. 

In 1840 he closed up his business in Milford, and 
formed a copartnership with Henry Hooker, of 
New Haven, under the firm name of Hooker & Os- 
born. 

In 1 84 1 he went to Richmond, Va., to estab- 
lish a branch house. Soon after, another branch 
was established in New Orleans, La. From 1841 
to 1852, Mr. Osborn lived in Richmond and suc- 
ceeded in building up a large and successful 
business, notwithstanding the Southern prejudice 
against Northern carriages. 

In 1852 he lost the use of his right leg, and was 
compelled to us3 a crutch and cane the rest of his 
life. 

On July I, 1855, he bought out Mr. Hooker's 
interest in the factories in New Haven and Rich- 
mond, and formed a copartnership, in 1856, with 
John B. Adriance, which lasted until 1879, when he 
retired from business and devoted himself to the 
care of his property. 

On June 27, 1853, he was married to Charlotte 
A. Gilbert, of Seymour, the fifth daughter of 
Ezekiel Gilbert, a retired New Haven merchant, 



562 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



and a descendant of Judge Matthew Gilbert, one of 
the early settlers of New Haven Colony. They have 
had six children, five of whom are now living: the 
Rev. Robert G., John J., Jr., Frederick A., Vir- 
ginia, and Selden Y. 

During his early life, Mr. Osborn showed those 
traits of character which have since marked his 
business career. Promptness to meet obligations, 
caution, strict attention to business, good common 
sense, and an indomitable will, have all combined 
to earn for him an enviable reputation as a success- 
ful business man. He is a large owner of real 
estate in this city, and his advice on questions of 
investment is sought by many. 

Mr. Osborn has had but little to do with social 
gayeties; to his own hearth he has been faithfully 
wedded, and those who find him there know w-ell 
his kindly welcome and lively spirit. 

Among the important and widely-known car- 
riage manufacturers of New Haven, The Brocket! 
& Tattle Company occupy a place in the front 
rank. The attention of this Company is given ex- 
clusively to the production of light carriages of a 
superior character, that command prices second 
only to those made by the world-famous Brewslers of 
New York. The manufactory buildings occupied 
by the Company are located on Goffe street. They 
were erected in 1 840 by Atwater & King, who con- 
ducted extensive operations as carriage-makers, and 
dealt very largely with the people of the Southern 
States, one of their repositories being located at 
Savannah, Ga. In 1862, Atwater & King sold their 
manufactory and business to John B. Brockett, who 
had for many years been associated with his father 
(Charles Brockett) in the manufacture of springs 
and axles at Mount Carmel, and who had, more- 
over, long been identified with the carriage trade in 
the Northern and Western market, already having 
an extensive repository at Davenport, la. Mr. 
Brockett associated with him Milo D. Tuttle, 
a thoroughly practical carriage manufacturer of 
many years" experience, and in the year last named 
the firm of Brockett & Tuttle entered with ambi- 
tion and vigorous enterprise upon the prosecution 
of the work before them. It involved a determina- 
tion on the part of the new firm to link their name 
only with carriages of the finest and best work- 
manship. That determination they steadily and un- 
falteringly adhered to, and as a result the Brockett 
& Tuttle carriage straightway rose into national 
fame, and with respect to style and quality ranked 
second to none in America. For a period of 
ei^gbteen years an uninterrupted career of business 



prosperity was enjoyed, and, as time advanced, 
broadened and strengthened the reputation of their 
work wherever a proper appreciation of merit ex- 
isted. At the end of that time the firm was dis- 
solved, by the death of Mr. Brockett in 1880. 
Then the Brockett & Tuttle Company was 
incorporated, Milo D. Tuttle being chosen Presi- 
dent, and Charles B. Brown, Secretary and Treas- I 
urer. Mr. Brown had been for many years closely | 
allied to the practical part of carriage manufacture, 
and for a period of fifteen years with the firm of 
Brockett & Tuttle; and to his new position as a 
member of the corporation, brought the useful fac- 
tors of extended experience and thorough knowl- 
edge of the details of the business. The Company 
continues to-day under the management that found- 
ed it, and since its incorporation has constantly and 
materially extended the volume of its operations. 
Not only are the Brockett & Tuttle Company's 
carriages known in every important community in 
this land, but in foreign countries they have ob- 
tained liberal favor — the exporting of vehicles to 
Europe being a verv important element in the com- 
pany's business. The increasing demands of a con- 
tinually growing trade have called for the increase 
of the Company's manufacturing facilities from time 
to time, until now the premises have a frontage of 
250 feet and a depth of 400 feet. There is also a 
fine repository, 200 by 40 feet. Upwards of one 
hundred skilled workmen are employed in the vari- 
ous departments. In addition to the main store 
there are extensive branches in New York City (at 
Broadway, Fifty-first street and Seventh avenue), in 
the City of Hartford, Conn., and in Providence, 
R. I. 

JOHN B. BROCKETT. 

John Bristol Brockett was born at Mount Carmel, 
Conn., January 7, 1829, and died October 31, 
1880. His father, Charles Brockett, long a well- 
known manufacturer, and a prominent citizen and 
trusted official, was born at Mount Carmel in iSoi, 
and survived his son, dying at a ripe old age only 
a few years since. His wife was Amelia Bristol, a 
native of Cheshire, who died many years ago. Of 
their children, John B. was the first born. Their 
oldest daughter married Dr. E. D. Gaylord, a 
leading dentist of Boston, and their youngest 
daughter married Mr. D. S. Stone, of the publishing 
house of Cowperthwaite &. Co., Philadelphia. Mr. 
Brockett was at one time a member of the Board 
of County Commissioners of New Haven County, 
and a Director in the New Haven County Bank. 
He also served as a Selectman of Hamden. An 
able and successful business man, he achieved an 
enviable reputation as a manufacturer of carriage- 
springs and axles, and accumulated quite a 
fortune. 

John B. Brockett's first connection with the car- 
riage trade, with which his name came to be so 
conspicuously identified, was with his father, in the 
manufacture of springs and axles, at Mount Carmel. 
This branch of the business however was not satis- 




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PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



563 



factory to his energetic and liberal nature, and he 
soon stepped upon a broader and more extensive 
plane, establishing carriage repositories at various 
points in the North and West, drawing from die 
manufacturers of New Haven to supply his large 
trade. In 1S62 he began the manufacture of car- 
riages in New Haven on his own account, and 
about a year later the firm of Brockett ct Tattle was 
formed, which, since iMr. Brockett's death, has 
given place to the Brockett & Tuttle Company. 
The history of this establishment is given elsewhere 
in this volume, and any comment upon its success 
and magnitude, to which Mr. Brockett so signally 
contributed, would be superfluous here. 

Failing health compelled Mr. Brockett, in 1872, 
to relinquish his direct and personal attention to 
his business, and to seek rest and recreation in the 
West, whence he returned in 1875, considerably 
improved physically but still unable to confine him- | 
self closely. ' About three years before his death he 
removed to Milford, where he passed the remainder 
of his life in comparative retirement. 

Possessed of a genial and helpful nature, it has 
been truly said of IMr. Brockett that he was ever 
ready with kind words for all. A man of strict in- 
tegrity, superior judgment, and sterling Christian 
character, he was an able helper and counselor in 
all the relations of life, and lived and died dear to 
the hearts of all who knew him. 

He was for years, and until his death, a member 
of the Calvary B.iptist Church of New Haven, to- 
ward all the interests of which he was a generous 
contributor. 

He was married. April 22, 1850, to Mary Augusta, 
daughter of Abiud Tuttle, and sister of Milo D. 
Tuttle, long his partner. To them were born three 
daughters, who, with his wife, survive him. 

He was of a retiring disposition, preferring the 
quiet of home life to the strife of public affairs, in 
which he never took any conspicuous part. 

INHLO D. TUTTLE. 

one of the leading carriage manufacturers of New- 
Haven, is a descendant of Wdliam and Elizabeth 
Tuttle, who came to America in 1635. He was 
born in New Haven, October 3, 1839, a son of 
Abiud and Elizabeth (Smith) Tuttle. His father, 
who was born in 1803, and died in 1S81, lived 
and kept a livery stable for about thirty years on 
the site of the Yale Theological Seminary. Of his 
nine children, eight, including Milo D. , were born 
there. 

In 1852, at the age of thirteen, Mr. Tuttle left 
school and became a clerk in the store of D. S. 
Cooper, on State street, in which capacity he served 
that old house five years. In 1857, he entered the 
service of Pardee, Miner & Wier, carriage manu- 
facturers, remaining with that firm seven years, 
during which time he gained a practical knowledge 
of carriage manufacture under the conditions then 
governing it In 1864, he became a partner in the 
carriage manufacturing house of Brockett tt Dor- 
man, at which time the style of that firm was 
changed to Brockett, Dorman & Tuttle. In 1866, 



Messrs. Brockett and Tuttle bought the interest of 
their partner, Mr. Dorman, in the business, and 
since that date the house has been known as that 
of Brockett & Tuttle. 

In 1880, the firm was incorporated as a stock 
company, with Milo D. Tuttle as President, and 
Charles B. Brown as Secretary and Treasurer. This 
successful enterprise, which is elsewhere referred to 
more in detail, is one of magnitutle and high com- 
mercial standing, and has done much to promote 
the world-wide reputation of New Haven as a car- 
riage-building place of the first importance. 

To the building up of this large business, Mr. 
Tuttle has devoted all of the energies of the best 
years of his life, and his standing in the carriage- 
trade, both at home and abroad, is deservedly high. 
He has taken a helpful interest in all things calcu- 
lated to enhance the public good, pariicularly iden- 
tifying himself with religious and charitable objects. 

In 1858 he united with the First Baptist Church, 
of which he was a prominent and useful member 
until the organizaiion of Calvary Baptist Church, 
when he identified himself with the latter by the 
presentation of a letter from the former, and he has 
since been zealous and generous in furthering all of 
its various interests. 

The house of Henry Hooker & Co. , the most 
extensive carriage manufacturmg establishment in 
the city, was founded in 1830 by G. & D. Cook, 
on the corner of Grove and State streets. The 
business was carried on until 1861, when the style 
of the firm was changed to that of Hooker, Can- 
dee & Co., comprising Henry Hooker, James 
Brewster, Edwin iMarble, and Leonard Candee. 
They continued together until January 14, 1868, 
when a joint stock company was formed and still 
continues. The fictory is a three-story brick- 
building with basement, extending from Grove to 
Wall streets, fronting on State street, and back to 
the Northampton Railroad track. About three 
hundred men are employed, and the factory is 
equipped with the best and most modern machin- 
ery for accomplishing the work. The Company 
have made several creditable exhibitions of their 
work at foreign expositions. The establishment 
has a large foreign trade as well as in this country, 
embracing New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and 
Boston. The officers of the Company are Edwin 
Marble, President; Frank H. Hooker, Treasurer; 
W. H. Atwood, Secretary; N. Albert Hooker is 
Buyer; George H. Dayton, General Superintend- 
ent; and John B. Adriance, Traveling Salesman. 

HENRY HOOKER 

is entitled to the credit of having done as much as 
anv one man to improve the American carriage and 
make it known throughout the civilized world. The 
house of which he was the founder, more than half 
a century ago, was during his life, and has since 
continued to be, the leading one of its kind in New 
Haven, and one of the best known in the country. 
Mr. Hooker was born in the parish of Kensing- 
ton and town of Berlin, Conn., September 20, 1809, 



564 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



a direct descendant in the seventh generation of the 
Rev. Thomas Hooker, the first minister of Hartford 
and founder of Connecticut Colony. 

Mr. Hooker's fiither was a well-to-do farmer, 
known and respected in the parish of Kensington. 
During Henry's boyhood he worked with his father 
in the summer months, assisting him in farming, 
and in winter he attended district school. At an 
early age he was apprenticed, to learn carriage- 
pauiting and finishing, to Norman Warner, of Ken- 
sington, who was at that time one of the largest 
builders of carriages in this country. After the ex- 
piration of his apprenticeship he went to Savannah, 
Ga., where he worked at his trade a short time. 
Returning to New Haven, he formed a partnership 
with I\Ir. Hubbell, under the style of Hubbell & 
Hooker. This firm was shortly afterwards suc- 
ceeded by Hooker & VVilco.xson. A few years 
later Hooker & Osborn succeeded to the business, 
and the house was so known until about 1855, 
when Mr. Hooker opened a carriage repository in 
New Orleans, La., under the style of J. A. Lum k 
Co., entering a little later into partnership with 
Blackman & Randall. This firm existed until about 
1861. 

In January, 1S63, Mr. Hooker, together with 
Edwin Marble, James Brewster, and Leverett Can- 
dee, bought out the firm of G. & D. Cook & Co., 
of New Haven, Conn., assuming the style of 
Hooker, Candee & Co., which was not changed 
until the death of Mr. Candee in 1865, when the 
firm name was made Henry Hooker & Co. 

In 1868, the firm was incorporated into a joint 
stock concern, with a capital of $200,000, under 
the same title, and Mr. Hooker was elected Presi- 
dent, an office which he held with great success, 
and greatly to the satisfaction of his associates, un- 
til his death, in October, 1873, when he was suc- 
ceeded by Mr. Edwin Marble, the present incum- 
bent. 

For many years Mr. Hooker was one of the 
Directors of the Tradesmen's National Bank, a 
Director of the Winchester Arms Company, and 
also a Vestryman of Trinity Church. 

Through Mr. Hooker's exertions, the firm of 
Henry Hooker & Co. did an extensive business in 
the South to the time of his death. Soon after that 
event, his son, Frank Henry Hooker, who had been 
in New Orleans about ten years as a partner in the 
firm of J. A. Lum & Co., became a member of the 
main house in New Haven, and was elected Treas- 
urer and one of the Directors of Henry Hooker 
& Co., and his younger son, Norman Albert Hooker 
resigned a position he had for some time held at the 
factory in New Haven, and, going to New Orleans, 
became a partner in the house of J. A. Lum & Co., 
remaining as such for five years, when he disposed 
of his interest and accepted a position as a member 
of Henry Hooker & Co. 

The name of Henry Hooker is known and hon- 
ored wherever the fame of American carriage-making 
has gone. Few men have done more in the pro- 
motion of a single branch of American industry 
than lie as a pioneer in carriage-making. His in- 
timate knowledge of the business, thorough work- 



manship, and inventive skill, were no doubt largely 
due to his early training. Commencing when the 
business was in its infancy, by a concentration of 
energies in one direction, aided by persevering in- 
dustry, he was enabled to obtain a high standard of 
excellence. The results of his earnest efforts were a 
great incentive to others, and thus his exertions and 
influence did much towards bringing the American 
carriage to its present high degree of perfection. 
He was also ever ready to adopt the improvements 
of others, and was eager to test the merits of new 
inventions. The high reputation of his productions 
showed how well he kept up with the progressive 
spirit of the age. 

The present officers of the concern of Henry 
Hooker & Co. are as follows: Edwin Marble, Pres- 
ident; F. H. Hooker, Treasurer; and W. H. At- 
wood, Secretary. The manufacturing establishment 
of this Company is one of the largest in the country. 
The buildings are brick, five stories high, and cover 
an area of 375 by 200 feet, yet the Company find 
them too small for their growing business, and an- 
other of several additions and extensions is con- 
templated. 

The productions of this house comprise all kinds 
of fine light family and pleasure carriages, and spe- 
cial kinds for foreign countries; thevare distributed 
throughout the United States, and largely exported 
to all parts of the world. The Company has an 
agency in London, England, and large shipments 
are made to South Africa, New Zealand and Aus- 
tralia. Only the best class of goods are made, and 
new and artistic styles are constantly being intro- 
duced. On the whole, this is one of those great 
business institutions which testify to American 
energy and enterprise, and there is no reason to be- 
lieve that it has as yet attained its maximum success 
and dimensions. 

Mr. Hooker was married, in the year 1 840, to 
Miss Charlotte Lum. His two sons, Frank H. and 
N. Albert Hooker, now his successors in the house 
of Henry Hooker & Co., were the issue of that 
marriage. 

Henry Hooker was a man of a generous, trust- 
ful, and noble nature. His life was devoted mainly 
to the attainment ot honorable success in his busi- 
ness, and the care and quiet enjoyment of the 
society of his family and friends. He took a lively 
interest in public affairs in general, but had no taste 
for public position, and shrunk from all party solici- 
tation and notoriety. His heart was in his home, 
in kindly sympathy with an open hand ever ready 
to help the unfortunate, and bestow substantial aid 
and comfort to the poor and the afflicted. 

The firm of Cruttenden & Co., 8 to 18 Wooster 
street, the individual members being G. O. Crutten- 
den and E. Killam, was organized in 1859. Their 
specialties are the heavier grades of family carri- 
ages. They employ about one hundred men, and 
have a large and commodious factory of brick, four 
stories high, 40 by 175 feet in dimensions. 

O. N. Kean and Henry Lines began the manu- 
facture of carriages, under the firm name of Kean 
& Lines, in 1858, in East Water street, then known 




'i^'SyH &c Koev<jeB.N 1 




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PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



565 



as "The D^ke. " In i86o the firm moved to their 
present location, near the foot of Chapel street. 
Previous lo the war they had an extensive Southern 
trade, which embraced a large line of lioht and 
heavy carriages. Since the war the firm has con- 
fined itself to heavy work, such as coaches, landaus, 
and victorias, turning out about one hundred and 
fifty a year. Sixty men are generally employed. 

The firm of Seabrook & Smith was organized in 
1867, the individual members being H. C. Sea- 
brook and L. T. Smith. Mr. Smidi is the inventor 
of the leather-covered nut now extensively used by 
carriage-builders throughout the country. The 
premises on Park street, Nos. 12S and 130, consist 
of a five-story building, 66 by 1 16 feet in area, which 
is equipped with all the latest improved tools and 
machinery, and employs about thirty hands. The 
product iif the factory comprises many kinds of light 
carriages, such as road wagons, photons, rock- 
aways, beach wagons, etc. 

The house of A. T. Demarest was founded in 
1873. It is one of the largest houses for the manu- 
facture of carriages in the city, employing at times 
two hundred men. The factory and its necessary 
buildings cover an area of three acres, and up- 
wards of five hundred different styles of vehicles 
are produced. The firm have an extensive reposi- 
tory in New York, where their several lines of goods 
are exhibited and sold. For many years the firm 
was composed of A. T. & C. B. Demarest. The 
latter died in 1885. 

F. Kirchoft' began business at 63 Foote street in 
1865. His trade is ihe production of the heavier 
classes of buggies, wagons and trucks. The factory 
on Foote street consists of a brick building, 45 by 
65 feet, and a one-story store-house, 40 by 60 feet. 
The factory is well equipped with the requisite 
machinery for the work. About fifteen hands are 
employed. Mr. Kirchoff is a native of Germany, 
where lie learned the trade of carriage-building. 
He has been a resident of New Haven about thirty 
years. 

J. F. Goodrich commenced manufacturing carri- 
ages on State street in i860, and shortly after re- 
moved to Franklin street, where his factory was 
destroyed by the extensive fire of 1863, after which 
he removed to his present location, 6 Wooster 
street. In 1873, Albert W. Adams became associ- 
ated with Mr. Goodrich, under the present firm 
name of J. F. Goodrich & Co. At the same date 
an additional factory was built at 26, 28 and 30 
East street, which was enlarged in 1881. It is a 
four-story brick building, 100 by 45 feet, with an 
L, 30 by 90 feet in dimensions. The factory on 
Wooster street is 100 by 175 feet in dimensions, 
with three L's. This firm make a specially of light 
carriage-work, employing about one hundred men. 
Their repository in New York City, located at 622 
& 624 Broadway, is under the management of Mr. 
Adams. 

The Boston Buck-board Company was organized 
as a stock company in 1879, and commenced 
operations as makers of buck-board wagons; they 
now make all styles of fine light carriages, furnish- 
ing work for seventy-five mechanics. Their factory 



is located at 155 to 163 East street, and is of brick, 
four-stories high, 400 by 125 feet in dimensions. 
It was built many years ago by Brewster & Co., 
carriage manufacturers, and afterwards used by a 
plating company. The executive officers of the 
company are John Johnson, President; W. K. 
Simpson, Treasurer; and F. E. Simpson, Vice- 
President — all Boston men. 

The carriage manufactory of the Henry Killam 
Company was founded in 1848 by Henry Killam 
& Co. A few years ago the firm organized a stock 
company, under the present name. The chief ex- 
ecutive officers are Henry Killam, President; Fran- 
cis Potter, Secretary; John Murphy, Treasurer; the 
first two named constituting the original firm. The 
premises at 47 Chestnut street consist of a brick 
structure covering an area of 150 by no feet, and 
having five floors and a basement, equipped with 
the necessary machinery, driven by a 25-horse power 
engine. Eighty to one hundred workmen are 
employed. The production of this concern com- 
prises a general line of fine heavy carriages, includ- 
ing victorias, coupes, landaus, phaaions, rock- 
aways, cabriolets, etc. Their trade extends into 
every State in the Union, principally however in 
New England, New York, and the West. 

James Pendergast commenced the manufacture of 
hand-made carriage steps, step-covers, and coach- 
couplings at 66 Wallace street in 1870. He also 
makes anti-rattling whiffletree couplings and de- 
tachable steps, on which he holds patents. He 
employs six men. 

E. H. Close and M. J. Scanlon, under the firm 
name of Close & Scanlon, started a carriage factory 
at 142 and 144 Chapel street in 1879. They dis- 
solved in 1882, when !Mr. Scanlon formed a partner- 
ship with James F. Hayes, under the firm name of 
M. J. Scanlon & Co., and commenced business at 
87 Lloyd street. In 1883 they removed to their 
present factory, corner of Lloyd and James streets. 
They manufacture all sorts of light carriages and 
business wagons. Twelve men are employed. 

William Johnston commenced the manuficture 
of carriage wood-work at 71 Hamilton street in 
1880. He makes a specialty of light and heavy 
bodies, ironing and finishing them ready for paint- 
ing. Most of his work is done for carriage manu- 
facturers outside of New Haven. He employs, on 
an average, twenty men. 

Kean & Lines commenced business in 1858. 
They build coaches, coupes, broughams, landaus, 
landaulets, victorias, T-carts, and hearses. Their 
factory is 200 feet on Chapel street and 90 feet on 
Wallace street, with numerous other buildings for 
minor purposes of the work. The Company have 
a sales-room and repository in Chicago. Among 
the improvements made upon carriages is an auto- 
matic spring and roti attachment for raising and 
lowering tops on landaulets. 

The firm of B. Manville & Co., carriage manu- 
facturers, was established in Water street in 1859 
by Manville, Bradley & Kay. In 1865 it was 
changed to the title of B. Manville & Co., and 
the business was removed to their present location, 
32 to 44 Wooster street. The factory consists of a 



566 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



four-story building, 148 by 140 feet in dimensions. 
One hundred workmen are employed. Their pro- 
ductions include all kinds of family carriages, 
coupes, landaus, coaches, and landaulets. Half of 
their productions are sold in New York, while the 
trade of the hou.se extends to all parts of the country. 
The individual members of the firm are Henry L 
and Joseph B. INIanville. B. IManville, one of the 
founders of the concern, died m 1877. 

BURRITT MANVILLE 

was born in New Wilford, Conn., April i, 18 14. 
After receiving a common school education, he 
learned the trade of a cooper, and, while still a 
young man, started a cooper's shop in his own 
name, carrying it on successfully for many years, 
and finding a ready market for his product among 
the West India traders and shippers located in 
New Haven. 

In 1856, he relinquished this business and re- 
moved to New Haven, where he obtained employ- 
ment in a carriage factory, and worked at that 
trade until 1859, at which time he associated with 
him, as partners, Mr. Charles Bradley and Mr. 
John Kay, under the firm name of Manville, Brad- 
ley & Kay, and established a new carriage-shop on 
Water street. After a short period he purchased 
the interests of both his partners, and conducted 
the business alone in his own name. It was suc- 
cessful, and rapidly increased, and before long it 
outgrew the facilities of the Water street factory. 
In 1865 he removed to larger quarters at the cor- 
ner of Wooster and Wallace streets, where he asso- 
ciated with him Mr. Hugh Galbraith, under the 
firm name of B. Manville & Co., which connection 
expired by limitation on January i, 1872, at which 
time, though without change of title, a new co- 
partnership was formed, consisting of B. Manville, 
Miles A. Goodrich (who was foreman of the body- 
shop), and the senior's two sons, Henry L. and 
Joseph B. Manville. 

In January, 1875, Mr. Goodrich died, but the 
business has been continued without change of 
title until the present time, it being still conducted 
by the remaining partners, Henry L. and Joseph 
B. Manville. Such, in brief, is the history of the 
old and honored house of which he was the 
founder. 

The specialties of his business included the me- 
dium and heavier classes of carriages, such as 
rockaways, victorias, cabriolets, coupes, brough- 
ams, landaulets, landaus and coaches, all of high 
grade; and his working force ranged from sixty-five 
to one hundred men. The greater part of the car- 
nages were usually disposed of through other build- 
ers and dealers, and his dealings from one house, 
Wilham H. Bradley, of New Haven, are said to 
have aggregated $45,000 in a single year. Being 
widely distributed, his trade was less liable to be 
ailected by thictuations of the market than that of 
most carnage-builders; and, with comparatively few 
exceptions, his undertakings were crowned with 
success. His reputation in the trade was of the 
most enviable character. 



On the 19th of November, 1872, he enrolled his 
name as one of the founders of the Carriage Build- 
ers' National Association, of which he was a promi- 
nent and active member during the remainder of 
his life. 

Mr. Manville married Augusta Hinman, Novem- 
ber 6, 1836. 

He was a Republican, politically, but by no 
means active as a politician. 1 

Long a professing Christian, and an adherent to 
the Congregational form of worship, he was for 
many years a prominent member of the Church of 
the Redeemer. He was eminently liberal, chari- 
table, and public-spirited, contributing his full share 
toward all general improvements and worthy ob- 
jects calculated to promote the public welfare. 

A self-made man in the best acceptation of the 
term, and a thorough mechanic, he ever acted on 
the maxim that "whatever is worth doing at all, is 
worth doing well." He was characterized by en- 
ergy and enterprise, and the heartiness with which 
he lent a helping hand to his employees and to 
younger men in the business, won him many life- 
long friends, the spirit of whose good-will is well 
expressed in the following resolutions, adopted by 
his employees just after his decease, which occurred 
very suddenly and unexpectedly on Saturday, 
March 22, 1884, as the result of heart disease: 

Wlurcas, We are called upon to moum the sad death of 
our late employer, Burritt Manville, who has been so sud- 
denly called from our midst; therefore be it 

Resolved, That we, the employees have lost a valuable 
chieftain, whom we all loved and respected, and one who, 
in the progressive developments of the carriage trade, has 
stood at all times in the front rank; 

Resolved, That, by his strict integrity he has greatly en- 
deared himself to all of us with whom he has been connected 
in our daily work; 

Resolved, That the employees attend his funeral in a 
body; and 

Resolved, That expressions of the deepest sympathy are 
due and are hereby tendered to the family of the deceased 
for their irreparable loss following their late atlliction, and 
that a copy of these resolutions be engrossed and sent to the 
press for publication. 

Theodore Thompson, 
Fred. F. McCullv, 
John Hartv. 

New Haven, March 24, 1884, 

The New Haven Carriage Company was organized 
as a stock concern in November, 1885. Business 
is carried on in the carriage-shop formerly occupied 
by S. M. Weir, at 440 Elm street. He conducted 
a large carriage manufactory at this location for 
thirty-three years. The executive officers of the 
Company are George Holcomb, President; George 
E. Spare, Secretary; and H. S. Holcomb, Treasurer. 
A specialty is made of fine carriage-work, employ- 
ment being furnished to fifty-seven men. The prem- 
ises of this Company cover an area of 700 by 80 
feet in dimensions, upon which are erected four 
large buildings, two of them three stories high. 

The firm of Dann Brothers began business in this 
city in February, 1858, in what was known as the old 
Rock Rose Building, corner of State and Wall streets. 
The firm was the first to engage in the manufacture 
of a general line of carriage-work, supplying car- 
riage-makers in all parts of the country with the 



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PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



567 



several parts of carriages. The business extended 
to all parts of the United vStatcs. In 1859, ihe firm 
erected a brick factory fronting on State street, 
equipped with a steam engine and all necessary 
machinery. The firm consisted of three brothers, 
John, William, and Isaac Dann. In these early 
years Mr. John Dann invented a folding chair, 
which soon came into general use. In 1864, a joint 
stock company was formed, which is noticed else- 
where as the New Haven Folding Chair Company. 
Fouryears later, John and William sold their interest 
in the Chair Company, and, resuming the former 
firm name, erected their present factory on Franklin 
street, and supplied it with a steam engine and 
necessary machinery. The art of bending wood re- 
ceived the especial attention ot the firm, and if they 
did not originate, they improved upon the [irinciple 
by protecting the outer curve by a metallic strap. 
The methods of the Company found favor with the 
trade, and their business, which had before been 
local, extended not only to other parts of this 
country, but also to foreign lands. 

Frederick Howshield has a carriage wood-work 
factory at 196 Bassett street, and is a skillful me- 
chanic of several years e.xperience in his line of 
business. 

Frank Fowler began the manufacture of carriage- 
poles, as a distinct department of carriage manu- 
facture, in 1865. The production of the factory 
at 60 Garden street is largely under patents claimed 
by Mr. Fowler. The proprietor is the inventor of 
a tricycle, and during the past few j-ears some at- 
tention has been given to their manufacture. 

Henry B. Piatt, 668 State street, makes a spe- 
cialty of business wagons. The stand is an old one, 
having been occupied previously by Charles Wedeg. 
Mr. Piatt started in 1879, and besides the manu- 
facture of business wagons, gives especial attention 
to repairing. 

Alson B. & Theron A. Todd commenced the 
manufacture of carriage-springs at 86 Winchester 
avenue about sixteen years ago. In 1885 the con- 
cern was sold to W. R. Petrie, who now conducts 
the business. He employs eight men. 

The firm of Holcomb Brothers A Co., manufac- 
turers of carriage wood-work, 1 1 1 River street, 
consisting of George F. and II. S. Holcomb and H. 
B. Bigelow, was organized in 1870. The factory is 
a four-story building having an area of 100 by 137 
feet, with other buildings for store-houses. Em- 
ployment is given in limes of business activity to 
one hundred persons. The machinery is operated 
by an engine of 40-horse power, with a bank of 
boilers of 85-horse power. The house has a large 
trade, extending throughout the United States, the 
products being wood-work for all descriptions of 
carriages and wagons. 

MAYOR HOLCOMB. 

The City of New Haven has almost invariably 
honored itself in its Mayors. One of the purest 
and ablest men of his time directed the beginning 
of its urban career, and in his steps have followed a 
long line of efficient, capable, and conscientious 



officers. In the choice of the present incumbent 
of the mavoralty. New Haven adheretl fiitiifully to 
its best traditions, and entrusted the municipal ex- 
ecutive to a citizen in every way worthy to wear the 
mantle of his most revered predecessors. 

George F. Holcomb was born in the neighboring 
town of Branford on the 8th of February, 1835. 
His paternal and maternal ancestors belonged to 
families of long standing in the State of Connecticut. 
His father and mother were both natives of Bran- 
ford, and are still living at the ripe ages of seventy- 
nine and seventy-six years respectively. 

At an early age Mr. Holcomb was employed in 
the shop of his father, who w\as a manufacturer of 
carriage wood-work. When he reached the age of 
eighteen, he was ailmilted to a share in the busi- 
ness, and the firm look the name of F. .\. Holcomb 
& Son. Aitervvards, when another brother was as- 
sociated, the firm title name became F. A. Holcomb 
& Sons. The enterprise proved so successful that 
increased facilities were demanded, and, in July, 
1872, they removed to New Haven. Subsequently 
the senior Holcomb transferred his interest to a 
third son, and the firm, which was known as F. A. 
Holcomb's Sons, was still further enlarged by the 
accession of Hon. H. B. Bigelow. Since that time 
the house has borne the title of Holcomb Brothers 
k Co. 

The business was adapted to the new environ- 
ment, conducted upon an extended scale, and with 
proportional success. It became by far the largest 
establishment of the kind in the city, and one of 
the largest in the country. Its goods and reputa- 
tion are favorably known throughout the Union, 
and its wares have even been exported to foreign 
lands. The firm has earned and obtained a phe- 
nomenal success, securely based upon painstaking 
fidelity, cautious energy, and untarnished honor. 

The City of New Haven rightly judged that such 
qualities, exhibited in the shop and counting-room, 
were needed in the public councils and in the City 
Hall, and Mr. Holcomb was chosen Alderman 
from the Fifth Ward for 1878-79. He held the 
ofiice of President of the Board of Aldermen when 
he was appointed Fire Commissioner by Mayor 
Bigelow. This office he retained about two years, 
until it was made vacant in accordance with the 
provisions of the Charter of 1881. In 1883 he was 
again summoned to public life, as a member of the 
Board of Public Works, from which post he was 
called by vote of the city in December, 1884, to fill 
the Mayor's chair for the term of two years ensu- 
ing. Mr. Holcomb's party affiliations have always 
been clearly defined, but his political opponents 
are quick to acknowledge his merit and to rejoice 
in his advancement. The community, without re- 
gard to party, recognizes in Mayor Holcomb a 
good and trustworthy citizen. He brings to his 
official responsibilities the same clear-headed judg- 
ment and honest purpose that have distinguished 
him in all his undertakings. 

In the intiustrial world, Mr. Holcomb belongs 
to the best type of New Haven's younger business 
men. The rapid growth and prosperity of his en- 
terprise have been largely due to his happy combi- 



568 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



nation of perseverance, vigor and foresight. He 
has been at once conservative and progressive, able 
to wait with prudence as well as to act with en- 
erg3'. 

Besides the Presidency of the New Haven Car- 
riage Company, he has taken a more or less active 
part in various other public and private enter- 
prises. 

Personallv, Mayor Holcomb is a genial, com- 
panionable man, with quiet tact and kindly sym- 
pathy, keenly observant, and readily apprecia- 
tive. 

He married the daughter of Thaddeus Beach, of 
the firm of Russell & Beach, of Chester, Conn. 
They have had four children, of whom two survive, 
a daughter and a son. 

The A. A. Dart Company make a specialty of 
springs and connecting irons for Salader's triple- 
spring road wagon, at 112 Park street. The pro- 
ducts of the factory are largely used in the West, 
although the trade extends throughout the country. 
The Company was organized in 1877. The officers 
are C. Alfred Smith, President, and C. Pierpont, 
Secretary and Treasurer. About twenty men are 
employed. 

The house of Goodyear & Ives, manufacturers 
of carriage-a.xles, at 881 State street, was founded 
by L. F. Goodyear in 1852, George E. Ives com- 
ing into the business as a partner in 1875. The 
establishment is an extensive one in its line, cover- 
ing an area of 15,000 square feet and employing 
about forty persons. A steam engine of 75-horse 
power supplies the motive power to run the ma- 
chinery. Besides all kinds of carriage-axles, the 
firm make a specialty of manufacturing Steel's 
Patent Sand-box Axles. 

Manville, Dudley & Co., manufacturers of fine 
light carriages, at 244 and 246 Grand street, was 
organized in 1878, and is therefore one of the 
younger houses in the trade. The members of the 
firm are L. S. Manville, \V. F. Dudley, and T. F. 
Lamb. The firm employ about fifty persons. Each 
of the three departments of the manufactory is 
superintended by a member of the firm. The 
buildings are extensive, the main factory being four 
stories high, of brick, having an area of 350 by 60 
feet, with seveial additions of good size. 

The manufacture of carriage wheels by machinery 
in New Haven was begun by Henry Stowe in 1844. 
Mr. Stowe, a native of New Haven, began making 
wheels in Saybrook, Conn., in 1836, where he re- 
mained six years. He then went to Berlin, and 
continued in the same business for two years, and 
then came to New Haven. Mr. Stowe began by 
turning spokes, with Blanchard's spoke machine, 
in the yard of Cornwell & Cowles, after which he 
made wheels in a small way in Zelotes Day's yard, 
on York street, near the present site of the wheel 
shop. He had been established there but three 
months when his shop was burned. The following 
year, 1846, Mr. Stowe formed a partnership with 
Joseph Smith and John Umberfield, and a two- 
story wooden factory standing end to the street, was 
erected on York, near Ashmun street. The busi- 



ness was conducted in Mr. Stowe's name. There 
was at that time a great prejudice against machine- 
made wheels, and the new enterprise was impeded 
by many obstacles. The title of the firm from 
1S44 to 1853 changed frequently. In 1848, Zelotes I 
Day became a partner, under the title of Day & 
Stowe. At the close of 1849, Mr. Day retired, and I 
Dennis Carrington became a partner, and Stowe & ' 
Carrington carried on the business until 1853, when 
a union was made with the American Spoke Com- 
pany, then doing business in Centreville; and, with 
other new stockholders, the New Haven Wheel 
Company was formed. The Stockholders at this 
time were Chandler Cowles, Henry Ives, Lucius 
G. Peck, L. B. Judson, Dennis Carrington, John 
W. Dwight, C. Durand, Alfred Goodyear, John T. 
Fenn, P. H. Bartholomew, Henry Stowe, William 
Fenn, William Cornwell, and Henry B. Harrison. 
Chandler Cowles was elected President, and L. G. 
Peck, Secretary. Mr. Peck served in this capacity 
only one month, when Henry G. Lewis was chosen 
in his place, and held the oflice until 1865, when 
he was chosen President, which position he still oc- 
cupies. The new company added a three-story 
brick building, running to the west from the orig- 
inal shop, and otherwise largely increased the ca- 
pacity of the factory. In 1861 the two-story brick 
building on Ashmun street w-as erected. It is 119 
feet long by 25 feet wide. From 1853 to 1865 the 
list of stockholders was constantly changing, there 
being at the latter date no less than twenty-seven 
individuals interested in the fortunes of the Com- 
pany. The Civil War seriously aftected the Com- 
pany's Southern trade, but with the advent of peace 
it took on new life and vigor by reorganization, and 
the interests of many of the old stockholders were 
purchased by new parties, the corporation consist- 
ing at the close of 1865 of Henry G. Lewis, Will- 
iam Lewis, Edward E. Bradley, William H.Bradley, 
Frederick Ives, and Samuel A. Stevens. The pres- 
ent officers are Henry G. Lewis, President; Edward 
E. Bradley, Secretary and Treasurer; Henry G. 
Lewis, E. E. Bradley, and Willis E. Miller, Direct- 
ors, the latter representing the interest of the late 
Frederick Ives. In 1872 the Company bought 
largely in real estate, and in 1873 erected a three- 
story brick factory, with a frontage of 120 feet on 
York street. In September, 1874, a large portion, 
including the original building erected by Mr. 
Stowe, was burned, causing a loss of $129,000. In 
1875 ths present factory was occupied. Mr. Stowe 
had disposed of his interest in 1866, and began the 
manufacture of wheels in connection with the New 
Haven Steam Saw-mill. At the time of the fire on 
York street, the New Haven Wheel Company pur- 
chased Mr. Stowe's good-will and premises, and 
were thus enabled to fill their orders and carry on 
the business. The present buildings are the factory 
above described; a three-story brick building in the 
rear, 40 by 100 feet; a third erection, 25 by So feet; 
besides numerous smaller buildings required for 
storage and the minor processes of the work. The 
factory has a capacity of turning out 600 sets of 
wheels a week, and a force of two hundred men is 
employed. 




//^, 




PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



569 



HON. EDWARD E. BRADLEY 

was born in New Haven January 5, 18+5, the son 
of Isaac and Abigail Knowles (Hervey) Bradley, 
daughter of William Frederick and Anna Hervey, 
and granddaughter of Rev. Dr. Ebenezer Dibblee, 
a noted Epi.scopal divine of Stamford one hundred 
years ago. 

Isaac Bradley was the son of Lewis, who was the 
son of Isaac, and the name has been known for 
many generations among the business men of New 
Haven and vicinity. 

Mr. Bradley's father was engaged in the carriage 
manufacture on the corner of Church and Wall 
streets, removing later to Trumbull street, where he 
continued in business till 1854, when he retired to 
a small farm purchased for him by his oldest son. 
He died, after a few days' illness, in November, 1S58, 
at the age of sixty-three. His mother is still living 
in New Haven, at the ripe age of eighty-four. 

Edward E. Bradley was educated at the public 
and private schools of West Haven, and in 1859 
attended, for a year, Robbins' Commercial School 
on State street. New Haven. 

In i860 he entered, as shipping-clerk, the em- 
ploy of the New Haven Wheel Company, corner of 
York and Grove streets. Four months later he 
was put in charge of the books, which he kept un- 
til 1865, when he resigned in order to accept a po- 
sition with Lawrence, Bradley cfc Pardee, then the 
largest carriage manufacturers in the State. He 
remained with this firm but a short time, when 
John English, of English, Atwater & Sons, hard- 
ware merchants, bought out his partners, and made 
Mr. Bradley a proposition, which, upon the advice 
of his brother, the senior member of the firm, he 
accepted. His health failing within five months, he 
was compelled to relinquish all business for three 
months, when, being restored, he again, in 1865, 
entered into business with the New Haven Wheel 
Company. The next year he was elected Secretary 
and Treasurer, succeeding Hon. Henry G. Lewis, 
who was then chosen President. 

The wheel business was started on its present lo- 
cation, in 1845, by Henry Stow; a year or two later 
he was succeeded by Smith, Umberfield & Stow, 
whose successors have been Theodore D. Reed, 
Zelotes Day, Carrington k Stow, and the New Ha- 
ven Wheel Company, which was organized as a 
joint stock corporation June 4, 1853. with a capital 
stock of $60,000. Chandler Cowles was its first 
President, and Lucius G. Peck, a lawyer, its first 
Secretary. A year later the latter was succeeded 
by Henry G. Lewis, also a lawyer. Matters dragged 
somewhat with the Company for quite a number of 
years. Among the causes for this was the preju- 
dice in the public mind against machine-made 
wheels as compared with hand-made: the business 
panic of 1857, and the Civil War. 1S61-65, were 
also great obstacles. 

In 1S65-66 the stock of the Company was all 
bought up by William H. and Edward E. Bradley, 
William and Henry G. Lewis, and Frederick Ives. 
More land was bought, new buildings were erected, 
and the business greatly enlarged. The result was, 

72 



that from the small beginnings of a few sets per 
week in 1845, perhaps fifty in 1853, and one hun- 
dred in 1865, the capacity of the concern had run 
up to some four hundred by 1874, when, in Sep- 
tember of that year, two-thirds of the works were 
destroyed by fire, about $130,000 worth of prop- 
erty burning up in four or five hours. Ninety days 
later, three-quarters of a million of bricks had been 
laid, and the present buildings were the result; in 
sixty davs more the new engine and machinery 
were in, so that in five months from the destruc- 
tion of the old works the new ones were running. 
The capacity was now six hundred sets of wheels 
per week, besides quantities of wheel parts and 
other carriage wood-work. 

The goods of the Company are sold not only 
throughout the United States but in foreign parts; 
Europe, Australia, Canada, Mexico, the West In- 
dies, and South America being constant buyers. 
The works occupy a frontage of over five hundred 
feet on York, Grove and Ashmun streets. 

In 1861, Mr. Bradley joined the famous military 
company, the New Haven Grays, and quickly rose, 
through all the grades of command, to the Captaincy 
in 1865, and held the position till he was elected, 
June, 1868, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Second Con- 
necticut Regiment. During his captaincy the 
semi-centennial of the regiment occurred, which was 
celebrated September 13, 1866, with festivities and 
social attention from the city, and a large attend- 
ance of ex-members from all parts of the United 
States. He is, at the present time. President of 
the Grays' Association, which includes all active 
and ex-members. 

In 1867 he went to Europe, and traveled exten- 
sively upon the {Continent. 

He was elected, in 1 869, Colonel of the Second 
Connecticut Regiment. In this position Mr. Bradley 
was devoted and faithful, and was especially efficient 
in devising legal measures for the general improve- 
ment of the State service, fostering and maintaining 
the excellent military spirit that remained after the 
war. 

While in command, Colonel Bradley, under the 
orders of Adjutant-General Merwin, was engaged 
in the capture, April 30, 1870, of a gang of New- 
York roughs, who had come to Charles Island, off 
Milford. to hold a prize fight. This adventure of 
our citizen soldiery is related with great eclat in the 
papers of the day, and the adroit manner in which 
an ugly body of men, some one hundred strong, 
was captured, reflects credit upon the ready tactics 
of the oflicers. After an exciting chase over walls 
and fences, and across swamps and through water 
to the island, the whole posse were taken and 
brought on board cars to New Haven, where they 
were dealt with by legal measures. 

In 1871, Colonel Bradley resigned the colonelcy, 
on account of the pressure of business duties, hav- 
ing served ten years in military matters. In all 
those positions, which require efficiency and tact, 
he has shown high executive ability and skill, and 
as a man in contact with men, has gained a rare 
popularity. 

During these years Colonel Bradley was the re- 



570 



HISTORY OF THE CITV OF NEW HA VEN. 



cipient of frequent testimonials of esteem from the 
men of his command, and many ovations were ten- 
dered him on interesting occasions by the various 
associations with which lie was connected. 

Colonel Bradley married, April 26, 1871, Mary, 
only child of Nathaniel and Mary Kimberley, of 
West Haven. They have three children, Edith M., 
Bertha K., and Mabel L. 

Under the governorship of Hon. R. D. Hubbard, 
in 1877 and 187S, Colonel Bradley was appointed 
Paymaster-General, with rank of Brigadier, when 
by his promptness in the performance of his duties 
he gave great satisfaction to our State soldiery. 

In 1884, General Bradley bore an active and 
efficient part in the ordering of exercises at the 
centennial celebration of the City of New Haven, 
July 3d and 4th, and commanded, as one of the 
"Marshals of the day, the Ninth Division, which 
included the Governor and Staff, with invited 
guests of the da)-. 

He has been repeatedly a member of the Board 
of Burgesses for the Borough of West Haven, and 
member of the Union School District Committee 
for Orange; Vestryman for years of St. Paul's 
Church, and Treasurer of its Missionary and 
Benevolent Society; and also, later. Vestryman and 
Clerk of the Parish of Christ Church, West Haven. 
He has been further active in many social move- 
ments of New Haven, and interested in church 
music, serving as a member of various musical 
committees; has also been a Director and Treasurer 
of the Fort Bascom Cattle-raising Company of New- 
Haven, having ranches in New Mexico. 

In 1882, General Bradley was elected to repre- 
sent Orange in the Legislature, the town being a 
Rej)ublican stronghold and no Democrat having 
been elected for nearly a generation previous. Dur- 
ing this session, he served as a member of the 
Standing Committee on Banks. Again, in 18S3, 
he was re-elected, and served as House Chairman 
of the joint Standing Committee on Roads and 
Bridges, and as Clerk of the Committee on Cities 
and Boroughs. He introduced the biennial sessions 
amendment and ably advocated its final adoption 
before the House. He was also prominent in the 
debates on general legislative matters, and especi- 
ally on those reported from his committees, and on 
legislation regarding the shell fisheries of the coast 
towns. He presided over the House at the closing 
hours of the session, and was chosen to make the 
farewell address to the Speaker, which he did in a 
graceful and eloquent manner. 

In the fall of 1885, General Bradley was unani- 
mously nominated upon the first ballot of the 
Democratic Convention for the Senatorship of the 
Seventh District, and was elected, though in a 
Republican district. 

In the Senate he has borne a leading p.irt, and 
has been especially active in legislation regarding 
Education and .Sanitary laws; and as Chairman of 
the joint Select Committee on New Counties and 
County Seats, was prominently engaged in the most 
e-xciting controversy of the session, the struggle be- 
tween Bridgeport and Nor walk for the possession 
of the county seat of Fairfield County. His able 



arguments in that matter were successful in secur- 
ing the adoption by the Senate of the report of his 
committee in favor of Bridgeport. 

Thus, while having barely reached the years of , 
middle life, General Bradley has served in the ' 
highest positions of public trust; has discharged 
faithfully the most responsible duties of a citizen; 
and, by his generous qualities and courteous bear- 
ing among men, has won their confidence and 
esteem. , 

The carriage hardware manufacturing house of 
C. Cowles & Co., 47 and 49 Orange street, rep- 
resents not only one of the oldest firms in the bus- 
iness, but in the variety and e.xtent of their manu- 
facture is not excelled by any house in this country. 
It was established in 1838 by William Cornwell and 
Chandler Cowles, under the firm name of Corn- 
well & Cowles, who commenced business on York 
street in this city. A few years later they moved 
to Church street, opposite the Post Office, and 
were consolidated with Lewis B. Judson, who 
was in the same business, under the firm name 
of Judson, Cornwell & Cowles. After a short 
time Mr. Judson withdrew, and for a few years 
the firm was known as Cornwell & Cowles, when 
Mr. Cornwell retired, after which the business 
was carried on under the firm name of C. 
Cowles. In 1855 the house was incorporated 
under the style of C. Cowles & Co., there being f 
three stockholders, Chandler Cowles, John N. Bab- 
cock, and Ruel P. Cowles. Chandler Cowles died 
in 1865, and John N. Babcock retired in 1876, 
Ruel P. Cowles succeeding him in the presidency, 
a position he has since occupied. This company 
manufacture every article in the hardware line of 
which a carriage is composed, from the simplest 
iron trimming to the most expensive nickel and 
gold plated goods used on the highest finished 
coach. A specialty is made of carriage lamps, of 
which they make a larger variety than any house 
in this country, averaging over a thousand pairs a 
month. Trimmings for baby carriages form an- 
other important part of this work, in which they 
are unexceled by any other concern in the United 
States. They not only own and have had patented 
much valuable machinery for use in their factory, 
but are the inventors and patentees of a number of 
important improvements in machinery for making 
their varied line of goods. In their sales-rooms a 
large stock of carriage furniture, besides their manu- 
factured ware, is dealt in, including carriage leather 
and every article embraced in carriage manufactur- 
ing. The premises of the Company cover three 
sides of a hollow oblong square, 200 by 90 feet in 
area. The buildings are of brick, five stories in 
height. The mechanical equipment alone cost $45,- 
000, and is operated by a 70-horse pow-er engine. 
Employment is furnished to one hundred and fifty 
operatives. Their trade may be said to be world 
wide, extending all over the United States, Canada, 
South America, British Provinces, and largely to 
Australia and the Sandwich Islands. Two to three 
traveling salesmen are employed. R. P. Cowles, the 
President of the Company, is an old resident of New 





nr/co 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



571 



Haven and for the last forty years has been connected 
with it, and for over thirty years as a member. To 
Mr. Cowies' energy and business tact can be at- 
tributed the high standing of the house among the 
manufacturing interests of this country. The other 
executive officers are F. L. Cowies, Secretary, and 
T. T. Welles, Treasurer. 

RUEL P. COWLES 

was born in Berlin, Conn., in August, 1829, and 
has been a resident of New Haven since 1845. He 
connected himself with the old house of C. Cowies 
& Co., which was founded in 1838, and on his 
twenty-first birthday, in 1850, began business on 
his own account. In 1855, the house was incor- 
porated as a joint stock company, in which he was 
one of three Stockholders having charge of the 
manufacturing department. Of this house, which 
has become well known in the coach-trimming 
trade, Mr. Cowies has been active in the manage- 
ment for thirty years, during which he served as 
Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer, until 
elected to the Presidency of the Company in 1877. 

Mr. Cowies was married in 1855, and his two 
sons, Frederick L. and Louis C, are associated 
with him in business. 

His well known business ability and his high rep- 
utation for integrity, have made him sought as the 
recipient of various trusts, both commercial and 
municipal. He has been a Director in the Mechan- 
ics' Bank for several years, and from time to time 
has been identified with other interests. He was 
connected with the Fire Department of the City of 
New Haven for seven years, and was a member of 
the Common Council in 1858-59. He was one of 
the three patriotic citizens who, in 1862. recruited 
a company for service in suppressing the rebellion. 
This company, of which Mr. Cowies was elected 
Captain, was afterwards known as Company H of 
the Twenty-Seventh Connecticut Volunteers, a regi- 
ment which, with other service, participated in the 
battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and 
Gettysburg. 

For about fifteen years, Mr. Cowies was Super- 
intendent of the Sunday-school of the College street 
Congregational Church, in which he has been a 
Deacon since 1867. He has been a helpful mem- 
ber of the Young Men's Institute for many years, 
and was for a long period its Secretary and later its 
President. An active temperance man, he has been 
for about thirty-five years a member of the Sons of 
Temperance, of which he has passed through the 
subordinate and grand divisions, now being a 
member of the National Division. He was for a 
long time a member of the Governor's Horse 
Guards, and after being Major-Commanding about 
four years, resigned. 

Mr. Cowies' standing in the business community 
is deservedly high, and his name in the carriage 
trade is widely and favorably known. As a citizen 
he is liberal and progressive. 

The New Haven Car Trimming Company is a 
combination of two companies, the original begin- 



ning business in 1873 on Wooster street, over what 
was then Graham & Corey's foundry. The members 
of the original company were James Graham, 
David Corey, and E. S. (Jreeley, with R. E. Good- 
rich as Superintendent. The enterprise ])rovcd a 
success, and more room being required, the Com- 
panv removed to Bishop's Building on State street 
in r876. In 1880, G. F. Moore and R. E. Good- 
rich began the manufacture of clock cases and 
builders' hardware in Court street. Soon after, the 
two companies in which Mr. Goodrich was in- 
terested, united, under the name of the New Haven 
Car Trimming Company. The business of the 
combined companies outgrew the accommodations 
on Court and State streets, and the factory was re- 
moved to George Newhall's building in Newhall- 
ville. This was burned June 18, 1882, entailing a 
loss on the Company of $20,000 above the insur- 
ance. They renewed business in the factory oc- 
cupied by R. O. Dorman for several years as a car- 
riage factory, 71 and 73 Goffe sti'eet, now owned by 
the Brockett & Tuttle Company. The present or- 
ganization comprises E. S. Greeley, President; G. F. 
Moore, Secretary and Treasurer; R. E. Goodrich, 
Superintendent; David Corey, Frank Hooker, 
James Graham, of New Haven; and L. S.Tillotson, 
of New York, Directors. The factory on Goffe street 
is well equipped with the necessary machinery to 
do the work required, and employs one hundred 
and twenty-five men. The Company manufacture 
as specialties car trimmings of all descriptions, 
carriage and coach-lamps, and marbleized iron 
clock cases. Of the latter they make some seventy- 
five different styles, which equal in appearance the 
finest French cases. 

E. S. GREELEY. 

Macaulay's eulogy of Cromwell's soldiers for the 
readiness with which they turned from military 
supremacy and renown to the comparative obscurity 
of industrial pursuits, applies also with full force to 
the veterans of our Civil War. A million of men 
dropped sword or gun, and were transformed, al- 
most upon the instant, into peaceable, diligent 
civilians. It would indeed seem to be enough for 
one man's life-work to have served his country 
bravely and successfully through a terrible war. 
But our workingmen, who fought in the cause of 
free labor, so soon as that cause triumphed, re- 
sumed again the practice of trade and art, laboring 
to enrich the country that they had saved. The 
republic to-day is proud of its veteran soldiers in 
both sections — proud of their privations, fidelity, 
and successes; proud of their scars and honorable 
infirmities; but above all, proud of their subse- 
quent record as citizens in every walk of life. To 
some, abounding in well-directed energy, it has 
been granted to duplicate the success in the field of 
war with a corresponding achievement in the strife 



S'l'S 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



of business, and it has been the fortune of one of 
New Haven's artisan-soldiers to attain the highest 
eminence in each of his careers— to wear in one the 
epaulets of a General, and to become in the other 
an undisputed leader of industrial development. 

Edwin Seneca Greeley was born at Nashua, N. 
H., May 20, 1832. His ancestors belonged to the 
North of Ireland stock that settled in and around 
the town of Londonderry, N. H. His grandfather, 
Colonel Joseph Greeley, was a soldier of the Revo- 
lution, and own cousin to the father of the late 
Horace Greeley. His son, Seneca Greeley, is yet 
living, at the ripe age of ninety-two. His wife, the 
mother of the subject of this memoir, was Priscilla 
Fields, a daughter of Isaac Fields, who was promi- 
nent among the early settlers of Merrimac, N. H. 
Mrs. Greeley walked side by side with her husband 
through his long pilgrimage until the 7th of Octo- 
ber, 1885, when she died, aged ninety-three. She 
possessed strong convictions and equally strong 
sympathies; won for herself a large circle of friends; 
was an efficient church member; and especially 
devoted to her family. Of her ten children five 
survived her. When Edwin was about twelve years 
old, business reverses fell upon the family, the farm 
was relinquished, and he himself was forced to seek 
daily labor. 

For the greater part of three years he worked in 
a cotton factory. He had already developed an 
inclination for mechanical pursuits, and it became 
the height of his boyish ambition to build a loco- 
motive. In pursuance of this laudable purpose he 
chose the trade of a machinist, and, by the aid of 
his father, secured a position in Manchester. But 
as his work there was upon cotton machinery and 
did not allow him to study the uses of steam, he 
became dissausfied, and, with the advice and con- 
sent of his employer, he started for Schenectady, 
N. Y., where new locomotive shops had just been 
built. After he had succeeded in convincing the 
Superintendent that he was not a runaway appren- 
tice, he obtained a situation in the new works, and 
finished learning his trade there. Subsequently he 
was employed in the Rogers Locomotive Works at 
Paterson, N. J. 

It so happened at one time that, having a few 
days' vacation, Mr. Greeley turned his steps toward 
the neighboring metropolis. Meeting in New York 
his friend Peter Dennis, a conductor on the New 
York and New Haven Railroad, he received and 
accepted an invitation to ride up to New Haven 
and see the town. He strolled through the little 
city, and, when he reached the Green, was so 
charmed by the beautiful scene that he sat down 
under the trees and could scarcely induce himself 
to leave the place. It seemed to him the most 
attractive spot that he had ever seen. Returning 
to the station, he told his friend Dennis that he had 
decided to live in New Haven. The railway com- 
pany was then preparing to begin the construction 
-' engines, and needed a man of Mr. Greelev's 



of 



ability and education. 

Through Mr. Dennis's introductions he obtained 
an off"er of employment, and after a short time he 
was released by Mr. Rogers, of Paterson, with a 



very complimentary letter of recommendation. 
This was in 1854. Mr. Greeley came at once to 
New Haven and has been a resident ever since. 
Fle remained in the employ of the New York and 
New Haven Railroad Company until the war broke 
out, and helped to erect the first locomotive ever 
built in this city. 

In the year 1856 he was married to Miss Eliza- 
beth Corey, of Taunton, Mass. 

Mr. Greeley became a member of the Young 
Men's Institute, and began to take an active part in 
the animated political discussions of that time. 
He warmly opposed the extension of slavery, and, 
in conjunction with R. S. Pickett, stumped the 
county in 1856 for John C. Fremont. He per- 
formed similar labors in the campaign of i860, and 
aided in organizing the second Wideawake Club in 
Connecticut, of which Cyrus Northrop was Presi- 
dent and Mr. Greeley himself the Vice-President. 

When hostilities in the South had actually be- 
gun, the duty of enlistment seemed urgent, but his 
only child had just been buried, and it seemed 
difficult to leave the bereaved wife and mother. 
Mr. Greeley had already in boyhood acquired 
some knowledge of military service. In Nashua 
he had been for three years a member of the Union 
Artillery, a somewhat noted battalion, composed of 
boys under sixteen years of age, and while in Man- 
chester he had organized and commanded a mili- 
tary company of young men. He now pleaded 
with his family and friends the obligation that 
rested upon him to serve his country, and finally 
brought them to his way of thinking. 

Failing of enlistment in the Grays (2d Regiment) 
on account of their crowded ranks, he devoted the 
leisure time at noon and night to drilling a squad 
at the railway shop. When the news of the first 
battle of Bull's Run came, Mr. Greeley felt that he 
could wait no longer. He secured sixty men to 
enlist with himself for three years' service, and be- 
gan to look about for a commander. The informa- 
tion came that E. D. S. Goodyear, of North Haven, 
had held the command of a crack military com- 
pany in Newark. Mr. and Mrs. Greeley drove over 
to see him at night, roused him from sleep, and, affer 
some persuasion, convinced both him and his wife 
that liis time to volunteer had come. The next day 
.Goodyear, the Captain, and Greeley,the First Lieuten- 
ant, were at work gathering a band of about one hun- 
dred men, who offered their services to the State, and 
were assigned to the i ilh Regiment. A few days be- 
fore the time of marching, Captain T. W. Cahill and 
his company left the loth Regiment to form a nu- 
cleus for the 9th Regiment. The Tenth was a New 
Haven County Regiment, and at the solicitation of 
its commander. Colonel Russell, Captain Good- 
year's company was transferred to it from the 
Eleventh. Meanwhile the family of Thomas R. 
Trowbridge, who was a particular friend of Lieu- 
tenant Greeley, had been making a flag for the 
regiment to which the Lieutenant's company should 
belong. These colors were now, therefore, pre- 
sented to the loth Connecticut Volunteers; they 
were carried through the war and brought home at 
its close. 



T 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



573 



October 2 and 3, 1861, the Tenth Connecticut 
Volunteers were mustered into the United States 
service, and on the 22d of October, Lieutenant 
Greeley's company was mustered in. The regiment 
was almost immediately ordered South under sealed 
instructions, for participation in what is now known 
as Burnside's expedition. Its tirst acquaintance 
with tlie horrors of war was made in the battle of 
Roanoke Island, February 8, 1862, wherein it 
stood in the thickest of the fight and helped to 
capture, by a charge, the rebel works and most of 
the garrison. After this battle Captain Goodyear 
was taken sick, and Lieutenant Greeley com- 
manded the company in the battle of Newbern 
(March 14th). Shortly after he was made a Captain 
in place of Pardee, promoted. 

In December, 1862, Captain Greeley marched 
with his regiment upon the famous Goldsboro' ex- 
pedition; participating in the battle of Kingston (in 
which, in less than thirty minutes, the Tenth lost 106 
officers and men). His ne.xt engagements were 
\Miitehall and Goldsboro', both severe, in which 
the Tenth took a prominent part. In 1863, the 
Tenth was sent to aid in the siege of Charleston. 
Captain Greeley was, almost at the outset, pro- 
moted to be Major, and, owing to the absence or dis- 
ability of superior officers, commanded the regi- 
ment throughout most of the year. The fighting 
was almost continuous for four months, and was 
of the most bloody and perilous sort. The Tenth 
was actively engaged in the battles of Seabrook 
Island (March 2Sth), James Island (second, July 
1 6th), in the assaults on Forts Wagner and Gregg 
(July iSih), and in the ensuing siege of the City of 
Charleston, July i8th to October 25th. 

During the course of this siege. General Gilmore 
devised a desperate plan for the capture of Fort 
Sumter. The fort was washed on all sides by the 
waters of the harbor. It was proposed to surrotind 
it by night, with men in boats, who should, at a 
given signal, speed to the fort and simultaneously 
scale its sloping walls. It was decided that only a 
small force could be used to advantage, and that 
the regiments selected must be the best among the 
troops, and commanded by officers of tried skill 
and bravery. The loth Connecticut Volunteers, 
285 men, commanded by Major F'. S. Greeley, and 
the 24th Massachusetts Regiment, 325 men, which 
had been brigaded together since the beginning of 
the war, and had never yet been beaten, were 
selected. Sheltered by friendly darkness, the two 
regiments had just surrounded the fort, when bright 
light and raithng shot and shell broke forth from 
Sumter and the surrounding forts, and it was dis- 
covered that the officers of the navy, anxious to 
anticipate Gilmore's men, had already tried his plan 
and failed. There was nothing left for the two 
regiments but to withdraw as best they might, and, 
strange to say, they were able to do it without any 
considerable damage. That there had been such 
friendly rivalry between the land and naval forces 
was the cause of profound regret to the gallant New 
Englanders, who had hoped to win imperishable 
renown by the capture of Fort Sumter. 

The Tenth did not usually escape from critical 



situations with such immunity. It had been re- 
duced in numbers from about nine hundred men 
to 175 effectives and 7 officers, and it was or- 
dered to St. Augustine to recruit. Major Greelev 
was near to death's door with a chronic disease, in- 
somuch that his pallid appearance excited even the 
sympathies of the rebel ladies of St. Augustine. 
One of them, a relative of a prominent rebel gen- 
eral, sent him remedies which fortunately and speed- 
ily cured him of his ailment. 

In the spring of 1 864, Major Greelev was ordered 
North with his veterans, whose term of service was 
just expiring. About three hundred men re-enlisted, 
and, alter a six weeks furlough, the veterans joined 
the regiment which, coming up from the South, 
was attached to General Butler's Army of the James, 
and was assigned to the Tenth Corps under Gen- 
eral Gilmore. 

On the first night at Bermuda Hundred, it was 
Major Greeley's duty to establish the picket-line. 
He had just stationed the reserves, when he heard 
the noise of a galloping cavalcade. He rushed 
forth to cry "Halt!" and, after great exertions, 
managed to check the onward career of General 
B. F. Butler and staff, who, with a vague idea of 
going to the front, were hastening to immediate 
and certain captivity as fast as hoofs could carry 
them. 

During the month of May, the Tenth was en- 
gaged in arduous and well-nigh continuous action, 
notably in a successful expedition against the line 
of the Petersburg and Weldon Railroad (Mav 7th), 
and in vigorous operations against Richmond from 
the south side, in the neighborhood of Deury's 
Bluff. After four days of marching and fighting, 
Major Greeley's regiment acted as rear-guard for the 
retiring L'nion forces, and received the highest 
praise from the commanding officer for its behavior 
under all circumstances and in all its positions. 

Major Greeley won especial encomiums for a 
gallant and successful exploit at Bermuda Hundred 
on the night of June 15, 1864. He had charge of 
the picket-line on the right. It soon appeared that 
large bodies of troops were in motion in front of 
him. At first an attack was feared, but he was 
quickly convinced that the noise betokened a with- 
drawal of troops. All night long he pleaded for 
liberty to attack, but his superiors could not believe 
that his surmise was correct. Near morning he 
received permission to advance, provided he would 
assume the entire responsibility for the movement. 
After a personal reconnoissance, IMajor Greeley 
advanced with his picket-line only, and at once 
captured the whole main line of the enemy's earth- 
works, with 3 commissioned officers, 26 privates, 
30 stands of small arms, and a battery of 15 guns. 
His conjectures were thus completely sustained, 
and an important advantage was easily gained. The 
rebels came in force, and after a severe battle re- 
captured the lost ground, but were driven back 
when they attacked our works. 

During the two months following, the regiment 
continually participated in the gradual advance 
upon Richmond, its base having been changed from 
Bermuda Hundred to Deep Bottom. On the 26th 



574 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



of August it marched to a position in front of 
Petersburg. Its picket-line held the advanced 
trenches at the left of the entrance of the famous 
mine under Cemetery Hill. For about a month 
Major Greeley and his men were on duty con- 
stantly, and not an hour passed in which they were 
not under fire. A rifle ball embedded itself in the 
cot on which Major Greeley was sleeping, and at 
another time a fragment of shell fastened itself into 
his tent-pole. On the 29th of August he was com- 
missioned Lieutenant-Colonel, vice Leggett, re- 
signed, who had been disabled in the assault on 
Fort Wagner a year before. 

The month of September was occupied by fre- 
quent engagements, and on the 3d of October, 162 
veterans went North to be mustered out, their term 
of service having expired. On the 8th the Tenth 
was again successfully opposed to the enemy, and 
on the 13 th it was ordered to lead the charge of 
another brigade against the strongest part of the 
rebel inirenchments before Richmond. It was a 
forlorn hope. The Tenth brought into action only 
125 men; there was but a single line officer present; 
the regiment was unacquainted with the brigade 
with which it was to act; but neither officers nor 
men wavered or questioned. They formed in an 
almost impenetrable thicket, and at the word of 
command, pushed forward as best they might. The 
regimental commanders (Colonel Otis, Lieutenant- 
Colonel Greeley, and Major Camp), could neither 
see each other nor the brigade that was supposed 
to be following. .Soon, grape, canister, and bullets 
mowed down their ranks, but there was no turning 
liack until the enemy's works came into view. 
These were found to be defended by a force suf- 
ficient to keep a division at bay, and the supporting 
brigade was nowhere in sight. The Tenth had 
made that charge alone. Within a few yards of 
the enemy's stronghold, Major Camp laid down 
his life. Colonel Otis and Lieutenant-Colonel 
Greeley, each carrying one of the colors, led the 
shattered remnant of a regiment from the field in 
good order with faces to the foe. Nearly one-half 
of the men who led that charge had fallen. 

On the 18th of October, Colonel Otis was mus- 
tered out, and Lieutenant-Colonel Greeley was 
promoted to the vacancy. The regiment was now 
reduced to two line officers and 150 men present 
for duty. In November the regiment was among 
the troops ordered to New York to quell an antici- 
pated election-day riot, but fortunately the active 
services of the soldiers were not needed. As soon as 
Colonel Greeley returned to the front, he set about 
recruiting and reorganizing his regiment. He ob- 
tained an assignment of nearly five hundred men, 
about forty being volunteers and the rest substitutes! 
While some of these were good men, many of them 
were professional bounty-jumpers from New York 
and Canada, who expected to desert at the first op- 
portunity. 

Out of such unpromising material Colonel Gree- 
ley created as good soldiers as any in the service. 
He was ably seconded by the remaining veterans 
of the ok! Tenth, out of whom he made 24 com- 
missioned and 100 non-commissioned officers. 



Officers' schools were established under his per- 
sonal tuition, non-commissioned officers were put 
under a special drill, a rigid discipline was main- 
tained, and the most stringent measures were 
adopted to prevent and punish desertion. The 
result was, that before the close of winter the Tenth 
rivaled again the best fame of its earlier days, and 
in competitive inspections was usually reported 
best in order, discipline and drill. 

In March, 1865, during the quiet weeks that 
were expected before the spring campaign would 
open, Colonel Greeley, wearied by incessant care, 
came North on leave of absence. But before the 
leave of absence expired. General Grant began his 
final .strategic moves. Colonel Greeley, full of cha- 
grin at his misfortune in being absent, started 
promptly to the front. But confusion reigned in 
the transportation department, and, ere he could 
reach the scene of action, Fort Gregg, the key to 
the rebel position, fell before a charge of the Tenth, 
which thus displayed the fruits of his patient train- 
ing. Petersburg had been captured, and the two 
armies were racing towards the mountains. Colo- 
nel Greeley begged for an order allowing him to 
go to the front, and was finally placed in command 
of a large body of men from many regiments, who 
were to be led to the army. Before he could join 
in the fray, he heard the news of Lee's surrender. 
Coming back to Richmond with his own regiment, 
he was assigned to the command of a brigade, and 
was breveted Brigadier-General for gallant and 
meritorious services. The commission is dated 
March 3, 1865. 

The Tenth Regiment, on account of its splendid 
record and soldierly excellence, was among those 
selected by General E. O. C. Ord to be retained in 
the regular army, but the soldiers were anxious to 
go home. General Greeley applied for permission 
to muster out the regiment, and consent was ob- 
tained by personal effort. 

September 2, 1865, the General and his brave 
men were received at Hartford by the local mili- 
tary and escorted to the State House, where they 
were publicly welcomed with speeches and ban- 
quets. Two days afterwards the Tenth Con- 
necticut Volunteers had disappeared into civilian 
life. 

A peculiarly pleasing event awaited General 
Greeley upon his return to New Haven. At the 
time of his departure for the war he was presented 
with a sword by Mr. Thomas R. Trowbridge. This 
weapon he carried through scores of engagements, 
until, from St. Augustine, he sent it, with many 
other trophies and mementos, by ship to New Ha- 
ven. But the vessel foundered off Charleston, 
and General Greeley mourned, especially for the 
loss of his sword. Meanwhile, through the labors of 
the United States Wrecking Service, the sword had 
happened, curiously enough, to again come into 
the hands of Mr. Trowbridge. The latter invited 
General Greeley to call upon him on a certain 
evening. Finding a small company assembled, 
the General was dispo.sed to withdraw, but was 
constrained to stay. After a short time, Mr. Trow- 
bridge produced and offered to the astounded sol- 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



575 



dier the sword, till then supposed to be lying at the 
bottom of the sea. General Greeley is a brave 
man, but the sudden recovery of his valued treas- 
ure unmanned him, and no rebel ever beat a hastier 
retreat than he did. For him this event was a grate- 
ful finishing touch to his career as a soldier. 

He had already determined that if peace again 
prevailed, he would engage in mercantile and man- 
ufacturing pursuits. Chance now gave him an in- 
troduction to Mr. L. G. Tillotson, of New York, 
a practical telegrapher, who had recently retired 
from the railway and telegraph supply trade, but 
who wished to re-enter the business in conjunction 
with some one who could furnish a personal knowl- 
edge of railwa}- materials. That man was E. S. 
Greeley. A partnership was formed, and business 
began November i, 1865. From that time the 
house of L. G. Tillotson & Co. was known as 
manufacturers and importers of railway and tele- 
graph supplies, and it became the oldest and most 
extensive concern of the kind. In January, 1885, 
upon the death of Mr. Tillotson, his interest was 
sold to General Greeley, who has continued the 
business under the firm name of E. S. Greeley & 
Co. At the beginning, their capital was small and 
their facilities were limited. To-day, they have un- 
doubtedly a larger assortment of railway and tel- 
egraph supplies than any similar establishment in 
the United States, and their trade extends all over 
the civilized world. They have accomplished much 
in developing the science of electricity by personal 
efforts, and by judicious encouragement of those 
engaged in experiment and investigation. In this 
way they have acquired the latest and most modern 
electrical appliances, the greater proportion of which 
they manufacture. 

Rlr. Greeley himself has taken an active interest 
in electric lighting, and assisted in organizing the 
New Haven Electric Light Company. He also or- 
ganized the very successful New Haven Car Trim- 
mings Company, and was its President until July, 
1885. He is a director in various other manufac- 
turing companies and in banks. He is an active 
member of the G. A. R. and of the Military Order 
of the Loyal Legion. Political honor he has 
steadfastly avoided, but has served the municipality 
for one term as Alderman from the F^ighth Ward. 

With the Church of the Redeemer he is promi- 
nently associated, and it is due to his exertions 
that a debt of $35,000 resting upon that Church 
and .Society was raised in fifteen days. For some 
years he has been Chairman of the Ecclesiastical 
Committee of that Church, and was especially en- 
gaged in Sunday-school work. For two years he 
held the Chairmanship of the New Haven County 
Sunday-school Association. 

General Greeiey uses his wealth with a generous 
hand. He is a liberal benefactor of the deserving 
poor, and of needy institutions, and has aided par- 
ticularly the Orphan Asylum, the Young Men's 
Christian Association, and Tillotson College, at 
Austin, Texas. 

His usefulness has been shown to be manifold. 
His military success was not greater than his eco- 
nomic good fortune, and in every task to which he 



has addressed himself he has shown the same quiet, 
masterful energy. But with advancing years and 
honors he has yet remained the good citizen and 
the genial, neighborly man, and he yet wears the 
same youthful, sprightly look that caused General 
Ord to describe him as "that boy- Colonel of the 
loth Connecticut Volunteers." He has reared in 
our city an elegant home, where, with his wife, he 
gives kindly welcome to his hosts of friends. One 
child, a daughter, is living with her parents. Gen- 
eral Greeley cannot be prouder of his eventful and 
successful life than are his fellow-citizens, and in 
accordance with the modest but pregnant phrase 
of old Rome, " He has deserved well of his coun- 
try." 

Charles E. Thompson & Co., 1 29-131 Union 

street, make specialties of coach-lamps, coach- 
handles, whip-sockets, hub and nut caps, and shaft 
tips. The firm was established in 1868, and at the 
present time employs fifteen hands. E. E. Stevens 
is a partner in the concern. 

f'oorssen & Morris also manufacture coach-lamps 
in the rear of 81 Day street. 

The firm of W. & E. T. Fitch was founded in 
1848, and commenced business at Westville, but 
for many years has been located at i 5 1 East street. 
William Fitch died in 1877, but the firm name has 
remained the same. It is now composed of FL. T. 
Fitch and his son, John B. Filch. They make 
carriage springs, malleable-iron castings, curry 
combs and harness hardware. Employment is 
furnished to over one hundred men. 

The firm of English & Mersick, manufacturers 
and dealers in coach and carriage hardware and 
trimmings, is one of the oldest in the city. It was 
organized by James G. English and F.dwin F. Mer- 
sick in i860, and did business for nineteen years 
on Chapel street. In 1879 ^ "^^^ brick building, 
four stories high, was completed, forming 70, 72 
and 74 Crown street, to which the firm moved, and 
where theystill continue. About twenty-five hands 
are employed in the manufacture of various patented 
articles, some of which are covered by patents be- 
longing to the firm, and others are manufactured 
upon a royalty. 

The Coach Lace Manufacturing Company on 
VVooster street, near F'ast street, was established in 
1840 by John Pearson, who came from New ^'ork. 
Mr. Pearson sold the business, in 1843, 'o Laban 
Pardee. Upon his death he was succeeded by his 
son, Charles Pardee, who continued till 1883, when 
he disposed of the business to the present proprie- 
tor, John H. Booth. The factory produces only 
hand work, employing twenty looms, some of 
which have been in use since the business was first 
started. The work produced shows a great advance 
in the fineness of the goods and the more artistic 
blending of colors than in the earlier productions. 
Tassels, cords, fringe and gimp are made, and the 
market for these goods is practically unlimited. 

In March, 1S79, William P. Reade and Joseph 
Phillips began the manufacture of carriage and up- 
holstery buttons in F^nglish Block, with an entrance 
at 76 Union street, under the firm name of Phillips 



^ 



576 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



& Reade. January i, 1881, Mr. Phillips retired, 
and Mr. Reade has since continued the business 
alone. The product of the factory is a large line 
of cloth and leather-covered buttons of every pos- 
sible style, shape and material. They are made 
by most ingenious machinery, which was invented 
by Mr. Reade on purpose to save the time formerly 
taken in their manufacture. The establishment 
employs from fifteen to twenty persons, and the 
market extends over the United States. 

Moses Seward, the senior member of the firm of 
M. Seward & Son, came from Durham, Conn., to 
New Haven in the summer of 1836, and began 
work as a carriage blacksmith for Isaac T. Mix & 
Son, then located on the site now occupied by the 
New Haven Clock Company. In 1844, Mr- Seward 
began, in a limited way, the manufacture of carriage 
hardware in a small shop then owned by George 
F. Smith, late city missionary, on the site now oc- 
cupied by the New Haven Manufacturing Company, 
on Whitney avenue. Mr. Smith worked for Mr. 
Seward a short time while located there. In 1848, 
Mr. Seward built a small factory on his present loca- 
tion on Bristol street, and a good business was gradu- 
ally developed, a large trade being opened with the 
South. The breaking out of the war, in 1 861, caused 
heavy losses, and a necessary curtailment of this 
particular trade. During the war the factory was 
employed in making gun-forgings for contractors. 
In 1866 the factory was burned, but was rebuilt 
the following year, and has from time to time been 
enlarged to its present dimensions. In 1871, Mr. 
Seward admitted his son, Frank, to partnership, 
under the firm name of M. Seward & Son. The 
factory is a two-story brick building fronting on 
Bristol street, extending southward 225 feet, to 
which are added wings extending east and west. 
At the beginning of Mr. Seward's enterprise, goods 
of this class were forged by hand; now nearly all 
of the work is accomplished by drop-hammers and 
other machinery. The firm use some of the heaviest 
drop-hammers in the United States. A special 
feature of the work done here is axle clips, some 
two hundred different styles being made, aggre- 
gating over one hundred tons a year. The firm 
employ about thirty men. 

Soon after the opening of the railroad from New 
York to New Haven in 1842, a car shop was estab- 
lished in this city by the New York and New 
Haven Railroad Company. Work was commenced 
in a limited way, confined to merely repairing the 
rolling stock of the road. In 1870 the building of 
cars and locomotives was begun, and from this date 
the works have rapidly grown to their present large 
proportions. After the consolidation of the New 
York and New Haven road with the Hartford road, 
the amount of work done was necessarily largely 
increased. Over eight hundred men are employed 
in building and repairing locomotives and cars. 
The buildings, located a short distance south of the 
Union Depot buildings, are of brick, one-story 
high. The works are under the management of 
John Henney, Superintendent of the motive power 
of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Rail- 
road. James Denver is master car-builder. 



Cigar Manufacturers. ■ 

The manufacture of cigars in New Haven is car- 
ried on by a large number of men. The trade is 
usually local. 

Lewis Osterweis is the most extensive manufac- 
turer. We present a biographical sketch of him 
on this page. 

Goodrich Lauber, recently retired, carried on 
this business for several years at 184 Chestnut 
street. 

The present manufacturers deserving of mention 
are Curran Brothers, 4 Hill street; James Gallagher, 
Jr., 750 Chapel street; C. A. Moeller, 156 and 158 
Crown street; G. W. Loomis, 729 State street; and 
Louis Steinert, 393 State street. 

LEWIS OSTERWEIS 

was born at Horb-am-Main, Bavaria, Germany, 
November 24, 1836. He came to America in 1853, 
and learned cigar-making in New York. In 1856 
he went West, and established a cigar manufactory 
at Fort Madison, Iowa. Returning to the East, he 
located in New Haven in 1858, and has ever since 
been closely identified with the manufacturing pros- 
perity of the community, enjoying a consideration 
and a high place in the public esteem, of which he 
is justly worthy. 

His manufactory in this city was established in 
i860, by the firm of Osterweis & Co. In the fall 
of the same year this firm was succeeded by Lewis 
Osterweis, and in 1863 by Osterweis & Oppen- 
heimer. 

In 1876, upon the death of Mr. Joseph Oppen- 
heimer, Mr. Osterweis again became the sole pro- 
prietor. The premises occupied consist of two 
floors and the basement of the brick building, 93 
Church street. Every convenience is at hand for 
the manufacture and storage of goods, and the suc- 
cessful prosecution of the business, which from a 
comparatively small beginning has been built up, 
until to-day the trade of the house extends through- 
out New York, New England, and the West, and 
involves the sale of an enormous number of cigars 
annually, beside large quantities of leaf tobacco. 
Many cigar-makers are employed in this establish- 
ment, and the greatest care is taken to secure uni- 
formity in all the brands, a precaution which has 
given a reputation to Mr. Osterweis' goods that oc- 
casions a steadily increasing demand for them 
wherever they have been introduced. 

Mr. Osterweis was married, May 10, i860, to 
Miss Caroline Oppenheimer, a native of Germany, 




c c 



I 




PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



577 



but then and for some years previous a resident of 
New Haven. They have had four children, Rachel, 
the first born, died in infancy. The others are 
named Sophie, Max L. , and Gustave. 

Clock-makers. 

Isaac Doolittle, the great grandfather of ex-Gov- 
ernor James E. English, made brass clocks, by 
hand, in a little shop located where Dr. Henry 
Bronson now lives, 1198 Chapel street, towards 
the close of the last century. The works were 
made for the old-style long cases, reaching from 
floor to ceiling; these were made by Sherman Blair, 
being a separate part of the business. Several of these 
clocks made by Mr. Doolittle are still in existence. 
Nathaniel Jocelyn, father of the late Nathaniel S. 
Jocelyn, the portrait painter, also manufactured a 
similar style of clock at the corner of Crown and 
State streets at the same time. As clocks had not 
then come into general use, the demand was lim- 
ited, and the product of these two clock-makers was 
small, and, in comparison with the product of 
New Haven to-day, could hardly be mentioned. 

In 1842, Chauncey Jerome came from Bristol 
and purchased the carriage factory of Isaac Mix & 
Son, who had just failed, occupying the site of the 
present factory of the New Haven Clock Company. 
Mr. Jerome formed what was afterwards known as 
The Jerome Manufacturing Company, and carried 
on the business of clock-making until 1855, when 
the Company failed. 

In 1854, the New Haven Clock Company was 
formed, for the purpose of making cases, and 
erected a small two-story building on the north side 
of Hamilton street. Upon the failure of the Jerome 
Manufacturing Company, in 1855, James E. En- 
glish, H. M Welch. John Woodruff," Hiram Camp, 
and six others, most of them employees of the New 
Haven Clock Company, purchased the personal 
and company property of that concern from the 
assignees, at a valuation of $20,000. Mr. English, 
who had been a lumber merchant, took charge 
of the factory, and conducted the business for 
eleven years. During this time he visited Europe 
twice, and established on a firm basis the com- 
mercial relations between the Company and its for- 
eign customers. In 1866, Edward Stevens, a son-in- 
law of Chauncey Jerome, then living in Liverpool, 
was induced to take the superintendency of the 
factory in this city, and remained in that position 
until his death, in 1884. Mr. Stevens was followed, 
as Secretary and Treasurer of the Company, by F. 
E. Morgan, who still holds the position. Hiram 
Camp was elected President in 1855, and has been 
each year re-elected. There are few industries in 
the city that have expanded so rapidly and success- 
fully as that of the New Haven Clock Company, 
73 



it being now one of the largest of its kind in the 
world, employing six hundred men, and manufac- 
turing a great number of different styles of clocks. 
The Company have established houses in Liver- 
pool, China, Japan, and other distant parts of the 
world, with sales-rooms in New York and Chicago. 
Fully one-half of the products are exported to for- 
eign countries. The propri etors who formed the 
original company in 1855 are still members of the 
present one. .\lfred D. Tyrrill is Superintendent; 
D. S. Tyrrill, Assistant Superintendent; William 
U. Wellman, Book-keeper. Much of the work is 
done under contract. Prominently identified with 
the concern, either as contractors or foremen of 
separate departments, are the following: John S. 
Sanford, Frank D. Welch, Andrew Allen, Joseph 
L. IMoulthrop. Anson G. Philips, George A. Smith, 
J. H. Flagg, O. P. Ives, S. W. Knowles, H. M. 
Huntington, and C. T. Hunt. 

JAMES E. ENGLISH, 
Governor of Connecticut, Senator of the United States. 

From the days of Benjamin Franklin, down to the 
present day, it has been much the fashion to speak 
of a man who has achieved conspicuous success in 
life without having had the benefit of what is called 
a liberal education, as being a self-made man. Espe- 
cially is this true in our own country, whose Demo- 
cratic institutions present to men conscious of supe- 
rior abilities, both the incentive and the means by 
which they may attain the distinction to which 
their merits entitle them. Yet, in an important 
sense, every man who becomes specially prominent 
in public or professional life must be essentially a 
self-made man. In the make-up of character, much 
is doubtless due to heredity, much to natural 
endowment, and much to opportunities favorable 
to intelligence and culture. Still it is true that no 
man whose memory the world will not willingly let 
die has ever existed who has not been mainly in- 
debted to laborious self-exertion, to habitual self- 
control, to persistent self-denial for that which 
makes the storv of his life worth the telling. 

James E. English, the subject of this notice, 
more than any other person who has been a citizen 
of New Haven — unless we except Roger Sherman — 
is commonly regarded as pre-eminently a self-made 
man. As such, his history possesses something 
more than a personal value. 

It was Mr. English's good fortune to have in- 
herited, from a long line of Puritan ancestors, that 
social peculiarity of early New England life by 
which every man felt himself to be essentially the 
equal of all his associates. Descended from fore- 
fathers, both paternally and maternally, none of 
whom indeed were eminent, yet some of them of 
local distinction, and all of them of good repute, 
he found little in these respects to stimulate his 
vanity, and nothing of which to be ashamed. His 
father, James English, was greatly respected for his 
personal worth, and discharged several public 
trusts, especially in regard to the schools of New 
Haven, with intelligence and fidelity. His grand- 
father wag fgr several years in command of vessels 



578 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



en^a^ed in the West India trade. His great-grand- 
father was f)ierced and killed by a British bayonet 
when the enemv invaded New Haven dunng the 
War of the Revolution. His mother, Nancy Gris- 
wold, a woman of singular sagacity and shrewdness 
of character, belonged to a family much distm- 
guished in Connecticut history, and which has 
given two Governors to the State. 

The subject of this notice was born in New Haven 
March 13. 1 812. In his boyish days no special 
traits of character are remembered by his associates, 
except a certain amount of self-reliant independ- 
ence. This was exhibited at quite an early age. 
Casuallv overhearing an inquiry from a neighboring 
farmer where he could find a boy to live with him, 
his persistent importunity at last overcame the re- 
luctance of his parents, and at the rather immature 
age of eleven years, young English began that career 
of intelligent self-reliance which has been his most 
marked characteristic, and which has never failed 
him in his long course, from driving cows in Beth- 
lehem to his seat in the Senate of the United States 
at Washington. 

When he left home, his father gave the farmer 
some money, and said to him, "When you get 
tired of the boy, send him home." At the end of 
two and a half years, in which time he had attended 
the district school of the village for eight months, 
the prospect of his being sent home growing no 
brighter; his father, realizing the necessity of a better 
education for his son, brought him home and placed 
him for two years in a private school of consider- 
able repute. 

In his sixteenth year he became an apprentice to 
the late Atwater Treat, to learn the trade of a car- 
penter and joiner. He began his first work under 
I\Ir. Treat June 27, 1827, on the old Lancasterian 
School house, and on the spot now occupied by 
the Hillhuuse High School, deservedly standing at 
the head of that system of free public schools in 
Connecticut, for the establishment of which Mr. 
English did so much in later years when Governor 
of the State. 

His apprenticeship terminated on his twenty-first 
birthday. He was regarded during these years by 
his associates and the community at large as being 
a modest, upright, and self-reliant young man, 
likely to be successful in his business, but nothing 
more. During the years of his apprenticeship no 
such expensive functionary as an architect was 
known in New Haven. The joiner generally, with 
the possible help of "Benjamin's Architect," and 
what little could be learned of mensuration from 
Pike's or Uaboll's arithmetic, drew his own plans 
and made out his own contracts. With a natural 
taste for drawing, young English, when in his 
eighteenth year, began its regular study so far as it 
related to his business as a joiner. He also prac- 
ticed on the preparation of contracts, and probably 
at the close of his apprenticeship had become more 
familiar with the technicalities of architecture than 
any inasier builder in New Haven. Possessed of 
these advantages, he never worked as a journeyman, 
but became at once a contractor. 

Several houses designed or erected bj him in 



a style more elaborate and ornamental than was 
then common in New Haven, bear creditable testi- 
mony to his architectural taste. At the age of 
twenty-three he found that he was richer by $3,000 
than he was two years before, and happily conceiv- 
ing that there was something in him more than was 
necessary to make a successful joiner, he quitted 
his trade forever. 

Declining, with habitual self-reliance, an offer 
from a citizen of wealth to invest $20,000 against 
Mr. English's personal services, he then engaged 
largely in the lumber trade, and remained in this 
business during a period of general financial em- 
barrassment, when commercial enterprises of every 
kind were subject to great fluctuations. The con- 
dition of the country at this time was such that 
business men, familiar only with the ordinary rou- 
tine of trade, found it always difficult and often 
impossible to avoid commercial disaster. When 
the crash of 1837 fell upon the country, and when, 
with the suspensitm of specie payment, business 
confidence was destroyed and trade was paralyzed, 
Mr. English's little capital was all invested in his 
lumber business. 

The slow recover)' of the country from these dis- 
asters was peculiarly favorable to men of Mr. En- 
glish's habit of mind. Habitually looking beyond 
a present emergency, and with ahead that was rarely 
affected by the contagion of speculation; never 
sanguine and never despondent, he saw for several 
succeeding years that if he was to be a successful 
dealer in lumber, he must be something more than 
a lumber dealer. Buying and building vessels, 
shipping clocks to Philadelphia, and returning coal 
and general merchandise to New Haven and other 
ports, became the means by which his success in 
his own special business was retained and secured. 

After twenty years in the lumber business, an in- 
debtedness of several thousand dollars, due him for 
lumber by the Jerome Clock Company, then greatly 
embarrassed, turned his attention to the possibilities 
of that manufacture under provident and judicious 
management. On the failure ofthe Jerome Company, 
Mr. English, associating with himself Harmanus 
M. Welch, late Mayor of New Haven, and now 
President of the First National Bank, who for sev- 
eral years had been his partner in the lumber busi- 
ness, and Mr. Hiram Camp, purchased the clock 
property, and in a few years made the New Haven 
Clock Company not only a success, but much the 
largest clock manufactory in the world. 

In addition to the Clock Company, Mr. English 
has been largely interested in a number of manu- 
facturing and commercial industries in this and 
other States. Of late years he has made such large 
investments in real estate, that he has become the 
ow-ner of more stores and dwellings in New Ha\en 
than any other citizen. 

Not a dollar of his large fortune has come from 
speculation. Business sagacity has made it all. 
He once said to the writer of this notice, "Men 
often come to me with projects they are confident 
will yield a profit of thirty or forty per cent,, and I 
listen to them patiently and think of something else. 
But when a man comes and says I want to submit 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



579 



to you a plan by which a permanent profit of eight 
or ten per cent, can be made, and he can show me 
how, by special facilities in the purchase of material, 
in cost of transportation, or a better adaptation of 
labor, the business has a promising look, I give 
such a man my best attention. If I have been 
successful as a business man, it is because I have 
been content with reasonable profits, for I know 
that enormous gains soon invite ruinous competi- 
tion. " 

While Mr. English has been eminently success- 
ful in the accumulation of property, it must be 
gratifying to him to remember that the tempta- 
tions which proved fatal to so many, arising from 
an early knowledge of changes in the financial 
jiolicy of the Government during the war, greatly 
.ilTecting commercial values, did not induce him to 
depart from the line of rigid integrity. Confiden- 
tial information of the intention of the Government 
to levy a heavy tax on whisky presented an oppor- 
tunity for fabulous profits, of which some men of 
high station and loud protession availed themselves, 
but which Air. English felt to be improper in a 
legislator whose vote helped to impose a public 
burden. 

In dismissing this reference to his pecuniary suc- 
cess, it is not improper to refer to the fact, made 
known to those who were the almoners of his 
bounty, that no part of his present wealth is made 
up of his salary during his official life in Washing- 
ton, but that the whole amount, and much more, 
was given to relieve the distress and alleviate the 
sufl'erings caused by the war. 

The public trusts to which Mr. English has been 
called, beginning in 1S36, and terminating in 1877, 
are as follows: Selectman, 1836-48; Common 
Councilman, 1848-49; Member of the State Legis- 
lature, 1855-56; State Senator, iS56-69and 70-71; 
Member of Congress, 1861-65; Governor, 1867-71; 
United States Senator, 1875-77. 

The municipal trusts of his early manhood were 
those imposed upon him by the general conviction 
of his fellow-citizens, irrespective of party, that their 
interests might safely be confided to his recognized 
integrity, capacity, and public spirit. 

Although Mr. English ever remained faithful to 
the conviction of a life-time, that only by adherence 
to the principles and policy of genuine Jelfersonian 
Democracy could the State reach the full propor- 
tions of a free and prosperous community, yet his 
services in both branches of the Legi-~lature were 
generally marked by attention to the business rather 
than to the political aspects of the legislation in 
which he was called to act When subsequently 
he became Governor of the State, the practical cast 
of his mind was conspicuously manifested in the 
emphasis which he gave in his messages to the 
cause of free public school education, and in the 
advocacy of which he was ultimately successful. 

But that which specially and honorably marks 
Mr. English's public career, is the course he pur- 
sued while a representative in Congress. His term 
of service, extending from 1861 to 1865, covers 
that period in our history during which slavery 
ceased to disgrace the nation, and the consti- 



tutional amendment prohibiting involuntary servi- 
tude became the supreme law of the land. Mr. 
English went to Washington a pronounced War 
Democrat, believing that the great natit)nal exigency 
demanded every sacrifice to prevent our great repub- 
lic from being divided into perpetually contending 
and contemptible fragments. 

While, as a Democrat, he fully recognized the con- 
stitutional right of the Southern States to the pos- 
session of their slaves, he also felt that slavery was 
a monstrous injustice, and therefore had no regret 
when, as a war measure, he found himself at liberty 
to record alike his abhorrence of slavery and his 
sense of justice towards the owners of slaves in the 
District of Columbia, by voting for the bill which 
united the emancipation of the slave with compen- 
sation to the master. 

Long before the close of the war it became evi- 
dent to all thoughtful observers that the question 
of general emancipation must be met sooner or 
later, and Mr. English made up his mind to take 
the hazard and incur the odium of voting with his 
political opponents whenever, in his view, it became 
a political necessity. More than a year before the 
final passage of the bill providing for the necessary 
constitutional amendment, the position of Mr. En- 
glish was well understood in Washington. When the 
bill was first introduced in the House by Mr. Ash- 
ley, of Ohio, he was assured of Mr. English's sup- 
port in case it was needed. But when it was found 
that the Administration party were not united on 
the measure, Mr. Ashley advised Mr. English not 
to vote in its favor as it was sure not to pass. With 
a very practical conviction of the folly of striking 
when there is a certainty that nothing will be hit, 
Mr. English acted upon this advice, but with the 
emphatic assurance to Mr. Ashley that whenever it 
was necessary he might rely upon his vote. When 
informed a year later that the bill would be put to 
vote the next day, Mr. English was in New Haven 
in attendance upon his sick wife. Traveling all 
night, he reached Washington in time to listen to 
a part of the exciting debate, and to hear his name 
called among the first of the ten War Democrats 
who, as it was hoped, would vote for the bill and 
whose votes were necessary for its passage. When 
his ringing " Ves ! ' was heard in the crowded 
gathering there was general applause. To a New 
Haven friend who was in Washington a day or two 
afterward he said, " I suppose I am politically 
ruined, but that day was the happiest day of my 
life." 

Mr. English's position at this time was a very 
exceptional one. The number of War Democrats 
in Congress was small, and most of them were very 
timid. But there never was any doubt from the 
first where Mr. English stood, or how he would 
vote when the final crisis came. 

While thousands of men in our country have 
been examples of conspicuous success in business, 
in political life, and in generous benefactions, few 
have had the opportunity, and fewer still the sagac- 
ity and the courage to appreciate a great political 
emergency, when duty calls for a sacrifice of the 
ties which ordinarily bind a man in public life to 



580 



tilSTOkV OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



act in harmony with the party to which he is at- 
tached. It is'sometimes a great thing to have the 
courage of one's convictions; and the favorable 
mention of his name at one time as a candidate for 
the Presidency of the United States, was an honor- 
able recognition of the public appreciation of his 
vote as having been dictated by conscience and dut}'. 

It is always a matter of delicacy to speak of the 
liberality of the living, but the interval between the 
donation of $10,000 made many years ago to the 
Law Library of Vale College, and the recent dona- 
tion of more than $20,000 to the English Drive in 
East Rock Park, has been filled with numerous 
generous bequests to public objects and with in- 
numerable private charities. 

In the full maturity of a vigorous old age. Gov- 
ernor P^nglish passes along our streets with active 
steps and as kindly unassuming manner as marked 
him when he first entered upon his eventful public 
career. 

HON. HIRAM CAMP. 

Hiram Camp, President of the New Haven 
Clock Company, was born April 9, 181 1, at 
Plymouth, Conn. His father, Samuel Camp, and 
his grandfather, who bore the same name, were 
substantial New PLngland yeomen of the stalwart, 
unconquerable Puritan stock, to which the country 
and the world are so largely indebted. 

Samuel Camp, Sr., was a soldier in the Revolu- 
tionary War, was well acquainted with General 
Washington and the Marquis de LaFayette, 
and rendered efiicient service to the cause of 
his country at Crown Point, Ticonderoga, and 
StUen Island. Four of his brothers, John, Bena- 
jah, Job, and Ephraim, also served in the patriot 
armies. John Camp became a Congregational 
minister and Samuel Camp a deacon in the same 
order of the Christian Church. The latter settled 
in Plymouth and in his old age was maintained by 
his son, Samuel Camp, Jr., the father of Hiram 
Camp, who also supported his wife's parents. 

The pressure of onerous responsibility thus rest- 
ing on the shoulders of the younger Samuel, made 
it necessary that all the members of his family 
should aid in sustaining it. The home farm 
was poor and the soil rocky. The good old 
deacon, when past the age of effective agricultural 
labor, employed his declining energies most use- 
fully in visiting every family in the town, at least 
once in the course of each year, to converse with 
its members on religious topics and to pray with 
an.l for them. His son followed in the same path, 
and was intensely interested in religious affairs. 
He had committed not less than half the con- 
tents of the Bible to memory, and was always 
ready to speak of the things pertaining to the 
kingdom of (iod. The inlluence of such example 
and such teaching upon his children was benign 
and powerful. He literally obeved the injunction 
of the Almighty to the Israel'itish people, and 
tlirough them to all people, to speak of his precepts 
and promises to their children, when lying down 
rising up, and walking by the way. 



Young Camp's abilities were utilized while he 
was yet of very tender years. At the age of four 
he was tied on a horse used in plowing, and on 
one occasion, while thus doing his part, he slipped 
from the back of the horse and dangled against the 
animal's legs as it ran about the field frightened at 
the strange occurrence. It will be seen that the 
child almost miraculously escaped a violent death. 
Who shall say that he was not providentially spared 
to accomplish his destined mission in mature life. 
The value of opportunity to individuals resides 
largely in their own disposition to improve it. The 
youth eagerly seized the opportunity presented, 
and then proceeded to make further opportunities 
for himself. He appropriated such advantages as 
the common schools of the time and locality 
aftbrded, and the preparation for business life he 
thus made may be regarded, if not as complete, at 
least as better than none. He had a natural taste 
for mechanical pursuits, and besought his father's 
permission to work with his uncle, Chauncey 
Jerome, in the manufacture of clocks. It was 
finally determined that he might do so upon attain- 
ing the age of eighteen. He made the journey of 
ten miles across the country on foot, carrying all 
his worldly goods tied up in a cotton handkerchief. 
Mr. Jerome received his nephew with kindness, 
and ere long put him in charge of all of his works. 
The business association then formed continued for 
more than twenty years. At that period clock 
manufacturing was in its infancy, and, prior to 
181 5, little had been done toward its establishment 
in this country. From that time to 1829 it grew 
slowly, by the aid of machinery that was small in 
quantity and poor in quality. Since then vast im- 
provements have been effected, to which Mr. Camp 
has largely contributed. 

In 1842 or 1843, Mr. Jerome removed part of 
his works — that involved in the manufacture of 
cases — to New Haven. In 1845 his movement- 
shop was burned to the ground and much of his 
machinery destroyed. Measures were at once taken 
to rebuild it, not in Bristol, Conn., but in New 
Haven. Mr. Camp had then been for sixteen 
years in Mr. Jerome's employ, and his services 
were imperatively required to superintend the erec- 
tion and fitting up of the factory in New Haven. 
His presence at Bristol was no less imperatively re- 
quired by the serious illness of Mrs. Camp. The 
two places were over thirty miles apart. No rail- 
road then existed to reduce the lime of the journey 
to an hour. The intervening distance must be 
traversed by private conveyance. Herculean 
strength of constitution enabled the devoted hus- 
band to sleep at home, take his breakfast and sup- 
per there, and yet be in New Haven for eleven 
hours daily, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., throughout 
the summer of 1845. 

Mr. Camp is the inventor, as well as the manu- 
facturer, of most of the different kinds of clocks 
made at the present time. One of his most curious 
inventions is a clock which beats time to music, 
and whose movements can be regulated at will. It 
was designed for the use of schools in marking 
time for gymnastic, calisthenic and military exer- 










'^ 






} 



? 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



581 



' cises. In 1851 he entered into business on his own 
account, erected a building, and began the manu- 
facture of clock-movemenis. This enterprise he 
prosecuted alone until 1853, when he organized a 
joint-stock association, under the title of the New 
Haven Clock Company, with a capital fixed at 
$20,000, and oflicered as follows : Hiram Camp, 
President; James E. English, Treasurer; and John 
I W'oodruff, Secretary. In 1S56 the New Haven 
* Clock Company increased its capital and productive 
capacity by purcliasing the business and machinery 
of the Jerome Clock ]\Ianufaciuring Company. Its 
organization was slightly changed at the same time, 
James E. English becoming Secretary as well as 
Treasurer. He was afterwards succeeded in the 
K former office by the late Edward Stevens, of New 
I' Haven, and the capital stock was simultaneously 
increased to _$200, coo. Through all these changes 
Mr. Camp has retained the presidency of the Com- 
pany and the general management of its manufac- 
turing department. More clocks have been made 
under his supervision than under that of any other 
man, and his management of an establishment 
making the largest number of clocks in the world, 
extends backward from the present date through 
a period of more than half a century. 

Mr. Camp's energies have not been confined 
wholly within the limits of manufacture and trade. 
In deference to the wishes of the people he has 
filled several public offices, such as member of the 
City Council, Selectman of the town. Chief Engi- 
neer of the Civic Fire Department, and member of 
the State Legislature. He concerns himself deeply 
in the education and evangelization of his fellow- 
beings. He supports two Sunday School mission- 
aries in Nebraska and a city missionary in another 
r; State. He founded the Mount Hermon Boys' 
r School at Gill, Mass., which was under the auspices 
of the great evangelist, D. C. Moody; and co- 
operated with him in establishing the Northfield 
seminary for young ladies. Toward the mainte- 
nance of both of these institutions, Mr. Camp is a 
constant and generous contributor, and he is offi- 
cially connected with one as President and with the 
other as Trustee. To employ a simile which has 
reference to his practical life-work, he knows that 
each human being has his place in the world 
mechanism — whether it correspond to that of wheel, 
fusee, escapement, or merely tooth or peg — and 
aims, through the instrumentality of his missionary 
agent-;, and the help of the Divine Spirit, to fit each 
for his place in the great whole, so that humanity 
in its entirely may move in perfect accord and 
concord with the great Author of Nature and the 
Giver of All Grace. 

Herrick & Cowell, manufacturers of special ma- 
chinery, make some very excellent clock machin- 
ery, which is fully noticed under the title of this 
firm. 

Clock cases are manufactui ed by the New Haven 
Car Trimming Company, 71 and 73 Goffe street; 
E. B. Bradley, 107 George street; John S. Gibbons, 
506 and 50S Grand street; and John Hausen, 80, 
Water street. 



Confectioners. 

The house of B. H. Douglass & Sons was estab- 
lished in 1832, under the name of Douglass & 
Dawson. There were several important changes in 
the firm, B. H. Douglass remaining all the time at the 
head. In 1869, J. F. Douglass and B. H. Doug- 
lass, Jr., were made paitners, and since that time 
the firm has been continued under its present style. 
Business is carried on in the five-story brick build- 
ing, 253 and 257 State street, 35 by 70 feet. The 
capacity of the factory is two and a half tons of 
confectionery a day, including most of the varieties 
offered for sale. About fifty hands are engaged in 
the various departments. Four traveling salesmen 
are employed and two wagons are used in the city 
delivery. 

A number of the confectionery stores in this city 
make candy, but in limited quantities. 

Coopers. 

The large proportions of the 03'ster trade at 
New Haven has developed a considerable business 
in the making of oyster tubs. The principal coopers 
are William S. Robinson, previously referred to; J. 
W. IMerwin, 109 South Water street; Andrew Mc- 
Lean, 81 Water street; and A. McNeil, 31S Water 
street. 

Corsets. 

New Haven ranks first in the United States, if 
not in the world, in the quantity and quality of its 
corset manufacture. At the present time about 
three thousand operatives, includmg men, women 
and children, are employed in this branch. The 
early history of this industry in this country, which 
forms such an important element in the manufac- 
turing interests of New Haven, is inseparably con- 
nected with our city. 

In i860, McAllister & Smith, both bank officers 
in this city, made some preparations toward the 
manufacture of corsets, but shortly after, and be- 
fore they had really begun operations, Isaac Straus 
bought out their interest and commenced corset- 
making, being the pioneer maker in this country. 
At this time the corsets used in this State were made 
abroad. They were all woven, while Mr. Straus 
made sewed corsets, the first ol this kind ever made. 
He commenced operations in the Street Building. 
The success of the venture was soon assured, and 
at the end of a few months, needing larger quarters, 
he hired a factory on Union street, now called Rail- 
road Block. Here he remained until 1866, when 
he built a factory on Oak street, at which time the 
firm of Isaac Straus & Co. was formed, composed 
of Isaac Straus, Abraham Straus, Max Adler, and 
Joseph Myer. At this time the business had grown 
to large proportions. Two hundred operatives were 
employed in the factory, while work was furnished 
to over three hundred families outside. The firm, 
as formed in 1866, remained unchanged until 1873, 
when Isaac Straus and Joseph Myer sokl out their 
interest, and the firm of Jacob Straus & Co. con- 



582 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



tinued the business for three years, when the firm 
of iMayer, Straus cfc Co. was formed, composed of 
Alexander Mayer, Abraham Straus, and Max Adler. 
In 1878 the firm moved to their present localion, 
41 Court street, now known as the CoUimbia Works, 
and in extent of proportions and number of persons 
employed is the largest establishment in this line in 
the city. From twelve to fifteen hundred hands are 
employed, the motive power being furnished by a 
75-horse power engine. The trade of the house, 
which has ware-rooms in New York, is world wide. 
The building in this city is five stories high, with 
an area of 8,oco square feet. The members of the 
present firm are A. Straus, Max Adler, and S. I. 
Mayer. Mr. Adler has charge of the business in 
this city. 

MAX ADLER. 

This well-known resident of New Haven, who 
has been not inaptly referred to as the chief promo- 
ter of corset manufacture, was born in Berkunstadt, 
Bavaria, Germany, October 14, 1840, a son of 
Sigismund Adler. The latter, who was proprietor 
of a weaving establishment, and a manufacturer of 
bed-tickings, met with some financial reverses, and, 
in the hope of bettering his fortune, came to Amer- 
ica in 1841, locating in New York, where he re- 
mained two years. In 1843, he removed to New 
Haven, and was engaged in the manufacture of 
umbrellas until his death in 1871. 

Max Adler enjoyed but limited educational ad- 
vantages as compared with those of the present time, 
yet he obtained a good practical education, and his 
love of knowledge has since impelled him to read 
so extensively, that he is regarded as a well informed 
man upon all subjects of general interest. He first 
attended the Washington street School, studying in 
English in the forenoon and devoting the afternoon 
to the German and Hebrew languages. Later he 
was a student at John E. Lovell's Lancasterian 
School, concluding his .studies at the Webster 
School in George street, where he was a classmate 
with Kev. John E. Smith, deceased; H. H. Bunnell, 
Hon. Lynile Hariison, and others who have be- 
come equally well known. His business career 
was begun while he was yet a mere boy. At the 
age often we find him running upon errands for 
the late Smith Merwin, the tailor, a position in 
which he remained until he was thirteen, attending 
school from 9 to 12 a.m. and from 2 to 4 p.m. At 
the age of thirteen lie became cash boy in the fancy- 
goods store of Julius Waterman, on Chapel street. 
He rose to be successively cashier and book-keeper, 
and when Mr. Waterman removed to New York 
to engage in the wholesale trade, Mr. Adler re- 
mained as manager of his New Haven store until 
1858, when the business was closed out. At this 
time William Freedman, Mr. Waterman's partner, 
removed to New York, and embarked in tiie whole- 
sale cloak trade, at the same time opening a retail 
dry-goods store in Grand street, of which .Mr. Adler 
was placed in charge and which he managed during 
the succeeding two years, until its removal to New 
Haven, early in i860. 



The business, still owned by Mr. Freedman, and 
managed by Mr. Adler, was located at the corner 
of Church and Chapel streets. It grew to be so 
extensive within a year, that, in 1861, Mr. Adler 
hired the store now occupied by Wallace B. Fenn, 
on Chapel street, altered the front and improved it, 
giving it an attractive appearance, and, as the rep- 
resentative of Mr. Freedman, continued the business 
on a more extensive scale until 1862. 

During the year last mentioned, a proposition 
was made to Mr. Adler by Isaac Strouse to take 
the management of his dry goods store on Chapel 
street. Its terms were so advantageous, that Mr. 
Adler accepted it. When Mr. Strouse purchased 
the corset manufacturing business then located at 
the corner of State and Chapel streets, which had 
been established in 1861 by J. H. Smith & Co., 
with the purpose of increasing the business, he 
asked Mr. Adler to become a partner in the firm 
of I. Strouse & Co. The factory was removed to 
Railroad Block, in Union street, where the manu- 
facture of corsets and corset steels was carried on 
until 1867, when a factory was built on Oak street, 
at the corner of West, and the business removed 
there. 

In 1871, Messrs. Max Adler and A. Strouse, of 
New Haven, and S. L. Jacobs and R. Mayer, of 
New York, succeeded I. Strouse & Co., under the 
firm name of Jacobs, Strouse & Co. Mr. Jacobs 
retired in July, 1877, and the firm name was 
changed to Mayer, Strouse & Co., the business be- 
ing removed to the old Winchester Shirt factory on 
Court street. It has been so known and located 
to the present time. The firm is now composed 
of Messrs. A. Strouse, Max Adler, and S. I. IMayer. 
Mr. Adler has entire supervision of the manufac- 
turing department, assisted, of course, by compe- 
tent foremen. 

His long and successful connection with this 
branch of manufacture has caused him to be re- 
garded as the fither of the corset business. His 
name is known throughout this country and in 
Europe to all who have a knowledge of corset 
manufacture. Upon all intricate questions con- 
cerning the business, he is consulted by inquiring 
manufacturers in all directions. He is Secretary 
of the Corset Makers' Association of the United 
States, and as a representative of his guild he has 
done much to aid the business by influencing re- 
ductions of the tariff and otherwise, having fre- 
quently appeared before Congressional committees 
at Washington to advocate changes which he 
deemed likely to benefit the corset trade in this 
country. Mr. Adler represents an industry which 
has sprung into its present importance within a 
comparatively short time. It seems only a brief 
period since ill fitting, badly-made corsets caused 
such as were on sale to be shunned by all persons 
possessing a modicum of good taste. 

Mr. Adler's house manufacture corsets and cor- 
set clasps of all kinds, and in this line acknowledge 
no superiors Their trade, which has steadily in- 
creased from the outset, now extends throughout 
the United States and Canada, and large quanti- 
ties of their goods are exported to Australia and 



I 




K^ 



■"'oj-rr^c 




/ i/VuxA. /x_ 






PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



583 



other foreign countries. The factory of this firm is 
one of the largest constructive establishments in 
the city, covering an area of no less than 8,000 
square feet, the buildings being five stories high 
with finished basement. These works are of neces- 
sity subdivided into different departments. The 
mechanical equipments embrace the most complete 
outfit of labor saving machinery, including sewing 
machmes by the hundred, to operate which an en- 
gine of 45-horse power is brought into requisition. 
Ten to fifteen hundred operatives are employed, all 
of whom are expert corset-makers. These facts are 
well calculated to convey some idea of the impor- 
tance of this concern, and the magnitude of the 
trade of which it is the headquarters. INIessrs. 
Strouse and Mayer are residents of New York and 
manage the New York warerooms. 

Aside from his regular business, Mr. Adler is in- 
terested in several mining companies, and is a Di- 
rector of the Metzger Rubber Company. Politically 
he is a Democrat. 

With his family, he is identified with the Con- 
gregation Mishkan Israel Church, and of this 
church he has been trustee for ten years past. He 
is a member of the Board of Yisitors of the Con- 
necticut State Hospital, a member of the Board of 
Associated Charities of New Haven, and for more 
than five years has been Secretary of the Hebrew 
Benevolent Society. 

He was married October 21, 1866, to Esther 
Mayer, and has three chiklren. His handsome resi- 
dence on W'ooster square was built in 1879-S0, 
and his summer residence, a sea-shore cottage at 
Savin Rock, in 1875. 

Shortly after the formation of the firm of Mayer, 
Straus it Co., Isaac Straus again engaged in the 
manufacture of corsets, as manager of the American 
Corset Works of Lewis Schule & Co., a New York 
firm. Work was commenced in a building near 
the first factory erected by Mr. Straus. A short 
time afterward they removed to their present factory, 
22, 24 and 26 Franklin street. Here three hundred 
operatives are employed, and two hundred dozen 
corsets are made daily. 

Isaac Straus, whose name is inseparably con- 
nected with the early growth and development of 
corset-making in America, was born in Bavaria, 
Germany, in 1829. He emigrated to America 
in 1846, and came to New Haven in 1847, where 
he was engaged as a clothier and operator in dry 
goods, miking ladies' cloaks until he embarketl in 
the corset manufacture. Abraham Straus and Ma.x 
Adler, of the firm of Mayer, Straus & Co., were 
both employes of Isaac Straus in the early days of 
this industry, the former as traveling salesman and 
the latter as book-keeper. 

The principal business of Foy, Harmon & Chad- 
wick h.is been the manufacture of Madame Foy's 
corset and skirt supporter, although the firm has 
from time to time added other goods in the same 
line. The business was started in Worcester, 
Mass , in 1861, by Mrs. Lavinia II. Foy (wife of 
James H. Foy), the inventor and patentee. The 
Corset was suggested 10 Mrs. Foy by apparent de- 



fects of the old forms. She continued the manu- 
facture in a small way until there was sufficient 
encouragement to establish the business upim a 
larger scale, when Mr. Foy became interested in it. 
Soon after the business was removed to Boston, 
where it was carried on until 1869. At that time 
George M. Harmon and Charles A. Baldwin assum- 
ed an interest, and it was removed to New Haven. 
Mr. Baldwin retired in 1873, and the firm was then 
known as Foy & Harmon. From 1880 to 18S5 it 
was Foy, Harmon & Co. In 1885, Charles M. 
Chadwick, of Brooklyn, N. Y., was admitted into 
partnership, the style being Foy, Harmon ifc Chad- 
wick. About two hundred hands are employed, 
and the turn out is one hundred dozen corsets per 
day. The premises are at the corner of George and 
Church streets.occupying three stories of the spacious 
brick building. An 8-horse engine furnishes the 
necessary power to run the sewing machines. H. 
H. Chittenden is Superintendent of the concern. 

GEORGE M. HAR.MON. 

INIeasured by public and private expressions of 
good-will and esteem, George Morris Harmon is 
one of the most universally popular men in New 
Haven. A vigorous and successful politician, he 
is able to make and preserve warm friendships 
without regard to partisan affiliations. As a rising 
business man, he has known how to attain fortune 
with honor, and prominence with equanimity. As 
a citizen he has lived a quiet life, but, as these lines 
will show, he has never failed in his care for the 
public weal. 

Mr. Harmon was born at North Brookfield, 
Mass., in the year 1836. Through his mother, a 
daughter of the Rev. Henry Jenks, of Hudson, N. 
Y., he is a lineal descendant of Roger \Villiams. 
He attended the common schools of North Brook- 
field until he was about sixteen years old, when his 
father died, and the young man was forced to seek 
employment. I""or a short time he was a clerk in 
the City of Worcester. Afterwards, going to Penn- 
sylvania for a visit, he was induced to stay there 
and teach school for a year and a half. While he 
was thus engaged, his mother was married a second 
time, and came to New Haven to live. Her son, 
on his return to the North, visited her in her new 
home, and liked the town so well, that, aided by 
her influence, he became in his twentieth year, a 
permanent resident of the City of Elms. 

He obtained work in various shirt manufactories, 
and was in the employ of the well-known firm of 
Winchester & Davies when the war began. Mr. 
Harmon was a firm supporter of the Union, and 
tried hard to enlist in the ranks of the Grays, but 
was crowded out. Subsequently he volunteered in 
the F'ourth Connecticut Infantry, afterwards the F'irst 
Heavy Artillery, the first regiment that went from 
the State for a three years' term of service. 

On the loth of May, 1861, he married Miss 
Mary A. Baldwin, of New Haven, and on the 23d 
of that month, the soldier-bridegroom was mus- 
tered in as a .Second- Lieutenant and departed for 
the battle-field. 



584 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



Lieutenant Harmon was engaged in the siege of 
Yorktown, in the actions at Hanover Court House, 
Gaines' Mills, on the Chickahominv, at Golden 
Hill, and at Malvern Hill. He was promoted to 
a Captaincy, and about five months before the war 
closed, when the regiment was out of active service, 
he resigned his commission December 7,1863, and 
returned to New Haven. Immediately thereafter, 
at the request of Governor Buckingham, he acted 
as assistant to Colonel Benjamin S. Pardee in rais- 
ing a colored regiment. Mr. Harmon's military 
experience was more fortunate than that of a 
majority of our brave soldiers. He went through 
the war without receiving a single hurt, without 
seeino- a day of hospital service, and with an 
increase of thirty pounds in his weight — a remark- 
able record. 

Captain Harmon re-entered the employ of Win- 
chester & Davies, but after a few years established 
himself alone in the business of corset manufactur- 
ing, on the corner of George and Day streets. Af- 
terwards he associated Mr. Charles A. Baldwin 
with him, and moved his manufictory into Church 
street, where it has been located ever since. The 
firm was later increased by the addition of Mr. 
James H. Foy, of New Haven, and the corporate 
name has now become Foy, Harmon & Chadwick, 
Mr. lialdwin having retired. 

The success of this house has been steady and 
assured from the outset, a continual testimony to 
the foresight, integrit)-, and honijrable reputation 
of Mr. Harmon and his colleagues. By adhering 
closely to safe, conservative lines, and not branch- 
ing out beyond what prudence would dictate, they 
have achieved a solid business prosperity, and are 
now sending their wares to every State in the 
Union. 

In 1879, Mr, Harmon started a commission 
house in New York, associating with him S. Waldo 
Banning, and C. M. Chadwick, son of the late 
Hon. Daniel Chadwick, of Lyme. The new firm, 
which is now known as Banning, Conover & Co., 
is to-day one of the leading notion and commission 
houses in the metropolis. 

Four years ago, Mr. Harmon also organized a 
company for preparing corset cloths for manufac- 
turing jiurposes. This firm, comprising in addi- 
tion Mr. Foy, of the New Haven house, and Mr. 
R. A. Tuttle, of Boston, under the name of R. A. 
Tuttle & Co., is now selling three-fifths of all the 
corset material that is offered throughout the whole 
of the country. 

Although ]\Ir, Harinon is still in middle life, he 
has already had a long and honorable e.xperience 
in political affairs. His reputation, unlike that of 
so many public men, rests upon a substantial basis 
of enduring good works. In this municipality he 
served as Police Commissioner from July, 1873, to 
October, 1874, and as Alderman in the years 1879 
-80. It was he who, while holding the latter 
office, offered and promoted in the City Councd 
a resolution appointing a commiitee to go to 
Washington and solicit an appropriation for the 
construction of a breakwater in New Haven har- 
bor. That committee, of which Mr. Harmon 



was very properly a member, successfully accom- 
plished its errand. 

For several years he was the Chairman of the Re- 
publican State Central Committee, and his admin- 
istration was a brilliant success. While under his 
leadership his party never lost a battle. Through- 
out Governor Bigelow's term he filled the oflice of 
Adjutant-General of the State, and it was due 
mainly to his exertions and to his influence that 
the Legislature appropriated $200,000 for furnish- 
ing the Connecticut National Guard with suitable 
armories in all parts of the State. 

General Harmon makes hosts of friends, because 
he always shows himself friendly. His nature is 
warm, with pleasant sympathy, and he is as liberal 
as he is genial. Five children have gladdened his 
home — four boys and a daughter. The first-born 
child, a son, is no longer living. Beloved at home 
and respected abrjad, General Harmon is a citizen 
whom New Haven is proud of and justly delights 
to honor. 

Charles W. Foster & Co. started in the corset 
business in 1876, making a specialty of those under 
the patent of Mr. Foster, which are known as the 
Foster Patent Universal Fitting Corset. The fictory, 
at 19 Crown street contains three floors, 21 by 70, 
and seventy-five persons are required to carry on 
the work. 

Isaac Newman & Co. began the manufacture of 
corsets at 106 and 112 Park street in 1873, under 
the firm style of I. Newman & Co. Their factory 
consists of a three-story brick building with a front- 
age on Park street of lOO feet. In the rear is an- 
other five-story building, 48 by 60 feet in area. 
This firm employ about four hundred hands and 
two hundred and fifty sewing machines, which 
are driven by an engine of 50-horse power. The 
factory is divided into ten departments, and has a 
capacity of three hundred dozen corsets a day. 

Dyers. 



The Elm City Dye-works, one of the largest con- 
cerns of the kind in this State, was founded by 
Thomas Forsyth and Henry Fisher, in 1868, under 
the firm name of Forsyth & Fisher, They com- 
menced in a building, still standing, on the coiner 
of Elm and Orchard streets. Here they remained 
for about a year and a half, when they removed 
to a building erected by them a short distance be- 
low the present works. In 1870 a steam laundry 
was added, the first in the State to do laundry work 
by machiner)'. In 1876, Mr. Fisher died, since 
which time Mr. Forsyth has conducted the business 
alone. In 1882, his business had so increased that 
the facilities of his former factory was unequal to 
the demands of his trade, and necessitated the erec- 
tion of his present substantial brick buildings, cor- 
ner of State and Lawrence streets, covering nearly 
an acre of ground. In the dyeing department the 
work consists principally of dyeing new goods for 
rubber-shoe manufacturers, doing most of the work 
of this kind for the following large rubber fac 
tories: The L. Candee & Co., of this city; Good 






lit") 




n 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



585 



year Metallic Rubber Shoe Company and theGood- 
year Manufacturing Company, of Naugatuck, 
Conn.; Para Rubber Shoe Company, South Fram- 
ingham, Mass. ; Franklin Rubber Company, Frank- 
lin, Mass. ; Union Rubber Company, of New York ; 
L. B. Smith Rubber Company, New ^'ork ; New 
Brunswick Company, New Brunswick, N. J.; 
Lycoming Company, Williamsport, Pa.; Myers 
Rubber Company, New Brunswick, N. J.; Boston 
Rubber Shoe Company, Boston, Mass. : and the 
Woonsocket Rubber Company, Woonsocket, R. I. 
Besides this work, which yearly amounts to many 
thousands of yards of cloth, an extensive busi- 
ness is done in dyeing faded or soiled cloth, cur- 
tains, clothing, and domestic apparel of all kind?. 
His trade extends all over the United States. 
All the latest and best improved machinery is used, 
and the most skillful operatives are employed. 
The laundry department has a capacity for washing 
and laundering 500 shirts, 17,000 collars and cuffs, 
and 10, ODD pieces of unstarched goods per day. In 
this department, as in the dyeing branch, only the 
best machinery is used. An average of sixty men 
and women are employed. About a year ago a 
steam carpet-beating machine was added, which 
without half the damage to cloth by the old method 
of hand-beating, also cleans it more effectually. By 
this machine 20,000 yards of carpet can be cleaned 
daily. All the water used at these works is drawn 
by steam power from eleven driven wells. From 
these sources 900,000 gallons of water are obtained 
every twenty-four hours. Mr. Forsyth has lately 
begun to manufacture his own gas for lighting the 
factory and producing the heat for his ironing ma- 
chines. It is called naphtha gas and is produced 
from coal oil. Mr. Forsyth's extensive business 
has been the outgrowth of his individual efforts and 
long experience. His biography, printed below, 
contains a personal sketch of his busy and en- 
ergetic career, in which he has been successful 
in building up the largest business of the kind 
in the State. In the management of his works he 
is ably assisted by his two sons, William H. and 
Leslie W. Forsyth. Besides the general office at 
the works, two other offices are used, located at 
645 and 878 Chapel street. The latter has been 
occupied for this purpose since 1864. 

THOMAS FORSYTH 

is a native of Paisley, Scotland. He was born 
i\Iarch 26, 1830. His parents were Thomas Gor- 
don and Mary (McCunnel) Forsyth. Though 
highly respected by all who knew them, they were 
poor in the world's riches and, as may be imag- 
ined, young Forsyth, like hundreds of others who 
have made their mark in the world, had but 
meager educational advantages. But he was a 
great reader, even as a lad. and had an innate love 
of knowledge that impelled him at a very early 
age to become familiar with the history and poetry 
ol his native land. 

At the age of eleven, Mr. Forsyth entered an 
establishment in Paisley to learn the dyeing trade, 
but for the time being relinquished that intention 



a year later, and regularly apprenticed himself for 
five years to learn weaving, thus identifying himself 
for a period with the manufacture of the celebrated 
Paisley shawls, .\fter the expiration of his appren- 
ticeship, he worked a year as a journeyman weaver. 
About this time (1848) his enthusiasm in the cause 
of Liberty involved him to some extent in the 
Chartist movement, and in .\ugust of that year he 
took part in a memorable demonstration at Paisley 
at which many able Repealer and Chartist speakers 
were present and boldly denounced the English 
Government. Some of the latter, as well as some 
of the local participants in the atfair, were either 
arrested and imprisoned or tied the country, and 
having some fear that he was not safe at Paisley, 
young Forsyth decided to emigrate to .-America. 

He sailed from Glasgow on the i ith of the fol- 
lowing November, bound for New York. A storm 
occurred soon after the vessel set sail, and it was 
driven back to Greenock, many of the passengers, 
young Forsyth among them, losing all their pos- 
sessions. The vessel laid up there for three weeks, 
then again set sail for New York, where it anchored 
January 29, 1849. Young F'orsyth went ashore 
and walked up Broadway some distance, when he 
made the discovery that he had in his possession 
no money except a solitary Fnglish half-penny. 
Surely he was ill-prepared financially to begin life 
in a strange land. He could not make provision 
even for a night's lodging, and he returned to the 
vessel as his only asylum till he should decide what 
to do next. A fellow-townsman, who had come 
out to America some time before, and had done 
well, came aboard and inquired if there were any 
passengers from Paisley. Mr. Forsyth responded 
and soon found in him one of those friends in 
need vtfho are truly friends indeed. Provided with 
sufficient funds for his immediate necessities, Mr. 
Forsyth proceeded to Springlield, Mass.. where he 
supposed some relatives were living. He arrived 
at midnight on Sunday, again moneyless and 
among strangers, and haif-waist deep in the snow, 
only to find that his friends had removed to Cam- 
bridgeport, Mass. Finding a place to stay for a 
time, he communicated with his relatives, who 
gladly sent him funds to come on where they 
were. 

It was about six weeks before he found any em- 
ployment. At Maiden was living John Cochrane, 
a young man with whom Mr. Forsyth had worked 
in Paisley, during the year he had devoted to gain- 
ing a practical knowledge of the dyer's trade, and 
who was there carrying on a .small business in the 
same line. He saw in Mr. Forsyth a valuable 
assistant and at length gave him work. For three 
months Mr. Forsyth labored hard and faithfully. 
At the end of that time Cochrane failed, not hav- 
ing paid him any wages worth mentioning, and the 
young man found himself again out of employ- 
ment and penniless, and this time in debt for three 
month's board. This was surely discouraging 
enough, but the worst was yet to come, for it was 
three months more before he obtained a situation 
with Barrett Brothers (the founders of the dyeing 
establishment at Somerville, Mass., known bv 



586 



HISTORY OF THE ClTl' OF NEW HAVEN. 



their name), then located at Maiden, and doing the 
largest business of the kind in the States. In their 
works, Mr. Forsyth soon made himself square with 
the world, and devoted himself with diligence to 
thoroughly mastering dyeing in all its branches. 
He remained for most oi the time during the suc- 
ceeding eighteen years in their employment, and it 
was greatly to their regret that, in 1867, he went to 
Saccarappa, Me., in company with Abial Foster, to 
establish dye-works on his own account, though 
twice during this period he temporarily left their 
employment (once to go West to engage in farm- 
ing, and again with the purpose of joining John 
Brown and his men in Kansas, to aid in their 
memorable warfare for the principles underlying 
the abolition of slavery), but both times sickness 
prevented his carrying out his intentions, and after 
weeks of suffering far from friends, he returned to 
Maiden to resume his labor in the dye-works. 

Again Mr. Forsyth was taken ill in 1867, and, 
under advice of physicians, he relinquished his 
interest with Mr. Foster, and for a short time gave 
up all business cares. The following year, in com- 
pany wiih Mr. Henry Fisher, he came to New 
Haven and established dye-works under the firm 
name of Forsyth & Fisher. The business was suc- 
cessful, and the copartnership was terminated only 
by the death of ]\Ir. Fisher in .September, 1876, 
after which time Mr. Forsyth continued the business 
as its sole proprietor and manager, until relieved in 
part by the aid of his sons. 

At the time of Mr. Fisher's death the business 
was comparatively small. Under Mr. Forsyth's 
energetic and sagacious management it has been 
advanced to a position second to that of no other 
of its kind in New England, taking rank with the 
leading dyeing establishments of the United States. 
In illustration, it will be necessary only to state that 
Mr. Forsyth, though doing all classes of work in 
his line, makes a specialty of coloring cloth for 
lining rubber boots and shoes, doing all such work 
for nine of the largest rubber companies in the 
Union, and that in 1885 he colored and sent out, 
all over New England, over 4,000,000 yards of 
cloth fifty-two inches wide. His works constitute 
one of the most conspicuous manufacturing estab- 
lishments on State street. His offices are located 
at 878 and 645 Chapel street, and his agencies are 
to be found in almost every important town 
throughout New England. Fine laundry work is 
a feature of his business, and this branch has de- 
veloped so rapidly and remarkably, that it would 
alone make a business of importance. 

Mr. Forsyth drew his first political inspiration in 
the Whig and Abolition school, which his native 
Scotsman's love for liberty peculiarly qualified him 
to receive, and it is a matter of some pride to him 
that he was a Republican before the organization 
of the Republican party. He has steadfastly kept 
out of politics as much as possible, though many 
times solicited to accept public trusts. During the 
memorable Black Ballot campaign, he was a can- 
didate for Alderman, and, had he not declined the 
honor, would doubtless have been installed in 
office. 



He was reared in the Presbyterian faith, and at- 
tends worship at the First Congregational Church 
of Fair Haven. 

In i860, at St. John, New Brunswick, he mar- 
ried Miss Agnes White. They have three sons, 
William H., Leslie W. , and Thomas Gordon, who 
are connected with their father's business, and a 
daughter. Mr. Forsyth's standing in business circles 
is deservedly high. He is known no less for his 
high sense of honor than for his enterprise. He is 
public-spirited and liberal-minded, and more than 
cheerfully contributes his full share toward the gen- 
eral prosperity. 

Engravers on Steel, Copper, Wood and Stone. 

After Amos Dooliltle had returned from his mil- 
itary excursion with the Governor's Guards to 
Massachusetts, in 1775, he engraved on copper a 
series of sketches of what was called rhe Battle of 
Lexington. This was the first engraving done in 
the city, and the four pictures of the series are 
claimed to be the earliest historical sketches made 
in the country. Mr. Doolittle continued in busi- 
ness until his death in 1838. Among the earliest 
engravers upon wood was S. .S. Jocelyn. John ^^^ 
Barber, the historian, served his apprenticeship 
with him from 182 1 to 1823, when he began busi- 
ness, and had associated with him his brother, Ed- 
mund, a portion of the time. About 1830, the 
firm of Daggett, Hinman & Gorham made en- 
gravings upon steel and copper. 

Lockwood Sanford, the present engraver on 
wood in Mitchell's Building on Chapel street, 
served his apprenticeship with Edmund Barber, 
and, in 1843, formed a partnership with him, oc- 
cupying a room in the Exchange Building. This | 
partnership continued until 1847, when it was 
dissolved, Mr. Barber going to California, and 
Mr. Sanford moving to Mitchell's Building. In 
the following year C. D. Hayes became asso- 
ciated with Mr. G. W. Barber, and located at 
the old stand of Barber & Sanford in the E.x- 
change Building. The partnership continued 
for two years, when each pursued the business by 
himself. 

Frederick Gorham was at one time established 
here as a letter engraver, doing his own printing. 
Augustus Lines and D. S. Punderson also pursued 
the engraving business in Mitchell's Building, 
the latter making a specialty of copper and steel 
work. 

Besides Mr. Sanford, already noticed, the pres- 
ent wood engravers of the city are Hopson & 
Sherman, established in 1872; Theodore Rapp, Jr., 
established in 1877; and H. W. Burns in 1873. 
James A. Duncan, who makes a specialty of en- 
graving wedding and business cards, was estab- 
lished in 1 86 1. 

The only engraving on stone done in the city is 
executed at the establishments of L. S. Punderson, 
12 Centre street, and O. A. Dorman, 696 Chapel 
street. Mr. Punderson is one of the older en- 
gravers of the city, and established the lithographic 
work in 1850. 



PRODVCTIVE ARTS. 



58t 



Food Preservative Manufacturers. 

From the earliest period endeavors have been 
made to preserve animal and vegetable substances 
jfrom decay and putrefaction. The Humiston Pre- 
ervative Company, of this city, claim to have dis- 
covered an agent which they manufacture, called 
I" Rex Magnus," a liquid compound, which solves 
^his perplexing problem. This Company was or- 
ganized in Boston, in 1883, with a capital of 
^125,000, as the Humiston Food Preservative 
Tompany, since changed to the Humiston Preserv- 
lative Company. In 1884 the factory was removed 
Ito New Haven, where they commenced the manu- 
Ifacturing on .State street, but at the end of the year 
Iremoved to tiieir present location, 139 Park street. 
jThe special field of usefulness of " Rex Magnus " 
[is the preservation of food in large or small quan- 
Itities, which it keeps jjure and healthful. The var- 
lious brands of this article are n.imed '' Viandine," 
Ifor preserving meats, fish and game; "Ocean 
IWave," for preserving oysters, clams, and lobsters; 
J" Pearl," for preserving cream; ".Snow-flake," for 
[preserving milk and butter; and "Queen," for 
[preserving eggs. These food preservatives have 
[been adopted by many hotels, hotel cars and ship- 
ipers of meat, milk and vegetables. Professor R. 
If. Humiston is the inventor and one of the pro- 
[prietors. The executive officers are Nathaniel 
Easterbrook, Jr., President and Treasurer, and H. 
[ D. Humiston, Secretary. 

Furniture Manufacturers. 

In the Connecticut Journal, under date of New 
Haven, December 8, 1800, " Josiah Deming in- 
forms the public that he is now carrying on the 
cabinet business, opposite the Church, next door 
south ot Scott's Barber Shop, where any kind of 
Cabinet Furniture may be made expeditiously, with 
taste and elegance, all orders punctually attended 
to, and all favors gratefully acknowledged by the 
public's most obedient." 

Oliver Deming was established in the same busi- 
ness in State street, between Court and Chapel 
streets, even earlier than the date given above, and 
continued there until his death in 1825. Josiah 
Deming, at a date later than that of his advertise- 
ment cited above, was in partnership with Oliver 
Deming in State street. James English was a cal)- 
inet maker in Chapel street, between South College 
and the Art Building. 

He must have begun soon after, if not before, 
the beginning of the nineteenth century. Wdl- 
iam Haughton, in State street, lower down than 
Oliver Deming, was in part contemporary with 
these. Of him Sherman Blair learned his trade, 
who began business about 18 10 or 1812. Con- 
temporary with Mr. Blair was the firm of Stillman 
& Bliss. Many of the heirlooms, whose history is 
unknown to their present possessors, were pro- 
duced in their shop in C)range street in the second 
decade of the present century. Seth Bliss, the 
junior partner, retired from the firm, in 1822, to 
study theology; was ordained to the Christian min- 



istry in 1825, and died at a very advanced age in 
the service of the American Tract Society. 

The Hon. Charles B. I-ines, of Wabaunsee, 
Kansas, has kindly sent to the writer a letter in 
which he relates his recollections of the business 
as it was from 1821 to 1856. 

He says: 

111 1S21, at the age of fourteen, I engaged with Mr. Sher- 
man IJlair to learn ' the art, trade, and mystery" of cabinet- 
making; not to enter upon the work, however, until the 
s|)ring of 1822. In the meantime I cnHsted in the United 
States Revenue Service on board tlie revenue cutter Captain 
I.ee, headquarters at New Haven, for one year. At the 
end of the year I commenced learning my trade as agreed. 
Mr. Blair was at that time rather the leading man in the 
business. Stillman was alone, his partner having retired 
from the business to preach the Gospel. Besides Blair and 
Stillman, Oliver Deming on State street, and James English 
on Chapel street, just west of the College, were in the fur- 
niture business. On Chapel street was William Daggett, 
his shop Iwing between College and Temple streets, and near 
Howe's book store. Captain Chauncy Treat also did a small 
business on Chapel street for a short time. 

At the age of twenty I left Mr. Blair and was employed 
for a short time by Stillman and then by James English, after 
which I could get no work. 1 called on Treat and he ofTered 
to take me in as a parUier. I had no money, and yet was 
restless out of work. It occurred to me that Judge Daggett, 
who had spoken very kindly to me at my grandmother's, 
where 1 had met him occasionally might be interested in my 
case, and I called upon him. After taking an inventory, 
and ascertaining that it would require only Si 75 to pay for 
one-half of the entire stock, tools, and everything, Mr. Dag- 
gett said that he had no money, but very kindly drew a note 
for the amount, and when we had both signed it, he sent me 
to Dr. .'Eneas Monson, then the President of the New Haven 
Bank, who let me have the money. The ne.\t day the firm 
of Treat k Lines was organized and its colors flung to the 
breeze, with a capital of S350. 

Charles Nicoll, a crockery merchant and Captain of the 
Grays, in which company I was an enlisted soldier, was my 
first customer. He called and ordered a sideboard, which I 
made for him. For it he paid me S60. William McCrackan 
also ordered one; and I made and sold two others, all which 
I made myself, and received the money, S240. This was 
quite an encouraging start. Very soon Mr. Treat wished to 
go out of business, and beset me to buy him out. I went to 
James Brewster, and he signed a note with me at the New 
Haven Bank for S500, and I became sole proprietor, for the 
time being, and moved into State street, into a building be- 
longing to Dr. Lewis, near Dan Cooper. Not long after 
this, C. C. Clinton became my partner for a while. I cannot 
say how long, but think not more than a year or two. My 
business was constantly increasing. At length Mr. Mc- 
Crackan put up a building for us in Orange street, where 
the business increased still more rapidly. I bought out Mr. 
Clinton, and after running the establishment alone for a 
while, associated with me Mr. A. C. Chamberlain, and sub- 
sequently Samuel M. Smith, who still lives in New Haven. 

During the continuance of my partnership with Mr. Smith 
we had a good trade and were prosperous. About this time 
there was quite a revolution in the mode of conducting the 
business, a large part of the furniture being manufactured 
by power; and we bought instead of making. Now, as I 
understand, dealers in furniture purchase almost all that they 
sell. In my day the furniture dealers in New Haven were 
generally prosperous, and no one had a better field than my- 
self, but I was not as some others were, supremely devoted 
to making money. 

Mr. Lines here details some of the activities — 
religious, philanthropic, political, military and hor- 
ticultural — in which he was engaged. He was es- 
pecially active in temperance societies, and he thus 
relates the consequences of such activity to him in 
his business. 

About this time my manufactory was destroyed by fire, 
under circumstances very damaging to me. But Mr. Mc- 



588 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



Crackan put up a better building, and I was soon under 
way again, and did a much larger business than ever be- 
fore. The general judgment of the people was that my 
factory was burned by emissaries of the liquor interest. I 
never had any doubt about that. 

During all the time I was in the business I was employed 
largely in the vocation of an undertaker, being frequenily 
cahed upon to supervise the "laying out " and interment of 
the dead. Among distinguished citizens for whom I per- 
formed these services, the following at this moment occur to 
me: Noah Webster, Professor Kingsley, Samuel St. John, 
Dyer White, Judge Daggett, Judge Biistol, Judge Baldwin, 
William Leffingwell, besides many others. 

Did time and room permit, I could narrate many interest- 
ing mcidents in my business life in New Haven ; but I must 
conclude, and will do so by relating a fact which shows the 
warmth of personal friendship with which I was regarded. 
I have already referred to my start in business. I never had 
a relative in my early business experience who could be of 
much service to me financially, and yet I was under the 
necessity of seeking aid frequently. Once, soon after build- 
ing a house, I needed $2,000, and was advised to apply to 
Captain Simeon Hoadley, and was at the same time informed 
that he required first class personal security. I went to him 
with four notes of S500 each, indorsed one by Roger S. 
Baldwin, one hy Dennis Kimbcrly, one by Dr. Jonathan 
Knight, and one by Captain Benjamin Beecher, Captain 
Hoadley opened his eyes wide. "That security," said he, 
"could not be improved. How did you get it?" 

Mr. Lines emigrated to Kansas in 1856, when it 
was yet doubtful whether it would be a Free or a 
Slave State, to assist in determining that question 
in the interest of freedom. He and other citizens 
of New Haven, of Hke mind with himself, went to- 
gether for mutual aid and protection, and com- 
menced on virgin soil a new settlement, which 
they called Wabaunsee. Here Mr. Lines still re- 
sides in the midst of his children and children's 
children. Here we leave him, to return to those 
in New Haven who have succeeded him in the 
business of making furniture. 

The firm of Sherman Blair, of whom Mr. Lines 
learned the "art, trade, and mystery" of cabinet- 
making, is still perpetuated by his sons, R. & J. 
M. lilair. 

At the present time very little furniture manu- 
facturing is done in New Haven, it being entirely 
confined to local custom work. Much of that sold 
here is made in the State of Michigan, although a 
large amount of chamber furniture is received from 
Boston, and much parlor furniture from New York. 
At one time the Bowditch-Prudden Company was 
more exclusively engaged in furniture manufacturing 
than any house in New Haven, but now do little 
work in this line. 

Besides the firm of R. & J. M. Blair, the oldest 
houses are those represented by the Bowditch- 
Prudden Company, 72 Orange street, and A. C. 
Chamberlain & Sons, Orange, corner of Crown 
street. 

Dann Brothers began the manufacture of a 
simple folding chair in 1862, in State street. The 
demand for such a chair grew out of the war. 
About thai time English & Mersick became inter- 
ested in an improvement on the Dann Brothers' 
patent, and began, through Golightly tt Twitchell, 
manufacturing folding chairs in Park street. The 
interests in the two patents became complicated, 
leading to some lawsuits, when the businesses were 
united in 1864, the premises enlarged, and the 



manufacture of chairs became established upon a 
more permanent foundation. From time to time 
improvements have been made in the style and 
luxuriousness of the article made, until the list 
numbers over one hundred different varieties, from 
the unpretentious camp-stool to the easy chair for 
the parlor or drawing-room. The New Haven 
Folding Chair Company was incorporated by a 
special Act of the Legislature in 1881, and has re- 
mained since its organization at 548 to 552 State 
street. While the folding chair has been in the past 
a specialty, the Company are now engaged in manu- 
facturing office and dining chairs, devoting much 
attention to the invalid rolling and reclining chair, 
an invention of their own. This chair has been 
adopted by the Government for all hospital and 
naval stations, for which a large number have been 
furnished. About one hundred men are employed. 
The oflScers of the Company are Isaac N. Dann, 
President; Edwin F. Mersick, Secretary and Treas- 
urer; and E. Kelsey, Superintendent. 

The firm of Farren Brothers, manufacturers of 
spring beds, was organized in 1876, the members 
being Willis H. and R. B. Farren. The original 
plant was in Fair Haven, but was removed to 
Atwater's Block, in 1880, where it is at pres- 
ent located. The patent under which the firm 
manufacture is not the proprietors' invention, but 
they control the trade of New England. They be- 
gan by making about fifty beds a month, but have 
since increased to an average of eight hundred. 
Si.xty thousand beds have been made altogether. 
About fifty hands are employed. 

B. B. Savage, 9 Long Wharf, manufacturer of 
mattresses, bedding and slat springs, began business 
in 1883. Most of his goods are sold outside of 
New Haven. He employs nine hands. 

The manufacture of rattan goods in New Haven 
is comparatively a new enterprise, the New Haven 
Rattan Company, which was organized in April, 
1882, being the first to engage in it. This trade has 
for the most part been controlled by a few individu- 
als in the past, and the Company found great diffi- 
culty in obtaining good workmen. This and other 
obstacles, however, have been overcome, and the 
business has turned out a success. About one 
hundred and twenty-five hands are employed. The 
cane used in the work is imported from Singapore. 
The products of the factory are rattan for chair 
bottoms and backs, and rattan and reed furniture 
of all descriptions. The officers of the Company 
are L N. Dann, President; E. F. Mersick, Secretary 
and Treasurer. Business is carried on in the build- 
ing occupied by the New Haven Folding Chair 
Company on State street. 

Henry W. Crawford began the manufacture of 
furniture at loi and 103 Grand street in 1856, and 
has continued the business at the same place ever 
since. He came to New Haven in 1S49, when 
seventeen years of age. 

E. H.Vetter, 67 to 71 Union street, manufactures 
parlor suits and lounges to order, makes furni- 
ture, and does repairing of all kinds. 

The New Haven Window Shade Company was 
organized in 1877. Its production is a patent 



J 



PkObUCTIVE ARTS. 



589 



window shade, known as " The Excelsior," made 
of heavy Manilla card-board. Messrs. A. J. and J. 
B. Smith are \he personnel oi the Company. 

Hardware Manuiacturers. 

As long ago as 1848, Gaius F. Warner removed 
from the .Vaugatuck Valley to New Haven, and es- 
tablished here a foundry for casting malleable iron. 
Hii successors are still producing; castings in such 
variety thit we cannot particularize, further than to 
say that their catalogue comprises builders', car- 
riage-makers' and saddlers' trimmings. 

Not only are the G. F. Warner Comp.iny en- 
gaged in the manufacture of hardware, but many 
other establishments have entered into the business. 
Of these the most extensive is that of Sargent & Co. 

A distinguished writer has said that the growth 
and development of any large manufacturing in- 
terest is generally due to the personal energy, 
patience, and forethought of one man. Especially 
true is this of the large manufactory of Sargent & 
Co., in which the energetic spirit of its founder, J. 
B. Sargent, is manifest. Under his supervision the 
works have grown from a comparatively humble 
beginning to their present importance among the 
manufacturing interests of New Haven. In 1858, 
Mr. .Sargent purchased the business of the Peck & 
Walter Manufacturing Company in New Britain, and 
commenced the manufacture of builders" hardware. 
A short time after, Mr. Sargent's brother, George 
H., became a partner, under the firm name of Sar- 
gent & Co. Here business was continued for six 
years, when May i, 1864, it was removed to this city, 
and the building bounded by Water, Wallace and 
Hamilton streets was erected. At this time only 
one hundred and sixty workmen were employed. 
In Julv, i864,a stock company was formed, consist- 
ing of J. B. Sargent, his brothers, George H. and 
Edward, and eight former employees. J. B. Sargent 
was made President, a position he has ever since 
held. Starting with a production of a comparatively 
limited line of goods, and correspondingly restricted 
facilities, each year since has added to the extent of 
both, until at the present time, the products of this 
establishment, both in quantity and quality, 
are not excelled by any house in the country. 
Their premises cover sixteen acres of floor room, 
where are employed over seventeen hundred 
operators, the daily production averaging thirty-five 
tons of finished hardware. The effect of this estab- 
lishment upon the commercial welfare of this city 
is best realized by the statement of the fact that the 
daily pay roll amounts to more than $3,300, or, in 
round numbers. $1,000,000 yearly, the substantial 
benefit of which accrues to the city. The business 
is divided into forty separate departments, each pre- 
sided over by a Superintendent, who has the general 
supervision of his department. This house has 
twenty travelmg salesmen, and their trade may be 
said to extend over the world. The general ware- 
rooms are located at 37 Chambers street, New 
York, from which most of the goods are sold. This 
branch of the business is under the charge and 
management of George H. Sargent. The present 



officers are Joseph B. Sargent, President and Treas- 
urer: Piermont Bradford, Superintendent; C. L. 
Baldwin, Secretary and Buyer of (jeneral Supplies; 
Henry B.Sargent, .Assistant Superintendent; George 
L. Sargent, Assistant Treasurer; Edward R. Sar- 
gent, Superintendent Coffin Hardware Department: 
Russell Sargent, Superintendent Lock Department. 
The last four members of the Company, with 
Joseph D. Sargent, traveling salesman, are sons of 
Joseph B. Sargent. Superintendent Bradford his 
been connected with this business since 1850, and 
his long experience and knowledge of the require- 
ments of the trade, and personal energy, has in no 
small degree contributed to the present high stand- 
ing of this establishment in the commercial com- 
munity. Mr. Sargent, the founder of this concern, 
was born in 1822. The secret of his success has 
been energy, business ability of a high order, and 
fair and honorable dealing. Among the oldest 
employees of the Company deserving of mention 
are John Ruflf, contractor, and |.F. W.Brockscriber, 
both of whom have been with the house since 1853. 
R. F. Burchell, foreman in the north iron foundry, 
was connected with the works in New Britain. A. 
H. Stelle is a contractor. 

The family represented by O. B. North of this 
city, may justly be considered the pioneers in the 
manufacture of saddlery and carriage hardware in 
this country. The grandfather of Mr. North was 
engaged in this business in New Britain as early as 
1812, which was contrnued by his son, the father of 
Mr. North, at the same place. Forthe last fifty years 
has the head of the present Company of O. B. North 
& Co. been engaged in this branch of manufacture 
formerly in New Britain, but for the last twenty- 
three years in this city. When the house was 
founded, American manufactures were in their in- 
fancy, and the products of European workshops 
monopolized the home market. The establishment 
of what may be termed a new branch of industry, 
against such opposition, required skill and business 
energy of a high order. These traits of character Mr. 
North possessed in an eminent degree, and from a 
comparatively small concern the house has become 
one of the most extensive in this country devoted 
to this line of good.s. The products of this Com- 
pany consist of saddlery and carriage hardware, 
malleable-iron castings and patent carr-jage tops, in 
the manufacture of which three hundred men are 
employed, the annual products amounting to $300,- 
oco. The factory at 65 Franklin street is one of 
the largest of its kind in the country, containing 
I 25,000 square feet of floor surface. The capital 
stock is $100,000. The executive officers are O. B. 
North, President, and William B. North, Treasurer 
and Secretary. A. N. Sperry is a contractor in these 
works. 

About twenty years ago, W. A. Clark commenced 
the manufacture of hardware specialties at West- 
ville. .\mong the articles of his manufacture which 
became well known to the trade, was an expansion 
bit, known as Clark's patent expansive bit. W. A. 
Clark died in 1879, when the business was con- 
tinued by his son, F. E. Clark. In 1880 the firm of 
R. H. Brown & Co. (L. A. Piatt), was formed, and 



690 



HISTORY OF THE ClTV OF NEW HA VEN. 



purchased the manufacturing plant of Mr. Clark, 
and continued the business at Westville until 1883, 
when they erected their present building, corner of 
Ashmun and Munson streets, consisting of a one- 
story brick building, 225 by 40 feet, with an annex 
1 00' by 40 feet. A specialty is made of the Clark 
bits and new Reid chuck ; a general line of mechan- 
ics' hardware is also made. About seventy-five men 
are employed. Mr. Brown is an experienced prac- 
tical mechanic, and for a number of years was a 
contractor in the Winchester Repeating Arms Com- 
pany's Works. 

The firm of Hobart B. Ives & Co. (F. F. An- 
drews), 187 St. John street, formed in 1885, is the 
successor to the business commenced by Hobart B. 
Ives in 1876. They manufacture hardware speci- 
alties, their main work being sash locks and door 
bohs. Thirty work-people are employed. 

William Schoolhorn & Co., who are mentioned 
among the workers in iron as manufacturers of the 
star cutlery, should also come under the head of 
hardware, such as hinges and locks, which are 
mostly secured by patents, and expansive bits and 
augers. 

The American Buckle and Cartridge Company, 
of West Haven, was formed in 1885, by consolida- 
tion of the West Haven Buckle Company and the 
Kelsey Cartridge Company, the latter concern being 
referred to under Armorers. The New Haven 
Buckle Company owed its origin to the business 
established in 1853 by William R. Shelton, S. S. 
Hawthorn, George W. Tutile, and others, who be- 
gan the manufactureof buckles at West Haven with 
machinery designed by S. S. Hawthorn. About 
1856, George R. Kelsey, one of the pioneer buckle 
manufacturers in this country, became connected 
with the New Haven Company, and soon became 
its Manager and Treasurer, a position he held until 
July, 1885, when a serious illness prevented his 
taking an active share in its management. Mr. 
Kelsey commenced the manufacture of buckles in 
Middletown, Conn., with the American Buckle 
Company. Their works were destroyed by fire in 
1856. At that time the Waterbury and West 
Haven Buckle Company was struggling for ex- 
istence. Mr. Kelsey became its President, but while 
he retained an interest in this company, he became 
as before stated, more especially identified with the 
West Haven Company, and it is almost entirely to 
his management that the prosperity of the concern 
is due. The premises cover an area of over one 
hundred thousand square feet, upon which have 
been erected at various times numerous brick and 
frame buildings. The work consists of vest, pant- 
aloon, suspender, shoulder brace, shirt, truss, 
trunk, and skate buckles, upon which a large num- 
ber of improvements have been introduced. Over 
one hundred operatives are employed. The capital 
stock of the American Buckle and Cartridge Com- 
pany is $45,000, the largest stockholder being 
George R. Kelsey. 

The Yale Castor Company, 958 Grand street, 
was organized in 1883, wiih a capital of $22,000, 
with C. Spencer, President; S. Osborn, Vice-Presi- 
dent; and H. B. Schenck, Secretary and Treasurer. 



They manufacture the Yale castor, gem store truck, 
and hardware specialties. About fifteen men and 
boys are employed. 

The Grilley Company is a stock company or- 
ganized in 1866, with Leonard Pardee as President. 
The present President is William Hillhouse. The 
products of this concern consist of brass, nickel- 
plated, and silver screws, bolts, and coffin hard- 
ware. The factory is located at 76 Court street. 

The Ellis Manufacturing Company, 356 Congress 
avenue, make all kinds of metal machinery, presses, 
and light hardware. This Company was formed in 
1877. F"rederick L. Ellis is President, the other 
members being William F. Norman and James 
M. Ellis. From twelve to fifteen men are em- 
ployed. 

The firm of A. S. Henn & Co., 54 Court street, 
was formed in 1882, and commenced business at 
the present location, 54 Court street. They make 
a general line of metal pattern work, light hard- 
ware, tinning, japanning, and bronzing. 

The American Needle and Fish Hook Company 
was incorporated with a capital of $100,000, and 
are doing a prosperous business in the line of goods 
which the name of the Company indicates. The 
plant at No. 1 1 Artisan street is well supplied with 
the requisite niachinery to carry on the work. The 
officers are Wdliam R. Shelton, President; James 
M. Mason, Secretiry and Treasurer; William R. 
Shelton, J. P. Tuttle, James M. Shelton, Tbomas 
Wallace, Jr., Ansonia; Caleb B. Knevals, New 
York, Directors. 

A. H. Smith began the manufacture of sewing- 
machine needles in this city in 1882, in the Quin- 
nipiac Building. In 1885 he removed to his present 
location, 81 Day street. For seventeen years pre- 
viously he was a member of the firm of Smith 
Brothers, engaged in a similar business at Mount 
Carmel. Mr. Smith manufactures all kinds of 
sewing-machine needles, both for fimily and manu- 
facturers' use, and makes a specialty of needles for 
leather. He employs twelve men. 

House Movers. 

The art of removing buildings from one site to 
another has made great progress within the last 
fifty years. Before that time wooden screws were 
used in lifting the building, which necessarily suf- 
fered more or less from the unequally distributed 
effect of the screws. The wonder is that with 
such apparatus buildings were not shaken to 
pieces while on their journey from an old to. a 
new site. Yet the Coffee House, which preceded 
the Tontine Hotel, traveled safely to the place 
where it now stands on Church street, between 
Wall and Grove streets, and many other large build- 
ings passed by transmigration, even in the first half 
of the present century, to new sites and changed 
surroundings. 

Kelley Smith was one of the early house-movers 
in New Haven. The oldest inhabitant can remem- 
ber the timbers, screws and windlasses, which, 
when not in use, were piled on his lot at the corner 
of Greene and Franklin streets. 



n 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



591 



Garwood M. Baldwin came to New Haven from 
Woodbridge in 1859, and, using the best apparatus, 
soon became famous as a house-mover. He has 
moved and raised nearly fifteen hundred buildings, 
including eleven large and some smaller brick ones. 
The first brick house ever moved in New Haven 
was the one on the corner of State and Elm streets, 
built by Henry Huggins, and afterward known as 
the Dr. Foote house. It was forty feet square, and 
Mr. Baldwin received for moving it westward to the 
place where it now stands, in the rear of the Todd 
building, $1,500, The second brick house re- 
moved belonged to Vale College, and the cost was 
$2,500. The third, corner of Congress avenue and 
Commerce street, four- stories high, forty by si.xty 
feet, belonging to R. M. Burwell, was moved at an 
expense of $3,000. The fourth, on Meadow street, 
four-stories high, forty by si.xty feet, cost $1,800. 

Frederic E. Baldwin, 27 County street, com- 
menced business in New Haven as a house-mover 
in 1 87 1. He moved the Dr. Knight house from the 
site of the County Court House to the corner of 
Orchard and Martin streets in 1871. The same 
year he moved the Candee house from the corner 
of State and F"lm to George street, between Orchard 
and Day streets. The next large building which 
he removed was the Twining house. It went from 
the site of West Divinity Hall to County street in 
1S73. In July, 1884, he raised Starr's Block at 
the junction of Congress avenue and Washington 
street so that another story was built under it. In 
the spring of 1S85, at the widening of Meadow 
street, he moved the brick house at the corner of 
Water and Meadow streets, known as the Trow- 
bridge house, and also another Trowbridge house. 

Other house-movers are C. S. Baldwin, 27 Dag- 
gett street, and James K. Smith, 12 Crescent street 

India Ri'iiber Workers. 

L. C.-VNDEE Sl CO. 

No city in the world is more closely associated 
with the earlier efforts to utilize the gum of the 
rubber tree than the city of New Haven. Here 
Charles Good\ear, who discovered the most im- 
portant secret in rubber manufacturing, was born 
in iSco. Here in 1830 he commenced his experi- 
ments which have resulted in a series of inventions 
among the most valuable in the present century. 
The story of Mr. Goodyear's long years of toil, 
suffering, discouragements, and ultimate triumphs, 
has been so often written as to be familiar to the 
readers of history. 

One of the first persons to see the future possi- 
bilities of Mr. Goodyear's discoveries, was Leverett 
Candee, one of the founders of the L. Candee Rub- 
ber Factory of this city. He was born at Oxford, 
Conn., June 20, 1795, and came to New Haven 
when fifteen years ol age, and entered the employ 
of Captain Gad Peck, a merchant engaged in foreign 
trade, as a clerk. For a number of years he was 
engaged in the dry goods trade with James E. P. 
Dean antl William Cutler, under the firm name of 
Candee, Dean & Cutler, successors of the old firm of 



Root & Atwater. In 1833 he retired from the firm 
and went to New York, where for two years he fol- 
lowed the commission business. In 1835 here- 
turned to New Haven and became a |)artner in the 
firm of Candee, Lester iS: Page, commission mer- 
chants. A few years after he engaged in paper 
manufacturing at Westville, under the firm name of 
Candee, Page tt Lester, subsequently Candee & 
Page. This venture was not a success, and in 1842 
the business was closed up and the firm dissolved, 
Mr. Candee having lost his entire fortune, accu- 
mulated by years of toil. 

Shortly alter his paper-mill was closed, he com- 
menced the manufacture of elastic suspenders in a 
carpet factory on East street. During this same 
year (1842) Charles Goodyeargavehim a temporary 
license to use his vulcanized process in the manu- 
facture of rubber shoes. This he resolved to un- 
dertake, but not having the necessary capital to 
commence operations, he enlisted the aid of Henry 
and Lucius Hotchkiss, at that time lumber mer- 
chants in this city, w'ho loaned him the sum of 
$3,000. He immediately began operations and 
was the first person in the world to manufacture 
rubber over-shoes under the Goodyear patent. 

September 5, 1843, the firm of L. Candee & Co. 
was formed, consisting of Leverett Candee and 
Henry and Lucius Hotchkiss, the latter two fur- 
nishing the entire capital, $6, coo, and becoming 
special partners, while Mr. Candee was to assume 
the entire management of the works as general 
partner. Operations in this new and untried branch 
of industry were commenced, in a necessarily limited 
way, at Hamden, about six miles from New Haven. 
The products of their works were at first received 
with many doubts and suspicions of their utility, 
and it was a long time before the public would be 
convinced of the value of what have become well- 
nigh indispensable articles. The first shoes made 
were of the buskin style, and the first sales were 
made by H. S. Downs, who is still remembered by 
the older wholesale shoe dealers. Their goods 
were first shown for sale in Hartford, Springfield, 
Worcester, and Boston, at which points they were 
carried from store to store in baskets, and were 
only received by the retad dealers to be sold on 
commission. Many of the more important secrets 
connected with their manufacture was not then 
known, and the trade looked with suspicion upon 
the crude samples of this rubber factory. One of 
the greatest obstacles to their sale was the fact of 
their becoming discolored w-hen exposed for any 
length of time to the atmospheric changes, a diffi- 
culty only overcome by the ouUay of much money 
and repeated experiments, which finally resulted in 
the invention of an elastic varnish which had its 
origin in the Candee factory. 

In 1844, the firm was reorganized by the admis- 
sion of Abram Heaton, who contributed $3,000 
to the capital, making it at this time $9,000. Mr. 
Heaton remained in the firm until 1847, when his 
interest was purchased by Henry Hotchkiss. 

A new impetus was given to their business in 
I 848 by the decisions in favor of the validity of the 
Goodyear patent, from which date the firm rapidly 



592 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



increased in business, capital, facilities, and re- 
sources. Their goods met witli favor and found a 
ready sale year by year; their number of employees 
was increased; and their manufacturing plant at 
Hamden was several times enlarged to supply the 
demands of their trade. In 1850, the Hamden 
fictory became unequal to their fast- growing busi- 
ness, so during this year the site of their present 
building on Green, East and Wallace streets was 
purchased, on which at that dme an old factory 
was located, which had previously been used by a 
New Haven company in the manufacture of screws. 
Here a branch factory was established in addition to 
the business carried on at Hamden. In 1S59, addi- 
tional buildings were erected on the New Haven site, 
at which date the Hamden factory was abandoned, 
and the whole business C("'ncentrated in this city. 

In 1852, so rapid had been the growth of the 
business, that a joint stock company was formed, 
with a capital of $20o,coo^in 1869 increased to 
8300,000 — under the present corporate title of L. 
Candee & Co. The four original subscribers to the 
stock were Leverett Candee, Henry and Lucius 
Hotchkibs, and Timothy Lester, who were also the 
first Directors. The first executive officers were L. 
Candee, President, and C. T. Candee, Secretary. 
From this time until 1863, there was no change in 
the officers of the Company, with the exception of 
the year 1859, when Isaac Hawthorn was made 
President; L. Candee, Treasurer; and C.T. Candee, 
Secretary. In 1S63, Leverett Candee resigned his 
office anil sold his interest to Henry Hotchkiss. 

Mr. Candee died on May 23, 1865, the best 
monument to whose memory is the manufacturing 
establishment which still bears his name, and which 
he was conspicuously instrumental in founding. 

After Mr. Candee's retirement in 1S63, Henry 
Hotchkiss was made President and Treasurer, and 
Henry L. Hotchkiss, Secretary. From this date to 
the lime of Henry Hotchkiss' death in 1871, the 
only change made was in 1869, when Henry L. 
Hotchkiss was made Secretary and Treasurer. 

Henry Hotchkiss was born in New Haven April 
29, iSoi, and died in this city (where he had con- 
tinuously resided) December 14, 1871. He de- 
servedly held a conspicuous place among the busi- 
ness men of diis city, the manufacturing interests 
of which his energy and natural ability did so much 
to develop. For more than half a century he was 
closely identified with the growth and prosperity of 
his native city. 

At the ne.xt annual meeting of the Directors after 
the death of Henry Hotchkiss, his son, Henry L., 
was elected President and Treasurer, a position he 
has most ably filled up to the present time. Under 
Mr. Hotchkiss' management the high character of 
the works has not only been maintained, but year 
by year has added to the extent of their trade, and 
the superior quality of their products— results in no 
small measure due to Mr. Hotchkiss' personal 
supervision, and a through knowledge of every 
detail of the business, gained by long identification 
with rubber manufacturing. 

At the time of the election of Mr. Hotchkiss as 
President and Treasurer, Pierpont B. Foster was 



elected Secretary. He was succeeded, in 1874, by 
Charles L. Johnson, the present Secretary, who has 
held the same position ever since. 

In November, 1877, when the works had grown 
to large proportions, the Company experienced a 
heavy loss by the entire destruction of their property 
by fire. Not a last, pattern, or tool was saved. 
This occurred in the busiest season of the year, but 
it was this disaster which best illustrates the enter- 
prise and energy of the managers. Immediately 
after this fire the unoccupied factory of the Odorless 
Rubber Company, at Middletown, twenty-six miles 
distant, was leased, and arrangements made with 
the New York and Boston Railway to run two 
special trains between Middletown and New Haven 
for the accommodation of their employees, number- 
ing several hundred. The new factory was put in 
order, lasts made, patterns cut, tools and machinery 
purchased and set up, and goods produced and 
delivered on orders three weeks after the fire. 

In tlie meanwhile active preparations were under- 
taken toward the erection of their present buildings. 
Considerable adjoining property was purchased, and 
within eight months the factory was completed and 
occupied, containing new and improved machinery, 
with double the capacity of the one destroyed. It 
has since been enlarged by the addition of several 
large buildings, and now consists of twelve sub- 
stantial brick buildings, separated by passages or 
roadways to prevent the spread of fires. That on 
Wallace street, having an L running to the east, is 
three stories high, and is about 400 by 58 feet. 
The first floor is the grinding-room, containing 
about 100 grinders, calenders, and other inachinery, 
arranged in two duplicate divisions, each driven by 
its own power, so that any derangement to engines 
or machinery in any one section need not cause a 
stoppage of the whole factory. The second and 
third stories are devoted to cloth and rubber cutting. 

The next largest building is that on Greene street, 
running from Wallace to East street, 304 by 55 feet 
in dimensions, three stories high, with a basement. 
In the basement the crude rubber is received, 
weighed, cut, and cleaned. The first floor, ex- 
cepting a space reserved for the Company's office, 
is devoted to the making of Arctics and contains 
over three hundred tables. The second floor is the 
boot-room, containing two hundred tables, and the 
third floor the shoe-room, with five hundred tables. 

On East street is a three-story building, 1 70 by 
40 feet, the first floor of which constitutes the ship- 
ping room, and the second and third floor is allot- 
ted to packing. 

These buildings inclose a quadrangular space 
occupied by other brick buildings, separated by 
25-foot roadways. The building nearest Wallace 
street is the engine-house, 1 10 b}' feet, containing 
two Corliss engines of about 1,400-horse power. 
East of this is the boiler-house, 90 by 75 feet, con- 
taining twenty boilers, with a total of 1,700-horse 
power. Adjoining the boiler-house is the coal yard, 
with capacity for holding 1,500 tons. Between this 
and the East street building are the heaters, thirteen 
in number, capable of vulcanizing 24,000 pairs of 
boots and shoes in one heat. 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



593 



This large factory — one of the largest in the world 
devoted to rubber manufacture — covering about 
three acres of land, was planned with much deliber- 
atinn, aided by long experience in the needs and 
requirements of the business. The machinery used 
embodies all the latest and most approved appli- 
ances. The rooms are loftv, well-lighted, thoroughly 
ventilated, and provided with the best means of 
guarding against fire. 

The products of this factory consist of an endless 
variety of rubber boots, shoes, sandals, and the 
well known Arctic rubbers. In their manufacture 
about fifteen hundred hands are employed. The 
daily capacity of the works average 20,000 pairs of 
boots and shoes per day; or, 1,000 cases of assorted 
kind, the yearly production amounting to several 
millions of dollars. Two to three million pounds 
of raw material is consumed annually, most of 
which comes from the celebrated rubber district of 
Para, Brazil. They are also extensive importers of 
rubber gum from Africa. Central America, and 
Eastern India. 

This Company sells its own goods directly from 
the factory, without the intervention of agencies, 
thus bringing the buyer in immediate contact with 
it, a method which experience has proven to be 
wise and profitable. At one time they exported 
largely, but of late years their immense trade has 
been confined almost entirely to the United 
States. 

An uninterrupted course of prosperity has been 
experienced by the Candee Company, mainly due 
to the good judgment and fair and honorable 
methods of its managers. All that was good and 
most desirable in the Goodyear process of manu- 
facture has been retained, while various improve- 
ments, many of which had their origin in this 
factory, have been added. This institution has been 
of immeasurable benefit to New Haven, forming as 
it does an important element in the manufacturing 
interests of the city and employing such a large 
number of hands. No one branch of manufacture 
has caused New Haven to be better known abroad, 
while the extent of the works, unequaled by any 
similar concern, and the recognized superiority of 
their goods by the commercial world, excite just 
local pride. 

The Metzger Rubber Company, with a factory 
corner of Court and Union streets, was organized 
in 1882, with a capital of $50,000. Rubber 
clothing and cloth are the manufactures. About 
fifty operatives are employed. The annual turnout 
amounts to $[50,000. The officers of the Com- 
pany are C. J. Metzger, President and Treasurer, 
and Max Adier, Secretary. 

The Seamless Rubber Company, organized in 
1877, continue the business conducted for several 
years by Hine & Longden. The products of this 
factory consist of a variety of soft rubber goods, a 
specialty being made of druggists' rubber sundries. 
Si.xty hands are employed. The factorv, 55 Dag- 
gett street, consists of a two-story brick building, 
with basement and attic, 40 by 80 feet in dimen- 
sions. The executive officers are Joseph Banigan, 

7S 



President, and Sherman F. Foote, Secretary and 
Treasurer. The capital stock is $50,000. 

The Gasket Rubber Company commenced the 
manufiicture of small rubber articles at 153 St. 
John street in 1872. The business was afterwards 
sold to A. C. Andrews, who conducted it several 
years, but recently discontinued. He was con- 
nected with the Goodyear Rubber Company for 
twenty years, and is thoroughly conversant with 
the almost endless uses to which this valuable pro- 
duct has been applied. 

Ice Cutters. 

The cutting and storing of ice in winter for 
summer consumption has grown to enormous pro- 
portions in this country. It is a business which 
may be said to have been developed within the 
last fifty years. The first person to cut ice to any 
extent for public sale in New Haven was John 
Anthony, who began, in 1840, taking his ice out of 
the old canal. During the summer of that year he 
furnished ice to steamboats and a few private 
families, but did not peddle regularly. 

In 1843, H. L. Scranton embarked in the busi- 
ness, building an ice-house in the pines. During 
the summer he peddled for a part of the season. 
This same year George Thompson and Samuel 
Perry began to cut ice out of Saltonstall Lake. 
During the ensuing year Perry bought out Scran- 
ton's interests. Tliompson continued for several 
years. 

Before the canal was closed, ice was obtained 
from that source and from Saltonstall Lake. 

In 1S48 an ice company was formed, consisting 
of George H. Townsend and others, for the pur- 
pose of shipping ice. An ice-house was built near 
Red Rock, and another at Saltonstall Lake. This 
company failed to make a success of the under- 
taking, and finally sold out to Mr. Townsend. The 
latter also purchased the interest of Thompson & 
Hemingway, and for a number of years following, 
George H. Townsend and Samuel Perry were the 
only men engaged in the ice business in New Haven. 

In 1849, E. J. Munsell became a partner with 
Mr. Perry, and remained as such for three years. 
In 1852 no ice formed in this vicinity more than 
five inches thick, and during this year all that was 
used was obtained from Springfield, Mass. 

The business established by Townsend &. Perry 
resulted, in 1866, in the formation of the New 
Haven Ice Company, which is incorporated, with a 
capital of $75,000. About twenty-five thousand 
tons of ice are housed annually by this Company, 
and during the summer about twenty wagons are 
employed in delivering it. The officers are John 
L. Treat, President, and F. F. Bishop, Secretary 
and Treasurer. Most of the ice sold by this Com- 
pany is obtained from Saltonstall and 'Whitney 
Lakes and from spring water ponds. 

The other ice dealers doing business in New 
Haven are Hemingway Ice Company, Spring 
Brook Ice Company, Crystal Ice Company, Mix 
& Brother, Burton Dickerman, Enos Dickerman, 
and John Parker & Co. 



59-1: 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



Iron-workers. 

Though New Haven does not aspire to be a 
competitor with Pittsburgh in the manufacture of 
iron, yet it has more men and a hirger amount of 
money in the various departments of this industry 
than one who had not looked into the matter 
wouUI be apt to estimate. 

Classif\'ing the products of the iron-workers into 
the following sections, we will speak of each in 
turn. The manufacturers of hardware have been 
put into a class by themselves, as hardware is not 
all of iron. 

I. Castings. 

II. Forgings. 

III. Rolled iron. 

IV. Steam engines. 

V. Machinery and tools. 

VI. Safes and vaults. 

VII. Architectural iron-work. 

VIII. Cutler)-. 

IX. Files. 

X. Staples, bolts, nuts, screws, and nails. 

XI. Wire and wire-work. 

I. CASTINGS. 

About fifty years ago, Kilbourn & Smith had an 
iron-foundry on Whitney avenue, on the site now 
occupied by the New Haven Manufacturing Com- 
pany. The junior partner, George F. Smith, when 
he retired from this business, during the time of 
depression which followed the panic of 1837, be- 
came a city missionary, and is more widely known 
by means of ministrations, both spiritual and tem- 
poral, in this capacity, than as an ironmonger. 

John McLagon established a foundry on Audu- 
bon street in 1848, and conducted the business 
till 1881, when Fred. B. Farnsworth was admitted 
into partnersliip with him, under the firm name of 
INIcLagon Foundry Company. They employ fifty 
men, and carry on the business of casting and black- 
smithing in its several details. The establishment 
is equipped with the best modern appliances for 
the work. 

The iron foundry of S. H. Barnum, 10 and 12 
Whitney avenue, is one of the oldest in the city. 
It was first occupied by Cyprian Wilco.x, in 1832. 
Since then the following have carried on a similar 
business at this place: Henry Wilco.x, H. B. Bige- 
low, Twiss, Pratt & Hayes, Bigelow Manufacturing 
Company, W. 'P. Scran'ton & Co., and D. P. Cal- 
houn k Co. In 1875 the firm of Barnum & Root 
was formed, composed of S. H. Barnum and 
Charles F. Root, and continued together for ten 
years. Since then Mr. Barnum has conducted the 
business alone. Gray imn castings and general 
foundry work constitute the main trade of this es- 
tablishment, in which about fifty men are employed. 
Mr. Barnum has resided in New Haven ever since 
1847- 

The iron-foundry and pattern works of E. Stan- 
nard k .Son, 30 to 38 Artisan street, was established 
in 1864 by !•:. Stannard A Co., on Grand street. 
The present works were built in 1865, and cover an 



area of 90 by 130 feet. The present firm was or- 
ganized in 1880, by the admission of L. H. Stan- 
nard. The products consist of a general line of 
foundry work. Patterns and jobbing of every de- 
scription in iron are executed. This trade is largely 
local among the manufacturers of the city and vi- 
cinity. Employment is furnished to forty men. Mr. 
Stannard, Sr., has resided in New Haven nearly 
fifty years. 

E. STANNARD. 

Essi Stannard, founder of the house of E. Stan- 
nard & Son, iron-founders, and long prominent in 
manufacturuig and commercial circles in New 
Haven, was born in Clinton, Conn., September 5, 
1829. His parentswere Linusand Harriet (Kelsey) 
Stannard. 

Mr. Stannard's boyhood was passed on his father's 
farm in Clinton, and the basis of his practical edu- 
cation was obtained in the common schools then 
in vogue. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed, 
to learn the iron-founder's trade, to Russell & 
Beach, of Chester, Conn. His apprenticeship ex- 
pired five years later, when he was twenty-one 
years old, and thereafter he worked steadily at his 
chosen trade until he established himself in busi- 
ness on his own account. 

In the fall of 1840 he came to New Haven, and 
was for a time employed by Smith & Munson, a 
well-remembered firm, which has since given place 
to another equally well-known. Later he was em- 
ployed, for about a year, in a foundry located in 
one of the Hudson River towns. Returning to 
New Haven, he entered the establishment of Cyprian 
Wilcox, once prominent as judge, manufacturer, 
citizen and supporter of the Congregational Church, 
where he remained almost continuously until 1864, 
during a period of fifteen to twenty years. 

In the year last mentioned, Messrs. E. Stannard 
li Co. established the Stannard foundry, and con- 
ducted the business until 1880, when the present 
firm was organized by the admission of Mr. L. H. 
Stannard to an interest in the enterprise. The 
premises of this firm (at 30 to 38 Artisan street) 
cover an area of 90 by 130 feet, upon which are 
erected four two-story brick buildings. These are 
divided into two general departments, a foundry and 
a pattern shop. The products of the establishment 
consist of a general line of foundry work, and the 
firm also make to order all kinds of patterns, and 
execute jobbing of all kinds in their line. The 
trade of the house is largely local among the manu- 
facturers of the city and vicinity, but at the same 
time is somewhat extensive throughout the State. 
The members of the firm are both thoroughly ex- 
perienced in all the details of the business and well 
acquainted with the trade. They stand deservedly 
high in mercantile circles, and possess the esteem 
of all with whom their business brings them in 
contact. 

Mr. Stannard is a quiet, unassuming, progressive 
man of business. While he takes a deep interest in 
the prosperity of the city, he manifests it in a dis- 
interested way, taking no active part in political 



I 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



595 



contests or public broils. A liberal employer of 
labor, he has always enjoyed the respect and confi- 
dence of his employees. 

Of the Congregational faith, he was formerly a 
member of the Old Third, and is now a member 
of the Dwight Place Church. 

He was married, June i, 1847, to Naomi Barnes, 
of New Haven. They have one son, L. H. Stan- 
nard, and one daughter, Mrs. I). J. Bristol. 

The G. F. Warner Manufacturing Company was 
founded by the late Gaius F. Warner, in 1S48, then 
occupying a portion of the site on East street where 
the Company is now located. In 1850 a stock 
company was formed, under the style of G. F. 
Warner &. Co. This was replaced, in 1879, by the 
present corporation. The product of the factory 
consists of all descriptions of malleable antl gray 
iron castings, with a general line of carriage-mak- 
ers' clamps and stove knobs. The premises cover 
an area of 200 by 1 50 feet. About fifty hands are 
employed, a 30-horse power engine furnishing the 
necessary power. The officers are Charles S. Leete, 
Presitlent; E. E. Durant, Secretary; and H. Stevens, 
Treasurer. F. W. Sperry is a foreman in these 
works. 

II. FORCINGS. 

Wrought-iron boilers are forged by Bigelow & 
Company, 92 to 102 River street; F. C. & A. E. 
Rowland, 413 to 417 Chapel street; and the Auto- 
matic Safety Boiler and Engine Company, in the 
Masonic Temple, Chapel, corner Union street. 

Heavv forging by machinery is done by George 
Maltby t^ Son, in the rear of I\IcLagon's Foundry, 
corner of Whitney avenue and Audubon street; 
A. A. Ball & Son, Audubon street; Beecher tt Peck, 
Lloyd, corner of River street; Charles D. Hall, 90 
Brewery street; and Robert Wilson, 99 Temple 
street. 

The hand-forgers, or blacksmiths, in the city are 



Mooney, John, 
Miillit;.in,'X. R., 
MyLTS, L., 
0'liiieii,C. M., 
Palmer & Bishop, 
I'almer, N. M, 
Savage, Alden, Jr., 
Simpson, John N., 
Sulhvan, Dennis J. & Son, 
Tynan, John. 



.\Uing, Andrew H., 
Argall, [oseph. 
Bates. K. (;., 
Brannagan, James F., 
Brown, James, 
Connelly & Bohan, 
Harris, Spencer B., 
Haven, Joseph T., 
Johnson, I.yman \{., 
.McDerniott, Patrick, 
McGuirc, H. S: M., 

The above-named make a specialty of horse- 
shoeing. 

Other blacksmiths are 

Ball, A. A. & Son, Jilson, E. F., 

Beach & Laden, Lichstenstein, C, 

Beecher & Peck, Maltby, George & Son, 

Burns, J. \V., Morris', Isbell, Sons, 

Bush, John A., Mun/, John G., 

Condon, John, Seilbold, William, 

Fitzgerald, James, Shiner, S. & Son, 

Gesner, G. A., Smedley Brothers & Co., 

Gesner, S., Spargo Brothers, 

Hall, Charles D., Wallbridge, King, 

Hanly, William, Weiss, Jacob, 

Hogan, John, Williams, John R., 
Hull, Silas, Wilson, Robert. 



Of these Charles D. Hall makes a specialty of 
ironing vessels and oyster-dredges. 

III. ROLLED IRON. 

The New Haven Rolling Mill Company was or- 
ganized in 1 87 1. Their works are situated on Mill 
River, between Grand and Cliapel streets. From 
scrap iron they manufacture a high grade of refined 
and charcoal iron to be made into bolts and screws. 
About one hundred and fifty men are employed. 
Their business is of consitlerable importance to 
the land-owners of North Branford and the sur- 
rounding district, from winch they receive about a 
thousand bushels of charcoal per day. The ofticers 
are H. M. Welch, President; P. N. Welch, Treas- 
urer; E. S. Wheeler, Secretary; and C. S. Poronlo, 
Superintendent. 

IV. STEAM ENGINES. 

John W. Bishop, now a dealer in real estate, be- 
gan the manutacture of steam engines in New Ha- 
ven in 1845. ^^'^ 's '^'^ inventor of an automatic 
fire extinguisher and of various devices for steam 
engines. Several years ago Mr. Bishop retired 
from manufacturing and devoted himself exclu- 
sively to real estate. 

The Bigelow Company, F. C. & A. \i. Rowland, 
and the Automatic Safety Boiler and Engine Com- 
pany manufacture steam engines as well as boilers. 
D. Frisbie & Co., Ashmun, corner of Gregory 
street; F. D. Buttricks, 25 Whitney avenue; San- 
ford, Clark A Lacey, South Front street; and M. W. 
Twiss, 25 Whitney avenue, are engine-builders. 
Several of these firms have specialties. The engines 
built by the Bigelow Company are noted for their 
superior finish, and some of them are of great power. 

H. B. Bigelow began the manufacture of steam 
engines in a limited way on Temple street, where 
Barnum ct Root are now located, in i860. He 
continued the business alone for nearly a year, 
when Henry Elson became a partner, under the 
firm name of H. B. Bigelow t^ Co. During the 
later years of the Civil War, they manufactured 
some fire-arms, continuing with it the boiler and 
engine-making. In 1869 they moved to River 
street, known locally as Grape-vine Point, where a 
new frame factory, 100 by 50 feet, had been built. 
In June, 1873, it was burned, with a large part of 
the machinery and implements. It was rebuilt 
during the year on a large scale, and new machin- 
ery of the most improved character put in. In 
1878, George S. Barnum was received into the 
firm, the style still remaining H. B. Bigelow k 
Co. In 1883 a stock company was formed, under 
the style of the Bigelow Companv, with a capital 
of §60,000. About one hundred men are em- 
ployed. The premises cover about three acres of 
land, upon which a brick addition was put up, 
300 by 100 feet, in 1884. The old frame factory 
faces River street, with a frontage of 200 feet. 
Store-houses are located on the north side of 
the street. While the Company manufacture sta- 
tionary steam engines, their special work is boiler- 



596 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



making. They have a wide reputation, and their 
trade extends throughout the United States, Can- 
ada, and foreign countries. The present officers 
areH. B. Bigelow, President; Henry Elsen, Vice- 
President; George S. Barnum, Treasurer; and 
Frank L. Bigelow, Secretary. Frank H. Elsen is 
Superintendent; George W. Bigelow, Machinist 
and Contractor; and Charles H. Barrett, Foreman. 

The Rowlands not only make horizontal engines 
of all sizes, but speciaUies are the Rowland vertical 
and yacht engines, adapted for use in stores, fac- 
tories, printing oftices, running elevators, work on 
farms or plantations, and steam launches. About 
forty men are employed. The plant of this firm 
was occupied from 1864 to 1872 by M. & T. Sault, 
engineers and machinists, and from 1872 to 1877 
by the Yale Iron-works. 

Frisbie & Co. make a specialty of hoisting en- 
gines. The firm consists of D. Frisbie, William H. 
Frisbie, S. H. Barnum, James B. Scranton, and C. 
F. Root. Their office and sales-room are in Phila- 
delphia, under the charge of D. Frisbie. William 
Frisbie is manager of the works. The firm began 
work in 1S70 at Grape-vine Point, and has reached 
its present fine accommodations after several re- 
movals. 

Both the engine-builders at 25 Whitney avenue 
make vertical and yacht engines. Each makes a 
specialty of the Twiss automatic, cut-off engine, 
whose general design is of the Corliss type, without 
so much complication. 

Sanford, Clark & Lacey, South Front street, pro- 
duce marine and stationary engines. 



V. MACHINERY AND TOOLS. 



Some of the principal machinists of New Haven 
are John Adt & Son, River street; The Barnes Tool 
Company, Grand street; Beecher & Peck, Lloyd 
street; I\I. Beers, Whitney avenue; R. H. Brown & 
Co., Ashmun street; F. D. Butricks, Whitney 
avenue; F. CaflVey & Co., Artisan street; F. C. 
Cannon, rear of 45 Orange street; Foskett & 
Bishop, Grand street; D. Frisbie & Co., Ashmun 
street; G. M. Griswold, St. John street; Herrick 
& Cowell, Artisan street; Hoggson & Pettis, Court 
street; George D. Lambert, Artisan street; J. P. 
Lavigne, Artisan street; Charles F. McGill, River 
street; The National Manufacturing Company, 
Whitney avenue; F. P. Pfiegar, Crown street; 
Wallace Porter, Artisan street; F. C. & A. E. Row- 
land, Chapel street; Sanford, Clark & Lacey, South 
Front street; H. E. Smith, Artisan street; Henry 
G. Thompson & Son, Elm street; Nelson W. 
Twiss, Whitney avenue; Van Winkle & Schmitt, 
East street. Some of these firms confine themselves 
to specialties, others are ready to build any ma- 
chines wiiich may be ordered. 

John Adt & Son make a specialty of tools and 
machines for wire-working and hardware manu- 
facturing, including automatic wire-straightening 
and cutting machines, automatic barbed-staple 
machines, cold-roll pointing machine, automatic 
shear- point staple machine, elastic blow riveting 
machine, automatic wire-forming machine, semi- 



automatic butt and hardware drilling machine, ad- 
justable drilling and counter- sinking machine, and 
many other appliances. All the machines manu- 
factured by this firm have been invented or im- 
proved by Mr. Adt, and he holds thirty-five distinct 
patents. He commenced business in Artisan street 
in 1 87 1, and removed to River street in 1882. His 
son, George W., became a partner in 1883. 

The Barnes Tool Company make saw machines, 
pipe-cutters, and a general line of plumbers' tools, 
some of which are protected by patents. Twelve 
men are employed. I'his business is the continu- 
ation of that established by E. F. & G. C. Barnes 
in Fair Haven. S. C. Strickland was also for a 
time one of the proprietors. It came under the 
management of the present owner, E. F. Barnes, 
in 1883. 

Beecher & Peck are manufacturers of drop 
presses and dies for the manufacture of hardware, 
cutlery, gun parts, spoons, forks, silver-ware, lamps, 
lanterns, tin-ware, and so forth. 

The house of Beecher & Peck was founded by 
Milo Peck in 1850. With the progress of manu- 
factures throughout the country, and the increas- 
ing use of steam for driving heavy machinery, this 
business increased in volume and improved in the 
character of the work produced. One of the most 
important patents they hold is Peck's patent drop 
press. They make more than one hundred differ- 
ent patterns of drop hammers, ranging from 25 to 
2, 500 pounds in weight. The present members are 
Henry M. Beecher and George W. Peck. 

The firm of F. Caffrey & Co., consists of Francis 
Caffrey and Squire Robinson. They do a gen- 
eral line of machinists' work, make dies, punches, 
and especially a hand wire-cutting machine invented 
by Squire Robinson. 

F. C. Cannon commenced the manufacture of 
fine tools, shafting, special machinery, and wrought- 
steel pulleys, in 1884, in the rear of 45 Orange 
street. He employs seven hands. 

D. Frisbie & Co. make a specialty of elevators 
and other hoisting apparatus in connection with 
their hoisting engines. 

George M. Griswold commenced the manufac- 
ture of special machinery, dies, and tools in St. 
John street in 1876. He is the patentee of several 
articles in his line, of which he is the sole manu- 
facturer, and employs fifteen skilled mechanics. 

Herrick & Cowell are manufacturers of special 
machinery, drill presses, and hand lathes. Their 
establishment is equipped with the latest improved 
machinery and tools, and they own several valu- 
able patents. Among them are their noted lever 
and spindle drills, of which they make several sizes, 
hollow spindle hand lathes, power presses, and 
machinery for eleclrotyping, and making clocks, 
forks and spoons. Fifteen skilled mechanics are 
employed in this shop. 

Hoggson & Pettis, or rather the firm which bears 
that name, commenced business with the making 
of stencils and stamps, but have enlarged it till it 
now has a wide scope. 

Mr. S. J. Hoggson had a small shop in Union 
street as long ago as 1849. ^^ '^^^ ^ stock com- 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



597 



pany was formed under the title of the Hoggson& 
Pettis j\Ianufacturiiig Company, and, in 18S3, their 
three-story factory on Court street fronting Artisan 
was erected. The business in which Mr. Hoggson 
first started is still pursued, but the Company have 
so added to its scope that they may be said to do 
all kinds of work in making dies for cutting, 
forming, trimming, and pressing sheet metal. 
Tlieir lieid includes also dies for cutting boots, 
shoes, cloth, leather, paper and rubber goods. The 
enameling of paper, a process secured by patents 
owned by the Company, is another branch of 
their work. In the manufacture of organ stops, 
knobs and stems, they are perhaps more e.xtensively 
engaged than any other firm in the world. The 
[manufacture of the Sweetland chuck has lately been 
•added. The officers are S. J. Hoggson, President; 
IGeorge C. Pettis, Treasurer; and W. J. Hoggson, 
I Secretary. 

G. D. Lambert, who has occupied his present 
[place of business since 1866, employs six men in 
making patterns and special machinery. 

In 1877, H. B. Ostrum, who had secured a 
[patent on a box-nailing machine, commenced the 
[manufacture of these machines, which are especially 
[adapted for the use of manufacturers of cigar 
land other light boxes. Mr. Osirum died in 1884, 
[since which time his son, Henry VV. , has carried 
Ion the business at 39 Artisan street. From forty to 
[fifty machines are made yearly. 

The machine-shop of Frank P. Pfleghar, 74 
[Crown street, was established in 1864 by the pres- 
ent proprietor and William Schoolhorn, in the 
Stafford building on State street. They remained 
together for four years, when Mr. Pfleghar com- 
menced business alone at 1 8 .\udubon street. Since 
I then he has moved to three different locations. Mr. 
I Pfleghar makes a specialty of special tools and light 
hardware, and does a general line of metal machin- 
[ ery work. He employs eighty-five mechanics. 

Wallace Porter manufactures Porter's improved 
planer chuck. 

Hobart K. Smith began the manufl^cture of shafts, 
pulleys and hangers in 187^1. His factory in Artisan 
street is well equipped widi the best inventions for 
his work. The split pulley, an invention of Mr. 
Smith's, is a .'•pecialty of this establishment. 

Henry G. Thompson & Son make book-stitching 
machinery, flexible-backed saws, and malleable iron 
tool handles. This firm removed to New Haven 
from iSIilford in 1884. iNIost of their work is done 
under patents obtained by members of the firm. 
They employ thirty to forty operatives. 

Nelson \V. Twiss is the proprietor of a patented 
steam engine, \\;hich he manufactures. 

Van Winkle & Schmidt make a specialty of print- 
ing presses. 

In 1882, H. B. Bigelow, M. F. Tyler, George 
D. ^lartin, and A. G. Hornstein, formed a com- 
pany, known as the Pipe-Bending Company, and 
continued operations one year, when it was re- 
organized as a stock comp.iny, with a capital of 
$20,000, known as the National Pipe-Bending 
Company. This is the only concern of the kind in 
New Haven. Its work is confined to bending iron, 



brass, and copper pipe, and the manufacture of the 
National feed-water heater. Eight mechanics are 
employed. The factory is located on River, near 
Lloyd street. The officers of the Company are 
Simeon J. Fox, President and Treasurer, and AI. F. 
Tyler, Secretary. 

The Wetmore ^Machine Company was established 
in 1868, under the firm name of .\. R. Paine & Co., 
and in 1875 changed its style to that given above. 
The specialty of the company was the manufacture 
of the American submerged pump. They made 
also a book-sewing machine, and did a general 
business in making machines and tools. The firm 
passed out of existence in 1883. 

The Yale Iron-works was a joint stock company, 
founded in 1868. The interest was purchased by 
William B. Pardee in 1874. A specialty was made 
of flour and grain mills of various sizes, adapted to 
a large range of demand. The firm of F. C. & A. 
E. Rowland have succeeded to the ownership of 
this establishment. 

The Man>field Elastic Frog Company was or- 
ganized in 1865. The workshops are on Congress 
avenue, divided into forging, blacksmithing, grind- 
ing, polishing and finishing departments, in which 
about fifty skillful and experienced mechanics are 
employed. The Company produce three distinct 
classes of goods, viz. : edge tools, railroad appli- 
ances, and steel and iron forgings. It has a capital 
of §125, OCX). The officers are Daniel S. Glenne}', 
President, and W. F. Norman, Secretary and 
^Manager. 

W. L. Sweetland began the manufacture of a 
patent chuck of his own invention in 18S0. It had 
a wide and favorable reputation among machinists. 
In 1883 the business was removed to Wallingford. 
About a year thereafter the factory was destroyed by 
fire. Mr. Sweetland, who had meanwhile formed 
a stock company, returned to New Haven, but the 
venture did not prove a success, and the Company 
failed in 1885. The chuck is now made by Hogg- 
son & Pettis. 

The New Haven Manufacturing Company was 
founded in 1850, and was incorporated two years 
later. It is therefore one of the oldest in its line of 
manufactures in New England. The line is ma- 
chinists' toi>ls, iron planers, engine lathes, drills, 
bolt and gear cutlers. Nearly $300,000 worth of 
goods are made annually. The factory is on Whitney 
avenue, near the junction of Church and Temple 
streets, the oflice being at No. 8o on the west side. 
The establishment employs one hundred men, the 
machinery being driven by an engine of 6o-horse 
power. INIost of the machinery is made under pat- 
ents owned by the ('ompany. Their trade extends 
over nearly every portion of the world. The officers 
are B. A. Brown, President; L. Moulthrop, Secre- 
tary; Alexander Thayer, Superintendent. 

VI. SAFES AND VAULTS. 

Messrs. S. C. Johnson & Co. commenced 
operation in the manufacture of iron-work for 
buildings, bridges, etc., in 1S71, and continued the 
business till 18S1, when the Yale Manufacturing 



598 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



Company was incorporated and succeeded the old 
firm. The phint was divided into five general de- 
partments, viz.: the foundry, the forging, the 
blacksmithing, the bridge and general iron-work- 
ing, and the safe department. In the latter, safes, 
vaults and vault doors were produced. They were 
the only house in that branch in Connecticut, 
though Thompson & Co. are large dealers in the 
same class of goods, which they manufacture else- 
where. At present the Yale Company has sus- 
pended operations. 

The firm of Thompson & Co. was founded 
in 1855. They occupy for offices, sales-room and 
finishing apartments, a building on the corner of 
State and Wooster streets. Their safes are made 
under patents owned by them. The individual 
members are D. VV. Thompson and E. E. Cone, 
the former of whom has been a resident of New 
Haven for the past forty years. 

VII. ARCHITECTURAL IRON-WORK. 

Within a few years the demand for iron-work in 
buildings has greatly increased. The foundries 
furnish trusses and joints of cast-iron, and a new 
department of smithing has been organized for the 
manufacture of railings, balconies, fire-escapes and 
stairways. 

A. A. Ball & Son make all kinds of iron-work 
for public buildings, prisons, etc. 

Their business was founded, in 1847, by Charles 
Ball, a brother of the present senior member of the 
firm. In i860, A. A. Ball became a partner with 
his brother. This arrangement continued till the 
death of Charles Ball in 1864, when the works came 
under the management of Blakeman & Latham, 
who were succeeded by Ball, Johnson & Co. 
Later, D. B. Calhoun & Co., and still later, Bar- 
num & Root were proprietors. In 1878, A. A. 
Ball became sole owner, having been either 
manager or part owner since i860. At the same 
time the establishment, which had already changed 
([uarters several times, was once more removed, to 
find a permanent place at 16 Audubon street. The 
factory consists of a brick building, 45 by 90 feet 
in dimensions, which is divided into the blacksmith 
and railing shops. It is equipped with an engine 
of 5-horse power, and machinery of the most im- 
proved patterns. The products comprise iron 
columns, crestings, grates, doors, stairs, shutters, 
balconies, fire-proof vaults, girders, illuminated 
tiles, all kinds of iron-work for prisons and public 
buildings, bridge and truss bolts, as well as all 
kinds of iron fences and railings. About fourteen 
men are employed. In 1882, Augustus A. Ball, 
Jr., became a partner in the concern, under the 
present firm name. Charles Ball was one of the 
pioneers in this line of business. 

VIII. CUTLERY. 

W. Rawson & Sons are manufacturers of fine 
pocket cutlery at 357 Whalley avenue. James 
Rawson, the founder of the establishment, was 
born in Sliefiield, England, in the year 181 7. He 
came to this country in 1843, and, returning to 



England in 1844, brought over his father and three 
brothers. With them he established a manufac- 
tory of pocket cutlery in Biiniingham, Conn., in 
1846. In 1853 he removed to New Haven, where 
the business has been since then carried on. He 
was quick, intelligent, and persevering. By means 
of these qualities he eventually overcame the great 
preiudice against American cutlery, and gained a 
high reputation for his goods. He died December 
I, 1883, since which time the business has been 
carried on by J. F. Rawson. 

William Schoolhorn & Co. manufacture scissors, 
shears and other cutlery, as well as tools and hard- 
ware, at the corner of State and Wall street, in the 
Henry Hooker building. Frank W. Tiesing was 
a member of the firm from 1880 till his death in 
1883. It was continued in the same firm name 
till 1884, when Mrs. Tiesing sold her in-terest to 
Julius Berbecker. Over seventy men are emplo3'ed. 
Mr. Schoolhorn came from New York to Whitney- 
ville in 1858, where he was employed by the Whit- 
ney Arms Company until 1863, when he established 
this business. The cutlery made is stamped with 
a star as their trade mark. 

Besides the manufactories mentioned, there are 
two custom shops for miscellaneous cutlery. August 
A. Halfinger, 123 Union street, has been long 
established. Ernest Voos has recently commenced 
the business in Court street. 

The Mansfield Elastic Frog Company, 356 Con- 
gress avenue, make some heav)' edge-tools, such as 
axes, drawing-knives and chisels. 

IX. FILES. 

The Bee-hive File Works, at 191 Olive street, is 
the oldest file and rasp manufactory in the Slate, 
having been established by Benjamin Bromhead in 
1831. Henry Chambers, the present proprietor, 
worked for Mr. Bromhead for many years, and pur- 
chased the business in 1864. Ten persons are em- 
ployed. The files are all hand-made. 

William Jepson is the proprietor of the Elm City 
File Works on State street. 

Matthew Flannagan is the proprietor of the 
Champion File Works. He began at 352 State 
street in 1864, and removed to his present place, 
181 Brewery street, in 1866. He manufactures 
files of every description, but makes a specialty of 
certain kinds used in carriage-making. Eight 
men are employed. 

X. STAPLES, BOLTS, NUTS, SCREWS AND NAILS. 

Reynolds & Co. make a specialty of manufactur- 
ing screws, bolts, nuts and washers. It is a joint 
stock organization with a capital of $28,000, and 
was formed in 1867. The factory is on East street, 
and employs about twenty-five persons. The officers 
of the Company are Henry Reynolds, President; W. 
H. Reynolds, Secretary; James English, Treasurer. 

HENRY REYNOLDS, 

long conspicuous as a manufacturer and business 
man of New Haven, is a son of Stephen and Sybil 




^:^;^''^^^^^/^^.?-^^ 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



599 



(Vinton) Reynolds, and was born in Southbridge, 
Mass., March i6, 1824. His father was a black- 

^ smith, and, later, a manufacturer of scythes, 
j hoes, and other such articles in demand among 
the people with whom he lived. He was an honest 
man and a reputable citizen. 

But he was not wealthy, and Mr. Reynolds began 
his active life without capital or influential backing, 
equipped with such a rudimentary education as he 
was able to gain in the common schools of South- 
bridge and Wilbraham, to which place his fiither 
moved when he was nine years old. His natural 
bent was for mechanics, and he early set about ac- 
quiring a practical knowledge of mechanical en- 
gineering, finishing his apprenticeship with Otis 
Tuflts, a once celebrated mechanical engineer, of 
Boston. 

Later, Mr. Reynolds was employed by Mr. 
Tuffts continuously, in one responsible position 
after another, till 1848. In February of that year 
he removed to Springfield, Mass., and connected 
himself with the American Machine Works, of 
which he was part proprietor and superintendent 
until 1 86 1. Under his supervision were built all 
the engines ever constructed by the Company, 
including a large engine in the water-works of the 
City of Columbia, S. C. , and another in the 
United States Branch Mint at New Orleans, La., 
Mr. Reynolds personally overseeing the erection of 
both these and many others. 

The business of the American Machine Com- 
pany was largely in the South, and at the outbreak 
of the Civil War, in common with many others, it 
was so seriously crippled that a change of base was 
deemed expedient,and the manufacture of fire-arms 
was begun. 

In 1 86 1, Mr. Reynolds disposed of his interest 
in the American Machine Company and removed 
to New Haven, and became interested in the Plants 
Manufacturing Companv (a joint stock concern), 
and engaged in the manufacture for the Govern- 
ment ol pistols and gun parts, making a specialty 
of the Reynolds, Plants i<c Hotchki^s revolver, of 
which two sizes were made. This business was 
continued till December 8, 1866, when the factory 
was burned. At that time the Company were 
turning out an average of sixty revolvers per day. 

In May, 1867, the present business of Mr. Rey- 
nolds was established by Reynolds & Bigelow 
(Henry Reynolds and H. B. Bigelow), and it was 
soon sold to Reynolds & Company, a stock com- 
pany, of which the following named gentlemen are 
the executive oflicers: Henry Reynolds, President 
and Manager; William H. Reynolds, Secretary; 
James English, Treasurer; and George F. Rey- 
nolds, Superintendent. The business was started 
with the design of manufacturing screws which 
should be standards of excellence, and the success 
of Jlr. Reynolds and his associates in carrying out 
their intentions is attested by the popularity which 
their goods have att lined, and the steady increase 
in their business, which has obliged them to make 
frequent large additions to their facilities. Started 
with one screw-machine, many are now in use, and 
the factory gives employment to 150 skilled men. 



The premises comprise several brick buildings, 
having an aggregate floor surface of about forty 
thousand square feet. The factory is equipped 
with the latest improved machinery and tools, oper- 
ated by a 75-horse power engine. The product 
of these works comprises all kintls of set, cap and 
machine screws, machine bolts, bridge and roof 
bolts, coach screws, nuts and washers. The Com- 
pany also manufacture moliling machines for metal 
castings in three different sizes, known respectively 
as the Fames, ReynoKIs, and Hammer machines. 
Though on the market only about fourteen years, 
there are over five thousand of them in use to-day 
in difi"erent parts of the country. 

The great success of the enterprise above men- 
tioned is attributable no less to the practical me- 
chanical skill of Mr. Reynolds, than to the able 
business management of himself and associates. 
It is true of him (and of many manufacturers it 
cannot be said), that he is personally able to do 
quickly and .'skillfully any work required of any 
mechanic in his employ, for he learnei,! his trade 
when men acquired the whole and diil not con- 
tent themselves with learning portions of it. It is 
a distinction which he enjoys, that he was the first 
in the United States to make steel and iron set and 
cap screws for the trade; and the first piano agrafle 
screws in America were made by him. 

Mr. Reynolds was married to Martha A. Shearer, 
of Colerain, Mass., June 10, 1847. She died 
March 26, 1850. Some time later, Mr. Reynolds 
married Nancy H. Wheeler, of Springfield, Mass. 
He has two sons, William Henry, born in 1S53, 
and George Francis, born in 1856. 

Politically he is a Democrat, and has been one 
from his youth. While adhering firmly to the prin- 
ciples of that party in all questions of national im- 
port, he is liberal in his views, and in municipal 
offices is in favor of the election of the man who 
bids fair to be the best official. 

He has been for many years a member of St. 
Thomas' Episcopal Church, upon the services of 
which he and his family are attendants. 

He has long been prominent as a Mason, being 
a member of Hiram Lodge, No. i; Franklin Chap- 
ter, No. 2; Harmony Council, No. 8; and New 
Haven Commandery, No. 2; also E. G. Storer 
Lodge of Perfection; Elm City Council Princes of 
Jerusalem; New Haven Chapter Rose Croix H-R- 
D-M; Lafayette Consistory, S. ■ . P. • . R. • . S. • . 32°. 

Since taking up his residence in New Haven he 
has never consented to accept any position of pub- 
lic trust, but while living in Springfield he served 
his fellow-citizens as Alderman and Councilman, 
and in other capacities. 

He is public-spirited, and has always done his 
full share in the upbuilJing of the best interests of 
the community — charitable, educational and relig- 
ious. He is a conspicuous example of New Haven's 
self-made men. 

The Grilley Company, 76 Court street, manu- 
facture round and flat head brass and silver patent 
capped gimlet screws, and nickel-plated screws. 

The New Haven Staple Works were established 



600 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



in 1 87 1 by Messrs. S. S. Bushnell & Co. The 
product is patent wrought-iron staples, drawn 
from a continuous length of Welsh iron. Messrs. 
Bushnell k Co. continued the business as a firm 
until 1878, when S. S. Bushnell became sole pro- 
prietor. 

The New Haven Horse-nail Company was or- 
ganized in 1 88 1, with Hon. H. B. Bigelow as 
President, and C. S. Mersick as Secretary and 
Treasurer. New buildings have been erected at 
Grape-vine Point, fitted with all necessary machinery. 
The specialty of the Company is the forging of nails 
from Norway iron. The capital is $20,000. 

About twenty-five years ago, Timothy Kennedy 
began the manufacture of bolts at Mount Carmel, 
and continued the business in a limited way until 
1880, when the Mount Carmel Bolt Company was 
organized and purchased the concern. They en- 
larged the buildings and added the latest improved 
machinery and appliances for the manufacture of 
small bolts, rivets, screws, and nuts. Tile and 
stove bolts form an important part of their work. 
They are largely used by most of the stove manu- 
facturers of the country. Nuts are made by ma- 
chinery owned by the Company, and invented by 
Edward P. McLane, the Master Mechanic of the 
works. Their trade extends all over the United 
States and abroad. No concern in this country 
engaged in the same line, e,xcels the Mount Carmel 
Bolt Company in the quantity of their manufactured 
goods. The factory comprises a compact brick 
building, covering half an acre of ground. The 
automatic machinery employed is driven by steam 
power, and work is furnished to thirty operatives. 
The capital stock is $40,000. The executive officers 
are James Ives, President, a gentleman largely in- 
terested in various enterprises at Mount Carmel; 
Samuel J. Hayes, Treasurer; and Lyman H. Bas- 
sett, Secretary. 

XI. WIRE AND WIRE-WORK. 

E. S. Wheeler & Co., who do an extensive ship- 
ping and importing business in iron and other 
metals.and are largely interested in the New Haven 
RolHng Mill Company, are also stockholders in 
the New Haven Wire Company, whose extensive 
works, on the east side of the Quinnipiac River, 
have been in operation under their present owner- 
ship about five years. They employ about four 
hundred men, and the value of their turn-out is over 
$1,000,000 per annum. The Company is specially 
chartered by the State Legislature, and is conse- 
quently enabled to do business in foreign countries 
to better advantage than if organized under a general 
law. They make iron and steel wire of all qualities; 
but largely a high grade for use in manufacturing 
throughout New England. The material used at 
present is chiefly of foreign importation, and the 
duties paid by these works into the New Haven 
Custom House form a large share of the entire re- 
ceipts of the port of New Haven. The officers are 
P:. S. Wheeler, President; S. A. Galpin, Secretary; 
B. E. Brown, Treasurer; and Thomas A. Nevins, 
Superintendent. 



The Union Form Company, 129 to 131 Park 
street, takes its name from those adjustable figures 
of wire on which costumes are displayed. But they 
manufacture not only Knapp's adjustable figures 
and display forms, but a great variety of wire goods, 
such as office and counter railings, window-guards, 
riddles, screens, and fenders. It was organized in 
1883 by Charles L. and William H. Knapp. In 
March, 1885, the Company purchased the Ijusiness 
of the Connecticut Wire-works, organized in 1872 
by Samuel Parker & Co. By the union of these 
companies the scope of the business has been much 
enlarged. 

Japan and Varnish Manufacturers. 

The New Haven Japan and Varnish Company 
was organized January 20, 1881, the corporate 
members being John S. Fleury, Henry C. Shelton, 
and Carlos Smith. The Company soon after its 
organization built very finely equipped works on 
Kimberly avenue, on the banks of West River. The 
business has constantly increased. They manufac- 
ture fine varnishes, baking japans and lacquers, and 
have an extensive trade throughout the country. 
The officers are Carlos Smith, President; and John 
S. Fleury, Secretary, Treasurer, and Superintend- 
ent. 

The varnish factory of Booth & Law was founded, 
in 1825, by Booth & Bromham for the purpose 
of prosecuting the drug and paint trade and varnish 
manufacturing. The firm was afterwards changed 
to N. Booth & Sons, and, in 1858, to Booth & Law, 
which now consists of Lyman M. Law, Walter B. 
Law, and George F. Andrews. They represent one 
of the oldest varnish manufacturing concerns in the 
country. Their factory is at the corner of Water 
and Olive streets, and besides the manufacture of 
varnish, they do an extensive trade in oils, glass 
and paints. 

Le.^ther-workers. 

The business of tanning and currying hides to 
leather, and the manufacture of boots and shoes, 
were formerly important industries in New Haven, 
but from various causes have now almost entirely 
ceased to exist. An old map of New Haven, pub- 
lished in 1748, giving the residence and occupa- 
tion of the inhabitants of the town at that time, 
shows two tanners on George street above Church. 
They were David Gilbert and David Gilbert, Jr. 
The same map shows " Jo Todd" as a shoemaker 
at the corner of State and Chapel streets, and 
"Jo Mills " also on State street, about half-way 
from Chapel to George streets. The favorite, be- 
cause the most advantageous, location for tanners 
in the earlier days, was in the vicinity of Lower 
George street. Congress avenue, and Factory street. 
The latter street was, until recent years, known as 
Morocco lane, and that section of George street 
boasted of a local sobriquet of "Leather lane," the 
whole section being known as " The Swamp." It 
was favorable for tanning, from the fact that a 
brook, or creek, affected by the tide, extended 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



601 



from the harbor as far up as York street. The 
growth of the city caused this creek to be gradu- 
ally filled up, so that now there are no traces 
of it. Along this brook, or creek, were clustered, 
with but one exception, the tanning and currying 
estiiblishments of the city. We have already 
noticed that as early as 1748 the two Gilberts, 
father and son, were located on George street. 

In the early years of the present century, Elijah 
Davis had a tannery at the corner of Broad and 
Oak streets. The vats were taken up and filled 
about forty years ago. Mr. Davis lived on the 
corner of (jeorge and College streets, and had his 
currying shop and office where Mrs. A. Arvine 
now lives, at 8 College street. 

Isaac (jilbcrt & Sons, Elias and Levi, were lo- 
cated on George street, wliere, besides tanning and 
currying, they kept a general store for the sale of 
leather. Their bark-mill, the firm grinding its own 
bark, was at this place. Upon the death of the 
father and son Elias, Levi still continued the busi- 
ness, having associated with him at one time Syl- 
vester Smith, now President of the new Haven 
Baking Company. 

John Dwight, known familiarly as "Johnny 
Dwight," had a morocco tannery between State 
and Union streets, and between Chapel and Court 
streets, near what is now the Northampton Rail- 
road track, it being then the bed of a creek, from 
wlience he took water necessary for the work. Ad- 
joining Mr. Dwight's tannery on the south was a 
similar institution belonging to David Spencer. 

Elijah Gilbert, a brother of Isaac, was at this 
time located on a small lane leading from the 
south side of George street, just west of Factory 
street. He was a " morocco man " in tlistinction 
from the tanners of hides. 

Fitch & Gore were located, in 1817, on Congress 
avenue, near the corner of Commerce street. They 
failed about that time, and Thomas Ensign, who 
was then at work ibr them, formed a partnership 
with Jeremiah Barnett, under the firm name of 
Barnett \- luisign. 

Samuel Mason cfc .Son assumed the old stand of 
Fitch ifc Gore, and conducted the business for some 
years, until the death of Mr. Mason, Sr. 

Barnett it Ensign, in 18 18, began business in 
what is now Factory street, where they remained 
several years, when a small brick tannery was built 
on George street where Barnett's factory now is. 
This factory was burned in 1856, when the present 
building was put up. Barnett & Ensign dissolved 
partnership in 1839, and each began business for 
himself, ^Ir. Barnett remaining at the old stand, 
and Mr. F.nsign building a factory at the corner of 
F'actory and Commerce streets, still used as the 
warehouse of Thomas \V. Ensign. The office used 
by Mr. F.nsign on George street was opened in 1855. 
Tliomas Horsfall was associated with Thomas 
luisign for a number of years, after which Mr. 
F'.nsign's son, Thomas W., became a member of 
the firm. In recent years, however, this house have 
. finished no skins, simply buying and selling hides. 

Jeremiah Barnett continued at his old stand on 
George street, and his son, the present proprietor, 

76 



became associated with him in 1845. Mr. Barnett 
still continues to buy and sell hides, but dots no 
finishing. Harris Flames began on George street, 
and upon the death of Mr. Eames, in 1883, Messrs. 
Coe tt Brown assumed the business, and are now 
the only curriers in the city. The product of these 
tanneries of the earlier years was disposed of largely 
to manufacturers of boots and shoes in the sur- 
rounding towns. iMatthew Brockctt, of North 
Haven, recently deceased, made weekly trips to 
this city, returning with an ox-cart load of leather 
for the manufacturers in that section of the county. 

Major B. (irannis was one of the earlier manu- 
facturers of boots and shoes, and was succeeded by 
his sons Charles and George, the factory being on 
George street, near State. The Grannises,who were 
then among the largest manufacturers of shoes in 
the county, afterward removed to New York. 

(George K. Whiting and Albert S. Mi.\ began 
manufacturing shoes in a building where the Con- 
necticut Savings Bank now stands. on Church street, 
in 1838, under the firm name of Whiting & Mi.\. 
The firm remained at the above place for six- 
teen years, having opened a store at Macon, Ga. , 
for which they manufactured goods. In 1854 the 
firm dissolved, and I\Ir. Whiting conducted the 
business in the Exchange Building on Chapel 
street, and from thence went to Broadway, where 
he manufactured shoes for six years. 

Silas I. Baldwin conducted the business for many 
years at the corner of Crown and College streets, the 
place afterwards occupied by his residence. Bristol 
ct Hall carried on the shoe business for a number of 
years where Fenn's shoe store on Chapel street now 
is. F'. Chidsey; Charles and George Bradley, known 
by the firm name of Bradley Brothers; Samuel 
Crane; James Punderford; F'.lizur Gorham, and in 
more recent years, Morris Tyler, were among the 
prominent shoe manufacturers of the olden time. 
The business was then a large interest in New 
Haven, but now in comparison with what it once 
was, is nearly extinct. 

J. L. jovce & Co., and Charles E. Hull, now 
manufacture some kinds of shoes on State street; 
who, outside of the Candee Rubber Company, 
mentioned in another place, are the only firm 
left to continue this once large interest. 

J. B. Baldwin continues the sale of leather and 
findings to the trade, and Messrs. Butler A Tyler 
are the only remaining wholesale dealers in boots 
and shoes. 

Harness. 

On page 83 of this volume there appears a plan 
of Chapel street, from Church to State streets, in 
1786, showing the residences and places of business 
in what is now the center of retail trade. Near the 
site of what is now known as the Old Register Build- 
ing, G. Read had a residence and saddlery. Saddles 
at that time were a more important item among the 
productions of a leather-worker than harnesses. 
From Mr. Read, Charles Bostwick, the first of sev- 
eral generations of saddlers and harness-makers — 
a representative of the family still continuing in the 






602 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



business— learned his trade towards the close of the 
last century. 

Mr. Bostwick began business for himself in "a 
shop opposite the Church in New Haven." His 
advertisement is in the Connecticut Jounial of 
November 6, 1794. He soon removed to a 
small building near where Wallace Fenn's shoe 
store now is, on the south side of Chapel street. 
Afterwards Charles Eostwick had associated with 
him, his son Charles, who conducted alone the 
business from 1823. The great fire of 1837 having 
destroyed the shop, the saddlery was removed to 
the north side of the street, and occupied the 
same place where the first Charles Bostwick learned 
the trade. Later, John, a son of the second 
Charles Bostwick, pursued the business until 1870. 
Leonard Bostwick, at the present time the largest 
harness-maker in the city, a cousin of John Bostwick, 
began busine.ss in 1879 on the corner of Crown and 
Orange streets, where he still continues. At the 
Bostwick house many of the saddlers and harness 
manufacturers of the past two generations learned 
their trade. 

Sackett Gilbert c& Co. were extensive manufac- 
turers of riding saddles half a century ago, their 
place of business being on Crown street just above 
High street. Atvvater & Bassett were manufact- 
urers at one time on State street, corner of 
Wall, and did an extensive business. D. A. Ben- 
jamin, for years foreman for Sackett Gilbert & 
Co. , was afterwards in business for himself. Thomas 
Cumming manufactured harness on Park street, and 
Camming Brothers, in the Exchange Building, 
were well known men in the trade. 

Owen Morris, now on Brewery street, is one of the 
oldest in the trade. At the present time there are 
thirty manufacturers of harness in the city, many of 
them employing but one hand at most. Those 
employing more than one are Theodore Blackman, 
430 State street; George L Cummings, 98 Orange 
street; Frank H. Cummings, 62 Orange street. 
Henry Smith makes a specialty of collars at 183 
Brewery and John Brown at 75 George street. 

In former times trunk-making was a branch of 
the harness and saddlery business, and a catalogue 
of the trunk-makers of fifty years ago would only re- 
peat the names of the harness-makers. Most of 
the trunks of to-day are manufactured in large 
shops for the wholesale trade. 

Crofut & Co., 719 Chapel street, have in their 
employ the only trunk-maker in the State, and the 
firm manufacture some special orders. 

The increase in the use of machinery has occa- 
sioned the establishment of a new branch of the 
leather business, large quantities of belting being 
required. Messrs. H. Fames & Co. give special 
attention to the manufacture of belting. 

Much leather is at the present time used in 
carriage trimming, as will be apparent in the report 
of the business of carriage-making. 

J. L. Joyce & Co. commenced the manufacture 
of boots and shoes in 1857, on Church street. In 
1 86 1 the business was removed to 265 State street, 
where it was ctmducted for twenty-four years. The 
firm recently removed to the fourth floor of the 



Quinnipiac Building on State street. Until the last 
two years a general line of men's, women's, and 
children's machine boots and shoes were made, but 
within the period stated the business has been en- 
tirely devoted to a fine grade of men's hand-sewed 
boots. About sevent3--five men and women are 
employed. The individual members of the firm are 
J. L. Joyce and Charles E. Hall, the former of 
whom is the founder of the firm. Mr. Hall has been 
connected with the firm as partner for the last 
fourteen years, and previously as book-keeper. 

Lock Makers. 

The manufacture of locks in the United States is 
conducted principally by companies in New Eng- 
land, and is an industry which has been developed 
within the last fifty years. The lock works of the 
Mallory- Wheeler Company of this city, one of the 
best known and largest in the world, was founded in 
1834 by Asahel Pierpont and John G. Hotchkiss, 
who began the manufacture of locks and door- 
knobs on the corner of Greene and Chestnut streets, 
under the firm name of Pierpont & Hotchkiss. 
They may justly be regarded as the pioneers of the 
industry in this country. At this time American 
locks of any kind were hardly recognized as an 
article of hardware trade. The American market, 
with the exception of the most common hand-made 
goods, was dependent on foreign production. 

In 1840, Burton Mallory, whose name grew to 
be so prominently identified with lock manufactur- 
ing in America, became connected with the firm of 
Pierpont & Hotchkiss as book-keeper, at which 
date only twenty-five men were employed, nor 
could it be said the products of the house extended 
beyond the local market. 

Mr. Hotchkiss, who was the patentee of the 
mineral door-knob, now so generally and exten- 
sively used, died in 1843, when Mr. Mallory be- 
came a partner in the business, under the firm name 
of Pierpont, Mallory & Co. From this period be- 
gan the rapid growth of the business, which eventu- 
ally was not only without important American 
competition, but successfully competed with the 
large lock manufacturing establishments of Europe. 
In 1845, the shop on the corner of Greene and 
Chestnut streets was partially destroyed by fire, but 
such was the enterprise displayed by the firm that 
in four or five days manufacturing was resumed. 
Shortly after the fire the business had grown to such 
dimensions that removal to larger quarters was made 
necessary. At this time the firm bought a part of 
the property at the foot of Greene street, where the 
firm's works are now located. That part of the 
city was then known as the "Old Liberia, " a name 
applied to a collection of shanties occupied by 
colored people. To this site one of their buildmgs 
at the old place, which had escaped the flames, was 
removed, and it is still used, being the large and 
sightly frame building formerly occupied for pack- 
ing purposes. Other brick buildings were also 
erected, which are now known as the "old part." 
The firm soon after purchased considerable adjoin- 
I ing property, upon which buildings were erected as 




^^nvHLvCKw/i>-.,N-Y 



j^s^/h^^M^/i^^^ 



» y 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



603 



fast as needed to meet the demand of their fast- 
growing business. For a number of years preced- 
ing 1852, most of the goods of the firm of Pierpont 
& Alallory were sold by the firm of Davenport & 
Quincy, of New York. At the date mentioned Mr. 
Pierpont retired from business, his interest being 
purchased by Mr. Mallory and John A. Davenport, 
the latter of the New York firm of Davenport & 
Quincy, and for some time the business was con- 
ducted under the firm name of Davenport & Mal- 
lory. In the few succeeding years the firm was 
successively Davenport, Mallory & Lockwood, 
Davenport & Mallory, and Davenport, Mallory & 
Co. The firm remained the same until 1868, after 
the death of .Mr. Davenport. Preceding the death 
of Mr. Davenport, there had been a large purchase 
of land on the west side of the railroad track. A 
foundry was erected adjoining the railroad, and a 
large shop for the manufacture of padlocks on East 
street. Up to this period the manufacture of door- 
knobs ancl locks had constituted the principal part 
of the work. The addition of the padlock depart- 
ment was a new feature, which soon developed into 
an important part of their manufactures, and has 
since grown to immense proportions. After the 
death of ^Ir. Davenport the firm became Mallory, 
Wlieelerifc Co. , composed of Burton Mallory, John 
D. Wheeler, a grandson of Mr. Davenport, and 
Frederick B. ^Mallory, eldest son of Burton Mallory. 
In 1878, Burton Mallory died. For over a quarter 
of a century he had been the controlling spirit of 
the concern, and his name will ever be closely 
associated with the development of this important 
branch of American manufactures. Under his 
management he had seen the business grow from a 
small beginning, with limited resources, until it be- 
came known and respected all over the world for 
the excellence of its products and as the greatest 
lock factory in America. In 1871, he was the 
originator of the most remarkable catalogue ever 
issued as the advertising circular of a manufacturing 
house, a marvel of typography and engraving, cost- 
ing $60,000 for an edition of 2,000 copies. Mr. 
Mallory was born in Westville in 18 16, and, pre- 
ceding his connection with Pierpont & Hotchkiss, 
was a clerk in the New Haven Post Oflice. At the 
Paris Exposition of 187S, this firm was one of the 
most prominent exhibitors. Upward of five hun- 
dred different samples were exhibited — over four 
hundred locks and about fifty different styles of 
padlocks. This exhibit elicited much commenda- 
tion from foreign manufacturers, as marvels of 
mechanical skill, accuracy of work, and internal 
mechanism. After a careful examination by the 
judges they were awarded a gold medal. At sev- 
eral other exhibitions awards have been received. 
At the Centennial, 1876, Philadelphia, their award 
was given for the following reasons: ' ' Commended 
as very superior goods, fine in finish and tasteful 
in design." After the death of Mr. IMallory, his son, 
Frederick B., assumed his father's position as the 
head of the business, the title of the firm remaining 
the same. In 1884 the firm was reorganized as a 
stock company, and is now known as The Mallory- 
Wheeler Company. The present officers are 



Frederick B. Mallory, President and Treasurer; 
Rukard B. INIallory, Yice-President; W. H. An- 
drews, Assistant-Treasurer; and Frederic G.Cooper, 
Secretary. The plant of this Company has from 
year to year been extended, in buildings and terri- 
tory, and now occupies a large tract of land, de- 
sirably located, and well supplied with substantial 
brick buildings, fully equipped with machinery and 
every possible facility for the manufacture of their 
varied line of goods. Employment is furnished to 
about five hundred workmen. The extent of this 
business makes it an important factor in New Ha- 
ven's prosperity, while the wide reputation of the 
works is a matter of just local pride. 

JOHN ALFRED DAVENPORT, 

although he had been at the time of his death res- 
ident in New Haven only a few years, is entitled to 
mention as being a descendant in the fifth degree 
from the Rev. John Davenport, the first pastor of 
the Centre Church. 

He was the son of the Hon. John Davenport, of 
Stamford, and a grandson of the Hon. Abraham 
Davenport, who has distinguished mention in the 
records of the Colony of Connecticut in connection 
with the celebrated Dark Day. 

Mr. Davenport was born on the 21st of January, 
1783. After graduating from Yale College, in the 
Class of 1802, he removed to New York, where he 
entered into commercial pursuits in which he con- 
tinued with varying success during his life. 

Having in the course of business become in- 
terested in the manufacturing concern in New 
Haven now known as the Mallory-Wheeler Com- 
pany, he removed here in 1852, where he resided 
until his death in 1864. 

Mr. Davenport was active in all religious enter- 
prises, and every good cause enlisted his interest 
and aid. He was a large contributor to the Church 
of Christ on Church street, of which the Rev. 
Doctor Cleaveland was pastor until his death. 

He was a patriot as well as a philanthropist, and 
his entire sympathy was given to the cause of liberty 
in the late Civil War. 

His mansion on Hillhouse avenue is still occupied 
by his daughter. 

Four of his children still survive him, and his 
two sons are both clerg)men. 

The Barnes Manufacturing Company, 76 Court 
street, manufacture a fine assortment of door and 
drawer locks. Most of their goods are sold through 
the agency of Size, Gibson & Co., 100 Chambers 
street. New York. John H. Barnes is President of 
the Company. 

Mason-Builders. 

Among the mason-builders of New Haven in the 
fore part of the present century who carried on the 
business extensively, were William Thompson, J. 
Horace Butlcr,and Isaac Thomson. Horace Butler 
built the Tontine Hotel. Isaac Thomson built the 
State House, Yale College Library, and numerous 



604 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



other public and private buildings. The firm of 
Peck & Winship, composed of John Peck and 
James Winship, which at alater date was prominent, 
built the College Street Church, and for many years 
did a great part of the mason work of the city. 

The firm of Smith & Sperry, mason-builders, was 
formed in 1846, and is probably the oldest firm in 
their line of work in the city. Some of the more 
important buildings erected by them are the Second 
Congregational Church, Fair Haven; Centre Church 
Chapel, Farnam College, Insurance Building, the 
White Building, including the Temple of Music; 
Durfee College, Kensington Building, Garfield 
Building, Sloan Observatory, and St. Paul's 
Church. The individual members of the firm are 
Willis M. Smith and N. D. Sperry. 

HON. STEPHEN P. PERKINS. 

This old and well-known builder and business 
man was born in Woodbridge, Conn., October 10, 
1807, in an old mansion in which his grandfather 
began housekeeping and his father was born, long 
one of the landmarks connecting the old Wood- 
bridge with the Woodbridge of a comparatively re- 
cent period. His boyhood was passed on the farm, 
and his education was gained in such common 
schools as were accessible to him. At the age 01 
seventeen he was apprenticed to Horace Butler, 
then and formerly a leading builder of New Haven, 
to learn the builder's trade. Mr. Butler removed 
to New York, and young Perkins accompanied him 
thither, and completed under his instruction the 
acquisition of his trade. 

Having finished his apprenticeship, he worked 
as a journeyman until he was twenty-five years old. 
He then embarked in business as a builder on his 
own account, in partnership widi Mr. John Peck. 
They prospered and became well and favorably 
known. In 1841, Mr. Peck withdrew from the 
enterprise, and Mr. Perkins continued it alone until 
1843, when he received ]Mr. Harpin Lum as a 
partner. The firm of Perkins & Lum was dissolved 
in 1845. In 1852, the firm of Perkins & Chatfield 
was organized, consisting of Mr. Perkins and Mr. 
Philo Chatfield. That the firm met with a liberal 
patronage is evidenced by the long list of promi- 
nent buildings mentioned below that were erected 
by them. In 1 87 1, the firm was changed to Perkins, 
Chatfield & Co., Mr. George M. Grant being ad- 
mitted to partnership. The successes of the old firm 
were continued, and many large and important 
buildings, notable objects in New Haven, were 
erected. In 1875, Mr. Perkins retired, and the 
firm of Chatfield & Grant continued the business 
until the retirement of Mr. Chatfield in 1886, since 
which time it has been conducted solely by Mr. 
Grant. 

The genUemen composing these successive firms 
have always been popular builders in New Haven, 
and in many ways iiave been prominently con- 
nected with the business and growth of the city. 
Much credit is to be ascribed to Mr. Perkins, as 
the founder and long senior member of the firms, 
for the success which they won. 



The following is a list of the most important 
buildings erected by Perkins & Chatfield; Sheffield's 
bank building on Chapel street; Sheffield's block 
of stores on State street; County Jail; City Hall; 
Sheffield's block on Elm street; Mr. Sheffield's 
residence on Hillhouse avenue; Medical College; 
Eaton School-house on Jefferson street; Alumni 
Hall, corner of Elm and High streets, for Yale 
College; Art building for Yale College; Yale Na- 
tional Bank, corner of Chapel and State streets; 
Trinity Church House on George street; East Di- 
vinity Hall, corner of College and Elm streets; G. F. 
Warner's residence, now Republican League Club 
Rooms; Mayor Robertson's residence on Temple 
street; Massena Clark's residence on Whitney av- 
enue; R. M. Everit's residence on Whitney avenue: 
Governor O. F. Winchester's residence on Prospect 
street; Mr. J. M. Davies' residence on Prospect 
street; Dawson ct Douglass' store on State street: 
D. S. Glenney's store on State street; Buildings for 
L. Candee &l Co., before fire; Yale College Societ\- 
Building for Skull and Bones on High street; Yak- 
College Society Building for Scroll and Ke)', corner 
College and Wall streets; and many other promi- 
nent buildings. 

Among those erected by Perkins, Chatfield \- 
Co., may be mentioned; Maj'or William Fitch's 
residence on Church street; County Court House: 
North Sheffield Hall for Yale College: Police build- 
ing on Court street; Second National Bank, corner 
Union and Chapel streets; Governor Fhiglish s 
building, corner Church and George streets; Mayor 11 
H. M. Welch's residence on Chapel street; D. Cady 
Eaton's residence on Prospect street; West Divinity 
Hall on Elm street, for Yale College; Marquand 
Chapel on Elm street, for Yale College; Divinity 
Library Building for Yale College; Register Build- 
ing on Chapel street; Hotel Converse on State street; 
Collins block on Chapel street; Trinity Church 
Rectory and Lecture-room, on Temple street; the 
steeple of Trinity Church; the Hospital; a portion 
of the Sargent factory; and many other buildings. 

During his lc)ng life, except during a period of 
thirteen years, when he was a resident of New 
Haven, Mr. Perkins has lived on the old family 
homestead at Woodbridge. 

He was married, in 1832, to Julia Ann Pettit, of 
Woodbridge, who died in 1874. In 1875 he mar- 
ried Mrs. Lizzie 'Williams, of Glastonbury, Conn. 
His first wife bore him a son, who died in 1859, 
aged twenty-six. By his second marriage he has 
a son, born in 1878. 

Mr. Perkins has been a Republican since the 
organization of that party, and long before that 
time advocated the principles upon which it was 
founded. Though not active as a politician, his 
prominence has been such that he has from time 
to lime been calleti upon to serve his fellow-citizens 
in public capacity, notably as a member of the 
State Legislature for the sessions of 1876-77. 

He has been a member of the Congregational 
Church of Woodbridge since 1837. 

His character as a man and his credit in busi- 
ness circles have been always rated high by all who 
knew him. 




^Ii^lJm. i>. ^JuuJ 




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/ 



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Ly^^^i-t.^^^ t^.^^^^^^^^.,^ 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



605 



PHILO CHATFIELD 

was born in Oxford, New Haven County, Conn., 
September 22, 1816. a son of Chester and Clarissa 
(Buckingham) Chatfield. His father was a farmer, 
and he was early taught the value of time in the 
economy of life. He received his education in 
the public and private schools of Oxford and New 
Haven; and in his seventeenth year began the 
struggle of life as an apprentice to S. P. Perkins, 
of VVoodbridge, to learn the mason's trade. At the 
age of twenty-one years he may be said to have 
graduated as an expert in the art of stone and brick 
construction. 

He worked as a journeyman until 1841, when he 
began business on his own account as a building 
contractor in New Haven, which held out no false 
promise as a profitable field for the outlay of his 
capital and his energies, for, after more than fifty 
years' successful experience, he ranks as the lead- 
ing, as well as the oldest, builder in New Haven in 
active business. 

In all parts of the city are monuments to his 
enterprise and industry, and some of them are of a 
character well calculated to link his name with the 
history of the city and county and their leading 
institutions. During his long career he has been 
identified not only with the erection of numerous 
fine business blocks and private residences, but 
with the construction of the most important public 
buildings of the city and county, as well as with 
that (if .Vlumni Hall, the buildings of the Sheffield 
Scientific Department, all of the buildings of the 
Theological Department, and other structures of 
Vale College. 

In 1852, Mr. Chatfield formed a partnership with 
Mr. S. P. Perkins, and upon the latter's retirement, 
associated with himself Mr. George M. Grant, since 
which time the firm has been known as Chatfield 
ct Grant. 

It must be apparent that Mr. Chatfield has been 
in no slight degree identified with the growth and 
prosperity of the city, as well as with its genera! 
improvement and the extension of its visible limits. 
In no relation has he left a more lasting record 
perhaps than in his connection with the Board of 
Public Works, extending through several years, 
during which he was prominent among those in- 
strumental in laying out and beginning the im- 
provement of East Rock Park. He has also served 
the city as a member of the Common Council and 
Board of Aldermen, and as Police Commissioner. 

He is a life Director of the Connecticut Slate 
Hospital, in which he has long taken a generous 
interest, and a Director in both the Merchants' 
National and the Connecticut Savings Banks. He 
is a Republican in politics. 

During forty years past he has been connected 
with the old Chapel Street Congregational Society 
and Church (now Church of the Redeemer), and 
for some years has been Chairman of the Commit- 
tee of the Society. 

He was married March 25, 1841, to Mary E. 
Lines, of Woodbridge, and has one daughter, the 
wife of Enos S. Kimberly, of New Haven. 



The firm of Perkins & Chatfield, and its direct 
successor. Chatfield it Grant, have been among the 
most prominent firms in the work of mason-build- 
ing in the city for the past thirty-five years. Nearly 
every street bears evidence of their substantial work. 
The firm of Perkins A Chatfield was organized in 
1852 by Stephen B. Perkins and Philo Chatfield. 
The firm continued in this style until 1871, when 
George M. Grant was admitted as partner, under 
the style of Perkins, Chatfield & Co. In 1875, Mr. 
Perkins retired, and the business was continued 
until March i, 1886, by Messrs. Chatfield & 
Grant, when Mr. Chatfield retired from business. 
Among the prominent buildings which the firm 
erected under its several names, are the North 
Sheffield Hall; the residence of the late Mr. Shef- 
field on Hillhouse avenue: Peabody Museum; 
Battell Chapel; the Young Men's Christian Associ- 
ation Building at Yale College; the residence of 
John Anderson on Orange street, and also at Savin 
Rock; Hon. James E. English block, corner of 
George and Church streets; City Hall and County 
Court house; the County Jail on Whalley avenue; 
Yale College Library; and a number of residences, 
and buildings for business and private purposes. 

Patrick Maher, mason-builder, commenced oper- 
ations as a contractor in New Haven in 1851. He 
has constructed the mason work on the following 
buildings: St. Francis Church, Fair Haven; Wash- 
ington School, Howard avenue; St. John's Parochial 
School, South street; Catholic Church, Naugatuck; 
and numerous private dwellings. Mr. Maher was 
born in Ireland in 1826, and came to America in 
1839, and settled in New Haven in 1848. During 
the late Civil War he was Major of the 24tli Con- 
necticut Regiment and served for over a year. He 
was a member of the Board of Education from 1 869 
to 1882. 

Among the other mason-builders deserving of 
mention are Bunnell & Sperry, composed of Lyman 
Bunnell and Lucius P. Sperry; A. D. Baldwin, G. 

A. & H. H. Baldwin; Bates & Townsend, com- 
posed of George N. Bates and William M. Towns- 
end; Larkins & Langley, composed of Charles E. 
Langley and W. H. Larkins; L. V. Treat tt Sons 
(F. N. Lt George M.); W. A. Kelly, T D. Jones, 
Edward Hammell, Lawrence O'Brien, and Arthur 

B. Treat. 

ARTHUR B. TREAT 

was born in Orange, April 6, 1853, the son of Isaac 
P. and Mary J. (Barnes) Treat. His mother was a 
daughter of Captain Merritt Barnes, of Watertown, 
Conn. His grandfather, Isaac Treat, was an infiu- 
ential and wealthy citizen of Orange, and the name 
has been known for generations among the leading 
families of that town. 

Mr. Treat was educated in the district and high 
schools, and in 1869 entered Oberlin College and 
took the preparatory course. In 1870 he returned 
to Connecticut, and learneii the mason and build- 
er's trade, serving for three years as apprentice with 
Smith & Sperry. He then worked with them the 
following six years as a journeyman. During this 



606 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



time he was engaged upon the Yale College build- 
ings, and had a hand in the principal buildings 
erecteti in the city by this firm. 

He married, September 27, 1876, Leona, daugh- 
ter of John H. Weeks, of New Haven. They have 
three children living, Fanny and Florence B, and 
George A. A son, Arthur, died in infancy. 

Mr. Treat had been early accustomed to e.xercise 
his judgment in business matters and to take re- 
sponsibility, and when only fourteen years of age 
had undertaken a contract for supplying the Derby 
Railroad with stone, which he carried through with 
success. When, in 1878, there came on a period 
of business depression, Mr. Treat, then at the age 
of twenty-five, resolved to start in business for him- 
self as a mason-builder. He associated with him, 
as partner, Hilliard B. Fenn, a fellow-apprentice 
of his at Smith & Sperry's, who died at the end of 
two months. Mr. Treat then continued the busi- 
ness in his own name. 

Among his principal works have been a brick 
block for A. B. Dodge, the clothier; a large block 
of houses on East Chapel street for Burritt Man- 
vdle, also his carriage factory on the corner of 
Wooster and Wallace streets; a block of houses, 
corner of Howard avenue and Portsea street, for 
G. W. Benedict; a nice brick dwelling-house for 
F. S. Bradley on West Chapel street; a large brick 
dwelling for Robert Brown on the Yale Observatory 
lot; a dwelling for George C. Pettis on High street; 
a large factory on Court street for the Hoggson & 
Pettis Manufacturing Company; a double brick 
block for James E. Kelly on Davenport avenue; a 
block of houses for Major T. Atwater Barnes on 
Bradley street, also a fine brick residence for him 
on the corner of Orange and Bradley streets; a 
large block for Jeremiah Wolcott and William A. 
Beard on Wooster street; a block for Mrs. Mary A. 
Treat on St. John street; a large block of houses 
on State street for Henry Kelsey; a nice brick 
residence for William A. Beard; the Gregory street 
School-house.of brick; the Humphrey streetChurch; 
factory for Herrick & Cowell on Artisan street; a 
block of houses for Mrs. Mary J. Cannon on Col- 
lege street; a double brick building for G. M. Bald- 
win, and a fine brick residence for Mrs. Ida L. 
Todd, both on Whalley avenue; and two brick 
houses on Leonard street for R. T. Merwin. 

He is now putting up a large block of houses 
and stores for George E. Arnold on Crown street; 
also a block of stores and tenements on Grand 
street for Major Hendrick. He has built many 
others in various parts of the city, including a fine 
brick residence for W. M. Rowland and his own 
residence, both on Howard avenue. 

I\Ir. Treat has also established his reputation in 
other places, and has often been called upon to 
build in neighboring towns. He undertook, early 
in his career, the very responsible contract for 
building the Crockett Yarnish Works in Bridgeport; 
also the Bridgeport Hospital, where the contract 
for the mason-work amounted to about $40,000, 
and he employed seventy men. This was a large 
and important work, and it required much nerve 
in a young builder to undertake and carry it 



through successfully. He also erected Christ Church 
at Westport, the contract being for $30,000; the 
graded school at Stratford; and, in the same town, 
a fine and costly residence on the Stirling estate. 

To accommodate outside work, Mr. Treat took 
a partner in 1885, and the firm name at Bridgeport 
is A. B. Treat & Co. They are now building a 
block at Bridgeport for Nathaniel Wheeler; also a 
large residence for Charles D. Mills. 

By prudence, good judgment, and energy, Mr. 
Treat has in a few years established a reputation as 
being one of the most reliable builders of the city. 
He is prompt in his movements, thorough in his 
work, and able to cope with all the difliculties of 
his trade at the present day. He is constantly 
'occupied with new buildings in all parts of the city 
of New Haven and his record in all the relations of 
a responsible profession has been especially hon- 
orable and successful. 

M.\TCH Manufacturers. 

Mr. Aaron Beecher began the manufacture of 
matches in New Haven in 1854. The business 
has been continued till the present time, and has 
extended till it operates manufactories and lumber 
mills in ten different States of the Union, New 
Haven still being its headquarters. Mr. Beecher's 
sons were taken into partnership with him, and 
the firm name was A. Beecher & Sons till 1870; 
when the Swift, Courtney & Beecher Company was 
organized. In 1881 the Diamond Match Com- 
pany succeeded to the former name. Its capital is 
$2,250,000. President, William H. Swift; Vice- 
President, Joseph Swift; Secretary, L. W. Beecher; 
Treasurer, O. C. Barber. 

Meat Packers. 

The firm of Strong, Barnes, Hart & Co. was or- 
ganized in 1872, the products of their establish- 
ment being live stock and dressed meats. The 
members of the firm are H. H. Strong, Herbert 
Barnes, F. H. Hart and Orrin Doolittle. The firm 
employ about twenty hands, and have a large and 
commodious factory, 135 by 250 feet in dimensions, 
on Long Wharf, witli a steam engine of 52- 
horse power to drive the necessary machinery. The 
plant is divided into six different departments, in- 
suring the best handling of the products of the 
factory. 

HON. H. H. STRONG, 

a well-known citizen of New Haven, and senior 
member of the firm of Strong, Barnes, Hart & Co., 
is a son of Alvah B. and Huldah M. (Tooley) 
Strong, and was born in Durham, Conn., May 24, 
1832. 

Reared in a farming community, his education 
was limited, and he began early in life to do his 
part in the labor which went on about him. He 
was a farmer's boy of all work between the ages of 
seven and sixteen years. After that he was a farm 
hand, working for the small wages then paid for 




S^t^-^^^^^-:^-^--^ ■ 




PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



607 



such work, until he was eighteen. During the suc- 
ceeding three years, and until he was almost twenty- 
one years old, he was employed in Webb's Comb 
Factory in Meriden. From there, about the time 
of his majority, he removed to Xew Haven, where 
he found employment in Munson's ])ie bakery. 

In 1854 he established a meat market on a small 
scale, in partnership with ?ilr. F. H, Hart, under the 
firm name of Hart & Strong. Their location was 
at the corner of Olive and Grand streets. In 1856, 
Mr. Hart withdrew from the enterprise, and re- 
moved temporarily to Kansas, and I\Ir. Strong, ad- 
mitting Mr. (;. Hall to partnership, removeil the 
business, then known as that of Strong & Hall, to 
the City Market. In iSfio, Mr. Strong bought the 
interest of Mr. Hall, and remained sole proprietor 
until 1 862, when Mr. Hart, having returned to New 
Haven, obtained an interest in the business, and 
the style of the house became .Strong & Hart. In 
August, iS72,the firm of Strong, Barnes, Hart & Co. 
was organized, the partners being H. H. Strong, 
Herbert Barnes, F. H. Hart, and Orrin Doolittle, 
and the business was removed to its present loca- 
tion, 65 and 67 Long Wharf. 

Mr. Strong takes an active interest in public af- 
fairs, and is known commercially as an upright and 
reputable business man, and politically as a Repub- 
lican. At different times he has been associated 
with various enterprises aside from that of his firm. 
The most notable of his present connections of 
this kind are with the Strong Firearms Company, 
of which he is President, and with the Mallett Cattle 
Company, of Te.xas, of which he is Secretary and 
Treasurer. 

He has from time to time been called to hoki 
various positions under the Xew Haven municipal 
government, and only recently was re-elected a 
member of the Xew Haven Board of i^ducation. 
In 1877 he was elected a member of the Connecti- 
cut Legislature, to represent the town of East 
Haven. For years he was Captain of the Second 
Company of the Governor's Horse Guards, and 
about five years ago was commissioned Major. 

He has long been identified with the Second 
Congregational Church of Fair Haven. 

Mr. Strong was married October 10, 1855, to 
Sarah R. Johnson, of New Haven. The older of 
their two daughters is the wife of Mr. George M. 
Baldwin. 

The pitmeer pork-packing establishment in New- 
Haven is the House of S. E. ]Merwin & Co., estab- 
lished in 1851 under the firm name of Smith, Todd 
it Merwin. A few years after the firm was Smith 
& Merwin, and shortly after it became S. E. Mer- 
win & Co. This packing house, north of Grand 
street, on Railroad avenue, consists of a four-story 
building ninety feet square, where about seventy-five 
men are employed. The storing house, at the same 
location, is eighty feet square. Between forty and forty- 
five thousand hogs are annually packed by this firm. 
A specialty consists in the curing of hams, known 
by the brand of tiie Elm City Hams. Three 
smoking-houses are used, located at 354 to 356 
Slate street, where 9,000 hams are cured weekly. 



Another smoking-house has recently been built on 
Railroad avenue. S. E. !SIerwin, one of the found- 
ers of this firm, recently died, but the firm name 
remains the same. The individual members of the 
firm are S. E. Merwin, a son of the founder, F. C. 
Lum, and R. A. Beers. 

GENERAL SAMUEL E. MERWIN. 

The family names of a few of the first settlers on 
the shores of Long Island Sound have been, and 
probably for generations to come, will remain per- 
petuated by their connection with the topography 
of the coast. Eaton's Neck, Leete's Island, Crane's 
Bar, Merwin's Point, are fiimiliar examples of this 
method of preserving the memory of men that 
were conspicuous in the early settlement of the 
New Haven Colony. 

The oldest memorial of the dead in the ancient 
burial ground of Milford is a sandstone slab of no 
great dimensions, whose elaborate ornamentation 
in arabesque design has been defaced, and in places 
almost obliterated, by the ravages of time, which 
bears an inscription in memory of Miles Merwin, 
after whom ^Merwin's Point was named, who de- 
parted this life April 23, 1697. At the first settle- 
ment of Milford he was a youth under age, and 
his name does not appear in the earliest records of 
the town. In subsequent years he became a prom- 
inent man and one of the largest landowners in the 
place. Two years before his death he transferred, 
by deed, a portion of his real estate to his four 
sons. Subsequently he executed a deed, carefully 
prepared with all the technicalities of English con- 
veyancing, creating an entail for the remainder of 
his estate through his son Miles, in the eldest 
male line of his posterity, but making provision 
for other children by a rent charge, which should 
ultimately amount to the sum of five hundred 
pounds sterling. Whether this entail continued in 
force down to the independence of the United 
States, when all entails ceased, is uncertain. Tfie 
name of Miles Merwin, however, has never ceased 
to be a familiar name in Milford in every succeed- 
ing generation. A similar succession to the name 
of Samuel Merwin, continuing widiout a break for 
six generations to the subject of this notice, perpet- 
uates the memory of another son of Miles Merwin, 
who was born August 21, 1656. When the town 
of New Milford, in Litchfield County, was first set- 
tled by colonists from Old Milford, the name of 
Samuel Merwin appears as one of the proprietors, 
having a large allotment of land in that part of the 
town which was subseciuently incorporated as a 
part of the present town of Brook field. 

On these ancestral acres, Samuel E. Merwin was 
born August 23, 1830. His school education was 
the education afibrded by the Connecticut district 
school of that day, supplemented by a year's in- 
struction in a school of a higher grade in the neigh- 
boring village of Newtown. When in his si.xteenth 
year, his father's removal to New Haven gave him 
a brief opportunity for completing his education 
under private instruction before he began his busi- 
ness life, .\fter serving as a clerk for two years, he 
I became connected, in the year 1 850, with his father, 



608 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



the late Samuel E. Merwin, in the wholesale busi- 
ness of a pork packer, which has been successfally 
pursued in the same place on State street for the 
past thirty-six years. Outside of a business life 
conducted with integrity and skill, he has been 
identified with a variety of important public and 
private trusts. For two years he was a Commis- 
sioner of Police; for nine years an active and 
efficient member of the Board of Education. In 
1876 he represented the Fourth Senatorial District 
in the Legislature of Connecticut. He has also 
been the candidate of the Republican party for 
Congress and the jMayoralty. 

As Chairman of the Town Committee to build 
the Soldiers' Monument; as a Director in the State 
Hospital; as a Trustee of the Orphan Asylum; as 
Agent to wind up the affairs of the Home In- 
surance Company and the Scrantori Bank; as a 
Director in the Merchants' Bank, and Trustee in 
the New Haven Savings Bank; and as entrusted 
with the settlement of many estates, General Mer- 
win has been long known to his fellow citizens as 
entided to their entire confidence and respect. 

General Merwin's connection with military mat- 
ters has been even more conspicuous than his em- 
ployments in civil life. Early in . command of 
that organization in which every New Haven man 
takes pride, "The New Haven Grays," Captain 
Merwin became successively Lieutenant-Colonel 
and Colonel of the Second Regiment of the State 
Troops, and subsequently, for three years, under 
(jovernor Jewell, Adjutant-General of the State. 
Probably no man in Connecticut not in actual 
service was more efficient during the Civil War than 
General Merwin. In response to an invitation 
from Governor Buckingham, the Grays, then under 
his command, promptly volunteered to go to 
Gettysburg to repel the invasion of Pennsylvania. 
Durhig the draft riots in New York, his company 
remained under arms for thirty days in immediate 
expectation of being ordered to aid in averting that 
appalling danger. Guarding conscript camps, 
burying, with appropriate honors, a multitude of 
officers and soldiers who had fallen in battle or died 
in hospitals from wounds or exposure, and receiv- 
ing with proper military display the veterans re- 
turning from the war, become a part of his official 
duties while in command of the 2d Regiment. 

While Adjutant-General of the State, he was di- 
rected by Governor Jewell to support the Sheriff of 
New Haven County in preventing a prize fight which 
had been arranged by a party of New York roughs to 
take place at Charles Island, opposite Milford. By 
the judicious arrangements of General Merwin the 
entire party was not only captured by the military 
companies of New Haven and safely lodged in New 
Haven jail, but our State has from that time been 
saved from any attempt of a like disgraceful nature. 

While these pages are passing through the press 
(September, 1886), General Merwin, with his family, 
is absent on an extended European tour. His 
return will be welcomed by all his fellow citizens, 
without distinction of party, who appreciate the 
union of a liberal public spirit with a disposition 
singularly free from arrogance, pride, or pretense. 



The most extensive packing-house in this city is 
that of Sperry & Barnes, founded fifteen years ago. 
This packing-house is located at 1S8 Long Wharf, 
where about three hundred men are emplo)'ed. From 
March, 1885, to March, 1S86, 200,650 hogs were 
killed and packed by this firm. The individual 
members of this firm are J. A. Sperry, E. H. Barnes, 
and Joseph Porter. Their office is located at 114 
State street. 

JOEL A. SPERRY. 

Litchfield County has been generous to New 
Haven in gifts of brawn and brain, and the subject 
of this memoir is no exception to the general rule. 

Joel Andrew Sperry first saw the light in Water- 
town, Litchfield County, Conn., on the 8th of July, 
1827. His father, who followed the trade of a 
blacksmith, died while yet a young man. His 
mother however still lives, at the venerable age of 
eighty-one, to rejoice in the prosperity of her only 
son. After his father's death, Mr. Sperry resided 
in the town of Bethany, and worked on a farm 
until he reached the age of sixteen. 

The laborious life of his boyhood disciplined 
his faculties and developed his character, but pre- 
vented him from obtaining any more than a limited 
common-school education. In 1843 he came to 
seek his fortune in New Haven, and was engaged 
as clerk by a retail provision dealer. A few years 
later, in September, 1853, he was ready to make 
his first venture in the wholesale provision trade. 
He formed a partnership with William Hull, and 
during the next ten years the firm conducted a lu- 
crative business. Mr. Sperry's active qualities, 
energy, and motive power were conspicuous in the 
management of the undertaking, and secured its 
financial success. 

It was during this period that he served two 
terms upon the Board of Aldermen (1860-61), and 
was especially instrumental in reorganizing the 
Police and Fire Departments. Afterwards lie filled 
acceptably the office of Fire Commissioner, but re- 
signed that position when he removed from the city. 

In 1863 he relinquished his share of the business 
to his partner, Mr. Hull, and sought the larger 
facilities that the neighboring metropolis affords. 
Mr. Sperry remained in New York, in the provi- 
sion trade, for five years, and enjoyed a well-de- 
served success. Withdrawing from bu.siness, he re- 
turned to New Haven in 1868, intending to spend 
the remainder of his life in leisure. But inviting 
business opportunities presented themselves to him, 
and in the spring of 1870 he began to prepare his 
present establishment on Long Wharf, associating 
with him Messrs. E. H. Barnes and Joseph Porter, 
under the firm-name of Sperry & Barnes. The 
conduct and development of the business, which is 
now one of the largest and most successful of New 
Haven's enterprises, have been largely due to the 
senior partner. His experience and connections in 
New York have been of great service in promot- 
ing the growth of the undertaking, and particularly 
in building up a foreign export trade. 

It had been believed that a meat-export to Eu- 




^ 




^v 




[ 





Z^-^l^-V^LX^^ 



I 



PRUDUCTl I 'E ARTS. 



609 



rope was impossible. Sperry it Barnes were among 
the first to demonstrate its feasibility and to reap 
the rewards of foresight and energy. The firm is 
now sending its products across the ocean to Eng- 
land, and to the Continent also, despite hostile 
tariffs and Bismarckian decrees against American 
imports. 

The uniform success which has attended Mr. 
Sperry, is to be ascribed to his remarkable executive 
ability and business sagacity. At the same time he 
has also won success by deserving it. In all trans- 
actions with his fellow-men he has endeavored to 
put in practice the strictest principles of integrity 
and honor. 

Mr. Sperry married, June 24, 1856, Miss Anna 
Jane, daughter of D. S. Fowler, of East Haven, 
and has had three children — one son and two 
daughters. 

E. HENRY BARNES. 

Throughout the first half of the present century, 
one of the best known and most honored citizens 
of the neighboring town of North Haven was 
Deacon Byard Barnes. Born near the close of the 
last century, the youngest of seven children, he 
early walked before his fellows with such sterling 
worth and manly piety, that, when only thirty years 
of age, he was chosen Deacon of the church. 
Thereafter, through good and evil fortune, he lived 
the life of Christian faith, and died triumphantly, 
leaving to his children the legacy of an unstained, 
noble name and the memory of beautiful affection, 
and to all men the example of " a just man whose 
path was as the shining light, that shineth more 
and more unto the perfect day.'' 

Deacon Barnes, who was descended from some 
of the earliest settlers of this locality, married, in 
1824, a lady, whose family also has long been resi- 
dent here, MissCleora I.insley, daughter of Deacon 
Munson Linsley, of Northford. 

Such worthy strains of blood have united in tlie 
veins of the subject of this sketch, E. Henry 
Barnes, who was the seventh son of his father. He 
was born in North Haven January 17, 1838. 

His early years were spent in labor upon the 
farm, and in the acquisition of a common school 
education. When twenty years of age he essayed 
his first step in the business world. On the 6th of 
October, 1858, he came to New Haven with no 
other capital than his good name and the firm 
purpose of maintaining it inviolate, a purpose which 
has never been dimmed. 

For two years he was employed in the retail meat 
market' of his elder brother. On September i, 
1 860, he entered the employment of S. E. Merwin 
it Son, pork packers, and remained with that firm 
for nearly four years, excepting for a short time 
during the winter of 1861-62, when he was engaged 
in business in Meriden. In March, 1864, he be- 
came associated with his brother, Mr. Herbert 
Barnes, under the firm name of H. k Y.. Henry 
Barnes, wholesale butchers. He thus continued until 
October, 1870, when the firm of Sperry it Barnes 
was organized, consisting, besides Mr. Barnes, of 
77 



Joel A. Sperry and Joseph Porter. With the firm 
of Sperry & Barnes he has since been identified, 
and to its prosperity he has largely contributed. 

Mr. Barnes has been actively influential in the 
Church of the Redeemer, both in its present loca- 
tion and in its former existence as the Chapel Street 
Church, and is now a member of the .Society's 
Committee. In the work of freeing that church 
from debt he took a great interest and was largely 
instrumental in effecting it. 

For political olfice he has never sought, and has 
refused every invitation to become a candidate for 
civil honors. 

Mr. Barnes married, on Christmas Day, 1862, Miss 
Jennie E. Cargill, of Monroe, Conn., who was taken 
from him by death in 1869. They had two chil- 
dren, Jennie E., born October 17, 1S65, died Febru- 
ary, 1870; and Clara M., born November 8, 1867. 
On the 25th of May, 1870, Mr. Barnes took for his 
second wife, INIiss Esther C. Post, of Hartford. On 
the 8th of November, 1872, a son was born, who 
received the name of his exemplary grandfather, 
Byard Barnes. 

For many years the brothers Charles E. and War- 
ren D. Judson were extensively engaged in the pack- 
ing business, but at present are giving their atten- 
tion solely to trade. 

The following firms also carry on the packing 
business: F. S. Andrew &. Co., and A. Seaman, 
255 Congress avenue. 

FRANK S. ANDREW, 

head of the firm of F. S. Andrew & Co., and a 
prominent citizen of New Haven, is a son of .Samuel 
and .Salina (.Smith) Andrew, and was born at Nau- 
gatuck, Conn., November i, 1841. He gained 
his education in the schools of his native village, 
alternating, as seemed expedient, between school 
and work after he became old enough to emplo}' a 
portion of his time to some advantage. 

His first entrance upon the business arena was 
made when he was cmly twelve years of age. Then 
he became a clerk in the store of his brother, George 
S. Andrew, at Naugatuck. There he was employed, 
when not at school, until 1855, at which time he came 
to New Haven and became an en and boy in the store 
of B. Booth, the well known auctioneer, remaining 
in that capacity two years. In 1857 he returned 
to Naugatuck, and during the greater portion of 
the succeeding four years was book-keeper for H. 
Stevens & Co. , carriage manufacturers. Later, he 
was for a time traveling through Massachusetts as 
the representative of a Philadelphia business house, 
after which he taught a district school during one 
term. 

In 1862, Mr. Andrew opened a general store at 
Naugatuck, which he conducted successfully until 
1867, when he disposed of it and again came to 
New Haven, this time to become a permanent resi- 
dent. He was employed as a salesman by William 
Hull & Co., pork packei-s, until the fall of 1868, 
when he associated himself with Ansel Hurlburt, 
under the firm name of Andrew A Hurlburt, and 



610 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



entered into business quite extensively as a pork 
packer and provision dealer. The increasing trade 
of this house demanded the erection, in 1872, of a 
large pork-packing house, which was destroyed by 
fire in 1883, and immediately rebuilt by the firm 
of F. S. Andrew & Co., Mr. Andrew having pur- 
chased Mr. Hurlburt's interest in the business in 
1874. His partner is Mr. Benjamin A. Booth. 

At the opening of the City JNIarket, Mr. Andrew's 
firm took two stalls therein, and, as their business 
has increased, have added to their facilities until 
they now occupy some sixteen or eighteen stalls. 
F. S. Andrew & Co. unquestionably do the largest 
business in New Haven, both wholesale and retail, 
in fresh and smoked meats. They also handle im- 
mense quantities of Western beef, which is shipped 
to them in refrigerator cars. Their facilities for 
buying in this line are so exceptional, that they are 
enabled to bring Western beef to the New Haven 
market at a reduction of three or four cents per 
pound from prices which would otherwise have 
been maintained, thereby greatly benefiting house- 
keepers and consumers generally. The same ap- 
plies, in no slight measure, to poultry and produce. 
They are men of push and venture, and do a large 
and increasing business, which places them among 
the leading houses of the city. 

Mr. Andrew has been connected with many im- 
portant business and commercial enterprises in 
New Haven, and in all things is regarded as a pro- 
gressive and liberal-minded citizen, devoted to the 
best municipal and public interests. He was one 
of the Incorporators and is a Director in the New 
Haven Co-operative Loan Association. He is a 
Director in the New Haven Cattle Company, and a 
member of its executive committee. He is quite 
largely interested in real estate, and is the owner of 
bank, telephone, and other stocks. His high posi- 
tion in trade is indicated by his membership of 
the New York Produce, Mercantile, and Metal Ex- 
changes. 

He has been a life-long and earnest adherent to 
the principles of the Democratic party, and his 
place in the public esteem such that he has found 
it diflicult to keep out of politics entirely, though 
greatly preferring to devote himself to his own per- 
sonal aflTairs than to those of the public. For 
several years he was President of the Board of 
Selectmen of the Town of New Haven. In the year 
1882, he was induced, reluctant!)-, to become the 
Democratic candidate for the mayoralty of the city, 
and, after a spirited session, was placed in nomi- 
nation by the Young Democracy at the Democratic 
City Convention, and, after the succeeding election, 
was declared elected, a certificate of election as 
Mayor of New Haven being duly issued to him. 
His election was contested in the Courts, however, 
and after an exciting and memorable contest, the 
Court awarded a certificate of election to his oppo- 
nent, though many leading citizens then thought, 
and are still of the opinion, that Mr. Andrew was 
unjustly deprived of an honor which of right be- 
longed to him, because a majority of his fellow- 
citizens had sought to elevate him to the high posi- 
tion named. Since that time he has not permitted 



himself to consider the acceptance of any public 
trust, his personal inclinations and the pressing de- 
mands of his business preventing him from so do- 
ing. He is regarded as a friendly, helpful, active, 
energetic, enterprising and public-spirited citizen, 
and his popularity in business and commercial 
circles and with the people of all classes is un- 
equaled. 

Medicine Maniifacturers. 

The C. G. Clai-k Company, at the corner of 
Artisan and St. Johnstreets,isa joint stock company, 
organized in 1868, with a capital of $100,000. 
The company make a specialty of manufacturing 
Dr. Coe's Cough Balsam and Dyspepsia Cure, with 
some other curative compounds not so important 
or so well known. The officers of the Company 
are J. F. Henry, of New York, President, and De- 
Witt C. Waterhouse, Secretary and Treasurer. 

Lewis & Co. commenced the manufacture of 
the Red Jacket Bitters at 96 State street in 1882. 
These bitters have reached a large sale, and are sold 
all over the United States. T. S. Foote, resident 
partner of William J. Sheehan, wholesale litjuor 
dealer, is sole agent for these bitters. 

The Reed Bitters Company was organized as a 
stock company in 1878, with a capital of $20,000. 
They commenced the manufacture of the well- 
known Reed's Gilt Edge Tonic the same year, at 
their present location, 298 and 300 State street. 
Reed's Cock-tail Bitters, now made by this Company, 
were first manufactured in 1866 by the present head 
of this Company, G. W. M. Reed. In the manufac- 
ture of these two articles twenty men are employed. 
They are extensively sold in every State and Terri- 
tory of the United States, and largely exported to 
foreign countries. This business is principally done 
through advertising, large sums of money being an- 
nually expended in this direction. Three traveling 
salesmen are employed. The officers of the Com- 
pany are G. W. M. Reed, President; R. H. Reed, 
Treasurer, and James T. Mullen, Secretary. 

Melodeon and Organ Building. 

W. P. Gardner began the manufacture of melo- 
deons and church organs in Peckham's Building on 
George street in 1840. After this Mr. Gardner 
moved to Bridgeport where he remained in the 
same business one year. Then he returned and 
bought the establishment of Henry Pilsher in At- 
water Building in State street. He moved after 
this to the Osborn block, where B. H. Douglass & 
Sons' confectionery establishment now is, and later 
to Trowbridge's Building on State street. In i860, 
Mr. Gardner purchased the property, 216 Wooster 
street, then known as Cherry street, where he has 
since remained. During recent years he has devoted 
himself to church organs exclusively. He built 
the organs for St. Mary's Roman Catholic 
Church on Hillhouse avenue, then on Church 
street; the George Street Methodist Church; the 
German Baptist Church on George street; and the 
Temple Street Congregational Church — all in New 





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7y^ 




^1 YVuLX 



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'>'>V\AvQ(LTJ' 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



611 



Haven; besides organs for other churches in Con- 
necticut and at the South, tlie largest being for a 
Presbyterian church at Atlanta, (]a. 

Da\id Whiteker and William Frisl)ie began to 
manufacture organs in Orange street, near Court 
Street, in 1847, ancl d'd business under " Carhart's 
Patent." The first productions of the firm were 
crude in comparison with the organ built to-day, 
being a four-octave melodeon, with straight, un- 
curved legs,which could be folded under. Soon 
after this H. N. Goodman purchased the interest 
of Mr. Whiteker, and the firm was known as 
Goodman & Frisbie. For the use of this new 
firm E. H. Leavenworth erected a small brick fac- 
tory in Leavenworth court, where the business of 
organ or melodeon building was carried on. The 
firm again changed its name. Dr. Baldwin purchas- 
ing Mr. Frisbie's interest, and the style of the firm 
was Goodman A: Baldwin. In 1856, John L. Treat 
and Nelson Lindsley purchased the business, under 
the firm name of Treat X" Lindsley, which continued 
until iS64,w^hena Mr. Davis from Worcester, Mass. , 
purchased Mr. Lindsley 's interest, and the style of 
the firm was Treat & Davis. During the career of 
the firm of Treat & Lindsley the brick factory on 
Franklin street was built. About two months after 
the purchase of Mr. Lindsley 's interest by Mr. 
Davis, the fiictory was burned. Mr. Davis's health 
failing, Nelson Lindsley again purchased an interest 
in the business, and the manufacture was conducted 
under the old firm name of Treat it Lindsley. In 
1865, the entire business was sold to B. Shoninger 
& Co. 

The B. Shoninger Organ Company must occupy 
a prominent place in any record of New Haven in- 
dustrial pursuits, it being one of the largest in its 
line of products in the country, and the result of 
steady and healthy growth. Mr. Shoninger began 
the manufacture of melodeons in a small way in 
Woodbridge, in 1850, having a store for their sale 
on Chapel street. The sales of the store soon out- 
ran the capacity of the factory in Woodbridge, and 
a two-story wooden factory was erected on Kim- 
berly avenue in 1S63. This building, with its con- 
tents, was burned in 1865. Mr. Shoninger then 
purchased the factory which had been occupied by 
Treat & Lindsley, near the corner of Chapel and 
Chestnut streets, to which he made additions reach- 
ing to the Chapel street front. As the volume of 
business increased, additions were made to these 
original buildings, the last being made in 1881, 
when a fine front was erected, so that now the fac- 
tory covers an area of 300 feet on Chestnut street 
and 130 feet on Chapel street. .\ feature of the im- 
provements made in 1881 was the office, which is 
the finest in the city, being finished in polished 
mahogany, cherry, walnut and curled maple, re- 
lieved with delicate tracery of inlaid wood and rich 
hanti carvings. The buildings are si.x stories high, 
divided into the several departments of the manu- 
facture. The average number of men employed is 
over three hundred. An engine of 125-horse power 
carries the necessary machinery. During the de- 
velopment of the business of the Company for the 
past thirty-five years, great improvements have been 



made in the construction, compass and action of 
their organs and pianos, the firm now holding over 
thirty patents of their own invention. B. Shon- 
inger is still President of the Company, and his son, 
Simon B. Shoninger, is associated with him as 
Secretary. 

BERNARD SHONINGER. 

Like the majority of the prominent men of this 
progressive age, Bernard Shoninger is "the architect 
of his own fortune.'' Born in Bavaria, Germany, 
in 182S, he came to America in 1841, the possessor 
of nothing of visible value e.xcept his scanty bag- 
gage, and money to the amount of fourteen dollars 
and forty cents. His most reliable capital, how- 
ever, consisted in his native integrity and enterprise, 
for the exercise and development of which the 
United States afforded an inviting field. Active and 
venturesome, Mr. Shoninger, casting about for a 
profitable channel into wiiich to direct his business 
enterprise and sagacity, soon centered his attention 
upon the manuf;\cture of organs and pianos, then 
in a somewhat unstable condition, and with scarcely 
a promise of its subsequent importance. In 1850 
he founded the B. Shoninger Organ Company. 
The business of the concern, like many others now 
of magnitude and world-wide celebrity, was at first 
small and unimportant, except for its inlluence 
upon the future of its projector, and the immense 
trade in which it lias become so conspicuous a 
factor. 

Many obstacles presented themselves in the way 
of Mr. Shoninger's advancement, for organs and 
pianos were then popularly regarded as luxuries, 
available only to the wealthy, in which those of 
moderate means had not the remotest thought of 
investing. During the succeeding years, down to 
the present, the Shoninger Company has amply 
done its part in the development of the organ and 
piano manufacture and trade throughout our own 
country and the world at large. .\t the outset, Mr. 
Shoninger laid down for his guidance certain 
principles f)ertaining chiefly to the character of the 
goods manufactured, demanding the best material, 
the most skillful wurkmanship, and the finest finish, 
internally and externally. To the many practical 
inventions emanating from his own skill and ex- 
perience, I\Ir. Shoninger has added every valuable 
improvement made by his compeers, and year by 
year the B. Shoninger Company has steadily ad- 
vanced, crowning excellence with excellence, until 
their instruments are renowned throughout the 
civilized workl. 

Mr. Shoninger has taken position with the most 
distinguished of those well-known manufacturers 
who have made their way against countless difii- 
culties to the highest commercial and social station. 
Honest, pushing and industrious, he has steadily 
kept in advance of the times, and with far seeing 
sagacity has been fully prepared to grasp oppor- 
tunities and battle with obstacles as they present 
themselves. It was his upright, unswerving enter- 
prise that, during the earlier history of his house, 
advanced it to a position of prominence among 



612 



HISTORY OF THE CiTF OF NEW HAVEN. 



those of its kind in America, and it is owing no less 
to his ripe experience and able counsel, than to the 
sturdy business daring. of his associates, that it is 
now classed with the leading musical instrument 
manufacturing firms of the world. A noted mus- 
ical writer and critic has referred to Mr. Shoninger 
as " one of the most respected, and certainly one of 
the wealthiest manufacturers in the organ and pi- 
ano trade," and this may be regarded as a concise 
summary of the merited personal results of his long 
years of hardworking application to one object, to 
the furtherance of which he has conscientiously de- 
voted remarkable energy and perseverance, rare skill 
and judgment, and an unquestioned commercial 
integrity that has caused his name and word to be 
regarded as Uterally "as good as his bond." 

Mr. Shoninger has seven children and ten grand- 
children, and has been singularly favored, in 
that death has never visited his household. The 
acknowledged musical ability and culture of 
his two sons, Simon B. and Joseph Shoninger, 
render them peculiarly fitted to assist him in 
the difficult and purely technical department of 
construction and improvement, which both in the 
organ and piano, on the part of the Shoninger 
Company have been many. One of the most 
notable was the introduction of a bell and chime, upon 
which a patent was obtained in 1875. The Shon- 
ingers are quiet and conservative, and, though 
enterprising in the highest degree, eschew all boast- 
ful show and parade, depending upon the excellence 
of their instruments to win them customers wherever 
introduced. Together, they have brought their im- 
men.se business to a wonderful degree of perfection. 

For considerably more than a third of a century 
identified with the prosperity of New Haven, not 
alone as the head of his own great establishment, 
but by his incidental connection with other im- 
portant enterprises, and as a real estate owner, Mr. 
Shoninger is recognized as a prominent and public- 
spirited citizen and one of the most liberal of 
employers. He is justly proud of the knowledge 
that he has always enjoyed the deepest respect and 
friendship of his employees. Many tokens of public 
and official approbation have been bestowed upon 
him, but of none of these is he so fond as of an ex- 
pression of the good-will of his employees which 
some years ago accompanied the presentation of an 
appropriate gift, u])on an occasion memorable in 
his business and individual history, when he was 
their entertainer. This testimonial, which reads 
like the spontaneous expression of grateful apprecia- 
tion. Dears the signatures of the employees of the 
B. Shoninger Company, many of whom have been 
so long identified with the business of the concern, 
that their tenure of association seems scarcely less 
permanent than that of its proprietors and managers. 
It is regarded by Mr. Shoninger as one of his 
dearest household treasures. 

Mr. Shoninger is essentially liberal and helpful in 
all the relations of life — an honor to the city of his 
adoption, to the prosperity of which he has so 
generously contributed ; the revered head of the 
great enterprise he has founded and managed with 
such signal ability, and respected by his fellow- 



citizens and loved at his own fireside. Few men 
nearingthe close of life's journey have greater cause 
for self-congratulation than he. He has been 
eminently successful ; and so honorably and up- 
rightly has he borne himself, that his reputation is 
untarnished before the world. His fight has been 
well fought and the victory nobly won. 

For a number of years the Matthushek Piano 
Company manufactured pianos in New Haven, but 
a few years ago the works were removed to West 
Haven. H. S. Parmelee, of this city, is President 
and Treasurer of the Company. 

Mill Builders. 

The Edward Harrison Mill Company was found- 
ed, in 1847, by Edward Harrison, the inventor of 
the high-speed system of grinding grain. Mr. 
Harrison was born in the town of Meriden, Conn., 
in 1 81 7. In i860 he removed his works, then in 
this city, to Westville. In 1873 he returned to 
New Haven, and built the factory now occupied 
by the present Company bearing his name. Janu- 
ary, 1847, his first mill patent was granted him, 
which consisted of a vertical, conical stone, with a 
pulley so arranged as to drive a blast of cold air 
between the burs, to keep them and the meal cool. 
In 1854 he received a patent for a horizontal mill, 
which met with great success. He also invented 
a 20-inch vertical mill, which had a capacity of 
sixty bushels per hour, running at the high speed 
of 1,200 revolutions per minute. The success thus 
attained has resulted in the foundation of the high 
speed system of milling. Mr. Harrison died March 
3, 1878. In 1882 the Company was incorporated. 
Leonard D. Harrison is President and Treasurer, 
and E. H. Cady, Secretary. 

Oleomargarine. 

The Easterbrook Company, at 133 Park street, 
are the only manufacturers of Oleomargarine in Con- 
necticut. The Company was established in 1873, 
by the H. R. Nash Company, and in 1874 passed 
into the hands of the present proprietors. The 
Company manufacture oleomargarine under the 
Mege patent. The enterprise has been very suc- 
cessful, and the quality of the article produced 
highly creditable in its line. The factory on Park 
street consists of a three-story brick building, having 
an area of 25 by 225 feet, and is equipped with suit- 
able machinery, driven by an engine of 50-horse 
power. From sixty to seventy-five persons are 
employed. The trade in oleomargarine extends to 
all parts of the country, and large shipments are 
made to Europe. 

Oyster Culture. 

Mr. Henry C. Rowe. who is himself one of the 
most extensive oyster-growers in the world, has 
favored us with some observations on the rise and 
progress of oyster culture in New Haven, with 
which we preface our report of the present condition 
of this industry. 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



613 



The oyster fisheries of New Haven antedate our 
earliest records. From time immemorial the chan- 
nel of the Qiiinnipiac River was a iicmiral oyster- 
bed, and oysters grew in favorable localities in the 
Harbor, in West River, Stony River, ant! Oyster 
River. 

The Indians were oyster-men centuries before 
John Davenport and his companions settled upon 
the Quinnipiac. Little we know of them, but we 
find on the banks of our rivers vast deposits ofshells, 
layer upon layer, left by the Indians during succes- 
sive generations. These deposits of shells, acres in 
extent, are found near the mouth of East Haven 
River, and twenty-five years ago there was a large 
bed of them on the east side of the Quinnipiac, on 
the slope of Red Rock, at the eastern end of the 
present Quinnipiac draw-bridge. During my boy- 
hood, I found among these shells many arrow- 
heads, mostly of very hard quartz, some of which 
were quite sharp and perfect. These shell deposits 
are found in places which are sheltered from the 
cold westerly winds of winter, and where, very likely 
for that reason, the Indians built their wigwams. 

In the vicinity of these shell beds, bones of the 
Indians were formerly found, some being of men 
six and one half feet high.* 

We do not know what rude implements of oyster 
catching theQuinnipiacs used; whether theygather- 
ed them in their canoes, or, taking advantage of 
the very low tides caused by the westerly gales, 
walked or waded on the beds, gathering their sup- 
plies for days or weeks to come. They gathered 
them for their own use, and perhaps reached also 
the mercantile phafe of the industry, by trading 
with neighboring tribes. 

After the advent of the English, the oyster fishery 
was conducted for over one huntlred and fifty years 
in much the same manner as by the Indians. So 
far as we know, planting did not begin till about 
1800, although doubtless before that date oysters 
had become an article of traflic with the inhabitants 
of the inland towns. 

In the early days of the business the oysters were 
all opened in the basements of the dwellings where 
I they were stored, and in 1S20, and later,there were 
few if any houses in Fair Haven that were not 
used for opening oysters. The oysters were put 
up in kegs and transported and sold in the inland 
towns. 

Mr. Edmund Bradley, of East Haven, and Mr. 
Jacob Goodsell, father of Mr. James H. Goodsell, 
used to carry them into the country in their saddle- 
bags about 1 81 5 or 1818. 

Mr. James H. Goodsell tells me that when a boy 
he had an iron hook for a plaything, which his 
father had used for taking oysters out of the bung- 
holes of the kegs when measuring them out for his 
customers; and Captain George Hults and Mr. 
Orrin Mallorv remember when it was customary to 
use such a utensil. As the business increased the 
enterprising firms began running large spring 
wagons, drawn by two and four horses, and extended 
their trips to Hartford and Springfield, and after- 
wards into New York, Vermont, and Canada. 

* Dodd's East Haven Register. 



Messrs. Jesse Ludington, Lucius Maltby, F. W. 
Tuttle, William B. Goodyear, Captain Abijah Mun- 
son, Captain George Hults. Orrin IMallory, and 
others who were born early in this cmtury, have 
given me interesting accounts of the early oyster 
business. 

The principal dealers in 1820 and 1830 were 
Deacon Harvey Rowe, Levi Rowe, Edmund Brad- 
ley, John Rowe, Street Hemingway, of Plymouth, 
and Oliver Mosely and Sturges Upson, who lived 
in Massachusetts, and 'drove down to get their 
oysters. 

John Rowe's tavern was then the headquarters of 
the oyster trade. It stood where Todd's brick 
block now is, near the west end of the Grand 
street bridge. When the large oyster wagons ar- 
rived at the tavern a large part of the inhabitants 
of the village would hasten to them to make en- 
gagements for the sale of their oysters, and would 
rapidly unload the wagons of their empty kegs. 
Dozens of men would be seen, each carrying eight 
or ten empty kegs of one and two gallons capacity 
each, holding them by putting one finger in the 
bung-hole of each keg. On arrival home all 
hands proceeded to open as many oysters as would 
fill the kegs, which then, by means of wheelbarrows, 
were returned to John Rowe's tavern to reload the 
teams for their next trip. There, too, they received 
their pay, sometimes in coin, sometimes in bank 
bills, some of which were occasionally on broken 
banks. But oftener the consideration would be 
produce of various kinds which the oyster caravans 
had traded for in iMassachusetts or beyond, such 
as butter, cheese, pork, brooms, " Vermont gray " 
cloth, etc., and it was not unusual for an oj'ster- 
man to appear in a new suit of gray cloth shortly 
after the fall oyster season commenced to render 
its returns. Some who lived on the east side of 
the river, I am told by Mr. Orrin Mallory, used to 
leave word with Mr. John Rowe at the tavern how 
many they would furnish when the next team arrived. 

Mr. Ambrose Doolittle,the father of Hon. Tilton 
E. Doolittle, was at one time extensively in the 
business. In 1836 or 1837, a Mr. Peters, of 
Cooperstown, New York, inaugurated a compre- 
hensive scheme to control the whole oyster busi- 
ness of Fair Haven. He engaged vast quantities 
of oysters, and in the fall of that year had6o,coo 
bushels afloat in Fair Haven at once. Unfortuately 
for him, the weather was unusually warm, and 
the oyster market declined so that he lost a 
great quantity of oysters and gave up the enter- 
prise nearly bankrupt. In November of that year 
oysters could be bought in Fair Haven at almost 
any price. Mr. William B. Goodyear started for 
New York State with a load of 240 gallons, and 
the weather growing suddenly cold, he found a 
great demand, and sold his stock in Central New- 
York at §2 and $2.50 per gallon. 

A reliable and interesting picture of the oyster 
business is given by Rev. Stephen Dodd in his 
" East Haven Register, " published in 1824. He 
says. "The fisheries of East Haven are excellent 
and valuable. In Quinnipiac River, oysters are 
taken in vast quantities, and those of superior 



6U 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



f 



flavor in the Cove and Stoney River.'' "The trade 
in oysters is carried to a great extent. F"rom si.xtyto 
an hundred thousand bushels are annually im- 
ported. These are opened, put up in small kegs, 
and dispersed all over the northern and western 
country quite into Canada. The amount of sales 
for this town and vicinity was estimated at twenty- 
five thousand dollars during the fall and winter 
season, and it sometimes probably exceeds that 
sum." 

The rapidly increasing trade in oysters caused 
the importation from neighboring rivers to begin 
early in the present century. Mr. Jesse Lud- 
ingion, who came to Fair Haven in 1810, 
tells me that it was about that time that the 
importation of oysters from the Housatonic River 
commenced, and I learn from him, and from Cap- 
tain Edwin Thompson, who was born in 1809, 
Captain John R. Lanfair, who was born in 1806, 
ami others of our oldest residents, that our vessels 
rapidly extended their cruises further and further 
from New Haven in their voyages to North River, 
Newark Bay, New Brunswick Flats; a few years 
later to Egg Harbor, Delaware Bay, and Chinco- 
teague Inlet; and finally,about 1823,10 Chesapeake 
Bay itself 

During all these years not only were oysters im- 
ported, but great quantities were yearly caught in 
the Quinnipiac River. In 1836 the yearly yield 
was estimated carefully at 12,000 bushels, and in 
1846 at 30,000 bushels from the river and harbor. 

There was a law during this period, and later, 
forbidding the taking of the native oysters through 
the summer and fall until November ist. When 
the prohibition expired, at midnight of October 3 ist, 
and the law was "oft"," there was a grand scramble 
for the oysters. Mr. Ingersoll, in his report on 
Oyster Culture in the Tenth United States Census, 
gives a spirited account of this annual raid upon 
the bivalves, and the old residents pronounce it 
quite correct. 

In anticipation of this date, great preparations were made 
in the towns along tlie shore, and even for twenty miles 
back from the seaside. Boats and rakes, and baskets and 
bags, having been put in order the day before, large numbers 
of wagons tame towards the shore from the back country, 
bringing hundreds of men, with their utensils. Among 
tliese were not unfrequently seen Ijoats, borne on the riggmg 
of a hay cart, ready to be launched on the expected morn- 
ing. Itwas a time of gre.it excitement, and nowhere greater 
than along the (,^liiinnipiac. On the day preceding, farmers 
flocked into Fair Haven from all the surrounding country, 
and brought lioals and canoes of antique pattern and ruin- 
ous aspect. These rusiics always met with a riotous welcome 
from the town boys, who hated rural competitors. They 
were very likely to find their boats, if not carefully watched, 
stolen and hidden belorc they had a chance to launch them, 
or even temporarily disabled. These things diversified the 
day and enlivened a community usually very peaceful, if not 
dull. As midnight a)iproached, men dressed in oilskin, and 
carrying oars, padd'es, rakes, and tongs, collected all along 
the shore, where a crowd of women and children assembled 
to see the fun. Every sort of craft was prepared for action. 
There were sharpies, square-enders, skiffs, and canoes, and 
they lined the whole margin of the river and harbor on each 
side in thick array. As the "witching hour" drew near, the 
men took their seats with much hilarity, and nerved their 
arms for a few moments' vigorous work. No eye could see 
the great face of the church clock on the hill, but lanterns 
glimmered upon a hundred watch dials, and then were set 



down, as only a coveted minute remained. There was a 
hush in the merriment along the shore, an instant's calm, 
and then the great bell struck a deep toned peal. It was 
like an electric shock. Backs bent to oars, and paddles 
churned the water. From opposite banks navies of boats 
leaped out and advanced towards one another through the 
darkness, as though bent on mutual annihilation. The race 
was to the swift, and every stroke was the mightiest. Before 
the twelve blows upon the loud bell had ceased their rever- 
berations, the oyster-beds had been reached, tongs were 
scraping the long rested bottom, and the season upon the 
Quinnipiac had begun. In a few hours the crowd upon some 
l)eds would be such that the boats were pressed close to- 
getlier. They were all compelled to move along as one, for 
none could resist the pressure of the multitude. The more 
thickly covered beds were quickly cleaned of their bivalves. 
The boats were full, the wagons were full, and many had 
secured what they called their "winter's stock" before the 
day was done, and thousands of bushels were packed away 
under blankets and secured in scores of cellars. Those 
living on the shore and regularly engaged in the trade, 
usually secured the cream of the crop. They knew just 
where logo first; they were better practiced in handling boats, 
rakes, etc. ; they formed combinations to help one another. 
That first day was the great day, and often crowds of spec- 
tators gathered to witness the fun and the frequent quarrels 
or fights which occurred in the pushing and crowding. By 
the next day the rustic crowd had departed, but the oyster 
continued to be sought. A week of this sort of attack, how- 
ever, usually sufficed so thoroughly to clean the liottom, 
that subsetpient raking was of small account. Enough oys- 
ters always remained, however, to furnish spawn for another 
year, and the hard scraping prepared a favorable bottom, 
so that there was usually a fair supply the next season. It 
was not long, however, before the old-fashioned large oys- 
ters, "as big as a shoe home," were all gone, and most of 
those caught were too small for market. Attention was 
therefore turned to the cultivation of oysters, and as the 
Chesapeake trade declined, this subject began to receive 
more and more earnest attention, and to arouse an unex- 
pected opposition upon all sides. 

Many pranks were played by the Fair Haven 
men upon their unwelcome competitors froin the 
surrounding town, which were doubtless much 
more amusing to the perpetrators than to the vic- 
tims. On one morning when the act was off, Heze- 
kiah Bradley's canoe was found standing on end in 
an apple tree, up on the hill where the Shore Line 
railroad now runs, and it was a matter of much de- 
lay and labor before she again reached her appro- 
priate element. 

At another time a large fleet of visiting boats 
which were hauled out on the shore property on 
the east side of the river, now owned by the Towns- 
end Brothers and Henry C. Rowe, were prevented 
from participating in the grand rush by the sudden 
disappearance of every rope and anchor in the fleet, 
and the owners of the boats on visiting the local 
stores to purchase new rope, found that their op- 
ponents had been there before them, and their 
money could not purchase any rope in Fair Haven. 

As soon as the boats were loaded it was custom- 
ary to shovel the oysters over in heaps on the 
shore, and I am told that at low water the heaps 
would appear as thick as hay-cocks, and it was dif- 
ficult to launch a boat between them. 

Mr. Orrin Mallory says he has seen the \boats 
so thick in the river that he could have crossed the 
river stepping from boat to boat. 

It may be desirable in this connection to "see 
ourselves as others see us," by quoting from the 
reports of those who have in past years examined 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



615 



the industry The following is an extract from 

the New York Tribune, of January 9, 1857. De- 
scribing Fair Haven and its methods, it says: 

There are the openers, the washers, the measurers, the 
fillers, the packers, etc., each of which performs only the 
dutiL'> pertaining to its own division. At thi-^ season of the 
year [January], few of the oysters are " planted," but they are 
generally taken directly from the vessel to the openers. An 
expert at this branch will open 100 r|narts per day, but the 
average is not perhaps over 65 quarts. The standard price 
is, I think, 2'/i cents per quart. This work gives em- 
ployment to many hundreds ot women and boys, and much 
of the work is done at private dwellings, by persons who 
cannot go into a general workshop. Tlie oysters, as they 
come from the vessel, are heaped \\\>.m the middle of the 
room, the operators occupying the wall sides. Kach person 
has before him a small desk or platform, some three feet in 
height, on which is placed, as occasion requires, about half a 
bushel of oysters, Irom which the opener takes his supply. 
On the stand is a small anvil, on which, wiih a hammer, the 
edge of the shell is broken. The opeiative is provided with 
a knife and hammer, both of whicii are held in the right 
hand; when the shell is broken then the hammer is dropped 
and the knife does its work. Twotvd)sor pails, of about ihiee 
gallunscapacityeach,are placed within about three feet cf the 
workman, into which he throws, with great dexterity and 
rapidity, the luscious morsel which is to tickle the palate of 
some dweller in the Far West. The object of placing these 
vessels of reception so far from the operator, is to prevent, as 
much as passible, the deposit of the original liiiuor with the 
oysters. « • * From the opening room the oysters are 
taken to the filling-room, and thence to the (lacking depart- 
ment. In the filling-room, on a platform are placed a dozen 
or more kegs or cans, with the Imngs out. The oysters are 
first poured into a large hopper pierced with holes, in which 
they are thoroughly washed and drained, when they are 
ready to be deposited in packages. This is done by placing 
a funnel in the aperture of the keg by one person, while 
another " measures and pours." This operation is performed 
with great rapidity, two or three men being able to fill some 
2,000 kegs in a day. After depositing the requisite number 
of " solid oysters, " as they are termed, in each package, a 
pipe conveying fresh water is applied, and the vacant sjiace 
filled with nature's beverage, the bungs placed and driven 
home, when it is ready to be shipped. In hot weather, the 
article adds, kegs are placed in boxes surrounded with 
broken ice. One firm used 150,000 kegs a year, costing 
about $15,000. Eighty vessels were then employed in busi- 
ness, and about $i,ooo,coo capital was invested. 

In regard to the extent of the business, Mr. 
IngersoU writes in 1880: 

The trade rapidly grew into imnrense proportions. Just 
when it was at its zenith it is hard to say — probably about 
Ihirty years ago — .and it was then very profitable. The 
Fair Haven estabhshments had branch houses in all the 
inland cities, as far as Chicago and St. I.ouis, and it was re- 
ported that the profit of a single hou-e, from 1S52 to 1856, 
.amounted to $25,000 a year. Levi Kowe & Co. alone, in 
1856, are said to have employed 20 vessels and 100 openers, 
and to have sold 150,000 gallons of oysters, while com- 
panion houses shipped from I,oco to 1,500 bushels per day 
throughout the season. 

The legislation for the regulation of the oyster 
fishery has grown, like the industry itself, from a 
small beginning, to a long chapter in our statutes. 
As different phases of the industry have arisen and 
developed, new statutes have been required for its 
regulation, and some vigorous contests have taken 
place in determining the policy to be pursued. 

In the revision of the Connecticut Statutes of 
1821, but one oyster section appears. It provides 
that every tnwn may make by-laws regulating the 
fisheries for oysters and clams in the waters belong- 
ing to and adjoining such town. The principal 



use made of this power was to enact a provision 
for a " clo.se season," fixing a period in each year 
during which no oysters should be taken. In 1830 
the Legislature further provided that such by-laws 
shall be duly published, and for appeal by those 
prosecuted under them. Also that no town should 
issue permits to any one to take oysters during the 
time that such taking was forbidden by the by-law, 
and that no discrimination should be made, but 
that the by-laws should apply to all persons what- 
soever. The same statute provided tor incarcera- 
tion in the workhouse of those who failed to pay 
their fines under this statute. 

In 1842, the "close time" which had before 
been regulated by laws of each tow-n, was fixed by 
statute from March i to November 21, unless dis- 
sented from by towns in town-meeting. 

In 1 84 5, a statute forbade all oystering in the 
night season, except by the owner of planted oys- 
ters upon his own ground; and tiie same year the 
legislation took a long stride forward in providing 
for the staking out of ground and planting of the 
same, with the consent of a committee appointed 
by the town for that purpose. Tlie natural oyster- 
beds were exempted from such slaking, and penalty 
was provided for trespass upon tliese betls. It had 
been common for many years to plant oysters tem- 
porarily to a considerable extent, but this formal 
authority for the practice was very necessary for the 
proper protection and regulation of the planting. 

In 1848, non-residents were forbidden to take 
oysters in the w'aters of this State, and the act pro- 
vided for seizure of boats and utensils used in such 
taking. 

In 1855 another very important act was passed. 
The necessity of some written evidence of title to 
grounds was seen, and it was provided that appli- 
cations and designations and transfers of ground 
should be in writing. But it was not till 1864 that 
the final step was taken that directed that designa- 
tions and transfers should be recorded; that new 
designations might be taken out when the evi- 
dences of title were lost; and for the taxation of 
designated grounds. 

In 1S65, staking out grounds, except by the 
committee duly appointed, was prohibited. 

After 1865, the growth of the business caused 
frequent changes in the statutes, and they are too 
numerous to mention here, except the more im- 
portant. 

Under these various statutes, grounds were 
staked out; and, later, designations were made in 
lawful form. A large extent of ground was staked 
out on the beach, and other tracts between the 
beach and the Long Wharf on the west side of the 
harbor, and from Crane's Bar nearly up to the 
Tomlinson's Bridge on the east side. These tracts 
were largely used for planting oysters from Chesa- 
peake Bay, in April for fall use, but natives were 
also |)lanted to a considerable extent. 

About 1865 and 1866, the propagation of oysters 
was engaged in to some extent; and, under various 
statutes for the purpose, Morris Cove was granted 
to individuals — a single acre to each — and there be- 
ing more applicants than there were acres, the ground 



616 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



was apportioned by lot. The town of East Haven 
received Sio per acre for the ground, but was put to 
considerable expense in the survey. The town of 
New Haven also granted a large territory in 1867, 
known as the "shoal ground," extending from near 
the fort buoy to the mouth of the harbor, and East 
Haven followed, in 1872, under the authority of an 
Act of the Legislature of 1 87 1 , by the designation of 
a tract of acre lots between Light-house Point and 
Morgan's Point and inclosed and partly protected 
by "Adam's Fall," "Old Head," and "Quixes," 
Reefs. 

The utilization of the bottom of Long Island 
Sound, outside of the harbors, islands and reefs 
which had protected the early planters, was regarded 
as a hazardous experiment. Ingersoll writes, in 
1880: 

It will he understood by this, that the business of catchin;; 
and cultivating native home-bred oysters at New Haven, 
had grown out of the old haphazard condition into a definite 
and profitable organization by the time the last decade be- 
gan. It was not long before all the availalile inshore bottom 
was occupied, and the lower river and harbor looked like a 
submerged forest, so thickly were planted the boundary 
stakes of the various beds. Encroachments naturally followed 
into deeper water, and this proceeded, until finally some ad- 
venturous spirits went below the light-house and invaded 
Long Island Sound. Who was the originator and pioneer in 
this bold move is disputed, and the honor is claimed by sev- 
eral. * * * At any rate Mr. H. C. Rowe first showed 
the courage of his opinions enough to take up some hundreds 
of acres outside, in water from 25 to 40 feet deep, and to be- 
gin there the cultivation of native oysters. 

It would be impossible in the space assigned to 
this article to do more than to outline the methods 
of the business, the difficulties met, the risks in- 
curred, and the means to combat them. 

After a legal title has been secured, which was for 
many years very difficult to accomplish, the next 
step was to examine the bottom to ascertain its 
character, and whether the star-fish or periwinkles 
were at present on the ground. If so, to plant the 
ground would be useless, for, under the most favor- 
able conditions they are liable to appear and de- 
stroy a bed of oysters at any time, and it would be 
almost certain loss to try to start a bed of oysters 
when these enemies were already present in any con- 
siderable force. 

If the conditions are found favorable, the next 
step is to plant a quantity of parent oysters broad- 
cast say; 30,000 or 40,000 bushels on a tract of 500 
acres. 

In the month of July every adult female oyster 
produces several million of eggs, and every male 
oyster a much greater number of the spermatozoa. 
These are discharged into the water of the Sound, 
and though their numbers are far beyond compu- 
tation, or even imagination, yet they are so small, 
and there is such a vast body of water in the 
Sound, that but a very small percentage of the eggs 
come in contact with the milt and are impregnated. 
After floating in the water for several days, the little 
oysters, which go through many wonderful and in- 
teresting changes, as may be seen under the micro- 
scope, are ready to attach to some shell or stone, 
or other hard clean substance, and settle down to 
a quiet life. 



Although but a small part of the eggs are impreg- 
nated, the number that reaches the attaching stage, 
and starts on the journey of life as perfect oysters, 
is vastly lessened by many adverse circumstances. 
A cold rain will kill all the embr3'os with which it 
comes in contact, and the minute oysters are the 
prey of many other kinds of microscopic life, es- 
pecially of the infusoria. But of those that have 
escaped all the preceding dangers, but a small pro- 
portion are brought by the currents of water in 
contact with shells or other culch suitable for at- 
tachment. 

The little oysters must have a hard and clean 
substance to "set" on, and as two-thirds of the 
bottom of the Sound is mud, and most of the re- 
mainder is almost free from shells, except where 
planted for the purpose, but a small proportion 
have been, under natural conditions, saved. But 
here the aid of the oyster culturist intervenes, and 
on the five hundred acres where he has planted 
thirty thousand bushels of parent oysters to furnish 
the embryos, he also plants two hundred and fifty 
thousand bushels of shells in July, just at the time 
when the little oysters are in need of a resting 
place. These shells, being freshly planted, have 
not yet accumulated the obstructive deposits of 
tunicates, barnacles, bryozoa, polyps, etc., and if 
the season is a favorable one, the oyster cultivator 
finds, on examining the shells in August, little 
specks, which the practiced eye can recognize as 
oysters, sometimes one or two on a shell, and 
sometimes crowded with hundreds. 

These little oysters grow to the size of three- 
fourths of an inch in diameter during their first 
year, and those which survive their many enemies 
reach a marketable age at from four to six years. 

During the whole period of growth they are sub- 
ject to destruction by the star-fish, winkles, drills, 
and by the wave action of severe storms, which 
agitate the water to a great depth, and often bur}- 
acres of oysters and smother them under sand, 
mud, or sea-weed. 

But the star-fish is probably the greatest enemy 
that the oyster cultivator has. They move about 
the Sound wiih the currents, sometimes singly, 
sometimes in squads, and sometimes in great 
armies like the locusts in Africa, destroying nearly 
every oyster in their path. An oyster-bed of one 
hundred thousand bushels has been examined and 
found in prosperous condition, and two weeks 
later not half of them remained alive. The only 
practicable remedy yet in use is to catch up both 
star-fish and oysters, and, after picking out the star- 
fish, to plant the oysters on ground where the star-fish 
do not abound. Several ingenious contrivances 
have been invented to catch the "stars" only, and 
some patented; but the difficulty in the way of 
complete success seems to be in separating the 
oysters from the star-fish by any mechanical con- 
trivance. 

Another enemy of oysters appeared in the spring 
of 1885, when a large quantity of young oysters 
was found to have been destroyed by it. The fol- 
lowing letter from Professor A. E. Verrill, who is 
the highest authority on such matters, describes it; 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



617 



New Haven, June i6, 1885. 
|Mr. H. C. RowE. 

Dear Sir, — I have examined the samples of seed oysters 
Isubmitted by you. The large masses ol sandy tubes which 
I cover the shtrlls of the oysters, both hving and dead, are 
Imade by a small worm, about an inch long, which was first 
(described and figured by myself in 1872, in the first volume 
[of the Reports of the United States FiA Commission. It is 
Ithere named sabillaria vulgaris, the first part of the name 
I referring to its using sand for its tube, while the latter part 
I was given to it because of its common occurrence. This 
I Latin or scientific name might be translated as the "com- 
IjDon sand-tube builder." It is very common from Cape 
to Cape Hatteras, building its tubes on stones and all 
brts of shells as well as on oysters. It grows very rapidly, 
other marine worms, and, when abundant, its tubes in- 
xlock and form rough crusts, often an inch or more in 
hickness. Such rough and porous crusts serve to catch the 
■ floating particles of mud and organic debris, which will 
subsequently putrefy and turn black in the interior part of 
the crusts, evolving sulphureted hydrogen and other poison- 
ous and offensive substances. As these worms grow much 
faster than the seed oysters, they can easily bury them so 
deeply under the crust of tubes that the oysters will die. 
either for lack of a supply of pure water and food, or in 
consequence of the directly poisonous gases produced by the 
putrid substances in the crust. In other words the worms, 
by their rapid growth and the closeness of their crusts, may 
tx- said to " smother " the seed oysters. The large oysters 
-eem to be capable of resisting their effects in most cases. 
I >thcr creatures, with similar habits, have been known to 
produce the same effect on oyster-beds, but this is the first 
time that this particular kind of worm has been shown to be 
destructive to oyster-beds. I think, therefore, that you are 
deser\'ing of a great deal of credit in calling attention to 
this new kind of pest. 

Very respectfully yours, A. E. Verrill. 

The preceding are some of the dangers and ob- 
stacles which nature provided for the discourage- 
ment of oyster cultivators, but the prejudices, jeal- 
ousies and mistaken views generally prevalent acided 
much to their difficulties. Fifteen years ago very 
few were aware that oysters were cultivated like 
wheat or rye. Most people had an idea the 
oysters grew wild like blackberries and whortle- 
berries; consequently they regarded the granting 
of oyster ground to individual oyster-growers as 
a robbery of the general public, and it was with 
much difficulty that legislation could be secured 
which would enable oyster-growers to prosecute 
their worthy enterprise. Blatant demagogues har- 
angued town-meetings in some shore towns, and, 
getting elected to the Legislature, there announced 
themselves as the friends of the "poor man," and 
decried the pioneers in this industry as monopolists, 
when in fact the friends of the poor man were the 
originators of an industry which is to cause our 
waters to produce one hundred times as many oys- 
ters as in a wild state, and furnish labor and food 
to a hundred poor men where it did to one before. 

This prejudice, which had to be overcome by the 
gradual increase of intelligence, accounts in a large 
degree for the fragmentary and partial method of 
our legislation. 

In 1879, 'he growth of the industry seemed to 
require considerable modification of the legislation 
upon oyster-growing, and it was thought by some 
a commission should be created to give the subject 
careful consideration. Colonel I. W. Carpenter, of 
Norwich, who was then Chairman of the Commis- 
sion of Fisheries, with the writer, prepared the 
following resolution, which was passed. 

78 



IVAfreas, The raising of oysters from the spawn in deep 
waters of the State, in Long Island Sound, has proved by 
experience to be a success; and 

IVhergtis, There is an immense tract of available oyster- 
ground between the town boundaries and the southerly 
boundaries of the State, which cannot at present be used, 
because the State has granted no authority to designate it; 
and 

ly/ifreas, These grounds can be disposed of so as to bring 
a large sum into the treasury of the State; Therefore, 

Resolvfil, by this assembly, That a commission, consisting 
of three persons, be appointed by the Governor to prepare 
a plan, and report to the next session of the General As- 
sembly, for the gradual disposal of the grounds in the waters 
of this State which are suitable lor the cultivation of oysters. 
Said commisssion shall examine all existing statutes relating 
to oyster-grounds and town-lines in the Sound; all customs 
and by-laws in different parts of the State; and such other 
matters as pertain to oyster-fisheries, so that the system de- 
vised shall be of general ap plication, and enable the State 
to dispose of the franchise of the grounds to the best advan- 
tage. 

The commission then appointed failed to carry 
out the purpose of those who had originated it, but 
reported a law to the ne.xt General Assembly, which 
created a commission having great and arbitrary 
powers over the industry, and authorized the leasing 
of all oyster grounds within the State at such rates 
and under such conditions as would have dis- 
couraged the industry. This proposed law also 
disregarded titles previously granted by authority of 
the State. The oyster-growers of New Haven and 
of the State at large protested against this bill and 
prevented its passage in the Legislature of 1880. In 
1 88 1, radical changes having been made in the bill, 
it was passed, and the Commission commenced its 
administration May 1, 1881. Between this date 
and lune 30, 1885, the oyster-growers of the State 
paid the Commission for ground and surveying a 
little over $50,003. 

In the years 1882 and 1883, the amount each 
year was over $15,000; but nearly all of the desir- 
able ground is now granted, and the grants during 
seven months previous to the last report amounted 
to only $700. 

New Haven growers have been large purchasers 
of these lands, and have also paid a large propor- 
tion of the taxes laid by this Commission, which 
on oyster ground outside of the town jurisdictions 
amount as follows: 

In 1883 $3,681.47 

" 1884 6,44747 

" 1885 7.890.72 

These taxes have been paid by the growers under 
protest, as it has been claimed by the growers that 
many of the assessments were more than double 
what the grounds would sell for. 

The expense of the Commission to the State since 
its commencement has been, according to its re- 
ports, about $10,000 per year. 

Residents of New Haven own more oyster- 
ground than those of any other town, and the fol- 
lowing list of those owning over one hundred acres 
each in the State jurisdiction, outside of the rivers 
and harbors, is based on the tax list last compiled. 

Avery, Van Name & King ". . 150 

Ball, Ernest E 350 

Barnes, Alvah 300 

Barnes & Lane 447 



618 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



Barnes, Willett 225 

Bishop, James E., Estate 323-3 

Bray, Rose & Ives 13' 3 

Brown, Frederick F 100 

Brown, Isaac E 600 

Button, John M 100 

Chipman, S. & D 300 

Eaton, Charles N 172 

Fordham & Bell 120 

Frisbie, Nelson 100 

Fuller & Benedict 100 

Hall, Sylvia C lOO 

Hamilton, George C 678 

Hanscom & Ailing '03 ■ 3 

Hemingway, Morris 100 

Homan, Frank L 125 

Hoyt Brothers' Company 1.531 

Hoyt, Charles \V 175 

Hoyt, C. W. & W. H 250 

Hulse & Dunbar 190.3 

Johnson, C. & Harold, S 107 

Kuhne, Ernest 206 

Lancraft Brothers 1,897 

Law, F. T. & F. A 108 

Law, J. M 17s 

Law, R. W 108 

Law, R. W., Jr 42S 

Ludington & Palmer 434 

Ludington, Lucius S 100 

Ludington, Nelson A 143-4 

Mallory, George W 100 

Mallory, William I 160 

Mansfield, F. & Sons 1,391 

McNeil & Carrington 100 

Miller, Anderanim 117 

Page, John 106 

Rowe, Henry C 13,868.6 

Seeley, Charles H 3S7 . g 

Shuster, John 205 

Smith, Daniel M 100 

Smith, Jeremiah & Sons 1,905 7 

Smith, J. & G. H 654.5 

Smith, S. F. & W. M 100 

Smith, R. T. & M. P 115 

Smith, T. M., R. P. & W. M 500 

Smith, T. M., R, P., W. M. & W 165 

Thomas, Thomas &. John 372.3 

Thomas, Thomas 437-5 

Thompson, Charles E 100 

Thompson, Edwin 100 

Townsend, George H 557 

Ward, W. W. & Co 750 

Waterhouse, Charles H., Jr 100 

White, Merrill 135-9 

Woodward Brothers 361 .9 

In addition to the cultivation in the open Sound, 
which is jjursued by the cultivators named in the 
foregoing list, planting in the harbor is practiced 
by several hundred dealers, among whom the fol- 
lowing are some of the most prominent: 

N. A. Ludington, J. E. Bishop i Co., 

A. B. Barnes, G. W. Mallory, 

S. Chipman & Co., Jeremiah Smith, 

R. W. Law, B. N. Rowe & Co., 

L. Gunn & Co. 

A number of our dealers have at various times 
shipped shell oysters to European markets and to 
California, among whom are Hoyt Brothers' Com- 
pany, Jeremiah Smith & Son, and H. C. Rowe & 
Co. The two former are still largely interested in 
the foreign trade. 

There is a large business in opened oysters at 
Fair Haven and at Oyster Point. They are ship- 
ped in tubs, holding from 3 to 20 gallons each, and 
supply the l)est trade in New England and some in 
.Mew York and Canada. 



The cheaper class of trade in the same territory 
is furnished by barreled oysters opened in Norfolk, 
Baltimore, and Crisfield. 

Many hundred thousand bushels of the native 
oysters are sold yearly from New Haven to planters 
in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York and 
New Jersey. The New Haven seed and plants are 
noted for their thriftiness and vigor. 

The first oysters ever sent to Washington Terri- 
tory for planting in Puget Sound, were shipped by 
the writer in 1884. 

In 1880, Mr. Ernest Ingersoll made a visit to 
New Haven, and gave the oyster business and cul- 
ture a careful study, the results of which, as written 
out for the United States census, I have alluded to 
and quoted from. 

In the summer of 1882, Lieutenant Francis S. 
Winslow, U. S. N., was sent to New Haven to 
continue his valuable studies of the embryology of 
the oyster. He was with the writer for nearly four 
weeks, and under the microscope we watched the 
interesting and wonderful operations of nature in 
reproducing the untold millions of minute oysters. 
On one pleasant afternoon, some eighty members 
of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and .Sciences, 
participated in an e.Kcursion on the steamerGordon 
Rowe, when fifteen millions of the young oysters, 
artificially impregnated, were planted in the Sound. 

In spite of various drawbacks and discouraging 
circumstances, the culture of oysters is increasing, 
and the product is rapidly crowding out the inferior 
Southern stock, as I have elsewhere shown. If the 
industry can be protected from oppressive ta.xation, 
and the natural enemies of the oyster combated 
without so great expenditure as to make it unre- 
munerative, the industry will hereafter help largely 
to make our city prosperous. 

One hundred years ago the business was merely 
to reap the natural oysters which Providence fur- 
nished in our rivers. A traffic in them arose and 
grew to large proportions. Seventy-five years ago 
the importation from the South commenced and 
rapidly increased. Fifty years ago planting was 
practiced, but not propagating. Thirty years ago 
the importing, planting, opening, and shipping 
were at their height. Twenty years ago the prop- 
agation commenced, and but a dozen years since 
the oyster culture in the deep water of Long Island 
Sound was attempted. The pioneers in this enter- 
prise risked their capital and labor in e.\periments, 
which were regarded as hazardous and even foolish, 
and succeeded, amid many losses and discourage- 
ments, in founding an agriculture or aqua-culture, 
wherein we are again in advance of all other cities 
in the United States. There are more acres of 
oyster ground owned by citizens of New Haven 
than of any other city in the world, and our oyster 
propagators are building up an industry which 
already enables us to e.xport vast quantities to New- 
York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Massachu- 
setts, to the ver_v men who sold us oysters but 
fifteen years ago. If good fortune attends our oyster 
interests, they will soon again be more valuable 
than in the stirring times of 1856. They will pro- 
duce millions of bushels annually, employ thousands 



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PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



619 



{ of operatives, and furnish food for hundreds of 
IJfiiousands. 

HENRY C. ROWE. 

Few families can claim an earlier residence 
among the first settlers of New Haven than that of 
the Rowes. The records show that Matthew Rowe 
became a member of the colony on the yth of 
larch, 1644, less than six years after the first 
settlement occurred. 

Levi Rowe, the grandfather, and Ruel Rowe, the 
father of the subject of this sketch, were among 
the prominent and respected citizens of Fair 
Haven, and participated in many efforts to promote 
the welfare of the village, not only in material 
prosperity, but in organizations for religious and 
temperance work. His mother was the daughter 
of Washington Gordon, of North Branford, and 
enjoyed the advantage of tiie training and example 
of a mother of truly Christian character and of rare 
energy, by which she did not fail to profit. She 
was a successful teacher before her marriage. 

Henry C. was born in Fair Haven, April 23,1851. 
The sudden death of his father in IMay, 1868, 
called him from school into business, at the age of 
seventeen years. Ruel Rowe was engaged in the 
shipment of oysters to Canada. New York, and the 
West, and his son continued this trade for one sea 
son, but Baltimore competition was crowding Fair 
Haven out of Western trade, and at the commence- 
ment of his second year he started a New England 
trade which was the nucleus of his present remark- 
able success. 

Henry C. Rowe was one of the first to see the 
great advantage it would be to New Haven if the 
oysters shipped from there could be propagated in 
our own waters instead of being imported from the 
South, as was then done. There has been some 
controversy as to who was the pioneer in this new 
enterprise, which has already grown to such enor- 
mous proportions; but an examination of the East 
Haven records shows that it was Henry C. Rowe 
who took out the first grant of oyster ground in the 
deep water of the Sound, outside of the harbor, 
reefs and islands, on May 14, 1874. 

The enterprise was at first deemed not only haz- 
ardous, but foolhardy. The general opinion was 
that no defensible title could be secured to the 
ground, and that if it was, the culture was imprac- 
ticable for many reasons. No sooner had some of 
the obstacles been overcome, and some of the sea 
bottom of Long Island Sound been converted into 
a prospective oyster farm, than the objectors and 
cavilers forthwith proceeded to vent their prejudices 
by claiming that the right of property in oyster- 
ground was a wrong to the poor man. It was then 
generally supposed that oysters grew wild, like 
blackberries, and but few- had the idea they could 
be cultivated or propagated, like wheat or rye. 

The theory that all oysters in the \vater w-ere 
common plunder was strong in the public mind, 
the Legislature, the Courts, and the Press. This 
prejudice caused much annoyance, and put many 
obstacles in the way of oyster cultivators, and 



caused many contests in the Courts and the Legis- 
lature. The following extracts from a New Haven 
paper of .\ugust 24, 1875, illustrates the feeling 
then strong in the public mind. 

Some two weeks ago wc announced that the committee 
for the town of New llaven for staking out oyster grounds 
had granted to Henry C. Rowe and fifty -eight others, of 
East Haven, one hundred and twenty eight acres for the 
]>urpose of planting oysters. 

»•••«♦•• 

The poor oystermen w ho have depended on earning a 
living by catching native oysters in the channel have by these 
grants been deprived of their right to tish unless they go out- 
side of Southwest Ledge, where the water is from fourteen 
to sixteen feet deep. 

We are also informed that Mr. Rowe has between two 
and three hundred acres thus secured, besides the grant 
given him by the town of New Haven. 

Thus, as early as 1875, Mr. Rowe, then owning 
but two or three hundred acres, was called a mon- 
opolist by those owning less. Two years later his 
accusers, owning the same that he did in 1875, 
still called him a monopolist when he owned more 
than a thousand acres; and a few years later, when 
they owned the latter amount, they found fault 
with him for owning ten thousand. 

Some still complain because he owns more oys- 
ter-ground than any other man in the world. 

The following are extracts from the reply of Mr. 
Rowe to the foregoing: 

The article entitled "Monopoly of Oyster Grounds" is 
well calculated to give a wrong impression. 

After referring to some palpable misstatements, 
he continued: 

It is true I have bought up a large number of two-acre 
claims of other citizens, and it is also true that if I am suc- 
cessful in raising a crop of oysters it will result in furnishing 
employment to large numbers of laboring men. perhaps the 
very poor men, of whom the writer speaks so pathetically. 
Meanwhile I have laid out a considerable sum in attempting 
to start a crop of oysters on the ground, and have put down 
over fifteen thousand bushels of shells for that purpose be- 
side seed. It is true, too, I hope to reap a crop after from 
three to si.x years, but may never realize one cent, as the 
oysters have to run a gauntlet of thieves, mud, starfish, 
winkles and drills; and besides that I have to undergo the 
attacks of envious persons, who regret that they had not 
had the enterprise to get ahead of me, and who, I have no 
doubt, wouUl be glad to get every acre of my ground to- 
day if they were able. 

The result of this public prejudice was that it 
was next to impossible for several years to make a 
successful prosecution of any oyster thief The 
property is so situated, soine of it miles from land, 
that it was difficult to watch it and detect a thief, 
and, when one was captured, judges and juries 
were slow to grasp the idea of property in cultivated 
o)'sters, and were ready to acquit him on any pre- 
text, no matter how absurd or trivial. 

Mr. Rowe was foremost in these prosecutions, 
and in securing, and endeavoring to vigorously 
enforce, such legislation as would protect this 
property. In the summer of 1879, a determined 
warfare was carried on between the oyster-growers 
and the depredators, and, after much watching, the 
theft of many hundred dollars' worth of oysters, 
some skillful capHures and seizures, and some ab- 
surd judicial decisions, a successful prosecution 
was at length had, and Mr. Rowe and his asso- 



620 



ff IS TORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



dates triumphed over the lawless depredators and 
their abettors. 

As the experiments of Mr. Rowe and other pio- 
neers in the industry proceeded and began to give 
some promise of success, others obtained courage 
to go into the enterprise, and desired to obtain 
land in the Sound. Some of them, not knowing 
the law providing for a written title, went out in 
the Sound and staked out ground, some of which 
was lawfully designated to Mr. Rowe and others. 
After a time they were called on to give up their 
squatters' pos.session in deference to a written title 
which they had not been aware of when they first 
took possession. This resulted in disappointment, 
ill-feeling, and contests in Courts. Another cause 
of trouble was the uncertainty of the boundaries of 
the three towns. New Haven, East Haven and Or- 
ange, in the Sound waters. One oyster-grower 
would take a title from East Haven and another 
from New Haven, and a third from Orange, a legal 
contest resulting as to which town had the right to 
make the grant. The famous case of Rowe vs. 
Smith Brothers resulted from this question, and 
after being twice tried in a lower Court and twice 
in the Supreme Court, resulted in a victory for Mr. 
Rowe. 

These and other perplexing questions arising 
naturally out of a new and experimental industry 
caused quarrels and differences which have not 
yet all died out, especially as they have been fos- 
tered by a feeling of jealousy on the part of some 
toward the remarkable success of Mr. Rowe, and the 
magnitude of his business now and prospectively. 

Much legislation was also required to secure the 
titles and regulate this young industry, and for 
many years few bills on oyster matters were passed 
in which Mr. Rowe's hand is not to be seen. 

One of the most vigorous contests in the Legis- 
lature in which Mr. Rowe engaged was in 1880, 
when he secured the passage of a bill permitting 
him to dredge on his own ground with his steamer. 
He then owned the only oyster steamer in New 
Haven, and the other planters vigorously opposed 
its use. Through their influence, Mr. Rowe was 
opposed by the representatives from New Haven 
and East Haven, both in the House and before the 
Legislative Committee. Thirteen persons appeared 
before the Committee to oppose the provision, and 
Mr. Rowe only in its favor. After a lively contest 
the Committee passed it by a vote of 8 to i, the 
Senate by 14 to 4, and the House by a two-third 
vote. It is worthy of remark that the same men 
who then opposed him bitterly, claiming the 
steam- dredges would destroy his own beds and 
his neighbors' too, are now employing and running 
steam-dredges. 

Since 1881, when the State Oyster-growers' Asso- 
ciation was formed, Mr. Rowe has been the lead- 
ing representative of that Association before the 
Legislature and elsewhere. 

Among other public matters in which he has 
endeavored to secure improvements, are the removal 
of the place for depositing dredged material in the 
Government work. It was in close proximity to 
several oyster-beds, and Mr. Rowe secured its re- 



moval by the U. S. Government officers in 1878, 
and then got an act by the State Legislature com- 
pelling all private excavators to carry material to the 
same place. A few years later, he obtained another 
removal, as the increase of the area of the oyster 
grounds required it. 

In 1882, Lieutenant Francis S. Winslow, U. S. 
Navy, with ]\Ir. Rowe's assistance, carried on some 
interesting experiments in the artificial propagation 
of oysters. They were so far successful, that they 
deposited in one day, in the bottom of the Sound, 
fifteen million embryo oysters from the steamer 
Gordon Rowe, having on board the members of 
the Connecticut Academy of Science and other in- 
terested observers. 

Mr. Rowe was one of the first to advocate the 
annexation of a part of the town of East Haven to 
New Haven, and was on the committee to secure 
the passage of an act providing for annexation. He 
circulated a petition in 1872 for the building of the 
Red Rock or Quinnipiac Bridge, and another in 
1885 for a new bridge in place of Tomlinson's 
Bridge, the old structure which had so long been a 
hindrance and danger in the navigation of the 
river. Upon the petition of H. C. Rowe and others, 
the Legislature, in 1885, ordered the draw widened 
to eighty feet or more; and it is an interesting coin- 
cidence, that the General Assembly of 1842, upon 
the petition of his father, Ruel Rowe, ordered the 
draw widened to fifty-four feet, while twenty years 
before that, his grandfather, Levi Rowe, headed a 
movement to have the draw widened, the width 
then being but twenty-six feet. 

In 1883, Mr. Rowe procured the passage of an 
Act by the Legislature to protect infant children 
from ill usage when in the care of other than their 
parents. In 1884 and 1885, he was Chairman of 
a Committee of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and 
Fifteenth Wards of New Haven to oppose the 
schemes of consolidation then before the Legislat- 
ure, and was a member of a similar Committee 
from the Borough of Fair Haven East in 1886. 
But his principal work has been the origination and 
building up of the great deep water oyster cultiva- 
tion, some idea of which may be had from the facts 
that he now controls over twelve thousand acres of 
ground; plants 400,000 bushels of shells yearly; 
and employs over one hundred hands, with a pros- 
pect of having twice as many within three years. 
This business, for the daring enterprise which con- 
ceived and established it, as well as for the magni- 
tude to which it has grown, has attracted wide at- 
tention, and been the theme of many newspaper and 
magazine articles of much instructive interest. One 
of the prominent features oi Frank Leslie's lUiistrakd 
Newspaper for December 13, 1878, was an illustra- 
ted article, which affords a good idea of the impor- 
tance, as well as of some of the details, of iVIr. 
Rowe's great business, which since then has de- 
veloped almost beyond computation. 

Politically, Mr. Rowe votes for the best man, 
and when both are good or both are bad, he votes 
for the Republican. He was an Abolitionist from 
his eighth year, when he first read Mrs. Stowe's 
great work, "Uncle Tom's Cabin." 



i 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



621 



He is a member of the Second Congregational 
Church of Fair Haven, and of the society's stand- 
ing committee. He was one of the organizers, 
and at one time the president of tlie Second Church 
Association, a hterary society devoted to debates, 
essays, music, and other means of social improve- 
ment. He is now president of the Salmagundi 
Club, consisting of twenty-five young people of 
Fair Haven, which was fountled in 1883. 

Oyster Growers. 

H. C. Rowe & Co. control more oyster ground 
than any other two firms in Connecticut, and plant 
upon them yearly more than any other four firms. 
They deal only in native oysters. They were the 
pioneers in the enterprise of propagating and cul- 
tivating oysters in the deep water of Long Island 
Sound, and the first to own and employ oyster 
steamers off New Haven. Their places of business 
are said to be more extensive and convenient than 
any others in the State. 

J. K. Bishop, Sr., began the business of grow- 
ing and packing oysters in 1857, at what is now 
293 North Front street In 1870 the present firm 
was organized, by the addition of C. E. Thomp- 
son and J. E. Bishop, Jr., as partners. This 
firm plant something over 300 acres in the Sound, 
using 30,000 bushels of seed; has kept abreast 
with the progress of the science of oyster-raising; 
and employs about forty hands, with a packing- 
house, 150 by 75 feet, on the Quinnipiac River. 

R. W. Law, Oyster Point, beginning the oyster 
culture in 1849, has steadily increased his trade 
and his improved facilities, until he owns 600 acres 
of oyster ground in the Sound and harbor, and 
plants annually 40,000 bushels of shells. During 
the season forty persons are employed. A building 
and wharf, 60 by 1 20 feet, on South Water street, 
serves to carry on the business. 

Tuttle & Wilson. — This house was founded in 
1862, on South Front street, by .\. P. Tuttle, in the 
business of growing and marketing oysters. In 1882, 
Mr. R. Wilson was atlmitted as a partner, under 
the above firm name. The firm employ fifteen hands, 
and plant about 12,000 bushels of seed annually. 

S. Chipman & Co., established in 1867, plant 
about 25,000 bushels of seed annually, occupy 
upwards of 300 acres of oyster ground in the 
Sound, and employ about forty persons. The pack- 
ing building at 313 North Front street is 95 by ico 
feet. The individual members of the firm are S. and 
D. Chipman. The house has a large trade through- 
out New England and New York, and a branch 
house at Crisfield, Md. 

I. E. & F. F. Brown began business in 1861, 
and keeping pace with the progress of oyster cul- 
ture, now control about 1,000 acres of oyster land, 
and plant about 25,000 bushels of seed annually. 
A building, 50 by 100 feet, and wharf on the bank 
of the Quinnipiac, are used for opening and pack- 
ing. Steam power is used for catching the oysters 
from the beds, and twenty-five hands are employed 
in the several departments of the work. 

Barnes & Ludington, 117 to 123 Souili Front 



street. This house is one of the oldest in the 
oyster trade, and for many years was know^n by the 
name of Barnes I'i; Mallory. In 1881 tlie present 
firm, consi^ting of .\. B. Barnes and N. k. Luding- 
ton, was formed. They have extensive oyster lands 
in the Sound, and plant annually about 50,000 
bushels of seed. They occupy an area of 156 by 
175 feet on (Quinnipiac River, and employ about 
one hundred persons in the various departments of 
catching, opening, and packing. All the facilities 
of modern times are employed in the work. 

The house of Jeremiah Smith & Son was found- 
ed in 1849, when oyster-gri)wing was of fir less 
importance as a factor in the business interest of 
the city than to-day. The original firm assumed 
the style of W. t*^ J. Smith, and so continued 
until 1854, when Mr. Jeremiah Smith carried on 
the business alone. In 1879, Edward H. Smith 
was admitted to partnership. The firm is one of 
the most extensive in its line of business in the 
world, covering over 1,700 acres of oyster lands in 
the Sound, and annually depositing 100,000 bush- 
els of shells for seeding purposes. Seventy-five 
men are employed; the firm owning a number of 
steam and sailing craft for the purposes of the 
work. They have a branch house at St. John's Shell- 
Fish Market, Liverpool, under the control of W. 
H. Smith. 

Captain Caleb L. Ludington, cultivator of oysters 
at Fair Haven, commenced the business in 1S60. 
He was instrumental in getting the law regarding 
cultivation of oysters in Long Island Sound passed 
the last year the Legislature sat in New Haven. 
He is assisted in his business by his two sons 
Amini and Luzerne. For a number of years pre- 
vious to i860, he was engaged in the coasting 
trade. 

The manufacture of oyster-shell lime was begun 
in 1855 by H. A. Barnes & Co. Some years later 
the present firm of A. H. Barnes & Co., the indi- 
vidual members being H. A. Barnes and S. Hem- 
ingway, succeeded to the plant. They make a 
specialty of supplying gas companies with lime for 
the purpose of purifying gas. 

William .S. Robinson & Co., makers of oyster 
tubs, pails and kegs. The manufacture of oyster 
tubs and pails was originally founded by the Fair 
Haven Keg Company, in 1859. The original com- 
pany was dissolved in 187 4, when the business con- 
tinued to be conducted by the above firm. The 
plant is situated at 17, 19 and 21 East Pearl street, 
and e.xtends to South Front street. Forty persons 
are employed, the machinery being driven by a 60- 
horse power engine. The factory covers an area of 
1 00 by 125 feet. 

Paper Makers. 

The proprietors of the West Rock Paper Mill 
are so closely identified with the manufacturing in- 
terests of the city, that though the mill is a little 
beyond the city limits, a notice of it is proper 
among the industrial arts of New Haven. 

The West Rock Paper Mill, t.iking its name 
from the cliff within whose shadow it stands, was 



633 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



established in 1840 by Messrs. Joseph Parker and 
1. H. Herrick. The idea of the proprietors was to 
manufacture paper from the sweepings of cotton 
mills, until that time considered of little value. 
The work proved a success, but not until sixteen 
years later did the mill enter upon the career which 
was destined to be a distinct feature in the paper 
trade of the country — the manufacture of blotting- 
paper. In 1856, Mr. Parker conceived the idea of 
making blotting-paper, and since that time the en- 
tire energy of the mill has been devoted to its man- 
ufacture. In 1 8+ 1 the original projectors were 
joined by F. S. Parker, under the firm name of J. 
F. Herrick & Co. This continued until 1846, 
when the partnership expired by limitation, and 
from that time the business was carried on by the 
Messrs. Parker, under the firm name of F. S. k J. 
Parker. In 1869, Joseph Parker, Jr., was admitted 
as a partner, and the firm was then known as 
F. S. & J. Parker & Co. Mr. F. S. Parker, the 
elder brother, died in 1871, and Mr. James Sin- 
clair, for nearly fifteen years foreman, was admitted, 
and the firm title changed to Joseph Parker, Son 
& Co. This continued until the death of Mr. Sin- 
clair in 1876, the present membership of the 
firm being Joseph Parker, Sr., Joseph Parker, Jr., 
and William H. Eaton, of Springfield, Mass., un- 
der the firm name of Joseph Parker & Son. Two 
grades of blotting-paper are made, known to the 
trade as "Treasury'' and "Commercial," and both 
have a large sale throughout the country. 

FREDERICK SHELDON PARKER 

was born at Litchfield, South Farms (now Morris), 
Conn., in 1798. At the age of twelve years he 
entered the employ of Abijah Catlin, in Harwinton, 
Conn., where he remained until he was twenty-two 
years old. Soon after this he engaged in mercantile 
business with the late Sheldon C. Leavitt, in Beth- 
lehem, Conn., remaining there two or three years. 
He then formed a copartnership with Roderick C. 
Steele, in Woodbury, Conn., from whence he re- 
moved to New Haven in 1828, where he entered 
the wholesale grocery business, in company with 
Winthrop B. Smith. At the expiration of this co- 
partnership, Mr. Parker continued the business for 
some time on his own account, when he was joined 
by William S. Lockwood, of Norwalk, Conn., un- 
der the firm name of Lockwood & Parker, which 
copartnership continued for six or eight 3ears, when 
the business was wound up, and both parties retired 
from business life. 

Mr. Parker's experience in business, however, 
rendered his services of great value; and, in 1841, 
he was invited by his brother, Mr. Joseph Parker, 
and Mr. J. K. Herrick, to become a member of 
their firm, in the manufacture of paper at their mills 
in Westville. near New Haven, under the firm name 
of J. K. Herrick &. Co. The business was con- 
tinued until 1845, "^vhen Mr. Herrick retired, and 
the business was continued by F. S. & J. Parker, 
under that firm name until 1869, when Joseph 
Parker, Jr., became a member of the firm, and the 
firm name was changed to F. S. & J. Parker & Co. 



In 1835, Mr. Parker was married to Miss Lucy 
Elizabeth Elton, by whom he had one son, Samuel 
F21ton Parker, who lived but a few hours. His wife 
died August 25, 1836. 

In 185 I, he married Miss Martha Newton, daugh- 
ter of William Newton, of Albany, N. Y. Two 
children were born to them, Frederick S. Parker, 
Jr., born July 26, 1852, and WiUiam N. Parker, 
born January 17, 1855. Mr. Parker died October 
3, 1871, in his seventy-third year. His second 
wife died December 12, 1866. 

They were both regular attendants at the First 
Congregational Church of New Haven during their 
residence in that city, and their bodies repose in 
the New Haven Cemetery. 

Mr. Parker was actively identified with many of 
the interests of New Haven. His long residence 
there, together with his extensive business acquaint- 
ance, and his sterling qualities as a just and upright 
citizen, gave him a strong hold upon the affections 
of the people. 

Upon his two sons he bestowed a liberal educa- 
tion. Both of them graduated from Yale College, 
and now occupy honored positions in the business 
circles of New York City. The eldest, Mr. Fred- 
erick S. Parker, is the junior member of the firm 
of Taylor & Parker, Attorneys and Counselors-at- 
Law, Potter Building, Park Row, New York; while 
the younger, Mr. William N. Parker, is the junior 
partner of the firm of Hazard c<c Parker, Bankers 
and Brokers, 25 Pine street, New York. 

JOSEPH PARKER 

was born July 19, 18 10, at Litchfield South Farms, 
now the town of Morris, Connecticut. His father, 
Dr. Joseph Parker, was for forty-five years the 
physician of that quiet village. His mother was 
Sarah Moss, of Huntington. She married Mr. 
Jeremiah Blackman, and after his death became the 
second wife of Dr. Joseph Parker, who died in 
1831, universally esteemed and lamented. 

In his fourteenth year, Mr. Parker left his native 
village, and for five years was engaged in country 
stores at Bethlehem and Woodbury. In his nine- 
teenth year he removed to New Haven, where he 
lived until he came of age. 

In 1832 he went to New York City and engaged 
in the hardware business. The destruction of the 
United States Bank, and the financial crisis which 
followed, made his enterprise a failure. In 1840 
he returned to New Haven, where he was instru- 
mental in establishing the West Rock Paper Mill, 
with whose fortune his name has ever since been 
honorably identified. 

Mr. Parker's mind was of an observant and cre- 
ative turn, and he had already had some experience 
and success in invention. 

Previous to 1840, little or no use had been 
found for the sweepings of cotton mills, known as 
cotton waste. Mr. Parker conceived the idea that 
this refuse would make good paper. With him, to 
decide was to act. 

Paper had already been made in England from 
cotton waste. Accordingly he and his partner, Mr. 




y / 



ffiy^rL.^^'t-^- -if y^'/lrc/, 




/^d^.^^-^ 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



623 



J. K. Herrick, a wholesale stationer of New York 
City, employed an Englishman, who professed to 
understand the business, to superintend the manu- 
facture. The Englishman's attempt resulted in 
failure, and Mr. Parker himself planned and per- 
fected the work. 

To Mr. Joseph Parker, therefore, belongs the 
honor of manufacturing out of cotton waste the 
first sheet of fine and superfine book-paper ever 
produced in the United States. His idea had be- 
come a triumphant success. The outcome of this 
experiment was considered a great achievement by 
the paper-makers of those days, many of whom 
were not slow in availing themselves of his impor- 
tant discovery. 

From the outset the products of the West Rock 
Paper Mill were noted for purity and excellence. 
Cotton waste was delivered at a cost of $20 per 
gross ton. The book-papers into which it was 
transformed were pronounced by experts to be 
equal in ([uality to those made from foreign rags, 
which cost $125 per ton. The prices of the two 
were soon equalized, and from that time the collect- 
ing, assorting and distributing the sweepings of 
cotton mills has been conducted by many large 
houses. 

In 1841, I\Ir. Fredericks. Parker, elder brother 
of Mr. Joseph Parker, became associated with him 
in the business, which was carried on under the 
firm name of J. K. Herrick it Co. He was a man 
of sound sense and of excellent business capacity. 
Strict integrity and a sacred regard for his word 
were part and parcel of his character. His cau- 
tiousness and prudence were a valuable addition to 
the firm. 

In 1845, Mr. Herrick retired, and the firm be- 
came F. S. &J. Parker. In 1869, Joseph Parker, Jr., 
was admitted to partnership, under the firm name 
of F. S. k J. Parker & Co. Mr. F. S. Parker died 
in 1871, and Mr. James Sinclair became a partner, 
the firm name becoming Joseph Parker, Son & 
Co. Mr. Smclair died in 1876. At the present 
writing (1886), the firm consists of Joseph Parker, 
Sr. , Joseph Parker, [r. , and William H. Eaton, 
late of Springfield, INIass. 

In 1856, Mr. Parker saw at a stationer's in New 
York City, the first case of English blotting-board 
ever brtaight to this country. He happened to 
have with him some sample sheets of card-board 
made by him for a manufacturing company to 
market their goods upon. He requested that a 
comparison should be made between this and the 
foreign blotting-paper. It was done, and the West 
Rock card-board, made from cotton waste, was 
admitted to be the better absorbent. Our inventor 
returned home with an idea that proved to be of 
the greatest value, not only to himself, but to the 
ink-using world. Preparations were at once made 
to manufacture blotting-paper and bring it before 
the public. 

From the first it was the aim and ambition of 
the firm to manufacture a pure, unadulterated arti- 
cle; a pure, properly prepared fiber having been 
found by test and experiment to possess a greater 
absorbent power than the adulterated foreign blot- 



ting-paper. This product, in 1859, they denomi- 
nated " Treasury Blotting. '■ In 186S tiiey manu- 
factured an article of a lower grade, which ihe'y 
called ' ' Commercial. " The success of these papers 
is a gratifying testimony to the sagacity, energy, and 
honest dealing of the inventor. 

In the course of a few years, the superiority of 
the " Treasury Blotting-paper" reduced the impor- 
tation of the English article to a minimum. The 
demand for the "Treasury" and "Commercial" 
became so great, that they gave up the manufacture 
of book-papers, and have run their mill exclusively 
for the production of " blotting " for many years. 
The fame of their "Treasury Blotting" is well 
known to all dealers and large consumers in this 
and foreign countries. Their papers are shipped 
to Europe, South America, and other lands. Many 
of the departments at Washington in sending pro- 
posals for stationery supplies, call for " Parker's 
Treasury Blotting.'' 

I\Ir. Parker's life has been one of untiring activity. 
He is pre-eminently a man of affairs, and is possess- 
ed of a store of practical wisdom, and a mind fertile 
in expedients, prompt anil bold in decision, and 
uncommonly quick in perception. Unswerving in- 
tegrity, ready appreciation, and a fund of kindly 
humor have won for him the esteem and regard of 
all classes in the community. 

Mr. Parker has been a generous giver to the 
charities of the day. The deserving poor have 
always found in him a faithful and generous friend. 
He will long be remembered by more than one to 
whom he extended a helping hand in the dav of 
adversity. 

He married, in 1835, Caroline, daughter of Her- 
vey Mulford, Esq., of New Haven. Six children 
have been born to them: Joseph, Jr. (who is a 
member of the present firm), and five daughters, of 
whom three are deceased. 

Paper Box MANUKAnrRERS. 

The first paper box manufacturers of any im- 
portance in New I laven were Daniel Gladding and 
his son, Henry Gladding, who began business in 
1857. At this time but few workmen were cm- 
ployed, but the business has grown to such dimen- 
sions, that at present seven to eight hundred 
operatives find employment in this branch of man- 
ufacturing. 

P. J. Cronan was employed by the Claddings 
from 1857 to 1879. At the latter date he com- 
menced business lor himself on the corner of State 
and Court streets, where he remained until 1880, 
when he removed to his present location, corner of 
Wall and State streets. Mr. Cronan employs about 
seventy operatives, most of whom are girls. All 
grades and styles of boxes are made at this factory. 

The paper box manufactory of Benton A Co. 
was founded in 1881 by the firm of Moore, Sprout 
& Nichols, in the Quinnipiac Building. Their 
capacity at this time was limited compared to the 
extent of the present establishment. Only seven 
workmen were emitloyed, producing 10,000 boxes 
per day. In 1883 the firm was changed to Benton, 



624 



HISTORY OF THE CITV OF NEW HA YEN. 



Nichols & Co. In the spring of 1884 their busi- 
ness had so increased, that removal to larger quar- 
ters was necessary. At this time the building 
84 to 94 Temple street was leased, affording 
three times the manufacturing room, with facilities 
for producing 40,000 boxes per day. Here the 
business was successfully continued until October, 
1884, when the entire building was destroyed by 
fire. The firm then erected their present substan- 
tial brick building, 323 and 325 Congress avenue. 
Here 3,000 square feet of manufacturing room is 
afforded, while the cellar is constructed with special 
reference to storing stock, with capacity for two 
hundred tons of paper, over one hundred and 
twenty-five tons of every grade and color being 
constantly on hand. In April, 1885, Frederick H. 
Benton, of the firm of Benton, Nichols & Co., pur- 
chased Mr. Nichols' interest in the business and 
has since conducted it alone, under the firm name 
of Benton & Co. During the year 1885 over 13,- 
000,000 boxes were manufactured by this factory. 
Employment is furnished to sixty operators, about 
half of whom are girls, and the rest men and boys. 
Mr. Benton makes any style, shape and grade of 
boxes which may be ordered, a specialty being 
folding boxes, protected by patents obtained by 
the proprietor. All kinds of colored and plain 
printing is done with Potter's improved cylinder 
presses. The sales of this factory extend all over 
this country, Canada and Europe, the bulk of the 
goods being sold direct to the manufacturers. 
Three salesmen are employed. 

William Witte began the manufacture of paper 
boxes at 26 Artisan street, in 1884. In 1885 he 
removed to his present location, fourth story, 187 
St. John street. He makes all kinds of paper 
boxes, and employs about thirty operatives, includ- 
ing men, women and children. For fifteen years 
preceding the date of his start in business for him- 
self, he was employed by the New Haven Box Com- 
pany. 

The New Haven Paper Box Company, in (,)uin- 
nipiac Block, began business in 1863. W. G. L. 
Cooke was the projector, and with him was associ- 
ated a number of gentlemen interested in manu- 
factures. The business proved successful, and at 
once took a high place among the industries of the 
city. The Company employ about two hundred 
persons, and the factory is thorougly equipped with 
the best machinery used in the production of the 
goods. The Company occupy two floors, having 
an area of i 50 feet each. While the Company have 
a large local trade, their custom extends throughout 
New England and New York. 

The firm of Munson k Co. make a specialty of 
patent folding boxes used for confectioners, drug- 
gists, and dry goods purposes. Being capable of 
being packed perfectly flat, they can be shipped to 
any distance cheaply. About fifty hands are em- 
ployed. The firm consists of E. B. & H. S. Mun- 
son. The place of business of the firm is at 64, 
66 and 68 Court street. 

G. J. Moffatt began the manufacture of bags and 
envelopes in 1S72 in Alwater's Block, and moved 
10 his present place of business on the east side of 



at New Haven, 
the year men- 



Moffatt added the 
few years later he 



State street, opposite Elm street, in 1881. The 
business occupies four floors of this new building, 
having an area of 25,000 feet of floor room. The" 
factory is divided into six departments, namely: En- 
velope making, paper-bag making, printing, book- 
binding, packing and shipping. A 16-horse power 
engine furnishes power for the several departments. 
Three or four salesmen are employed upon the 
road and about seventy persons are employed in 
the several departments. The trade of the house 
extends throughout the county. C. Buckingham is 
foreman in this factory. 

G. J. MOFFATT 

was born in Scotland February 19, 1839, and \ 
came to America in 1850. Up to the time of his ' 
establishment in this country, about twelve years of 
his life had been devoted to the envelope business, 
in which he became very proficient. He opened, 
and for a time managed, an extensive envelope 
factory at Washington, D. C. In April, 1871, he 
established a manufactory of paper bags in Port 
Chester, N. Y. His business increased so rapidl}', 
that, early in 1872, he was obliged to seek more 
ample facilities, which he found 
where he located March ist of 
tioned. 

About three years later, Mr. 
manufacture of envelopes. A 
introduced the manufacture of blank books. The 
latter innovation necessitated the addition of a 
well-equipped printing-office. An increasing trade 
demanded more rapid production, and Mr. Moffatt 
saw the advisability of introducing special ma- 
chinery of his own manufacture fur making enve- 
lopes and paper bags, which he had invented, and 
upon which he holds valuable patents. At a sub- 
sequent date he added a wholesale stationery trade 
to his already large business, and at this time un- 
doubtedly carries the most varied and extensive 
stationery stock in Connecticut. It is a matter of 
which he may be justly proud, that he has been 
identified with envelope manufacture since its ear- 
liest period, and has developed his large business 
literally from first principles, contributing not a 
little to the trade at large by his inventive genius 
and business enterprise. In March, 1882, Mr. 
Moffatt contracted with Governor English for the 
construction of his present large manufactory and 
store, 495 to 501 State street, which he has occu- 
pied since the following October. 

Mr. Moftatt is essentially a man of affairs, quiet, 
unassuming, full of force and decision. He is 
domestic in his tastes and eschews all connection 
with politics or public life. As a citizen, he takes 
a helpful interest in all questions concerning the 
public welfare. In private and social life he is 
friendly and unobtrusive. In business circles he 
ranks with the most prominent manufacturers and 
dealers in his city and State, and in the envelope 
and paper-bag trade his name is widely and favor- 
ably known. His commercial integrity is unques- 
tioned, and his relations are equally pleasant with 
the public and his employees. 



« 



I' 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



625 



Photographers. 

In the development of the art of photography, 
citizens of New Haven ha\e taken no mean part. 
Professors. F. B. Morse, the inventor of telegraphy, 
as early as 1844, made a daguerreotype picture of a 
class of Yale students, and did much in perfecting 
the process then in use. Benjamin Silliman, Profes- 
sor of Chemistry in Yale College, made some success- 
ful experiments in photography about the middle 
of the present century in connection with Wells 
Brothers, then leading photographers in New Haven. 
Professor Silliman was probably the first person to 
take pictures by electric light. The Wells Brothers 
were the first in New Haven, if not in the State, to 
make pictures on paper in a camera without a neg- 
ative. This they did in 1853, but the process was so 
complicated and difticult as to be of no practical 
value. Samuel Hooker and Professor Hamilton, 
both of New Haven, but not practical photograph- 
ers, were instrumental, by experiment and thought- 
ful study, in discovering a number of valuable 
secrets which have since been put in practical use. 

Phineas Pardee, in 1843, ^^'^s the first to open a 
photograph gallery in New Haven. He took pict- 
ures by the daguerreotype process. He located in 
the building where Major Moulthrop's gallery now 
is. A short time after, W. A.Tomlinson and Samuel 
Peck became partners with Mr. Pardee, under the 
firm name of Tomlinson, Pardee & Peck. In 1845, 
Mr. Pardee removed to New York, then to Pough- 
keepsie, next to Troy, and in 1849 to New Haven, 
where he has since remained. At the time of his 
removal to New Haven, he located in the old Marble 
Block (now Central) where he remained for twenty- 
six years, after which he removed to his present 
location, 746 Chapel street. 

Major Moulthrop soon followed Mr. Pardee in 
the photograph business, opening a gallery in 
the Boardman Building in 1844. A short time 
after, he formed a partnership with a Mr. Hart, 
under the firm name of Moulthrop & Hart. They 
occupied the Brewster Building a while, after 
which Mr. Moulthrop retired from the partnership 
and opened his present gallery, 818 Chapel street, 
where he has since remained. Mr. Moulthrop was 
cotemporary with the Wells Brothers, both houses 
being considered the leading galleries for many 
years. In 1855 he began to make photographs by 
what is known as the wet process, but now uses 
what is known as the dr\- plate process, a method 
adopted by all leading photographers. Mr. Moul- 
throp makes a specialty of large pictures. 

Samuel Peck opened a photograph gallery in 
1844, where Ramsdell's gallery on Chapel street is 
now located. In 1849 he bought, at foreclosure 
sale, the photographic case manufactory of a Mr. 
Hall, situated at 8 1 Day street. Here in connection 
with the Scovill Manufacturing Company, which 
put in an equal amount of capital, he commenced 
to manufacture daguerreotype cases, under the firm 
name of S. Peck & Co. Under his able manage- 
ment the business grew rapidly, necessitating the 
erection of enlarged quarters. The superiority of 
his cases and photographic supplies were soon 
79 



recognized all over the country, a reputation which 
has since been maintained, although the require- 
ments of the trade have almost entirely changed. 
Under Mr. Peck's management, 150 men were 
employed in making photographic supplies. In 
1857, after a sucessful career, he sold his interest to 
the Scovill Manufacturing Company, which has 
since, in a limited way, under the old firm name 
carried on the business. The change in the mode 
of taking [)hotographs has practically done away 
with daguerreotype cases, which constituted the 
principal portion of Mr. Peck's work. Mr. Peck 
died in 1879. 

W. A. Beers has been continuously in the photo- 
graphic business in New Haven since 1855, and 
during this long period has remained at his present 
location, 762 Chapel street, and probably represents 
the oldest bu^iness on the street which has not in 
some way undergone a change. Mr. Beers worked 
with the Wells Brothers and Mr. Moulthrop for 
about a year and a half From 1855 to 1867 
Sereno Mansfield was a partner with him, since 
which date he has conducted the business alone. 
He was one of the first photographers in the city to 
use the wet process. He now uses all the modem 
appliances to produce first-class work. 

The firm of Bundy & Stoddard, 838 Chapel 
street, was formed in 1881. The senior member 
of the firm, J. K. Bundy, has been in this business 
over forty years, and in New Haven over twenty- 
five years. His long experience has made him a 
proficient master of his business. 

Daniel P. Ramsdell, who occupies the same 
gallery where Samuel Peck began business, 817 
Chapel street, began the photograph business in 
this city in 1862, and with the exception of one 
year has followed the business at the same location 
ever since. He was the first to introduce the small 
tintype picture called the "gem," made by the 
Wing duplicating camera, and was among the first 
to introduce the dry plate process in 1881. He 
does a general line of photographic work. 

The photographic studio of O. N. Hull was 
opened at 823 Chapel street in 1863, and has been 
conducted by Mr. Hull at the same site ever since. 
Mr. Hull is a native of New Haven, where he was 
born in 1839. 

G. C. Phelps commenced the business of photog- 
raphy in Hartford, Conn. In 1870 he removed 
to New Haven and opened a gallery on the corner 
of High and Kim streets. He afterwards removed 
to 851 Chapel street, and in 1885 to his present 
location, 942 Chapel street. Mr. Phelps is recog- 
nized as a fine photographer. 

Frafik A. Bowman, photographer, was born in 
New Haven in 1847, and has been engaged in the 
photographic business for the last twenty-three 
years. In 1877 he commenced business for him- 
self at his present location, 1062 and 1064 Chapel 
street, where he has since successfully conducted it 

G. W. Pach & Brother, of New York, opened 
a branch photographic gallery in New Haven in 
1877, at their present quarters, 1002 Chapel street 
They are artists of well known ability, and produce 
work of acknowledged merit 



626 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



The following are also engaged in carrying on 
the photographic work in this city: George W. 
Babb, 1075 Chapel, corner High street; John M. 
Blake, 1 York square; Abraham M. DeSilva, High, 
corner Elm street; William Donnelly, 851 Chapel 
street; B. Franklin Guyer, 110 Church street; C. 
E. Hayes, 749 Chapel street; Charles Honian, 858 
Chapel street; Carl W. F. Schulze, 69 Church street; 
J. D. Schumway, 902 Chapel street; j. J. Tierney, 
775 Chapel street; and F. H. Woodin, 831 Chapel 
street. 

Picture-Frame Manufacturers. 

The firm of H. Kissinger & Co., 185 State street, 
is exclusively devoted to the manufacture of gilt 
walnut and colored picture frames and room mold- 
ings. Edward B. Bradley commenced this busi- 
ness in 1855, and at one time made all the picture 
frames manufactured in New Haven. At the pres- 
ent time William Dahlmeyer and Charles K. Cad- 
well are engaged in this business. 

Platers. 

The American Gun Implement Company oc- 
cupy the premises 166 and 168 Brewery street, 
where the Fowler Plating Company once were. 
Joseph Woods, President; N. H. Botsford, Secre- 
tary; and Harry Stevens, Treasurer. The factory 
has an area of 30 by 1 20 feet, and employs about 
twenty-five men. 

The New Haven Plating Company, 24 Artisan 
street, claim to be successors to the Fowler Plating 
Company, and are ready to e.xecute all kinds of 
plating. 

Charles S. Barbour, who formerly had a plating 
establishment in Auburn street, has retired from the 
business. 

C. Cowles & Co., 47 and 49 Orange street, are 
platers in gold, silver and nickel. The Elm City 
Manufacturing Company, 74 Crown street, Edward 
Swift, manager, and Luther W. Whitehead, fore- 
man, are doing a large business in nickel and silver 
plating. 

The New Haven Car Trimming Company, 71- 
73 Goffe street, has the best of apparatus, and pro- 
duces a great quantity of plated work. 

Plumbers and Manufacturers of Plumbers' 
Materials. 

A. & G. Edmondson, plumbers, at 2 Atwater 
Block, began business in 1877. The firm employ 
ten men, and make a specialty of heating apparatus. 

H. Williams was one of the original founders of 
the house of J. I. k H.Williams, first established in 
New York. For the past twenty years Mr. H. 
Williams has been the sole proprietor, and the busi- 
ness of the house has been conducted in New 
Haven. 

In 1855, J. Gold founded the business, which in 
1867 passed into the control of the New Haven 
Steam Heating Company, which has since been 



incorporated as a stock company with a capital of 
$75,000. The present officers are George Blake- 
man, President; L. E. Osborn, Treasurer; George 
I. Scranton, Secretary. Their plant is located at 68 
Court street, and consists of a four-story brick factory, 
55 by 103 feet in dimensions, of which they occupy 
two entire floors. Here from twenty-five to thirty 
operatives find employment. The steam heaters 
manufectured by this company are extensively used, 
and highly indorsed for their general excellence. 

The business of Peck Brothers & Co., manufac- 
turers of plumbers' materials, brass and plated 
work for water, steam and gas, 72 and 74 Franklin 
street, was founded in i860 under the style of E. 
Peck & Son. This firm commenced business not 
only on a much smaller scale, but, in comparison 
with the present, a very circumscribed field for 
operations. As the trade increased, however, with 
the growth of the demand, the resources of the 
firm were augmented, and in 1866 the present joint 
stock company was organized, with a capital of 
$35,000, which was increased to $80,000 a few 
years later, and the style was changed to the exist- 
ing title, and since that time the house has not 
failed to maintain its position as one of the lead- 
ing establishments engaged in this branch of 
manufacture in this country. To give an idea of 
the variety of goods manufactured and dealt in by 
this Company, it is only necessary to state that their 
lithographic catalogue for 1884 contained 575 
pages devoted to illustrations and descriptions of 
their goods. The bulk of the trade, however, may 
be said to lie in the manufacture of brass, steam, 
water and gas goods. They are dealers in bath 
tubs, boilers, basins, iron sinks, force pumps, and 
plumbers' materials generally; in fact every appli- 
ance pertaining to the management of steam, gas, 
water, air, oil, and chemicals, is either manufact- 
ured or sold by this house. The manufacturing 
plant of the firm is located on Franklin street, ex- 
tending back about two hundred and fifty feet. 
These premises contain three extensive buildings, 
besides stables, sheds, etc. The main building, 
which is occupied for finishing goods,for the offices, 
and for stock, is a handsome four-story brick 
structure with mansard roof, occupying an area of 
260 by 35 feet. The foundry is 225 by 35 feet, one- 
story high, and the core building is two stories in 
height. A loo-horse power Harris-Corliss steam 
engine furnishes the motive power, assisted by two 
boilers, 66 by 19 feet and 48 by 16 feet respectively, 
built by H. B. Bigelow k Co., of this city, while a 
force of 300 mechanics and artificers are employed 
in prosecuting the work in its various departments. 
With such facilities, trade has extended throughout 
the entire United States, as well as part of South 
America and Mexico. This Company furnished 
much work for the Vanderbilt mansion on Fifth 
avenue. New York, and for the residences of Presi- 
dent Hopkins, of the Union Pacific road, and for 
many other elegant houses in this country. The 
oflficers of the Company are H. F. Peck, President; 
J. M. Peck, Secretary and Treasurer. The present 
capital is $300,000. George Fisher is a foreman 
in the works. 



i 



4 




^^ 



-^^ 





^ 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



627 



HENRY FRANKLIN PECK 

springs from a race of sturdy ancestors who have 
wrested strength and success from the somewhat 
harsh conditions of New England life, and who 
have held honorable places in the esteem of the 
communities wherein they have lived. His father, 
Elnathan Peck, belonged to a family which had 
been for several generations identified with the for- 
tunes of the town of Milford, Conn. Mr. Elnathan 
Peck followed the trade of a carpenter, and in 1822 
he went to New Britain to assist in building the 
church edifice of the First Congregational Society. 

In that town he met and married Miss Mary 
Dewey, and the newly united couple established 
their home in New Britain. The eldest of their 
nine children was Henry F., who was born on the 
31st of March, 1828. He obtained his etlucation 
in the common schools of the locality, and in the 
New Britain Academy. While he was vet an infant, 
his father abandoned carpentering and began the 
manufacture of general hardware. Mr. Elnathan 
Peck was one of the pioneers in this branch of 
production in America. When seventeen years of 
age, the son was placed in the workshop of his 
father and commenced his acquaintance with a 
practical business life. The concern prospered, 
and increasing trade demanded an increase of facili- 
ties. A joint stock company was formed to con- 
duct the manufacture. But although the pecuniary 
success of the enterprise was encouraging, there 
was a lack of harmony among the associated pro- 
prietors upon points of business policy, and the 
senior Peck left the company. His son, who 
occupied the post of shipping clerk, relinquished 
his position at the same time. The Western fever 
was then epidemic, and the young man fell a vic- 
tim. He joined the vast host of his comrades who 
were marching across the Alleghanies, and engaged 
for two years in mercantile pursuits. Returning at 
length to his native town, he found employment in 
the grocery of his brother-in-law, with whom he 
remained until early in 1862. 

Meanwhile, in June, 1851, he took unto himself 
a helpmeet, Miss ElizabethAugusta Corn well, daugh- 
ter of Deacon Chauncey Cornwell, a man prominent 
in church and society of New Britain. By her he 
has had three children, including an only son, who 
is now employed in business with his father. 

In 1859, I\Ir. Elnathan Peck began the manufac- 
ture of brass goods for plumbers, gas and steam- 
fitters. The establishment of the city water-works 
in New Haven seemed to promise improved con- 
ditions for the prosecution of this business, and 
therefore in February, 1862, the undertaking was 
transferred to this city. In the ensuing month, Mr. 
H. F. Peck also quilted New Britain, came to New 
Haven, and was associated with his father in manu- 
facturing. 

He had been profoundly interested in the issues 
underlying the war, and was a strong supporter of 
the Government. He felt it to be a duty to give 
the Union not only sympathy, but material, per- 
sonal assistance, and, in September, 1862, under 
the call for nine months' men, enlisted in Company 



H, of the 27th Connecticut Regiment. He partic- 
ipated with his regiment in the severe battles of 
Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, and in the 
latter conflict was taken prisoner. He was paroled 
almost immediately, and went into parole camp at 
Annapolis, where he was obliged to enter the hos- 
pital. It was the only sickness that befell him 
during his term of service. Recovering, he was 
mustered out with the regiment, and at once de- 
voted himself to his business vocation. His zeal- 
ous labors may be measured by the resultant 
success. 

In 1864, his brother, J. M. Peck, entered the 
firm, which then became E. Peck & .Sons. After 
the death of the senior member, in December of 
the following year, a joint-stock company was 
organized to continue the business, with a capital 
of $35,000. IMr. Peck was chosen President, and 
his brother became Treasurer; so it has remained 
until this day. The capital, however, has been 
increased from time to time, principally through 
surplus earnings, until it has reached the sum of 
$300,000. The factory affords employment to 
about three hundred men. 

Besides minor enterprises with which Mr. Peck 
is concerned, he is largely interested in e.xtensive 
manufactories of brass and iron goods at Hay- 
denville, Mass., and is the President of the New 
Haven Co-operative and Savings Fund and I^an 
Association, an organization especially intended to 
secure to working men a profitable disposition of 
their savings. 

Mr. Peck has not shirked the duty of a good 
citizen in serving the community. For four years 
he took part in the city government, two years as 
a Councilman, and two as an Alderman. He was 
a member of the Board of Finance, and, in 1878, 
occupied the responsible post of President of the 
Board of Councilmen. His experience, energy, 
and public spirit have been particularly valuable 
upon the Board of Education, to which he was 
first elected in 1 880. He is now in the midst of his 
second term. As a member of the Committee on 
Buildings, he has supervised the erection of some 
of the district's best schools buildings, including 
the Ferry street and Orchard street schools, and 
the Welch Training .School. 

In 1884 he accepted the Republican nomination 
for the mayoralty of the city. The rank which he 
holds in the estimation of his fellow citizens is 
demonstrated in the fact that he led the rest of his 
ticket by several hundred votes, although his Dem- 
ocratic competitor was one of the most popular 
leaders of that party. 

As a member of the College Street Church, promi- 
nent positions in church and society have been 
bestowed upon him. He has kept the prosperity 
of the churches close at heart, and has been al- 
ways ready to bear his part in every movement for 
the improvement of society. In the G. A. R. or- 
ganization he has taken a deep interest, and, in 
1884, was the Commander of Admiral Footc Post. 
Mr. Peck has now a high position in the confi- 
dence of the community as a man who labors sin- 
cerely and intelligently for the common welfare, 



628 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



and invariably accords to the working classes that 
careful and considerate treatment to which they 
are entitled, and which they so much need. 

T.W. Corbett began the plumbing business and 
making of galvanized cornice at 280 Elm street, in 
1 878, which he has continued at the same place 
ever since, doing all branches of cornice work. 
He made the cornices of nearly all the new build- 
ings of Yale College, the State Armory,and numer- 
ous private residences. Particular attention is given 
to sanitary plumbing. Thirty men are employed. 
Stoves, ranges, and furnaces are dealt in. Mr. 
Corbett was born in Ireland in 1851, but came to 
America at an early age, and has since resided in 
New Haven. 

Potters. 

The first pottery in New Haven was in East 
Water street, near Olive street. Here stone-ware 
was made in the early years of this century. 

S. L. Pewtress has been a manufacturer of clay 
goods for nineteen years. He came to New Haven 
from Worcester, Mass., but was born in the State 
of New York. Mr. Pewtress' pottery is at 71 Chat- 
ham street. 

Roofing. 

C. W. Clark commenced the slate roofing busi- 
ness in New Haven in 1864. At this time there 
were but a few buildings in the city with slate roofs. 
Before coming to New Haven Mr. Clark followed 
the same business in the States of New York and 
Massachusetts. He laid the roofs on the City Hail. 
College buildings, nearly all of the churches, and 
many business and private buildings. He employs 
seven men, and is the only one engaged in this line 
in New Haven. He also deals in coal, with an 
office, 113 Long Wharf 

James E. Kelley first engaged in the roofing 
business in 1852, and has carried on the business 
ever since. He is sole agent in this vicinity for ap- 
plying Warren's Felt, Cement and Gravel Roofing. 
He also makes a specialty of using Native Trinidad 
Asphaltum for roofing cellars and vaults. Most 
of the large manufacturing establishments in this 
city were roofed by Mr. Kelly. He employs on an 
average about six men. 

Ruffling. 

The firm of Manville & Co., composed of Uri D. 
Manville and Leonard Winship, commenced the 
manufacture of rufflmg and white trimming for 
ladies' wear at 424 State street, in 1879. ^he 
products of the firm are sold all over the United 
States. Thirty female operatives are engaged in 
the manufacture of these goods. Four traveling 
salesmen are employed. 

Mr. Winship, of this firm, for fifteen years previous 
to 1 86 1 was engaged in the dry goods business, 
which he relinquished at the dale named to com- 
mence the manufacture of rufflings and lace trim- 



mings by automatic machinery. He was the first 
person to embark in this enterprise in this country 
or Europe. 

Sail and Awning Makers. 

John Hayden and John Hempsted were once 
sail-makers in New Haven. Many years ago they 
retired from business and are now dead. The only 
sail-makers in New Haven at present are Van 
Name & King, who commenced in 1861. They 
make sails for large coasting vessels, and employ, 
on an average, ten men. Besides sails, they make 
tents, awnings and covers. They have been located 
at different locations on Long Wharf ever since 
they commenced business, and for the last eight 
years at their present place, No. 205. The indi- 
vidual members of the firm are C. J. Van Name 
and W. M. King. 

The New Haven Awning Company, 844 Chapel 
street, of which William McGrath is proprietor, 
was started in 1884. Work consists principally 
of awnings and tents, although sails for small ves- 
sels are made. 

J. B. Cunningham, 847 Chapel street, makes a 
specialty of fancy window awnings. He also 
manufactures tents and canvas rigging for light sail- 
ing vessels. 

Shirt Manufacturers. 

In 1847, Mr. G. F. Winchester commenced the 
manufacture of shirts in a building on the west side 
of State street, where D. S. Cooper's grocery now 
is. He soon moved across the street into a large 
house, where the Rev. Mr. Garfield had formerly 
kept a school for young ladies. The business ex- 
panded so rapidly, that, in 1850, he erected a brick 
building in Court street. This, by successive ad- 
ditions to its area and height, became so large, that 
eight hundred persons were employed within it, and 
five thousand more in families throughout Connecti- 
cut, Westera Massachusetts, and Long Island, the 
shirts being sent away to be finished by hand. In 
i860 the yearly production was about forty- five 
thousand dozen, consuming about two million 
yards of muslin, five hundred thousand yards of 
linen, and twenty-five thousand dollars' worth of 
thread and buttons. Four hundred sewing machines 
were in use in the factory. While the production 
was at its maximum, Mr. John M. Davies was a 
partner with Mr. Winchester, under the firm name 
of Winchester k Davies, Mr. Davies having charge 
of the warehouse in New York, where sales were 
made. In 1865, Mr. Winchester retired from the 
firm to give his entire energies to the manufacture 
of his fire-arms, leaving his son, Mr. W. W. Win- 
chester in the firm, who, three years later, sold out 
his interest and joined his father. The business 
was continued by Mr. John M. Davies and his 
sons until about 1875, when it was removed to New 
York, near their sales-room, the greater use of ma- 
chinery having rendered unnecessary a location 
chosen originally for its convenience in distributing 
among families in the country the work to be fin- 
ished by hand. 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



629 



The most extensive shirt manufacturing establish- 
ment in New Haven at present is that of the Elm 
City Shirt Company, 4 1 7 State street. This Company, 
of which Stephen Mix is President and George P. 
Marvin, Secretary, commenced business in 1863. 
A fine grade of shirts is made. Employment is 
furnished to seventy-five female operatives. 

The Paragon Shirt Manufacturing Company was 
formed in 1880, and commenced operations in the 
Insurance Building on Chapel street. Removed to 
present location, 746 Chapel street, in 1882. It 
was organized as a stock company in 18S5, with a 
capital of §3,000. A specialty is made of fine 
custom shirts. Employment is furnished to thirty 
women operatives. The officers of the Companv 
are George O. Manchester, President; F. O. Man- 
chester, Treasurer; and A. A. Beattie, Secretary. 

Silk Workers. 

The manufacture of silk thread is a comparatively 
new enterprise in New Haven. The earlier at- 
tempts in this line, from cocoons grown in this 
locality, have already been noticed. The enterprise 
as at present carried on by the Globe Silk Works, 
was started in 1880, under the copartnership of 
Leigh & W hite (Lewis Leigh and W. W. White). 
The object of the original proprietors was to manu- 
facture a low grade of thread, from the wild silk or 
wild cocoon, that could be used in knitting or for 
the loom for manufacturing underwear. For this 
purpose a quantity of this wild silk was imported, 
and many experiments made to produce a thread 
for the above purpose, but these experiments did 
not prove a success, and the factory was then 
employed to "throw" and manufacture thread for 
other parties, in the way of a commission business. 
In 1 88 1, the business was increased, and John M. 
Marvin was admitted to partnership, under the firm 
style of Leigh, White & Alarvin. Mr. Marvin acted 
as silent partner. In October, 1881, Mr. Marvin 
purchased the interests of Messrs. Leigh and White, 
and soon after formed a partnership with Wilbur ]. 
Smith, the title of the firm being J. M. Marvin it 
Co. The plant was at this time thoroughly refur- 
nished and replenished with the latest and most 
improved machinery. Mr Smith, on account of ill 
health, retired from the firm in October, 1886, 
after which William B. Pardee, formerly of the firm 
of William B. Bradley & Co., carriage-makers, be- 
came a partner in the business, the title of the 
factor}' being the " Globe Silk Works. '' The com- 
pany ceased long ago to manufacture silk thread 
for others on commission, but now supply the trade 
direct. The company occupy the fourth floor of 
the west end of Hooker's carriage building, Nos. 
578 to 590 State street, and employ a force of fifty 
hands. 

Smelters. 

The smelting works of Corey, Moore & Co., 
composed of David Corey, Charles S. Moore and 
J. Willis Downs, was started in 1882 at the present 
location, rear 43 Crown street. They do a general 



line of smelting and melting of old and new metals. 
Four men are employed. 

Soap Makers. 

The oldest soap factory in the city is that of 
Bradley & Ball, founded in 1789 by Robert Brown, 
on George street. He continued it until 1827, 
when his son Charles assumed management of the 
business and continued it until 1840, when his 
brother. A. L Brown, became a partner, under the 
firm name of C. & A. L. Brown. A. L Brown 
died m 1871, from which date, to 1876, Charles 
continued the business. At the latter date, Henry 
Mix purchased the business. In iSSo he sold the 
concern to the present firm of Bradley & Ball. The 
location of the factory has been changed several 
times. At present soft soap is manufactured at 14 
Union street, where the office of the firm is located, 
and where they receive the articles for manufactur- 
ing soap. At the corner of Middletown avenue and 
North Front street, hard soap is manufactured. 
This firm furnishes employment to eight men. 
About 8,000 pounds of soap are made every week. 

The soap fiictory of Franklin A Steed, 35 and 37 
Silver street, was established by T. H. Fulton in 
1855. During the latter years of Mr, Fulton's con- 
nection with this business, his son,W. H. Fulton, was 
a partner, under the firm name of T. H. Fulton & 
Son. January i, 1886, T. H. Fulton & Son sold the 
business to the present proprietors, who are now 
conducting it. They manufacture several grades 
of soap, among which are Burwell's and Fulton's 
Superior Washing Soaps and Soapaline. 

R. M. Burwell commenced the manufacture of 
soap at 246 Cedar street in 1852, and continued it 
until 1880, since which it has been conducted by 
Merritt W. Burwell. Laundry soap is the only grade 
manufactured at this establishment. Twenty 
thousand pounds are manufactured monthly, and 
sold to the wholesale trade in Massachusetts and 
Connecticut 

ROBERT MERRITT BURWELL. 

Robert Merritt Burwell, a farmer's son, was bom 
at Burwell's Farms March 31,1814, the seventh in 
descent from John Burwell, one of the original set- 
tlers (1639) of Milford. His father's name was 
Robert; his mother's maiden name Abigail Polly 
Satterlee, a farmer's daughter. When eighteen 
years of age he left home, and for two years was a 
clerk in the drug store of L. K. Dow on Chapel 
street, near Yale College. From 1835 to 1841 he 
was a resident of New York, part of the time em- 
ployed in a drug store; then lived six years in New 
Hartford, and nearly two in Waterbury, and next 
came to New Haven and engaged with Samuel 
Noyes of "Apothecaries' Hall. ' I-^xperimenting 
while there successfully in the making of soap, 
Noyes started him in the business of its manufac- 
ture. He soon bought Mr. Noyes' interest, and the 
sale of "Burwell's Soap "became large and lucrative. 

On the 1st of June, 1847, Mr. Burwell married 
Elizabeth, daughter of Asa Woodruff, a farmer, of 



630 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



New Hartford. Her mother's name was Polly, nee 
Spencer. They have three children — Elizabeth R. , 
Merritt W., and Robert N. In 1880 his son, 
Merritt Woodruff, succeeded him in the factory. 

Mr. Burwell is now in his seventy-first year; he 
stands 5 feet 8 inches, weighs 170 pounds, and his 
figure is compact and solid. His success is largely 
due to persistence of purpose and habits of indus- 
try; for he was the oldest son of an old time Con- 
necticut farmer, and had from youth up much 
thrown upon him. 

He owns the beautiful mount "Round Hill," 
300 feet high, containing 270 acres, just north of 
Allingtown. He calls his place Wellwood, from the 
last syllable of his own and the first syllable of his 
wife's maiden name. From the tower on the summit 
of his mansion, only 19 feet less high than East 
Rock, is a panoramic view of mountains, hills, woods 
and waters, of rare and almost unequaled extent 
and grandeur. It takes in toward the east and north 
the long stretching harbor and City of New Haven; 
the bold red faces of East and West Rock, while 
between the two, and miles beyond, peering in the 
blue distance, rises 730 feet in air, the exquisitely 
rounded cone of Mount Carmel. To the south is a 
vast stretch of Long Island and its intervening 
world of waters; and to the west, fifteen miles away, 
the spires of Bridgeport, that hive of industry, 
stand out, clear and distinct in the sunset sky; be- 
yond a leafy sea, the crowns and hollows of a roll- 
ing, billowy woodland. The possession and beau- 
tifying of Wellwood is the great pleasure of Mr. 
Burwell's declining years. 

W. H. Beecher & Co., referred to under Candle 
Manufacturers, make soap. 

Soda Water Manufacturers. 

For a number of years Phillip Farley carried on 
the manufacture of soda water, ginger ale, and bot- 
tling of mineral waters, at No. 67 Halleck street. 
He died recently, and the business has since been 
conducted by his wife. 



Starch Makers. 

F.C. Hubinger & Brothers (Joseph E.and Nicho- 
las W. ) commenced the manufacture of patent 
starch at 516 to 520 State street. They take ordi- 
nary starch, and by a patent process improve it for 
the purpose for which it is used. They are now lo- 
cated at 1 1 Custom House square. Twelve per- 
sons are employed at this factory. They sell their 
goods to wholesale dealers. 



Stenographers. 

Wdliani H. Brown, 22 Center street, practices 
the art of stenography. 

J. F. Gaffey, Hoadley's Building, Church street, 
is also a professor of stenography. 



Stone-Cutters. 

For nearly a century the Ritter family have been 
prominent stone-cutters in New Haven. John 
Ritter, who died in 1802, was for thirty years in the 
business, and was succeeded by his son David, who 
died in 1842, having been in the business forty 
years or more. In the Connecticut Journal of Sep- 
tember 23, 1800, is this advertisement: 

The subscriber gives public information that he carries on 
extensively the stone-cutting business, and has for sale a 
neat assortment of Philadelphia and Watertown marbles 
and slates, which he will dispose of cheap. 

Also stone-stoves and most kinds of building stone. 

New Haven, Grorge Street, September 23, 1800. 

David Ritter afterward removed from George 
street to the corner of St. John and Artisan streets, 
his house, shop and yard occupying the space be- 
tween the Farmington canal and Artisan street. 
After the death of David Ritter, in 1842, the busi- 
ness was continued by his son, John, the yard being 
removed from the old stand near the canal to the 
neighborhood of the New Haven Burial Ground. 
John Ritter died in 1872, after being in the busi- 
ness forty-seven years. He was succeeded by his 
son, John C. Ritter, the last of these four genera- 
tions of stone-cutters, whose death, in 1882, closed 
the record of the family's connection with the busi- 
ness of stone-cutting. The marble-yard of John 
Ritter and his son, John C. Ritter, was on High 
street, between Wall and Grove. 

The oldest granite and marble yard in the city at 
present is that of Thomas Phillips & Son, established 
in 1845 ^t 'he present location, 143 High street. 
From 1845 to 1851, Treat Botsford was a partner 
of the senior member of the present firm. From 
the latter date Mr. Phillips conducted the business 
alone for several years, when his son, John H. Phil- 
lips became a partner. In 1877 a branch yard was 
opened on the corner of Winthrop and Sylvan ave- 
nues, opposite Evergreen Cemetery, which is still 
continued. Some of the finest monumental work 
in this city has been produced by this firm. Wor- 
thy of mention are the following monuments: The 
Odd Fellows', General George ]M. Harmon, D. S. 
Glenney, Frank Hooper, and Lieutenant-Governor 
Oliver F. Winchester, in Evergreen Cemetery; Elea- 
zer T. Fitch, Ezekiel Trowbridge, Charles Good- 
year, and Commodore G. A. Hand, in Grove Street 
Cemetery; and the D. D. Mallory monument in 
Fair Haven. Besides monumental work, other 
work in granite, marble and stone is executed. 
Twenty men are employed. Much of the work is 
done by means of steam power. 

The granite works of Edward S. W. Green, 
149 High street, were established by his father, B. N. 
Green, in 1863. In 1870 the present proprietor 
became a partner of his father, under the firm 
name of B. N. Green & Son, which continued un- 
til the death of the former. The products of this 
yard consist of marble and granite monuments 
and grave-stones. 

From 1854 to 1884, George A. Shubert was 
quite extensively engaged in preparing granite and 
freestone for building purposes. He was located 
on the corner of Grand and Jefferson streets. 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



631 



Martin Kaehrle was foreman of Mr. Shubert's 
works for thirteen years. In 1869, with Declau 
O'Brien as partner, he commenced business for 
himself on Railroad avenite. The partnership of 
Kaehrle & O'Brien was dissolved in 1873, Mr. 
Kaehrle continuing the business on St. John street, 
till his death in 1S7S. Since his death his son, 
William Kaehrle, has conducted the business. 
Granite and freestone is taken in the rough and 
prepared for building purposes. 'I'hiriy men are 
employed. In 1S84, ^Ir. Kaehrle removed to his 
present location, 6, 8, and 10 Hamilton street. 

T. B. Robertson opened his steam granite and 
marble works, 750 Whalley avenue, about ten years 
ago, and has succeeded by skillful work in securing 
a large patronage. 

Thomas Bowden opened marble and granite 
works on the corner of Meadow and Columbia 
streets in 1884. In 1885 he removed to his present 
location. He does a general line of monumental 
work. 

The marble works of Jacob Andrea were opened 
in 1884 at the present location, 60 .Sylvan avenue. 
Mr. Andrea worked for John C. Ritter, on High 
street, for sixteen years, si.x years of which he was 
draughtsman. Mr. Andrea has done some highly 
creditable work since he has been in business. 
Notable is the sarcophagus monument built for 
United States Minister Phelps at Burlington, \'t. 

Joseph Cornish commenced his present business 
in 1884, in partnership with G. S. Barkentin, under 
the firm name of Cornish &Co. , at 966 Chapel 
street. The partnership was dissolved a short 
time after, when Mr. Cornish removed to his 
present location, 117 High street, where he has 
since continued. He manufactures monuments 
and headstones, and cemetery work of all kinds. 

The other marble and granite cutters deserving 
of mention are C. F. Balbier, 91 Ashmun street; 
John Maxwell & Son, Water, corner of Hill street; 
Edward O'Brien, 437 East street; Peter Small, 20 
Jefferson street; R. G. Stokes, 87 Whalley avenue. 
Daniel Steele, No. 5 Sylvan avenue is agent of the 
Burdick & Smith Granite Company, whose works 
are located at Westerly, R. I. 

Suspender MANUFACTt'RERs. 

Elm City Suspender Company was organized in 
1882. This factory is located at 365 State street. 
An assorted line of suspenders, garters and shoul- 
der braces are made. Henry Hertz is manager of 
this establishment. Work is furnished to six em- 
ployees. 

Tailors. 

Early in the present century the following per- 
sons were in business as merchant tailors in New 
Haven: Chalterton & Babcock. Thaddeus Austin, 
Samuel P. Davis, Rodnev Burton, LeGrand Can- 
non, Bryan & Peck, and Hull A Townsend. At a 
later date we find the names of Townsend A Bishop, 
Scott, Bristol & Thompson, Yale & Burritt, Benja- 
min W. Stone, and James M. Mason. The latter 
two are probably the two ablest living tailors in 



New Haven. Mr. Stone preceded Mr. Mason in 
business, beginning near the first quarter of this 
century. Mr. Mason served his apprenticeship 
with the firm of Bryan k Peck, who had a shop on 
the site now occupied by the New Haven Hotel. 
In 1837 he succeeded to the business (.>f Bryan & 
Peck, and successfully carried on the business from 
that time to 1873, a period of forty-seven years, 
when he retired. 

The most extensive merchant tailoring business 
in the city, if not in the State, is done by the firm 
of E. P. & B. R. Merwin, 68 Church and 60 Centre 
streets. Their present building was erected in 
1872. The firm was founded in 1831. They also 
have a house in New York City, established in 
1880. The amount of business done by this firm 
last year reached the sum of nearly a quarter of a 
million dollars. Employment is furnished to nearly 
one hundred and iifty operators. E. P. Merwin 
commenced business with the firm of Smith, Mer- 
win lie Co., in 1867, and is a gentleman of experi- 
ence and ability in this line ol business. Two travel- 
ing salesmen, three book-keepers and eight cutters 
are employed. 

SIMITH MERWIN. 

the youngest of seven children, was born in the 
town of Brookfield, Conn., in the year 1809. Ac- 
customed to labor, even throughout his youthful 
days, he enjoyed but little leisure, and attended 
school for a few winters only. But experience with 
hardship and necessity afforded him an education, 
evoking those qualities of self-reliance, persever- 
ance, and conscientious honesty, which were the 
foundation of his manly character. 

At the age of fourteen he came to New Haven 
on foot and alone, with a cash capital of twenty-five 
cents in his pocket, but rich in hope and honest 
purpose. He found employment on Chapel street, 
in tlie shop of Thaddeus .Austin, with whom he re- 
mained until he reached his majority. From Mr. 
Austin he learned the initiatory or practical part 
of that trade or prufcssion which was soon to be 
adopted by him as his own. In the spring of 
1832 he founded the business which has been un- 
interruptedly carried on, steadily growing and in- 
creasing, until to-day, in the hands of his sons, 
Edward Payson and Berkley Rich, it has become 
what would have been the desire of his heart, a 
fine business, one of the largest, if not the 
largest, of its kind in this country. His affairs 
were conducted with untiring industry, and with 
scrupulous honesty and fidelity. He attached to 
himself not only patrons, but friends, and won that 
permanent honorable success which he so fully 
merited. His business sagacity and carefulness 
caused him to be sought for as counselor in many 
enterprises. 

At the formation of the City Fire Insurance 
Company of New Haven, he was selected as one 
of its Directors, and so continued with the Com- 
pany until, after many prosperous years, he retired 
from business. In the year 1855, when the New 
Haven Manufacturing Company had become nearly 



633 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



bankrupt, with wonderful nerve he bought largely 
of its nearly valueless stock, becoming one of its 
Board of Directors, and had the great satisfaction 
of seeing it become one of the strongest and most 
profitable companies in the State. He continued 
as one of its Directors until his death. A similar 
position he also held in the Tradesmen's Bank 
from the time of its formation until his death. 
His naturally retiring disposition kept him from 
taking any active part in politics, yet his political 
views were always strong and clear in opposition 
to anything detrimental to the best interests of his 
country. His opposition to human slavery, and de- 
light at the breaking of the bonds of the oppressed, 
were characteristics of his manly heart. 

Mr. Merwin possessed a fervently religious 
nature, and all his powers and resources were 
prayerfully consecrated to the cause of the Master 
whom he loved. Early in the year 1838 he joined 
the First Congregational Church of New Haven. 
In the same year, in his parlors was formed the 
Chapel Street Church, now the Church of the Re- 
deemer, in which he became a Deacon in 1843, 
and so continued for twenty-five years. As a Sab- 
bath school teacher his memory is still cherished 
by many with loving remembrance. Afterwards a 
change of residence caused him to identify himself 
with the College Street Congregational Church. 

In church and in society, in business and at 
home, he never belied the sacred vows that he had 
taken, but sincerely endeavored, so far as in him 
lay, to live a god iy, righteous, and sober life. To this, 
those with whom he came in contact bore witness. 
One who was for more than ten years intimately 
associated with him in business said of him: " He 
was one of the purest minds I ever knew. I never 
knew him to utter a word or do an act, that, if 
publicly known, would not have been an honor to 
his memory. His whole life and soul seemed per- 
meated with a deep sense of Christian duty and 
responsibility. 

Jn 1832, Mr. Merwin married Miss Amelia P. 
Rich, of New Haven; by her he had six children, 
four sons and two daughters. One son died in 
childhood. The rest of his children, excepting one 
in New York, are now residents of New Haven. 

In the latter years of Mr. Merwin's life a wearisome 
and subtledisea.se fastened itself upon him, making 
him an invalid and a sufferer, but during liis long 
and painful illness not one word of murmuring or 
complaint was heard from his lips. That hope 
which had been the beacon and mainstay of his 
life, soothed and i|uieted him, until at last, on the 
23d of January, 1873, his prayers were answered, 
and he passed quietly and peacefully into that 
"rest" for which he had hoped and labored and 
prayed. 

William Franklin, of the present firm of William 
Franklin & Co., 40 Centre street, merchant tailors, 
commenced business in this city as partner in the 
firm of Mason & Franklin in 1845, which was 
continued for nine )ears, after which Mr. Franklin 
carried on the business alone until 1884, when the 
l)rpsent firm was formed, consisting of William 



Franklin, Charles T. Bennett, and Charles Foster. 
This is the oldest establishment of the kind in the 
city. Mr. Franklin was born in Preston, England, 
in 1821, and came to New Haven in 1831, where 
he has since resided. He commenced to learn the 
tailoring trade in 1835, with the firm of Babcock 
& Marvin. 

Telephonists. 

The first telephone exchange in New England 
was at New Haven. Its establishment was largely 
due to the sagacity of Mr. H. P. Frost. It still re- 
mains in active operation, though with multiplied 
and much extended wires. 

HERRICK P. FROST. 

The subject of this sketch, Herrick P. Frost, was 
born January 16, 1835, in the town of Wolcott, 
New Haven County, State of Connecticut. His 
father, Sylvester Frost, was a farmer of that town 
who married Philanda Tuttle, Herrick being the 
second of five children. He spent his boyhood 
and early youth on the farm, attending school in 
the winter months. 

Having a somewhat natural turn for trade, at the 
age of seventeen he started out in business for him- 
self Procuring a team, with goods of various kinds, 
he traveled through four or five States, and was- 
successful, not only in adding to his small capital, 
but in acquiring an experience of the ways of the 
world and in gaining confidence in himself. 

After pursuing this business for several years, he 
came to New Haven in March, 1856, and after one 
or two business ventures he formed a partnership 
with Julius Tyler, Jr., in 1858, establishing the 
wholesale grocery house of Tyler A Frost, on State 
street. This business he prosecuted with great vigor 
and with a varied success for nearly twenty years, 
the partnership being dissolved in 1856. 

At this time the great invention of the telephone 
was first brought to the notice of the world by its 
inventor. Professor Alexander Graham Bell. The 
attention of Mr. Frost was called to it, and after a 
careful examination of its merits he saw at once the 
practical usefulness of the invention. He accord- 
ingly associated himself with Mr. George W. Coy, an 
electrician and a former telegraph manager, and in 
January, 1877, the first telephone company ever 
formed for a general exchange business was organ- 
ized in New Haven, under the name of the New 
Haven Telephone Company, and the first telephone 
exchange the world ever saw was established. 

At this period the telephone was looked upon as 
a novel and amusing toy by the general public,and 
the establishment of this exchange, through which 
people in different parts of the city or in adjacent 
towns could be connected so that they could talk 
with each other as easily and as readily as if face to 
face, was a revelation, and the new enterprise at- 
tracted wide and general attention, and was soon 
the " talk of the town," the exchange being visited 
by schools, by students, by college and scientific 
professors, and by strangers from Chicago, St. Louis, 
Memphis, New Orleans, and many other cities. 




^ ^>4- ^^^^ 







nLhyt^ 



PRODUCTIVE ARTS. 



633 



It was an agreeable surprise, not only to Mr. 
Frost and Mr. Coy, but to Professor Bell and those 
associated with him, that the business public were 
so quick to avail themselves of this first opportunity 
to use the telephone for business purposes. In less 
than three months after the New Haven Exchange 
was established it had one hundred and fifty sub- 
scribers, and within one year over four hundred 
stores, offices, and residences were communicated. 
New Haven, therefore, has the credit, through the 
foresight and enterprise of Mr. Frost, of being the 
first city to have a successful telephone business 
e.Kchange. Since that time the business has grown 
with astonishing rapidity. In 1880, capitalists be- 
came interested in the further development of the 
system. The New Haven Company became merged 
into the Connecticut Telephone Company, the late 
Governor Marshall Jewell, of Hartford, becoming 
its President, and the Hon. Charles L. Mitchell and 
Morris F.Tyler, Esq., Directors. In 1S84, the name 
of the Company was again changed to the Southern 
New England Telephone Company, and its capital 
increased to one million five hundred thousand 
dollars. Mr. Frost is still the General Manager of 
the Company, and at the present time, owing to 
his energy and successful management, the lines of 
this Company have been carried into nearly every 
town, hamlet, and school district throughout the 
State, and no territory in the world has so many 
telephones in use, in proportion to its population, 
as Connecticut. 

Mr. Frost married, in 1858, Miss Amelia Mi.x, 
daughter of the late Ashbel Mix, a highly respected 
resident of Bristol, Conn. They have three chil- 
dren, two sons and a daughter. 

Mr. Frost has been connected with the New 
Haven City government as member of the Council, 
and as Alderman, Police Commissioner, etc. He 
also served three years as Chairman of the City 
Board of Finance. 

\V.\TKR-P1PE M.VNUFACTURERS. 

The Connecticut Patent Water-pipe Company, 
whose office is at 78 and 80 Crown street, manufac- 
ture water-pipe and water-works' supplies at West 
Haven. Captain D. GoflTe Phipps is at the head of 
this Company. 

CAPTAIN DANIEL GOFFE PHIPPS. 
Born in Koju Haven, June 20, 1821. 

Late in the year 1 760, his Majesty's frigate Suther- 
land was firing a salute in the harbor of Halifax on 
the occasion of the coronation of King George the 
Third. One of the English officers was Lieutenant 
Solomon Phipps, nephew of Sir John Rous, com- 
mander of the frigate, and belonging to that 
English family one of which was Sir U'illiam Phipps, 
Governor of the Massachusetts Colony in 1692-94. 
Lieutenant Phipps was standing on shore waiting 
for a boat to take him on board. By neglect of the 
gunner, one of the balls had not been drawn from 
its gun, as was the custom on entering port, and 

80 



this ball struck and instantly killed the Lieutenant. 
At the moment he had hold of the hand of his 
son, a lad nine years of age. 

The last was the grandfather of the subject of this 
sketch. His name was Daniel GolTe Phipps, so 
called from the maiden name of his mother. Miss 
Abigail Goffe, a descendant of Thomas Gofle, a 
magistrate of the Massachusetts Colony in 1629, 
The boy, Daniel Gofle, was born in Boston, as ap- 
pears on the town records, July 13, 1751, and early 
went to sea. In 1769 became to New Haven in 
a Boston ship. He married here a sister of Ebenezer 
Townsend, who owned the Neptune, which made 
that famous sealing voyage of 1796 1)9. Hebe- 
came interested in the West India trade, and served 
throughout the Revolutionary War in the land and 
naval forces; was in the Connecticut frigate Defence 
when she captured the Sirius, a larger and more 
strongly manned vessel; was captain of a privateer 
and twice taken prisoner. He became the owner of 
a number of vessels, one of which he captured 
from the British and fitted out for the West India 
trade. 

His son, Solomon, also followed the sea, becom- 
ing owner and captain of vessels in the West India 
trade, and later in life opening a nautical school in 
Meadow street, where he taught young men navi- 
gation, surveying, French, and drawing. He 
married Esther Peck a descendant of the Deacon 
Peck who came to New Haven with the Rev. John 
Davenport in 1638. 

Their second son was Daniel GolTe Phipps, the 
subject of this sketch. His natural bent was to- 
ward the sea, coming as he did from a long line of 
sailors. So, at fifteen, he shipped before the mast on 
the barque Condor for the West Indies; then on the 
ship Illinois from New York to Trieste; thence to 
Smyrna, where for three months the vessel lay dur- 
ing the prevalence of the plague. On the passage 
home the ship was dismasted oflT the Western Is- 
lands, and after great suffering from the want of pro- 
visions and water, she arrived in Boston, April, 1 838. 

His uncle. Captain Elisha Peck, then executive 
oflicerof the Brooklyn Navy Yard, procured him an 
appointment as master's mate in the U. S. Navy, 
and he was ordered on board the North Carolina, 
74 guns, lying off the Battery. He was soon 
ordered to the brig Dolphin, of 10 guns, which first 
cruised during the winter of 1839-40 on the 
coast, for distressed vessels. Later the Dolphin was 
sent to the Gulf of Mexico, where Mr. Phipps 
passed nearly two years. While at Pensacola he 
was greatly shocked on hearing of the hanging of 
Midshipman Spencer, son of the Secretary of War, 
for being suspected of intending mutiny on board 
the brig Somers. Spencer was but a lad of nineteen, 
and having been a messmate of .Mr. Phipps, on 
board the North Carolina, he knew the young man 
well, and felt certain he was incapable of such a 
crime. 

While cruising for pirates, in 1841, in the wind- 
ward passage, Capuin Phipps was in sight of Cape 
Nicola Mole when that town, with 3,000 inhab- 
itants, was engulphed by the great earthquake of 
that year. 



634 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



The rising and sinking sensation on board his 

vessel at the time was something rarely experienced 
by nautical men. On another occasion, while 
officer of the deck, he heard a faint cry over the 
ship's side. Looking over he saw one of the 
'prentice boys in the act of drowning, and at once 
jumped overboard and rescued him. Eleven years 
after, in the middle of the night he was awakened 
by a voice at his bedside in Chagres, saying "You 
saved my life once, I come to you to save it again." 
"Who are you } he rejoined," "I am boy Linn, of 
the Dolphin," and, placing a large sum of gold-dust 
on the bed, requested Captain Phipps to keep it 
until called for and immediately disappeared. The 
call for help this time was disregarded. The 
young man had stolen the gold and was afterwards 
arrested, condemned and sentenced to the chain- 
gang for life. 

On the return of the Dolphin to Norfolk, Captain 
Phipps was transferred in order to the old frigate 
Constitution; the Pennsylvania, a line of battle ship 
of 1 20 guns; and lastly to- the U. S. brig Tru.xton, 
then fitting out at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, 
under Commander Bruce, for the West Coast of 
Africa, to assist in suppressing the slave trade. He 
was on shore duty in the City of Philadelphia dur- 
ing the "Know Nothing" riots, taking an active part 
with the men under his command, aiding the city 
authorities in saving churches and convents from 
being burned and the people from being murdered. 

The Tru.Kton arrived at Monrovia in the early 
part of 1843, and Professor Silliman having applied 
to the Navy Department in behalf of the Connecticut 
Academy of Arts and Sciences for assistance in ob- 
taining meteorological data in difilerent parts of the 
world, Mr. Phipps was assigned to that duty on the 
coast, in addition to his ordinary duties. A sin- 
gular coincidence occurred during the second 
cruise to the equator. Mr. Phipps' then acting 
sailing master, on the 4th of July, 1844, in working 
up the ship's position at noon, discovered that the 
latitude was O'^ o' o" and the longitude was 0° o' o"; 
the observations leading to that result were taken by 
Lieutenant Simon F. Blunt and Sailing Master 
Phipps, with a cloudless sky. It is not probable this 
had occurred before in the history of man, certainly 
not on the 4th of July. 

Under the Ashburton treaty, the American and 
English vessels co-operated in the suppression of the 
slave trade. The English sloop of war Ardent and 
the brig Tnixton united to capture two slavers, 
which lay 100 miles up the Rio Pongo at Gordon's 
barracoons. 

Arriving at the mouth of the river, they sent up a 
boat expedition with 30 men from the American 
vessel and 50 from the English, and were successful 
in making the capture. Mr. Phipps, who had 
charge of the third cutter, was the first that boarded 
the prize, named the Spitfire, and the first person 
he saw had his back to him at the moment. He 
therefore siruck him with the flat of his sword. The 
man whirled around and Phipps saw he was a mu- 
latto. A second glance and each knew the other. 
His name was Jackson, and he was town born, had 
lived near Meadow street over the dike, and in 



boyhood their mutual knowledge was gained. He 
was the cook of the slaver. The Spitfire was senlJ 
to the United States and sold. Phipps' share of the i 
prize money was $200. Showery, the captain, aj 
New York man, was sent to Massachusetts State! 
Prison for life, and died there. Gordon, the slave- 
dealer, was a cruel wretch, and his barbarities on thej 
coast had reached the ears of the sailors, and they] 
had determined to kill him. He eluded their search, J 
to earn in later years the nefarious distinction ofl 
being the only man executed in the United Statesi 
for being engaged in the slave trade, adjudged] 
piracy by our laws. President Lincoln condemned] 
him to death, by hanging, in New York during the] 
rebellion. 

The climate of the coast rivers is deadly, and all 
but two of the thirty sailors who went with Phipps 
up the Rio Pongo took the coast fever. On the 
return of the Truxton, in 184 5, Mr. Phipps resigned, 
and took command of a vessel running between 
New Orleans and the Spanish Main, and during a 
voyage to St. Vincent encountered the great hurri- 
cane of September, 1846, and was in its vortex. 
The severity of that hurricane has been vividly de- 
scribed by Lieutenant-Colonel Reid, then Governor 
of Bermuda, in his work on the law of storms, 
making use of Captain Phipps' log book for that 
purpose. Few men live to relate the rough hand- 
ling they got in the center of those great cyclones, 
where many vessels " never heard from" end their 
careers. On the night of the i8th of December, 
1847, Captain Phipps was wrecked on the coast of 
Maine, and the cold was so severe on this occasion 
that seventeen persons froze to death before morn- 
ing. 

In December, 1848, on the news being received 
of the discovery of gold in California, he left New 
York on the steamer Crescent City for Chagres, and 
walked across the Isthmus to Panama, where many 
died at that time with the cholera. There he took 
charge of a Guayaquil coaster with forty passengers, 
and set sail for San Francisco. The want of pro- 
visions and water on that four months' passage up 
the Pacific Coast was a difficult problem to solve, 
there bemg no money on board, and the "moss 
trooper" method of supplying those wants was 
simply a triumph of the strong over the weak. The 
Mexican War was not over until that little vessel, the 
Tres Amigos,with its forty rifles entered the Bay of 
San Francisco, although the treaty of peace was 
signed some time before. 

Captain Phipps spent two years in the gold mines 
on the forks of the American River, and was success- 
ful in his mining opeiations. He returned in 185 1, 
crossing Central America on foot from Realejo on 
the Pacific to Lake Nicarauga. In a desperate affray 
with brigands near the old volcano of Massaya, he 
came near losing his gold-dust, and barely escaped 
with his life. 

He soon after, in 1851, married, in St. Louis, 
Bishop Hawks officiating, Mary E. Hunt, daughter 
of Captain James Hunt, a prominent West India 
merchant of New Haven. In the fall of 1864 he 
ceased going to sea, and became identified with the 
New Haven Water Company; beginning soon after- 



I 





^e«/ 




SOCIETIES AND CLUBS. 



635 



ward the manufacture of hydraulic pipe and the pro- 
fession of hydraulic enginering and building of water- 
works, his present business. A career embracing 
so many years of active life, both in the naval and 
merchant service, of course includes many interest- 
ing incidents, of which limited space forbids any 
mention. An outline only has been attempted in 
this article. 

His only son, Edward Hunt Pliipps, of the Vale 
Scientific School, is connected with him as a hy- 
draulic and mechanical engineer and manufacturer. 
He has but one other living child, a daughter, Lina 
Mar}- Phipps. 

Captain Phipps is 5 feet y inches in stature, of 
erect figure, with a wiry, muscular system, and has 
retained his excellent health through the rough ex- 
periences of twenty-seven years of nautical life. 

We esteem it an appropriate ending of this chap- 
ter on the Productive Arts, to give a biographical 
sketch of a man who has taken an active interest 
in so many manufacturing companies, that we 
hardly know in what part of the chapter to place 
his biography— the Hon. Charles L. Mitchell, the 
representative in Congress at the present time of 
the district of which New Haven is a part. 

Hon. CHARLES L. MITCHELL. 

Charles LeMoyne Mitchell was born at New 
Haven, Conn., August 6, 1844, and is the son 
of Edward A. Mitchell, who was for many years 
prominently identified with the manufacturing in- 
terests of Connecticut. Through his mother, Charles 



L. Mitchell is a direct descendant of Thomas Fitch, 

Governor of Connecticut from 1754 to 1766. 

Mr. Mitchell was educated at New Haven, and 
later spent tiiree years in a journey around the 
world, visiting Europe, Asia and Africa. He is 
actively engaged in business, being a Director in 
the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, Meriden 
Britannia Company, Tradesmen's National Bank, 
and other important enterprises, and is always ready 
to assist in promoting new industries. His prac- 
tical knowledge of business, and intelligent interest 
in scientific inventions connected with industrial 
I)rogrcss, cause his counsel to be sought and valued 
by inventors. 

Mr. .Mitchell represented the town of East Haven 
in the Legislature of 1878. In the following year 
he was nominated by the Democrats as their candi- 
date for the Eighth .Senatorial District, and, though 
failing an election, received more than the party 
vote in the majority of the towns. In 1882 he was 
elected to represent the Second District of Con- 
necticut in Congress, and was re-elected in 1884. 

Mr. ISIitchell is a generous patron of art, a buyer 
and reader of good books, and a skilled horticul- 
turist 

He is a member of the Vestry of St. Paul's Epis- 
copal Church, New Haven, and takes an active 
part in the support and management of the religious 
and benevolent institutions of the City and State. 

By family training and inheritance, as well as 
by his own deliberate choice, a Democrat, Mr. 
Mitchell is nevertheless free from partisanship. 
He not only accepts, but heartily believes in polit- 
ical progress, and has always the courage of his 
convictions. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



SOCIETIES AND CLUBS. 



AMERICAN LEGION OF HONOR, COMMERCIAL 
COUNCIL, No. 701.— Commander, Henry L. HiU ; 
Vice-Commander, Jolin Z. Mason ; Past-Commander, 
Joseph H. Smith; Orator, G. \V. Crane; Secretary, William 
H. Thomas; Collector, J. M. Bishop; Trcasnrer, F. L. 
Manwaring; Guide, Joseph E. White; Warden, E. H. 
White; Ortjanist, Charles E. Granniss; Sentry, F. D. Cobb; 
Chaplain, Samuel H. Kirby. 

Tin American Orienlal Society was organized in Boston 
in 1842, for the cultivation of learning in the Asiatic, African 
and Polynciian languages. It was incorporated in 1S43 by 
the Legislature of Massachusetts. Since 1855 it has kept its 
library in New Haven, which for this reason may be regarded 
as the home of the society. President, W. 1). Whitney; 
Vice Presidents, A. P. Peabody, E. E. Salisbury, W. H. 
Ward; Treasurer and Librarian, Addison Van Name; 
Corresponding Secretary, C. R. Lanman; Recording 
Secretary, C. H. Toy; Secretary of the Classical Section, 
W. W. Goodwin; Directors, A. I. Cotheal, J. .\very, D. C. 
Oilman, M. Bloomfield, C. Short, J. H. Thayer, \. 11. Hall. 

The Arion Society was organized Junel6, 1880, by thirty- 
one members of the Teutonia Miinnerchor. Its object is the 
practice and cultivation of singing. The society has now a 
membership of four hundred. The present oflicers are: 
President, F. W. Sternberg; Vice-President, C. Wirtz; 
Recording Secretary, E. Scherer; Corresponding Secretary, 
H. Heese; Financial Secretary, W. Emmerich; Treasurer, 
H. Kissinger; Trustees, E. Bechstedt, B. Richard, C. Kasten; 



Librarian, J. Lauth; Musical Director, Prof. R. K. Wehner. 
Arion Hall, 3 Church Street. 

Catholic Knights of America, Pioneer Branch, Ao. 453. — 
Meets first and third Thursday of each month at Kix>m 
39, Insurance Building. Spiritual Director, Rev. John 
Russell; President, Michael F. ('ampl)cll; Vice-President, 
James J. Carr; Recording Secretary, James E. Galvin; 
Financial Secretary, George E. Mitchell; Treasurer, B. E. 
Lynch; Sergeant-at-.\rms, William E. Flynn; Sentinel, J. F. 
Murray; Medical Examiner, Dr. J. M. Reilly. 

Chamber of Commerce. — President, lamc-s D. Dewell; 
Vice-Presidents, Samuel E. Mcrwin, luiwin S. Wheeler; 
Treasurer, Wilbur F. Day; Corresponding Secretary, T. 
.Vttwater Barnes; Recording Secretary, Charles W. Scran- 
ton; Directors, N. D. Spcrry, Joel A. S|K-rry, John H. 
Ixeds, Ch.irles H. Townsend, George H Ford. 

Chosen Friends, Nt'Ji Haven Council, No. I. — Meets 
second and fourth Monday evenings of each month at Lyon 
Building, 769 Chapel street. P.ast Chief Councilor, John 
11. Jones; Chief Councilor, William G. Cox; Vice-Councilor, 
Charles M. Manning; Secretary, Edward E. Tis<lale; 
Assistant Secretary, L. F. Morse; Treasurer, Samuel H. 
Crane; Prelate, H. W. Loomis; .Marshal, A. J. Downs; 
Warden, R. .M. Sherman; Guard, Andrew Finken; Sentinel, 
J. 1. Jacobus; Trustees, J. H. Jones, H. W. Ixximis, J. I. 
Jacobus. 

Connecticut Academy 0/ .Iris and Sciences. — Prciideni, A. 
E. Verrill; Vice-President, William H. Brewer; Correspond- 



k 



636 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



ing Secretary, A. Van Name; Recording Secretary, Leonard 
Waldo; Librarian, A. Van Name; Treasurer, H. C. Kings- 
ley; Committee of r'ulilicalion, H. A. Newton, Elias Loomis, 
p. J. Brush, E. S. Wheeler, A. E. Verrill, William D. 
Whitney, A. Van Name; Auditing Committee, A. E. Verrill, 
A. Van Name, If. A. Newton. 

Connecticut Benefit A ssocintion.— Officers: President, D. 
M. Corthell; Secretary, I-". H. Cogswell; Treasurer, Henry 
G. Newton ; Medical Director, Rollin McNeil, M. D. • General 
Manager, R. M. Hooker; Directors, N. G. Osborn, G. F 
Winch, L. E. Osborn, Charles K. Bush, William A. Wright. 
Office, 19 Exchange Building. 

Comteclictit Training School for Nurses. — President, Mrs. 
Noah Porter; Vice-Presidents, Mrs. T. D. Woolsey, Mrs. h! 
Farnam, Mrs. Edwin Harwood, Mrs. D. C. Sanford, Mrs. 
Samuel Colt, Mrs. G. M. Bartholomew, Mrs. F. J. Kings- 
bury; Treasurer, Mr. Charles A. Sheldon; Corresponding 
Secretary, Mrs. Charles B. Richards; Recording Secretary, 
Mrs. E. H. Jenkins: Auditors, Mr. Wilbur F. Day, Mr! 
Arthur D. Osborne; Committee on Finance, Mr. Charles A. 
Sheldon, Mr. yercmiah A. Bishop, Mr. Wilbur F. Day exl 
Governor James E. English, Mr. John B. Fitch; Executive 
Committee, Mrs. Noah Porter, Chairman. 

Elks. 

Neio Haven Lodge of Benevolent and Protective Order of 
Elks, No. 25.— Lodge Room, 852 Chapel street. Elks Hall 
Meeting night, Monday. Exalted Ruler, Frederick Ouintard; 
Esteemed Leading Knight. H. C. Collins: Esteemed Loyal 
Knight, John McGilvray; Esteemed Lecturing Knight, James 
H, Kelley; Secretary, H. S. Beers; Treasurer, C. A. Pratt; 
Tyler, H.J. Nicholson; Inner Guard, John Doody; Chaplain' 
D. S. Thomas; Esquire, L. D. White; Organist, G. E 
Eager; Trustees, J. D. Plunkett, William Neely, L. D 
\\hite; Stewards, Samuel Mann, Charles Zapp, Alexander 
Phillips. 

Engineer.?. 

_ Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, A>w Haven Divi- 
sion, No. 77. —Chief Engineer, Henry Byington; First As- 
sistant E. (). B. Parish. Meets first Tuesday and third 
1 hursday of each month in Engineers' Hall, State street 
corner of Chapel. ' 

Marine Engineers' Association, No. 36.— Meets second 
and fourth Monday evenings at Stationary Engineers' Hall 
S7 Church street. P. P., D. O. Chipman; President, M d' 
Douglass; Vice-President, A. D. Bartlett; Recording Secre- 
tary, Frank A. Foster; Financial Secretary, F. A Foster 
Conductor, Charles Hughes; Doorkeeper, William Gardner- 
Chaplain, G. W. Dadmun. ' 

A'rtu Haven Stationary Engineers'' Association, No. 2 

Meets every Friday evening at 8 o'clock at Stationary Engi- 
neers Hall, 87 Church street. President, Frank R Bald- 
win; Vice-President, John L Downes; Recording Secretary 
W. H. Wakeman; Financial Secretary, George A Thomp' 
son; Treasurer, F. A. Foster; Conductor, George A. Dole' 
Doorkeeper Dwight C. Beach; Trustees, Saul Sanford,' 
James Glacken, J. P. Ricketts. 

EvergreetiCemetery Association.— Offize,^2 Orange street 
President, James D. Dewell; Secretary, Benjamin R. English • 
Ireasurer John P. Tuttle; Directors, James D. Dewell' 
John P Tuttle, Edward C. Beecher, George Blakeman 
l-rederick H. Waldron; Superintendent, Harvey B Dor 
man. 

Eiremens Benn'olent Association.~-PrQ%\ient, Albert C 
Hendrick; Vice-President, Henry Tuttle; Treasurer, John 
L. Disbrow; .Secretary, Charles B. Dyer. 

The first meeting to form the association was held July 
26 1849. Organization completed by the election of the 
following officers: President, James T. Hemingway: Vice- 
Pres,dent,George W.Jones; Secretary, Joseph Downs; Treas- 
urer, Henry 15. Smith. ^ j i 

FORESTEKS. 

I.— ANCIENT ORDER OF FORESTERS— CONNECTICUT STATE 

DISTRICT. 

The District Court meets annually for the choice of officers 
and other business. This District comprises seventeen 



Courts, of which three are in New Haven, viz.: Andrew 
Jackson Court: Court Metropolitan, and Quinnipi.ac Court 
No. 6974. The officers of the District Court are: District 
Chief Ranger, James L Hayes; District Secretary P H 
O Brien; District Treasurer, James Farrell. 

^^r^"/''^"' 7"'''"'" '^0'"''' ■■'■ O. ^.— Chief Ranger, John J. 
Ward : Sub-Chief Ranger, Lawrence Short; Financial Secre- 
tary, Peter J. McNerney; Recording Secretary, James Mills; 
Ireasurer, Peter Reynolds; S. W., D. Nottingham; J. W. 
John Nugent; S. B., Joseph Loorain; J. B., M. O'Brien; 
Physician, E. L. Bissell. 

Court Metropolitan A. O. i^.— Chief Ranger, Tames T 
McMahon; .Sub-Chief Ranger, William O'Brien: Financial 
Secretary, John J. McMahon: Recording .Secretary, Jere- 
miah Kennedy; Treasurer, M. R. Mooney S W P (;al 
laghan; J. W., Philip Flood; S. B., James Nagle; 't. B P 
McKieriian. s > j . 

Q'linnipiac Court, A. O. F., No. 6974._Meets in Odd 
tellows' Hall, corner of Grand avenue and East Pearl street, 
the first and third Tuesdays of each month. P. J O'Con- 
nor, Chief Ranger; Patrick Groggin, Sub-Chief" Ranger; 
John J. Doohan, Financial Secretary: Joseph Donlan, Re- 
cording Secretary ; James P. Landers, Treasurer. 

II.— UNITED ORDER FORESTERS. 

Elm City Court No. 5933. -Chief Ranger, John Scholi; 
Sub. Chief Ranger, James Mallory; Recording .Secretary, 
Lsaac Hayes; Financial Secretary, George Loundes; Treas- 
urer, William Gaffey; Senior Woodman, Jacob Koehler; 
Junior Woodman, L. Lowenthal; Senior Beadle, William 
Scholi; Junior Beadle, J. F. Donohue; Physician, Dr. Mail- 
house; Commander, James H. Flagg; Vice-Commander T 
O'Brien. 

A'nigkts of Sheruwd Forest, Putnam Conclave, No. 14.— 
Past Commander, J. F. Healey; Commander, James H. 
Flagg; Vice-Commander, P. O'Brien: Adjutant, P. F. Mc- 
Guinniss; Recording Secretary, L Hayes; Paymaster, Will- 
lam G. Butler; Master-at-Arms, Edward Ryder; First Lieu- 
tenant, James P. Wilson; Second Lieutenant, E. J. Windes- 
First Sergeant, A. Kurtz; Second Sergeant, F. Fealey; Sur- 
geon, Dr. J. J. S. Doherty. 

Free Sons of Israel, New Haven Lodge, No. 46.— President, 
Adolph Hirsch; Vice-President, Leopold Besser; Recording 
Secretary, Philip Goodhart; Financial .Secretary, Moses 
Frank; Treasurer, David Ashman; Outside Tyler, Cerf 
Woolf; Conductor, Nathan Cohn; Inside Tyler, Solomon 
Pagter; Trustees, David Machol, Moses Briggs, Nathan 
Schuer. 

Frimdly Sons of St. Patrick. —T^lesls at 49 Church street, 
Hoadley Building. Regular meetings, first Tuesdays in 
February, May and October. President, Timothy J. Fox; 
Vice-President, James A. Fogarty; Secretary, Francis J.' 
Taylor; Treasurer, R. M. Sheridan. 

German Aid Society, Concordia No. I. — President, S . Loew- 
enbaum; Vice President, J. Penn; Treasurer, Frederick Do- 
erschuck; Secretary, Henry Pfeil; Cashier, H. W. Schorer; 
Trustees, Charles Gerner, Frederick Doebel, Isaac Weil. 

German and English School ^crtV()'.— President, John 
Rufi; Vice-President, Louis Weckesser; Secretary, Otto A. 
G. Rausch; Treasurer, Gottfried Lehr; Hall Agent, Tohii 
Macheleidt. 

German Mutual Aid &)«>/}/.— Instituted June 9, 1874. 
President, Zacharias Endriss; Vice-President, Wiegan 
Schlein; Secretary, George J. Faulhaber; Treasurer, John 
Hegel. 

German (_)rder of Hariigari. 

Frederick Hecker Lodge, No. 440.— Ex. B., August 
Taetsch; O. B., Heinrich Warncke; W. B., John Maier; 
Secretary, George Herpich; Treasurer, A. Schatz. Meeting 
first and third Thursdays each month in Turn Hall, corner 
of Court and Orange streets. Instituted June 3, 1881, with 
thirty-nine members. Present number, 106. 

Freie Brxieder Rfanie, No. 58.— O. G., George J. Faulha- 
ber; W. G., Alois Pfeiffer; .Secretary, G. M. Wohlfarth; 
Cashier, Heinrich Wessbecker; Treasurer, Christian Wir- 
weiss; Trustees, Otto H. Wall, Martin Faitsch, and Alois 
Pfeiffi-r. 



SOCIETIES AND CLUBS. 



637 



Festalozzi Lodge, No. 340.— E. B., W. Schlein; O. B., 
Henry Fink; U. B., Alexander Hubalek; Secretary, Au- 
gust Knoll; Treasurer, ( k-orjje Sodcr. 

Grand Army (if the REruiii.ic. 

Dfpartmcnt of Cohhiv/;'<7(/.— Commander, John T. Crary, 
Norwich; S. V. Commander, Henry E. Taiiitor, Hartford; 
J. \'. Commander, Samuel li. Home, Winstcd; Medical Di- 
rector, Herljert M. Bishop, Norwich; Chaplain, Rev. Kd- 
ward Anderson, Norwalk; Assistant AdjutantGeneral, 
Amos U. Allen, Norwich: Assistant (,)uartermaster-(n-neral, 
Wilham H. I'ierpont, New Haven; Inspector, William F. 
Rogers, Meiiilen; Judge-Advocate, Samuel H. Seward, 
I'utnam; Chief Musterini; Officer, William B. Rudd, Lake- 
ville; Council of Adnunistration, Frederick E. Camp, 
Middletown; Alson J. Smith, Danliury; Fred L.Warren, 
Bridgeport; George M. White, New Haven. 

Adiiiirnl Foote Fos/, No. 17. — Meets in Grand jVrmy Hall 
every Saturday evening. Commander, Simeon J. Fox; S. 
V. Commander, James N. Coe; J. V. Commander, I,ewis 
H. Brown: Adjutant, N. I. Strickland; (,)uarlermaster, W. 
H. Stowe; Surgeon, Charles Rawling: Chaplain, William 

F. Smith; O. 1)., Edward E. Tisdale; O. G., John S. DufT; 
Sergeant-Major, John H. Shumway; <,>uartermaster-Ser- 
geant, Lyman L). White; Commissary. Sergeant, Edward 
Wines; Sentinels, Joseph Cassell, William Shaw. 

Henry C. Merwin Fast, A'<7. 52.— Commander, William 
Gleason; S. \'. Commander, Thomas E. Twitchell; J. V. 
Commander, Timothy J. O'Donnell; Adjutant, George W. 
Bartlett; I^Hiartermaster, Thomas Hngta's; Surgeon, Robert 

G. I'atterson; Chaplain, Ralph Wright; ( tfiicer of Day, 
Henry Winson; Ofiicer of Guard, Isaac Dorman; Sergeant- 
Major, William A. Welch; Quartermaster-Sergeant, Patrick 
Farrell. 

Von Sleinwehr Fast, A'o. 76.— Charles Weidig, Com. 
mander; J. Schleicher, S. V. Commander; Christopher 
Weiler, J. V. Commander; Jacob Schmidt, Sergeant; lialzer 
Brand, S. D.; Weigand Schlein, Chaplain; Conrad Ho- 
facker, Quartermaster; L. ( )perschauser, Adjutant; God- 
fried Miller, Oft'icer of the Guard ; Louis Oeker, Sergeant- 
Major; Eriedrich Dobele, Quartermaster-Sergeant 

Admiral Foots Woman's Kelief Corps, No. 3. — Auxiliary 
to the Grand Army of the Republic. President, Mrs. Fran- 
cis M. Martin; S. V. President, Mrs. Louisa Goodrich; J.V. 
President, Mrs. Lizzie Arnold; Secretary, Mrs. Louisa 
Beach: Treasurer, Mrs. Hattie liuckingham; Chaplain, Mrs. 
Abigail Whitaker; Conductor,Mrs. Maggie Munson; Guard, 
Mrs. Josephine Parmalee. 

Harugari l.iedertafel. — The object of the as.sociation is 
the cultivation of singing. It was organized July 25, 1875, 
with seven members. At present it numbers 275. Presi- 
dent, Barth Neufs; Vice-President, Alois Pfeiffer; Record- 
ing Secretary, Henry Koehler; Corresponding Secretary, 
August F. Kurtz; Treasurer, George Faulhaber; Collector, 
Ernest P'lesche; Librarian, Stephen Erll. Harugari Hall, 
Lamar Block, Crown street. Business meeting, last Friday 
of each month. 

Hebrew Btnevoltnt ^iJoV/i'.— President, M. Heller; Vice- 
President, B. Rogowski; Secretary, Max Adier: Treasurer, 
Louis H. Freed man: Trustees, M. Sonnenberg, S. Cahn, 
D. Grotta. 

HUdisebtind, Seclioti 17. -President, Carl G. Engel; 
Vice-President, AV. ICberle; Secretary, Leopold Schierholz; 
Treasurer, Rev. Charles H. .Siebke. 

Home for Aged and Deslilule ll'omen.— 12$ Wall street. 
President, H. C. Kingsley; Secretary and Treasurer, T. R. 
Trowbridge; Trustees, Ezekiel H. Trowbridge, Eli Whit- 
ney, Thomas R. Trowbridge, Alfred Walker, Henry C. 
Kingsley, Charles Thompson, T. Ketchum, Charles A. 
White; Matron, Mrs. H. A. Scranton. 

Home for Ihe Friend/ess .^CVmion avenue, corner of Pine 
street. President, -Miss E. W. Davenport; Vice-President, 
Mrs. William Hillhouse: Treasurer, Mrs. Charles C. Foote; 
Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. Samuel Harris; Trustee, 
John C. HoUister; Advisory Committee, John C. Hollister, 
Dr. William B. De Forest, Amos F. Barnes, Charles Fab- 
rique, Justus S. Hotchkiss, Charles E. Gr.ives. 

Hore/i Lodge, L. O. B. B., No. 25.— President, Harry 
Asher; Vice-President, Isaac Ulman; Secretary, David 



Strouse; Treasurer, Adolph Hirsch; In. G., Nathan Cohn; 
C). G., M. Grecnlaum; Trustees, Max Ailler, P.iul Weil, N. 
Schcucr. Trustees meet at Courier Building every first and 
third Sunday evening in the month. <.)nc hundred and sixty- 
nine members. 

Jeffersoninn Club. - Lyon Building, 769 Chapel street. 
President, John H. I,eeds; Vice Presidents, Jonathan W. 
Pond, James Gallagher; Secretary, George S. Thomas; 
Treasurer, Jonathan W. Pond; Collector, Henry S. Cooper; 
Board of Managers, George M. Grant, Joseph C. ICarle, 
Burton Mansfield, Ezra B. Dibble, Fred. G. f ooper, S. H. 
Wagner. A. II. Roliertson, Frank S. Andrew, James P. 
Pigott, 1 lobart L. Hotchkiss, S. A. York, Julius Tyler. 

Knichts ok Colomhus. 

San Salvador Council, No. i. — Grand Knight, J. P. Gal- 
livan; Deputy Grand Knight, P, 11. Corrigan; Recor<ling 
Secretary, William Slattery; Financial Secretary, William 
M. Geary; Treasurer, William Keane; Warden, Alex. Bleto; 
Advocate, C. T. Driscoll; Lecturer, Daniel Colwell; Physi- 
cian, M. C. O'Connor, M. D. ; Trustees, J. T. Kerrigan, J. 

F. O'Brien, Peter Carberry. Regular meeting, first and 
third Thursday of each month. Council Hall, Wood's 
Building. 

Santa Maria Council, N'o. S.-CIrand Knight, Peter Con- 
roy; Deputy Grand Knight, W. F. Mulcahy; Recording 
Secretary, James CI. McMahon; Financial Secretary, 
Thomas F. McGinness; Treasurer, Joseph F. Preston; 
Warden, F. A. Farrell. 

A'. O. y. .Society. — Grand Master, M. Bernstein; Presi- 
dent, M. Kleiner; Vice President, II. C. BreUftlder; Re- 
cording Secretary, S. J. Weil; Financial Secretary, B. Su- 
genheinier; Treasurer, G. GrecDbaum; Inside Guard, B. 
Bernstein. 

A'mg/its of St. Patrick. — President, W. C. O'Connor, M. 
D.; Vice-President, James Reilley; Recording Secretary, 
Wm. M. Geary: Financial Secretary, James J. Kennedy; 
Treasurer, Patrick Cregan. Meets second Friday evening 
of each month in Wood's Building, Church Street. Organ- 
ized March 10, 1878. 

Knights of Honor. 

Grand Lodge of Connecllcul. —GranA Dictator, William 
II. Stannis, Meriden; Grand Vice-Dictator, Carlos Smith, 
New Haven; Grand Assistant Dictator, Ir^•ing H. Coe. 
Waterbury; Grand Reporter, Charles W. Skift, Danbury; 
(iraiid Treasurer, James H. Kelsey, Middletown; Granil 
Chaplain, Rev. C. H. Bond, Middletown. Grand Guide, 
Frank P. Carter, Hartford; (irand liuardian, I-ewis D. 
Chidsey, New Haven; Grand Sentinel, L. H. Sherman, 
Bridgeport; State Medical Examiner, W. f). Anderson, M. 
D., New Haven; Grand Trustees, John H. Barlow, Bir- 
mingham; Romania Wells, New Haven: Henry A. Chamber- 
lain, Middletown; Past Grand Dictator, E. B. Smith, Mid- 
dletown. 

Koger Sherman Lodge, No. 323. — Dictator, Fred. B. 
Farnsworth; Reporter, William H. ISeechcr; Financial Re- 
1)01 ter. Elisha Hewitt; Treasurer, Samuel H. Crane. Mi-cts 
second and fourth Wednesday evenings, 852 Chapel street, 
fourth floor. 

Mercantile Lodge, No. 1352.— Dictator, Joseph B. Morse; 
Reporter, S. W. Churchill; Financial Reporter, L. H. 
Prindle; Treasurer, Carlos Smith. Meets first and third 
Wednesday evenings at Elks Hall, .S52 Chapel street. 

Woolsey Lodge, No. 1356. — Dictator, John B. Hublxll; 
Reporter, 1). E. Merchant ;;Financial Reporter, F. II. Hem- 
ingway; Treasurer, K. B. Farrcn. Meets second and fourth 
Tuesday of each month .it Odd Fellows Hall, Grand avenue, 
corner of East Pearl. 

Steuben Lodge, No. 3053.— Dictator, Dr. William Spreng- 
er; Reporter, William F. Stemlx-rg; Financial ReiMirter, 
Charles R. Spiegel; Treasurer, Otto H. Wall. 

Knights of Pythias. 

Grand I-odge of Connecticut.— V. i'.. C, Willis B. Isbell, 
No. II, Westville; V,. C, .Mson J. Smith, No. 30. Danbury; 

G. V. C, William B. Beelw, No. 40, Bridgeport: (J. P., 



638 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



George M. Deming, No. 7, Hartford; G. M. of E., W. L. 
Morgan, No. 21, New Britain; G. K. R. S., Horace O. 
Case, No. 15, Hartford; G. M. at A., Joseph Roode, No. 34, 
Jewett City; G. I. G., Henry C. Long, No. 3, New Haven; 
G. O. G., Daniel H. Brown, No. 2, New Haven; Supreme 
Representatives, P. G. C, William H. Williams, Birming- 
nam; P. G. C, William Soule, Jewett City. 

Rathbone LoJge, No. I. — Meets every Wednesday evening 
in Pythian Hall, Courier Building. 

Ezel LodgCy No. 3. — Meets every Tuesday evening in 
Courier Building, State street. 

SchtlUr Lodge, No. 5 — Meets Monday evenings, Turn 
Hall Building. 

Edge-wood Lodge, No. II. — Meets at Pythian Hall, West- 
ville, every Monday evening. 

Union No. 32. —Meets every Thursday evening in Pythian 
Hall, Courier Building. 

Knights 0/ P)'l/ii(is Benefit Association. — ^Joseph K. Bundy, 
President. Organized December 7, 1885. 

Ladies'^ Seatnen^s Friend Society. — 92 Water street. Presi- 
dent, Mrs. W. T. Booth; Vice-President, Mrs. Sarah M. 
Mi.x; Secretary, Mrs. W. H. Fairchikl; Treasurer, Mrs. 
Luman Cowles: Executive Committee, Mrs. Leonard Win- 
ship, Mrs. F. W. Pardee; Finance Committee, Mrs. Luman 
Cowles, Mrs. F. W. Pardee, Mrs. J. A. Sperry. 

Masonic. 

Grand Lodge of Connecticut. — Annual communication at 
New Haven, January 19, 1887. M. W. Henry H. Green, 
Danielsonville, G. M.; John W, Mix, Plantsville, D. G. M.; 
y. H. Swartwout, Stamford, G. S. W.; L. A. Dickinson, 
Hartford, G. J. W. ; John G. Root, Hartford, G. T.; Joseph 
K. Wheeler, Hartford, G. Sec; Clark W. Buckingham, 
New Haven, G. S. D., Arthur H. Brewer, Norwich, G. J. 
D. ; William W. Price, New Haven, G. M. ; Rev. George R. 
Warner, Danielsonville, G. Chap.; Hugh Stirling, Bridge- 
port, G. S. S. ; E. O. Goodwin, East Hartford, G. J. S. ; 
Joseph Riley, New Haven, G. Tyler. 

lliram Lodge, No. i, F. &^ A. M. — Instituted 1750. 
Stated communication every Thursday, at 7.30 p.m., July 
and August excepted. Third Thursday in July and second 
Thursday in August. Annual, last Thursday in December. 
Atherton L. Barnes, W. M.; Frank E. Stoddard, S. W. ; 
William M. Frisbie, J. W. ; George E. Frisbie, Treasurer; 
William A. Beers, Secretary; R. S. Woodruff, S. D. ; G. M. 
Bush, J. D.; James E. Smith, S. S.; W. L. Peck, J. S.; D. 
R. Ailing, Tyler. 

Trumbii/l Lodge, No. 22, F. &^ A. M. — Instituted 1869. 
Stated communications second and fourth Tuesday evenings 
of each month, at 7.30 o'clock, except in July and August; 
those months, the fourth Tuesday evenings only. Annual 
communication, fourth Tuesday in December. H. C. Tre- 
cartin, W. M. ; Francis Smith, S. \V.; C. D. Nevvcomb, J. 
W.; E. S. Ouiiitard, Treasurer; T. Parsons Dickerman, 
Secretary; Lyman D. White, S. D.; George S. Trecartin, 
J. D. ; F. H. Sprague, S. S.; George Rathgeber, J. S.; L. 
D. Brown, Tyler. 

Adelphi Lodge, No. 63, F. i&^ A. M. — Fair Haven. In- 
stituted 1823. Stated communications, first and third Tues- 
day in each month. Annual, last stated communication in 
December. Francis Ray, W. M.; Joseph Cunningham, S. 
W.; Joseph J. Dayton, J. W. ; E. N. Holoday, Treasurer; 
Jason P. Thompson, Secretary; Robert C Hart, S. D. ; L. 
F. Humiston, J. D.; C. H. Hendrickson, S. S. ; Evans 
Pratt, J. S.; Horace S. Barnes, Tyler. 

IVoostcr Lodge, No. 79, F. £-■ ,4. iJ/.— Instituted 185 1. 
Stated communications every Wednesday evening at 7.30 
o'clock, except in July and August— those months, second 
Wednesday evening only. Annual, last stated in December, 
preceding the festival of St. John the Baptist. Samuel W. 
McEwen, W. M.; William H. Cox, S. W. ; John P. Studley, 
J. W.; J. W. Pond, Treasurer; F. Stanley Bradley, Secre- 
tary; A. J. Harmount, S. D.; Robert W. Dyas, J. D.; John 
S. Lovejoy, S. S. ; Robert Christie, J. S. ; Joseph Riley, 
Tyler. 

Ulive Branch Lodge, No. 84. F. &^ A. i1/. — Westville. 
Instituted 1857. Stated communications, second and fourth 
Thursdays in each month, at 7.30 v. M. Annual communi- 
cation, first stated in December. John Wilkinson, Jr., W. 
M.; Marshall E. Terrell, S. W.; A. B. Sinclair, J. W.; 



Joseph D. Payne, Treasurer; E. L. Hitchcock, Secretary; 
James Mercer, S. D. ; Loren Cheney, J. D. ; Thomas Ridge, 
S. S. ; James McClure, J. S. ; Edward F. Baldwin, Tyler. 

Connecticut Rock Lodge, N^o. 92, F. c-= A. M. — Instituted 
1864. Stated communications, second and fourth Mondays 
of each month. Annual, fourth Monday in December. 
Henry Leimbecker. M. W. ; Henry C. Fisher, S. W. ; Frank 
Maurer, J. W.; WiUiam E. Stahl, Treasurer; Emanuel 
Baxljaum, Secretary; Alexander Kreh, S. D.; C. F. Boll- 
man, J. D. ; Christian Grohe, S. S. ; August Knoll, J. S. ; 
John Mayer, Tyler. 

Grand Roval Arch Chapter of Connecticut. — ^James Mc- 
Cormick, Windsor, G. H. P.; Reuben H. Tucker, Ansonia, 

D. G. H. P.; J. E. Blakeslee, Thomaston, (;. K.; John O. 
Rowland, New Haven, G. S.; George Lee, Hartford, G. 
Treasurer; J. K. Wheeler, Hartford, G. Secretary; G. L. 
Hewitt, Norwich, G. C. of H.; J- H. Swartout, Stamford, 
G. P. S. ; C. H. Chesebro, Putnam, G. R. A. C; Rev. 
Reuben H. Tuttle, Windsor, G. Chaplain; Milton H. Ricker, 
Mystic River, G. M. 3d V.; J. V. Squire, Stafford Springs, 
G. M. 2d v.; H. H. Green, Danielsonville, G. M. 1st V.; 
Samuel Bassett, New Britain, G. S. S. ; Isaiah Baker, Jr., 
Hartford, G. J. S. ; Joseph Riley, New Haven, G. Tyler. 

Franklin Chapter, No. 2, R. &^ A. M. — Instituted 1795. 
Regular Convocations, first and third Tuesdays, July and 
August excepted. Annual, third Tuesday in December. 
John K. Hutchinson, M. E. H. P.; A. L, Barnes, E. K.; 
Frank Bishop, E. S.; Charles F. Root, Treasurer; Edwin 
W. Ensign, Secretary; Benjamin H. Vann, C. of H.; Henry 
Hitchcock, P. S. ; C. W. Weir, R. A. C; John R Ruff, M. 
3d v.; William L. Peck, M. istV.; Allen D. Baldwin, .S. S. ; 
L. H. Johnson. J. S. ; Joseph Riley, Tyler. 

Pulaski Chapter, No. 26, R. A. M. — Instituted 1852. 
Annual convocation, December 12th. Regular, second 
Wednesday in each month. Henry C. Thomas, M. E. H. 
P.; A. F. Sawe, E. K.; John J. Dayton, E. S.; Treasurer, 

E. N. Holoday; Secretary, J. T.Thompson; W. P. Thomp- 
son, C. of H.; Alex. Johnson, P. S.; C. H. Hendrickson, 
R. A. C; Daniel Wedmore, M. 3d; C. T. Hemingway, 
M. 2d; J. B. Cunningham, M. 1st V.; Horace S. Barnes, 
Tyler. 

Grand Council, R. d~ S. M. — Frank G. Bassett, Seymour, 
M. P. G. M.; James H. Welch, Danbury, D. P. G. M.; 
William W. Price, New Haven, T. I. G. M. ; George Lee, 
Hartford, G. Treasurer; J. K. Wheeler, Hartford, G. Re- 
corder; John P. Weir, Meii'den, G. P. C. W. ; Samuel Bassett, 
New Britain, G. C. of G. ; C. J. Fox, Willimantic, G. C. ; 
Rev. George M. Stanley, West Winsted, G. Chaplain; 
George A. Kies, Norwich, G. Steward; Joseph Riley, New 
Haven, G. Sentinel. 

LLarmony Council, No. 8, R. ^ S. M. — Instituted 1818. 
Regular Assembly, third Monday in each month, July and 
August excepted. Annual assembly, third Monday in 
December. George W. Weir, T. I. M.; Allen D. Baldwin, 
R. I. D. M. ; Elisha L. Cobb, P. C. of W. ; Marshal D. 
Andrus, C. of G.; Eldward Burtrick, Treasurer; John R. 
Hutchinson, Recorder; John R. Ruff, Conductor; Fred. H. 
Waldron, Steward; Joseph Riley, Sentinel. 

Crauford Council, No. Ig, R. &= S. AL — Instituted 1852. 
Annual Assembly, fourth Monday in December; Regular, 
fourth Monday in each month. J. B. Cunningham, T. I. M. ; 
C. B. Adams, R. I. D. M. ; Francis Rav, P.' C. of W. ; E. 
N. Holoday, Treasurer; J. O. Rowland, Recorder; S. W. 

F. Andrews, C. of G.; James Troy, Conductor; Joel Brad- 
ley, Steward; Horace .S. Barnes, Sentinel. 

Ne^v //ii7'cn Coiniiiandery, No. 2, A'. T. — Instituted 1825. 
Regular Conclave, third Friday in each month. Lyman H. 
Johnson, E. C; Edward Burlrick. General; Isaac W. 
Bishop, C. G. ; Eh S. (Juintard, Prelate; Allen I). Baldwin, 
S. W.; Atherton L. Barnes, J. W.; Charles F. Root, Treas- 
urer; Francis G. Anthony, Recorder; T. Parsons Dicker- 
man, Assistant Recorder; Henry W. Clark, Standard Bearer; 
Andrew Wylie, Jr., Sword Bearer; George W. Weir, Warder; 
Francis Ray, First Guard; David R. Ailing, Second Guard; 
John N. Leonard, Third Guard; Henry Sutton, Commissary; 
Charles B. Matthewman, Organist; Joseph Riley, Sentinel. 

A. & A. S. RITE. 

Meet Masonic Temple, 708 Chapel street. 

E. G. Storer Lodge of Perfection. — Regular Communica- 



SOCIETIES AND CLUBS. 



639 



tions, first Monday in January, March, May, September and 
November. Annual Conimunication preceding 3d Adar. 
Officers for 1886: Kli S. Quintard, 32°, T. V. G. M. ; Lyman 
H. Johnson, 32=, H. T. L). G. M. ; Atherton L. Barnes, 32', 

V. S. G. W.; V. J. G. W.; Allen D. 

Baldwin, 32=', G. O.; Julius Tyler, 32 ', G. T.; T. Parsons 
Dickerman, 32°, G. S., K. S. A.; Frederick H. Waldron, 
33, G. M. C; Francis G. Anthony, 32°, G. C. G.; Theo- 
dore J. Ackerman, 32°, G. H. B. ; Kdward Burtrick, 18°, G. 
Organist; Joseph Riluy, 18 , G.Tyler. 

E/m City Coiinci! Irinces of yerusalem. — Regular Con- 
vocations, first Monday in February, April, October and 
December. Annual Convocation preceding the 20lh of 
Tebet. Officers for 18S6: Frederick H. Waldron, 33°, M. E. 
S. P. G. M.; Atherton L. Barnes, 32°, G. II. P. D. G. M.; 
Allen D. Baldwin, 32 , M. E. S. G. \V.; Eli S. Ouintard, 
32=, M. E. J. G. W.; Julius Tyler, 32=, V. G. T. ; T. Parsons 
Dickerman, 32-, \'. G. S. K. S. A. ; Lyman H. Johnson, 32°, 
V. G. M. C; Edward Burtrick, 18°, V. G. M. E.; Joseph 
Riley, 18 , G. Tyler. 

Nno Haven Ckapter Rose Croix, H. A". D. M. — Regular 
Assemblies, first Monday in February, April, October and 
December. Annual Assembly on Holy Thursday or Ascen- 
sion Day. Officers for 1886: Horatio G. Bronson, 32^, \V. 
W. i: P. M. : Lyman H. Johnson, 32 , >L E. & P. K. S. W.; 
Ell S. Ouintard, 32 , M.E. & P. K. I. W. ; Frederick H. 
Waldron, 33', M. E. & P. K. C, O. ; Julius Tyler, 32-, R. & 
P. K. T.: T. Parsons Dickerman, 32^, R. & P. K. S.; Will- 
iam Konold, 32", R. & P. K. H.; Atherton L. Barnes, 32'^, 
R. & P. K. M. C. ; Allen D. Baldwin, 32^% R. & P. K. C. G. ; 
Joseph Riley, 18^, (i. Tyler. 

La Favette Consistory, 5. •. P.- . Rr . .?.■.—< irand East 
at Bridgeport, Conn. Regular Rendezvous, fourth Friday 
in February, .April, October and December. William R. 
Higsby, 33^, 111.-. Com.-, in Chief, Bridgeport, Conn.; 
Andrew H. Doolittle, 32^, 111.-. Gr.- . Secretary, Bridgeport, 
Conn. ; Deputy of the Supreme Council 33" for the State 
of Connecticut, Charles W. Carter, 33 , Norwich, Conn. 

Masonic Mutual Bfiu/it Assoiia/ion.— Office (i), 850 
Chapel street. President, Most Wor. Bro. Eli S. (^)uintard, 
New Haven, Conn.; Vice President, Bro. Frank 1). Sloat, 
New Haven, Conn. ; Secretary, Most Wor. Bro. Frederick 
H. Waldron, New Haven Conn.; Treasurer, Bro. John P. 
Tuttlc, New Haven, Conn.; Medical Director, Bro. William 
D. Anderson. New Haven Conn.; Directors, Most Worthy 
Bro. Eli S. Ouintard. Worthy Bro. E. D. Brinsmade, .Most 
Worthy Bro Frederick H. \Valdron, Bro. F. G. .\nthony, 
Worthy Bro. G. N. Moses, Bro. William A. Beers, Worthy 
Bro. E. F. Mansfield, Bro. Frank D. Sloat, Worthy Bro. 
Charles G. Wanner, Bro. F. Bellosa, Worthy Bro. W. W. 
Price, Worthy Bro. C. E. Prince, Bro. E. H. Cutler, New 
Haven; Bro. H. W. Crawford, Worthy Bro. John O. Row- 
land, Bro. Seth W. Langky, Fair Haven; Bro. D. S. 
Thompson, Worthy Bro. J. E Kelsey, West Haven; Worthy 
Bro. (ieorge L. Finney, Wcstville. 

Masonic Protective Society.— Ofi'ict:, 762 Chaiiel street. 
President, Wor. Bro. Nehemiah D. Sperry; Vice-President, 
Wor. Bro. Julius Twiss; Secretary, William A. Beers ; 
Treasurer, Bro. T. Parsons Dickerman; Medical Director, 
Bro. Frank H. WIttemore, M. I).; Directors, Wor. Bro. 
Essi Stannard, Wor. Bro. William W. Hyde, Bro. Samuel 
Chamberlain, Bro. Henry L. Whitaker, Abraham Krause, 
Bro. Charles F. Balbier, Stiles L. Beach. 

QUINNll'IAC BODIES. 

Meet In the Clark Building, 87 Church Street. 

Qiiinnipiac Lodge of Lerjeclion, 14°.— Isaac F. Graham, 
33°, T. P. G. M.; James A. Howarth 32°, Dep. G. M. K. 
ot T.; Edward F. Merrill, 32°, V. S. G. W.; Lucius B. 
HInman, 32', V. J. G. W.; Isaac H. Stoddard, 32 , G. O.; 
Walter R. Francis, 32", Gd. Treasurer; Dwight W. I^wls, 
32", Gd. Secretary & K. S.; Charles E. Hull, 32°, Gd. .M. 
of C ; Edward W. Baldwin, 32', Gd. C. of C..; William W. 
Hyde, 32", Gd. Organist; L. G. Costales, 32', Gd. Tyler. 

Qiiinnipiac Council of J'rinees of Jerusalem. - Walter R. 
Francis, 32°, M. E. Sov. P. G. M.; Samuel H. KIrby, 32°, 
G. H. P. Dep. G. M.; Joseph L. Joyce, 32", M. E. S. G. 
W.; George B. Martin, 32", M. E. V. G. W.; William W. 
Hyde, 32', Val. G. Treasurer; Fxlward W. Baldwin, 32°, Val. 
G. Secretary; Friend E. Brooks, 32°, Val. G. M. ofC; Oscar 



Dikeman, 32», Val. G. C. of G.; W. L. Thomas, 32°, Val. 
G. Tyler. 

Qiiinnipiac Chapter Rose Croix, 18°.— John E Earle, 32", 
M. W. & P. M.; F. M. Wiser, 32^, M. E. & P. K. S. W.; 
Herbert C. Warren, 32', M. E. & P. K. J. W. ; Edward S. 
Gaylord, 32°, M. E. G. O. ; Edward W. Baldwin, 32', K. 
& P. K. Secretary; Joseph K. Bundy, 32°, R. & P. K. 
Treasurer; tmil A. tiesner, 32 , R. & P. K. G. M. C; 
Edward F. Mansfield, 32", R. & P. K. Hosp.; Benjamin E. 
Brown, 32", R. & P. K. C. of G.; 11. W. Smith, 32 , R. & 
P. K. T. 

Quinnipiac Council of Kadosh, 30° — N. D. Sperry, 33" 
111. Com.; Colin M. Ingersoll, 32', 1st Lieut. Com.; Lucius 
P. Demiiig, 32', 2d Lieut. Com.; Stephen R. Smith, 32 , M. 
of C. & G. O. ; Lyndc llarrlsim, 32 , C.d. Chancellor; Ed- 
ward W. Baldwin, 32 , Gd. Secretary and K. S.; James 
G. Mc.-\lplne, 32'', Gd. Treasurer; Charles Wilson, 32", 
Eng. & Arct.; Lewis 1). Chldsey. 32°, C. M. of C; A. C. 
Traeger, 32°, G. Hospitaller; Samuel H. Crane, 32°, G. 
Standard Bearer; Frank C. Bushnell, 32 , G. C. ol G.; 
L. G. Costales, 32°, G. Sentinel. 

General Consistory for Connecticut, S. P. K. S. T., 32°. 
—Isaac F. Graham, 33°, 111. Com.-in-Chief, Edward W. 
Baldwin, 32^ 111. Grand Secretary. 

COLORED MASONS. 

Oriental Lodge, Xo. 15. -Meets first and third Tuesdays 
in each month, at Masonic Hall, Webster Btreet. 

Eureka Chapter. — Meet first and second Mondays, corner 
State and Chapel streets. 

St. Paiifs Commandery.— Meets Street's Building. State, 
corner Chapel street. 

Mercantile Club. — Insurance Building; Pri-sident, llobart 

B. Bigelow; Vice-President, Fred. .\. Gilbert; Secretary and 
Treasurer, Charles KImberly; Executive Committee, W. W. 
Converse, Joseph McDonald, E. F. Mersick, E. E. Stevens, 
George Y. Holcomb, O. A. Dorman. 

Moses Mendelssohn Lodge, A'o. 16, O. A'. S. ^.—Presi- 
dent, Ch. Lichtenstein; Vice-President, S. Wolff; Secretary, 
D. Strouse; Treasurer, E. M. Gans; Inside Guard, Ph. 
Winter; Outside Guard, I. Besas. Meets every second and 
fourth Sunday evening in Elks' Hall, Chapel street. 

Musical Protective Cnion.—L. !'. Well, President; S. W. 
Mallory, Vice-Piesulent; Albert Mallon, Secretary; Frank 
Flechtl, Treasurer. 797 State street. 

Mutual .lid Association of the A'ew Haven Fire Depart- 
uuiit. — President, A. J. Kennedy, Vice-President, Sylvanus 
Gesner; Secretary, W. F. Noyes; Treasurer, E. 1. Smith. 

National IVovident Cnion, Fraternity Council Xo. 19. — 
Meets first and third Fridays, Elks' Hall, S52 Chapel street. 
President, D. .S. Thomas; Vice-President, F. L. Manwarlnc; 
Treasurer, J. H. Smith; Secretary, J. II. Shumw.iy; Gm. 
lector, N. I. Strickland; Counselor, J. II. Perry; Marshal; 
G. W. Stoddard; Chaplain, C. J. Buckliee; Instructor, 
J. W. .Shuberl; Organist, Benjamin Jepson; I'sher, B. A. 
Marsh; (iuard, Harvey Nicholson. 

Nt--L> Haven Aid Society. President, William L. Kingslcy ; 
Vice-Presidents, Francis Wayland, Samuel (i. Thorn, l-ouis 
Fcldman, James OInistead, Kuel P. Cowli-s, George E. 
Thompson; Secretary and Treasurer, Richard E. Rice; 
Collector, George Sherman; Board of Managers, First Ward, 
James Fairman; Second, Horace P. Ho.idley; Third, Alan- 
son Gregory; Fourth, Nicholas Countryman; Filth, Dr. 
L. M. Giilwrt; Sixth, Simmons lline; Seventh, Melville M. 
Cower; Eighth, William J. Atwater; Ninth, Charles T. 
Townsend; Teiuh, James Olmstead; Eleventli, George E. 
Thompson; Twelfth, George E. Thompson. 

AWtf Haven Assembly, A'o. 6, R. S. of C. F. — Ruler, 
Henry B. W<K>dward; Instructor, fieorge E. Frisble; Coun- 
selor, Dr. Joseph H.Smith; ex. Ruler, Frank A. Newton; 
Secretary, William II. Thomas: Treasurer, Frederick L. 
Trowbridge; Director, William M. Parsons; Prelate. Henry 

C. Collins; Guard, A. H. Kolb; Sentry, Ellwrt A. Pardee; 
Medical Examiner, C. Purdy Lindsley, M.D.; Trustees, 
Henry L. Hill. Myron W. Curtis, and Luther E. Jerome. 

A'e-.v Havcn .tlhlitic Club. -Organized December I, 1S74, 
as the New Haven Gymnasium. Name changed December 
I, 1885, to New Haven Athletic Club. President, Henry L. 
Hill; William R. Feary, Vice-President; Benjamin E. 



640 



HISTURF OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



Brown, 2d Vice-President; James P. Bristol, Secretary; 
C.J. Munson, Jr., Treasurer; Hyatt P. Miner, J. M. Augur, 
Jr., Frank H. Gaylord, Executive Committee. 

Nno Haven Bicycle Oiii.— 708 Chapel street. President, 
William M. Frisbie; Secretary, H. \V. Redfield; Treasurer, 
W. H. Hale; First Lieutenant, A. N. Welton; Second 
Lieutenant, W. L. Peck; Bugler, A. N. Welton; Standard 
Bearer, C. F. Minor. 

Ne7v //liven Board of Associated Charities. — Chairman, 
Francis Wayland; Vice-Chairman, Wilham L. Kingsley; 
Secretary, Charles P. Wurtz; Treasurer, Charles A. Sheldon; 
Investigating Agent, S. O. Preston; Bookkeeper, E. C. Gil- 
dersleeve; Matron, Mrs. E. J. Baker; Central office, 22 
Church street. 

New //avcn Board of City Missions.— VxtixAftxA, Rev. 
Newman Smyth, U. D.; Vice-President, Rev. H. P. Nichols; 
Secretary, S. T. Dutton; Treasurer, Hon. Francis Way- 
land; Executive Committee, the Officers of the Board, Rev. 
Noah Porter, D. D., Rev. Timothy Dwight, D. D., Rev. 
William W. McLane, D. D., Philip Pond, Isaac N. Dann, 
Rev. D. .\. Goodsell, D. D., Rev. W. H. Butrick, Theodore 
F. Booth; Superintendent of Missions, Rev. W. I). Mossman; 
Assistant, P. H. Mason. Rooms, 721 Chapel street. 

Ncu //avm City Burial Ground. — Incorporated 1797. 
Clerk and Treasurer, James M. Mason; Joint Standing Com- 
mittee of the Proprietors having charge of the Grounds, 
James M. Mason, Nathan H. Sanford, Thomas R. Trow- 
bridge, Jr.; Sexton, Isaiah Hickman. 

hhiu Haven Clock Company Mutual Aid Association. — 
President C. B. Bryant; Vice President, D. S. Tyrell; Sec- 
retary, A. S. Welch; Treasurer, Andrew Allen. 

New Haven Colony Historieal Society. — Old State House. 
Established November 14, 1862. Chartered June 18, 1863. 
President, Simeon E. Baldwin; Vice-President, James E. 
English; .Secretary, Thomas R. Trowbridge, Jr. ; Treasurer, 
Robert Peck; Advisory Committee, E. E. Beardsley, Ed- 
ward E. Atvvater, J. M. Hoppin, Franklin B. Dexter, John- 
son T. Piatt, Henry Bronson, Edward H. Leffingwell, E. 
Huggins Bishop, Charles R. Ingersoll, Caleb B. Bowers, 
Charles L. English, Joseph B. Sargent, Lynde Harrison, 
Thomas R. Trowbridge, Thomas R. Trowbridge, Jr.; 
Charles Dickerman, Ruel P. Cowles, Eli Whitney, James 
E. English, Henry L. Hotchkiss. Frank E. Hotchkiss, 
George Petrie, T. .A.ttwater Barnes, Charles H.Townshend. 

Nco Haven Conclave, No. 79. U. O. D. S. IV. M.—O. 
M., Charles Wueeppesahl; K., John B. Freysinger; P., Th. 
Failer; Secretary, F. Michahelles; Treasurer, S. Schur. 

AWy Haven Co-operative Savings Fund and Loan .4ssoci- 
<;//(>«.— President, Henry F. Peck; Vice-President, John E. 
Bassett; Secretary, Roliert E. Baldwin; Treasurer, John A. 
Richardson; Auditors, John M. Peck, Hugh Galbraith; 
Directors, Franklin H. Hart, Charles L. Baldwin, Frank S. 
Andrew, Nelson Adams, Franklin S. Bradley, William J. 
Root, A. Heaton Robertson, Joseph Porter, Albert Tilton, 
Benjamin E. Brown, Frederick B. Farnsworth. Office, 818 
Chapel street. 

New Haven County Agricultural Society. — President, D. 
N. Clark, of Bethany; Vice-Presidents, W. F. Osborne, of 
Derby; Robert Foot, of Hamden; John Benton, of Guil- 
ford; and C. P. Augur, of Hamden; Treasurer, Frank S. 
Plait, of New Haven; Seedsman, Robert Veitch, Jr., New 
Haven. 

New Haven County Horticultural Society. — Organized 
1832. President, Charles L. Mitchell; Vice-Presidents, Prof. 
Daniel C. Eaton, Henry G. Lewis, Charles V,. G. Merrill; 
.Secretary and Treasurer, Robert Veitch, Jr.; Directors, 
.Solomon Mead, Robert Veitch, David Saunders, Thomas 
McLelland, Dwight N. Clark, David Ford. 

New //aven County Medical Society. — President, Lewis 
Barnes, Oxford; Vice-President, F. E. Beckwith, New 
Haven; Clerk, Charles E. Park, New Haven. 

NcM Haven Dispensary . — 146 York street. President, 
ex-Governor English; Vice-President, Dr. Charles A. 
Lindsley; Finance Committee, William T. Bartlett, E. S. 
Wheeler, Johnson T. Piatt; Committee of Supply, Dr. 
Henry Fleischner, Dr. W. H. Carmalt, Dr. J. K. Thacher, 
Max Mailhouse, A. W. Leighton, Gustavus Elliot, F. H, 
Wheeler; Treasurer, William T. Bartlett; Secretary, Dr. 
Henry Fleischner; Lady Visitors, Miss Justuie Ingersoll, 
Mrs. Dr. Chapman, Mrs. R. D. Beach, Mrs. Dr. Foster, 
Mrs. Professor Beebe, Mis. Professor William K.Townsend, 



Miss Carrie Lindsley, Mrs. Colonel A. H. Robertson, Miss 
Sargent; Visiting Committee, Johnson T. Piatt, Justus S. 
Hotchkiss, William K. Townsend; Apothecary, James H. 
Nelson. 

New Haven Gospel Vnion. — Meets at English Hall. Pres- 
ident, Hiram Camp; Secretary, F. C. Sherman; General 
Superintendent, John C. Collins; Treasurer, F. W. Bene- 
dict; Directors, Hiram Camp, Rev. G. T. Ladd, D.D. ;Rev. 
John E. Todd, D.D. ; Rev. Newman Smyth. D.D. ; Pierce 
N. Welch, Charles E. Graves, Rev. S. Harris, D.D. ; Thomas 
R. Trowbridge, Jr. ; F. W. Benedict, F. C. Sherman, John 

C. Collins. 

New f/aven Hospital. — President, James E. English; Vice- 
President, Morris F. Tyler; Secretary, T. H. Bishop; Treas- 
urer, Leonard .'^. Hotchkiss; Prudential Committee, Eli 
Wliitney, Jr. ; W. II. Carmalt, Thomas Hooker; Finance 
Committee, S. E. Merwin, H. H. Bunnell, Edwin S. Wheeler; 
Auditing Committee, Henry D. White, Daniel Trowbridge; 
Superintendent, J. H. Starkweather; Attending Physicans, 
Drs. M. C. White, S. H. Chapman, Henry Fleischner, S. D. 
Gilbert, T- K.- Thacher; Surgeons, Drs. Francis Bacon, W. 
H. Carmalt, W. H. Hotchkiss, T. H. Russell; Gyn.-ecolo- 
gist, Frank E. Beckwith; Consulting Physicians, Drs. Levi 
ives, D. L. Daggett, C. A. Lindsley, F. L. Dibble, G. B. 
Farnam, E. B. Bishop, R. S. Ives, L. J. Sanford, Walter 
Judson, W. L. Bradley, T. H. Bishop; Visitors, Rev. 
Edward W. Babcock, Max Adler, Rev. C. E. Woodcock, C. 
B. Bowers, Patrick Maher, Rev. J. O. Peck. 

New //aven Kennel Club. — 7S7 Chapel street. President, 
G. Edward Osborn; Vice-President, J. A. Howarth; Sec- 
retary, S. R. Hemingway; Treasurer, L. L. Morgan; Board 
of Governors, G. Edward Osborn, J. A. Howarth, S. R. 
Hemingway, L. L. Morgan, H. L. Cowell, R. B. Penn, W. 

D. Peck, J. B. Robertson, Jr.; C. B. Gilbert. 

N'ew Haven /i/edical Association. — Organized 1803. Pres- 
ident, William O. Ayers; Vice-Presidents, Henry Fleischner, 
William H. Carmalt; Secretary and Treasurer, Gustavus 
Elliott; Prudential Committee, M. C. O'Connor, Henry 
Pierpont; Finance Committee, F. L. Dibble, C. A. Lindsley. 
Membership May I, 18S6, sixty. 

Neiv Haven Orphan Aysluin. — President,Mrs. George W. 
Curtis; Chief Managers, Mrs. William Fitch, Mrs. N. D. 
Sperry; Treasurer, Mrs. Frederick Ives; Secretary, Mrs. 
Henry Champion; Assistant Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. 
Mary B. Bristol; Recording Secretary, Miss Eliza K. Twin- 
ing; Provider, Mrs. N. D. Sperry. 

New }/ aval Schutzen Verein, No. i. — President, Frank 
Maurer; Vice-President, George Liefield; Secretary, George 
Schafifner; Treasurer, August Reisinger; Shooting Master, 
Charles Miller. Hall, Room 34, Insurance Building. Ad- 
dress of Secretary, No. 19, Jefferson street. 

N'eiv Haven Yacht Clul>. — Club House, Water street, foot 
of Franklin. Commodore, H. D. Billard; Vice-Commodore. 
George E. Dudley; Rear-Commodore, Charles M. Peck 
Fleet Captain, James Gallagher, Jr.; Fleet Surgeon, Paul C 
Shift, M.D., Measurer, Frank H. Andrews; Board of Trus 
tees, Charles W. Scranton, L. H. Stannard, W. W. Price, 
Joseph B. Manville and M. R. Durham; Regatta Commit 
tee, Joseph T. Whittlesey, Frank W. Guion, E. S. Osborn 
W. A. Foskett, Jr., L. A. Elliott; Membership Com 
mittee, J. J. Osborn, Jr., E. M. Somers, Charles R. Water- 
house, Jr. 

O'Connell /Mutual .Aid .Association. ~Tres\dent, Thomas 
T. Sullivan; Vice-President, John H. Burke; Treasurer, Peter 
Lynch; Financial Secretary, Dominick Collins; Recording 
Secretary, Thomas J. ColTey. 

Odd Fellows. 

grand enx.\mpment. 

G. P., R. E. Paddock, Bridgeport; G. H. P., Isaac H. 
Coe, Hartford; G. S. W., W. H. Cox, New Haven; G. S., 
Frederick Botsford, New Haven; G. T., J. W. Smith, 
Waterbury; G. J. W., Lyman S. Burr, New Britain; Repre- 
sentatives to the Sovereign tirand Lodge, Hiram Francis, 
Meriden; Ellery Camp, New Haven; G. S., W. W. Tucker, 
Hartford; G. M., F. J. King, Norwich; G. O. S., R. H. 
Johnson, New Haven. The next annual session will be 
held in the city of New Britain on the third Tuesday in Oc- 
tober, 18S6. 



SOCIETIES AND CLUBS. 



C41 



SUBORDINATE ENCAMPMENTS. 

Sassaciis, No. I. — Meets second and fourth Friday even- 
ing of each mimth, at 8 o'clock, at 95 Orange street, Palla- 
dium Building. 

Goldm Rult, No. 24. — Meets first and third Thursday 
evening of each month, at S o'clock, at corner of Church 
and Chapel streets, Glebe Building. 

Aurora En^avipmeiil, A'o. 27 (German). — Meets first and 
third Friday evening of each month, at 8 o'clock, at corner 
of Church and Chapel streets. Glebe Building. 

FIRST REGIMENT r.VTRIARLllS' MILITANT, I. O. O. F. 

Colonel, C. B. Foster; .Vdjulant, F. B. Lane; Lieutenant- 
Colonel, Geo. N. Moses. 

First Battalion. — Major, Peter Terhiuie. 
GRAND CANTON, NO. I. 

CatUon, No. 4.— Captain, Peter Terhunc; Lieutenant, F. 

B. Lane; Ensign, H. .S. Ball; Clerk, F. E. Todd. 
Canton, iVo. 5. — Captain, J. S. llinman; Lieutenant, E. 

L. Wright; Ensign, David K. Ailing. 

Canton Goldai Rule, No. 9. — Captain, Morris A. Ray; 
Lieutenant, John Widman, Jr. ; Clerk, D. C. Winans; En- 
sign, Chas. H. Bradley. 

Canton .lurora. No. 12. — Captain, Frank Meyer; Lieu- 
tenant, Frederick Ploeger; Ensign, Henry Buchter; Clerk, 
G. Schonewetter. 

GRAND LODGE 

meets annually on the third Wednesday in May, at 10 
o'clock A.M. 

SUBORDINATE LODGES. 

Quinnipiac, No. i. — Meets every Monday evening, at 8 
o'clock, at 95 Orange street. Palladium Building. 

Harmony, No. 5.— Meets every Tuesday evening, at 95 
Orange street. Palladium Building. 

Montoivese, No. 15. — Meets every Tuesday evening, at 
corner of Chapel and Church streets. Glebe Building. 

City, No. 36. — Meets every Wednesday evening, at 95 
Orange street. Palladium Building. 

Polar Star, .No. 77. — Meets every Wednesday evening, at 
123 East Pearl street. 

Germania, No. 78 (German). — Meets every Thursday 
evening, at 95 Orange street. Palladium Building. 

Relief, No. 86. — Meets every Monday evening, at corner 
of Church and Chapel, Glebe Building. 

Humboldt, No. 91 (German). — Meets every Tuesday even- 
ing in the Temple, corner of Orange and Court streets. 

Mutual Aid .Association. — Otfice, no Church street. 
President, Joseph K. Bundy; Vice-President, T. 1. Driggs, 
Waterbury; Secretary, George N. Moses; Treasurer, Thomas 

C. Hollis; Directors' Meeting, last Thursday evening of 
each month. 

Odd Fellows Library Association.— OAd Fellows Hall, 95 
Orangestreet. President, John R. Bradley; Vice-President, 
Charles W. Stebbin?; Secretary and Treasurer, '.Villiam \\. 
White; Librarian, S. D. Fairchild; Executive Commiltee, 
W. F. Peckham, Fred. Bostwick, and R. 11. Johnson u( No. 
i; W. H. Talmadge, J. B. CIcmmons, and Samuel lolles 
of No. 5; C. W. Stebbins, K. .\. Laiiilaw, and Charles Tre- 
cartenofNo. 15; C. H. Stone, D. R. Adams, and S. D. 
Fairchild of No. 36; J. E. Brown, A. A. Fairchild, and W. 
1 1 . Abrams of No. 86. 

COLORED ODD FELLOWS (G. U. O. O. F.). 

Christian Star Lodge, N'o. 1484.— Meets first and third 
Wednesday evening of each month. 

Elm City Lodge, No. 2329.— Meets second and fourth 
Thursday evening of each month. 

/'. G. Masters' Council, A'o. 38.— Meets first Thursday 
and fourth Friday evening of each month. 

Netu Haven Fatriarchie. No. 17.— Meets tirst Thursday 
evening of each month in Day's Hall. 
bl 



P. O. Sons of America. 

Washington Camp, No. I. — Meets every Friday evening 
at Pythian Hall, Courier Buildmg. President, C. A. Ross; 
Vice-President, E. B. Evans; Recording Secretary, .\. S. 
Welch; Financial Secretary, C. H. Hill; Treasurer, Geortje 
II. Rowland; M. of F. and C, E. E. Gesner; Conductor, B. 
W. Stocking. 

Washington Camp, No. 2.— Meets every Tuesday at 
Pythian Tlall. President, H. H. Hayden; Vice-President, 
J. A. Rhodes; Recording Secretary, L. P. Korn; Financial 
Secretary, I. H. Scranlon; Treasurer, H. W. Gilbert; 
Master of F. and C, F. E. Simms; Conductor, A. M. 
Pedrick. 

IVasliington Camp, No. 3. — Meets every Wednesday even- 
ing at Sons of America Hall, Richardson Block, Fair Haven. 
President, J. H. Denton; Vice President, Capt. Charles 
Secley; Master of Forms and Ceremonies. .V. C. Merrill; 
Recording Secretary, W. A. Comstock; Treasurer, J. E. 
Reeves; P. P.. F. ^f. Pratt. 

Washington Camp, A'o. 4. — Meetsevery Thursday evening 
atlJ. P. O.E., No. 852 Chapel street. President, J. II. Flagg; 
Vice-President, S. E. Rutty; Recording Secretary. D. S. 
Tyrrill; Financial Secretary, (ieorge II. Khyncdance; 
Treasurer, Charles M. Manning; Master of Forms and 
Ceremonies, Charlo F. Hicks; Conductor, Joseph E. 
Harrison. 

Protestant Industrial .Association. - First Directress, Mrs. 
Thomas Welles; Second Directress, Mrs. W. F. Day; 
Treasurer, Mrs. E. A. .\nketell; Sccietary, Mrs. Sidney A. 
Sanderson; Managers, Mrs. Jonathan Hiller, Mrs. Charles 
Mcrsick, Mrs. Dr' Cheney, Mrs. W. K. Tuwnscnd, Mrs. B. 
H. English, Mrs. J. G. English, Mrs. W. D. Clarkson. Mrs. 
S. F. Foote, Mrs. -M. F. Tyler, Mrs. II. D. Butler. Mrs. W. 
W. Converse, Mrs. J. B. t'arrington, Mrs. E. S. Kimtxrrly, 
Mrs. Maurice Kingsley, Mrs. J. P. C. Foster, Mrs. L. P. 
Morris, Mrs. Henry Benedict, Mrs. E. T. Carrington, Miss 
Munson, Miss Kingsley, Miss Hotchkiss. 

(Juinnipiac Club. -Ovganizcd ui 1S71 as the Ours Club. 
Name changed Decembers, 1S77, loOuinnipiac Club. "The 
Shipman House" was leased the same year, and has since 
been occupied as the club house. N. D Sperry, Pre^ident; 
Charles L. Mitchell, First Vice-President; Henry Trow- 
bridge, Second Vice-President; J. A. Bishop, Secretary; E. 
L Foote, Treasurer; Trustees, James E. English, t. M. 
Reed. 

Railroad Men's Reading Room .Association.— 20J Water 
street. President, Hon. George H. Watrous; Secretary and 
Treasurer, J. C. Ryan; General Committee, George H. 
Watrous, E. H. Trowbridge; Executive Committee, Walter 
J. Whcaton, El)en Garlicld, J. C. Ryan, J. Maroncy, and A. 
Francis; Manager, J. C. Ryan. 

Ramblers' Ficrcle C/k(J.— President, George Humphreys; 
Secretary and Treasurer, E. E. Boyd; CapUin, Richard 
Norman. 

Royal .Arcanum, Davenport Council, No. 700.— Past 
Regent, Eugene C. Hill; Regent, Wm. G. Gunning; Vice- 
Regent, Wni. .V. Waterbury; Orator, Frank D. Grinnell; 
Secretary, John B. J udson; Collector, Franks. Hamilton; 
Treasurer, George B. Jones; Guide, J. W. Jewett, M. D. ; 
Warden, Frank R. Fisher; Trustees, W. A. Waterbury, W. 
S. Wells, James N. Coe. .Meets first and third Mondays in 
Pythian Hall, Courier Building. 

Republican /^a^/^.— President, Thomas R. Trowbrnlge, 
Jr. ; Vice-Presidents, Arthur D. Osborne, Tredwell Ketcham, 
James D. Dewell, Henry F. Peck, Samuel E. Merwin, Jr.; 
Secretary, A. H. Kcllam; Treasurer, lolin .\. Richardson; 
Trustc-es, Henry B. Harrison, Henry V.. Pardee. Frank E. 
Spencer; Executive Commiliec, Lynde Harrison, E. S. 
Greeley, S. J. Fox, F. II. Hart. Charles H. Farnam, George 
B .Martin, H. B. Hubbard, Charles S. Mersick. J. P. C. 
Foster. Eli Whitney. Jr.. W. P. Tuttle. George E. .Maltby; 
Auditors, Edward C. Beecher, lienjamin E. Brown. 

Society for I lie Prevention of fW/nc— President. Rev. 
Noah Porter, D.D , LL.D.: \ice President. Hon. Francis 
Wayland; Treasurer. ICdward E. Mix; Board of Directors, 
the officers of the Society, S. C. Thorn, H. H. Benedict. J. 
A. Richardson, Rev. W. D. Mossman. Prof. F. R. Honey. 
Cornelius Pierpont. Hiram Camp, Charles E. Hart, S. II, 
Barnum; Agent, George R. Bill. 



642 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



St. Boniface Bennwlent Society. — President, Joseph Hau- 
ser; Vice-President, Jacob Butcher; Recording Secretary, 
Anton Grab; Corresponding Secretary, Frank Dahlmeyer; 
Treasurer, Charles Pallman; Trustees, Charles Hauser, 
Frank Schandler, and Ed. Heller. 

St. Francis Orphan .-/y/«/«.— President, Rt. Rev. L. S. 
Mc.Mahon; Vice President, Rev. P. MulhoUand; Treasurer, 
Charles Ativater; Secretary, William M. Geary; Board of 
Managers, Rev. L. S. McMahon, Rev. J. Cooney, Rev. John 
Russell, Rev. Michael McKeon, Rev. Joseph Schale, Rev. 
P. MulhoUand, C. T. Driscoll, Francis Donnelly, Alexander 
Emery, Patrick McKenna, P. Creegan, Charles Palhnan, 
William M. Geary, James Reynolds, Patrick Maher, Frank 
Chandler, John Stars, Timothy J. Fox. 

St Ignatius T.A. B. &j«V/v.— President, Francis Carroll; 
Vice-President, Michael Healey; Recording Secretary, John 
J. Foley; Treasurer, Rev. M. J. Lynch; Marshal, Peter 
Weber. Meet first Sunday in each month in St. Francis 
Hall. 

St. Vincent de Paul Conference of Sacred Heart. — Presi- 
dent, Lawrence Curtis; Vice-President, Theodore Durkin; 
Secretary, Patrick Donnelly; Treasurer, Patrick Creegan; 
Librarian, Martin Kennedy; Wardrobe Keeper, Frank Hur- 
ley. Meets every Monday evening at 8 o'clock in Lecture- 
room of the church. 

Swiss .Society of Ne^u //aw«.— Chartered in 1883. Presi- 
dent, Dr. W. Springer; Vice-President, Samuel Buchter; 
Secretary, i;d. Stehle; Treasurer, Jacob Koella; Trustees, 
John Mettler, A. Ochsner. Meets "first Wednesday in each 
month in Teutonia Hall. 

Temperance Societies, 
sons of temperance. 

Grand Division of Connecticut. — Grand Worthy Patri- 
arch, Albert A. Baldwin, Milford; Grand Worthy Associate, 
Rosa Kincella, Bridgeport; Grand Scribe, W. A. Baedor, 
Hartford; Grand Treasurer, R. H. Tucker, Ansonia; Grand 
Chaplain, Rev. Thomas E. Gilbert, West Haven; Grand 
Conductor, Edward L. Linsley, North Haven; Grand Sen- 
tinel, O. E. Raymond, South Norwalk. 

SUBORDINATE DIVISIONS OP' NEW HAVEN. 

Harmony Division, No. 5.— Meets at G. A. R. Hall every 
Thursday evening. D. G. W. P., Charles E. Hart. Officers 
elected quarterly. 

Crystal Wave, No. 7.— Meets in Temperance Hall, corner 
of State and Chapel streets, every Wednesday evening. D 
G. W. P., W. W. Johnson. Officers elected quarterly. 

Fair Haven Division, No. 36.— Meets Monday evenings 
in Sons of America Hall, 38 Grand avenue. D. G W P 
William H. Richards. Officers elected quarterly. ' '' 

Victoria Division, No. i,-] (6>?-ot,7«). -Meets in Temple 
of Honor Hall, Room 28, Insurance Building. Meets Mon 
day evening. D. G. W. P., Charles W. Dambacher. Offi 
cars elected quarterly. 

GOOD TEMPLARS. 

Howard lodge, I. O. G. T., No. 63.— Meets every Tues- 
day evening. 

Morning Watch Lodge, No. 63.— Meets every Wednesday 
evening. ' 

Rescue Lodge, No. 32.— Meets at 75 Orange street Mon- 
day evening. Officers of all subordinate lodges elected 
quarterly. 

JUVENILE TEMPLARS. 

Elm City Juvenile Temple, No. 58. -Meets every Sunday 
at3P.M, in thehallof Y. M. C. A. 

Silver .spray Juvenile Temple, No. 59. -Meets every 
Monday at 7.30 p.m., in the parlor of Howard Avenue M. 
K Church. 

Quinnipiac Juvenile Temple, No. 60.— Meets every Sun- 
day at 2.30 p.M , P. S. A. Hall, 38 Grand avenue 

TEMPLARS OF HONOR AND TEMPERANCE. 

Nn'^^-C'^T^'""^''''''-^ ■?":'"■• ^"^ 2— Meets Friday evenings, 
No. 27 Insurance Building. W. C. T., W. T. Pickett; 



W. V. T., J.. H. Jacocks; W. Treasurer, G. P. Otis; W. R., 
F. D. Ludington; W. A. R., F. Baker; W. F. R., G. G. 
Willis; W. U., G. C. Cameron; W. D. U., T. Hadden- W 
Guard, R. S. Olis; W. S.,C. D. Hall; W. Chaplain, Rev. 
J. W. Denton. ^ 

.-Inchor Temple of Honor, No. 27.— Meets Tuesday even- 
ings at Central Hall, 38 Grand avenue. W. C. T., C. M. 
Jacobs; W. V. T., F. M. Bartlett; W. Recorder, D P. 
Candee; W. A. Recorder, T. G. W. Jefferson; Financial 
Recorder, J. E. Reeves; Treasurer, J." E. Reeves; W. U., 
Thom.as Hemstock; D. U., George Johnson; J. Guard 
Frank Thrall; Sentinel, H. Bassett. 

Excelsior Council, No. 8, Select Templars.— 'Meeis first 
and second Wednesdays, at 27 Insurance Building. C. of C, 
J. W. Denton; S. of C, Sylvanus Butler; J. of C, C. D. 
Hall; Chaplain of C, J. W. Denton; R. of"C., G. P. Otis; 
T. of C, M. Thomas; M. of C, F. Ludington; D. M. of C , 
A. J. DeLong; P. of C, C. Jacobs; W. of C, William 
Beach. 

Elm City Temperance Clui. —yo8 Chapel street. Presi- 
dent, John A. Peckham; Secretary, George W. Smith. 

CATHOLIC TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES. 

St. Aloysius T. .4. B. ioaV/y.— President, James P. Bree; 
Vice-President, Michael F. Smith; Recording Secretary,' 
John H. Flanagan; Financial Secretary, William h] 
Church: Treasurer, Thomas O'Brien; Marshal, John 
White; Sergeant-at-Arms, Richard Nagel. 

St. Francis T. A. B. A'c-vV/j'.- President, James P. San- 
ders; Vice-President, William Weber; Recording Secretary, 
Henry Weber; Financial Secretary, Owen McMahon. 

St. John's T. A. B. ^SociV//. —President, Patrick Don- 
nelly; Vice-President, Andrew McPartland; Secretary, 
David O'Donnell; Treasurer, Edward McCabe; Marshal' 
Henry Dailey. 

St. Mary's T. .4. B. Sc<-/V<)'. — President, John McWheeny ; 
Vice President, Thomas Callahan; Treasurer, Michael Tur- 
bert; Recording Secretary, Martin Flyn; Financial Secre- 
tary, Daniel Doody; Marshal, Antony Keegan; Sergeant- 
at-Arms, Daniel Cavanagh. 

St. Falrick-s T. A. B. Society No. i.— President, Rev. 
John Russell; Vice-President, James Morrissey; Treasurer, 
Patrick Falsey; Secretary, Peter Clyne; Marshal, Michael 
Shane. 

Temperance Society of the Sacred Heart.— Vte%\i<tn\, 
Bernard Smyth; Vice-President, M. J. Ryan; Recording 
Secretary, Patrick Donnelly; Treasurer, James O'Brien- 
Marshal, Henry M. Daily. 

Teutonia Miinnerchor. — President, Charles Schenk- 
Vice-President, Joseph Lang; Recording Secretary, John 
Weisberger; Corresponding Secretary, Henry C. Irving- 
Financial Secretary, Herman H. Scharf; Treasurer, Louis 
Weckesser; Cashier, Peter Bohn; Trustees, Frederick 
Brill, August Dunsing, William Fricks. The oldest German 
singing society in Connecticut. 

Trades Council of Ne-o Haven.— Morris E. Ruther, Sec- 
retary. The object of the Trades Council is to organize 
all branches of honorable toil, with a view of elevating their 
material and intellectual status as working men and citizens. 
It consists of three delegates from each'of the subordinate 
organizations represented. At its establishment in 1881 these 
subordinate organizations were: Cigar- makers' Union, 115 
members; Cabinet-makers' Union, 50 members; Wood-car- 
vers' Association, 30 members; Typographical Union, 85 
members; Tailors' Union, 30 members; Stone-masons' Union, 
45 members; Spring-grinders', 10 members. At the present 
time the Trades Council consists of Journeymen Tailors' 
Union, 80 members; Wood -carvers', 25; Typographical, 80; 
Piano-makers', 40; Cigar-makers', 50; Musical Protective, 45; 
Amalgamated Iron and Steel Workers', 150 workers; Stone- 
masons', 60; Socialistic Labor Party, German Branch, 75 
members; Socialistic Labor Party, American branch,' 25 
members; Resolute Labor Club, Knights of Labor, 85 mem- 
bers; Industry Labor Club, Knights of Labor, 500 mem- 
bers; Nonpareil Labor Club, Knights of Labor, 100 mem- 
bers; Carriage- workers' Association, 150 members; Granite- 
cutters' Union, 35 members. The Trades Council also owns 
and controls a weekly newspaper. The IVorimen's Advo- 
cate, which has a circulation of 2,500 copies. 



-•4 ' V>; J ^ Koi-.iets 





SOCIETIES Ah'D CLVBS. 



643 



Trinity Church Home.—y3-^ George street, between Col- 
lege and High. President, Rev. Dr. Harwood; Vice-Pres- 
ident, Andrew L. Kidston; Treasurer, Gardner Morse; 
Secretary, James M. Mason; Chaplain, Kev. H. M. Ladd; 
Almoners. .Mrs. Frances Gorham, .Mrs. Joseph E. Shefi'ield, 
Mrs. Charles K. Graves, Miss Elizahcth A. lild. Miss Mary 
I. Lin/ee, Miss Caroline S. Edwards, Mrs. Mary E. Mc- 
Master, Miss Sara G. Ilotchkiss, Miss M. M. Leffingwell, Mrs. 
William Beebe, Mrs. Timothy H. Bishop, Miss Mary L. 
I Booth. Mrs. W. 11. Law. Mrs. William W. Farnam, .Miss 
Charlotte Upham, Mrs. Lizzie Ward, Mrs. J. \V. Mansfield, 
Mrs. George St. John Sheffield; Matron, Mrs. Sarah W. 
Titus. 

Trinily I'arish School. — 303 George street. President, 
Rev. Edwin Harwood; Vice-President, Gardner Morse; Sec- 
retary. William W. While; Treasurer, James M. Mason; 
Standing Committee, James M. Mason, Miss -Sarah Morse, 
Mrs. T. Bishop, Miss Sarah .\I. Edwards, Miss Mary L. 
Booth, Mi.ss Isaphene llillhouse, Mrs. S. A. Bassctt; 
Teachers, Anna R. Burwcll, .Mary J. Parmelee. 

Typographical Union No. 47. — (Organized 1S60. Pres- 
ident, T. F. Mulcahy; Vice-1'residcnt, R. S. Kir.shner; 
Treasurer, Asa A. Vale; Secretary, George A. Brostpl. 

United American Mechanics. 

Pioneer Council, Ko. I. — Meets every Thursday evening 
at 400 State street, Courier Building. Councilor, F. E. 
Stevens; Vice-Councilor, F. A. Allen; Recording Secretary, 
A. S. Welch; Assistant Secretary, C. H. Porter; Treasurer, 
S. E. Holt; Financial Secretary, E. J. Good; Inductor, J. G. 
King; E.xaminer. J. J. Hainer; Inside Protector, Charles 
Morris; Outside Protector, William Forbes; Trustees, F. E. 
Field, E. D. Warner, C. H. Standish. 

Washington Council, No. 7. — Meets every Monday even- 
ing in G. A. R. Hall, Benedict Building. Councilor, 
Frank Brown; Vice-Councilor, James H. Griffin; Recording 
Secretary, .\. D. Crane; Assistant Recording Secretary, 
Theodore C. Hasting; Financial Secretary, < >. F. Jewell; 
Treasurer, W. O. Staples; Instructor, C. H. Mercer; Ex- 
aminer, Willis S. Leggett; Inside Protector, C. M. Johnson; 
Outside Protector, E. M. Ufford; Trustees, Frank Brown, 
J. D. Bradley, G. F. Hutchings. 

Garfield Council, .W'. 14. — Meets every Wednesday even- 
ing in G. A. R. Hall, Benedict Building. Councilor, George 

E. Parker; Vice-Councilor, James H. Griffin; Recording 
Secretary, Arthur M. French; Assistant Recording Secre- 
tary, C. E. Manning; Financial Secretary. A. L. Chandler; 
Treasurer, William Bradbury; Examiner, E. A. Gilbert; 
Inductor, G. M. Tyrrell; Inside Protector, H. E. Rice; Out- 
side Protector, A. J. Blake. 

Ancient Order of United Workmen, A/omaugin Lodge, 
No. I. — The first lodge in the State. Past-Master Work- 
man, Robert A. Russell; Master Workman, George A. 
Butler; Foreman, Frank H. Chatfield; Overseer, Charles H. 
Smith; Recorder, Charles F. Curtiss; Financier, Willis 
Curtis, Jr.; Receiver. Samuel H. Crane; Guide, Willis F. 
Augur; Inside Watchman, John Ilennessy. Meets in 
Journal and Courier Building on the second and fourth 
Wednesday evenings in each month. 

United Wo;-/t<r.r.— President, Mrs. E. S. Wheeler; Vice- 
Presidents, Mrs. T. G. Bennett, Miss L. E. Prudden, Miss 

F. Er Walker; Treasurer, Mrs. A. E. Rowland; Reconling 
Secretary, Miss Julia Miller; Corresponding Secretaries, 
Miss Scranton, Mrs. G. W. St. John Sheffield: Advisory 
Committee, Rev. E. E. Atwater, 11. B. Bigelow, T. Hooker, 
E. S. Wheeler, Eli Whitney, Jr.. T. G. Bennett. 

Washington Union Brotherhood. — President, F. H. Harris; 
Vice-Presidents, F. W.J. Sizer, Louis Osterweis; Treasurer 
and Secretary, H. N. Oviatt; Executive Committee, John C. 
Miles, (leorge E. Thompson, F. B. Byington, John C. Mer- 
rick, Hemingway Smith. 

li'owan's Board of Missions, Ne^o Haveti Branch. — 
President, Mrs. Burdett Hart; First Vice-President, Miss 
Susan E. Daggett; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. H. D. 
Hume; Home Secretaries, Mrs. \V. H. Fairchild, Mrs. E. 
Blakeslee, Miss Lillian E. Prudden; Recording Secretary, 
Mrs. S. L. Cady; Treasurer, Miss Julia Twining. 

Young Men's Catholic Literary Association. — Vrni.'KXent, 
Martin Conlan; Vice-President, William Welch; Treasurer, 



Thomas Coffee; Recording Secretary, Joseph Cook; Finin- 
cial Secretary, Edward Moriarty; Corresponding Secretary, 
James Wrinn; Sentinel, Charles Brcnnan. Meetings first 
and third Sunday afternoon of each month. 

i'oung Men's Christian /^rrcri<i/io«. - President, Simeon 
E.Baldwin; Vice-President, John M. Pc-ck; Recording Sec- 
retary, H.E.Nettleton,J r. ; tieneral Secretary, Henry O.Wil- 
liams; Treasurer, C. E. P. Sanford; Directors, E. S. Swift, 
E. E. Mix. J. T. Manson, H. J. Prudden, H. P. Shares, S. 
H. Barnum, Theodore H. Sheldon, R. E. Uarnuni, A. J. 
Harmount, George P. Durham, D. R. Ailing, P. E. How- 
man. 

}'ouns Men's /«j/i/«/^.— Organized 1826. IncorjMrated 
1840. 847 Chapel street. President, Charles E. tiravcs; 
Vice-President, C. C. HIatchley; Treasurer, John A. Rich- 
ardson; Secretary, Rol)ert E. Baldwin; Directors, Ellery 
Camp, Robert E. Baldwin; Joseph R. French, L. W. Rob- 
inson, Samuel T. Dulton, lienry E. Pardee, C. C. Blatch- 
ley, Joseph Parker, Jr., T. .\ttwater Barnes, Frederick B. 
Farnsworth, A. Heaton Robertson, Ilarnianus M Welch, 
Ruel P. Cowles, Charles E. Graves, John A. Richardson, J. 
D. Dewell, E. P. Arvinc; Librarian, Miss C. Lizzie Todd. 

i'oung Men's Republican C'/i/i. — t)rgaiiized Novcnil)er 13, 
1884. President, James A. Howarth: Vice Presidents, 
James Totham, F. A. Corbin; Secretary, Wade II. Thomp- 
son; Assistant Secretary, S.. C. Benedict; Treasurer, I..\V. 
Hall; Sergeant at-Arms, W. H. Johnston. Executive Com- 
mittee; James A. Howarth, ex officio; Secretary, W. IL 
Thompson; Chairman, A. G. Snell; J. M. lli-shop, J. Rice 
Winchell, W. W. Crampton, C. C. Ford, A. G. Snell, G. 

D. Watrous, John Z. Mason, G. M. Baldwin, M. E. Chat- 
field. 

Young Women's Christian Association. — 568 Chapel 
street. President, Mrs. H. B. Bigelow; Vice-Presidents, 
Mrs. J. D. Dana, Mrs. W. W. Low, Mrs. J. H. Fov, Mrs.T. 
W. T. Curtis, Mrs. H. D. Hume, Mrs. W. D. Whitney. 
Mrs. S. S. Fisher; Treasurer, Mis. E. .M. Reed; Recording 
Secretary, Miss L. R. Bliss; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. 

E. M. Jerome; Auditor, George W. Curtis; Matron, Miss 
Helena Wilcox; Superintendent, Miss Helen Hull; Board 
of Trustees, Rev. Noah Porter, LL.D., Hon. Hobart B. 
Bigelow, Hon. Francis Wayland, Wilbur F. Day, Andrew 
W. De Forest, Franklin R. Bliss. 

GENERAL FRANK D. .SI.OAT, 

Supreme Dictator of the Knights of Honor, is of 
Holland-English descent, and was born at Fishkiil, 
N. Y., September 28, 1S35. His parents were 
Henry and Annis (Warren) Sloat. The first men- 
tioned was the only son of Rev. John Sloat, a 
Methodist minister of some note in his lime. He 
died about ten years ago. The latter is living at 
an advanced age. 

The home of General Sloat has been in New 
Haven for more than a quarter of a century, except 
for about fifteen months, when he live<l temporarily 
in Middietown, and his personal popularity affords 
him much influence in civic, society, and military 
affairs, not only at home, but throughout the State. 

From childhood he has been dependent ujion 
his own e.tertions for a livelihood. He obtained a 
common school education by attending school in 
the winter, and supporting himself by farm work 
in the summer. At the age of seventeen he became 
a clerk in a country store, and, like many other 
ambitious youths, came to New York to seek his 
fortune. In 1857 he became identified with the 
New York Steam-Healing Company. Two years 
later, when only tweniy-four years old, he a.ssunied 
the management of this company's manufactory in 
New Haven, and was occupying this position at the 
outbreak of the War of the Rebellion. He enlisted 



644 



HIS TORI' Of THE CITV OF NEW HA VEN. 



in Company A, 27th Connecticut Volunteers, and 
left for the tront with the rank of First Lieutenant. 
His regiment was engaged in the fiercest part of the 
battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1S62. At 
Chancellorsville, he, together with his own com- 
pany, of which he had been promoted Captain, 
were taken prisoners, and confined in Libby Prison. 

While in the army he was the special corre- 
spondent of the Neiv Haven PoUadium, and the first 
his friends knew of his fate was in a terse dispatch 
sent his paper, which read: " We have met the en- 
em_v, and we are theirs, and are now reveling in 
Libby 's embrace." All his reports were character- 
ized by great fairness and consideration, and were 
eagerly read by New Haven people. 

He returned from the war to learn that the Re- 
publican party had placed him in nomination for 
Town Clerk, a responsible and honorable position. 
He was loth to accept, but was prevailed upon to 
stand, being assured that there was little possibility 
of his election, as the town was strongly Demo- 
cratic. Much to his surprise, however, he was 
elected. He attended to his duties in the same 
conscientious manner that has since been charac- 
teristic of the man, but declined a renomination. 
He was for five years a member and for two years 
President of the Board of Police Commissioners of 
the City of New Haven. His term of office expired 
in Januarv, 1885, and he declined a re-election. 

In 1 867, General Sloat went to Wisconsin to take 
charge of large iron interests in which several New 
Haven capitalists were concerned, and for whom 
he was the confidential adviser. The property was 
advantageously disposed of under his management, 
and he returned to New Haven to accept the posi- 
tion of Treasurer, and afterwards President of the 
Victor Sewing Machine Company, whose head- 
quarters were located in Middletown, Conn. During 
his brief residence in that city he was elected to the 
Common Council by a very handsome majority. 

Since the war he has retained his connection 
with the Grays, the crack military company of 
New Haven, and is now in command of one of the 
veteran corps of that military organization. Per- 
haps no more graceful recognition of his services 
in the war could have been rendered him by the 
State, than in his receiving the command of the 
Centennial Legion Company of Connecticut, which 
took part in the historical ceremonies of 1876, at 
Philadelphia, together with the military organiza- 
tions representing the thirteen original States. 

General Sloat has been a Mason since his ma- 
jority. He has occupied various offices in Masonic 
bodies, and is at present Eminent Commander of 
New Haven Commandery Knights Templar. 

For years he has been a prominent member of 
the (jrand Army of the Republic. In 1881 he was 
elected Commander of Admiral Foote Post, which, 
under his administration, was brought to the front 
rank as compared with other posts in the State, 
another evidence of his popularity as well as his 
executive ability. In 1884 he was chosen Com- 
mander of the Grand Army of the Republic, De- 
partment of Connecticut, a position which he has 
since filled with distinction. 



General Sloat has had considerable experience 
in State affairs, having served as Paymaster-General 
on Governor Andrews' staff, and under Governor 
Bigelow's administration he was appointed and 
served as Quaitermaster-General. At the last 
gubernatorial election in Connecticut, he was 
nominated by the Republicans for State Comptrol- 
ler. The State went strongly Democratic, yet, 
what is something unique in Connecticut politics, 
General Sloat was the only Republican elected. 
He had a majority of 782, and a plurality of 2,436, 
and is now rendering efficient service to the 
State governed by Thomas M. Waller. This in- 
cident affords an ample illustration of the gentle- 
man's worth, as well as the high regard and 
esteem he is held in the community where he is 
best known. 

General Sloat has been a Knight of Honor al- 
most since the date of its organization in Connecti- 
cut, and IS one of its most prominent and active 
members. He was initiated into Roger Sherman 
Lodge, No. 323, November 24, 1876, less than 
four months after the lodge was instituted. The 
following month he was elected Vice- Dictator, to 
fill a vacancy caused by resignation, and in January, 
1877, he became Dictator. At the formation of 
the Grand Lodge of Connecticut, August 24, 1877, 
he was elected Grand Vice- Dictator. On February 
6, 1878, he was elected Grand Dictator; February 
5, 1879, he was re-elected by a unanimous rising 
vote. On February 11, 1880, he was again re- 
elected, and in the same complimentary manner. 
At the next session of the Grand Lodge, held Feb- 
ruary 9, 1 88 1, a unanimous rising vote once more 
attested his popularity in that body, but he decid- 
edly declined to serve, not that he wished to shirk 
the responsibilities and duties as an officer of an 
organization that he considers second to none, but 
mainly out of consideration for others whom he 
desired to see advanced in the Order. February 5, 
1879, he was elected Representative to the Supreme 
Lodge for two years, and on February 9, 1881, he 
was re-elected for two years longer. At the session 
of the Supreme Lodge, held in Baltimore, May, 
1882, he was chosen Supreme Assistant Dictator; 
was re-elected at the session held at Galveston in 
May, 1883, when the Supreme Dictator and Su- 
preme Vice- Dictator were also re-elected. At the 
Chicago session, in May, 1884, he was unanimously 
elected Supreme Dictator; and at the St. Louis ses- 
sion in 1885, he was unanimously re-elected. 

The prominence of General Sloat in civil, as well 
as military, associations, has led to his being fre- 
quently called upon in public assemblies to take 
part in debate. This he has done thoughtfully and 
modestly, never treating those taking opposite 
views in discussion in any other manner than with 
the full respect and courtesy due from one gentle- 
man to another. While not a florid speaker, his 
addresses have always been characterized by good, 
sound, common sense, and being delivered in a 
quiet unassuming manner, have always had their 
weight. 

It is not always that the terms "amiable " and 
"popular " can be applied to public men without 



MiLlTAkY ORGANIZATIONS. 



645 



the conveyance of a suspicion that they may be lack- 
ing in moral force. But these marked elements in 
the composition of the subject of this sketch were 
ntver found out of harmony with a keen sense of 
justice and moral responsibility, eijual to every oc- 



casion. Warm and sincere in his friendships, they 
have never been employed in a wrong direction. 

General Sloat was married, in 1857, to Miss 
Lizzie A. Bristol, of Dover Plains, N. Y. They 
have two sons, born respectively in 1858 and 1866. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS. 



THE military history of New Haven began with 
the establishment of the original plantation in 
163S. It may even be doubted if the settlement 
could ever have become securely planted but for 
the organization of all its arms-bearing inhabitants 
into a compact body for purposes of common de- 
fense. 

Stern necessity combined with the sturdy com- 
mon sense of the time to develop a plan of organ- 
ization, which, through all the transitions from' 
plantation to colonial, and finally to State govern- 
ment, has remained essentially the same to the 
present day, the many changes in the militia laws 
in the nearly two and a half centuries having been 
in the main merely changes of detail. 

The theory that all able-bodied male citizens of 
' suitable age are subject to call for militarv- duty, is 
as fully recognized in the militia law of the State 
to-day as it was in the earliest days of the colony. 
The requirement of that time, that the entire num- 
ber of military subjects should be actually in pos- 
session of arms, and all perform an equal amount 
of military service, was gradually rela.xed as con- 
ditions permitted, with the result that in later years 
only a very small proportion of the enrolled militia 
have discharged their military duty to the State by 
actually bearing arms in military organizations. 

The larger proportion, or inactive militia, have 
in time of peace been exempted from all military 
duty by the payment to the State of a small annual 
tax, to be applied to the support of the organized 
force. 

No military records, distinctly as such, have been 
handed down to us from the early years of the 
colony. The military and civil authority were 
then so intimately blended that a separate history 
was possible to neither, and the rise and develop- 
ment of the militia is only incidentally indicated 
by here and there an entry in the general records 
of the colony. 

On page 25, Volume II, Hoadley's New Haven 
Colonial Records, is afibrded the following rather 
suggestive glimpse of the military regulations of 
that day. 

At General Court the 25"' ot Nov., 1639, It was ordered: 
thatt every one that beares armes shall be compleatly fur- 
nished w'h amies [viz.], a musketl, a swonle, bandaWer, a 
rest, a pound of powder, 20 bullets fitted to their muskett, 
or 4 i>ound of pistoU shott or swan shott at least, and be 
re.idy to show them in the markett place upon Monday the 
lo'i' of this month before Captain Turner and Lieutenant 
Seely, under penalty of 20' fine for every default or at), 
sence. 

The entire male population between the ages of 



sixteen and sixty, with marvelously few exceptions, 
were then in fact members of an active military 
organization, under command of legally appointed 
military officers, subject to rigid inspection as to 
arms and equipment, and under peremptory regu- 
lations and requirements promptly to perform mili- 
tary duty at the call of the appointed ollicers. The 
"Trained Band" thus early standing guard over 
the homes and firesides, and the single sanctuary 
of New Haven, was the battalion which eventually 
became the 2d Regiment of Connecticut Militia. 
And that the position of an oflicer of the militia at 
that day was no sinecure, is shown by a clause of 
the order of the General Court just quoted, in 
which Lieutenant Seely was ordered to "walk the 
woods" to confiscate all timber found " uncroscut 
and squared;" which indicates that other than 
strictl} military duty was required of the " 'I'rained 
Band " officers. The duty of the Captain is thus 
defined in an order dated July 7, 1640. 

Mr. Turner was chosen Captain to have the command 
and ordering of all marliall afl'ayrcs of this plantatio' as 
setting and ordering of watches, exercising and training of 
souldiers, and whatsoeve' of like nature appertaining to his 
office: all w'"" he is to doe w'"- all laithfullness and 
diligence, and be ready at all times to do whatsocv"' service 
the occasions of the towne requires or may require. 

It is ordered that ev'> man that is appoynted to watch, 
whether M"- or servants, shall come every Lord's day to 
the meeting complealty armed, and all others also are to 
bring their swords: no man exempted, save Mr. l-^ton, 
o' pastor, Mr. James, Mr. Samuel Eaton, and the two 
deacons. 

An order passed one month later permitted 
Captain Turner to 

have hi.s lott of meadow and upland where he shall chusc itt 
for his owne conveniencie, thatt he may attemi the service 
of the towne which his place requires. 

Frequent inspections were held, and all persons 
failing promptly to rejiort, or appearing with arms 
or equipments in faulty condition, were severely 
fined. 

It was a standing order, as early as 1642, that 
when any alarm was given of the approach of an 
enemy, every soldier in town was to repair forth- 
with to the meeting-house unless the threatened 
danger might be in his immediate vicinity, in 
which case he was required without orders to strive 
as best he might for the common defense. The 
organization at that time seems to have been 
simply that of a military company under command 
of a Captain, with one Lieutenant, one " Ancient," 
(Second Lieutenant), four or more Sergeants, and 
a number of Corporals. 



646 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



For convenience in ordering and maintaining 
the watches, each Sergeant was assigned to the 
command of a subdivision of the company termed 
a squadron. 

In July, 1643, a new military enrollment was 
ordered by the General Court at New Haven to be 
at once taken in every plantation of the jurisdiction 
to be forwarded to the next meeting of the Com- 
missioners of the Confederated Colonies at Boston. 
In October following, the jurisdiction of the New 
Haven General Court was enlarged by the admis- 
sion of Milford, and it would seem that the subject 
of a regimental organization of the combined 
military force of New Haven, Milford, Guilford, 
and Stamford might soon thereafter have been 
effected. It must be confessed that the records 
are bare of any mention of such an organization at 
that date, but even had it e.xisted, the omission 
could scarcely be a matter of surprise. 

The source of military authority was the General 
Court itself. The Governor of the colony, without 
assuming or being specifically accorded the title, 
was in reality Captain General or Commander-in- 
Chief, as is the Governor of the State to-day, and 
whatever form of organization the bodies of militia 
of the several towns might find it convenient or 
necessary to adopt, might very naturally have been 
left to natural development without official aid, 
direction or even recognition, so long as there was 
no public necessity demanding either. 

At a session of the General Court July i, 1644, 
■'traynings of the squadron " were ordered to be 
held every Saturday, and authority was granted to 
begin an artillery company and 

to ad to themselves such as out of the tr.Tyned band and 
others being free doe offer themselves to be of the Artillery, 
and to chuse their own officers and settle their own orders, 
so as they use the said liberty moderately, not intrenching 
upon the fundamental agreement of the Court. 

Special efforts were put forth for the perfecting 
of the artillery organizations, and in March, 1645, 
orders were issued announcing its completion, ap- 
pointing to command it I\Ir. Malbon as Captain; 
Lieutenant Seely, formerly of the " Trained Band," 
First Lieutenant; Francis Newman, Ensign; and 
four Sergeants. 

The squadrons of the Trained Band were so 
much depleted by enlistments in the Artillery 
Company, that two squadrons were, by order of 
the Court, consolidated into one, with weekly drills, 
the sergeants alternating in command. 

By the same general order. 

It was left to the Governo' and Captain Turner to order 
and appoynt the gen''' trainings so as may be most for the 
common good of the plantatio in respect of hay time and 
harvest. 

At a General Court held at New Haven June 20, 
1645, the Governor, with the rest of the Court and 
the Captain and Lieutenant, were formally author- 
ized as a "Council of Warr " to have charge of 
sending forth some soldiers to strengthen L^ncas in 
his struggle against the Narragansett Indians, and 
for the sending of more in the future if they should 
be needed. There is abundant evidence that mili- 
tary inspections were in those days more than mere 



matters of form. At a single session of the Gen- 
eral Court early in 1646, twenty-two citizen-soldiers 
were arraigned for defects in arms or equipment, 
and all were subjected to fines, ranging from six- 
pence to twenty shillings. 

In May, 1648, the officers appointed for the ar- 
tillery were: Robert Seely, Captain; William An- 
drew, Lieutenant; Henry Lendalle, Ensign; and 
as Sergeants, John Nash, William Fowler, Richard 
Beckly, and Mr. Chittendine, of Guilford. 

That the " Train Band" had at this time a stand 
of colors, is shown by an entry in the records of a 
General Court held at New Haven on December 5, 
1648, at which Captain Malbon appeared as a wit- 
ness, and during his testimony alluded to the fact 
that the Company came to his house on training 
day for their colors. 

Early in September, 1649, in consequence of 
hostile activity on the part of the Indians, extra 
precautions were taken for the public safety by the 
General Court, and provisions were made for "a 
going forth of men " against the savages. The 
regular watch was doubled, two squadrons of the 
Trained Band, instead of one, were ordered to at- 
tend "meetings on the Sabbath " with their arms; 
and an extra outfit for twenty men, including 
"cotton quilted coats, boxes for cartrages, and 
knapsacks," was provided at the town charge. 

During such a period of alarm, martial law was 
supreme in the town, and on this occasion the sen- 
tinels were expressly required to shoot any person 
who at night might endeavor to escape after being 
challenged. 

The year 1653 opened with a prospect of war 
between the confederated English colonies and the 
Dutch. Pending the negotiations with the Massa- 
chusetts Colony, the General Court of New Haven, 
in connection with the Connecticut Colony, began 
preparation for an aggressive war. 

There were at that time four pieces of artillery 
in New Haven, two being located on the Green, 
and two in position commanding the harbor. Two 
of these guns were assigned as part of the arma- 
ment of a frigate to be fitted up jointly by the two 
colonies to cruise along the coast between the Con- 
necticut River and Stamford. 

In March, 1653, Lieutenant John Nash was pro- 
pounded to the Court and approved as the chief 
military officer of New Haven "for the present." 

In June, 1654, the co-operation of the Massachu- 
setts Colony having been obtained, active work be- 
gan for the commencement of war against the 
Dutch. One hundred and thirty-three men were 
raised in the New Haven jurisdiction, of which 
number fifty men were from New Haven alone. 

The officers appointed were Captain Seely, Lieu- 
tenant Nash, and Richard Baldwin, of Milford, 
Ensign. Just as the force were about to depart, 
news was received that peace had been declared 
between England and the United Provinces, and 
further warlike preparations were abandoned. 

In May, 1656, what might be considered the be- 
ginning of a cavalry organization was effected in 
an order of the General Court at New Haven, that 

Sixteen horses shall be provided and kept in the five towns 



MILITAR } ' ORG A NIZA TIONS. 



647 



upon the maine in this jurisdiction, with suitable saddles, 
bridles, pistoles, and other furniture that is necessarie toward 
raysing of a small troope for the service of the country. 

Six of these were apportioned to New Haven, 
and the men assigned to that service were exempted 
from all other mihtary duty. 

There is no record of any special military activity 
until after the consolidation of New Haven with 
the Connecticut Colony, which was finally etTected 
in May, 1665. 

In July of that year, at the (General Assembly 
held in Hartford, Captain John Nash, Lieutenant 
'I'homas Munson, anil .Sergeants Nathaniel Merri- 
man, Samuel Whitehead, Roger Allyn and James 
Bishop, were confirmed as officers of the "Trained 
Hand " at New Haven. 

In October, 1667, the authorization which had 
previously been given by advice of the "Committee 
of the INIihtia to raise a Troope of Dragooners " in 
each of the counties of the colony, was revoked, and 
special permission to raise such a troop to the 
number of "about forty " was given to the Counties 
of New Haven, Fairfield and New London. 

A serious war cloud threatened for a time follow- 
ing the occupation of New York by the Dutch in 

1672, and in consequence a " Grand Committee," 
consisting of the Governor, Deputy Governor and 
his assistants, together with a number of military 
men, was informed by the General Court in August, 

1673, 'o direct all military operations when the 
General Assembly was not in session. This Com- 
mittee was afterward termed the Council of War. 

It was determined to raise at once a force of five 
hundred dragoons to oppose the Dutch, and the 
number of fifty-one was allotted to the town of New 
Haven, the total number for the county being one 
hundred and twenty. 

The New Haven contingent was ofticered by 
iMajor Robert Treat; Thomas Munson, Lieutenant; 
and Samuel Newton, Ensign. Upon the final 
organization of all the forces raised in the colony 
to proceed against the Dutch, ^Major Treat was 
made second in command, Major John Talcott, of 
Hartford, being Commander-in-Chief Peace was 
declared between England and Holland in time to 
prevent any of these troops entering upon active 
service. 

In 1675, a period of general organization on the 
part of the Indians against the colonies began, dur- 
ing which frequent calls were made upon New 
Haven for troops, both foot and horse, and (or 
military supplies. On August 25, 1675, the Coun- 
cil of War ' ' made choys of Major Robert Treate to 
goe out Commander-in-Chief of those forces that 
are to goe out in the next expedition agaynst the 
enemie." A special commission as Commander- 
in-Chief was delivered to the Major by the Council 
five days later, together with an elaborately pre- 
pared letter of instruction, in accordance with which 
he at once took the field against the Indians, being 
compelled by the general uprising to freijuently 
divide his forces so as to operate simultaneously in 
defense of settlements in Connecticut, and in aid 
of the threatened settlements in Massachusetts and 
Rhode Island. 



No rolls or records are preserved giving names 
of subordinate officers or soldiers in that Indian 
war. Reinforcements were soon called for by 
Major Treat, and on .September 19, 1675, another 
contingent was forwarded to him by order of the 
Council, under command of Lieutenant Thomas 
Munson. The Commissioners of the United Colo- 
nies at Boston, on the zd of November, 1675, made 
a formal declaration of war against the Narragansett 
Indians, and decreed that an army of one thousand 
men should at once take the field. Governor 
Winslow, of the Plymouth Colony, was made Com- 
mander-in-Chief, and Major Robert Treat was des- 
ignated as second in command. 

Those who were already in the ser\ice, and fit for 
duty, were continued in service and ordered t<,) 
rendezvous at New London, and new quotas were 
levied to bring the army to the number required, 
the entire quota of New Haven being sixty-three 
men. These were under the immediate command 
of Captain Seely. * For the march from New Haven 
to New London it was ordered that every commis- 
sioned officer be provided with a horse for himself, 
and that every three soldiers should have a horse 
between ihem. 

The troops were .soon in active service and in the 
"Fort fight" at Narragansett, suffered severely. 
Connecticut had three hundred soldiers in that 
engagement, of whom eighty were killed or wound- 
ed. Of her five Captains, Seely, Marshall, and 
Gallup were killed, and Captain Alason died of his 
wounds. 

Major Treat was compelled by the severity of his 
losses to return his command to Connecticut to 
recruit, and secure medical attendance for his 
wounded. The loss in Captain Seely's company 
alone in killed and wounded was twenty men. 
Unfortunatelv there is no record of their names, ex- 
cept that of Captain Seely himself 

At a court of election held at Hartford, May 11, 
1676, Major Robert Treat was made Deputy 
Governor of Connecticut in recognition of his dis- 
tinguished services as commander of the Connect- 
icut troops in the King Philip War, anil was suc- 
ceeded in that command by Major John TallcotL 
The war was continued witli relentless vigor until 
the Narragansetts were so nearly exterminated as to 
be brought under thorough subjection. 

The war was a peculiarly hazardous and bloody 
one. Whole settlements were devastated and burned 
by the savages. Connecticut settlements were seri- 
ously threatened, and sutTcred to some extent from 
the common enemy, but without aid from other 
colonies they were so well defended by the " home 
force" that no allies were called upon to march or 
fight upon Connecticut soil. Connecticut blood 
(lowed freely at " Bloody Brook " in Ma.-sachusetls, 
and at " Narragansett Fort" in Rhode Island, and 
at both. New Haven soldiers bore a conspicuous 
part, Connecticut thus early having not only the sa- 
gacity, but the courage to inaugurate the policy to 
which she has ever sturdily adhered, that whenever 



• Nalhaniel Steely. Captain in (he ttpedilion against the Narragan- 
jctw. was a son of Robert Sccly, of New Haven, but wa« at the time 
of the expedilton an inhabitant of Stratford. 



6i8 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



fighting is inevitable, it shall be done as far as pos- 
sible away from her own hearth-stones. 

In i6So, an official report of the trained soldiers 
in the colony gave six hundred and twenty-three 
as the number in New Haven County. 

In i6y7, New Haven was called upon to furnish 
its quota of a force of one hundred and twenty men, 
to be raised from seven towns lying nearest New 
York, in answer to an urgent call from Governor 
Fletcher, who was anticipating an attack from a 
French fleet. The force was organized in two 
companies, the one in which was included the New 
Haven contingent being under command of Captain 
Ebenezer Johnson, of " Darbie, " with Samuel .Sher- 
man, of New Haven, as Lieutenant. 

In 1702, the General Court authorized the or- 
ganization of a troop of horse in New Haven 
County. 

In 1 7 1 8, the Train Band in East Haven was offi- 
cered by Allyn Ball, Captain, and Thomas Smith, 
Lieutenant. The Train Band of the North East So- 
ciety was officered by Joseph Ives, Captain; John 
Granniss, Lieutenant; and Samuel Ives, Ensign. 

No further commissions are recorded until 1720, 
when Samuel Smith was made Captain of the Train 
Band in West Haven; with Samuel Brown, Lieuten- 
ant; and Thomas Painter, Ensign. Two years later 
Abraham Dickerman, was made Captain of the 
First Company in New Haven. Later in the same 
year, Isaac Dickerman succeeded to the captaincy 
of the First Company, and Jonathan Mansfield was 
appointed Ensign. 

In 1723, Thomas Smith took the captaincy of 
the East Haven Company, with Theophilus Allyn 
as Lieutenant, and John Russell, Ensign. 

In 1739, the official return to the General As- 
sembly showed si.x companies of the Second Regi- 
ment (Train Band) in New Haven, commanded as 
follows: 

Captain Jonathan Ailing 33 

" Andrew Tuttle 98 

" .Samuel Smith 72 

" Daniel Ailing 93 

" Samuel Candee 60 

" John Sanford 132 

Total 588 

The remaining companies were located in Milford, 
Guilford, Wallingford, Branford, Durham, Water- 
bury and Derby, and raised the aggregate of the 
regiment to 2,302 men. 

In 1758, the Second Regiment was officered for 
its campaign in the French and Indian Wars, as 
follows: Nathan Whiting, Colonel; Samuel Coit, 
Lieutenant-Colonel; Joseph Spencer, Major. These 
Field Officers were also Captains of the first, second 
and third companies of the regiment. Joel Fitch 
was Adjutant, and Azel Fitch, Quartermaster. It 
consisted of twelve companies, and the remaining 
Captains were: David Baldwin, Fourth Company; 
Edward Wells, Fifth Company; Amos Hitchcock, 
Sixth Company; Eldad Lewis, Seventh Company; 
John Stanton, Eighth Company; James Wads- 
worth, Jr., Ninth Company; Ephraim Cook, Tenth 
Company; Joshua Barker. Eleventh Company; and 
Henry Champlain, Twelfth Company. 



The regiment served under General Abercrom- 
bie, and suffered severely in the disastrous cam- 
paign against Fort Ticonderoga. 

In the campaign of 1759 ^"^ 1760, the regi- 
ment was again in service, with Colonel Whiting in 
command, but with Major Spencer promoted to 
Lieutenant-Colonel, and David Baldwin, Major. 

This period of service ended with the conquest 
of Canada in 1761, and during the campaign the 
Connecticut troops served with distinguished honor. 
Later in the same year another force of two thou- 
sand three hundred men was put in the field by 
Connecticut, one regiment (the Second) being com- 
manded by Colonel Whiting, with James Smedley 
as Lieutenant-Colonel, and Daniel Baldwin, Major. 

In 1764, in order to carry the war into the Indian 
country to "punish the savages who had been 
guilty of perfidious and cruel massacres," the Gen- 
eral Court decided to raise a fighting force of two 
hundred and sixty-five able-bodied and effective 
men, ''to put a speedy end to the great mischiefs 
occasioned by them." Israel Putnam, as Captain 
of the First Company, was made Major in com- 
mand of the force, and the Second Company, raised 
in New Haven and vicinity, was commanded by 
Abram Foote as Captain, with James Arnold, First 
Lieutenant, and Josiah Stow, Second Lieutenant. 
No rolls or records are in existence showing the 
composition of this company, but while it was not 
one of the permanent companies of the Second 
Regiment, it is known to have drawn its members 
from those companies, and it was therefore the 
representative of the Second Regiment while in the 
field. 

The very brief sketch thus far given must suffice 
to show the rise, or rather, growth, of the Second 
Regiment of Militia, which, from the earliest time 
to the present, has had no rival as the established 
military organization of New Haven. 

Up to this time, and until ten years later, the 
armed troops of the colony were ail in the service 
of " His Majesty. " As the colonies increased in 
strength and became restive under the restraints in 
which they were held by the mother country, 
naturally military ardor and patriotism prompted 
the formation of " independent" companies, on the 
supposition that such would be a little nearer the 
people in sympathy, and under less restraint from 
abroad than were the regular militia organiza- 
tions. 

There is proof that such independent companies 
were formed in New Haven, but no satisfactory 
records of them are found, and probably few, if 
any, were fully armed or uniformed prior to 1774. 

In 1 771, the First Company of Governor's Guards 
(foot) was organized in Hartford under authority 
of the General Court. A similar organization was 
contemplated at the same time in New Haven, but 
not until three years later was the work seriously 
begun of organizing 

The Second Company Governor's Guard of New 
Haven. 

The mere mention of the year 1774 is sufficient 



MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS. 



649 



to indicate, without comment, the spirit of resolute 
and determined patriotism which led to the forma- 
tion of this company. 

The steadily darkening cloud of popular indig- 
nation throughout the colonies against the mother 
country, and the unmistakable indications that the 
storm it portended must soon burst forth in open 
hostility, led the citizens of New Haven Colony to 
earnest consideration of means of defense and pro- 
tection. The patriot, be he never so fearless, who 
stood ready if need came, to level his musket or 
draw his saber against the troops of the king, would 
naturally prefer to do so in an organization not 
sworn as a body to defend the king. 

On December 28,1774, sixty-five "gentlemen of 
influence and high respectability " met in New 
Haven and signed the following Articles of Agree- 
ment: 

We, the subscribers, are desirous to encourage the mili- 
tary art in the town of New Haven, and in order to have a 
well disciplined company ni said town, have ai^rced with 
Edward Burke to teach us the military e.xercise, tor the con- 
sideration of three poiuids of lawful money per month, till 
such tune as we shall think ourselves expert therein. We 
then propose to form ourselves into a company, choose o(n- 
cers, and agree ujion some uniforni dress, such as a red 
coat, white vest, white breeches and stockings, black half- 
leggiiis, or any other dress that may then be thought proper. 
We also agree that we will endeavor to furnish ourselves 
with guns and bayonets, as near uniform as possible, and 
other accoutrements as may then be thought necessary; but 
no person shall be obliged to equip himself as above, by 
signing this agreement, if he desires dismission before sign- 
ing other articles. This agreement only obliges every signer 
to pay his proportional part of the expense of instruction, etc. 

On the Thursday following, January 5, 1775, 
and weekly thereafter, business meetings of the 
company were held at the State House, and the 
work of perfecting the organization and outfit was 
pushed vigorously forward. 

At the meeting February zd, it was 

Voted, That the dress of the Company be as follows, viz. : 
A scarlet coat of common length, the lapels, cuffs and collar 
of butf, and trimmed with plain silver- wash buttons, white 
linen vest, breeches and stockings; black half-lcggins; a 
small, fashionable and narrow ruffled shirt. 

Two weeks later the company, by vote, ap- 
pointed Benedict Arnold, Jesse Leavenworth, and 
Hezekiah Sabin a committee "to make inquiry 
how a stand of arms can be procured in the best 
way." At the same meeting it was 

VoUd, That application be made to the General Assembly 
at their session in March next, by this company, to be estab- 
lished a distinct military company, 

and a committee of four was appointed to draft the 
petition. 

At the ne.xt meeting, held on March i, 1775, 
the committee reported a form of petition drawn 
by its Chairman, Timothy Jones, Jr., which was 
adopted, and I'ierpont Kdward.s, Esq., was ap- 
pointed agent of the company to present the same 
to the General Assembly. That petition so tersely 
sets forth the motive which prompted the organiza- 
tion, that it is here given in full, as follows: 
To The Honorable General .Assembly of the Colony 

OFCoNNEcriCUT, now sitting at New Haven, in New 

Haven County. 
The memorial of us, the subscriliers, inhabitants of New 
Haven, many of us independent of any military company. 



Humbly shewelh. That your memorialists, anxious for the 
safety of our country, and desirous of contributing all in 
their power to the support of our just rights and lilx:rtics, 
have formed themselves into a military company; have hired 
a person to instruct them in the military art, which ihcy 
are daily practicing; and have l>eeii at much ex|)cnse in 
procuring a uniform dress, etc. Vour memorialists, there- 
fore, humbly pray your 1 lonors to constitute them a distinct 
military company by the name of the Governor's Second 
Company of Guards, with power to choose ihcir proiwr offi- 
cers, to be commissioned by your Honors, and that they 
may be under the same regulations, and enjoy the same 
privileges and exemptions a.s the military company in Hart- 
ford, called the Governor's Guards, or under such regula- 
tions as to your I lonors shall seem meet, and your memori- 
alists, as in duty bound, shall ever pray. 
New Haven, March 2, 1775. 

Hezekiah Sabin, Jr. John I'ownsend. 

Samuel Greenough. K/ra I'ord. 

Klias Stillwell. Nathan lieers, Jr. 

Thaddeus lieecher. Nathaniel Kitch. 

Aner Bradley. James Warren. 

.\mos Dooliule. Nathan Oaks. 

Daniel Ingalls. liliakim Hitchcock. 

Jonas I'rentice. James Huggins. 

Francis Gage. I'arsons Clark. 

Archibald Austin. James Prescott. 

Uavid Burbank. Hanover Barney. 

Daniel Bishop. Stephen Herrick. 

Klijah .Xustin. Jonathan Austin. 

Amos Morrison. Gold Sherman. 

Rossiter G rifling. William Noyes. 

Bcnoni Shipman. Abraham Tutlle. 

Hezekiah Bailey. John Sherman, Jr. 

Jesse Leavenworth. tlisha Painter. 

Timothy Jones, Jr. Benedict Arnold. 

Amos Gilix-rt. Hezekiah lieecher. 

Scabury Champlin. James llillhouse. 

Caleb Trowbridge. William Lannian. 

Pierpont Kdwards. Kiersteil .Mansfield. 

Elias Townsend. Hezekiah Augur. 

Joseph Peck. William Jones. 

Klienezer Huggins. Elea/er Oswald. 

William Lyon. Josiah Burr. 

Joshua Newhall. Jeremiah Parmclcc. 

Jonathan Mix, Jr. Jal)ez Smith. 

The petition was presented to the General As- 
sembly March 2, 1775, and the same day, having 
been made "special business," was duly considered 
and a charier granted, in which it was, as a preface 
to numerous other stipulations, 

Rtsolvidby this Geiurtil Assemhlv, That the Memorialists 
lie, and are hereby constituted a distinct military company, 
by the name of the Second Company of the ( lovernor's 
Guards, consisting of sixty-four in number, rank and file, to 
attend upon and guard the Governor and ( ieneral Assembly 
at all times as occasion may re<iuire, e(|uipped with proper 
arms and uniformly dressed. 

It was stipulated in the terms of the charter that 
"The Colonel of the Second Regiment of Militia 
in this Colony" should lead the company to a 
choice of commissioned odicers, and on .March 
i5ih, Colonel Leverett Hubbard performed that 
dutv at a meeting of the company, which elected 
the following officers: Benedict Arnold, Captain; 
Jesse Leavenworth, Lieutenant; Hezekiah Sabin, 
Ensign; Nathaniel Fitch, Samuel Greenough, 
Eliakim Hitchcock, Jeremiah Parnielee, Sergeants. 

The company had, previous to this, secured their 
uniforms, and were industriously perfecting them- 
selves in drill. At a meeting on April 13th it was, 

Volrd, That when the Second Regiment of this Colony 
have their general muster in May next, this Company attend 
the exercises of the day with said Regiment. 



650 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



This simple incident of the record plainly indi- 
cates that, grimly determined and far-seeing as these 
patriots were, they had no premonition of the 
suddenness with which the storm of civil war was 
to burst upon the colonies, or of the fact that, in 
less than three weeks they themselves would be in 
the field of actual war instead of on the field of 
parade. 

At the business meeting one week later, April 
20th, it was voted, "That the clergy living in the 
Town of New Haven be invited to dine with this 
Company on the second day of May. " 

The next day the company hastily assembled at 
the call of the Captain. This was on Friday, April 
2 1st. News had that day reached New Haven of 
the engagement between the militia and the British 
troops under Colonel .Smith and Major Pitcairn at 
Lexington. The company could look nowhere for 
orders or authority to march to the aid of their 
countrymen. The proposition was made to march 
on Saturday morning, April 2 2d, for the scene of 
war, and fifty members of the company voted aye. 
thereby virtually enlisting again for this specific 
service. 

That they realized fully the responsibility they 
thus assumed, and that, in the absence of other 
authority, they must be a law unto themselves, is 
shown by an "Agreement and Proclamation " sub- 
scribed to by each member of the company, which 
document is given in full in the chapter on the 
Revolutionary War, page 42. 

Prior to departure the company was formed on 
the public square, where a large concourse had as- 
sembled, and the volunteers was addressed by the 
Rev. Jonathan Edwards. Then came an affecting 
parting scene, and all things were ready for the 
march— all save one. Captain Arnold had re- 
quested the town authorities to furnish the powder 
needed for his command from the public stores, 
and his request had not been complied with. He 
marched his company to the house where the Se- 
lectmen were sitting, and drawing them up in line 
in front of the building, informed the officials that 
if the keys to the powder-house were not delivered 
up to him in five minutes, he would order his com- 
pany to break open the powder-house and help 
themselves. The threat had the desired effect; the 
keys were at once surrendered, the ammunition 
was obtained, and the company took up its line of 
march for Cambridge. 

The following is quoted from foot-notes in the 
copy of the origmal record now in possession of 
the company: 

They halted for the second night of the march at Wcth- 
ersfield, where the inhabitants greeted them with every at- 
tention and entertained them with warm hospitahly On 
their arrival at Cambi idge, they tool< up their quarters at a 
splendid mansion owned Ijy Lieutenant-Governor OMver 
who had been compelled to flee on account of his attach- 
ment to the British cause. The "Guards" were the only 
company there complete in their uniform and equipment 
and, owing to their soldierly appearance, were detailed to 
deliver to his countrymen, on board an English barge the 
body of a British officer, taken prisoner at the battle of Lex 
ington, and whose death was the result of wounds there re- 
ceived. 

On this occasion one of the British officers, appointed to 
receive the body from them, expressed his surprise at seeing 



an American company appear so well in every respect 
complimenting them with the remark, that in their military 
movements and equipment they were not exceeded by any 
of his .Majesty's troops. 

While on the march to Cambridge, Captain Ar- 
nold conceived the idea of taking Ticonderoga and 
Crown Point, two fortified forts in the hands of the 
British troops, and commanding the line of com- 
munication between the colonies and Canada. He 
laid his plan before the Committee of Safety of 
Massachusetts, who at once recognized its feasi- 
bility; and Arnold,under a commission as Colonel, 
was authorized to raise and command a force for 
its execution. This commission terminated Cap- 
tain Arnold's actual service with the Guards, though 
he nominally remained Captain until his formal 
resignation in May, 1877, at which time he had 
become a General in the patriot army. 

When the company, under Lieutenant Sabin, re- 
turned to New Haven, after an absence of nearly a 
month, its ranks were seriously thinned, as twelve 
meinbers at least had volunteered for other service, 
probably joining the expedition to Quebec. 

Regular company meetings were resumed on ' 
May 19, 1775, and the recruiting of our members 
steadily progressed. The first escort duty of the 
company was performed in honor of General 
Washington, July 2, 1775. The future Father of 
his Country had just been elected Generalissimo 
by a unanimous vote of Congress, and at the date 
above nained, arrived in New Haven, accompanied 
by General Lee, on his way to the American camp 
at Boston. 

General Washington was received with the heart- 
iest demonstrations of respect and confidence in 
every place through which he passed; and he left 
New Haven under a special escort composed of the 
Guards, under Lieutenant Sabin, a company of 
" Minute Men," and a body of Yale students. 

The records of the company from this time in- 
dicate only occasional meetings for business, and 
meetings for drill receive no mention whatever. 
The partial lapse of the record should not be con- 
sidered as indicating a corresponding lapse of duty, 
or inefficiency it its performance. The Guards we're 
alert and held themselves in readiness for any sud- 
den emergency. 

That the company was then recognized by the 
highest authority as a force to be relied upon in 
time of need, is shown by the following order re- 
ceived by acting Captain Sabin at the date desig- 
nated. 

STATE OF CONNECTICUT. 
By THE Captain-GenilRal. 
To t/u present Commanding Officer of I he Governor's Guard 
at New Haven; _^reeti}ig: 
You are hereby directed to see that your said Guard is 
early armed and equipped, and held in readiness to march 
for the defense of said Town of New Haven and others on 
the sea coast. And you are further ordered, upon informa- 
tion of the approach or appearance of the enemy, at the 
request of the .Selectmen of said New Haven, to muster, array 
and equip your Company in arms complete, and to lead them 
against such enemy, and do your utmost to deleat, repel 
and destroy them. ' 

Given under my hand in Lebanon, the nth day of Sep- 
tember, Anno Domini 1776. 

Jonathan Tri:.\ibull. 



MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS. 



661 



It will be seen tlial ihe Guard was now relieved 
from the necessity of acting solely on its own re- 
sponsibility, in seeming defiance of local and co- 
lonial authority. 

With the Declaration of Independence the scene 
had changed, and lipyalists were driven in cover, 
while ihe patriots held the field. 

In May, 1777, the resignations of Captain Arnold 
and Lieutenant Leavenworth were accepted, and 
Hezekiah Sabin was chosen Captain; James Hill- 
house, Lieutenant; and Major Lines, Ensign. 

On May 4, 1778, General Arnold arrived at New 
Haven, having been granted a brief furlough to at- 
tend to private business, afterward supposed to have 
been connected with his scheme of treachery. The 
Company records note the fact tliat 

He was met on his way into town liy his old command, 
the Guard, then on duty, several Continental and Militia 
officers, together with a large body of citizens of the first 
respectability, who went out to testify their regard for his 
military service. He was received with every mark of 
esteem, and upon entering New Haven was saluted by a 
discharge of thirteen cannon. 

That no military authority at this time could in- 
terpose between the Guards and the Captain (gen- 
eral, is shown by the following order received by 
Captain Sabin, and read to the Company October 
12, 1778. 

STATE OF CONNECTICUT. 

By the Captain-General. 

To the Commander of the Governor'' s Guard at New Haven. 

Vou are hereby ordered and directed to furnish and order 
a guard of two sentinels to attend at the door of his Ex- 
cellency the Governor's lodgings from eight o'clock in the 
evening through the night, during the session of this As- 
sembly, as per advice of my Council. 

Given under my hand at New Haven, this gth day of 
October, 1778. 

On May 3, 1779, Captain .Sabin having been 
promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the 
Militia, resigned from the Guard, and James Hill- 
house was chosen Captain. He retained command 
until October 3, 1783, when he resigned, and Daniel 
Bishop was elected Captain. 

The brief records plainly indicate that the com- 
pany had ere this established itself on a firm 
footing as precisely what its name implied, "The 
.j Governor's Guard. " They paraded as his personal 
!| escort on the occasion of his inauguration, at the 
'j opening of the General Assembly, and on all 
occasions of a public nature in which a military 
escort to the Governor was appropriate. Through 
all the changes to which the active militia force of 
the State have been subjected, the status of the 
Governor's Guarti has remained substantially the 
same to the present time. While the records of 
the company, brief as they are, afford abundant 
material for an interesting volume, such condensa- 
tion IS here necessary as to render a connected 
narrative impossible. 
: Captain Bishop was succeeded October 30, i 786, 

I by Captain Nathaniel Fitch, and he, on -September 
B 28, 1788, by Captain William Lyon. Captain 
B Lyon held the position during si.\ ye<rs, and on 
B May 15, 1795, resigned to accept the Colonelcy of 



by Captain Dyer White, and he in turn by Captain 
Hanover Barney, October 24, 1796. 

On May 5, 1800, James Merriman was chosen 
Captain. Resigning on October 31, 1805. to accept 
the colonelcy of the Second Regiment of Miliiia, 
he was succeeded by Captain Jeiemiah .Xtwater. 

At the spring session of the Legislature in 1S09, 
a charter was granted an independent Cavalry 
Company in New Haven, to be known as the 
"Second Company Governor's Horse Guard." 
The company was quickly organized, with Klihu 
Munson commandant, with the rank of Brevet- 
Major; William A. Babcock, First Lieutenant and 
Brevet-Captain; and Josiah B. Morse Second 
Lieutenant. The Horse Guanls were authorized 
to muster si.\ty-four men, rank and file, and to re- 
cruit their membership from the militia companies 
of adjacent towns. The advent of this new com- 
pany rendered it necessary for the older company 
to adopt a more distinctive title than that of 
"Governor's Guard'' conferred by its original 
charter, and it became known thereafter as the 
Second Company Governor's Foot Guard. The 
following foot note in the record book of the Foot 
Guard at a date soon after the formation of the new 
company is significant: 

The nearly equal rank of the Commanders of the Horse 
and Foot Guards oftentimes made, when parading together, 
much contention for the command of the line and lor the 
right flank, engendering strong ditTercnces of feeling among 
both officers and men. 

There is no record, however, of the "conten- 
tions " assuming serious proportions, and the two 
companies always paraded, and frequently dined 
together on State occasions until the Horse Guards 
voluntarily disbanded, without surrendering- their 
charter. 

The commanding officers of the Horse Guards 
succeeding Major Munson, were Major William 
A. Babcock, Josiah B. .Morse, I^nos A. Prescott, 
Henry Huggins, William J. Forbes, and Josiah 
Barnes, Jr., the latter being in command at the 
lime of the temporary disbandment of the com- 
pany. 

By an act of the General Assembly in October, 
1809, the charter of the Foot Guards was so 
amended as to authorize the muster of one hundred 
and eighteen men, consisting of one Captain, four 
Lieutenants, one Ensign, eight Sergeants, eight 
Corporals, and ninely-si.\ privates. 

The company tiid not at once recruit to the 
maximum number, but on October 24, 1810, 
Captain Atwater having resigned, the company 
elected the following full complement of commis- 
sioned oflkers: Luther Bradley, MajorComniaiulant; 
Henry Eld, First Lieutenant anti Captain; Timothy 
Bishop, Second Lieutenant; Eleazer Foster, Third 
Lieutenant; Jared Doolittle, Fourth Lieutenant; 
Timothy Plant, Ensign. The full number of non- 
commissioned officers was not chosen until June, 
1812. 

At a meeting of the company May 17, 1813, 
convened for the purpose of adopting measures for 
the defense of New Haven in case of aiuck, the 
members unanimously voted to volunteer their ser- 



653 



HISTORY OF THE CITF OF NEW HA VEN. 



vices for the common defense, considering them- 
selves "in honor bound, upon an alarm being 
given, to repair with all possible speed to the place 
of rendezvous, and to act in as strict obedience to 
the command of our superior officers present as 
when on parade duty." The "alarm" agreed 
upon was the ringing of the church bell and the 
firing of two cannon in succession. 

The first service actually rendered by the com- 
pany in response to such an alarm was on the 21st 
of August following, and was not for the repelling 
of invaders, but for the suppression of a sailors' riot 
on and in the vicinity of Long Wharf New Haven 
was then an important port of entry. The war with 
England had, to a great extent, driven American 
seamen into idleness, and the large number then 
ashore at this port were in daily contact with a cor- 
responding number of Swedish and Portuguese 
sailors engaged in the "neutral " merchant service 
which was taking the bread from their mouths. 

These opposing interests led to a strong feeling of hostility 
between the two parties, which, with local differences adding 
fuel to the fire, finally led to a general desperate melee on 
the afternoon of the 21st of August. 

The Mayor, Hon. Elizur Goodrich, issued his order to 
the commander of the Guard to call out his company and 
aid in suppressing the riot, when the signal was given, and 
the company rallied promptly at the place of rendezvous. 
After forming they proceeded to the shop of John Duntze 
for their arms, where, under command of Captain Eld, 
Maj.>r Bradley being sick at the time, they took up their 
march f jr the scene of conflict. 

Arriving at the junction of State and Crown streets, they 
halted, loaded with ball cartridge, fixed bayonets, and con- 
tinued on to the foot of Fleet street. A guard was here 
po.sted at each extreme side of the street, with the main body 
of the company at the head of and directly across the wharf. 
Captain Eld then addressed the combatants, assuring them 
that if resistance was offered to the action of the Guard, and 
if they did not quietly disperse, they would be fired upon 
with ball, as full power was vested in him to quell the dis- 
turbance at all and every hazard. 

A detachment of two platoons was then ordered to the 
front by Captain Eld, who, accompanied by the Mayor, 
marched them wiih a charge bayonet down the wharf, the 
sailors breaking before them, and retreating on board their 
vessels. In this manner the length of the pier was cleared, 
and order in some measure restored. 

The Guards remained in possession of the wharf 
during the night, and there being in the morning 
no indication of a recurrence of hostilities, they 
were marched to their quarters and dismissed, with 
the thanks of the Mayor for having rendered with 
remarkable promptness and efficiency a very im- 
portant service. 

The next sudden call to duty was on April 9, 
1814, and portended even more serious duty. A 
brief account taken, as was the previous quotation, 
from foot notes in the company record books, is 
here given. 

Information having been received that a British frigate, 
man-of-war, brig and tender—the same squadron that sent 
seven barges up Connecticut River and burnt twenty-six sail 
at Pittipany— were off Guilford and standing towards this 
port; by request of General Howe and other military ofli- 
cers, together with the recommendation of the Mayor, Hon. 
Elizur Goodrich, the tJiiards were ordered out under arms be- 
tween nine and ten o'clock in the evening, and stood guard on 
Long Wharf until morning, when all apprehension of an at- 
tack from the enemy having subsided, the company returned 
to ihe State House and were dismissed. 



Five commissioned officers and twenty-eight men 
responded to this night alarm, and their names are 
faithfully given in the company record. 

On Wednesday, April 13th (the record continues), the 
same squadron appeared again, this time in the harbor, and 
came to anchor at evening a few mdes westward of this 
port. The company was again ordered out and marched 
to ihe State House, where arms and twelve rounds of ball 
cartridge were distrilmted to each man, and the company 
ordered to be in readiness in case a final alarm should be 
given by guns from the fort, a fire on Prospect Hill, and the 
ringing of bells. 

The "final alarm " expected was not required, 
and the Guards were, after the danger had passed, 
dismissed. 

At a meeting of the Company August 25, 1814, 
it was 

I'oted, That the Second Company Governor's Foot 
Guard appear at their usual place of parade w'ith knapsacks 
and canteens, on Wednesday mornmg next at 7 o'clock, 
and there place themselves under the direction of the com- 
mittee appointed to fortify Beacon Hill in East Haven. 

At the appointed time the company assembled 
with full ranks, "equipped with knapsacks and 
canteens, and armed with shovels, pickaxes, hoes, 
crow-bars," etc., and were marched direct to Bea- 
con or Prospect Hill, overlooking the entrance to 
the harbor, where they worked industriously on the 
fortifications until late in the afternoon, when they 
marched back to town and were dismissed. 

On the morning of Tuesday, September 6, 18 14, 
the ringing of bells and the firing of cannon 
brought the company hurriedly together at the 
rendezvous. News had been received by express 
that the enemy weie landing in considerable num- 
bers near Branford. The company remained under 
arms until evening, when advices were received that 
the enemy had withdrawn, and they were dismissed. 

On this occasion eighty-five members of the 
company, officers and men, rallied for duty, all of 
whose names are given in the company record, and 
in addition, " twenty-two young men of the town 
and the college offered themselves as volunteers, 
and were accepted, and were furnished by the com- 
pany officers with muskets, ammunition, knapsacks, 
canteens," etc. 

On May 22, 1815, Major Bradley having ten- 
dered his resignation. Captain Timothy Bishop 
was duly elected Major-Commandant of the com- 
pany, with Jared Doolittle second in command. 
Captain Doolittle died in September, 1816, and 
Major Bishop resigned October 23, 1817, and on 
the last named date Ezekiel Hotchkiss was chosen 
Major-Cotnmandant; with William B. Wallace 
First Lieutenant and Captain; William C. Atwater, 
Second Lieutenant; Daniel Brown, Third Lieuten- 
ant; Silas Ford, Fourth Lieutenant; and Joel Mat- 
toon, Ensign. 

Under date of May 3, 1820, the records of the 
company are as follows: 

On this <lay the Foot Guards met at their usual place of 
parade to celebrate the first election day in New Haven 
under the new State Constitution, and to perform escort duty 
to his Excellency the Governor, and the Senate. 

Between ten and eleven o'clock the line was formed under 
command of Major Hotchkiss, with the Horse Guards on 
the right, Foot Guards on the left, and the Artillery in the 
center. 



MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS. 



653 



At two o'clock the Governor and Senate were received at 
the Court House, and from thence escorted to the North 
Church, where appropriate services were performed. At the 
close of service at the church the line was again formed and 
marched hack to the Court House, where His Kxcellency 
took the oath of office, delivered his ,-innual message, and 
was escorted to his lodgings. The Company was then dis- 
missed for dinner, and sat down for a bountiful entertain- 
ment at the County Hotel. 

On May 21, 1821, Major Holchkiss resigned his 
commission, and Bela P. Peck was chosen Major- 
Commandant in succession. 

Major Peck resigned in IMay, 1823; and, on the 
27th of that month, Charles B. Grannis was chosen 
Major; with William \V. Boardman, Fir.st Lieuten- 
ant and Captain. 

On August 21, 1824, the Guards assembled at 
7 o'clock A.M. for a day of parade in honor of 
General Lafayette. The CSeneral, traveling by 
canal from New York, arrived in New- Haven 
at 10 o'clock A.M., under an imposing escort, com- 
manded by Major Grannis, and all the military 
organizations in the city. It was a gala day in New 
Haven, and drew together the largest concourse of 
people which up to that time the city had ever 
seen. 

On May 18, 1826, Major Grannis resigned the 
command, and was succeeded by ALnjor William 
'W. Boardman, who in turn was succeeded, Sep- 
tember II, 1828, by Major Leverett Candee. 
Under Major Candee the Guards performed a 
four days' tour of camp duty, including a com- 
plimentary visit under arms, with camp equipage 
and a full band, to Greenfield Hill, the home of Gov- 
ernor Tomlinson. The Guards left New Haven with 
sixty-eight men in line on August 3d and returned 
on the 6th, having completed the tour of duly in a 
manner which reflected great credit upon the com- 
pany. 

From that time to the present the commanding 
officers of the company have been as follows: 

Major Leverett Candee May 17, 1830. 

" James E. Hotchkiss " 2,1832. 

" John Merriam " 21,1834. 

" Lucius K. Dow " 17. 1836. 

" Allan U.Smith " 30,1840. 

Captain John Miller April 13, 1843. 

'• EMas K. Main August 28, 1845. 

" John M. Hendricks Octolier ID, 1849. 

Major William 1). Hendricks April g, 1853. 

" John Wilcox February 20, 1854. 

" RadcliffcR. Lockwood .September 19, 1856. 

" John A. Munson April 24, 1861. 

Captain James H. Lansing December 6, 1865. 

Major Hiram Camp June 15, 1866. 

Captain Samuel H. (irannis April 12, 1869. 

" Jacob G. rhile February 5, 1880. 

" Edward J. Morse now commanding. 

The company occupies commodious quarters in 
the Union Armory on Meadow street; is in excellent 
condition; and sufficiently proud of its honorable 
record to assure the permanency of its organization 
in the future. 

Second Company Governor's Horse Guards. 

The Second Company of the Governor's Horse 
Guards has always held an iionorable place in the 
military annals of the city. In its earlier career. 



from 1808 to 1826, and from i86i, the date of its 
renewal of military life, to the present time, there 
have appeared in its ranks as active members many 
prominent citizens, who were then, or have been 
since, intimately connected with the business and 
official life of the city. 

The position of the company in the militar)- sys- 
tem of the State has been independent; obligation 
to do military duty existing simply as a body guard 
to the Governor— obligation to obey his orders in 
a personal way, rather than his orders as Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the State's military forces. 

Escorting the Governor to the capitol upon his 
taking his seat, or to deliver his semi-annual mes- 
sage to the General Assembly, has been for the 
most part the sole official duty of the company. 

In the system of double capitals, the (Jencral 
As.sembly met alternately at Hartford and New Ha- 
ven, and it was natural that the citizens of New 
Haven should be as attentive to the honors attend- 
ing the first official of the State as Hartford, where 
for twenty-one years the First Company had done 
honor as His Excellency's body guard. 

At the meeting of the General .Assembly held in 
New Haven in October, 1808, a petition was pre- 
sented for the establishment of a second company 
of cavalry under the immediate command of his 
F'xcellency. This petition was signed by I"!lihu 
Munson, William A. Babcock, Joel Walter, Josiah 
B. Morse, Leonard A. Daggett, Charles K. Ship- 
man, William H. Judd, Henry C. Rossiter, Will- 
iam B. Townsend, Daniel L. Daggett, George S. 
Shipman, Ralph I. Ingersoll. Caleb B,»con, Charles 
Austin, (ieorge Munson, Thomas Goodscll, Jesse 
Hunt, Charles Hunt, Reuben Rice, George Miles, 
and Hazard Brilton. A glance at this list shows 
many names closely identified with the history of 
the city. 

In the original charter, granted unanimously, it 
was provided that the members of the company 
should be sixty, anil that enlistments might be had 
in thesurrounding towns of Fast Haven, North Ha- 
ven, and Hamden, subject to the same drill and 
discipline as the members of other miliuuy organi- 
zations of the State. The company was to provide 
its own etiuipments and uniforms, and, in consider- 
ation thereof, was exempt from every other kind of 
military duty. 

The organization and the filling of the ranks of 
the company went forward with enthusiasm, nearly 
all of the members being New Haven men. F'.lihu 
Munson was elected Major. 

The headquarters were at the County House, 
where the City Hall now stands, and twice a year 
the company was called out for drill and parade. 
These occasions were gala days for the people of 
the city. 

The uniform consisted of a blue suit elaborately 
trimmed with buff, with hats from which waved 
long white plumes. 

The duties of the company being largely hon- 
orar)-, there was much pride taken by the members 
in all that pertained to its equipment and dis- 
cipline. 

It was customary, the evening previous to the 



654 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



opening of the Legislature, for the company to 
march out of the city, intercept the Governor on 
his journey, and escort him with great pomp to his 
lodging. 

Elihu Munson was followed by William Babcock 
as Major in 1814. He served but a year, his death 
producing a profound impression upon the com- 
pany and the community. The company having 
assembled for its annual spring parade in 181 5, 
marched, under the command of Captain Morse, 
to headquarters in the County Building to receive 
its commanding officer. Major Babcock appeared, 
answered the friendly salute, and proceeded to 
mount his horse, when he fell in a fit of apoplexy 
and in a short time expired. 

Major Babcock was followed by the next in 
rank. Captain Josiah Morse, but there being a gen- 
eral feeling against him in the company, he re- 
signed, and did not appear in public as Major of 
the company. He was followed as Major by Enos 
A. Prescott, who had always taken a deep interest 
in the company. 

The interest and enthusiasm in the organization 
had now begun to wane, and it was only the energy 
and executive ability of Major Prescott that kept 
the ranks full and its discipline creditable. 

Meantime it had become necessary to secure en- 
listments from the towns mentioned in the charter, 
and from 1820, to the time of its disappearance 
from the public in 1826, the ranks were made up 
largely from members not residents of New Haven. 

Major Prescott retired in 1825, and Byard Barnes, 
of North Haven, was elected Major, but the com- 
pany never appeared under his command, it pass- 
ing into a comatose state, from which it did not re- 
vive for thirty-five years. 

Upon the breaking out of the Civil War in 1861, 
the subject of a reorganization of the company 
was favorably considered by many who remembered 
its glory in the earlier days. The movement at 
once became popular, and in March the old com- 
pany again showed life, with an entire new mem- 
bership under command of Colin M. Ingersoll as 
Major, and Lucian W. Sperry as Captain. 

The maximum membership was soon enlisted, 
and at the May session of the General Assembly 
the charter was so amended as to allow a double 
company or squadron of 114 members under the 
same restrictions and privileges granted the origi- 
nal company in 1808. The fL.llowing were the 
commissioned officers upon the reorganization: 
Colin M. Ingersoll, Major; Lucien W. Sperry, 
Captain; Charles Shelton, First Lieutenant; Ed- 
ward P. Judd, Second Lieutenant; John S. Lyon, 
Cornetist. 

The company met for drill in the Lincoln and 
Hamlin wigwam, then standing in what is now 
Home Place, off Olive street. Afterward an armory 
was established in the Adelphi Building, w^here 
it continued until 1866, when the upper floor of 
the Cutler Building, corner of Church and Chapel 
streets, was very elaborately fitted up for the armory. 

The new company was now at the high tide of 
success. The ranks of the double company were 
filled by prominent business men of the city. 



Upon the visit of the Governor to the city he 
was met at the suburbs of the town, and escorted 
to his headquarters. Elaborate receptions were 
given to the Governor at the newly furnished ar- 
mory. 

The uniform at this time was most showy. It 
consisted of a suit of gray trimmed with red, leather 
leggings, and bearskin hats. The officers wore 
chapeaux with plumes, while the horses were capar- 
isoned with red collars and pommel front saddles. 

A noticeable ornament to the armory for many 
years was a carved figure of a horse with a man 
just ready to mount. This figure was carved by 
Nicholas Countryman from oak taken from the old 
jail, which stood where the Police Building now 
stands. 

Captain L. W. Sperry followed C. M. Ingersoll 
as Major in 1865, and two years later T. P. Mer- 
win was elected to the command. After the close 
of the war the number of the company gradually 
decreased, until it reached the minimum designated 
in the original charter in 1873. 

The following is a list of Majors, from the retire- 
ment of T. P. Merwin in 1869, to 1S86: Captain 
Horace P. Hoadley, January 6, 1869, to Decem- 
ber 28, 1869; Fifst Lieutenant R. P. Cowles, from 
1869 to 1873; Captain J. F. Gilbert, 1873, to Jan- 
uary, 1875; F- C. Smith, elected January 27,1875, 
but did not assume command; Lieutenant Theron 
A. Todd, March 25, 1875, to August 2, 1876; 
Charles W. Blakeslee, August 2, 1876, to July 7, 
1881; Major H. H. Strong was commissioned 
July 7, 1 88 1, and still continues in command. 

For thirteen years F. L. Newton has acted as 
Secretary of the company. 

The company removed its Armory from Cutler 
Corner to the Glebe Building, corner of Church 
and Chapel streets, where it continued until the 
completion of the new armory on Meadow street, 
erected by the State, where it has since been located. 
Since the establishment of Hartford as ihe capital 
of the State, the visits of the Governor to New Haven 
are less official, and the distinctively attendant 
duties of the company have largely decreased. 

The company is called out twice each year for 
drill and parade, and, under the command of Major 
Strong, is a thrifiy and efficient organization. It 
now numbers sixty-four members.* 

The New Haven Grays. 

The military company bearing the above desig- 
nation, but officially borne on the rolls of the Slate 
Militia as Company F, Second Regiment Con- 
necticut National Guards, has had a continuous ex- 
istence as an active military organization since the 
year 1816. 

In that year, although the country was at peace, 
the military spirit was rife and popular, in conse- 
quence of the impetus given it by the war with the 



* A member of the company desire? that record "ihould be made 
that the Governor's Horse Guards voted at a dark time in the history of 
the Civil War to offer its services to Governor Buckingham to be sent 
to the front; and that during the draft riot period they spent their 
nights at the armory ready for any emergency. — Editor. 



MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS. 



655 



mother country, then just ended with honor to the 
American flag. But though peace had been de- 
clared, there was, and could be no guarantee that 
it would be perpetual. 

Young men of spirit naturally felt a desire to be 
enrolled among the armed defenders of the country 
in any like emergency in the future; and it was 
equally natural that they should desire to do so in 
belter form than that alTorded tliem in the ununi- 
formed militia. The idea of an independent uni- 
formed company, fully equipped for service or 
parade at all times and in any emergency, could 
not but carry with it something of fascination to 
the minds of young men just ready to begin life in 
earnest, and eager to be among the first wherever 
duty might call. 

Under circumstances thus brielly outlined, a 
young graduate of Yale College, and a lawyer of 
brilliant promise, having secured the co-operaiion 
of other young men of kindred spirit, took vigor- 
ously in hand the organization of the New 
Haven Light Infantry. That was the name the 
new-born company gave to itself The popular 
name, which on the first public ajipearance of the 
company was given to it, which it has ever since 
proudly borne, and which nothing could now in- 
duce it to disown, "The Grays," was originally 
due to chance more than design. 

With commendable desire for economy, and aver- 
sion to any flaunting display of gaudy color in its 
dress, and with an underlying sense of sturdy in- 
dependence withal, the company determined by 
vote to make use of nothing in its uniform or equip- 
ment which was not of American manufacture. 
The color selected for the uniform was dark gray, 
with the stipulation, in order to secure exact uni- 
formity, that all the material used should be from 
one factory. The result was a surprisingl)' neat and 
serviceable uniform, on account of whose peculiar 
character the designation "Iron Grays" was by 
common impulse give to the company at its first 
appearance in public on parade. 

The organization of the company was completed 
September 13, 1816, when the enlisted members 
held a meeting in the Court House on the (ireen, 
and elected Sophos Staples, Captain: Tlmmas G. 
Woodward, First Lieutenant; and Samuel J. Hitch- 
cock, Ensign. 

Captain Staples was the young lawyer previously 
alluded to as taking the lead in the work of organiz- 
ing the company. In this work he had not only 
the hearty co-operation of young men of his class, 
but of older men of high social standing and mili- 
tary experience. Among them was naturally his 
brother, Seth P. Sta])les, a lawyer in well established 
practice, who, during the war just ended, had been 
in command of the mounted force of the State or- 
ganized for home defense, and to whose name per- 
petual homage from the legal fraternity is due, he 
having been the founder of the Yale Law School. 

Lieutenant Woodwaril had but recently come to 
New Haven from South Carolina, where, as editor 
of the Charleston Courier, he had made his mark 
as a journalist, and was at this lime editing and 
publishing the Conneclicul Herald. 



Ensign Hitchcock had previously been connected 
with the Slate Militia, in which he had attained the 
rank of .Major, while as a lawyer he held the posi- 
tion of Professor in the Yale Law School. 

Wiih its organization accomplished, the company 
look up in earnest the work of pulling itself in con- 
dition for active duty. 

John Cotton Smith was then Governor of the 
State, and Captain-General of the Militia. Speci- 
fications for the uniform were at once submit- 
ted to and approved by him, and doubtless, al- 
though there can be found no record of the fact, a 
requisition for the latest pattern of flint-lock mus- 
kets was also submitted and approved. Every 
article of uniform and equipment, except the mus- 
kets, were paid for by the members of the company, 
but the arms were i)robably furnished by the Si.ite, 
and of home manufacture. Pending the completion 
of uniforms and equipment, the company held fre- 
quent meetings for business and drill. 

Hillhouse avenue, then but little more than an 
open field in the outskirts of the ciiy, was tlie 
place of meeting for drill, and the Court House on 
the (Jreen, or Mix's .\ssembly Room on Olive street, 
at the foot of Court street, the place for business 
meetings or evening drill. 

The first public parade of the company was held 
on May 5, 181 7, on which occasion the company 
was fully armed anti ecjuippetl, and made a strik- 
ingly fine appearance. The commendation called 
forth by the new company was possibly attribulablc 
in part to the neatness and novelty of its uniform, 
but the occasion being that of the regular May 
parade required by law, and participated in by the 
entire active militia, there was no lack of opportu- 
nity for comparison. The company was com- 
mended not only for its fine appearance, but for 
its efficiency in drill and in all points legitimately 
subject to military criticism. The young men had 
signed the roll anil donned their uniforms with a 
determination to excel, and from the time of their 
first parade it was deemed an honor to be one of 
the Grays. 

The next public appearance of the company on 
parade was during the visit to New Haven of Presi- 
dent .Madison in July, 1817, when a military review 
was tendered his Excellency, and the Gravs had a 
position in the line. Captain Staples had just pre- 
vious to this paradesevered his connection with the 
company by removing to Georgia, and the com- 
pany was commanded by Lieutenant Woodward. 
Soon after this parade a duly, warned meeting was 
held at the Court House on the Green, and the 
Captaincy was filled by the election of Dennis Kiin- 
berly, Esq. 

Captain Kimberly had been one of ihe most act- 
ive helpers and advisers of Captain Staples in the 
organization of the company. He was a law\cr 
with a practice well established; had benefited by 
considerable previous experience in the militia; and 
had frequently, by rec|uest of Captain Staples, ex- 
ercised the ( jrays at their regular drill prior to their 
first parade. He now look hold of company alTairs 
with a firm hand, and a fresh impetus was given to 
recruiting. The Grays had been assigned the second 



656 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



position of honor in the Second Regiment, the first 
being held by the Milford Grenadiers, which, prior 
to the advent of the Grajs, had been the only uni- 
formed company in the regiment. The military 
activity of that time is shown by the frequency 
with which the companies were assembled for drill 
or parade. 

Captain Kimberly gave his company a vigorous 
drill in Hillhouse avenue, September ist; another 
on the Green, September yth; and participated in a 
regimental parade and inspection at New Haven, 
September 8th. Officers and men evidently re- 
alized that hard work was essential to the achieve- 
ment and maintenance of such a reputation as 
they had determined should be won by the Grays. 

At the close of the year 1818, the strength of the 
company was not less than eighty members rank 
and file, and not one of its original commissioned 
officers remained. The formative period of the 
company had been successfully passed, a new and 
important accession had thus come to the Second 
Regiment, and it had come to stay. 

Captain Kimberly continued in command of the 
Grays until the spring of 1 821, when he resigned to 
accept the colonelcy of the Second Regiment. He 
afterwards became Brigadier-General and Major- 
General of the State Militia, and rose to a position 
of commanding influence at the Bar. 

Captain George J. Whiting assumed command 
of the Grays in June, 1821, retaining it until May, 

1823, when he was commissioned Lieutenant- 
Colonel of the Second Regiment. The period cov- 
ered by his captaincy was a prosperous one for the 
company. 

On July 9, 1823, Lieutenant Philip S. Galpin 
was elected Captain, and a system of regular weekly 
drills was at once established by his order. It was 
under his command, early in January, 1824, that the 
Grays received their first order to turn out under 
arms, for the prevention, or, if necessary, the sup- 
pression, of a riot. The occasion arose out of 
popular indignation at the surreptitious manner in 
which students at the Yale Medical School at- 
tempted to supply themselves with subjects for the 
dissecting table. Excitement ran high for a little 
time, but prudent counsel from those in authority, 
backed by the prompt rallying of the military com- 
panies fully prepared with arms and ammunition 
for something more than a parade, quickly pre- 
vailed, and the e.xcitement was allayed without harm 
to life or property. Captain Galpin continued in 
command of the Grays until the spring of 1826, 
when he was promoted to the Lieutenant-Colonelcy 
of the Second Regiment. He was a thoroughly 
competent and efiicient officer, and held his com- 
pany well in hand. 

At the fall parade of the Second Regiment in 

1 824, which was held on the Green in New Haven, 
the Grays were assigned the right of the line there- 
tofore held by the Milford Grenadiers. This new- 
order of things was not concurred in with good 
grace by the Grenadiers, who were inclined to at- 
tribute the change to favoritism on the part of the 
regimental commander. Colonel Whiting, formerly 
Captain of the Grays. As a matter of fact the 



change was rendered imperative by the new tactics 
then recendy adopted by the General Assembly, 
seniority of commission resting with Captain Gal- 
pin, and the Grays held the position until his pro- 
motion. 

The last parade of the Grays under Captain 
Galpin, was the election parade of 1826, and Lieu- 
tenant Charles NicoU was chosen his successor in 
command. Captain Nicol was, in 1828, appointed 
Major of the Second Regiment; and Ensign John 
H. Coley succeeded to the Captaincy of the Grays. 
First Lieutenant Charles B. Whittlesey, over whose 
head an Ensign had thus been promoted, tendered 
his resignation and received an honorable discharge. 

Following his example, twenty-four members of 
the company withdrew, organized another military 
company, and by election tendered its captaincy to 
ex-Lieutenant Whittlesey. He declined its accept- 
ance, from a desire to retire permanently from 
military duty, and the captaincy of the new com- 
pany was then tendered to and accepted by 
Mason A. Durand, a former member of the Grays, 
who thus became the first Captain of "The New 
Haven Blues." 

Discussion //'o and con as to the propriety of this 
movement had been warm and widely extended, 
but good feeling soon prevailed. Activity in recruit- 
ing rapidly strengthened the Blues and as rapidly 
filled up the thinned ranks of the Grays, and only 
a friendly rivalry survived the demonstration that 
New Haven was big enough for both companies. 

At the fall parade and target shoot of that year 
(1828), the Grays paraded fifty men and twelve 
musicians. 

Captain Coley continued in command until after 
the September parade in 1829, when ill health in- 
duced him to undertake a trip to Europe, and he 
resigned, leaving the company in excellent condi- 
tion, with Sidney RL Stone, Lieutenant command- 
ing. 

In April, 1830, Lieutenant Stone was chosen 
Captain. The two years of Captain Stone's com- 
mand were years of marked prosperity. In addi- 
tion to its regular duties. Captain Stone took his 
company to Hartford, July 4, 1831, in response to 
an invitation from that city to participate in a pa- 
rade in honor of the fifty-fifth anniversary of Ameri- 
can Independence. Companies from all portions 
of the State were present, and the Grays were es- 
pecially commended for their soldierly bearing in 
line, and their gentlemanly deportment as individ- 
uals. It was thereafter, even more than before, 
considered an honor to belong to the Grays. 

Captain Stone was a deservedly popular com- 
mander, and soon after his accession to the cap- 
taincy, was tendered full command of the brigade, 
which he declined. 

His immediate successor in command of the 
Grays was Captain Charles Bostwick, who, almost 
simultaneously with his election, received a com- 
mission as Major of the Second Regiment, which 
he accepted, and on May 25, 1832, Lieutenant Rus- 
sell Hotchkiss was elected Captain. The notable 
events occurring during his command were the re- 
ception of the Seventh Regiment of NewYork, which 



MILITARV ORGAXIZA TIOXS. 



G57 



arrived in New Haven June i8th, bringing all 
equipage necessary for a six days' encampment, 
and tiie parade and review in honor of President 
Andrew Jackson, lune 15, 1833. 

Captain Hotchkiss resigned in 1834, and on 
July I5tli of that year Lieutenant Benjamin M. 
Prescott was chosen to the vacant position. 

Sufficient time had now elapsed since the War of 
18 1 2 to bring about a difTerent feeling in the pop- 
ular mind with respect to military affairs from that 
which existed when the Grays were organized. The 
spur of necessity for such organization had yearly 
become less apparent until it was now well-nigh 
out ofraind. 

The ununiformed companies of militia which 
under the law were compelled to parade on stated 
occasions, each soldier appearing with whatever 
style of gun, cartouche box and bayonet he might 
chance to possess, had, by the striking contrast 
they presented in line with companies fully uni- 
formed and equipped, furnished inspiration to 
numberless extemporized companies of " antique 
and horribles," which needed only slightly to ex- 
aggerate in their outfit the uncouthness of the mili- 
tia itself to be the cause of measureless ridicule 
and hilarity at every general training. 

The uniformed military companies were not a 
direct target for this ridicule, but the military spirit 
felt its shafts, and indirectly the uniformed com- 
panies sulTered in consequence. They were thrown 
more upon their own resources, and those com- 
panies which survived the collapse of popular mili- 
tary enthusiasm, as did the Grays, only did so by 
virtue of an est>ril de corps, which compelled con- 
stant energv and well directed effort on the part of 
officers and men. 

The four years of Captain Prescott's command 
were eventful, and illustrative of the increased in- 
dependence of action which the company found 
itself forced to adopt in order to live. 

As calls for duty with the militia decreased, 
more frequent opportunity for parade, indepen- 
dent of the militia, was sought, and wider extension 
of military courtesies was the result. 

On July 3, 1835, the Union Blues of Newark 
visited New Haven to celebrate the "Fourth," re- 
ceiving every possible attention during their stay 
from the Grays and the Blues and Governor's Foot 
("iiiard. 

On the 1st of July in the following year, the 
Grays, under Captain Prescott, and accompanied 
by the Field and StalT officers of the 2d Regiment, 
left New Haven, by boat, to accept a return of 
hospitalities, on the "Fourth," from the Union 
Blues of Newark, N. J. 

On July 4, 1837, the Grays entertained, in New 
Haven^ the Light Guard from Hartford, and in 
September following return courtesies were ex- 
tended, by the Hartford Light Guard, to the Grays 
during their attendance upon a three days' brigade 
drill in that city. 

Interchange of courtesies of this nature were of 
frequent occurrence from this time forward. 

The immediate successor of Captain Prescott 
was Captain Elijah Thompson, who held the posi- 

83 



tion but one year, and was succeeded by Captain 
George P. Stillman. 

Even at this early period, when militar)' ardor 
was at a low ebb, and steadily waning, young men 
were in the ranks of the Gr.iys who were to witness 
a revival of it such as the wildest imagination 
could not have pictured. 

Among these was Private Frederick Meyers, 
afterward Assistant Quartermaster-General of Vol- 
unteers, and in the Regular Army, and especially 
distinguished for services with the Army of the 
Potomac during the Civil War. 

The command of Captain Stillman continued 
until 1 84 1, when he was succeeded by Captain 
John Gal()in. who, like his pieJecc<sor, held the 
position, with high honor to himself and the com- 
pany, during two years. On his retirement, in 
1843, Lieutenant Samuel Tolles was chosen Cap- 
tain. The three years of his Captaincy were more 
than ordinarily eventful, and surprising cfTiciency 
in drill was attained by the company, the complete 
execution of the manual at the tap of the drum, 
and without command, being one of the innova- 
tions successlully introduced. 

Notable events of this period participated in by 
the Grays, were the rece[)tion to ex-Vice-President 
Richard i\L Johnson, October 5, 1843; reception 
of the Fusiliers of New York, July 4, 1844; in- 
auguration of Governor Roger S. Baldwin in the 
Spring of 1845; the visit of the comp.iny to New 
York antl Newark, N. J., in Julv of this same year; 
reception of the Hancock Light Inl^intry of Boston 
in the fall; and the occup.ition of the new armory 
of the company in the Glebe Building. 

Captain Tolles surrendered command, by resig- 
nation, July 19, 1846, and was succeeded by Cap- 
tain Elias P. Barnes, who, almost immediately, in 
consequence of removal to New York, gave place 
to Captain Raymond A. White, during whose two 
years of command the Grays fully maintained their 
reputation, though the muster roll of the company 
showed but thirty members. 

Resigning carlv in 1848, Captain White gave 
place to his First Lieutenant, James AL Townsend, 
who was chosen Captiin in February, but was 
compelled by ill-health to resign in the following 
June. Second Lieutenant Albert C. Nash was then 
chosen Captain, First Lieutenant Luther P. Brad- 
ley declining promotion Captain Nash was an 
exceedingly competent commander, but the year 
of his command was one of discouragement for the 
company. 

The general stampede for the gold fields of Cali- 
fornia severely depleted the ranks of the Grays. 

Captain Nash removed to Wisconsin, and in Jan- 
uary, 1849, at a meeting of the company ordered 
for the election of officers, only eight members 
were present. Colonel Nicholas S. Hallenbeck, 
commanding the 2d Regiment, was tendered, and 
accepted the captaincy of the Grays, and a strenu- 
ous efli'ort was made to improve the condiiion and 
prospects of the company. Lieutenant-Colonel 
John Arnold, of the 2d Regiment, took the posi- 
tion of First Lieutenant of the Grays, and ex-Cap- 
tain George P. Stillman that of Third Lieutenant. 



I 



658 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



Recruiting' soon became lively, and at the inaug- 
ural parade of 1849, held at New Haven when 
Thomas H. Seymour became Governor, the Grays 
were able to muster in uniform thirty-three men. 

Just previous to this parade Colonel Hallenbeck 
had resigned his brief captaincy, and ex-Captain 
James M. Townsend, by request of the company, 
assumed temporary command as acting Captain for 
the occasion. 

Immediately thereafter the command devolved 
upon Lieutenant John Arnold, who, on August 
30, 1850, was chosen Captain. From this time to 
1854 the prospects of the company, brightening at 
times, and then becoming depressed, the result of 
the whole was but little more than hope for the fu- 
ture. 

Captain Arnold was succeeded in command by 
Lieutenant William A. Lefifingwell, acting Captain, 
who, on accepting appointment as Major of the 
2d Regiment, left the command of the Grays to 
Second Lieutenant Charles S. Jones. 

On January 22, 1853, Lieutenant James M. 
Woodward was chosen Captain, and held the posi- 
tion with honor until his appointment as Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel of the 2d Regiment, when he was suc- 
ceeded in the captaincy by Charles S. Jones, who 
had previously acted as Captain on the retirement 
of Captain Leflfingwell. 

In October, 1854, First Lieutenant Charles T. 
Candee became Captain of the Grays, and contin- 
ued in command until 1858. 

Coming events must now have cast their shadows 
before, for with nothing more than a continuance 
of previous endeavor on the part of the company 
and its friends, the Grays were enabled to parade, 
under Captain Candee, June 29, 1854, forty-three 
enlisted men and three commissioned officers. 

The celebration by the company of its fortieth 
anniversary, in 1856, called out forty-one men in line 
as active members. A feature of the parade on this 
occasion was the reception of the active company 
on the Green by a battalion of one hundred and 
fifty veteran Grays, who had been mustered and 
formed by the Mayor of the city, ex-Captain P. S. 
Galpin, and by him turned over to the command 
of General Kimberly, who, as the second Captain 
of the company, had marched at its head thirty- 
nine years before. The occasion was one of great 
eclat, and culminated in a grand banquet at the 
Tontine Hotel, participated in by the entire body 
of actives and veterans, with a notable array of dis- 
tinguished military guests. 

In the following year much dissatisfaction was 
occasioned in military circles by the passage by the 
Legislature of a revised Militia law, so formed as 
to deprive the Militia' of a part of the support it 
had received from the State. In August of that 
year the Grays, at a company meeting, took the ini- 
tiatory steps toward complete severance of their 
connection with the Militia, and reorganization as 
the "Independent New Haven Grays." 

Though the company went so far as to return its 
arms to the State Ar.senal, and was thereby debarred 
from participation in the annual encampment of 
the 2d Regiment in 1857, the movement was not 



consummated, and on January 19, 1858, Captain • 
Candee having accepted the position of Major on 
the Brigade Staff, Lieutenant William H. Steele 
was chosen Captain, and the Grays continued in 
service as Company A, 2d Regiment Connecticut 
Militia. In the spring of this year William A. 
Buckingham was inaugurated Governor, and an 
imposing military parade, participated in by the 
Grays, signalized the event. 

Space cannot here be given for a full list of the 
veteran and active Grays then or afterward prom- 
inent in military circles, but even a partial list will 
indicate the important service rendered by the com- 
pany as a school for the development of military 
talent destined to be of inestimable value to the 
State and the country in a fast approaching time of 1 
need. 

John Arnold, ex -Captain of the Grays, and after- 
ward Colonel of the 3d Connecticut Volunteers in 
the Civil War, was then Brigadier-General, com- 
manding the Second Brigade, with a number of 
ex-Grays on his Staff. 

Alfred H. Terry, who joined the Grays in 1849, 
was then Colonel of the 2d Regiment. His sub- 
sequent career as successively Colonel, Brigadier 
and Major-General of Volunteers in the Civil War, 
culminating in his name becoming a household 
word as "The Hero of Fort Fisher," is too vividly 
borne in mind by all to require further mention here. 
He is now a Major-General in the Regular Army. 
Luther P. Bradley, a First Lieutenant of the 
Grays in 1848, performed so distinguished service 
during the war as to occasion his promotion to 
high rank in the Regular Army, where he is now 
in service as Colonel of the 13th Infantry. 

E. Walter Osborne, at the first inauguration of 
Governor Buckingham, a Lieutenant of the Grays, 
after succeeding to the captaincy of the company, 
led it with marked ability in its three months' ser- 
vice in the 2d Connecticut Volunteers, under Colo- 
nel Terry. He then re-entered the service "for the 
war" as Major of the 15th Connecticut Volunteers, 
and was mortally wounded at Kingston, N. C, in 
March, 1865, while heroically leading the left wing 
of his regiment in an attempt to stem an over- 
whelming charge of rebel troops under General 
Hoke. 

Stephen R. Smith was then a non-commissioned 
officer of the Grays, and Treasurer of the company. 
With the exception of a single year, his service has 
been continuous in the National Guard of the 
State since February, 1858. From the ranks of 
the Grays, promotion carried him successively to 
the position of Adjutant, Major, Lieutenant-Colo- 
nel and Colonel of the 2d Regiment; Brigadier- 
General of the Connecticut National Guard, and 
Adjutant-General of the State, which last position 
he now holds.* 

Henry C. Merwin was at this time a private in 
the Grays, and afterward became a Sergeant. He 
served with distinguished honor in the Civil War as 
Lieutenant-Colonel of the 27th Connecticut Volun- 

* The Connecticut National Guard owes in large measure its present 
excellent and constantly improving condition to General Stnith's ad- 
ministrative ability. — Ed. 



MILITARY ORG A NIZA TIONS. 



659 



teers at the fearful storming of Mary's Heights; at 
Fredericksburg; at Chancellorsville; and finally at 
Gettysburg, where he fell, mortally wounded, in the 
thickest of the fight. 

Samuel E. Merwin, Jr., at this time an active 
member of the Grays, subsequently .served with 
great acceptance as Captain of the company, Colo- 
nel of the 2d Regiment, and Adjutant-General of 
the State. 

L. A. Dickinson, who joined the Grays in 1855, 
was at this time Adjutant of the 2d Regiment, and 
rendered distinguished service in the civil war as 
Captain in the 12th Regiment Connecticut Volun- 
teers. He afterwards received the rank of Brig- 
adier-General as Quartermaster-General of Con- 
necticut. 

Honorable mention of past and active members 
of the Grays, whose services in the company previ- 
ous to the inauguration of the grand old War Gov- 
ernor, had prepared them for an emergency which 
neither he nor they had yet divined, might be ex- 
tended almost without limit, but the few here given 
must suflice. 

Early in 1859, Lieutenant E.Walter Osborne was 
chosen Captain, and the four years of his command 
were eventful. 

A reception was given by the Grays to the State 
Guard of New York City in September, 1859, which 
was a very successful affair, and in September fol- 
lowing, the City Blues, of Paterson, N. J., with a 
large number of distinguished military guests, were 
similarly entertained by the Grays in New Haven. 
Later in the same month the Grays, under Captain 
Osborne, paid a return visit to the State Guard of 
New York. 

At the September parade of the 2d Regiment, 
held at Brewster Park, soon after the return of the 
Grays from New York, the company turned out 
with thirty-two men in line. 

In March, 1861, the Grays took possession of a 
spacious new armory in the Collins' Building, just 
erected in Chapel street. Omens of civil war now 
suddenly spread dismay throughout the land, and 
almost before their full portent was realized, war 
itself became a hideous fiict. Connecticut called 
upon her sons for the sternest duty which patriots 
can perform, and the noblest response which patri- 
ots can give was instantaneous. 

The Grays were among the very first to volunteer. 
All other considerations were thrust aside, ofiicers 
and men entered with equal enthusiasm upon the 
work of preparation for active service in the fieUl, and 
the Grays were soon formally mustered into the 
United States service as Infantry — Company C of 
the 2d Regiment Connecticut Volunteers, com- 
manded by Colonel Alfred H. Terry. 

Following is the roster of officers of the Grays 
in the three months' campaign: Y.. Walter Osborne, 
Captain; Albert C. Stevens, First Lieutenant; 
George L. Northrop, Second Lieutenant; Albert C. 
Hendrick, William W. ]\Iorse, George D. Sanger, 
Henry C. Merwin, Sergeants; William M. Blake, 
Charles W. Cornwall, Edwin F. Chapman, George 
F. Peterson, Corporals. Si.xty-five privates and two 
musicians completed the company. 



After a busy encampment at Brewster Park, the 
regiment embarked by steamer for Washington, 
May 10, 1 86 1, arriving at the National Capitol on 
Tuesday, May 14. 

In the eventful campaign which ensued, culminat- 
ing in the battle of Bull Run, the 2d Regiment 
bore a conspicuously honorable part, and of the ten 
companies composing it none could lay claim to 
superiority over the Grays. 

On the return of the regiment to New Haven it 
met a most enthusiastic reception, participated in 
by Governor Buckingham, and at its conclusion 
the other companies were invited to, and very gen- 
erally accepted, a farewell greeting at the armory of 
the Grays. 

Recruiting for three years' service was now the 
order of the day. Fifty-one members of the Grays 
who served in the three months campaign were 
soon again in the service. The State Militia proper 
was in elfect a suspended organization, as active 
field service which the General Government de- 
manded of the Connecticut Volunteers, absorbed 
all the resources and energies of the Slate. 

It seemed for a little lime that the Grays as a 
local organization were to lose their iileniitv by ab- 
sorption into the army in the field. But there was 
an esprit de corps among the veteran and active 
Grays which would not permit the company to die, 
or even to become temporarily inanimate. 

On September 20, 1861, a meeting of old mem- 
bers of the Grays was held at the armory, and an 
organization of the company independent of the 
Militia was effected and thirty signatures were ap- 
pended to the roll. It was determined to render 
all possible aid in recruiting for active service in the 
field, and at the same time to preserve an effective 
local organization, by filling vacancies which might 
thereby be occasioned in the ranks of the company. 

Captain E. Walter Osborne was re-elected com- 
mander, and the hall in Collins Building which had 
previously been occupied as an armory, but sur- 
rendered prior to the three months' campaign, was 
reoccupied and fitted up in attractive style as head- 
quarters of the Independent New Haven Gray.s. 

The sad harvest of war was now fast ripening, 
and the funeral dirge in honor of brave ones brought 
home for burial was heanl almost as frequently as 
the fife and drum of the recruiting squad. 

More than usual preparations had been made for 
the celebration of Washington's Birthday in 1862, in 
which the (}rays, together with the entire military 
force of the city, particijiated, but what would have 
been of itself a notable (larade was rendered most 
deeply impressive by the funeral escort tendered the 
remains of Colonel Russell and Lieutenant Still- 
man, of the loth Connecticut Regiment, who had 
fallen in Burnside's attack on Roanoke Island. 

In May, 1862, while Washington "was uncov- 
ered " by the transfer of the Army of the Potomac 
to the Peninsula, in the Yorktown campaign, Gov- 
ernor Buckingham called for ninety- day volunteers 
to hurry to the defense of the National Capital. 
The Grays promptly held a meeting, and by unani- 
mous vote tendered their services to Governor 
Buckingham for the emergency. 



660 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



Preparations were at once begun for departure to 
the front, but, pending receipt of orders, McClellan 
brought the Potomac Army to its old position, and 
the service so promptly volunteered was not re- 

At the monthly meeting in August, ii562. Cap- 
tain Osborne tendered his resignation, to accept 
the position of Major of the 15th Connecticut 
Volunteers, which had just been recruited in New 
Haven and its immediate vicinity for three years of 
the war. 

Active and veteran Grays had been largely in- 
strumental in raising the Regiment. Company B, 
Captain Theodore K. Davis, being recruited under 
their special patronage, and officered by active 
members of the independent company, ex-Captain 
of the Grays Samuel Tolles, was appointed by 
Governor Buckingham Lieutenant-Colonel of the 
Regiment. The meeting at which Captain Os- 
borne's resignation was accepted, was one of deep 
feeling and profound regret at the necessity of bid- 
ding him farewell, though, in loyalty to the cause, 
no voice was raised to dissuade him from his pur- 
pose of re-entering the service. 

It was a final farewell, for the gallant Major 
fell in the last year of the struggle, and died of his 
wound while a prisoner of war. 

At the same meeting Sergeant Henry C. Merwin 
and Secretary Frank D. Sloat, both active members 
of the company, were, by vote, authorized to re- 
cruit a company for the 27th Connecticut Volun- 
teers in the name of the Grays, with the privilege 
of using the company's armory as recruiting Head- 
quarters. 

The gallant Twenty-seventh was soon in the field, 
with Colonel R. S. Bostwick, late Lieutenant of the 
Grays, in command; and with Henry C. Merwin, 
late Sergeant of ihe Grays, as Lieutenant-Colonel. 
Captain James H. Coburn, of Company A, an ex- 
Sergeant of the (jrays, soon became Major of the 
Regiment; another ex-Gray, George F. Peterson, was 
Adjutant; and Company A, Captain Frank D. 
Sloat, was officered entirely by Grays. 

The company felt severely the depletion of its 
ranks thus occasioned, but its period of consequent 
inactivity was short. 

The i\Iilitia law of the State had been remodeled, 
and at a meeting of the Independent Company in 
February, 1863, it was voted that the company 
offer itself for re-enrolment in the State Militia, on 
condition ihat the company be permitted to retain 
the Gray The condition was accepted, and the New 
Haven Gra)s became Company F, 2d Regiment, 
Connecticut National (juard, and S. E. Merwin, Jr.', 
was chosen Captain. 

New energies were imparted to the company by 
this action, and at the inaugural parade at Hartford 
in May following, the Grays participated with their 
old-time spirit, and with forty-eight men in line. 

In June, 1863, a period of feverish apprehension 
again swept over the country. Lee, with his army, 
was in Pennsylvania. Governor Buckingham was 
prompt to echo the call of the President for troops 
for the emergency, and the Grays were as prompt 
to respond. 



At a meeting called for the purpose by Captain 
Merwin, the company by vote again tendered its 
services to the War Governor. The three days' bat- 
tle of Gett3'sburg so quickly ensued, that the com- 
pany was not called upon to leave the State. 

The commingling of stern resolve with tenderest 
emotion was a constantly recurring feature of this 
trying period, which none of its participants can ever 
forget. 

Gettysburg put an end to the preparations of 
the Grays at home for service in the field; but it 
sent back the coffined forms of Grays already in 
the field to be tenderly borne to rest by their com- 
rades at home. 

The impressive pageant called forth by the burial 
of Rear-Admiral Foote was still fresh in the minds 
of all, when the Grays were again marching, to the 
beat of muffled drums, as a guard of honor around 
the body of one who was a brother to them all in es- 
teem, as he was to their Captain in fact — Lieutenant- 
Colonel Henry C. Merwin, of the 27th Regiment. 

Only a few days later, the body of Captain Jedediah 
Chapman, of the same regiment, who, like Colonel 
Merwin, got his death wound at Gettysburg, was 
buried in New Haven with military honors, the 
Grays firing the final salute over his grave. And 
now, with Lee hastening as best he might, with his 
beaten and dispirited remnant of an army, back to 
the defense of Richmond, a new danger threatened 
the loyal North. The draft riots had begun, and a 
reign of terror in all Northern cities seemed immi- 
nent. 

All were forced to realize the common danger, 
but few, save the military and those in authority, 
knew of the measures quietly, but sternly taken in 
New Haven to quell at the very beginning any riot- 
ous demonstration threatening life or property. In 
obedience to orders from Major General Russell, 
commanding the State Militia, Captain Merwin 
placed the armory of the company under guard day 
and night for more than two weeks, the entire com- 
pany being called to duty by detail in five reliefs. 

During this time the gallant 27th Regiment re- 
turned from the front for final muster out, and was 
honored by a reception nobly earned by its heroic 
service in the field. 

Captain Merwin, who,as commander of the Grays, 
had now the fullest commendation of all in authority 
or in a position to know and appreciate his services, 
received promotion to the Lieutenant-Colonelcy of 
the 2d Regiment Connecticut National Guards. 

On October 26, 1863, a meeting of the company 
held by order of the General commanding, filled 
the vacancy thus occurring, by the election of First 
Lieutenant George L. Northrop to the captaincy. 
Captain Northrop's term of command continued 
until December 4, 1864, when he resigned, and 
Captain Frank D. Sloat, late of the 27th Regiment, 
and an ex-member of the company, was chosen his 
successor. At this time the battered remnants of 
Connecticut regiments were returning from the field 
at the expiration of three years' service, and it was 
fitting that the Grays, who were always in line to ac- 
cord them a soldier's welcome, should have for their 
Captain one who had served in the same ranks at 



MILITARY ORG A NIZA TIONS. 



661 



Chancellorsville and at GetU'sbiirg. Captain Sloat 
continued in command of the Grays until October, 
1865, when he tendered his resignation. 

The year had been one of unusual activity in the 
history of the company. Besides participating in the 
grand parade at Hartford at the eighth inaugura- 
tion of Governor Buckingham; the notable Fourth 
of July celebration of that year; and the encamp- 
ment of the Second Regiment at New Haven in 
September, it paraded in the welcoming escort of 
not less than six Connecticut regiments returning 
from the seat of war for final muster out. 

On October 5, 1865, First Lieutenant Edward E. 
Bradley became Captain. The civil war had 
finally been brought to a close, and in all its try- 
ing emergencii'S the Grays had borne, with never a 
sign of hesitancy, a conspicuously honorable part. 

From that time forward the fair fiime of the com- 
pany has been nobly upheld by its prompt and 
honorable service as Company F, 2d Regiment 
Connecticut National Guard.' Captain Bradley 
continued in command until June 30, 1868, and 
the Captains who have succeeded him to the pres- 
ent time are as follows: 

Captain Wilbur G. Howarth . . October 25, 1869. 
Captain Albert C. Hciidrick. . December 22, 1875. 

Captain Emil A. Gessner . . March 18, 1878. 

Captain Charles E. Rounds July 28, 1879. 

Captain George S. Arnold May 6, 1885. 

Captain Frank T. Lee. . . .at present in command. 

The company occupies finely furnished rooms 
in the Union Armory on Meadow street, and in 
addition it occupies, together with the veteran or- 
ganization of the company, a suit of club rooms 
in the Glebe Building at the corner of Church and 
Chapel streets. 

The National Blues. 

The company popularly known under the above 
designation, but since the reorganization of the 
Connecticut Militia, in 1872, officially known as 
Company D, 2d Regiment Connecticut National 
Guards, was organized in 1828. On the 28th day 
of June in that year a company election held by 
the (jrays to fill vacancies occasioned by the resig- 
nation of their Captain, resulted in the choice of an 
Ensign to the vacant captaincy, to the surprise and 
disappointment of First Lieutenant Charles B. 
Whittlesey and his many warm friends in thetirays. 
As a result, twenty-eight members withdrew from 
the Grays, then known as the New Haven Light 
Infantry, and twelve of the number united witii 
several others in organizing the City Artillery, which 
was the first company designation borne by the 
Blues. 

The brief outline of company history here given 
is mainly compiled from an historical address de- 
livered by Lieutenant Richard F. Lyon at Union 
Armory in New Haven, on the occasion of the ob- 
servance of the fiftieth anniversary of the company, 
September 1 1, 1878. 

Three days after the unpleasant outcome of the 
election of officers previously alluded to, the fol- 
lowing petition, signed by thirty-one citizens of 
New Haven, eleven of whom had, until then, been 



honored members of the Grays, was forwarded to 
the destination indicated by its address: 

To His Excellency GlDEO.N ToMLINSOX, Caplain-General 
of the Mill till of the State of Connecticut. 
.Sir,— The subscribers, citizens of the town of New 
Haven, believinjj that it would be for the interest of the 
Militia in this section of the State to lorni a new Artillery 
Company within the limits of said town, to be attached to 
the Third Regiment of Light Artillery, respectfully request 
your Lxccllcncy to issue an order forming the subscribers 
into such company. 

One month later, July 31, 1828, the response 
came in a General Order in the following terms: 

The Caplain-General having received the petition of 
Curtis M. Ilooliitle, and other inhabitants of New Haven, 
praying for the organization of a Company of Light Artil- 
lery at said New tlaven, to be annexed to the Third Regi- 
ment of Light Artillery, grants the said petition, and hereby 
authorizes the said Curtis M. Doolittle to raise, by voluntary 
enlistment, such company, taking particular care not to re- 
duce any battalion company of Infantry below the number 
required by law. 

Whenever a number of men shall have been raised, by 
voluntary enlistment, to constitute a company of Light Ar- 
tillery, according to law, you will apply to Brigadier-General 
Eli A. Elliott, of the Artillery, to issue the necessary orders 
to organize such company with the proper complement of 
officers. The company when formed will be the Tenth 
company in the Third Regiment of Light Artillery; will 
rendezvous at New Haven; and be subject in all respects to 
the laws of this State. 

By order of the Captain-General. 

George Cowles, 
Adjutant- General. 

It will be noticed that special precaution had 
been taken in framing the order to guard against a 
too serious depletion of the ranks of the Grays by 
withdrawal therefrom and enlistment in the new 
company. 

Recruiting now proceeded with spirit, and on 
August 6th, by an order from Brigadier-General 
Elliott, Major Clarke Wooster, of the 3d Light 
Artillery, was directed to repair to New Haven, 
and lead the new company in the completion of its 
organization by the election of officers. The meet- 
ing for that purpose was held in the Lecture 
Room of the Baptist Meeting-house at 2 p.m., 
August 9, 1828, and resulted in the election of 
the following oflicers: Charles B. Whittlesey, Cap- 
tain; Rudolph E. Northrop, First Lieutenant; Levi 
Francis, Second Lieutenant; J. R. Church, Benja- 
min Beecher, Jr., George A. Townsend, Charles 
Adams, Sergeants; P. B. Whitmore, Daniel Mer- 
rill, 1'. H. Cone, R. N. Mount, Corporals. If 
previous to this time the new company had been 
open to the taunt of having been born in a quar- 
rel, it was now possible to retort that it was chris- 
tened in a church. 

In a communication to the company, stating at 
length, and satisfactorily, his reason for such action. 
Lieutenant Whitdesey declined to accept the posi- 
tion of Captain, and on August 25th, at a meeting 
of the company, held at the " long room ' of Mr. 
Dowd, at the corner of State and Court streets, the 
captaincy was tendered, by vote, to Mason A. 
Durand, anil by him accepted. 

The company was now fully organized, and went 
vigorously at work to promote further enlistments. 



662 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



\ 



and perfect itself in drill. At a meeting held in 
Dowd's long room, August 28th, it was 

VoUd, unanimously, That although this company is yet in 
its infancy; anil although it has been intimated by the Briga- 
dier of Artillery; that it would not l)e ordered to duty durmg 
the present season yet, impressed with the lielief that its 
prosperity would be greatly assisted by a volunteer parade, 
we will therefore appear, fully equipped in lull uniform, on 
this day two weeks, viz., on the i ith day of September next, 
at 9 o'clock A. M. 

Committees were appointed to procure music, 
cartridges, the requisite number of caps and swords, 
and such trimmings as the commissioned officers 
might see fit to adopt for the caps, which were to 
be of the West Point cadet pattern. 

It was voted that the uniform coat of the com- 
pany should be that adopted by the Light Artillery 
of the State, with the e.xception of three rows of 
bullet buttons instead of one, as usually worn; and 
white pantaloons, instead of blue, were adopted 
for company drills. 

On September 4th, Captain Durand addressed 
the following letter to General Elliott: 

De.\r Sir,— The Tenth Company Light Artillery, re- 
cently organized in this place, having voted to do voluntary 
duty on the I Ith inst. , and having in our preparation nat- 
urally made some inquiries relative to ordnance, I find that 
there has been no appropriation for this company; and al- 
though one of the six-pound pieces recently in use of the late 
Fourth Company is here, I have no authority for making 
use of the piece on this occasion, 

As the State will in all probability furnish us with ord- 
nance soon, it would be agreeable to me if this piece could 
be one, the other having been transferred to the Humphrey- 
ville Company until further orders by General Nathan Jor- 
dan, and which at a proper time, and on a more fitting oc- 
casion, I shall petition to be returned for the use of the 
company under my command. 

Kx present you will oblige me in directing an order to 
Captain Harrison and Mr. H. Sanford, or either of them, as 
shall seem to you proper, to deliver to me the property de- 
posited in their keeping by the late Fourth Company. 

1 do not apprehend there would be any denial to a request 
for the piece, hut, on reflection, I have thought it more 
proper that an order should be had which will place the 
matter beyond dispute and save me from any embarrassment, 
and hope the subject will lie viewed by you in the same 
light. Your obedient servant, 

M. A. Durand. 

General Elliott did view the subject in the same 
light, and on September 6th issued the order 
desired. Other details of preparation had been at- 
tended to with equal energy and success, and 
promptly, at the designated hour, on September 
I Ith, the company was in line on State street, right 
resting on Court street, fully uniformed and equip- 
ped for its first parade. 

The appearance of the company at its morning 
parade and drill was so creditable, that Major 
Boardman, of the Governor's Foot Guards, who 
was to parade his own company in the afternoon, 
extended an invitation to Captain Durand to unite 
with his command, forming a battalion, and the 
invitation was accepted. The result was a pleasino- 
surprise for the public at large, and amicable rela"- 
tions between the two commands, which have ever 
since continued. 

A noticeable feature of the new Artillery Com- 
pany on this occasion was the brass si.x-pounder 
Light Artdlery field pieces were then mostly of 



iron, but brass pieces were in existence, and there- 
fore no inferior metal would satisfy the new com- 
pany. Two si.x-pounders vvould complete the out- 
fit of the company, and one of these, by discreet 
management, was already company property. A 
second piece was in the possession of an Artillery 
Company in Humphreysville, and was the one to 
which Captain Durand alluded in liis letter of Sep- 
tember 4th, previously quoted. 

After considerable correspondence between the 
Governor, Captain Durand, and the Captain of the 
Humphreyville Company, the matter was referred 
for final adjudication to Major Boardman, of the 
Governor's Foot Guards, with the result which 
Captain Durand desired. The new company got 
the gun, and its artillery outfit was now complete. 

Fourteen musicians were recruited for a company 
band, which, without delay, and entirely by volun- 
tary subscription, was provided with first-class in- 
struments. The field pieces, which heretofore had 
been manipulated by means of drag ropes in hands 
of the men, were each furnished with a pair of 
horses, and on May 4, 1829, the company made 
its first regular parade in compliance with orders. 
Line was formed, in conjunction with the Gov- 
ernor's Guard, in front of the County Hotel, where 
now stands the City Hall, and, after a review by 
the Governor, the two companies made an ex- 
tended parade, which called forth many commen- 
dations from the public, as had the review from 
his Excellency, the Governor. 

An additional feature of interest on this occasion 
was the presentation of a standard, the donation of 
four warm friends of the company, among whom 
was Charles B.Whittlesey, who will be remembered 
as the ex-Lieutenant of the Grays, who had been 
active in the formation of the Blues. 

Lieutenant Francis received the standard from 
ex-Lieutenant Whittlesey, with his company drawn 
up in line at the flag-staff on the public square, 
with the field pieces manned and pointing from 
either flank. The ceremony concluded with a 
national salute of thirteen guns, during which 
"Hail Columbia" was played by the company 
band. 

At a meeting held August 27, 1829, arrange- 
ments were made for the first target practice of the 
company. Captain Durand submitted the offer of 
three prizes to be fired for in the course of the en- 
suing month in lieu of all other duty required by 
law; each member to have the privilege of an ele- 
vation, he paying the expense of the shot and other 
incidental expenses of the day. The target was 
eight feet square, and placed at a distance of five 
hundred and forty yards. Sixty-four shots were 
fired, eighteen of which struck the target. 

At the invitation of Major Leverett Candee, of 
the Governor's Foot Guard, the city artillery par- 
ticipated in the inauguration parade, May 5, 1830, 
and fired the salute on the arrival of the Governor 
at the State House. On this occasion it is recorded 
that the Governor particularly complimented the 
Artillery on their fine appearance and discipline. 

At this period, whenever the three uniformed 
companies in the city united for parade as a bat- 



MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS. 



663 



talion, opportunity was given for animated discus- 
sion as to the respective position of the orgarHzations 
in line. The older companies were reluctant to 
surrender to the j'oungest of the three the right of 
the line or post of honor. Captain Durand claimed 
the position for his command by virtue of its char- 
acter as an Artillery Company, and for adjudication 
the matter was referred by him to the Adjutant-Gen- 
eral United States Army, at Washington, D. C. 

It was by his decision authoratively settled that 
for the purposes of parade and review the Artillery 
Company was entitled to the right, the Governor's 
Foot Guards the left, and the Light Infantry Com- 
pany the center, without regard to seniority of 
commission. This decision settled the question 
quite in accord with the claim of Captain Duranti, 
though it also asserted that either of the three Cap- 
tains who might hold the brevet rank of Major, 
would be entitled to command the battalion. 

This order was observed at the Independence 
Day parade of this year, held on July 3d, and par- 
ticipated in by the Blues and the Grays in the 
order named. 

Captain Durand, having been appointed Aid-de- 
Camp on the staff of General Elliott, tendered his 
resignation as Captain, and was honorably dis- 
charged August 26, 1830. 

On October 6th, First Lieutenant Levi Francis 
was chosen Captain; John R. Church, First Lieu- 
tenant; and Benjamin Beecher, Jr., Second Lieu- 
tenant. 

The company paraded as escort to the city pro- 
cession on July 4, 1 83 I, and was accorded praise 
without stint for its fine appearance. 

The celebration of Washington's birthday in 
1832, its one hundredth anniversary, called out all 
the military comp.inies in the city, among them 
the Blues with fifty men in line, appearing in white 
pantaloons and with powdered hair. 

On June 28, 1832, the 7th Regiment of New 
York arrived at New Haven for a si.\ days' en- 
campment, having selected a camp ground just 
outside the city, in what was then known as Barnes- 
villa. 

On their arrival they were met at the steamboat 
landing by the Blues and the Grays, and given a 
most hearty soldiers' reception and an escort to their 
camp ground. 

In May, 1833, Captain Francis resigned, in con- 
sequence of removal from the State, as Lieutenants 
Church and Beecher had previously done, and 
Lieutenant George A. Townsend was elected Cap- 
tain. The period of his command extending to 
April, 1835, was one during which there was but 
little military activity. 

No event of importance in the company's history 
occurred until July of that year, with the single e.\- 
ception that, inthe previous April, Captain Town- 
send resigned, and Lieutenant P. B.\\'hitmore was 
chosen to succeed him; with Morris Tyler, First 
Lieutenant; and C. B. Doolitile, Second Lieutenant. 

In this year, the Union Blues of Newark, N. 
J., had determined to celebrate the Fourth of 
July by an excursion, and a tour of camp duty at 
New Haven, Conn. 



Their intention had been duly announced, and 
their reception by the military companies of New 
Haven was most cordial. 

On the 3d of July, the company, under command 
of Captain Whitmore, paraded, with forty-seven men 
rank and file, and a band of sixteen pieces, and 
united with the Governor's Guards and the Gra\s in 
escorting the Union Blues from the steamboat 
to their camp ground on Wooster street. The bat- 
talion was formed on the public square under com- 
mand of Colonel Gardner Morse, commanding the 
2d Regiment, and with the City Artillery on the right. 
The visiting comjjany was received in front of the 
Pavilion Hotel, the Artillery Band giving the salute, 
and were then escorted through the principal streets 
of the city to their chosen camping ground. 

On the Fourth the guests united widi the military 
companies of the city in escorting the procession to 
the North Church, where appropriate and impres- 
sive services were held. From the church the 
military companies marched to the Pavilion Hotel, 
where, with the Mayor of the city to preside, they 
partook of a bountiful collation. The occasion 
had been one to call forth much enthusiasm, and 
the Union Blues expressed great pleasure at the 
manner and heartiness of their reception. 

On September 29th in this year, a battalion review 
was held in Guilford. The company sent its band 
ahead a day in advance, and itself left early in the 
morning of the 29th, in eleven barouches, chartered 
for the occasion. On arrival at Guilford their band 
was in wailing to receive them, and the company 
marched in the review with steps as youthful and 
elastic as if its members were in the immediate 
vicinity of their own homes. 

Owing to the gradual decline of military spirit 
and enthusiasm, naturally resulting from a pro- 
longed period of peace, the feeling of retrenchment 
in military expenditure began now to effect local 
military organizations. The weaker ones were, as 
considerately as was convenient, hastened to their 
death, and the stronger survivors were more than 
ever put upon their own resources for means, and 
a motive for continued life. 

As one result of contraction of the militia force, 
the artillery began to be assimilated with the in- 
fantry, and this was rather plainly foreshadowed to 
the City Artillery in orders of April 5, 1836, when 
the company was ordered to appear in full uniform 
with carbines. In the same orders the official des- 
ignation of the company was changed from the 
Tenth to the Sixth Company Light Artillery. In 
this year the company first formally assumed the 
name National Blues, which it still retains. 

Captain Whitmore having been promoted to a 
staff" position. First Lieutenant Morris Tyler was, 
on September 20th, chosen to the position, with C. 
B. Doolittle, First Lieutenant, and Chauncey Wells, 
Second Lieutenant. 

On July 10, 1837, a General Order was issued, 
designating the National Blues as the Fifth Com- 
pany, Thiril Battalion, annexed to the Second Bri- 
gade of Infantry. This was again significant of 
what was to come. The company, however, still 
retained its distinctive feature as an Artillery Com- 



6C4 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



pany. and, on September 7th, held its annual tour 
of target practice, both with field pieces and car- 
bines at Oyster Point. 

The second centennial commemoration of the 
settlement of New Haven called forth the most 
imposing military display the city had ever witness- 
ed, and in it the National Blues bore a conspicuous 
part 

On January 22, 1839, Captain Tyler having re- 
signed, and First Lieutenant Doolittle declining 
promotion, Chauncey Wells was chosen Captain, 
and Daniel Spencer, Second Lieutenant. 

On June 18, 1841, Lieutenant Doolittle became 
Captain, vice Wells, promoted to be Colonel of the 
Third Battalion Light Artillery. 

On May 4, 1842, the Blues participated in an 
escort to Governor Cleveland and staff on their ar- 
rival in New Haven, and on the next day took part 
in the inauguration parade. The company had 
held its spring parade on the 2d, making three 
days of severe duty in a single week. 

On the 5th of October, 1843, the Blues were at 
Hartford in attendance upon a brigade review, at 
the special invitation of General Pratt, and on their 
return to New Haven were accompanied by Gov- 
ernor Cleveland and e.K-Vice-President Richard M. 
Johnson, then on a tour through New England. 
Honors were lavished upon the distinguished visitor 
with a freehand during his stay in New Haven, and 
the Blues were warmly complimented for the part 
they took in the affair. 

From this time the records make mention of no 
important events until August 14, 1844, when, at 
his own request. Captain Doolittle was honorably 
discharged by General Wilcox, who expressed in a 
letter to Captain Doolitde his regret and "thanks 
for the honor you have done the Second Brigade, 
the Fifth Company, your fellow citizens, and your 
country." 

On August 26, 1844, a company election was 
held, and William Watrous, Jr., was chosen Cap- 
tain; William McCracken, Jr., First Lieutenant; 
John Arnold, Second Lieutenant; and Howard 
Higgins and John C. Hollister, Brevet Lieutenants. 

On March 27, 1845, the Blues extended an in- 
vitation to the Hancock Light Infantry of Boston, 
commanded by Captain John F. Pray, to visit New- 
Haven during the coming summer. The invita- 
tion was accepted and the "Hancocks" arrived in 
New Haven on the afternoon of August 19th, as the 
special guests of the Blues. They were royally re- 
ceived and escorted to a building in the heart of the 
city just completed, but not yet occupied, which 
had been fitted up by the Blues as the quarters of 
the visiting company during its stay. The visitors 
remained three days in New Haven, and during 
their stay the Blues were most cordially assisted by 
the Grays and the Governor's Guards in the ex- 
tension of courtesies. After their return to Boston, 
the Hancock Light Infantry expressed to the Blues, 
with warmest thanks, their hearty appreciation of 
the whole-hearted, soldierly greeting and entertain- 
ment accorded them in the City of Elms. 

Soon afier this occasion, Captain Watrous was 
compellct! by ill-health to resign. On October i8th. 



a company meeting was held for the choice of his 
successor. Lieutenants McCracken and Arnold de- 
clined promotion, and Brevet- Lieutenant John C. 
Hollister was elected Captain. 

Independence Day was this year celebrated by the 
Blues at Fair Haven, where, on invitation from the 
citizens, they joined with the Fire Department in a 
general parade. 

On June 28, 1847, 'he city was visited by Presi- 
dent James K. Polk, and in the military parade in 
his honor, participated in by the entire uniformed 
force of the city, the Blues held the right of the 
line. The reception was a brilliant affair, and on 
the departure of the President the Blues alone served 
as his escort to the train. 

On August 10, 1847, another election of Captain 
was rendered necessary by the promotion of Cap- 
tain Hollister to the position of Division Inspector 
on the staff of Major-General Francis Bacon. 
Lieutenants McCracken and Arnold had previously 
been honorably discharged, and First Lieutenant 
John H. Scranton was now elected Captain, with 
Samuel T. Eccles, First Lieutenant; Nathan T. 
Johnson, Second Lieutenant; and James Quinn 
Third Lieutenant. The last named commission 
had recently been authorized by the Legislature. 

On February 12, 1849, Nathan Johnson was 
chosen Captain in place of Captain Scranton, who 
had resigned, and James Quinn was made First 
Lieutenant, with Lyman Bissell Second, and Edwin 
B. Bowditch Third Lieutenant. Lieutenant Bis- 
sell had but just returned from service in the Mex- 
ican War, where, in the famed 9th Regiment, under 
Colonel T. H. Seymour, he had held the rank of 
Captain. 

In May of this year the Blues participated in 
the parade at Hartford at the inauguration of Gov- 
ernor Thomas H. Seymour. 

Few events of importance in the history of the 
company occurred in the next five years, and of 
such as did occur but the briefest possible record 
has been preserved. 

Following Captain Johnson, the captaincy was 
held successively by James Quinn, Lyman Bissell, 
Willis Bristol, and Samuel J. Root, and in 1859 
Captain Bristol was re-elected, and retained com- 
mand until 1861. 

September 13, 1850, the company celebrated its 
twenty-second birthday by a parade and supper at 
the Tontine. 

July 18, 1853, joined in an escort to the Union 
Blues, of Newark, N. J. 

April 27, 1854, participated in dedication of 
monument to General Wooster at Danbury. 

July 24,1854, took part in funeral ceremonies in 
honor of President Zachary Taylor. Field pieces in 
line. 

August 27, 28 and 29, 1856, performed duty at 
brigade encampment in Fair Haven under General 
Hallenbeck. 

June 8 and 9, 1857, gave a reception and enter- 
tainment to the Highwood Guards, Captain Hat- 
field, of Hoboken, N. J. 

July 5, 1858, made an excursion to Wallingford 
to take part in the dedication of the Soldiers 



MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS. 



665 



Monument, and received handsome entertainment 
at the hands of the citizens. 

August 29, i860, the company, under command 
of Captain Bristol, made an exxursion to Boston, in 
company with the Highwood Guard, of Hoboken, 
N. J. Going from New Haven by boat to New 
York, the Blues were there met by the High woods 
on a ferry boat chartered for the purpose, on 
which they were conveyed to Hoboken. On the 
next morning the two companies left by steamer 
for Allyn's Point, where they took cars for Boston. 
On arrival they were handsomely received and 
entertained. Returning via Springfield and Hart- 
ford, the two companies were met in the outskirts of 
New Haven by a large company of veteran Blues, 
with a band, and escorted to the armory, where a 
collation had been prepared. 

Soon after this the momentous issue of the civil 
war became the all absorbing theme of thought 
and solicitude. In the ranks of the Blues no 
marked diversity of sentiment existed. All were 
loyal, and all were ready to give to the Government 
the most effective support which loyal citizens 
could render. How best to do this was the only 
question. The experience of the company under 
State direction and control as a part of the militia 
force authorized by law had on the whole been 
such as to induce the conviction that the coveted 
" State patronage " as a help to earnest endeavor 
was quite as much an illusion as a reality. 

Under the constantly changing militia law of the 
State, the status of the company had been subject 
to repeated change, and each change had forced it 
more than ever before to rely upon its own re- 
sources, in other words, to act independently. 

As a body the company chose to leave its mem- 
bers free to act independently now. Captain Bissell 
was already in the regular army, and during the 
organization of the 2d Regiment for the three 
months' service, many of the Blues enlisted and 
others were active in the work of recruiting and 
preparing the troops for the field. 

With the call of the President for volunteers to 
serve for three years, came the necessity for the 
State to bend all its energies to the care and main- 
tenance of its active force in the field, and even the 
slight support it had previously given its home 
militia establishment was wholly withdrawn. 

The armory and company property of the Blues 
was at this time placed in charge of a committee of 
fifteen, and so remained until, in 1864, an in- 
dependent organization was formed, with General 
John C. Hollister as Captain; Philip A. Pinker- 
man, First Lieutenant; and Augustus R. Treadway, 
Second Lieutenant. 

Under this command the company participated 
in frequent parades in honor of the dead brought 
home for burial and at the reception of regiments 
returning from service in the field. 

On the reorganization of the State IMilitia in 
1865, the Blues, with George F. Gardiner as 
Captain; Augustus R. Treadway, First Lieutenant; 
and Philip A. Pinkerman, Second Lieutenant, be- 
came again attached to the 2d Regiment as In- 
fantry Company D. 

8i 



Legislation had not yet wholly debarred the 
company from claiming recognition as an Artillery 
organization. 

Active work in recruiting soon brought the 
company roll to show one hundred and thirty-five 
men for duty and secure for the Blues oftlcial 
recognition as Battery F, acting as Infantry, and 
attached to the 2d Regiment. 

Captain Jefterson B. Shaw was commissioned 
April 22, 1S67, and was succeeded August 24, 
1868, by Captain Elizur Cook. 

In 1870 the Adjutant-General's report gives as 
the only commissioned olTicer of the company 
.Second Lieutenant Henry D. Philips, but in 
September of that year, Jefierson B. Shaw was re- 
commissioned Captain, and under his command 
the company became Comjiany D, 2d Regiment 
Connecticut National Guards. 

From that time to the present the company has 
retained this designation, and has been commanded 
as follows: 

Captain Henry D. Phillips ...December i, 1874 

" Lucerne I. Tiiumas January 6, 1880 

" .\ndrew H. Kmbler. ..November zo, 18S4 

under Captain Embler the company has been 
recruited to the maximum number, and has attained 
the highest figure of merit ever accorded a company 
in a monthly drill report, it being credited in 
official report with 99.50 of a possible 100. 

The City Guards. 

company b, second regiment, connecticut 
national guard. 

This company was organized September 14, 
1 86 1, with George A. Basserman, Captain; Jacob 
P. Richards, First Lieutenant; and William K. 
Schmidt, Second Lieutenant. In May of that year 
the General Assembly, finding the old regiments of 
the State Militia very much depleted, and in danger 
of extinction by the transfer of their numbers to 
active service in the field, passed an act intended 
to encourage the formation of new companies to be 
assigned to the stronger of the existing regiments 
of Militia. By the addition to the 2d Regiment of 
Companies B and F. under this act, the Adjutant- 
General was enabled to report five companies for 
duty at the beginning of 1862. 

Captain Basserman was promoted Major of the 
2d Regiment, September 22, 1863, and October 
20th following, First Lieutenant Richards became 
Captain. 

He was succeeded in command, March 11,1865, 
by Captain William K. Schmidt, promoted from 
First Lieutenant. 

April 4,1866, Lieutenant Carl G. Engel became 
Captain. In August of the same year I\Iajor George 
A. Basserman, the first Captain of the company, 
was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel 2d Regiment. 
June 4, 1 868, he was ])romoted to be Colonel, and 
held the position until August 16, 1869. Captain 
Engel was succeeded August 8, 1868, by Captain 
Frederick Bucholz, but on February 27,1871, Cap- 
tain Engel again took command, retaining it until 
July 15, 1878, when he was promoted Major of the 



666 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



2d Regiment. He was succeeded in command of 
the company by Frank W. Tiesing, who continued 
in the position until his death, November 8, 1883. 

On November 30, 1883, the command devolved 
upon Captain William Kaehrle, with John Gutt First 
Lieutenant, and John Widman, Jr., Second Lieu- 
tenant. 

May 14, 1886, Captain Kaehrle resigned, and 
First Lieutenant John Gutt became Captain, with 
John Widman First Lieutenant and Charles G. 
Miller promoted from First Sergeant as Second 
Lieutenant. 

Ne^v Haven Light Gu.\rd. 

company e, second regiment connecticut 
n.vtional giard. 

This company was organized early in 1862, the 
commission of its first Captain, Benjamin N. Tutde, 
dating from February 5th of that year. It has ever 
since then honcfrably held the place assigned it in 
the 2d Regiment, participating promptly and with 
spirit in all duties which have called out the regi- 
ment or the city battalion. 

Captain Tuttle continued in command until 
May 25, 1863, when he was succeeded by Captain 
Rollin J. Bunce, who held the position during 
nearly five years. Captain Bunce was a very popu- 
lar and efficient officer, and under his command 
the company attained high standing, which assured 
its permanancy as a component part of the 2d 
Regiment. 

He was succeeded January 27, 186S, by Captain 
Charles C. Smith, who on December I'st of the 
same year gave place to Captain Russell Thomp- 
son. 

April 7, 1870, Captain F.Stanley Bradley suc- 
ceeded Captain Thompson, continuing in' com- 
mand only until January 4, 1871. Captain Lewis 
Dinger then took command, and held it until Feb- 
ruary 27, 1874, when he resigned, and Josiah N. 
Bacon was commissioned to fill the vacancy. 

Captain Bacon was made Lieutenant-Colonel of 
the 2d Regiment in .September, 1875, and on Oc- 
tober 4th of that year Charles A. Butricks became 
Captain of this company, which position he held 
until his death in 1878.' 

Henry R. Loomis succeeded to the Captaincy 
November 4, 1878, vacating to accept the position 
of Major of the Regiment December 15, 1884. 
Theodore H. Sucher was then made Captain, and 
still continues in the position, a worthy successor 
to a long line of efficient commanding officers. 
The company was never in more prosperous con- 
dition than now, and its promise for the future is 
all that can be desired. 

That this company has been a good school for 
military men to graduate from, is shown by the 
promotions and appointments accorded its com- 
missioned officers. 

Captain Bacon, as previously mentioned, became 
Lieutenanl-Coloncl of the Second Regiment and 
held the position until his death. 

Captain Loomis became Major of the Second 
Kegiment, and was promoted from that to the 



Lieutenant-Colonelcy, which position he now wor- 
thily holds. 

George C. Bradley became Major and Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel of the Forty-seventh N. G., S. N. Y. 

Captain Russell Thompson served long and with 
great acceptance as Adjutant of the Second Regi- 
ment; and Lieutenant William E. Jackson is now 
the efficient Signal Officer with the rank of First 
Lieutenant, representing the Second Regiment in 
the Signal Corps of the Brigade. 

The Sarsfield Guard. 

This fine company, designated as Company C, 
2d Regiment C. N. G., has been in service since 
1865. Though its history properly begins in that 
year, it cannot be inappropriate to preface it with 
a brief mention of what may be regarded its pre- 
decessors in the military line. 

In 1855, of the ten companies composing the 
2d Regiment, Infantry Companies D and E, in 
New Haven, and Rifle Company B, ofBirmingham, 
were made up, rank and file, of young Iri.-;hmen. 

As a consequence of the political excitement 
then rife under the name of " Know-nothingism," 
these companies were in that year disbanded, as 
were companies organized similarly in other parts 
of the State. 

Company D, of the Second, was at the time of 
its disbandment commanded by First Lieutenant 
Patrick Maher, and Company E by Captain 
Thomas W. Cahill. 

Such was the military spirit of the young men 
thus disorganized, that an independent military 
company, under the name of the Emmet Guards, 
was at once projected, and in 1857 it completed 
its organization, with Thomas W. Cahill, Captain; 
Patrick Maher, First Lieutenant; and Michael 
McCarten, Second Lieutenant. 

The company numbered sixty-three men, rank 
and file, and well compensated itself in the personal 
enthusiasm of its members for the loss of fostering 
care on the part of the State. 

The Emmet Guards continued a strong inde- 
pendent military organization until the breaking 
out of the civd war in 1861, when it not only 
formed the nucleus around which rallied the gallant 
9th Connecticut Regiment, but sent many brave 
officers to other Connecticut regiments, and to the 
69th New York. 

Not a full list can here be given, but the follow- 
ing will serve to show that the military ardor of the 
young Irishmen of that day, as of this, had some- 
thing more behind it than mere fancy for parade. 

Captain Thomas W. Cahill became Colonel of 
the 9th Connecticut Volunteers, and, during much of 
the time of service of his regiment, commanded a 
brigade. First Lieutenant Patrick Maher served 
with distinguished gallantry as Major of the 
24th Connecticut Volunteers. Second Lieutenant 
Michael McCarten, Commissary M. A. Williams, 
Orderly Sergeant James P. Flennessy, Corporal 
Terence Sheridan, and Private Lawrence O'Brien 
all became Captains in the 9th Connecticut Volun- 
teers, while Private John G. Healy became Lieu- 



MILITARV ORGANIZATIONS. 



667 



tenant-Colonel of the 9th Connecticut Volunteers, 
and had full command of the battalion of re- 
enlisted veterans who continued in service after the 
original term of enlistment had expired. Many 
other members of the Emmet (Guards served hon- 
orably as commissioned officers in the 9th Con- 
necticut Volunteers, the 24th Connecticut Volun- 
teers, and the 69th New York. 

On the return of the volunteers from tlie field in 
1865, there was no one to call in question the 
right of young Irish-Americans to bear arms, or the 
expediency of permitting them to do so. In August 
of that year was organized the Sarsfield Guard. 
From that time until the present it has been known 
as Company C, zd Regiment C. N. G. 

Made up largely of veterans of the late war, the 
company at once took high rank for efficiency in 
marching and in manual drill, and from then until 
the present has never permitted itself to be accorded 
second place. 

Since its organization it has probably made more 
independent excursions out of the State, and given 
more exhibition drills abroad than any other com- 
pany of the regiment, and always with credit to 
itself and the regiment whose designation it bears. 

The following Captains have commanded the 
Sarsfield Guard in the order named: Captain Joseph 
H. Keefe, from August 18, 1865, to 1869; Captain 
John Cunningham, from 1869 to 1875; Captain 
Maurice F. Brennan, from 1875 'o 18S1, when 
Major Joseph H. Keefe, who had for a time been 
Major of the 2d Regiment, again took command, 
continuing until 1886, when he resigned and was 
succeeded by Captain John Garrity. 

The Wilkins Guard, 
company a, 5th battalion connecticft kational 

GUARD. 

- In the winter of 1863-64, a regiment and a 
battalion of four companies composed of colored 
men, designated respectively the 29th Regiment and 
the 30th Battalion of Infantrv, were organized, 
equipped and forwarded to the aid of the Federal 
Government from Connecticut. 

Both organizations were in service until Novem- 
ber, 1865, each being rated as efficient and reliable 
and creditably sustaining the enviable miUtary re- 
cord and honor of the State which it represented. 

From the veterans of these two organizations, to- 
gether with a few of the discharged soldiers of 
colored regiments from other States, was organized 
in 1867 an independent company, designated the 
Wooster Guard, in honor of William B. Wooster, 
the efficient Colonel, who led the 29th Regiment 
through its term of service in the field. 

.\lthough Connecticut had employed a battalion 
of four colored companies during the War of the 
Revolution, as well as the two organizations here 
mentioned in the war of 1861-65, no military com- 
pany of colored men had existed in this State in 
time of peace previous to the organization of the 
Wooster Guard. 

The original officers of the company were: Cap- 
tain, Henry McLinn, veteran of the 14th Rhode 



Island Heavy Artillery; First Lieutenant, Thomas 
J. Griffin, ex-Sergeant-Major 29th Connecticut 
Volunteer Infantry; Second Lieutenant, James H. 
Wilkins, Color-Sergeant 54th Massachusetts In- 
fantry. 

The company was compelled to dejiend entirely 
upon its own resources for arms, equipments, uni- 
forms, armory, etc., and progressed slowly toward 
a permanent basis, but gradually uniforming and 
equiping itself until it paraded from 75 to 80 mem- 
bers. 

The first notable parade of the company was on 
the occasion of the first Memorial Day ceremonies 
of Admiral Foote Post Grand .•\rmy of the Republic 
(July 4, 1868), when the Wooster Guard being 
first to report as escort to the post, was accorded 
the right of the line, causing such chagrin to other 
local companies that no other military company 
appeared in the escort. 

The company was drilled first in the basement 
of the old State House on the Green, afterward 
at the Colored Masons Hall on Webster street; 
and finally at Lamar Building (formerly Bishop's 
Building), located on Crown street, between Church 
and Temple, where it remained until it was reor- 
ganized and admitted into the Connecticut National 
Guard, May 14, 1879. 

For nearly twelve years the company existed 
under the name of the Wooster Guard, finding a 
drill-hall wherever it might, and undergoing the 
various vicissitudes incident to the life of all such 
organizations, and being commanded successively 
by Captains McLinn, Griffin, Wilkins and Lane. 

During the latter portion of this term, the com- 
pany received from the State an allowance of one 
hundred dollars per annum, as assistance toward 
the expense of sustaining an armory. This com- 
pany eventually uniteii with similar companies in 
Hartford and Bridgeport, and formed an independ- 
ent organization known as the Wilkins Battalion, 
commanded by Major William H. Lane. 

The independent battalion was on March 21, 
1879, incorporated into the National Guard of 
Connecticut, but under such restriction as deprived 
it of full recognition as a portion of the (iuard. 

Further reorganization being found necessary, the 
Wooster Guard was disbanded, and from it was or- 
ganized a new company, which took for its name 
the Wilkins (juard in honor of its former com- 
mander, Captain James H. Wilkins, who had 
through many years been extremely active in for- 
warding the interests and welfare of the Company. 

Thomas J. Griffin was elected Captain, George 
W. Ladien, First Lieutenant, and Henry Bell, Sec- 
ond Lieutenant. The new company was now re- 
cruited to the maximum permitted by the State 
laws, and mustered into the service of the State 
May 14, 1879. 

The years 1879 "i"*^ '^S° were spent in improv- 
ing the condition of the command, and when the 
various companies of the Connecticut National 
Guard were inspected in May, 1881, by an officer 
of the regular army, this company alone, of the four 
composing the battalion to which it belonged, re- 
ceived favorable mention, and in the report subse- 



668 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



\ 



quently rendered by this officer was rated as No. 
27 among the forty-two companies then composing 
the Connecticut National Guard. 

The Legislature of 1882 so improved the status 
of the colored troops, that the Fifth Battalion was 
placed upon full military equality with other com- 
mands of the Connecticut brigade. 

In 1883, the entire brigade being ordered into 
camp at Niantic by Governor Waller, this com- 
pany, with the battalion to which it belonged, 
served its first encampment (September loth to 
15th inclusive) with credit to itself and to the fair 
satisfaction of its superior officers. 

It has obtained the reputation of being one of 
the best grounded companies in the State in the 
general requirements pertaining to the duties of the 
soldier in active service. 

The commanding officers of the company have 
been 



Captain tlrifiin, from May 20, 1879 to September 8, 1880. 
" Wilkins " September 13, 18S0, to April 13, 1S81. 
" Ladien 
" Lathrop 



April 26, 18S1 to April 15, 
" 28, 1884. 



Since its connection with the Connecticut 
National Guard this company has taken part in 
nearly every local parade in which the military 
bodies of the city have appeared, and also in New 
York City with the Connecticut Brigade on the oc- 
casion of the Centennial celebration of the evacua- 
tion of New York, November, 1883. 

Aside from this the Company has been but once 
beyond the limits of the State, when it visited the 
City of New York as the guests of the Skidmore 
and Veteran Guard. 

The Second Regiment. 

In the first part of this chapter allusion was 
made to the early history of the 2d Regiment, and 
historical facts were cited which are proudly re- 
ferred to by members of the regiment as establish- 
ing its claim to be considered the oldest existing 
military organization in America. 

A careful search of the colonial records, in 
which Mr. Charles J. Hoadley, State Librarian, has 
rendered important aid from the early State records 
in his custody, and from the records of the Adju- 
tant-General's office, the following list of com- 
manding officers has been compiled, and may be 
relied upon as historically correct. It will be noted 
that while the dates and facts previously cited as- 
sign the birth of the organization now known as 
the 2d Regiment Connecticut National Guard to a 
date prior to 1649, this record of commanding offi- 
cers begins with the year 1673, when the command- 
ing officer was a Major. But as early as 1639 
different companies, or squadrons, were organ- 
ized and under compulsory duty, commanded by 
Captain Turner, and nothing is more certain than 
that the form of organization then instituted con- 
tinued until it was merged in one whose com- 
manding officer iieads the list here given, and that 
the military body now bearing the name of the 2d 
Regiment Connecticut National (Juard has really 



had a continued existence since the first establish- 
ment of the New Haven Colony. 

Major Robert Treat August, 1673. 

'" John Nash May, 1683. 

Colonel Robert Treat (appointed by Sir Ed- 

mond Andross) November, 1687. 

Major John Nash 1689. 

" Moses Mansfield October, 1694. 

Colonel Robert Treat (temporarily) >703- 

Major Ebenezer Johnson May, 1704. 

" Samuel Ells " 1709. 

Colonel Samuel Ells October, 1739. 

" Roger Newton Octoljer, 1752. 

" Nathan Whiting 1758. 

" Edward Allen May, 1771. 

" Leverctt Hubbard October, 1773. 

" Jonathan Fitch " 1775. 

" Edward Russell May, 1778. 

Lt.-Col. Com'd'g Fletcher Prudden. ... " 1790. 

" " Jonas Prentice " 1793. 

" " William Lyon " 1794. 

" " Samuel Bellamy " 1797. 

" " Stephen Ball " 1802. 

" •' Amos Bradley " 1805. 

" " John Hubliard ...October, 1807. 

" " James Merriman May, 1809. 

" " Herekiah Howe. .October, 1810. 

Elisha Hull October, 1813. 

Colonel Elisha Punderson May, 1817. 

" David Jackson " 1819. 

" Dennis Kimberly " 1821. 

" George I. Whiting " 1824. 

" Willct Hemingway " 1826. 

Samuel Potter " 1828. 

" Amos Thomas " 1829. 

" Daniel S. Holbrook " 1830. 

" Elford E. Jarman " 1832. 

" Gardner Morse , " 1834. 

" Isaac S. Rogers " 1838. 

" Daniel Reed March 3, 1843. 

Lucien W. Sperry May 13, 1845. 

" Benjamin N. Tuttle July I, 1846. 

" Nicholas Hallenbeck June 18, 1847. 

" John Arnold April 8,1853. 

" William A. Leffingwell " 22,1857. 

" Alfred H. Terry. May 6, 1838. 

" Charles T. Candee April 8, 1863. 

" Stephen W. Kellogg " 22,1863. 

" Samuel E. Merwin, Jr August 2, 1866. 

" George A. Basserman June 4, 1868. 

" Edward E. Bradley August 16, 1869. 

" Stephen R. Smith August 9, 1 871. 

" John H. Bario November 19, 1884. 

" Stephen R. Smith January 13, 1876. 

" Charles P. Graham July 15, 1878. 

" Walter J. Leavenworth. .February 16, 1885. 

Very many of the commanding officers above 
named achieved military distinction far in advance 
of that here indicated. 

Colonel Robert Treat was specially commissioned 
as Commander-in-Chief of the Connecticut forces 
engaged in the Indian War of 1675, ^^i^ '^^ '^e fol- 
lowing year he was made Deputy-Governor of the 
colony in recognition of his services in King Philip's 
War. 

Lieutenant-Colonel John Hubbard became Briga- 
dier-General 2d Brigade Connecticut Militia, as 
did Lieutenant-Colonel James Merriman, Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel Hezekiah Howe, Colonel Dennis Kim- 
berly, Colonel Amos Thoma.s, Colonel Nicholas 
Hallenbeck, and Colonel John Arnold. 

Colonel Alfred H. Terry led the 2d Regiment to 
the field early in 1861, and the 7th Connecticut 
later in the same year; became Brigadier-General 
and Major-General of Volunteers, and Biigadier- 



MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS. 



669 



General and ]\[ajor-General in the Regular Army. 

Colonel Stephen W. Kellogg became Brigadier- 
General, commanding 2d Brigade Connecticut 
Militia. 

Colonel Samuel E. Merwin. Jr., attained the 
rank of Brigadier-General as Adjutant-General of 
the State; and Colonel E. E. Bradley succeeiied to 
the same rank on the Stall' of the Governor. 

Colonel Stephen R. Smith, called a second time 
by unanimous vote to the command of the regi- 
ment, was made Brigadier-General in command 
of the entire active Militia of the State after its con- 
solidation into one brigade, under the title of Con- 
necticut National Guard, and continued in that 
command until promoted to the position of Adju- 
tant-General of the State under the administration 
of Governor Henry B. Harrison. 

Colonel Charles P. (Jraham became Brigadier- 
General commanding the brigade Connecticut 
National Guard, on the promotion of General 
Smith. 

Emergencies have occurred in its history when 
the 2d Regiment has seemed possessed of a double 
identity. In 1758 and 1759, while Colonel Roger 
Newton was in command of the regiment at home; 
Colonel Nathan Whiting was specially commis- 
sioned in command of the 2d Regiment in the 
field, and his command did most excellent service 
under the blundering and incompetent Abercombie 
in the campaign of those years against the French 
and their Indian allies. 

Again, in 1861, when under the command of 
Colonel Terry, what was essentially his own regi- 
ment, the 2d, took the field in the three months' 
campaign in the Civil War, it might be said that 
the regiment was also in existence at home, though 
for a time without a regimental commander. 

In fact the body of the regiment went to the 
front under its gallant Colonel at the very first call 
for troops, closing its three months' field campaign 
at Bull Run with such soldierly bearing as to win 
from its Brigade Commander, General E. D. Keyes, 
of the Regular Army, most hearty commendation 
in general orders. At the same time it was deemed 
necessary to keep up the regimental organization 
in the State, and skeleton companies which had 
been depleted by enlistments for active service were 
recruited anew, and new companies were formed, 
so that the Adjutant-General's report for 1861, 
while showing the 2d Regiment with ten companies 
to have been in the field south of the Potomac, 
showed also five companies reporting for duty 
at the same time within the State. 

While in a certain sense, the muster of volun- 
teers into the United States service terminated the 
militia service of the soldiers so mustered, it would 
be unfair to consider their after-service entirely dis- 
sociated from the organization which had been 
their school of preparation. And as such a school, 
the 2d Regiment has served too long and too well 
to be ignored or slightly regarded. The high es- 
teem in which this Regiment is universally held has 
been so nobly earned, that even its most partial 
friends can never over-estimate its service to the 
State. 



Even before the late war, at a time when, by 
reason of long-continued peace, the military spirit 
throughout the Xorth was at its lowest point, and 
when the aid given by the State to its Volunteer 
;\Iilitia was little more than an aggravation, the 2d 
Regiment was noted for its efliciency, and was 
probably kept as well in hand by its thoroughly 
competent and enthusiastic officers as any militia 
regiment in New England. Its loyal service did 
not end with the three months' compaign. Imme- 
diately on the termination of that service, officers 
and men alike lent their energies to the promotion 
of long term enlistments, and Colonel Terry was 
soon in the field again in command of a regiment 
of three years' men, designated as the 7th Connect- 
icut Volunteers. 

As illustrating the effective enthusiasm at that 
time of past and active members of the 2d Militia, 
it may be mentioned that an entire company of the 
7th Connecticut Volunteers was recruited at the 
expense of Captain James M. Townsend, an ex- 
Captain of the 2d Regiment and of the Grays. It 
took the name of the Townsend Rifies; was largely 
composed of active and past members of the Grays; 
and its Captain, Edwin S. Hitchcock, was from 
the same company. 

The entire 15th Regiment of Connecticut Vol- 
unteers organized for the war, and taking the field 
in 1862, may be regarded as a child of the old 2d 
Connecticut Militia; all its field oflicers, many of 
its line officers, and a large portion of its men hav- 
ing previously served in that organization. 

Nearly the same may be said of the 27th Con- 
necticut Volunteers, organized a little later for nine 
months' service, a regiment which at Fredericks- 
burg, at Chancellorsville,and at (iettysburg breasted 
the fire of battle as bravely as coukl a regiment of 
re-enlisted veterans. 

And so all through the war, the 2d Regiment of 
Militia, in more ways than can be told, and in or- 
ganizations where its own name did not appear, 
gave its animating spirit and its active strength to 
the State and the (ieneral (iovernment, proving a 
most efficient aid to Connecticut's grand \\'ar Gov- 
ernor in promptly answering each and every call 
upon the State for troops. 

With the war at last ended, military ardor and 
enthusiasm again centered upon the 2d Regiment 
as a permanent State organization. The coming 
of peace found Colonel Stephen W. Kellogg in 
command of the regiment, with Samuel Y.. Merwin, 
Jr., Lieutenant-Colonel, and George A. Basserman, 
Major. The regiment was soon recruited to ten 
companies, and quickly resumed its old position as 
a model militia organization. 

Major-General Wm. H. Russell was then, as he 
had been during the war, in command of the Con- 
necticut Militia, organized in a division of four 
brigades. He was in hearty sympatiiy with the 
common desire to have the militia of the Slate re- 
organized upon a better plan, and given more 
eft'ective aid by the State, and the good work done 
by the 2d Regiment in promptly reorganizing itself 
as soon as the war was over, made him firm in the 
belief that the most generous provision the State 



670 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



could be brought to make for the maintenance of 
its Militia, would be more than returned to the State 
in the value of the service rendered, even in the time 
of peace. 

In the first reorganization of the Militia after the 
war, the designation Connecticut National Guard 
was adopted, and from that time the initials C. N. 
G. have had a peculiar charm for military men in 
the State. In 1867, it was determined to further 
reorganize the military establishment of the State. 
The force was reduced to four regiments and four 
batteries, and a committee of three civilians was 
appointed to report to the General Assembly a plan 
for further improvement of the organization. 

The .Adjutant-General's report for 1872 shows the 
reorganization so long under consideration to have 
been effected by bringing the entire force of the 
State into a single brigade, under the command of 
a Brigadier-General. In all the disbandments of 
organizations necessary to the placing of the Guard 
upon this footing, the 2d Regiment had been but 
little affected, and its numerical designation re- 
mained the same. 

In October, 1863, the regiment held its first en- 
campment after the reorganization of the militia, 
under Colonel Stephen \V. Kellogg, at East Bridge- 
port, and in the following year encamped at Water- 
bury. The field officers at this time were Colonel 
Kellogg, Lieutenant-Colonel S. E. Merwin, Jr., 
and Major Edward J. Rice. 

In September, 1865, the regiment, under com- 
mand of Colonel S. W. Kellogg, held an encamp- 
ment of one week at New Haven, ending with a 
dress-parade upon the Green. 

The encampment of the following year was par- 
ticipated in by the entire 2d Brigade, under com- 
mand of General Kellogg, with Colonel Merwin in 
command of the 2d Regiment. It continued for 
one week, and was held at Bridgeport. 

In 1867, the Second held a regimental encamp- 
ment for one week, beginning September nth, at 
West Haven, under command of Colonel S. E. 
Merwin, where it was reviewed by General Kellogg 
and Staff, and subsequentlv by the Governor and 
Staff. 

A regimental encampment was again held in 
1868, beginning September 7th, Colonel George A. 
Basserman in command. This encampment was 
at West Haven, and reviews by the Brigade Com- 
mander and the Commander-in-Chief were the 
closing features. 

The regimental encampment of 1869 was held 
at New Haven during one week, beginning Sep- 
tember 6th, with Colonel E. E. Bradley in com- 
mand. Friday was "Governor's Day " at this en- 
campment, and the regiment was reviewed by 
Governor Jewell, attended by Adjutant-General 
Merwin and the entire Staff. The final dress-parade 
upon the Green on Saturday, witnessed by an im- 
mense throng of spectators, elicited the highest 
praise from all. 

The 2d Regiment had now established a reputa- 
tion second to none for promptness in the perform- 
ance of stated military duties, and soldierly bear- 
ing on parade. Would its bearing be as prompt 



and soldierly in response to a sudden call for duty 
with ball cartridges.? If any were in doubt upon 
this point, their doubt was dispelled early in 1870. 
Propinquity to New York, ready means of access, 
and an almost utter absence of local force for the 
suppression of disorder, had for a long time ren- 
dered the shore towns of western Connecticut pecu- 
liarly liable to incursion of the sporting and pugi- 
listic fraternities. The last named species of roughs, 
seemingly one of the undesirable legacies left over 
from the civil war, were uncommonly numerous 
and belligerent at that time, and their favorite method 
of operation was to make a sudden and unan- 
nounced incursion by rail from New York City, 
take temporary possession of a quiet Connecticut 
town, carry things with a high hand so long as they 
pleased, in defiance of local authority, and wind up 
the raid by taking boisterous possession of w^hatever 
railway train best suited their convenience in re- 
turning to their haunts in the city. A local police 
force or a sheriffs posse had no terrors for such a 
crowd. 

When the Sheriff" of New Haven County received 
telegraphic information from the first Select Man 
of Milford that such a body of roughs, numbering 
over one hundred, with a numerous crowd of 
hangers on, had taken possession of Charles Island 
in that town, he promptly telegraphed a request to 
Governor Jewell for military aid, and the Governor 
as promptly transferred the call to Adjutant- 
General Merwin with "power to act." He did 
act so effectively that a battalion of the 2d 
Regiment with the Second Company of Governor's 
Foot Guards were almost immediately on their 
way to the scene of disorder, under command of 
Colonel E. E. Bradley and Lieutenant-Colonel 
Stephen R. Smith, Adjutant-General Merwin in 
person accompanying the force. 

At low tide Charles Island is a peninsula, jutting 
out into the Sound from the town of Milford. 
Not a moment was lost by the military force on 
its arrival by rail at Milford, nor was any trifling 
indulged in with blank cartridges. The troops 
were at once ordered to load with ball, and with 
Colonel Bradley and Lieutenant-Colonel Smith in 
command of the right and left wings respectively, 
the force pushed forward for the capture of the 
island and its mob of desperadoes. The ground 
marched over by the right wing was such as to 
bring them in full view of the occupants of the 
island, who, thinking that was the only force 
which threatened them, made all haste to escape 
by way of the submerged strips of sand connecting 
the island with the main land. 

Just as the mob of roughs felt certain of this line 
of escape, and as many of them were about to wade 
ashore upon the main land, Lieutenant-Colonel 
Smith, with the left wing, emerged over rising ground 
which had concealed his advance from view, 
directly across their path. He at once deployed, 
and, advancing at double quick, drove the roughs 
back through the water to the island, and in a 
short time was followed by the right wing. The 
game was now completely bagged, and the troops 
returned to New Haven with about one hundred 



MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS. 



671 



prisoners, who were marched to the station house 
and turned over to the custodj- of the civil author- 
ities. 

The military feature of this affair was a model of 
promptness and energetic action which strikingly 
attested the executive ability of Adjutant-General 
Merwin, Colonel Bradley and Lieutenant-Colonel 
Smith, as well as the firm reliance which might be 
placed upon the rank and file of Militia in any 
sudden emergency. It taught the baser elements 
of the metropolis the wholesome lesson, which, 
much to the profit of Connecticut they have since 
remembered, that in this State there is a force 
armed with a more effective weapon than a club, 
with a field of operations not circumscribed by the 
curb-stones of a city, instantly available for the 
suppression of disorderly assemblages however 
large in numbers or desperate in character. 

On ]\Iay 31, 1871, the Second and Sixth Regi- 
ment united in a military parade at New Haven, 
under command of Lieutenant-Colonel S. R. 
Smith. Both regiments were in fine condition, 
and the parade closed with a review by Adjutant- 
General IMerwin, and a dress-parade on the Green. 

In September, 1872, the 2d Regiment under 
command of Colonel Stephen R. Smith, made a 
notable excursion to New York and New Jersey, 
receiving such honors and merited praise from high 
military authorities as never prior to that time had 
been accorded a Militia regiment from New Eng- 
land. The Second was received at the Forty -second 
street depot in New York by the famous 7th 
Regiment, under Colonel Emmons Clark, and 
escorted by it through the city to its own armory, 
where, after a brilliant reception. Colonel Clark 
tendered to Colonel Smith the use of the armory 
for his regiment during its stay in New York. 

At noon of the next day the Second was escorted 
by the Seventy-first New York, Colonel Richard 
Vose, to the Jersey Cit\- Ferry, passing in review be- 
fore the Mayor at City Hall Park. On arriving at 
Jersey City, the Second and Seventy-first were re- 
ceived bv ^lajor-General Runyon, and Brigadier- 
General Plume, with their respective staffs, and by 
a special train were then escorted directly to the 
State Fair, then in progress on ample grounds in 
the vicinit\- of Newark. They were there received 
by the Third New Jersey Regiment. Colonel Drake, 
and the three regiments were giving a marching 
review by Governor Parker. 

The splendid marching of the 2d Regiment in 
"division front" at the Fair Grounds and subse- 
quently in the City of Newark, was most enthusi- 
astically praised by all spectators and by the military 
critics without exception. Returning to New York 
escorted by the 71st, the 2d was received by the 
22d New York, Colonel Porter, and under this es- 
cort was marched to the fine armory of that regi- 
ment and tendered the same hospitalities as were 
previously tendered by the 7th. 

On leaving New York, the 2d was escorted to 
the boat by the 22d, and the warmest possible 
reception awaited it on its arrival at New Haven, 
participated in by the Governor's Foot Guards, the 
independent companies, and the organizations of 



2d Regiment veterans. The excursion had proved 
a splendid success, and placed the 2d Regiment 
very high in the estimation of military men. 

Prior to March, 1S73, it was determined that the 
2d Regiment should represent Connecticut in the 
parade at the second inauguration of President 
Grant. The necessary arrangements were taken in 
hand with a determination to still further enhance 
the reputation of the regiment, and on the morning 
of March ^d, Colonel Smith started his command 
for Washington with over six hundred men under 
arms. Arriving in New York, a repetition of for- 
mer courtesies was extended the Second by Colonel 
Vose, at the armorv of his regiment. 

On leaving New York the Second was joined on 
Broadway by the 5th New York, Colonel Charles S. 
Spencer, which was also bound for Washington. 
After mutual courtesies, in line the two regiments 
marched directly to the Jersey City Ferry, and were 
soon en route, each regiment on a special train, for 
the capital, the Second Regiment being in advance. 

Seemingly inexcusable railway mismanagement 
so hindered the trains, that at the time when the 
inaugural parade began, the regiment was scarcely 
beyond Baltimore. This was a bitter disappointment 
to ofliicers and men of the enthusiastic Second, and 
to the keen chagrin at the delay was added the dis- 
comfort occasioned by such severely cold weather 
as would hardly be exceeded in midwinter in New 
England, with no provisions for comfort on board 
the loitering train. 

Not until after the inaugural parade was ended, 
did the train bearing the 2d Regiment arrive within 
a mile of the Washington station, and then it came 
to a final stop. 

Colonel Smith was here met by his old com- 
mander. General Kellogg, then a Member of Con- 
gress from Connecticut, who brought the welcome 
news that, in consideration of its unfortunate deten- 
tion. President Grant would give the 2d Regiment 
a special review on the following day. Cheered by 
this unexpected recognition, Colonel Smith deter- 
mined to get his command to the capital without 
further hindrance from any source, and forming 
the willing companies in regimental order, he im- 
mediately took up the line of march. 

Arriving at Pennsylvania avenue, he found an 
ovation awaiting his command which he had little 
expected. This parade was an addition to the day's 
programme, which everybody in Washington seemed 
prepared to enjoy, and the grandest thoroughfare 
for parade on the continent was packed with ex- 
pectant people. Every man of the Second caught 
inspiration from the scene, and its Colonel, with the 
bold confidence in his command which had been 
so fully justified at the Newark parade the year be- 
fore, formed column by divisions and swept down 
the avenue with such even tread, perfect intervals, 
and splendid alignments as Washington never had 
seen excelled on the grandest reviews. 

In the official programme for the day. Colonel 
Smith had been assigned command of the Fifth 
Division, comprising his own regiment, the 5th New 
York, the 3d New Jersey, and the 5th Maryland. 
Although the 2d Regiment would have nobly led 



672 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



that division, it could not have won more conspic- 
uous manifestations of praise than in this voluntary 
parade after the prescribed exercises of the day 
were over. 

During the march on Pennsylvania avenue, 
Colonel Smith was officially tendered a review in 
front of the Union Club House by the Governor of 
the District. The Second accordingly marched 
di reedy to the point designated for the review, and 
though greatly fatigued, hungry, and nearly frozen 
the men passed the ordeal in splendid style. They 
then marched to the National Armory on Sixth 
street where a very welcome dinner awaited them. 

At ten o'clock on the 5th the Second took up its 
line of march for the Presidential review. As it 
wheeled into Pennsylvania avenue from Sixth street 
the Vice-President, accompanied by Governor 
Jewell and ex-Governor Hawley took position 
among the distinguished guests, preceeding the 
regiment in carriages. The exceptionally fine 
marching of the day previous had seemingly made 
everybody desirous of seeing the 2d Connecticut, 
and the dense mass of spectators lining both sides 
of the avenue could not be kept back off the curb- 
stones. It pressed into the street and the applause, 
as the steady ranks with perfect alignment passed, 
was continuous. 

The review was perfect, and drew words of 
commendation from President Grant, Lieutenant- 
General Sherman, Major-General Hancock, and 
other military men who witnessed it. Continuing 
the march down the avenue after passing the Presi- 
dent, the Second received from the battalion of 
West Point Cadets, commanded by General Upton, 
a recognition never before accorded by that com- 
mand to a militia organization. 

The Cadets were giving an exhibition drill before 
the Secretary of War, as the Second approached, 
and by permission of the Secretary, General Upton 
suspended the drill, opened ranks and presented 
arms as the .Second marched past in its favorite 
form with division fronts. Colonel Smith responded 
with a marching salute, and General Upton after- 
ward waited u])on Colonel Smith at his hotel, and 
personally complimented the Second in the warmest 
terms. The splendid advantage of every oppor- 
tunity taken by the regiment finally transformed 
what at the outset seemed foredoomed to disaster 
into a most gratifying success, and the Second re- 
turned to Connecticut with a large accession of 
confidence in itself and its able officers. 

In May of this year, on the occasion of the 
annual encampment of the Grand Army of the 
Republic, which convened in New Haven, the 
2d Regiment paraded in escort of President Grant, 
Vice-President Wilson, Lieutenant-General Sher- 
man, Major-Generals Sheridan, Hancock, Burn- 
side, McDowell, and a large number of other 
military notables in attendance upon the encamp- 
rnent. The regiment fully answered the expecta- 
tion of its friends in its full ranks and fine bearing 
on this ])arade. 

In August, 1874, the Second, in company with 
the Fourth, held its annual encampment for one 
week at the State Camp Ground at Niantic. In 



November of this year Colonel Smith resigned the 
Colonelcy of the 2d Regiment, and Lieutenant- 
Colonel Bario succeeded to command. 

The next notable parade of the Second of 
the year 1876 at home, was on July 4th. Colonel 
Bario having resigned in the preceding January, 
Colonel S. R. Smith had, by a unanimous vote 
of all the field officers, been called back to the 
colonelcy and had accepted the position. Exten- 
sive preparations had been made for a military and 
civic parade in New Haven on the Centennial 
Fourth, and with Colonel Smith as Chief Marshal, 
the 2d Regiment was to participate. The arrange- 
ments were fully carried out with commendable 
spirit. The Second, true to its reputation, set the 
pattern for fine marching, and after the final review 
of the immense line, held an exhibition dress- 
parade on the Green. 

In September of this year the 2d Regiment par- 
ticipated with the entire Brigade Connecticut Na- 
tional Guard in an encampment for ten days at 
Philadelphia. This encampment was authorized 
by a special act of the Legislature, and took the 
place of the annual State encampment. 

The encampment was conducted in a most or- 
derly manner, the State gained high credit abroad 
for the efficiency of its Militia, and in no respect was 
the Second behind its companion regiments in the 
prompt and soldierly performance of all duties in- 
cident to camp life. From the many columns of 
commendation of the Connecticut Brigade which 
appeared in the Philadelphia papers during this en- 
campment, only the following brief extracts can be 
given, but they fairly illustrate the appreciation 
which was accorded our troops by impartial cities. 

We extract from the Philadelphia Times, Sep- 
tember Q, 1876. 

Connecticut has been made famous as the wooden nutmeg 
State, and wooden clock workshop. But her sons seem as 
much at home with muskets and knapsacks as with tools at 
their bench. 

Their appearance as they paraded through the Centennial 
grounds yesterday was remarkably firm and soldierlike. It 
showed that the high rank which the Connecticut Militia has 
always had was well deserved. 

Aside from their appearance in the ranks, the manly and 
independent way in which they came, and their gentlemanly 
conduct during their stay in this city, shows them to be good 
citizens. They imposed no obligations on our citizens or on 
our troops, but paid their own way, and will go home to-day 
with the best wishes of every one, and sure of a hearty wel- 
come when they come again. 

The following is but the introductory portion of 
a long article in the Philadelphia Sunday Press of 
September 10, 1876: 

SECOND REGIMENT CONNECTICUT NATIONAL 
GUARDS. 

SOMETHING OF THK FAMOUS REGIMENT— ITS RECEPTION 
HERE. 

This famous regiment was elected to the maiden honor of 
entering the Centennial grounds Monday as the advance 
guard of the Connecticut National Guard. To say that it is a 
lair representative does not half express it. It is without 
e.Kception the best in drill and marching in this country, 
and we are satisfied that in all the details that go to make 
up a good military organization the 2d Connecticut takes 
the lead. 

The grand dress parade Sunday was the first we had seen 
of this regiment. Tho perfect storm of applause along the 





ifi^(/6^^/iffrit ^ 



MILITA RV ORG A X/ZA TIONS. 



673 



whole line of ten tliousand speclators as it came past in 
company front straii;ht as an arrow, every eye to the front, 
marching and looking like a polished piece of machinery as 
the snn reflected on their showy gray uniforms with gold 
trimmings and white pants, told whether the third oldest 
regiment in the world kept up its reputation. 

So many and such warm words of commendation, 
without a word of disparaging criticism, could 
scarcely be accorded without being in good meas- 
ure deserved. 

On the route home, .Saturday, September 9th, 
the Connecticut Brigade was received in New York 
by the ist and gth New Jersey Regiments, and the 
5th, 9th, 1 2th and 22d New York, the whole com- 
bining to make one of the most imposing escorls 
ever afforded a body of ^lilitia 

It was a long march through Canal street and 
Broadway, past the plaza at Seventeenth street, 
where the column passed in review before the 
Mayor, and thence by Fourth avenue and Twentv- 
third street to embark by steamer for Harlem, but 
the enthusiain of the men did not flag, and the 
parade has been remembered by participants and 
spectators as a most notable one, even for New 
York. The Second, with the rest of the brigade, 
arrived safely home on time, having had an experi- 
ence in mobilization and varied field duty such as 
seldom falls to the lot of a militia organization. 

At the Inter-State Rifle Match at Creedmoor in 
this month, the team of twelve sharpshooters exclu- 
sively from the 2d Connecticut Regiment competed 
with a team oflike number made up from the best 
shots of the entire National Guard of New York, 
and the Connecticut team were the victors at both 
the 200-yard and 500-yard range, winning the 
Inter-State trophy under circumstances which had 
seemed to render it simple foolhardiness for Con- 
necticut to think of competing at all. 

The 2d Connecticut might well be said to have 
now established a National reputation. In the ten 
years which have elapsed since the Centennial year 
it has done nothing to forfeit or impair that reputa- 
tion, but much to sustain it. Proud of its record, it 
is ever prompt and efficient in the performance of 
w^hatever duty the State service or military courtesy 
may require, and as the promotions from its field 
abundantly attest, the efficieny of its officers has 
recieved handsome recognition at home as well as 
abroad. With the Centennial's Colonel successor to 
General Graham, in theposition of Brigadier-General 
commanding the Brigade: thoroughly competent 
and wide-awake Colonel Leavenworth at its 
head, and the maximum number of well-officered 
companies in its ranks, the future of the regiment 
would seem to be as promising as its past has been 
brilliant. 

GENERAL S. R. SMITH. 

Stephen Richards Smith, the present Adjutant- 
General of the State, is by birth and training a son 
of New- Haven, having begun his career in the vil- 
lage of VVhitneyville, August 28, 1836. 

His father, a highly respected citizen, was em- 
ployed by the \Vhitney Arms Company for a long 
time prior to his death, which occurred in Decem- 

85 



ber, 1855, when he was only forty-seven years old. 
In 1831, he married a daughter of Captain Stephen 
Richards, who was a noted mariner of that day and 
resided at West Haven. Mrs. Smith was a reiiiark- 
able character, possessing a strongly-defined indi- 
viduality, replete with attractive qualities. Her 
devotion to the welfare of her five boys was equaled 
only by their ardent aflTection for her in return. 
Her lifetime of love and labor in their behalf was 
well repaid. Her oldest son, Joseph A. Smith, in 
the course of twenty-five years' service in the Yale 
National Bank, rose from a clerkship to the Vice- 
Presidency. Although belonging to the political 
minority in New Haven, he was for two years 
(1873-74) elected City and Town Treasurer. He is 
now Assistant Treasurer of the Ansonia Clock Com- 
p.my, of New York. The third son was the Rev. 
John Eaton Smith, a graduate of the Berkeley 
Divinity School, and a young clergvman of unusual 
promise, which was defeated by his untimely death 
in September, 1870. Of two other sons, one who 
possessed marked literary ability, died in New 
Haven at the entrance into middle life, and the 
other is now a successful coal merchant in Phila- 
delphia. Mrs. Smith lived to see the prosperity 
and honors of her children, and died May 9, 1885, 
when seventy-five years of age, at the home of her 
son Stephen, with whom she had always resided. 

General Smith received his early education under 
the tuition of the late Mr. Amos Smith, and while 
attending faithfully to the duties of school, did much 
towards contributing to his own support and win- 
ning his way in the world. After school hours he 
carried papers, and at one time maintained three 
routes daily, besides feeding the press and doing up 
the morning mail. This laborious preliminary 
training stimulated to a remarkable degree his 
natural faculties of industry, quick perception, and 
dauntless energv. When fourteen years of age, he 
entered mercantile life as book-keeper in a large 
dry goods store in New Haven, and rose from one 
step to another until after three years' service in the 
New Haven Savings Bank, he became the head 
clerk in that institution. In 1855 he was actively 
engaged in the organization of the Tradesmen's 
Bank, and in February, 1856, he accepted the 
position of Teller in the City Bank of New Haven, 
where he remained until he established himself in 
the coal business in February, 1864. From small 
beginnings he was enabled to build up one of the 
largest wholesale and retail coal concerns in New 
England. The competence thus accumulated was 
partially swept away by sudden and unforeseen 
financial reverses, so that, in 1880, he relinquished 
his own business and became manager of the New 
York house of the Winchester Repeating Arms 
Company. In 1883 he returned to his early love, 
banking, and connected himself with the flourish- 
ing banking-house of Watson &. Gibson, in New 
York, and 1'. L. Watson & Co., of Bridgeport. 
With their fortunes he has since been identified. 

General Smith's military career began in Febru- 
ary, 1858, when he joined the New Haven Grays. 
He served that company in the various capacities 
of Private, Corporal, and Sergeant, was elected also 



674 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN. 



while Sergeant, to the Second Lieutenancy, but 
declined the honor. He occupied the position of 
Treasurer of the company for several years. October 
7, 1863, Colonel S. W. Kellogg appointed him 
Adjutant of the 2d Regiment, and this post he re- 
tained also under Colonel S. E. IVIerwin, remaining 
in the office until June 4. 186S, when he became 
Major. August 16, 1869, saw him a Lieutenant- 
Colonel, and two years later (August 9, 1871), he 
was promoted to the Colonelcy of the 2d Regiment. 
That important office he held until after the fall en- 
campment at Niantic in 1874, when he resigned 
with the intention of retiring permanently from 
military life and duty. 

But the men whom he had trained and marshal- 
ed were unwilling to lose his leadership, and after 
the lapse of one year he was urged on all sides to 
resume command. Not until it appeared that the 
whole regiment, seven hundred strong, had given 
an absolutely unanimous vote in his favor, did 
General Smith yield, and he was recommissioned 
Colonel of the 2d Regiment, January 13, 1876. 
He continued at the head of the 2d Regiment until 
July 8, 1878, when Governor Richard D. Hubbard 
promoted him to the command of the brigade, a 
well-deserved recognition of General Smith's long 
and faithful service in the National Guard of the 
State. He retained this responsible position and 
performed its functions to universal satisfaction un- 
til January 8, 1885, when Governor Harrison placed 
him in his present otlice, at the head of the Staff of 
the Commander-in-Chief 

No man is more familiar than General Smith with 
all the details of the work of the National Guard, 
and no one has been more prominently and honor- 
ably identified with its fortunes during the present 
generation. Most of the noteworthy events in the 
recent history of the 2d Regiment have occurred 
during his terms of command. In 1870, when he 
was Lieutenant-Colonel, he marched with the ex- 
pedition under Sheriff Hotchkiss and Colonel 
Bradley, to capture the New York roughs who were 
about to hold a prize fight on Charles Island. The 
whole gang, one hundred and fifty in number, was 
intercepted by Colonel Smith's battalion, and taken 
to New Haven, a reception which gave the New 
York sporting fraternity a wholesome lesson, not 
yet forgotten. 

In 1872, General Smith commanded the regi- 
ment in its famous e.xcursion to New York and New 
Jersey. In the following year he took the regi- 
ment to Washington to attend the inauguration of 
General Grant, and siibsequently in New Haven, 



commanded the escort to General Grant and the 
Army of the Potomac. He was Chief Marshal at 
the Centennial parade in New Haven in 1876, was 
also at the head of the regiment during its ten days' 
encampment, at the Centennial in 1876, and 
went with the regiment to Boston and Providence 
in June, 1878. 

He commanded the military division at New 
Haven's centennial celebration in 1879, also the 
brigade at Groton in 1881, and held the office of 
Grand Marshal in the famous parade at New Haven, 
in 1884, on the occasion of the centennial of the 
organization of the city. 

From his first connection with the National Guard 
of Connecticut to the present time. General Smith's 
popularity has never waned. Without relaxing 
a jot of the strictest discipline, he has known 
how to retain the respect and hearty good-will of 
his men. To his good discipline and executive 
ability must be attributed in large measure the 
present efficiency and prosperity of the Connecticut 
National Guard. In civil life General Smith has 
always endeavored to do his part as a good citizen 
of the Republic. 

A Republican in politics, he commanded in the 
New Haven Wide-Awake Club of i860, the second 
organization of that kind in the United States. He 
served for seven years as Secretary of the Board of 
Engineers of the old Volunteer Fire Department; 
was a member of the Board of Common Council 
for one year ( 1 869), and an Alderman for nearly 
three years (June, 1870 to January i, 1872). He 
is a veteran Mason, and is connected with the 
Knights of Honor and various other societies. 

General Smith married, in October, 1856, Miss 
Sarah Jane Veader, daughter of Mr. James M. 
Veader, for many years the foreman of the paint- 
ing department with Henry Hooker & Co. Mr. 
Veader was a gentleman of Knickerbocker descent, 
for eight years (1853-61) an official in the New 
Haven Custom House, and very well known in 
masonic circles. Mrs. Smith is one of the most 
active members of the First Baptist Church of New 
Haven, connected with its manifold organizations 
for religious and charitable work, and noted for 
energetic interest in denominational effort through- 
out the State. 

Together, Geaeral Smith and his wife are devot- 
ing their lives to faithful labor and to the accom- 
plishment of good deeds; the reward of every good 
citizen comes to them in the shape of esteem and 
approbation from the community at large, and of 
warm affection from their many friends, 



PHILANTHROPIC INSTITUTIONS. 



675 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 

PHILANTHROPIC INSTITUTIONS. 



IN New Haven, as in every Christian city, one in- ] 
stitution alter another has been estabhshed for 
the reUef of human misery. Some charities are so 
limited to narrow social circles, or to particular 
classes of beneficiaries, that they have a right of 
privacy, if not equal to, at least somewhat resem- 
bling that of a family. We do not propose in this 
account of the principal philanthropic institutions 
of New Haven, to mention any of those homes 
which some of our churches have established for 
their homeless members; or, indeed, any of the 
charities which are limited to the members of one 
congregation. Our object is rather to mention 
institutions in which all philanthropists unite in a 
common work. 

New Haven Hospital. 

Of such institutions in New Haven the oldest is 
the hospital. It owes its origin to the physicians 
of the city, who, at a meeting of the Medical Asso- 
ciation of New Haven, at the house of Dr. John 
Skinner, May 8, 1826, appointed a committee to 
solicit subscriptions for a hospital, and gave liber- 
ally themselves. A charter was obtained the same 
month from the General Assembly of the State. 
Gentlemen of the medical profession have always 
been in the front rank of the friends ot the hospi- 
tal. Of the ten persons incorporated as the Hos- 
pital Society, one was William Leffingwell, a re- 
tired merchant; and all the others were physicians 
and members of the State Medical Society. Of the 
first Board of Directors, Mr. Leflingwell was the 
only person not belonging to the medical profes- 
sion. It is due to that fraternity to state, in any 
history of the hospital, that the physicians of New 
Haven have given to the institution not only their 
professional services without fee or reward, but 
contributions of money far beyond their propor- 
tionate share. 

The fine plot of ground on which the hospital 
stands, was purchased in 1830. The plot when 
purchased was larger than at present, and the value 
of land in that neighborhood soon increased so 
much, that subsequent sales reduced the cost of 
what the hospital still retains to less than $500. 
This pleasantly situated piece of ground contains 
about seven acres; is bounded by four streets; is 
sufficiently near to the harbor to be exposed to the 
sea-breeze; and so near to the heart of the city 
that convalescent patients can find, as often as a 
new day dawns upon them, a new place for exer- 
cise and amusement. 

The first hospital building was completed in 
1832; but, apart from the sick and disabletl seamen 
whom the Hospital Society cared for in fulfillment 
of a contract with the United States, and in return 
for the hospital money which the Government col- 



lected of seamen and paid into the treasury of the 
hospital, the number of patients was small. From 
1840 to 1850, the average number of patients, in- 
cluding the marines, was about fifteen. In 1850, 
at the instance of Dr. P. A. Jewett, Secretary of 
the Hospital Society, and one of the attending 
physicians, application was made to the State 
Legislature for an annual appropriation of $2,000 
for charity ])atients. Dr. Jew-ett in his "Semi-Cen- 
tennial History of the Hospital," to which we are 
indebted for most of the material out of which this 
sketch has been made, thus speaks of a movement 
which all but himself believed would fail: 

The writer well remembers the opposition, not to say de- 
rision, his proposition met in tlie lio.ird of Directors, when 
he pro])osed to make application to the 1 x;t;islature for an 
annual appropriation of $2,000 for charity patients, to lie 
expended on the same terms as the appropriation uf $5,000 
for the Retreat for the Insane at Hartford. After persistent 
efforts before several meetings of the Directors, at which the 
matter was discussed, the proposer being the only one in the 
affirmative, apparently to get rid of the annoyance, the Di- 
rectors gave their consent that the .Secretary, Dr. Jewett, 
who had brought the matter before the ISoard, might pre- 
pare a petition to the Legislature, to be presented with his 
signature and that of the President, Dr. Knight, if the latter 
chose to sign it. It was also directed that, as the matter was 
so sure to fad, no record should be made. A petition was 
prepared and signed by the President and the Secretary. 
This was presented to the Legislature and referred to a 
special committee of one from the Senate and eight from the 
House of Representatives. As the appointment of the com- 
mittee seemed to mean something, other members of the 
Hospital Society came forward with offers of assistance. 

Contrary to the expectation of all but Dr. Jewett, 
and perhaps sooner than he expected, this appli- 
cation to the State was a success. From that time 
to the present the Legislature has continued to 
make an annual appropriation for charity patients, 
greatly increasing the usefulness of the hospital. 

From that time to the present there have always 
been beneficiaries of the State in this institution, 
some of them able to pay a part of the expense for 
diet and medicine, and others supported jointly by 
the towns to which they belong and by the State, but 
none exclusively by the State, except soldiers. The 
entire expense of a patient in the hospital has been 
about six dollars per week. This includes diet and 
medicine, and there is no charge for medical at- 
tendance or the use of the buikiings, which are 
freely given, even to those who are called paying 
patients. 

During the War of the Rebellion, this institution 
was converted into a military hospital. The con- 
version took place gradually. In .-Vpril, 1861, at a 
special meeting of the Directors, it was voted to 
ofler accommodations at the hospital for such sick 
and wounded soldiers as the Surgeon-General of 
the United States Army might direct to be sent. A 
communication of this offer was made to the Sur- 
geon-General through our Member of Congress, 
Hon. James E.English. Through his kind co-oper- 



676 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



ation the offer was accepted, conditioned upon 
there being a necessity to make use of the hospital. 

In May, 1S62, Dr. Pliny A. Jewett was employed 
by the Surgeon-General as Contract Surgeon, to 
take charge of the soldiers sent to the hospital. 
Very soon after this an order was sent to him to 
accept the ofler of the society, at the rate of $3. 50 
per week for each soldier cared for in the hospital, 
theDiiectorsto furnish all food, medicine, medical 
and surgical attendance, and quarters, the surgeon 
in charge only to be paid by the Government, and to 
make immediate preparations for the receipt of two 
hundred and fifty sick and wounded soldiers. Appli- 
cation was made to the Legislature, then in session, 
for aid in the erection of buildings. Three thousand 
dollars was at once appropriated. With this a large 
temporary edifice was erected. Before it could 
be completed, two hundred and fifty sick and 
wounded soldiers from the battle-field of Fair 
Oaks arrived, and were temporarily accommodated 
in the old building, and in tents pitched upon the 
hospital grounds. Soon more sick and wounded 
soldiers arrived, and it was evident that additional 
buildings would be needed. The Legislature being 
again appealed to, appropriated fifteen thousand 
dollars for buildings and furniture. Sheds were 
erected sufficient to accommodate about five 
hundred men, and other temporary buildings for 
the accommodation of the physicians and surgeons. 
The physicians and surgeons consisted of the regu- 
lar hospital staff, and such others of the city as vol- 
unteered their services. The contract between the 
society and the Government continued till the 
spring of 1863. 

In November, 1862, an order was received from 
the Surgeon-General to terminate the contract 
as soon as it could be done without injury, hire 
that portion of the grounds on which the temporary 
buildings were situated, and place the hospital 
entirely under the control of the Surgeon-General. 
At this time the surgeon in charge received his 
commission as Surgeon of Volunteers. The 
Directors voted to lease the grounds to the Govern- 
ment at the rent of $1,000 per year. In April, 
1863, the contract was completed, and the Military 
Hospital entered upon an independent existence. 
This continued for several months, when, it being 
thought expedient to enlarge the accommodations 
at the hospital, an offer was made by the Gov- 
ernment to lease the hospital building and the re- 
mainder of the grounds. The Directors accepted 
the offer, and made immediate arrangements to 
move to another location. A large building on 
Whalley avenue was purchased, to which the State 
Hospital was removed. The old hospital building 
was occupied by the surgeon in charge for offices 
and quarters for the officers on duty at the hos- 
pital. 

At this lime a necessity existed for larger accom- 
modations for sick and wounded soldiers; as the 
Governor of the State had received the consent of 
the Secretary of War to send all Connecticut 
soldiers ^vho were proper subjects for hospital 
treatment, and able to bear transportation, to the 
hospital in New Haven. The State had refused to 



make any further appropriations for buildings, and 
without these the additional number to be sent 
could not be received. In this emergency Gov- 
ernor Buckingham came forward with the liberality 
which characterized him when the comfort of our 
soldiers was at stake, and authorized the surgeon 
in charge to erect such additional buildings as he 
thought necessary, and draw on him for the money 
to pay the bills. This expenditure amounted to 
the sum of $10,000. With these additional build- 
ings the hospital was increased to 1,500 beds, a 
much larger institution than was expected when 
the first arrangements were made for 250 patients. 
Soon after the hospital was assumed by the Medical 
Department of the Army, and, in accordance with 
the custom of giving to all military hospitals the 
name of some living member of the profession, the 
hospital was called, at the suggestion of the surgeon 
in charge, the Knight General Hospital, after 
Jonathan Knight — a tribute of respect to the eminent 
surgeon, the good man, the exemplary Christian, 
and the perfect gentleman. " All (says Dr. Jewett) 
w'ho were connected with the military hospital 
when the first detachment of sick and wounded 
soldiers arrived, recollect the enthusiasm and un- 
tiring energy Dr. Knight displayed in attending to 
the call of suffering humanity. He was the first 
on the grounds, and did not leave till every wound 
was dressed." 

The total number of patients treated in the hos- 
pital was 25,340. Total number of deatlis, 185, of 
which 1 1 were accidental. This small percentage 
of mortality is to be attributed to the location of 
the hospital. It is situated on an elevated plateau. 
The soil is dry and sandy. The change to such a 
location in a northern climate, from the influences 
operating on the sick and wounded in a southern 
climate, was very marked. Patients began to im- 
prove before a diagnosis was made. Another 
fruitful cause of immediate improvement in the 
Connecticut men, was the fact that they were in 
their own State, where they could visit their families 
or receive visits from them. 

Soon after the surrender of Lee, in April, 1865, 
orders w-ere received from the War Department to 
close the hospital as soon as the men under treat- 
ment could be discharged. This was accomplished 
in November of the sam.e year, and soon afterward 
the Government property on the hospital grounds 
was sold at auction, the temporary buildings were 
removed, and the premises reverted into the posses- 
sion of the General Hospital Society of Connecticut. 
The property in Whalley avenue being no longer 
needed, was sold. 

Soon after returning to the buildings and 
grounds which they had patriotically vacated for 
the use of the military hospital, the society deter- 
mined, if possible, to erect additional buildings to 
accommodate the increasing number of fiatients. 

Incipient measures being taken about the same 
time for the establishment of a training school for 
nurses, the society formally "Resolved, That if a 
society is organized for the training of nurses, the 
Directors of the General Hospital Society of Con- 
necticut are hereby authorized and advised, under 



PHILANTHROPIC INSTITUTIONS. 



677 



I suitable regulations, to afford to said society such 
facilities for the instruction of nurses as can be 
given at the hospital consistent with the proper 
management of and general interests of the hos- 
pital. " 

A society distinct from the Hospital Society hav- 
ing been organized for the establishment of a train- 
ing school, the two societies have worked in har- 
mony from the commencement of the school to 
the present time. The nursing in the hospital has 
been better done than ever before; and from year 
to year a class of trained nurses has been sent out 
to pursue a career of professional usefulness. 

The training school commenced its task of nurs- 
ing in the hospital when the additional buildings 
were completed and ready for use. At first it was 
allowed board and lodging for si.K pupil nurses, in 
consideration of the work expected of the pupils; 
and from year to year, as the number of patients 
has increased, the Hospital Society has consented 
to board a larger number of the pupils in return 
for services rendered. 

The original hospital building was covered with 
stucco, after the style introduced into New Haven 
by i\Ir. Ithiel Town, of which examples may be 
seen in the residence he built for himself in Hill- 
house avenue, afterward enlarged into the palatial 
mansion of Mr Sheffield; the State House of 1830; 
and others too numerous to mention. The addi- 
tion, completed in 1875, is of brick. It cost about 
$88,000, of which $75,000 was appropriated to the 
object by the Legislature of the State, on condition 
that $15,000 should be raised by subscription. 

The erection of the new building, the improved 
quality of the nursing, and other causes, chief 
among which is the better acquaintance of the 
community with the work of the hospital, have 
given it an increase of favor; and there is great 
probability that, notwithstanding the multiplication 
of hospitals, further addition to its capacity for use- 
fulness must soon be made to this, the earliest insti- 
tution of the kind within the State of Connecticut 

New Havek Dispensary. 

A dispensary, like a hospital, has for its object 
the healing of the sick; but while the hospital pro- 
vides beds and receives its beneficiaries within its 
walls to be nursed, the dispensary imparts medical 
advice and medicine to those who, though sick, 
have sufficient strength to leave their beds and 
come to the place where this assistance is rendered. 
A hospital is for the rich, if they are able to pay, 
and for the poor, if provision has been made for 
their gratuitous entertainment: but a dispensary is 
a charity established for the benefit of those who 
cannot provide for themselves. 

The New Haven Dispensary was organized in 
1872, "for the purpose of supplying medicines 
and medical advice to such as may be sick and 
needy in New Haven and vicinity." It has an of- 
fice in York street, adjoining the Medical College, 
where those who need medical advice and medicine 
may come and, if unable to pay, have their wants 
supplied " without money and without price. " The 



attending physicians receive no compensation for 
their professional services, and the medicines are 
supplied by charitable ccmtributions. 

The number of patients varies from year to year, 
increasing when the poor are unable to find work, 
and falling off when better times succeed. 

The New Haven Orphan Asvlu.m. 

The New Haven Orphan Asylum may be found 
at 610 Elm street. We cannot so well relate its 
origin and progress as by copying an extract from 
a historical sketch written by Mrs. H. M. Packard 
for its semi-centennial anniversary in 1883. 

In February, 1833, fifty years ago. New Haven was not 
the large and bustling city it now is. Its population num- 
bereti but little over 10,000, instead of the present 60 
or 70,000. Everytwdy knew where everybody lived; a 
city directory had not been dreamed of. There was a 
daily mail froniNew York, but it came by stage, and was 
not to t>e confidently relied on by gentlemen eager for 
Webster's or Calhoun's last speech in Congress. Perhaps 
this February was a month of heavy snows; certainly the 
Connecticut Herald issued on the 26th day of it, contains two 
items that look that way, viz.: that the New York stage had 
not come through for four days, and the stage for Hartford 
had upset a mile from New Haven. This very Connecticut 
Herald was only a weekly. In these days there were still 
chatty breakfast tables; master and mistress were their own 
autocrats, and were not silenced or dominated by the morn- 
ing paper, as at present. 

Our orphan asylum was started in a pleasant, human sort 
of a way. The first public intimation ot it is a notice in the 
Connecticut Herald of February iSth, of "A meeting held 
with a view to encourage the establishment of an orphan 
asylum." Dr. Jonathan Knight and Dr. Croswell, I'astor 
of Trinity Church, find suddenly left upon their hands four 
little orphan children, the youngest only a few weeks old. 
The two good men, physicians, one to the body, the other 
to the soul, have met at the bedside of the dying mother; 
the father had died of cholera a few months liefore. They 
cannot liear to send the children to the Almshouse: so, 
knowing the ladies were ready to commence the wtjrk, they 
call a meeting of gentlemen to encourage them in it. Many 
a talk there must have been Ijefore this, over " those poor 
little Daniells children." Many a motherly heart must have 
compassionated them and planned for them, and now the 
husbands and fathers step in to pledge their support to the 
plans. At the meeting these resolutions were passed: 

First. — That this meeting cordially approve of the design 
proposed by several ladies of this city, to establish an asy- 
lum for the protection and education of destitute orphans 
within the city, and will most cheerfully unite with them in 
any measures calculated to efi'ect this desirable object. 

Second. — That Messrs. Silliman, Boardman, Knight, Brew- 
ster and Winthrop be a committee to communicate to the 
ladies alluded to in the preceding resolution, the sentiments 
of this meeting with regard to their benevolent design, and 
to cooperate with them in its prosecution. 

The ladies were so effectually encouraged, that they met 
on February 26th to organize. They met in Franklin 
Hall, a large room frequently used for college festivities, on 
the second floor of what had Ijeen the stage house and main 
hotel of New Haven, a long, white, wooden building, with 
a gilded bust of Franklin in front, on the corner of Church 
and Crown streets, nearly opposite the present Post ( Iftice. 

At this meeting a society was formed, under the name of 
"The New Haven Female Society for the relief of Orphans, 
Half < )rphans,and Destitute Children. " A constitution, that 
disagreeable, but necessary thing, was read, and officers 
chosen. This constitution was retained, as originally drawn 
up by Henry White, Esq., until 1874. when it was revised, 
mainly by our President. Miss Foster, with great care and 
pains. It has been rewarding to find that since the revision 
it has not only worked well in our own institution, but has 
been helpful to others, who have adopted many of its pro- 
visions and have sent their thanks for its suggestions. The 



678 



HISTORY OF THE CITV OF NEW HAVEN. 



charter given by the legislature in 1833 has been amended, 
or revised, twice since. The ladies whose names appear m 
this charter were as follows: Mrs. Abram Heaton, Mrs. Jona- 
than Knight, Mrs. William Bristol, Mrs. Francis VVinthrop, 
Mrs BeniaminSilliman, Mrs. Charles L. Strong, Mrs. Abel 
Burritt, Mrs. Daniel Whiting, Mrs. Charles Atwater, Mrs. 
Henry White, Mrs. Elias Hotchkiss, Mrs. Kleazer T. Fitch, 
Mrs. Abigail Hull, Miss Fanny Miller, and others. We can 
only wish the others had all been named in full. Of this 
number onlv Mrs. Henry White and Mrs. Whiting, now 
Mrs. Brainar'd, are living. Mrs. Heaton was the first Presi- 

*•*"'• , II J 

These ladies were given a committee ot gentlemen, called 

"Advisers," to assist them in important decisions. It was 

not until 1865 that the Legislature, in view of the property 

acquired by the institution, constituted this committee a 

Board of Trustees. I give the names of those among these 

Trustees who have held the office twenty years, or nearly 

that time; 

William W. Boardman. Sidney M. Stone. 

Dr. Jonathan Knight. Atwater Treat. 

William fitch. ' R. S. Fellowes. 

Benjamin Silliman. Abram Heaton. 

Henry White. Wyllis Warner. 

Of course this by no means includes all the early friends 
of the asylum. Among others who gave to it in 1833 or 
1834, we find the names: 



Dr. Croswell. 
Xoah Webster. 
Joel Root. 
Amos Townsend. 
Thaddeus Sherman. 
Elihu Sanford, 
Abram Bishop. 
S. B. Chittenden. 
Professor Woolsey. 
Titus Street. 
James Brewster. 



Colonel Trumbull. 
Samuel St. John. 
John Anketell. 
M. G. Elliot. 
J. Forbes & Son. 
Asa Bradley. 
Deacon George Smith. 
Alfred Daggett. 
Aaron Skinner. 
Timothy Bishop. 
Dr. Hunt. 



The constitution and the officers were excellent things for 
the children, but next to them must be a house. So seems 
Dr. Knight to have thought, for we next tnid him buyingj 
a cottage on Grove street, near Church, the one occupied 
not long ago by the Misses Churchill's school, and im- 
mediately renting it to the ladies at 580 a year. It did not 
take long to furnish this little Grove street house; the hearts 
of its friends were big and it was not. The first quilting 
parly held in its parlor is still remembered, and how it was 
laughingly moved and carried that each lady should write 
her name on a square of their first asylum quilt. By the 
first week in May, the Daniells children, who had been scat- 
tered among friendly families, were brought together under 
its roof. Three new children from the Almshouse were 
also brought in, but the young matron. Miss .\melia Good- 
year, aged twenty. four, was quite able to look after them 
all, at the salary, as it was called, of S75 for the first year. 

The asylum has been blessed in its matrons; there have been 
but seven in all -Miss Goodyear, Miss Colburn, Miss Bush, 
Miss Williams, Mrs. Curtis, Mrs. Bardwell, and Mrs. Kings- 
ley who has been with us longest of all. They have all 
been women who loved the work and did it well, making 
the children both love and respect them, and regretted at 
their departure by children and managers. 

But to return. At the end of this first year it is thought 
best to l)uy the Grove street house. The Secretary wisely 
remarks at the close of her first report: " The location is as 
good as could possibly he selected, liemg retired and yet 
convenient to the city, and the lot (65 feet'front and 200 feet 
deep) IS sufiiciently large for building any .additions that 
will ever be required." The purchase was eflected in iS;; 
the price p.aid Ijemg $1,125. This was the day of sinall 
things. It was perhaps easier to be personally interested 
when one could run in any time at the little asylum around 
the corner, and could know each child by name; when Dr. 

j*\. '^°"''' ''^■"'' '" '"'"^ f''"'" '"* <^'"V' and Mrs. Baldwin 
and Mrs. I'richard, and the other kind ladies, could rum- 
mage out from their attics what woul.l just fit into this cor- 
ner or that space m the needy little building. Your his- 
torian never knew most of these kind, good people, but in 
collecting the records of their work she is couiitantly remind- 



ed that it seemed very small in their own eyes; they did not 
realize that in each little gift they were helping on a work 
which should endure so long as this city endures; that the 
hours and strength, snatched for this from their busy days, 
had a stronger fl,avor of immortality about them than the 
rest, for their influence would surely reach out over many 
generations. When, in 1835, Mr. Heaton sent a Christmas 
dinner to the lifteen children in whom his wife was so much 
interested, did he fancy for a moment that he should go on 
doing that, and his daughter, Mrs. Robertson, after him, to 
this very winter of 1882-83? And yet that is a very poor, 
matter-of-fact way of putting it. Did he think he was foster- 
ing an undying charity: was only standing among the first in 
an innumerable, unending procession of earnest workers ? 

It may be interesting to know what it cost to support a 
child at this time, when potatoes were 60 cents a bushel, 
whale-oil $1.12)^ a gallon, and eggs 12 cents a dozen. 
While the number was small it cost $1 a week; as it grew 
the cost sank to 75 cents a week. But there was always 
difficulty in meeting the expenses. The first contribution 
was from the Dorcas Society, the sewing circle of New 
Haven, at which small sums, ninepences, quarters and half 
dollars were contributed for the orphans. In 1836 a united 
service was held in one of the principal churches, a sermon 
preached in behalf of orphans and destitute children, and a 
collection taken, amounting to $80.61. This united service 
was continued until 1850, but the sum raised was never very 
large, usually less than Sioo, rising once to S300. and when 
in 1850 it was given up and each church took its separate 
collection, each one was often as large as the whole previous 
contribution. 




First Home of New Haven Orphan Asylum 

The encouraging result of this change was most oppor- 
tune, for in this very year 1850, the Secretary, Miss Blake, 
now Mrs. McWhorter, says: "All the income to be de- 
pended upon is the one dollar subscription of two hundred 
and fifty ladies." 

In 183S, during Mrs. James L. Kingsley's presidency, 
the asylum family had so increased that it was neces-ary to 
buy or rebuild. So a house was bought in Oak street, near 
asylum, at an advance of $750 on the price for which the 
Grove street home was sold. This removal taxed all ener- 
gies. Not only does one of our present managers still re- 
member the exciting hours she spent as a child, entertaining 
the children at her own home on the eventful day, but from 
it dates the joy of every asylum child's and manager's heart 
— Donation Day. It began as a house-warming; an inno- 
cent tea drinking of ladies and children, with almost un- 
noticed cash receipts— the first recorded being $9 in 
1 841. At the monthly meetings for a year or two before the 
date of this removal, 1838, and long after, the ladies 
sewed on clothes for the children, who were too many to 
depend longer on casual supplies. For the first two years 
they stayed to tea, the tea being jirovided by the two ladies 
who were visitors for the month, who always took care to 



PHIL A XTHROPIC IXSTITUTIONS. 



679 



have enough left for the children. It appears, too, that after 
this removal a cow had to be bout;ht, now that Dr. Knight's 
was so distant. 

Somewhere in these years, our friend, Miss M. 1*. Twin- 
ing entered upon the asylum work, soon taking the post of 
Treasurer, whose duties she discharged for thirty live years 
witli the most faithful care, and with that admirable judg- 
ment which always characterized her. 

And now came dark days in the history of the asylum. 
There are no records for some years; but in 1844 the Secre- 
tary, Miss H. S. Foster, says: "The receipts have not met 
our expenses, and our little fund, S594, has been drawn 
upon. Our reliable income is only S300, and we are obliged 
to conduct affairs on the narrow principle of ' Do as well as 
you are able,' not ' Do as well as is possible.' " It was in 
this year that Mrs. R. S. Baldwin raised money for bringing 
the well-water to a pump in the kitchen of the Oak street 
house, which then contained twenty-three children. This 
was a very grand improvement. In eleven years from this 
time the fund had risen to $600, six dollars gain, but there 
were forty-eight children in the crowded little house. It was 
wearing work to be President of so needy an institution ; to 
be anxious almost from ilay to day for bread and clothing, 
instead of being free to help on the children with one's best 
thoughts and time. After Mrs. Kingsley's presidency of 
eleven years, we have two shortei' terms to chronicle, NIrs. 
Charles Atwater occupying the post from 1847 to 1S50, and 
Mrs. Tomlinson from 1850 10 1853. It was found to require 
almost unlimited time and care, and in 1853 it was taken by 
one who had both to give, and the consecrated will to give 
them— Miss H. S. Foster. More triUy a Sister of Charity 
than many who bear that name, she has given her life to this 
asylum work, and verily it hath prospered in lu-r hands. 

But we liave left our story, and at one of its gloomiest 
crises. It would be impossible to mention all the friends who 
were raised up for the asylum from time to time; but the 
reports of these trying years are full of gratitude to Deacon 
George Smith, who helped along in every possible way — by 
advice, by encouragement, and by going about most cheer- 
fully in the ungrateful task of collecting the means for daily 
bread, in connection with Messrs. Henry White, Henry 
Kingsley, William C. De Forest, and other gentlemen. 

While all this business worry was pressing, the internal 
management of the asylum seems to have been most sucess- 
ful. When the children were under the exclusive care of 
one or two. much in the way of character and intellect was 
needed in that one or two, and much seems to have been 
granted. Tlic school was necessarily a family school of all 
ages, but the reports point with pride to the progress of the 
children in learning. The town helped in the school ex- 
penses, at first to the amount of S36 yearly; then, from 1841 
to I S49, S50 is acknowledged as school fund. From 1850 
to 1S66, the appropriation was Sioo; but meantime, in 
1862, the schools were taken under the care of the Board of 
Education, and the appropriation ceased to be called school 
fund, and was paid as board, at least in part, of those 
children whom the Town Agent commits to our care, us- 
ually from the Almshouse. In this form it has gradually 
increased until in this fiftieth year of asylum history it is 
$2,000. 

It is interesting to glance over the list of occasional do- 
nations, starting from the time of this removal to Oak street, 
with one of S495 from a young ladies' fair. Such fairs 
occur often in it, interspersed with such items as " Avails of 
two Little Girls' Needlework," "From some Members of 
the Fire Department," "Professor Olmstead's Lecture," 
" Sale of Flowers." Here comes in a legacy from Mr. Daven- 
port, a toy dealer, of property at that time worth $8,cxx5, 
subject to the life interest of his wife. He said his money 
came mostly from children, and it was right that it should 
go back to them. Then follows, " Benefit of Panorama of 
Holy Land," '■ Signor Blitz, S50," and that twice; "Fair 
held by Little Girls of St. Paul's Church," " Concerts of 
Ancient Harmony," "Tableaux Vivants at Miss Uutton's," 
" Chapel Street Sewing Circle," until we come to the start- 
ling items, "Orphans' Fair at .\lunini Hall, $6,384" in 1864, 
and in 1866," Promenade Concert, $4,023." But long before 
this another great donation had been made by Mr. James 
Brewster, who. with his friend Mr. Heaton, had been much 
interested in this charity from the Hrst. At the managers' 
meeting of March, 1854, a letter from Mr. Brewster was 



read ofl'ering to build an edifice for the use of the asylum, 
on condition that the town provide the ground, and that 
the comparatively small building then in use should be 
transferred to him. These easy conditions were of course 
complied with. Abram Ileaton and E. K. Foster were 
appointed to solicit a lot from the town, which they did 
speedily and effectively; for within a month the deed of 
gift of the present Asylum site was executed. Mr. Sidney 
M. Stone gave his services as architect and supervisor, a 
gift of $2,000. Mr. .Austin generously offered his assistance, 
and the work of building went on rapidly. The asylum 
had not hitherto been a beloved and well-known charity in 
the town. It had received four or five legacies, but no large 
gifts from living men. Mr. Brewster was a man who had 
felt it his duty all his life to devote a certain portion of his 
income to charity, and had conscientiously carried out his 
convictions. While still a young man, from 1825 to 1S32, 
he was associated with the Rev. Claudius llerrick in 
maintaining a Sunday service at the old .Mmshouse, which 
stood on the lot adjoining the present asylum premises. He 
then saw the crying need of some provision for orphan 
children, and made a "covenant with God" to do some- 
thing in the future, as circumstances might warrant. He 
was led to move in the matter at this special time by a visit 
m.ade in company with his wife, in 1854, to the crowded 
Oak street asylum. He never regretted the step. It was 
a constant source of pleasure and thanksgiving. 

His ofi'er was to erect such a building as the managers 
deemed necessary and convenient. He gave them $200 to 
use in visiting other institutions, that they might the Ijetter 
know what they wanted. One can see how his heart grew 
into the work. In eight years he wanted to build a new 
wing, and did so; and we find him setting aside $2,000 as a 
repair fund, making his gifts amount to S20,ooo. I lis friend 
Mr. Heaton took pleasure in supplementing these gifts; to 
him the asylum owes the laying out, grading ami fencing 
of its grounds; the introduction of water; an additional 
S2,ooo of repair fund; a lot in the cemetery; and other 
things. Mayor Skinner presented the one hundred ever- 
green trees which now adorn and distinguish the asylum 
inclosure. 

The War of the Rebellion multiplied the number 
of fatherless children in New Haven, and greatly 
increased the rate of e.xpense for each child; but the 
burden thus put upon the asylum served to in- 
crease and spread the interest which the public had 
begun to feel; and through the efforts made in be- 
half of soldiers' children, the asylum was more and 
more adopted by the community as an institution 
to be valued, cherished, and supported. 

St. Fr.vxcis Orphan Asyli'm, 

An orphanage for children of Roman Catholic 
parentage was incorporated by the Legislature of 
the Stale of Connecticut, May Session, 1865. Its 
commodious buildings, in the midst of pleasant 
grounds, may be found in Highland street, between 
Whitney avenue and Prospect street. 

The corporation consists of the pastors of all the 
Roman Catholic Churches of the Orphan Asylum 
District and their successors in the pastorate, and 
three laymen appointed, at the annual meeting of 
the corporation for the ensuing year, from each of 
the Roman Catholic parishes of the City of New 
Haven. The Bishop of the Diocese is, ex officio, 
President of the corporation. 

A board of managers, appointed annually, con- 
sisting of fifteen members of the corporation, have 
the supervision of the general affairs of the institu- 
tion. They devise ways and means for raising 
funds for the support of the asylum, and direct the 
outlay of the same. 



680 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



The asylum is supported by a charge for board 
and voluntary donations. No child is admitted 
under the age of three years, nor over the age of 
twelve years. There are i6o children, 112 boys, 
48 girls. The interior management of the asylum 
is intrusted to fifteen Sisters of Mercy. 

The Home i-ok the Friendless. 

Within the past quarter of the century the minds 
of many of our most philanthropic citizens were 
much impressed with the fact that our streets were 
frequented by many idle and vagrant young girls 
who were being enticed into evil ways. 

A meeting of benevolent ladies was called to- 
gether to consult upon the best plan for correcting 
this state of things, and for providing shelter and 
instruction to these wanderers from the paths of 
virtue. Many of these young neglected ones had, 
on account of intemperance or other sin, been cast 
off by their own families, and, having forfeited the 
confidence of the community had small hope of 
escaping the vorte.x of disgrace and death which 
threatened to engulph them. 

The first meeting of these ladies was held at the 
house of the late Mrs. Eli Whitney, always fore- 
most in good works, where the society to be called 
The Home for the Friendless was organized. 

The request for incorporation was presented to 
the Legislature of the State, and in May, 1867, an 
act of incorporation was granted, by which the 
founders and their successors were made and con- 
stituted a body politic and corporate, to continue 
forever by name, style and title of "The Home for 
the Friendless." 

Through the benevolence of a number of gentle- 
men interested in the cause, among whom Mr. 
James Brewster and Mr. Morris Tyler deserve 
especial mention, the means were furnished for the 
purchase of a house, and the home on Clinton 
avenue was opened with nineteen inmates. 

As time went on it w^as found desirable to extend 
the benefits of the home to others besides the class 
for whom it was at first designed. 

Destitute wives with small children, women fee- 
ble in health and destitute of the means of support, 
even little neglected children— too young to be 
received at the Orphan Asylum— knocked at our 
doors and could not be refused. For this reason 
some alteration was made in the terms of admis- 
sion, and the institution is more than even at the 
first inception of the work, a Home for the Friend- 
less. 

From the small number who were at the first 
inmates of the home, its benefits and shelter have 
been accorded to no less than nine hundred and 
sixty persons during the nineteen years which have 
elapsed since its foundation, and it now takes its 
place among the benevolent institutions of the city 
which from year to year enlist the sympathy of the 
charitable. Upon such sympathy and the gifts to 
which it prompts, the home is dependent for its 
support. 

The officers of the society at the beginning of 
the present year (1886) were: Miss E. W. Daven- 



port, President; Mrs. William Hilihouse, Vice-Pres- 
ident; Mrs. Charles C. Foote, Treasurer; Mrs. Jus- 
tus S. Hotchkiss, Corresponding Secretary; Mrs. 
Samuel Harris, Recording Secretary. 

The New Haven Aid Society. 

In November, 1864, a society was organized un- 
der the name of The New Haven Work and Aid 
Society, its object, as expressed in the constitution, 
being "to relieve extreme poverty, to prevent street 
begging, to expose imposture, to provide employ- 
ment for and otherwise look after vagrants, dis- 
charged and convicted criminals, and degraded 
children." 

Besides other officers, a manager was appointed 
for each ward, who was authorized to divide his 
ward into sections and appoint a visitor for each 
section. For a few years an agent was employed, 
who received, at a central office, applications for 
assistance, and distributed to the needy, clothing, 
etc., furnished by the citizens for this purpose. But 
the office requiring for rent and attendance too 
large a per cent, of the society's receipts, this feature 
was relinquished. In 1867 the name was changed 
to The New Haven Aid Society, more for brevity's 
sake than because of any change in the society's 
methods of aiding its beneficiaries. It has been 
from the first its policy to aid the poor by assisting 
them to find work. 

The society has never been incorporated, nor 
held any permanent funds, but has depended en- 
tirely on the liberality of citizens of New Haven 
for means to carry on its work. The amount dis- 
tributed during the twent)' years of its operation is 
$46,800, averaging $2,340 yearly. The expense 
of administration has been about eight per cent, 
since the discontinuance of the central office. 

Officers for 1884-85: William L. Kingsley, Presi- 
dent; James Olmstead, Professor Francis Wayland, 
James P. Smith, Ruel P. Cowles, Samuel G. 'Thorn, 
Louis Feldman, Vice-Presidents; Richard E. Rice, 
Secretary and Treasurer. Ward Managers: First 
Ward, James Fairman; Second Ward, Horace P. 
Hoadley; Third Ward, George R. Bill; Fourth 
Ward, Nicholas Countryman; Fifth Ward, Dr. L. 
M. Gilbert; Sixth Ward, Simmons Hine; Seventh 
Ward, M. M. Gower; Eighth Ward, William J. At- 
water; Ninth Ward, Daniel Bicon; Tenth Ward, 
James Olmstead; Eleventh Ward, James P. Smith; 
Twelfth Ward, George E. Thompson. 

United Workers' Society. 

In the summer of 1872, a few ladies, represent- 
ing diffisrent churches, met to consider the increas- 
ing need of practical benevolent work among the 
poorer classes of the city, in addition to that done 
by existing organizations. This meeting resulted 
in the formation of The Society of the United 
Workers, in October of the same year. The name 
was chosen as indicative of the aim of the society, 
viz. : to include all denominations among its work- 
ers, and to unite all feasible branches of work un- 
der the same organization. 



PHI LA NTHROPIC INSTITUTIONS. 



681 



Of the many objects that appealed to a society 
thus estabHshed, only four could receive immediate 
attention — the visitation and relief of the sick 
poor; the systematic visitation of the Almshouse; 
the recognition and protection of working women 
and girls, especially strangers, by providing a suit- 
able boarding-house; and the establishment of a 
coffee-house where laboring men could find cheap, 
warm meals, in connection with reading-rooms 
that would rival in attractiveness the low dram 
shops. 

There was much interest in the movement, and 
many enrolled themselves as subscribers and volun- 
teer workers. Each different department was placed 
in charge of a committee, under the general direc- 
tion of an E.xecutive Committee of nine ladies and 
an Advisory Committee of gentlemen. 

Two other objects soon claimed an enlargement 
so imperatively, that a boys' club and an employ- 
ment bureau were added. The former was to 
make provision for the boys who were crowding 
into the coffee-house reading-room; the latter, to 
help poor mothers of families, whose circumstances 
cut them off from the ordinary resources of working 
women, and whose skill in sewing was insufficient 
to secure them better work. 

For a few years the boarding and coffee-houses 
brought heavy expenses, although generous dona- 
tions aided in their furnishing. The boarding- 
house did much for the class for whom it was in- 
tended, but it could not be made self-supporting. 
This difficulty, added to business depression and 
limited resources, made it necessary to abandon the 
enterprise after six years of usefulness, since the 
amount of good accomplished, though great, did 
not justify so much expenditure on the part of a 
society having other claims on its funds. This 
work, so reluctantly dropped in 1878, has since 
been undertaken by the Young Women's Christian 
Association. 

The coffee-house reached a self-sustaining basis 
at the end of five years, and in the ninth year a 
second house was opened, but coffee-house No. 2 
was never financially successful. 

In 1883, after eleven years under the patronage 
of the societv, the whole coftee-house business was 
sold out, because it was found that the need of such 
a house was met by many cheap temperance res- 
taurants, when formerly there had been only one, 
and other societies were doing the purely charitable 
work that might fall to a coffee-house. 

The Almshouse "Visiting Committee during its 
first vears, brought so many of the then existing 
evils before the public, as to be largely influential 
in procuring the changes that have since made its 
mission comparatively simple. 

The Committee for the Relief of the Sick Poor 
found a steadily increasing demand upon its re- 
sources of money, time, and patience. The words 
sickness and poverty combined are sufficient to 
reveal the need of this department. It is compara- 
tively easy to give money in charity; but to take the 
care of a poor family into one's heart; to meet with 
scenes physically and morally repulsive; to give 
leisure hours, thought and energy; to be undaunted 

86 



by ingratitude and failure; all these form a difficult 
task, but it was cheerfully undertaken by this com- 
mittee. 

The Employment Bureau has always been the 
most important ally of the ReliefCommiitee, making 
it possible to help the poor without pauperizing 
them. The value of the work given has rarely been 
over fifty cents a week to each applicant, and it has 
never been given except in cases of real need; but 
the number of applicants for this small sum has 
grown to from forty to seventy each week, and the 
garments made are so largely salable as to sustain 
the department at a cost of ii2 50 a year. 

The Boys' Club has been the only part of the so- 
ciety's work which called for the expenditure of 
money in salaries, and here, at an average cost of 
$500 a year, a warm pleasant room, with attractive 
books and games, has been provided for street boys. 

The club room has been so well patronized and 
enjoyed as fully to justify the expenditure. A 
gymnasium and carpenter's bench have been added 
within the last two years with good results. 

The latest advance of the society has been the 
addition of a sewing school, especially for the chil- 
dren of its beneficiaries. In this branch of in- 
dustr}-, forty or fifty children are taught each week 
in the room occupied by the other committees in 
the Old State House, which has also given shelter 
to the Boys' Club for some years. 

The yearly subscriptions have been only about 
eight hundred dollars, an amount increased by dona- 
tions and entertainmenis to an average annual in- 
come of about fifteen hundred dollars, but the large 
corps of volunteer workeis, and freedom from the 
need of salaried officers, has enabled all money to 
tell directly on the work of the society; which has 
closed its thirteenth year with every prospect of 
continued usefulness and assurance of public interest 
and support. 

Leil.v Day Nursery. 

Early in the year 1883, it was determined to re- 
new an attempt made in previous years to establish 
in New Haven a day nursery, where working 
women could be assured of a safe place and good 
care in which to leave their children on going to 
their day's labor. 

A small house was secured in William street in 
January of that year, but during the first summer 
there was slight success in the undertaking. In the 
autumn a new matron entered upon the work with 
more earnestness, and it soon became appreciated 
by those whom it was intended to help. Since 
then some forty-three families have been assisted 
each year, and there are now in the nursery, on an 
average, thirteen children each day, the greatest 
number during the past year on any one day having 
been twenty-six. 

For a fe\v months during 1884, the nursery ex- 
tended an invitation to the free kindergarten to 
use one of its rooms, and some of the nursery chil- 
dren have ever since gratefully continued their con- 
nection with the kindergarten. 

Late in the year 1 884 a laundry was established 



w 



683 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA YEN. 



in the basement of the nursery, to aid the mothers 
of the children who found it hard to procure work. 
This continued for a year and a half, and was only 
discontinued this summer, in the hope of renew- 
ing it in the autumn under some efficient head 
laundress. 

The great need of the institution is a building 
which will be large enough for both laundry and 
nursery. Of this, five hundred dollars is on hand 
and another five hundred has been promised, but 
this is hardly one-sixth of the amount required. 

The running expenses of the nursery are met by 
subscriptions, donations, and an annual fiir. The 
matron is Mrs. Helen Pritchard. 

The Young Women's Christian Association 

was organized in i8So, and incorporated by the 
General Assembly in 1882. Its object is to pro- 
mote the temporal, moral and religious welfare of 
women, especially of young women who are de- 
pendent upon their own exertions for support It 
provides for those who come to our city to obtain 
employment, a home where they are under good 
influences and at the same time self-supporting. 

Connected with the home are various classes for 
instruction, some of which are gratuitously taught 
by ladies belonging to the association and others 
by professional teachers, who are remunerated by 
means of contributions made for that special pur- 
pose. 

The association owns the house it occupies on 
Chapel street, opposite Wooster square, but in pur- 
chasing it, incurred a debt which impedes the 
much needed expansion of its benevolent work. 

The Yot'NG Men's Christian Association 

is in some sense a philanthropic institution, though 
not to the same extent as the association which 
cares for young women; inasmuch as young men 
are better able to provide for themselves than the 
weaker sex. 

The Young Men's Christian Association chiefly 
depends for its support upon those who partake of 
its privileges and advantages. It furnishes a read- 
ing-room, classes for instruction, and occasional 
lectures; and is a j)lace of resort where moral and 
religious young men coming into the city as 
strangers may iind congenial society. 

While its members are able to pay for the privi- 
leges it affords them a sufficient amount to defray 
ordinary expenses, the money of a philanthropist 
might be judiciously invested in a larger and more 
commodious edifice than that which the association 
now occupies. 

The Board of Associated Charities. 

The New Haven Board of Associated Charities 
was organized in the year 1878. It had its origin 
in the evident need of some system by which any 
person asking for help could be sure of considerate 
attention, and by which, also, any one desiring to 
bestow such help could be certain that it would 



reach the person really in need and worthy of 
kindly aid. There were already in New Huven 
many excellent charities of various names and for 
different objects, but each doing its work in its own 
way, and generally without much, if any, knowledge 
of what others were doing. Among them all 
there was none where continued attention could be 
depended upon until there was no further need of 
help. There was no way by which those who 
were able to work could show, when out of work, 
their willingness to provide for themselves as far as 
they were able; neither was there any means of 
showing who were able to support themselves 
wholly or in part and yet were unwilling to do so. 

At the time of its organization the New Haven 
Board of Associated Charities was, as far as then 
known, the only work of its kind in this country. 
Efforts had been made in London and in some 
continental cities to bring charitable work into 
some system and order, but on this side of the 
water there had been hardly any attempts at organ- 
izing charity. The work in New Haven was 
commenced as a part of the work of the City 
Missionary Society, and, in order to separate its re- 
lief work from its religious work, a central office 
of charities was opened by the Superintendent of 
Missions, Rev. W. D. Mossman, and for several 
months carried on as a department of mission work, 
having among its special subscribers Hon. H. B. 
Bigelow, Hon. O. F. Winchester, Professor Tim- 
othy Dwight, Professor E. E. Salisbur}', Hon. 
S. E. Baldwin, Professor F. R. Honey, and others, 
including also a number of ladies prominent in the 
charitable work of the city. 

The object in this experimental work was to 
provide for the sending to the central office all 
unknown applicants for charitable help; for the 
careful investigation of each case presenting itself 
there; and the obtaining of help for those who were 
worthy, through the relief agencies already estab- 
lished. The success of the undertaking was such, 
that, having received the approval of several of the 
principal charitable organizations of the city, Mr. 
Mossman proposed to place the office and its work 
in the care and control of an association to be 
made up of representatives of any or all of the 
existing charitable organizations of the city, as in- 
tended not to do the work of any of these societies, 
but to assist in the work of each, and to supple- 
ment the work of all. Eight societies having ac- 
cepted this proposition, the organization of the 
New Haven Board of Associated Charities was 
effected June i, 1878. Hon. Francis Wayland 
was elected Chairman of the Board; the house and 
grounds at 47 Court street, were leased for the 
work of the Board; public notice was given by 
printed circulars, as well as through the daily 
papers, of the principles upon which the work was 
to be conducted; and cards were given, to all who 
would use them, for the sending of all unknown 
applicants for charity to the headquarters of the or- 
ganization. 

In the limited space of this article it is, of 
course, impossible to fully give the history, or de- 
scribe the operations of the organized charities of 



PHILANTHROPIC INSTITUTIONS. 



683 



this city. The annual reports and other papers 
issued by the organization fully explain the 
methods and results. A few of the principles may 
however be stated, and among them are the 
thorough investigation of all cases brought to the 
notice of the central office; the proper relief of all 
deserving cases of destitution by the e.xisting chari- 
ties whenever possible; the giving of relief when 
immediate aid is needed; and also, when all other 
sources fail, preventing, as far as possible, all 
forms of begging, and especially saving children 
from growing up as paupers; making employment 
of all able-bodied applicants the basis of relief; en- 
deavoring to bring about co-operation among all 
charitable agencies; a system of visiting the poor at 
their homes; a careful study of the causes of 
pauperism; also the best means of improving the 
health and habits of the poor, and the bringing 
them to self-support and self-respect. 

In the faithful endeavor to carry on this work in 
accordance w-ith the principles stated, many diffi- 
culties have been met with, including much 
diversity of opinion as to this new way of doing 
charitable work. But the exposing of imposture 
on the part of some who had been helped for 
years from generous private purses; the improve- 
ment in families that had never made any such 
progress under the old system of relief; together 
with the general acceptance of these same prin- 
ciples for the guidance of benevolent action in 
between fifty and sixty other cities in this country, 
have gradually brought the work of this Board to 
the approval and support of the best citizens of 
New Haven. One of the best proofs of the public 
confidence in its work, as well as in the efficiency 
of its management, is the proposition recently 
made, that it shall undertake the administration of 
all the outdoor relief now given officially by the town. 

The Board of Associated Charities now includes 
representatives of fourteen difierent charitable or- 
ganizations or institutions in the city, together with 
a number of pastors of churches and citizens 
elected to membership because of their special in- 
terest or help in the work, or actual experience in 
dealing with the problem of poverty and pauperism. 
Among those not already mentioned who are 
now connected with the work of the Board, 
are Hiram Camp, Max Adler, Rev. E. S. 
Lines, Charles A. Sheldon, S. G. Thorn, Colonel 
S. J. Fox, R. E. Rice and S. H. Barnum. Re- 
moved by death while connected with the Board 
are found the names of Atwater Treat, George 
Ailing and Dr. Thomas P. Gibbons. Hon. Francis 
Wayland has continued Chairman of the Board 
until the present time, and to his efforts in behalf 
of this work much of its success is due. Rev. 



W. D. Mossman had for eight years the general 
care of the work as Chairman of the Committee in 
Charge. Special mention should also be made of 
the generous help of Hiram Camp, President of the 
New Haven Clock Company, who for several years 
gave $600 annually to provide the salary for the 
agent of the Board; as also of the first subscription 
of $100, made up jointly by Hon. Francis Way- 
land, H. C. Kingsley, Hon. H. B. Harrison, and 
E. C. Read, to enable the newly organized Board 
to establish a labor test without delay. 

This sketch would not be comjjlete without in- 
cluding the influence and advice in the early part 
of this work by Mrs. Dr. Francis Bacon, together 
with help in various ways by Mrs. Walter Osborne 
(the first subscriber), Mrs. Professor W. D. Whit- 
ney, Miss Frances Walker, Mrs. M. L. Parsons, 
and Mrs. H. E. Cutler. The central office of the 
Board was successfully maintained for five years at 
47 Court street, with E. N. Seelye as agent, and 
Mrs. Elizabeth Pierce as matron, and in 1883 was 
transferred to 23 Church street, a more central 
location and convenient surroundings; where, with 
S. O. Preston as agent, and Mrs. E. J. Baker as 
matron, the work of organized charity is now in 
daily operation and open to the inspection of all 
who are interested in its success. 

It invites the kindly and intelligent criticism of 
any who may be able to suggest improvement in 
its efforts to benefit the dependent people of this 
community, and especially asks a careful study of 
its principles and methods of work. It is also very 
desirable for the more complete carrying on of its 
work that a large number of people should each 
take some share in that work, either as contributors 
or friendly visitors to the poor, or in various other 
ways that will be suggested to those who may offer 
their services. The object is not to gather informa- 
tion at a central point in order that all the duties 
involved may be centered upon those employed for 
the doing of certain parts of the charitable work of 
the city, but rather to distribute from that point to 
such others in the community as are able to bear it, 
the responsibility that always begins when informa- 
tion is anywhere received of others in distress. A 
substantial proof of acceptance of such responsi- 
bility woulil be the erection of a building suitable 
not only for the various uses already called for by 
the work of the Associated Charities, but also for 
the common use of all organizations in the city en- 
gaged in work of like character, the service of the 
strong for the saving of the weak. This would in- 
deed be a life-saving station, an honor as well as 
an ornament to the city; an enduring memorial to 
those who shall erect it for others rather than for 
themselves. 



684 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 



CEMETERIES. 



FROM the settlement of the town in 1638, to 
1797, the common place of sepulture was, 
according to the old English custom, contiguous 
to the house of worship. The first meeting-house 
was probably placed exacdy in the middle of the 
square which, from the beginning, was sequestered 
for public use. When there was occasion to dig 
graves they were dug behind, that is west of, the 
meeting-house. The second house of worship was 
placed so far east of the first that it could be com- 
pleted before its predecessor was demolished. The 
third meeting-house was so placed that its front 
was in a line with the west boundary of Temple 
street, the steps at the east door projecting into the 
street. 

Some of the graves must have been near to this 
third meeting-house, but there is no reason for be- 
lieving that it covered any of them. When the 
present Centre Church was erected in 18 13, it was 
by design placed further west, and consequently 
over the graves that were near to the west wall of 
its predecessor. A few graves were disturbed in 
digging trenches for the foundation of the new edi- 
fice, and whatever human remains the workmen 
found were transferred to the new cemetery. The 
church was then built over the graves inclosed 
within its foundation walls, and for about three- 
quarters of a century has preserved their ancient 
tombstones from injury. Recently the Ecclesias- 
tical Society, to which tiie house belongs, has paved 
"the crypt" with concrete, and furnished it with 
gas burners, so that one can read the inscriptions, 
which, but for this care, the visitor might have found 
illegible.* 

In 1 797 the cemetery in Grove street began to be 
used, and from that time burials on the Green 
gradually ceased, the latest being that of Mrs. 
Martha Whittlesey, who was buried by the side of 
her husband, the Rev. Chauncey Whittlesey, in 
October, 1 81 2. These two graves are in the crypt; 
but in October, 18 12, the trenches had not been 
dug for the foundation of the church. 

The Centre Church covers the tombstones of 
about one hundred and forty persons, whose names 
are inscribed on tablets in the vestibule of the 
church. More than eight hundred other tomb- 
stones have been removed from the Green to the 
cemetery in Grove street. About four hundred and 
seventy of them may b» found ranged in approxi- 
mately alphabetical order against the west and 
north walls of the inclosure. Others are in the 
family lots of persons who have cared for them as 
memorials of their kindred. The oldest stone re- 
moved from the (keen is believed to be that which 
commemorates Samuel Hodshon, who died August 
26, 1673. aged nine years. The oldest in the crypt 



•Forlhesc improvements in the crypt of the Centre Church, the 
public are much indebted to the thoughifulness and diligence of Mr. T. 
R. Trowbridge, Jr. 



is said to be that which was erected to the memory 
of the father of the above named child. It hears 
the inscription: 

Mr. John Hodshon deceas'' in the 74"" year of his 
age in ( kto*" Ve 14"' 1690. 

Mr. Hodshon left the largest estate settled in the 
colony previous to the eighteenth century. He 
made a legacy of five pounds to the first church in 
New Haven with which to buy plate, and one of 
the cups used by the church still bears his name. 
There is, however, a stone on the Green, outside of 
the walls of the church, which is older than the Hod- 
shon stone in the crypt. It is the stone, so small as 
easily to escape observation, inscribed E. W. , stand- 
ing near the inclosure of the Dixwell monument. It 
was too small seriously to obstruct either vision or 
motion, and was probably left in its original posi- 
tion because it was thought to be the tombstone of 
Edward Whalley, one of the regicide judges. A 
more critical age connects it with the memory of 
Edward Wigglesworth, who came in 1637 from 
Hedon, Yorkshire, and died in New Haven in 

1653- 
Another stone left in its original place on the 

Green, because it was supposed to commemorate a 
regicide judge, is that marked mgi not far from 
the grave of Wigglesworth. The grave beneath it 
probably contains the ashes of Matthew Gilbert, 
one of the seven men selected by the first planters 
to be the nucleus of the Church and the origin of 
the State. The fruitful fancy of President Stiles 
saw in the unskillful lettering an attempt to con- 
ceal the resting place of William Gofte. 

There is undoubtedly one of the regicide judges 
of King Charles the Eirst, buried in New Haven. 
John Dixwell settled here in 1665, under the as- 
sumed name of James Davids. A Stone placed at 
his grave soon after his death is inscribed: 

J. D. Esqr DECEASED MARCH Ye 18th IN ye 
82 YEAR OF HIS AGE 1688. 

A monument erected by his descendants in 1849 
stands near this ancient memorial. 

Some of the notable inscriptions in the crypt, be- 
sides that which commemorates Mr. John Hod- 
shon, are the following: 



Mrs Hester Coster 

Aged 67 Deceased 

April Ye 6th i6gi. 

In Memory 

of 

M" Margaret Arnold 

Wife of 
Benedict Arnold Esq 

who departed this 

Life June 19"" 1775 

in the 31st Year 

of her Age. 



CEMETERIES. 



685 



M. M. S. 

Mrs Rebekah Hays 

the amiable and virtuous consort 

of Capt EzeUiel Hays 

& daughter of Col. John Russel 

late of Pr'nford, departed 

this life May ay'ii 1773 
in the 51st year of her age. 
Her children rise up and call her blessed. Her husliand 
also praiseth her. 

The Hon. 

James A. Hillhouse 

died Oct 3. 1775 

^45. 



Sacred to the memory of 

James Abraham Hillhousej 

who died Oct 3. 1775 

Also his wife 

Mary Lucas 

who died June 20, 1812 

Aged Sg 



In Memory of 

The Honb" Jared Ingersol Esq., 

Judge of the Court of Vice Admiralty 

in the Middle District 

in America. 

A man of an uncommon Genius 

which was cultivated 

By a liberal education at Yale College 

And improved by the study of Mankind, 

And of Laws, Policy and Goveninient, 

He distinguished himself at the Bar, 

Where his perspicuity and Energy in Reasoning 

And Equality in Conducting Causes 

Elevated him 

To the First Eminence in his Profession. 

Under the appointment of the General Assembly 

He was twice honored 

With the AGENCV from CONNECTICUT 

At the Court of Great Britain. 

His Morals were unblemished. 

lie was thoughtful, collected and sagacious, 

open and sincere, 

mild, affalilc and courteous. 

Adapting himself to all 

By a rich variety of sentiment and Expression 

Yet preserving in his whole Behavior 

A graceful and majestic Dignity. 

He died Aug. 25111 a.d. 1781 

.^itat 60. 

By his side lieth also interred, 

His amiable Consort 

Mrs Hannah Ingersoll 

who departed this Life 

Oct 9th A. D. 1779 

Aged 66 years. 

HERE LYETH Y' BODY OF Y= REVd 

Mr TAMES PIERPOINT Y" LATE 

FAITHFUL AND ABLE MINISTER 

OF Ye GOSPEL IN N HAVEN. 

AN ELOQUENT MAN & MIGHTY 

IN Y« SCRIPTURES, WHO BEING 

FERUENT IN SPIRIT CEASED 

NOT FOR THE SPACE OF 30 YEARS 

TO WARN EVERY t)NE DAY 

AND NIGHT W'^ TEARS: WHEN 

HE FINISHED HIS COVRSE 

NOV. 22'i 1714 ETATIS ss. 

ANAG. Pie repone te. 

Also Mrs Mary 

the 3"' wife 

of the above REVd 

Mr. James PIERPOINT 

who died NOVEMBER ist 1740 

Etatis Suie 68. 



REV JOSEPH NOYES. A MAN OF 

GOD f:MINENT FOR PRUDENCE 

CATHOLIC IN SENTIMK.NTS, (HVEN TO 

HOSPITALITY, PATIENT IN TRIBU- 
LATIONS & ABUNDANT IN LABORS 
H.WI.NG SERVJ HIS GENERATION 
BY THE WILL OF Gl )D. 5 YEARS 
A TUTOR, & 26 A FELLOW, OF 
Y COLLECIE, & 45 PASTOR OF 
Y« 1st CHURCH IN N HAVEN 
DIED JUNE 14 1761 AtiED 73. 

Mrs ABIGAIL NOYES 
Relict of the Rev. JOSEPH NOYES 
died at Weathersfield y loth day of Oct. 1768 
..'E 73 lS: was Buried in that place. 
A Gentlewoman of a sweet and delicate Temiier, of fe- 
male Virtue an Example. She greatly excelled in the Knowl- 
edge of Y« Scriptures they were the Guide of hur Youth & 
Y" Comfort & Support of her Age. She was a I.oviNg 
P.arent, to y Poor, Charitable to the Faulty a faithful Re- 
prover, to the Cause of Truth a Friend. Her life was dili- 
gent & useful. Her heaven began on Earth. She saw through 
a C!lass darkly but now tace to face. 

O Grave, where is thy Victory. 

To the Memory of the reverend 
CHAUNCEY WHITTELSEY 
A.M. fifth pastor of the first Church in this city. Witheminen 
natural talents and human acquirements he united a firm 
attachment to the principles of civil & religious liberty. He 
inculcated the doctrines of grace as motives to holiness, con- 
stantly taught and in various relations exem[)lified the more 
excellent way and, having discharged with fidelity cS: dig- 
nity the duties of the pastoral office closed his useful life 
with a full hope of immortality July 24, 1787 in the 70th 
year of his age and 30"' of his ministry. 

Dan" XII'i' 3d 
And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the 
firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the 
stars for ever and ever. 

The merit of originating the Grove Street Ceme- 
tery is due, as has been said in a previous chapter, 
to the Hon. James Hillhouse. Moved, as he pro- 
fessed, by a desire "to secure to his own and the 
families of his fellow-citizens a sacred and inviolate 
burial place," he purchased six acres, and soon 
after four acres in addition, in what was then the 
edge of the town, to be divided into family lots. 
The division into family lots, though now an ordi- 
nary feature of cemeteries, was then an original 
idea. Associated with Mr. Hillhouse in the under- 
taking were thirty-two other persons, who so far 
assisted as to agree to purchase family lots. These 
persons were incorporated in October, 1797, under 
the name of " The Proprietors of the New Burying 
Ground in New Haven." A committee was then 
chosen to "ornament the grounds with such kinds 
and so many rows of trees as they shall judge ad- 
visable." The first burial in the new cemetery was 
that of Martha, wife of John Townsend, who died 
November 9, 1797. 

In 1800, the finances of the company being in 
an unsatisfactory condition, Mr. Hillhouse paid its 
debts with his own funds, and agreed to make the 
improvements which had been contemplated, and 
wait till he could be paid out of the receipts for 
lots to be sold. From 1800 to 1815 he had the 
entire management of the alTairs of the company. 
In 1S14, about eight acres were adiled to the ten 
previously acquired, and changes were made in the 
position of a highway which brought the additional 
land into the same inclosure with the older por- 



686 



til STORY OF THE CifY OF NEW HA VEN. 



tion of the cemeter}'. In 1820 the city paid the 
company for a tract of three acres, till then unused, 
and after selHng a portion to Yale College, and set- 
ting apart sections for the burial of the poor and of 
strangers and people of color, removed the tomb- 
stones from die ancient burial ground on the Green 
to a section set apart for their reception. 

The report of the committee appointed to super- 
intend the removal was submitted, as follows: 

The Committee appointeJ to superintend the removal of 
the monuments from the Ancient Burying-Ground beg leave 
to rtpart. -—That they purchased for the city the proposed 
lot, inclosed and leveled the same. It was then laid out in 
conformity with the general plan of the Burying-Ground 
and divided as follows: 

Six City Squares, numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; 

One Square (or Yale College; 

One for Strangers; 

One for People of Color. 

After the Religious services in the church, the Committee, 
accompanied by the President and Officers of the College, 
commenced the work of removal by conveying the monu- 
ments of Officers and Students to the new College Square. 
Their next care was the removal, on application of survivors, 
of monuments into family lots in the New Ground. 

All the other monuments were then removed to City 
Square No. I ; on the north of which are two lots re- 
served for the Methodist and Baptist Societies, the other So- 
cieties having had lots assigned to them in the first distribu- 
tion of the ground. 

The burial of citizens not having family lots, has com- 
menced at the southwest corner of City Square No. 2 and 
will be contmued in regular order till that square shall be 
tilled, when the burying in No. 3 will be commenced at the 
S. W. corner; and the same order will be observed without 
any variation, in the other City Squares and in those allotted 
to College, to strangers, and to people of color. 

The committee caused the Ancient Ground to be leveled, 
and a common monument to be erected in rear of the Centre 
Church. A copy of the inscription is inclosed, together 
with a list of the deceased, whose monuments are covered 
by the Centre Church; also a list of those whose monuments 
were recently renioved, and a plan of the New Burying 
Ground entire, with the names of the original owners or 
pre.sent proprietors of family lots. 

Some survivors removed the remains and monuments of 
their friends into their own lots, previous to the general re- 
nioval. Some of the monuments had been broken, and the 
inscriptions on others were either illegible or very obscure. 
Our lists must in some respects be incorrect and defective; 
but, such as they are, we trust that they will be acceptable 
to our fellow-citizens, whose friendly and zealous co-opera- 
tion with us in the discharge of this public service is grate- 
fully acknowledged. 

The audited expense of this concern, including the pur- 
chase of the lot, being $1,289.38, has been fully paid to us 
by the City Treasurer. 

In behalf of the Committee. 

James Hillhouse, 

,, ,, , Chairman. 

New Haven, September i, 1821. 

As there were thirty-two purchasers of the ten 
acres set apart as a burial place in 1796, so there 
were thirty-two purchasers of the eight acres added 
m 1 814; and as in the first instance so in the 
second, the name of James Hillhouse was at the 
head of the list. In May, 182 1, upon the petition 
ol the proprietors of the eight acres added in 1814 
the General Assembly of the State "Resolved, that 
said eight acres of land, described as aforesaid be 
and the same is hereby added to said burying 
ground, subject to the same rules and regulations 
and entided to the same privileges and exemptions'; 
and that the petitioners and other purchasers shall 



become members of said corporation on the terms 
and conditions provided in said resolve." 

But as it was provided in the act of 182 1 that 
it should not go into effect until the proprietors 
had signified their assent, and this formality was 
neglected till 1839, the proprietors of the eight 
acres added in 1814 did not become, legally, mem- 
bers of the corporation till 1839. 

In the year just mentioned a new interest sprang 
up in the cemetery. A committee appointed at a 
meeting of the proprietors in May, 1839, " to in- 
quire into the condition of the New Haven Burial 
Ground, and to propose a plan for its improve- 
ment," reported in September. From that report 
most of the material for the historical sketch given 
in the preceding pages has been derived. 

The report of that committee awakened such in- 
terest in the improvement of the cemetery, that the 
Common Council of the city voted "to pay for 
the purpose of inclosing and improving the City 
Burying Ground, a sum equal to that which may 
be raised for the same purpose by individual dona- 
tions or from other sources, provided that the sum 
so appropriated shall not in the whole exceed 
$5,000, and to be paid in three annual instal- 
ments. " 

A joint committee of five appointed by the pro- 
prietors, and five more appointed by the city, was 
organized to inclose and improve the cemetery, and 
continued to prosecute the work with which they 
were charged for ten years, the city having mean- 
while added to its original gift of $5,000 an addi- 
tional $2,000 for the construction of the massive 
gateway through which the inclosure is entered. 

The funds expended by the joint committee 
amounted to nearly $25,000. Of this sum, about 
$11,000 were laid out on the wall built on three 
sides of the inclosure; $3,500 on the iron palisade 
in front; $5,600 on the gateway; and about $2,400 
on the preparation of the ground, the planting of 
trees and shrubbery, and expenses incident to their 
preservation. 

In 1849 this joint committee surrendered their 
trust to the two parties by whom they were ap- 
pointed. 

Two members of this joint committee deserve 
especial mention. Aaron N. Skinner, having grad- 
uated at Yale College and spent several years in 
teaching, commenced the practice of law in New 
Haven. But bis reputation as a teacher bringing 
him applications to receive into his family a few 
pupils, the number of his pupils increased beyond 
his original intention, till he withdrew from the 
practice of law to devote his life to the profession 
of a teacher. He was several times chosen by his 
fellow citizens to represent them in the General 
Assembly; was Mayor of the city for four years in 
succession; and, but for his unwillingness to con- 
tinue in the oflSce, might have received another 
nomination. "As a member of the committee 
under whose superintendence the cemetery was 
inclosed and made beautiful, Mr. Skinner was 
more efficient than any other person. His taste; 
his judgment; his readiness in all efforts for the 
public good; and his influence with his fellow 



I 



CEMETERIES. 



687 



citizens, were all employed with a heartiness and 
enthusiasm characteristic of the man. From the 
earliest preliminary consultations till the work was 
completed, he never grew weary. The wall, the 
fence, and the gateway were constructed under his 
watchful oversight; not a tree was planted but un- 
der his personal direction. Every hour that he 
could command was devoted to the work till he 
saw it finished. " 

The other member of this committee who de- 
serves special mention, is Edward C. Herrick. No 
one rendered more willing or more constant ser- 
vice than he. " His name appears in the list of the 
committee who first reported, in 1839, on the con- 
dition of the cemetery and the improvements which 
might be made. In September, 1841, he was 
chosen clerk of the proprietors. In May, 1842, 
he was appointed a member of the joint committee 
on the part of the city. He had hardly entered 
this body when he was appointed its Secretary, and 
he held this office, as his neat and legible record of 
all the subsequent meetings shows, until, in the 
summer of 1849, the committee was dissolved. 
And when, at this change in the affairs of the bury- 
ing ground, the future care and oversight were en- 
trusted to three persons to be called the 'Standing 
Committee of the New Haven Burying Ground.' 
Mr. Heriick became a member of that committee 
and held the office till his death." 

Since the dissolution of the joint committee, in 
1849, the cemetery has been under the care of a 
standing committee of three persons, of whom one 
is the Clerk of the Corporation. This standing 
committee at present consists of James M. Mason, 
Clerk of the Corporation; Daniel C. Eaton and 
Nathan H. Sanford. 

It is estimated that there are buried within this 
city of the dead, the mortal remains of 10,000 
human beings. Many of this myriad were known 
only to their own townsmen; but it includes with 
them an unusual proportion of persons who have 
achieved a wider fame. 

Commencing at the southeast corner of the ceme- 
tery, one may find in Sylvan avenue the grave of 
" Hiram Bingham, 1789-1869. He and his asso- 
ciate, Asa Thurston, were the first preachers of the 
gospel to the heathen of the Hawaian Islands." In 
the same lot, is the inscription: "Samuel W. S. 
Button, D. D. Born in Guilford, March 14, 1814. 
Pastor of the United Church and Society from June 
June 5, 1838, till his death January 26, 1866." 
On the other side of the avenue, in the tier of lots 
next to the wall which bounds the cemetery on the 
east, is a monument inscribed "Oliver Ellsworth 
Daggett, Born June 14, 1820, Died September i, 
I, 1880." 

In Cypress avenue, next west of Sylvan avenue, 
one may find in the lot belonging to Trinity Church 
a tablet brought from the Green, which bears the 
inscription: 

In memory of 
Enos Ailing Esq: Merchant 

who 
Received a Uberal Education 

In Vale College 



Became an industrious and useful member 

of civil Society 

and 

In a course of extensive and successful commerce 

He approved himself 

The man of Integrity, Virtue and Honor. 

He was a member of the Ix)ndon 

Episcopal Society for propagating the Gospel 

In foreign Parts 

and died universally respected 

Sep. II, 1779. Etat 61. 

The lot next north is the family burial ground of 
the Rev. Bela Hubbard D.D., the first Rector of 
Trinity Church. On the other side of this avenue 
is a small stone commemorating John Hotchkiss, 
who was killed while resisting the attack of the 
British upon New Haven, July 5, 1779. Further 
up the avenue is the tall obelisk erected to the 
memory of Henry Trowbridge, founder of the com- 
mercial house so well known under the name of 
Henry Trowbridge's Sons. Still further up is the 
monument to the memory of the distinguished law- 
yer Dennis Kimberly, and nearly opposite to it on 
the other side of the avenue the monument of Cap- 
tain Edwin S. Hitchcock, of the Townsend Rifles, 
who was killed in the battle of James Island, S. C, 
June 16, 1862. 

Near the south end of ]\Iaple avenue is the burial 
place of the family of Ingersoll. Here lie the re- 
mains of Jonathan Ingersoll, a Judge of the Su- 
perior Court of the State of Connecticut, and from 
1 8 16 till his death, in 1823, Lieutenant-Governor 
of the State. Here are also the remains of two 
members of the same family, sons of the preceding: 
Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll, born February 8, 1789; 
died August 26, 1872; Representative from New 
Haven in the General Assembly of Connecticut 
from 1819-25; Representative from Connecticut in 
the Congress of the United States from 1825-33; 
Minister of the United States to the Court of St. 
Petersburg, 1846-48; and Charles A. Ingersoll, 
Judge of the United States District Court for the 
District of Connecticut; died February 7, i860, 
aged 63 years. 

Within the same inclosure is a monument to the 
memory of Commander Ralph Voorhees, United 
States Navy, whose wife was of the Ingersoll family. 
He died at Smyrna, Asia Minor, while in command 
of the U. S. ship Preble. 

On the other side of Maple avenue is a lot be- 
longing to Yale College, but so filled with graves 
that there is no room for more. Next north of it 
is the family lot of President Dwight. Next to that 
is the grave of Pierpont Edwards, born April 8, 
1750, died April 5, 1826. On the same side of 
the avenue is the family lot of Titus Street, in 
which is the monument to the memory of Rear- 
Admiral Andrew Hull Foote. Further up is the 
monument of Isaac H. Townsend, Professor- of 
Law in Yale College. Still further north, and on 
the same side of the avenue, one finds a mon- 
ument w-ith this inscription: "Nathan Beers, 
Born Feb. 14, 1753, Died Feb. 11, 1849. He 
served his country in the army of the Revolution 
as Lieutenant and Paymaster from March, 
1777, until after the army was disbanded. Was 






HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



Deacon in the North Church from 1804 until his 

In the same lot is a sandstone slab brought from 
the ancient burial ground on the Green, inscribed, 
" Here lies the body of Nathan Beers who was 
born at Stratford and for the last 25 years of his 
life was a respectable inhabitant of this town. He 
received a mortal wound in his own house from a 
party of the British troops in an incursion they 
made to this place, July 5, 1779, with which he 
languished tdl the ioth,when he departed this life 
in the 6ist year of his age." 

On the right hand side of this avenue is the 
family lot of David Daggett, United States Senator 
from Connecticut, Professor of Law inYale College, 
and Chief Judge of the Supreme Court of Connect- 
icut. In this lot lie the remains of Sereno E. 
Dwight, D. D., who was a son-in-law of Judge 
Daggett. Next north of the Daggett lot is that of 
the Bishop family. It contains a sandstone monu- 
ment brought from the ancient burial ground on 
the Green, commemorating several generations of 
the family, from James Bishop, Deputy Governor 
of the Colony of New Haven, to the second Samuel 
Bishop, Mayor of New Haven, who in his old age 
was appointed by President Jefferson, Collector of 
the Port. In the center of this lot is a granite 
monument to Abraham Bishop, who, succeeding to 
his father as Collector of the Port, remained in 
office more than a quarter of a century. 

On the left hand of this avenue is the grave of 
Professor E. T. Fitch, whom so many of the older 
sons of Yale remember as the preacher in the Col- 
lege Chapel. It is said that while he occupied this 
office no student became an infidel. Beyond the 
grave of Professor Fitch is that of Simeon Baldwin, 
a Representative of Connecticut in Congress, a 
Judge of the Superior Court and of the Supreme 
Court of Errors, and Mayor of the City of New 
Haven. 

'I'he same lot contains the grave of Roger S. 
Baldwin, son of the before-mentioned, who was 
Governor of Connecticut and one of her Repre- 
sentatives in the Senate of the United States. In 
the lot next north of that belonging to the Baldwin 
family, is a tablet commemorative of Roger Sher- 
man, the first Mayor of New Haven, and one of 
tiie signers of the Declaration of Independence. 
Still furUier on is the grave of Jeremiah Day, Pres- 
ident of Yale College from 1817 to 1856. 

On the left hand side of this avenue, and nearly 
opposite to the Baldwin lot, is the burial place of 
the Hillhouse family. It contains a monument to 
the first of the family who settled in New Haven, 
James Abraham Hillhouse, who died October 3, 
1775. Another monument commemorates James 
Hillhouse, nephew and adopted son of the before- 
mentioned, who was Treasurer of Yale College 
from 1782 to 1832; Senator of the United States 
from 1794 to 1810; First Commissioner of the 
School Fund from 1810 to 1825. Other members 
of this distinguished family are commemorated by 
suitable monuments. Among them is one to the 
memory of James A. Hillhouse, the author of 
" Hadad" and other poems. Near the north end 



of Maple avenue, but a little west of it, in the tier 
of lots which abut upon the north wall of the cem- 
etery, is the burial place of the Gerry family. El- 
bridge Gerry was never a resident of our city; but, 
after his death, his widow and children adopted 
New Haven as their home. 

In Linden avenue, and near its southern extrem- 
ity, one may find the sandstone tablet which the 
Colony of New Haven erected to the memory of 
Governor Eaton.* It bears the inscription 

Theophilus Eaton, Esq., Gov,. 

Deceased Jan 7, 1657, Etatis, 67. 

EATON, so famed, so wise, so meek, so just. 

The Phoinix of our world here hides his dust. 

This name forget, N. England never must. 

In the same avenue, and not far distant from the 
monument of Eaton, are two ancient slabs of sand- 
stone inscribed respectively: 

Thomas Munson, aged 73, deceased 

the 7th of 3d ni., 1685. 

Joanna Munson, aged 68, deceased 

the 13th of 10 m., 167S. 

In Central avenue, opposite the chapel, is the 
tomb of Nathaniel Jocelyn, the portrait painter. 
He was born January 31, 1796, he died January 
13, 1881. Further up this avenue, and on the 
same side of it with the chapel, is the burial place 
of the family of the late Governor Henry Dutton. 
The name of Henry Melzar Dutton, who fell in the 
battle at Cedar Mountain and was buried on the 
field, is inscribed on the monument over his 
mother's grave. 

Further north is a sandstone slab inscribed, 
Benjamin English, died July 5, 1779, aged 74. 
He was stabbed, while sitting in his own house, 
by a British soldier. 

Near the north end of this avenue is a monu- 
ment to the Rev. James Murdock, S.T.D. Born, 
1776; died, 1856. 

In Locust avenue, near Grove street, is the tomb 
of General Amos B. Eaton, of the United States 
Army. Further up is that of the Rev. Harry Cros- 
well, D.D., Rector of Trinity Church. Died 
March 13, 1858, aged 79 years. Still further up 
are the graves of Professors Hadley, Lamed and 
Gibbs; of Joseph E. Sheffield and Samuel St. John. 
Near the north end of the avenue is a monument 
to the memory of Elisha Lord Cleveland, Pastor 
of the Third Congregational Church, "Erected 
by members of his coirgregation." 

In Cedar avenue is the family burial place of the 
first Professor Benjamin Silliman. Beyond it is 
that of Jedidiah Morse, the father of American 
Geography. In this lot is buried the first wife of 
Samuel F. B. Morse, who gave to the world the 
electric telegraph and to New Haven, Washington 
Allston's picture o( Jeremiah. In Cedar avenue is 
also the monument beneath which are the remains 
of David C. De Forest, who having resided many 
years at Buenos Ayres, was appointed by the Gov- 



• "At a General Court for the jurisdiction tlie 26th of May. 1658, the 
Court, calling to mind the good service done to this colony by our late 
honored Governor, did order that a comely tomb, such as we are 
capable of, shall be made over his grave." 



CEMETERIES. 



689 



ernment of that country, Consul-General to the 
United States. In the early part of this century, 
he was one of the foremost men in New Haven in 
wealth and style. He built the house on the cor- 
ner of Elm and Church streets now occupied by 
I\Ir. .Sargent. North of his grave is the granite 
monument, with a Latin inscription on a plate of 
copper, commemorating the services to his coun- 
try of David Humphreys, aid-de-camp of Wash- 
ington. 

On the right hand side of this avenue is the 
grave of Theodore Winthrop, one of the early 
martyrs of the war for the preservation of the 
Union. He was killed at Big Bethel. 

Just beyond Winthrop, lies the Rev. Samuel 
Merwin, Pastor of the North Church in the early 
years of this century; and in the next lot beyond 
Merwin's are the graves of Nathaniel W. Taylor 
and Lyman Beecher. Near these clergymen rest 
the remains of Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cot- 
ton gin; and of Noah Webster, maker of spelling 
books and dictionaries. 

On the left hand of the avenue is buried James 
Brewster, a pioneer in the manufacture of carriages 
and a citizen of e.xtraordinary liberality and public 
spirit. Near the north end of this avenue and on 
the right hand side is the grave of the Rev. Leonard 
Bacon, D.D. 

In Spruce avenue, far up toward its northern 
extremity, may be found the monument of Rear- 
Admiral Erancis H. Gregory. 

In Holly avenue and near its northern extremity 
is a monument inscribeil 

CHARLES GOODYEAR, 

Inventor. 

Born in New Haven, December 2q, 1800. 

Died in New York, July i, i860. 

In consequence of the difficulty of obtaining lots 
in the Grove Street Burial Ground, tlie Evergreen 
Cemetery Association was formed, under a general 
statute of the State of Connecticut. A preliminary 
meeting was held September 15, i84S,atwhich itwas 
resolved to form a cemetery association; to purchase 
a tract of land containing about thirteen acres, 
owned by Nathan Peck; and to divide the stock 
into three hundred shares, the par value of a share 
being ten dollars. The name at first was The 
Washington Cemetery Association, but it was 
changed to the Evergreen Cemetery Association 
at a meeting of the stockholders October 1 9, 
1848. 

The first interment was made in lot No. 50, 
Myrtle avenue. At the head of the grave stands a 
plain marble slab with the following inscription; 

LEWIS FISK, 

Born April 10, 1807, 

Died November 29, 1848, 

Aged 41. 

He was the first person buried in this cemetery. 

The ground was consecrated to the burial of the 
dead with religious services June 29, 1849. In 
1856 the limits of the cemetery were extended by 
the purchase of the land known as the Peck 
Woods, lying south of the original lines of the 

87 



cemetery. The property was conveyed to the trus- 
tees by Henry E. Peck, April 21, 1856, for the con- 
sideration of seven thousand dollars. 

In less than fortv years from the first interment 
in this cemetery it has become a populous city of 
the dead. 

St. Bernard's Cemetery is the burial place of the 
Roman Catholics of New Haven. It may be found 
on the south side of Columbus street, and not far 
from the bank of the West River. At first Catho- 
lics were buried in the yard of the first Catholic 
Church, where St. John's Catholic Church now is, 
but soon it became necessary to provide a larger 
burial place. St. Bernard's will not long be suffi- 
cient for the burial of all who look toward it as 
their final resting place, and the necessity for pro- 
viding graves for our increasing population con- 
fronts all classes of our people. 

There is a small cemetery in Fair Haven in the 
rear of the First Congregational Church, for Pro- 
testants, and in the western part of the city is a 
place of burial for the accommodation of the in- 
habitants of VVestville. Adjoining to this West- 
ville cemeter)' is a burial place for Hebrews, the 
children of the patriarch, " who stood up from be- 
fore his dead and spake unto the sons of Heth, 
saying, I am a stranger and a sojourner with you; 
give me a possession of a burying place with you 
that I may bury my dead out of my sight. " 

ELBRIDGE GERRV. 

[.Austin's " Life of Elbridge Gerry " has been consulted.] 

The city of New Haven enjoys the unique honor 
of protecting, among its inhabitants, the child of 
one of the illustrious signers of the Declaration of 
Independence. Members of the immediate families 
of those intrepid men are now probably with this 
single exception, numbered with the dead. We 
are wont to think of the fathers of our country and 
their contemporaries as the pillars and ornaments 
of an age and generation which are now gone for- 
ever. 

For nearly half a century the household of El- 
bridge Gerry haslived under the elms of NewHaven. 
The bereaved wife and children have walked among 
us, and one by one, have joined the silent majority. 
Three daughters, and a son, who bore also the name 
of Elbridge Gerry, now rest with their mother in 
New Haven's ancient burying ground. But Mrs. 
Gerry's youngest daughter, who was twelve years 
old at his death, and who now bears bravely the 
weight of more than fourscore years, survives in our 
midst and opens a century of the national existence 
with memories of her famous father and his friends. 

Some time after IMr. Gerry's death, in 18 14, his 
widow with four of her daughters, removed from 
Cambridge to Boston, and afterwards to New Lon- 
don. In the latter place they resided for six years. 
About 1S37 the family came to New Haven and 
abode for a few j-ears in a dwelling upon Orange 
street, but subsequently made their home on the 
southeast corner of Temple and Wall streets. There 



690 



HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW HA VEN. 



still resides the venerable lady who calls Elbridge 
Gerry bv the sacred name of ' ' Father." Since Mr. 
Gerry's 'family has for so long been identified with 
the city, New' Haven deems itself to be also an in- 
heritor of Elbridge Gerry's fame. As citizens of 
that great nation which he helped to found, no less 
than as neighbors of his children, the people of this 
community are interested in recounting the general 
sum of his life-work, and in recalling what manner 
of man he was. But his words, deeds, and the in- 
fluence of his personality have become part of a 
nation's history, and are written upon a wider, more 
enduring page than this can hope to be. 

He entered into the service of his country while 
Massachusetts was a royal colony; supervised the 
foundation of independent State governments; 
helped to frame and administer the Articles of Con- 
federation; assisted in forming the Constitution, 
and held the ne.xt to the highest office under it 
when death called him. At that time he is be- 
lieved to have been the only individual in any 
branch of the (Jovernment who had been a mem- 
ber of the Congress of 1776. He was conspicuous 
as a leader and counselor in the measures which 
dissolved the royal power in Massachusetts; in the 
Declaration of Independence by the United Colo- 
nies; in the direction of the civil, military, foreign 
and domestic concerns of the Confederation, and 
in arrangements for the cessation of hostilities. In 
the convention which changed the Confederation 
into a nation, and created a new epoch in the his- 



tory of the United States, he attracted no common 
share of the public attention. At the organization 
of the Federal Government he was a member of the 
House of Representatives. At the time when our 
foreign relations were the most strained; when the 
L'nited States was a foot-ball between the contend- 
ing powers; and when war with France was espe- 
cially imminent, he was engaged in an important 
embassy to that power. During the intense agita- 
tions which preceded the second war with Great 
Britain, he was the Governor of his native State, 
and through the greater part of that war he pre- 
sided over the Senate of the United States. 

In personal appearance Mr. Gerry was of mid- 
dling stature and spare frame. His head was large 
and broad, with a high and prominent forehead, 
and enlivened by quick, piercing, and expressive 
eyes. Extremely temperate in his habits, he pre- 
served a constitution not naturally robust, so well, 
that to his latest day he walked without the use of 
a cane, and could read the smallest print without 
the aid of glasses. His chief relaxation he found 
in the delights of his family life, in the charms of 
society, and in the refinements of intellectual com- 
panionship. Throughout the three-score years and 
ten that were allotted to him, he labored steadfastly 
to fulfill his own memorable injunction, which was 
most appropriately placed upon his monument, 
"It is the duty of every man, though he may have 
but one day to live, to devote that day to the good 
of his country." 



APPENDIX. 



WITCHCRAFT TN NEW HAVEN. 



HOWEVER the fact may be accounted for, no 
person accused of witchcraft was ever 
executed or even condemned to death in the col- 
ony of New Haven. Accusations were sometimes 
made, but, as Professor James L. Kingsley well 
says in his " Historical Discourse," delivered on 
the two hundrctlth anniversary of the first settle- 
ment of New Haven; 

The Court on all occasions of this kind acted as if they 
had approached the conclusion, long after commended by 
lilackslone, " that in general there has been such a thing as 
witchcraft, though one cannot give credit to any particular 
modern instance of it." 

It mif.'ht be surmised, from Professor Kingsley's 
mode of expressing himself, that there had been 
more than one person summoned to answer to the 
charge of witchcraft. But the writer has not been 
able to find more than one instance in the town, or 
even in the colony of New Haven, in which a per- 
son was thus accused. 

Mrs. Elizabeth Godman, whose first appearance 
before a Court was as iilaintilT complaining to a 
" Court of Magistrates held at New Haven for the 
Jurisdiction August4th, 1653," of divers persons that 
"they had given out speeches that made folks think 
she was a witch," was two years afterward called 



first to the Town Court and then to the Court of 
Magistrates to answer to charges of witchcraft. 

Mrs. Godman was an inmate of the family of 
Deputy-Governor Goodyear. At the hearing in 
which she was plaintiff, she accused Mr. and Mrs. 
Goodyear and others of the same family of slan- 
derously speaking of her as a witch; and not con- 
tent with thus charging the Goodyear family, she 
extended the accusation so as to include some of 
the neighbors. 

Mr. Goodyear's mansion was, as the reader is 
probably aware, on the site now occupied by the 
New Haven House. On the same side of Chapel 
street, and on the opposite side of College street, 
lived the Rev. Mr. Hooke, the ordained teacher of 
the church, who, with his wife, was included in Mrs. 
Godman's accusation, as was also the wife of Joshua 
Atwater, whose residence was where South College 
now stands. 

After the agitation of these things, the Court declared to 
Mrs. Godman, as their judgment and sentence in this 
case, that she hath unjustly called hither the several persons 
before named, being that she can prove nothing against 
them, and that her carriage doth justly render her suspicious 
oi witchcraft, which she herself in so many words confesseth. 
Therefore the Court wisheth her to look to her carriage 
hereafter, for if further proof come, these passages will not 



APPENDIX. 



691 



be forgotten, and therefore gave her charge not to go in an 
offensive v^ay to folks' houses in a railing manner, as it 
seems she hath done, but that she keep her place and meddle 
with her own business. 

About two years afterward, viz., on the 7th of 
August, 1655, the old charge, with some fresh 
ones of similar nature, having been brought for- 
ward in the Plantation Court, and Mr. Goodyear's 
family being now unwilling to retain in their family 
so disagreeable an inmate, the court ordered "that 
she be committed to prison, there to abide the 
Court's pleasure. But because the matter is of 
weight, and the crime whereof she is suspected 
capital, therefore she is to answer it at the Court 
of ^lagistrates in October next. " She was, "with 
respect to her health," released from prison Sep- 
tember 4th, though warned at her peril to appear 
at the Court of Magistrates, and was told that she 
must not go up and down among her neighbors to 
give offense, nor come to the contribution as she 
hath formerly done. Thomas Johnson bravely re- 
ceived this afflicted and troublesome woman into 
his family, where she was kindly cared for till Oc- 
tober 9, 1660, when she was released by death 
from the troubles which had proceeded partly from 
her own disordered brain, and partly from the su- 
perstitious fears of her neighbors. 

About six weeks after Mrs. Godman was re- 
leased from prison, 

at a Court of Magistrates held at New Haven for the Juris- 
diction the 17th of Octolier, 1655, Mrs. Godman was 
called before the Court, and told that upon grounds formerly 



declared, which stand upon record, she, by her own con- 
fession, remains under suspicion for witchcraft. 

Mrs. Godman brought divers persons to the Court that 
they might say something to clear her, and much lime was 
spent in hearing them, but to little purpose, the grounds of 
suspicion remaining full as strong as before, and she found 
full of lying; wherefore the Court declared unto her that 
though the evidence is not suHicient as yet to take away her 
life, the suspicions are clear and many, which she cannot, 
by all the means she hath used, free herself from; therefore 
she must forbear from going from house to house to give of- 
fense, and carry it orderly in the family where she is;\vhich, 
if she do not, she will cause the court to commit her to 
prison again; and that she do now presently, upon her free- 
dom, give security for her good behavior: and she did now 
before the Court engage fifty pounds of her estate that is in 
Mr. Goodyear's hand, for her good behavior. 

This is the only prosecution for witchcraft in the 
jurisdiction of New Haven which has come to the 
knowledge of the editor of this volume; and he re- 
grets that the distinguished jurist who wrote the 
chapter on the Bench and Bar has spoken of an 
execution for witchcraft which occurred at Fairfield, 
as if it happened in the Colony of New Haven. 
The Editor was ill when the sheet passed through 
the press, and the person who acted in his stead, 
though an accomplished scholar, was not an expert 
in the history of the New Haven Colony. 

Certainly there never was an execution for witch- 
craft in the New Haven Colony; and probably the 
reason for such dissimilarity between her his- 
tory and that of Connecticut and Massachusetts has 
been truly rendered in the foot-note on page 250, 
in the words of Dr. Leonard Bacon, cited from 
page 99 of his " Historical Discourses.'' 




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INDEX. 



PACE 

Abbott, John S. C, his Contributions to Literature 204 

Academy. New Township 161 

Act for the Regulation of Trade 39 

" " " amended so as to Re- 
move all Duties except on Tea 39 

Adams, Dr. Clilford B., ISiography of 293 

Adler, Max, Biography of 5**^ 

Agreement Signed by Captain Benedict .Vrnold and his 

Company on their way to Cambridge 42 

Agricultural Implement Makers 535 

' ' Tools and Supplies 512 

Allerton, Isaac 491 

Ailing, Enos 133 

" F'rank E 75 

" George, Biography of 555 

American Mutual Life Insurance Company 340 

" National Life and Trust Company 340 

" Oriental Society 188 

" Security Company 341 

Amistad Captives 239 

Amity, now called Woodbridge, constituted a separate 

parish 32 

Ammonia Manufacturers 537 

Amusements 393 

Anderson, Dr. W. D.. Biography of 293 

.Vndrew, Frank S., Biography of 6og 

iViidrews, Dr. George, Biography of 86 

Andross, .Sir Exlmund, at Hartford 28 

" at New Haven 28 

Anthony, Governor Eaton's Negro Servant, accused of 

intoxication 230 

Arbitrary Government of Sir Edmund Andross 29 

Architects 536 

Architectural Iron.work 59S 

Armorers 537 

Arnold, Benedict, Captain of the l ".overnor's Guard. . . 42 
" as a Man of Affairs in New Haven. . 43 
" Receives a Commission from the 
Massachusetts Committee of Safety 
to Seize Ticonderoga and its Trib- 
utary Fortresses 44 

" the Ceremonies with which the Peo- 

ple of New Haven expressed their 

Wrath at his Defection 63 

Arnold, Ebenezer, Biography of 531 

Art of Music in New Haven 200 

" School of New Haven 210 

Arts of Painting and Sculpture 206 

" the Productive ... 531 

Artificial Illumination 407 

.\sserablies for Worship 20 

Atwater, David, the First of the Freemen of New Ha- 
ven to become a Freeman of Con- 
necticut 9 

" "a noted Apothecary," killed in the 

battle at Cumpo Hill 47 

Atwater, Jesse, Postmaster 378 

" William, Biography of 524 

Augur, Hezekiah 208 

' ' Nicholas 262 

Autograph Signatures of Quinnipiac Indians 2 

Avenues 347 

Ax Factory 535 

Babcock. Luke, Postmaster 375 

Bacon, David Francis, his Contributions to Literature. 204 

" Delia, her Contributions to Literature 204 

" Leonard, his Contributions to Literature 204 

" " Biography of 122 

" William T., his Poems 205 

Bakers 539 

Bakewell, Robert 397 



PAGE 

Baldwin, Roger S 246 

Baldwin, Simeon 245 

Banks and Banking 323 

Bankside 301 

Baptist Church, First i^^ 

Barlow, Joel, his Version of Psalm cxxxvii igS 

Barnes, E. Henry, Biography of 600 

Barrett, Sergeant Thomas E yc 

Barytes Grinders caz 

Bassett, John E., Biography of cji 

Beach, John 248 

Beacon on Beacon Hill ^y 

Beardsley, Dr. Ebenezer 266 

Beauty of the Fair Sex in New Haven 352 

Beckley, William A., Biography of 528 

Beecher, Lyman, his Publications 200 

Beers, Elias, Postmaster ^yj 

" Isaac, his Letter describing the Invasion of New 

Haven jr 

' ' Nathan 358 

" Timothy P 2jS 

Bell for the Meetinghouse no 

Bench and Bar 226 

Benedict, Henry W., Biography of 520 

Berkeley, Dean, his Gilts to Vale College 167 

Bigelow, Hobart B. , Biography of 334 

Bishop, Abraham 158, 200, 322, 500 

Bissell, Evelyn L., Biography of 289 

" Lyman, Biography of 476 

Bird-cage Manufacturers 543 

Bird, Rev. Samuel 125, 126 

Bishop, John W., Biography of 529 

Blackman, Alfred 247 

Blake, Major Edward F yj 

Blue Meeting house 125 

Blues. National 661 

Boardman, William W., Biography of 409 

Boat and Ship-builders 5.^3 

Bonticou, Dr. Daniel 265 

" Timothy 133 

Book Publishers, Printers, Electrotypers, and Binders. 544 

Boston and New Vork Air Line Railroad 367 

" Port Bill '. 3g 

" Rebels against the Government of Andross 29 

" Tea Party 39 

Bowers, Caleb B., Biography of 343 

Bradley, Edward E., Biography of 569 

Bradley, Dr. H.I 286 

Brainerd, David, and Chauncey Whittlesey 118 

Branford, or Totoket, settled 4 

Brass-founders 54^ 

Breakwaters 302, 303 

Bread and Butter Rebellion in Yale College 177 

Brewers 546 

Brewery in Brewery Street 534 

Brewster, James, Biography of 558 

Brick-makers 547 

Bridges 548 

Bridge Builders 548 

Broadway 401 

Brockett, John B. , Biography of 562 

Brokers 511 

Bronson, Dr. Henry 260, 280 

Broom-makers 549 

Brothers' Library 187 

" Society established 171 

Brush Manufacturers 549 

Buell, Abel 532 

Builders' Supplies 512 

Burwell, Robert M., Biography of 629 

Bushnell, Cornelius S., Biography of 70 



694 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Business College 162 le^ 

Butler, Justus ' ^g^ 

Button Factory ' " ri^ 

Cady, Mrs. Sarah I,., lier School !.!..!!.'.'!. 'i62 

Calvary Baptist Church ' j^ 

Camp, Hiram, Biography of c^o 

Campl)ell, Adjutant, Killed co 

Candee, tlcorge Edward 208 

Candle .Makers ,. 

Candles in Chapel of Vale College 408 

Capture of Packet Susan az 

Carll's Opera House iqc 

Carmen ^J-" 

Carpenter, Daniel L., Biography' of . . . ....,'..' rtf 

Carpenters ;7_ 

Carpet Factory 
" Weavers 

Carpets 

Carriage Builders ^ g 

Carrington, John B. , Biography oi. ..'..'. 221 

Carroughood, his .Mark ' 

Castings 

Catalogue of Union School 5?^ 

Celebrated Law Cases in New Haven 

Celebration of Battle of Navarino. 

Cemeteries 

Centennial Anniversary", First," of "I'nc'o'r^orkti'on" "of" the 
City 

Second, of Settlement of New 

Haven 

Chamber of Commerce, instituted 

„. ", ^ " Presidents oif .'.' 9^ 

Chapel Street in 1786 . . s 

Church ;;; °3 

Chaplain's Aid Commission ?° 

Charles II, Tidings of his Restoration 7 

Chatfield, Philo. Biography of fj° 

Charter of Connecticut included New Haven .'.!;!".!'. '. I 

191 
136 



549 
535 
556 



239 

98 
684 

103 

102 
86 



Cheever, Ezekicl 

Chittenden, Ebenezer ''*^ 

Cholera in 1832 

1849. .■.■.".■.'.■.■.■.■■;;■ »» 

Christian Commission ° 

Christ Church .'.".' 7° 

Church Building dJri"n"g" the "War" of ■i"8i"2 '^^ 

Instituted 93 

" Membership a Quaiificaiion '(or "Suftage :."■■■■ ,04 

of Christ the First, in New Haven consli u ed ^ 
by the Seven Men Chosen for that Pu po^ 
Covenanting together . . ^ 

i>f the Ascension '°5 



Church ( 



the First had no' one" "Fo^ula ' as ' a ' CoiifeV '^^ 
sion of Faith --uiiies- - 

Church of the Sacred Heart '°5 

Cigar Manufacturers '46 

City Bank 576 

" Court 325 

," Ty'^ Insurance Company ^3^ 

" Ccvernment .... 339 

" Hall 446 

" Seal and Flag '. 238 

Civic Buildings. ..."..".".".'.'.' 45^ 

Civil ( ;overnment Instituted 459 

Clap, Rev. Thomas, eeTted Rector o^'ytr^n'^'^'"'' 3=' 

" " hisWritings "94 

C ark, David H., Biography of' '93 

Coal, Anthr.icite " 577 



Commerce, Foreign and Domestic ""^^ 

Committees of Inspection Recommended 'by 'Congress" 'T? 
Committee of Inspection Appointed in New Havin " 1, 

r- r . . " ^^I" 1776 .... ' ?c 

Confederation of Massachusetts, Plymouth," "donnKiil ^^ 
cut and >ew Haven ... . 

Conic Sections RebeUion in' Yale'c'oil'eBe „i 

Confectioners 'J 

Conmclicul 7our,ml and ATezo Haven PostBov 21X 

Gazelle -^ ""° 

Connecticut School Fund S 

Conscript Camp on Crape-vi'ne Point.' '. \^^ 

Consolidated Railroad . . ?5 

Contention between Massachusetts 'and ' the 'other Col' 

onies "'" 

Coopers 5 

Correspondence bet^veen 'Pr'esident 'stiies 'and "General ^^' 

Corsets . . .'. 5^ 

Cotton Mill 5^' 

County Court \ 533 

n .^ .,,■ H°"se, Kxtension of ..".'.' .' Ill 

Court Buildmgs J° 

" House Completed ^37 

of Common Council, Member's oi, 'from " 178; "to 

Courts in New Haven '*5' 

Cowles, Ruel P., Biography of ^37 

Crane, Samuel H., Biography of ^7' 

Crockery and (llassware 393 

Croswell, Harry 5^4 

Custom House . . '3^ 

Custonis Collected ai'the 'New'Haven 'Custom'liou'se ^'^ 
during twelve years ^luuse 

^"''"'' ^7r\ '^''"°"^y' elefed'R^-ctor'of "vkie'dolieg;' \l] 
Rector, excused from all further service as 
Rector of Yale College. service as 

Cutlery '^ 167 

Daggett, David ....."..".'.'"' 59^ 



Daggett, NaphUli, 



244 
170 
170 
216 



50 

62 

120 

120 



,191 
191 



Cogswell, f)r Mason F., of Har"t"fo;<i 513 

Collectors of His Majesty's Customs ^71 

Co lon'i^U- ''■' Congregational Church f ° 

Co or^w M ^'""'*"' i:stablished . '^9 

c:!S^:rVSs:;!!^'-^««~:::;::::;;:;;; ^ 

Commerce, Coastwise 222 

506 



chosen Professor of Divinity 

^ " President of Vale College" " 

Opposes the Stamp Act . ^'4 

his Narrative of his Treatment " bv 

,, ,„.,,. the British Soldiers.. ' 

Damage to Buildings in East Haven bv the British " ' ' 

Dana,_ James, Invited to the Pastorate of First Church 

Preached at his own Installation 

Davenport, John, Removes to Boston ' " ,^ 

hisCatechism .....'.■.'.'.'.■; ' \^ 

his Discourse about Civil Government 
in a new Plantation whose Desien 

IS Religion ,|, 

his .Saints' Anchor-Hold . 
his Profession of Faith m'a'd'e'at'h'is 
Admission into one of the Churches 
of f;od in New England ,„, 

Davenport, John A., Biography of i^' 

." Congregational Church .....'. ,-1 

Davis, James A., Biography of ■:Sifc "^ 

Dawson, Henry S., Biography of '^*'" 37' 

Day, Martha, her Writings ^ "■ ^12 

Day, Jeremiah, chosen Presiden't of \ ali "CbDec'e" f-c 

" his Series of Text Books 'i. 

Death-rate in New Haven lower than : ;,. 

sea-port ot its size __ 

Dentistry, An.x-sthetics in ^^ .... 422 

,^ " The Practice of ^95 

Dentures, Artificial ^94 

Deputies from New Haven" to' ■ti;e'c;en;;al'c"o'u"r't'o"fNe"w ^^^ 
Haven Colony „ 

n.J'ii T'°*^°"r"^"'''"'^'=""^' Assembly ^'.' 1^8 

Uewell, James D., Biography of ^^ 

Diet of the first Planters. ."^..^ ^2. 

'of "he %ZTZ "/"" H-en'abiut" ih^ 'Conduct 
ot the \\ar for the Preservation of the Union 7r 

EltcTc^rn:?.' ^^"" ''^'"'^ '"' Teachers. .'^":"": .' ; ; ; ,^ 

Divorce case of Bennett" i-.^.' Beiinet't J.^, 

^. " Juddz.j-.Judd.... l-^l 

Divorce Laws 241 

234 



INDEX. 



695 



)oniielly, Francis, Biography of 

Joolittle, Amos 

' • Isaac 

louglas Fellowship in Yale College 

)rugs 

.)ry goods 

Jurrie, John and George H 

button, Henry, Biography of 

" Lieutenant 1 Icnry M ■ 

)welling. house: The average, of the first Planters 

3wight,' Henry K., his I'ublications 

' ' Place Church 

" Sereno E., his I'uljlications ■■;"i' 

" Timothy, Primus, chosen President ol \ ale 

College .- • V'\-"i' 

Timothy, ^rtHm/zw, chosen President ot \ale 

College ■ 

Dwighl's, President, Description of New Haven 

Observations on Innkeepers 

• I "Conquest of Canaan" and other 

Books 

' ' Version of Psalm cxxxvii 



5'4 
208 

256 

72 

'5 
203 
129 
201 

173 

181 

89 

3S4 

196 
196 
854 
335 
31 
402 
107 
6 



Dyers 

Eagle Bank ■ ■ ■ 

East Haven and New Haven, Controversy between . . . . 

" Rock Park 

Eaton, Samuel 

Eaton, 'Iheophilus •• ;:;••, '(',i' 

prepares a Digest of the Laws of the 

Colony 5 

his House and Furniture 14 

his Deportment when Bereaved I 

Eclectic School of Physicians ..... .. ■■:■■■■■, . 

Edwards. Jonathan, Staimhis, called to the Pastorate of 



286 



White Haven Church 
,, i< " his " Complete Works 

" Fierpont 

Election Days 

" Frauds 

Electric Light Company 

Elliott, Matthew ('.., Biography of 



126 
199 

243 
20 
242 
409 
332 

ElmCit^Bank . 329 

" Benjamin Franklin JV" 

Emmanuel Baptist Church "45 

English, Benjamin R., Postmaster 379 

" Charles L., Biography of 

" Drive 

" James E., Biography of ■ 

,1 >. voted in C:ongress for Abolition ot 

Slavery in District of Columbia 



523 

405 

577 



Engravers • 

Enlistment lor Three Years begun . 
Ensign, Wooster A., Biography ol 
Epidemics 



of 1794- 
•795- 



75 
586 

66 
522 

419 
86 



Evacuation of New Haven by the British 61 

Evance, John ........ ^ 492 

Everett, Edward, at New Haven 35° 

Everit, Richard M., Biography of 5°9 

Fair Haven Church, History of 'Zo 

Fairs, Two Annual, at New Haven 21 

Family Worship in a Puritan Household 'o 

Farmington Canal 35 

Railroad 3^J 

Farnam Drive ^05 



Fello 



;Oak. 



Howes » 
Fiduciaries Insured. 



Financial Panics 

Fire Department ."■■,".■,■■.■•■■■.'■ 

First Church declares adhesion to the Westmmster 

Standards • • 

First Congregational Church in Fair Haven 

" M. E. Church 

" National Bank : • • • ' 

• ■ Society, New Lights have a Majority m 

•' divided into two 

Klagg; Vlen^yC.Vr.eorgoNNvVjaVedlV. and Charles Noel 



PAGE 

Flour, Feed, and Grain 5>5 

Food Preservative Manufacturers 5°7 

Foote, Alexander, Biography of 52o 

Andrew Hull, Biography of 7° 

Dr. Charles ^°S 

Dr. E.T "5 

Ford, George H., Biography of 52o 

Forgings 595 

Forsyth, Thomas, Biography of ■ • • ■• 5°5 

Fortification at each Street and at the Angles ot the 

Town • ; • -i,- • • • ^^ 

Fortifications built at West Bridge and near the Paper 

Mill ,••■,•■.•,•••«■•■■ ^"^ 

Fortification of the House where Moseley s New Haven 

House now is ^^'^(i 

Fortification Wood sold to owners of Fence 20 

Fort Wooster on Beacon Hill 9^ 

Foster, Eleazer 244 

" Eleazer K 247 

Fourth of July, Celebration of, in 1861 . . . ■ 67 

Franklin, Benjamin, sends Printing Materials to New 

Haven ; 2*3 

Frugality and Industry in the Colonial tnne I? 

Fruit • • 5'5 

Fugill, Secretary of the Court, deposed from office. ... 229 

Furniture Manufacturers 5°7 

Gas Company Chartered 409 

Gazette, The Connecticut • • 212 

General Assembly of Connecticut resumes Government 

according to Charter '29 

George Street M. E. German Church 143 

German Baptist Church '45 

Catholic Church '47 

Lutheran Church '4° 

M. E. Church '43 

■ ' Newspapers "S 

Elbridge, Biography of °»9 

Josiah W., his Publications 202 

Glenney, Daniel S., Biography of 53° 

Goodrich, Chauncey A., his Publications 203 



341 
598 

335 
466 

117 
128 
141 

329 
117 

117 

5<4 
208 



Gerry, 

Gibbs, 



Goodyear, Stephen „ 

" Mansion 3°; 

Governor's Foot Guard, History of ........ 

" Ciuard start for Massachusetts on hearing ot 



\^ 



the Lexington Massacre 42 

" Horse Guard, History of 053 

Governor Leete's Letter to Commissioners of Customs . 317 

(Jrace Church V"l" i'i" ",,i^^ 

Grammar School, New Haven complained of for not 

maintaining '5' 

Grand Opera House 395 

Street Baptist Church '45 

Grays, New Haven, History of °54 

Guards, City, History of **S 

Great Guns made fit lor service 23 

Greeley, E. S., Biography of 57' 

Green, The 399 

Greene, Captain Daniel 49° 

Griffin, John Starr, Biography of 

Grist Mill 

Groceries 



527 
532 



Groceries ; ■.••,• :;. ,15 

Hadley, Professor James, his Writings 205 

Hale, Henry, Biography of 5°° 

Half way Covenant '°9 

Harbor and Wharves ^9° 

Hardware 5 

" Manufacturers 3^ 

Harmon, George M., Biography of 5^3 

Harness , ' ' '; ,cr> 

Harrison, Henry B., Biography of 259 

" Lynde, Biography of 253 

Hartford in Town-meeting speaks of New Haven as ^ 

"being so very remote " 35' 

Hartford and New Haven Railroad 3°' 

Haymarket 

Hay-scales 

Health of New Haven 

Hebrew Synagogues 

Hendrick, A. C, Biography 01 

Herrick, Claudius 



213 
213 
416 

'47 
478 



690 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Herrick, Edward C 397 

Oak 397 

Hillhouse, James, Biography of 9| 

" Planting Trees 39^ 

" Abraham 236 

" " A., his Writings 202 

nine, Charles 20S 

History of Political Parties 479 

Hitchcock, Edwin S 7^ 

Holcomb, George F., Biography of 5^7 

Holt, John, Postmaster 374 

Home Insurance Company 34° 

Homespun: President Jeflerson desires a Coat of Home- 
spun Cloth 534 

Homieopathy in New Haven 2S3 

Homceopathic Physicians in New Haven 286 

Hooke, William, ordained Teacher of the Church at 

New Haven; removes to England 106 

Hooker, Dr. Charles 279 

" Henry, Biography of S^'S 

" Dr. Worthington 280 

Hopkins Grammar School. . 150, 164 

Horse Railroads 37° 

Hospital 281 

" at New Haven opened for Sick and Wounded 

Soldiers 72 

Hotchkiss, Henry, Biography of 331 

Wales 208 

House Movers 590 

Houses Fortified in King Philip's War 385 

" the four most stately in New Haven 14 

Household Furniture in the 17th Century 15 

Howard Avenue Congregational Church 129 

" " M. E. Church 143 

Hubbard, Rev. Bela 132 

" Leverett 266 

" Dr. Thomas 277 

Huggins, Henry, Postmaster 378 

Humphrey Street Church 129 

Humphreys, David, his Writings 197 

Ice Cutters 



593 

Improvement of Harbor 302 

Incorporation of a City, First movement toward 31 

India-rubber Workers 591 

Indian Autographs 2 

" name of New Haven i 

" Wars, A succession of 30 

Indians not suffered to come into the Town to see the 

Fortifications 25 

Ingersoll, Charles Roberts, Biography of 256 

" Jared, opposed to the Stamp Act 33 

" " though disapproving of the Stamp Act, 

consents to be Stamp-Master 34 

" " his accoxmt of the treatment he received 

at Wethersfiekl 36 

" " his resignation of the office of Stamp- 
master 38 

236 



" Jonathan 241; 

, " . Raiphi ::::::::::::: 247 

Inspection of American Post Offices in 1775 376 

Insurance " ,,§ 

" Agents in New Haven 341 

" Building 

Inns and 1 lotels .!!!!.!!!!!! 

Invasion of New Haven . . ...... 

Iron Sliips of War ...........!!!.!!!!!!!! 70 

' ' works '. . . . 

workers 



340 

383 

47 



Ives, 



531 

594 



, Charles, 249; Biography of .. . -.cy 

" Dr. Charles L.. .:..... '.!;'.'.'.!!;'..;.!;; 280 

" " Eli, 274; Biography of 287 

" " Levi, primus 273 

" " I^vi, seciiiidits. Biography of 287 

N- " 271; 

Japan and Varnish Manufacturers 600 

Jocelyn, Nathaniel 208 

Johnson, Kcv. Stephen .... 

Jones, William H.. Posiniasier. 



J'-.-rnai and Couritr. 



34 
378 
221 



Judges' Cave on West Rock 7 

Juries: None in New Haven Colony 4 

Keep, J. Lester ... 285 

Kelsey, George R., Biography of 538 

Kensett, John F 207 

Kilby, Christopher, Postmaster 376 

Kimberly, Dennis 245 

King Philip's War 22 

Kingsley, Prof. James L., his Publications 201 

Knight Hospital 72 

" Dr. Jonathan 276 

Lafayette visits New Haven in 1824 94 

Lancasterian School 152 

Largest amount of duty paid by a New Haven Vessel . 500 

Laws of the Colony, Governor Eaton prepares a Digest of 5 

Lawyers of the Eighteenth Century 236 

" of New Haven 243 

Learning: Parents required to take care that all their 

children should be taught to read 149 

" parents required to take care that all their 

Sons should learn to write 149 

Leather Workers 600 

Lee's surrender, News of, reaches New Haven 79 

Lechford, a lawyer, describes the Ritual of Worship. . . 107 

Leeds, John H., Biography of. 542 

Leete, William, chosen Governor 6 

" Ciovernor, desires Winthrop to include New Haven 

with Connecticut in his Application for a Charter 7 

Legislature meets at New Haven in 1820 94 

Letter of New Haven Church to First Church in Boston 109 
"Lexington Alarm," Services and expenses of New 

Haven men in the 43 

" Tidings of the Massacre at, received at 

New Haven 42 

Library of Hillhouse High School 190 

" Mechanic 188 

" of New Haven Colony Historical Society 190 

" " " County Bar Association 190 

" of Vale College, forciUy detained at Saybrook, 
167; removed fromSaybrook to New Haven, 

1S4; Benefactors of 185 

" of the Young Men's Institute iSg 

Libraries of New Haven 184 

Life Insurance Company in New Haven 340 

Light-house: The old stone, 298; The new iron 298 

Light Guard, History of 666 

Lincoln, Abraham, received convictions of the enormity 
of slavery from Writings of Leonard Bacon, 123; 
Tidings of his Assassination, So; Funeral Services 

in honor of • 80 

Linonian Library i86 

" Society founded l6g 

Literature, Contributions to 191 

Lock-makers 602 

Long Wharf 3CX) 

Lotteries 511 

Lovell's Exhibitions 395 

Lowe, Thomas F., Biography of 554 

Lumber 517 

Lynde, John Hart 244 

Malaria in New Haven Colony 18 

Mansfield, Edward Deering, his Publications 204 

" General Joseph King Fenno 75 

" Jared, schoolmaster, 158; his Essays, mathe- 
matical and physical. 199 

Manville, Burritt, Piiography of 566 

Market-place, 11; on Sunday morning 20 

Marine Insurance prior to any Insurance Company.. . . 338 

Marriages solemnized by a Magistrate 17 

Mason Builders' Material .v. 517 

Mason, Ebenezer P., his Writings 205 

Massachusetts refuses to join in a War against the 

Dutch 5 

Match Manufacturers 606 

Mayors of New Haven originally held office during the 

pleasure of General Assembly 82 

Mayors of New Haven from 1784 to 1885 45S 

iSIachinery and Tools 596 

Mecom, Benjamin, 214; Postmaster 375 

Mason Builders 603 



INDEX. 



697 



Meat r I y 

" Packers '''\ 606 

Mechanics' Bank -126 

Medical Association 267 

" College, Riot at 273 

" Institution of Vale College 267 

" Society of New Haven County 266 

iledicine and Surgery 260 

" Manufacturers 610 

Meeting-house, description of the first, 11; diagram of 
its interior, 12; owned by the proprietors of the 
plantation, 107; seating the, in 1647, 12; fortified, 23, 26 

Meeting-house, the second, no; enlarged HI 

" the third, of the first Society built by 

the Church I ig 

" the present, of the First Society, erection 

of 122 

Meeting in Mr. Newman's Barn 2 

Melodeon and Organ Building 610 

Merchants' Bank 329 

Merwin, Samuel E. , Biography of 607 

" Smith, Biography of 631 

Methodist, First Sermon in New Haven by a 140 

Military Trainings frequent 20 

Mile-stones set up 352 

Military Organizations 645 

Mill Builders 612 

Miller, Samuel. Biography of 25 1 

" Mrs. Samuel, founder of Douglas Fellowship m 

Yale College 251 

Ministers maintained from Treasury of the Church and 

not of the Town 107 

Missionaries to the Sandwich Islands sail from New 

Haven 302 

Mitchell, Charles L., Biography of 635 

" Edward A., Postmaster, 378; Biography of . . 3S0 

Mix, Elihu Leonard, Biography of 508 

Moftatt, G. F.. Biography of 624 

Momaugin, his mark 2 

Monson, Charles, Biography of 526 

Montowese, his mark 2 

Moody, Rev. Joshua, invited to New Haven in 

Morals of Trade, Improvement in 510 

Morning A\-cVS 224 

Morris, Luzon B., Biography of 342 

Morse, Jedidiah, teaches School in New Ilaven, 158; first 

edition of his Geography 1 98 

" Professor S. F. B 207 

Morton, H. J., Biography of 559 

Moseley, Seth H., Biography of 392 

Municipal I listory of New Haven 422 

Munson, Amos. Biography of 540 

" Dr. -Eneas 296 

Murdock, James, his Principal Works 200 

Music, Study of, in Public Schools 153 

" in New Haven 209 

Musical Instruments 518 

Mutual Insurance Company 339 

Names given to Streets in 1784 346 

Nathan Beers Elm 398 

Narragansett, F'ort, Attack on, 24; Destniction of 24 

National Capitol Life and Trust Company 341 

" Tradesmen's Bank 329 

Nepaupuc, Trial and Execution of 226 

Neptune, Voyage of the 499 

New England hears with Delight of the Expulsion of the 

Stuarts and the .\ccession of William and Mary ... 30 

New Haven and Derby Railroad 369 

" a Colony as well as a Plantation 10 

" and Northampton Company changes its 

plant from a t'anal to a Railroad 360 

Bank .. 3^3 

" clamorous for War with the Dutch 5 

'• Colony absorbed into Connecticut, 9; limi- 

ted suffrage to Church members, 4; had 

no Juries 4 

County Bank . . 328 

•' " established 21 

•■ Church ap))roved of the Westminster ( on- 

fession 107 



P.\GE 
New Haven m City meeting appoints a committee to 
welcome and assist strangers coming 

here to reside '. S2 

■' Insurance Company 338 

" Increase of wealth in, from 1700 to 1770. . . 31 

" its first settlers sailed from London i 

" List of Freemen in, in 1669 22 

" men, with other citizens of Connecticut, plan 

to seize the defenses of Tieonderoga 43 

" name changed from Quinnipiac 3 

" objects to furnishing Troops in proportion 

to White Inhabitants only 147 

" Opera I louse 395 

" petitions the President to modify or suspend 

the Embargo g2 

" I'opulation in 1756, in 1774, in 1787 32 

" " in 1787, in I&JO, in l8io 82 

" " in 1798 88 

" Ptilladiiim 224 

" Post Office, 373; closely connected with the 
Conntctiait Gazelle, 374; visited by an 

English Inspector 376 

New Haven's fair and stately houses 14 

New Light Church sufiers from social proscription .... 124 

New Lights and Old Lights 115, 169 

" increase in number, 117; outvote the Old 

Lights in the First Society 126 

Newman, Francis, chosen Governor, 6; death of 6 

Newspaper, the first, in New Haven 212 

Newspapers and other periodicals in New Haven 217 

New York and New Haven Railroad 365 

Nine months Regiments mustered out 77 

Nitrous Oxide Gas in extracting Teeth 269 

Noble, Dr. Frederick Alphonso, liecomes Pastor of the 

First Church 123 

Non-importation, Non-consumption, and Non-exporta- 
tion Agreement recommended by the Continental 

Congress 41 

North Church, Building of 127 

North Haven constituted a separate Parish 32 

Norton, Professor William A., Biography of 182 

Noyes, Joseph, ordained Pastor of the First Church ... 113 

Numismatic Collection of Yale College 186 

( Jcean Insurance Company 339 

Officers of the City t^overnment 450 

Ogden, Jacob 390 

Old Lights and New Lights 115, 169 

Olds, Henry H., Biography of 541 

Oleomargarine 612 

Olmsted, Professor Denison, his Text Books 203 

Ordination, Custom for a Minister to Preach at his own . 106 

Orleans Academy 159 

Osborn, John Joel, Biography of 561 

" Major E. Walter 79 

" Minott .\., Biography of 223 

Osborne, Thomas Burr 249 

Osgood, S. S 208 

Osterweis, Lewis, Biography of 576 

Oyster Culture 612 

" Growers 621 

I'.ackct Sloops 352 

Paints, Oils and Glass 518 

Palisades around New Haven 24, 25, 26 

Palladium 224 

Paper 518 

" Box Manufacturers 623 

' ' Makers 62 1 

•■ Mill 532 

I'aik, Dr. Edwin A., Biography of 291 

Parker. Frederick Sheldon, Biography of 622 

" Joseph, Biography of 622 

Pavilion Hotel 302 

Peabody Museum 180 

Peace of 1783, Rejoicing over 64 

" of 1815, News of . 93 

" Men and War Men in 1863 75 

Peck, Captain Gad 495 

" Colonel Frank H 78 

" Henry Franklin, Biography of 627 

Pell, Thimias, Practices Medicine 262 



698 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Perambulation of New Haven 433 

Percival. James ti., his first Publication 203 

Periodical Press ■ V^ 

Perkins, Stephen P.. Biography of oo4 

Peterson, Charles, liios;raphy of 34' 

Petroieinii, Discovery of • • • ■ 40* 

Phelps, Captain Noah, at Ticonderoga, searches tor a 

Barber 44 

Philanthropic Institutions *?75 

Phipps, Captain Daniel Goffe, Biography ot 033 

Photographers °^5 

Physicians and Surgeons in New Haven 2»2 

Picture-frame Manufacturers 026 

Pierpont, Cornelius, ISiography of 535 

lames. Preaches in New Haven as Candidate, 
1 1 1 : a Dwelling Provided for. III; 
one otthe Founders ot Yale College.. 112 
Sarah, described by Jonathan Kdwards. .. . 112 
Pierson, Abraham, primus, Plaintilf in a Lawsuit, 

235 ; Removes from Branford to Newark, N.J... 10 
Pierson, Abraham, sccimdiis. First Rector of Vale 

College .- 165 

Pitkin, Timothy, made Governor of Connecticut by a 

bolt from the regular nomination 34 

Plantation Covenant of the Planters of Guilford 3 

Platers 626 

Plumbers 626 

Police Court Building 239 

" Department 4^3 

Political Parties, History of 479 

Porter, John A., Biography of 1S3 

" Noah, chosen President of Vale College 181 

Post-Oftice Building 379 

Postage on Letters in 1765 3/6 

" Stamps first used in New Haven 379 

Potters 62S 

Powder-mill 45, 52, 532 

Presbyterian Church 146 

Prescott, Harry, Biography of 510 

President Andrew Jackson visits New Haven 101 

" Washington visits New Haven 84 

" Munroe visits New Haven 93, 390 

Printers" Supplies 518 

Proclamation by Commodore Collier and General 

Tryon 52 

Property <lestroyed by the British 62 

Proprietors, A Schedule of the Names of, in the Planta- 
tion of New Haven at its first settlement 10 

Pruddcn, Peter i 

■ lj>uakers 234 

Ijuesaquaush, his Mark 2 

<^>uinnipiac Bank 329 

" Significance of the Name, l ; First Division of 

Lands at, 3; Second Division of Lands at 3 

Insurance Company 340 

Read, Daniel, Biography of 211 

Recruiting in the Summer of 1862 74 

Redfield, Rolxrt, Biography of 548 

Iteed, Edward .NI., Biography of 371 

Regicides concealed on West Rock ]] 7 

Kegimcnt the l-irst, leaves New Haven tor the Theatre 

of War, May 9, 1861 66 

" the Second, leaves New Haven, May 10, 1861 . 66 

Rejoicing over the Surrender of Cornwallis 64 

Religious Kxcitement in New Haven in 1741 115 

" Institutions furnish the material for a large 

part of New Haven's History " , 104 

Removal of the Pulilic Deposits 335 

Revival of Religion 111 New England begins in North- 
ampton [ 1 , 

" of Trade hoped for as a result of Incorpora- 
tion as a City go 

Revolution in England in 1688, News of, reaches New 

England 30 

Reynolds, Henry, Biography of 5g8 

• William A., Biography of 529 

Richmond, Tidings of its Evacuation reach New Ilaven 70 

Robertson, John B., Postmaster ^7o 

Robert Bakewell Elm ... VA 

l*°ofi"« ..'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'. 628 



PAGE 

Rogers, Ezekiel ... i 

Rolled Iron, 595 

Rhode, Dr. |ohann. practices Medicine in New Haven 265 

Rossiter, Thomas P 207 

Rowe, I lenrv C, Biography of 619 

Rullliiig, ...'. 628 

Russell, William IL, Biography of 163 

Rufus G., Biography of 536 

Sabbath, Breath of 230 

" First, in New Ilaven i 

Sail and Awning Makers 628 

-St. Francis' Church 146 

St. John's (P. E.) Church 138 

(R.C.) Church 146 

" Street M. E. Church 143 

St. Luke's Church 137 

St. Mary's Church 146 

St. Patrick's Church 136 

St. Paul's Chapel of Ease 137 

" Church 137 

Safes and Vaults 597 

Sandemanian Church 139 

Sanford, Leonard J., Biography of 289 

Sanitary Commission, 67 

Sarsfield Guard, History of 666 

Savings Bank and Building Associations, Mutual 331 

" and Fund Association, New Haven Co- 
operative 331 

City 331 

' ' Connecticut 330 

' ' National 330 

' ' New Haven 330 

' ' Townsend 330 

Savin Rock 300 

Sawseunck, his Mark 2 

Saybrook Platform, 112 

Schism in F'irst Church 116 

School, Colony t Irammar 149 

" Expenses, Statistics of 157 

" for Boys, Dwight's Gymnasium 161 

" High, established 152 

" in Grove Hall i6i 

" of Miss Sarah I lotchkiss 161 

" of Rev. Claudius Herrick 161 

of Rev. John M. Garfield 161 

" Private, for Girls only, established by Abel 

Morse 157 

•' Property, Statistics of. 156 

Schools for Boys 162 

" for Young Ladies 162 

Graded, established 152 

" 1 listory of. 147 

in New Haven in the first half of the nineteenth 

century 152 

" nut provided by the first Planters for Girls. . . . 148 

of Phonography . . 163 

Primary, required by the Law of Connecticut 

Colony 151 

•' Private, in the eighteenth century 157 

'• Public, tuition made free 157 

Schweizer, Captain Bernard E 75 

Scranton, Erastus C, Biography of 333 

Seawall from Brewery .Street to Ferry Point 302 

Sealing vessels 497 

Seceders from First Church take the benefit of the Act 

of Toleration 123 

Second Advent Church 146 

" National Bank 329 

" Regiment, History of 668 

Security Insurance Company 339 

Selectmen, First chosen 430 

" of New Haven 44 1 

September Gale in 1821 94 

Settlement at Milford 2 

Seven Men Nominated for the Foundation Work of a 

Church 423 

" Pillars of the Church and State chosen out of the 

Twelve Chosen by consent of all the Planters. 105 

Sewerage 413 

Shares, Horace P., Biography of 547 



IXDEX. 



690 



Shaunipishuh, her Mark 2 

Shelilon, Joseph, Biography of 251 

Shelton, Charles, Biography of 526 

Sherman, Roger, 236; Biography of 183 

"Shippe, The Great," 491 

Shipping Merchants prior to the War of 1812 505 

'• subsequent to the War of 1812 ... 506 

Shirt Manufacturers 628 

Shoes, Faulty 231 

Shoninger, Bernard, Biography of 611 

Shooting Stars of November, 1833 loi 

Shore Line Railway 367 

Silk Manufacture 534 

" Workers 629 

SiUiman, Benjamin, 273; his "Journal of Travels in 

England, Holland and Scotland,'' and other books 200 
Silver plate of the First Church concealed in Deacon 

Ball's chimney 55 

Si.\teen men leave Connecticut secretly to gain possession 

ot Ticonderoga and its tributary fortresses 44 

Skiff, Paul C , Biography of 292 

Sloat, General F"rank D., Biography of 643 

Smelters 629 

Smith, Dr. Nathan 271 

" Willis Minor, Biography of 406 

" General S. R., Biography of 673 

Smybert lived for a while in New Haven 206 

Smyth, Dr. Newman, becomes Pastor of First Church 123 

Soap-makers 629 

Social Library 188 

" Life in New Haven Colony 19 

Societies and Clubs 633 

Soda Water Manufacturers . . 630 

Soldiers' Aid Society of New Haven Auxiliary to United 

States Sanitary Commission ... 68 

" Monument 404 

' ' of War for the Union buried in New Haven . 79 

" Rest established in Olive street 78 

Sons of Liberty 34 

South Congregational Church 129 

Sperry, Joel A., Biography of. 608 

" Nehemiah D., Biography of 380 

Stamp Act, Demonstrations against, 34 ; goes into 

operation 38 

Stannard, Essi, Biography of 594 

Staples, Bolts, Nuts, Screws and Nails 598 

Starch-makers 630 

State House, A New, in New Haven 237 

Statistics of Deaths 419 

Steamboat Company 357 

" The first at New Haven 93, 3|;6 

" from New Haven to Byram River 356 

Hotel 356 

' ' War 356 

Steam Engines 395 

Stenographers 630 

Stiles, Ezra, chosen President of Yale College 171 

" citations from his diary, 194; his "History of 

Three of the Judges of King Charles L" 195 

Stiles, Newport, afterward called Newport Freeman, 

his history 5H 

Stone Cutters 630 

Stoves and Furnaces 518 

Street, Augustus R., founds the Art School 210 

'■ Nicholas 108 

Streets 346 

Strong, H. H. , Biography of 606 

Stuart, Moses, Incomes Pastor of First Church 121 

.Stuarts, Tidings of the Restoration of the 6 

Subscription in aid of Boston 40 

Sugcogisin, his Mark 2 

Summerfield M. E. Church 143 

Suffering of the Soldiers in the Narragansett War 25 

Sumptuary Laws in other Colonies, but not in New 

Haven 21 

Support of the Ministry transferred from the Church to 

the Town in the second generation 107 

Suspender Manufacturers 631 

Swedish Lutheran Church 146 

Synod .it Saybrook 112 



I'AGE 

Tailors 631 

Taverners in 1808 390 

Taylor, Captain .Addison L 75 

" Church 129 

" N. W., becomes Pastor of First Church, 121 ; his 

posthumous publications 201 

Tea, Coffee and Spices 519 

" thrown overboard in Boston Harbor 39 

Telephonists 632 

Temple Street Church removes to Dixwell Avenue. ... 128 

Theatre, First, in New Haven 394 

Third Congregational Church 127 

" Division of Lands 26 

" Meeting. house of the First Society built by the 

Church 119 

Thomas, Lucius A., Postmaster 379 

Thompson, Captain Joseph, with fifty men, builds a Fort 

at Black Rock 44 

Todd, Dr. Eli, of ILiitford 266 

Toleration, Act of, repealed 124 

Tomlinson's Bridge 354 

Topography of New Haven 416 

Tories during the Revolutionary War condoned at the 

establishment of peace 81 

" Action of town-meeting respecting 45 

Town-meeting in New Haven, in preparation for re- 
sumption of Government according to 

Charier 29 

" in New Haven, after passage of Boston 

Port Bill 40 

Townsend, Ebenezer 498 

" Family 304 

" Isaac H., 245; Biography of 307 

" James M., Biography of 310 

Townshend, Charles Hervey, Biography of. 315 

Townsmen, or Selectmen, of the Town of New Haven . . 441 

Tradesmen's Bank 329 

Traffic, Wholesale and Retail 510 

Transportation between I lartford and New Haven, Mo- 
nopoly of, granted in 1 7 1 7 35 1 

Travel and Transportation 351 

Treat, Arthur B., Biography of 605 

" Robert, Commander of Connecticut Troops in the 
Campaign against the Narragansetts, 24: his 
protest against theRing's demand of the Charter 407 

Trees and Parks 396 

Trial by Jury introduced 432 

" of H. il. Hayden, 242; Lydia M. Sherman, 241; 

Willard Clark 241 

Trinity Church, History of 13' 

" " Erection of 136 

" M. E. Church 143 

Trowbridge, Ezekiel H., Biography of $0^ 

" Henry, Biography of 506 

" Thomas Rutherford, Biography of. 506 

Trumbull, Benjamin, his "History of Connecticut ".. . . 199 
" John, his " Progress of Dullness," 195; his 

" McFingal " 196 

" Colonel John 206 

Tully, Dr. William 277 

Turnpike Roads 533 

Tuthill, Louisa Caroline, her books 203 

Tuttle. Milo n.. Biography of 563 

Tyler, Dr. David A., liiography of 280 

Union School in New Haven 160 

" The- AWc //arm 224 

" Trust Company 330 

Universalist, First, Church 145 

" Second, Church 145 

Volunteers for three months mustered out at New Haven 67 

Wallpaper 519 

Walker, George Leon, become Pastor of First Church. 123 
Wallingford, settled as New Haven Village, 21 ; the only 
Town whose territory was taken out of the Town of 
New Haven l)efore the incorporation of the Cuy ... 22 
Wampum, Poor, put into the Contribution Box ....... 107 

Warofl8i2 92 

" of the Reljellion, New Haven during the first 

month of 65 

" Men and Pe.ace Men in 1863 75 



roo 



INDEX— BIOGRAPHICAL. 



PAGE 

Ward, \V. \V., liiogiaphy of • • • • • • ■ 37' 

Washington, on his way to take command atCambridge, 

passes througli New Haven ^4 

Washington, President, visits New Haven 84 

Walchnien, Rules for their conduct, 14; provision ior 

their safely when on duty '4 

Water Company 41° 

" I'ipe Manufacturers "33 

" Supply 410 

Watrous, George H., liiography of 37^ 

Wealth of New Haven from 1666 to 1700 22 

Webster, Charles, Biography of ^ ■ 477 

" Noah, his "American Dictionary of the Kn- 

glish Language"' '99 

Weesaucuck, his mark 2 

West End Institute 102 

•' Haven constituted a separate Parish 32 

Whallcy and Gofte listen to a satirical ballad concern. 

ing the Regicides, 18; on West Rock 7 

Wheeler, Captain William 78 

Whig and Tory 134 

White Haven Church formed by forty-three seceders 

from the First Church 116, 123 

" and Fair Haven Societies United 126 

White, Henry 247 

Whitefield preached under the Pierpont Elms 396 

" Henry, and his company arrive at Quinni- 

piac and settle at Guilford 3 

Whitney, Eli, Biography of 95 

Whittelsey, Chauncey, and Uavid Brainerd 118 

" settled as Colleague Pastor of 

First Church . . .". 117 



PAGE 
Wigglesworth, Michael, his book, " Meat out of the 

Eater," 193; his book, " The Day of Doom " . . . . 193 

Wilcox, Augustus C, Biography of 525 

Wilkins thiard, History of 667 

Williams, Elisha, elected Rector of Yale College 167 

VVilson, Charles, lUography of 345 

Winchell, Alverd E., Biography of 29O 

Winchester Observatory 180 

Winthrop, of Connecticut, procures a Charier for that 

Colony, 8; practices Medicine 263 

• ' Theodore 63 

Wire and Wire-work 600 

Witchcraft in New Haven 690 

Woolen Mill at HumphreysviUe 534 

Woolsey, Theodore D., chosen President of Yale College 178 

Wooster, General David 45 

" Square 402 

Wright, Dexter R., 249; Biography of 254 

Wylie, J. E 208 

Vale College, Founders of, 112; founded by a gift of 
books at Br.anford, 165; funds for, from an impost 
duty on 111111,319; history of, 164; its fiist build- 
ing named for Elihu Yale, 166; located first at 
Saybrook, 165; receives a gift from Elihu Yale, 
166; removed from Saybrook to New Haven, 
166; its second building called Connecticut Hall l6g 
" the name which at first had with strictness be- 
longed only to the College Hall, was in 1745 given 

to the Institution i6g 

" National Bank 329 

" School of the Fine -Arts founded by Augustus R. 

Street '. 180 



BIOGRAPHICAL, 



Al)bott, John S. C on page 

Anderson, William D.,M.l) " 

Adams, Clifford B., M.D " 

Atwater, William " 

Arnold, Ebenezer " 

Ailing, George " 

Adler, Max " 

Andrew, Frank S " 

Beers, Nathan " 

Buihnell, Cornelius S " 

Bacon, Leonard " 

Bishop, Abraham " 

Beecher, Lyman " 

Bacon, David F " 

Bacon, Delia " 

Bacon, William T " 

Baldwin, Simeon " 

Baldwin, Roger S * ' 

Blacknian, Alfred " 

Beach, John " 

Bissell, Evelyn L., M.D " 

Bigelow, Ilobart B '* 

Beers, Timothy P " 

liarlow, Joel " 

Bowers, Caleb B " 

Boardman, William W " 

Bissell, Major Lyman " 

Barnes. Amos F " 

Benedict, Henry W " 

Bassctt, John E " 

Beckley, William A ..'. " 

Bishop, John W " 

Brewster, James •< 

Brockett, John B " 

Bradley, Edward E " 

Barnes, E. Henry " 

Burwell, Robert M " 

Cady, Sarah I " 

Carrington, John B " 

Crane, Samuel II " 

Carpenter, Daniel L " 

Clark, David H '."'.W " 



122 and 



204 
293 
293 
524 
531 
555 
582 
609 

54 
70 
204 
200 
200 
204 
204 
205 

245 
246 

247 
248 
289 

334 
278 
198 

343 
409 

476 
520 
520 

528 
530 
558 
562 

569 
609 
629 
162 
221 
393 
525 
553 



Cowles, Ruel P on page 571 

Camp, Hiram " 580 

Chatiickl, Philo " 605 

Daggett, Naphtali " ........ 50 

Daggett, David " '. 244 

Dwight, Timothy " 173 and 196 

Day, Jeremiah " 175 and 200 

Dutton. Lieutenant Henry M " 72 

Dwight, Serene E " 201 

Dwight, Henry E " 203 

Day, Martha " 205 

Dutton, Henry " 246 and 256 

Davenport, John " 106 

Davis, James A " 371 

Dawson, Henry S " 412 

Devvell, James D " 521 

Donnelly, Francis " 524 

Davenport, John A " 603 

Edwards, Pierrepont " 243 

Elliott, Matthew G " 332 

Everit, Richard M " 509 

Ensign, Wooster A " 522 

English, Charles L " 523 

English, James E " 577 

Foote, Andrew H " 76 

Foster, Eleazer " 244 

Foster, Eleazer K " 247 

Flagg, Henry C " 208 

Foote, Alexander " 526 

Ford, George H " 528 

Forsyth, Thomas " 585 

Frost, Herrick P .... " 632 

Gibbs, Josiah W " 202 

Goodrich, Chauncey A " 203 

Grifiling, John S " 527 

Glenney, Daniel S " 530 

Cireeley, Edwin S " 571 

Gerry, Elbridge " 689 

Holt, John " 213 

Huggins, Ebeiiezer " 56 

Hillhouse, James " 98 

I luniphreys, David " 197 



INDEX— POR TRA ITS. 



roi 



Hillhouse, James A 

Ilillliouse, James Abraham. 

Hadley, James 

Harrison, Lynda 

Harrison, 1 lenry B 

Hooker, Charles, M.D.... 

Hotchkiss, Henry 

Hendrick, Albert C 

Hubbard, Thomas, M.D. . . 

Hale, Henry 

Hooker, Henry 

Holcomb, George F 

Harmon, tieorge M 

Hooker, Worthinj^ton, M.D 

Ingersoll. Jared 

Ingersoll, Jonathan 

Ingersoll, Ralph I 

Ives, Cliarles 

Ives, Eli, M.D 

Ives, Levi, M.D 

Ives, Charles L 

Ingersoll, Charles R 

Kingsley, James L 

Kimberly, Dennis 

Kelsey, George R 

Lyon, William 

Lynde, John H 

Leeds, John H 

Lowe, Thomas F 

Mofl'att, (;. J 

Murdock, James 

Mansfield, Edward D 

Mason, Ebenezer V 

Miller, .Samuel 

Miller, Mrs. Samuel 

Morris, Luzon B 

Mason, Benjamin r. 

Morse, Gardner 

Mitchell, Edward A 

Moseley, Seth H 

Mix, Eliiiu L 

Monson, Charles 

M unson, Amos . 777T. 

Morton, Horace J 

ManviUe, Burritt 

Merwin, Samuel E 

Merwin, Smith 

Mitchell, Charles L 

Norton, William A 

Osborn, Minott A 

Olmsted, Dennison 

Osborne, Thomas B 

Osborn, John J 

Olds, Henry H , 

Osterweis, Lewis 

Porter. Noah 

Porter, John A 

Percival, James G 



on page 201 

" 236 

" 205 

253 

259 

279 

33' 

478 

277 

" 560 

563 

567 

" .■;83 

279 

236 

245 

247 

" 249 and 257 

287 

287 

280 

256 

" 200 

245 

" 538 

" 58 

244 

542 

554 

624 

" 200 

" 204 

" 205 

251 

'S^ 

" 252 

214 

342 

380 

392 

508 

526 

540 

559 

" 566 

607 

" 63- 

635 

182 

" 223 

" 203 

249 

" 56- 

541 

" 576 

181 

" "83 

203 



Park, Edwin A., M.D 

Peterson, Charles 

Prescott. Harry 

Pierpont, Cornelius , 

Perkins, Stephen P 

Parker, Joseph 

Parker, Frederick S 

Peck, Henry !•' 

Phipps, Daniel (J 

Russell, William H 

Read, Daniel 

Reed, Edward M 

Reynolds, William A 

Russell, Rufus G 

Redfield, Robert 

Reynolds, Henry 

Rowe, Henry C 

Sherman, Roger 

Stiles, Ezra 

SiUiman, Benjamin . . 

Sheldon, Joseph 

Sanford, Leonard J., M.D 

SkitT, Paul C, ^LD 

Scranton, Erastus C 

.Sperry, Nehemiah D 

Smith, Willis M 

Shelton, Charles 

Sloat, General Frank D 

-Smith, General Stephen R 

Shares, I lorace P 

Stannard, Essi 

Strong, Horace H 

Sperry, Joel A 

Shoninger, Bernard 

Taylor, Nathaniel \V 

Tuthill, Louisa C. H 

Townsend, Isaac H 

Tyler, David A., M.D 

Trumbull, Colonel John 

Townsend. James M 

Townshend, Captain Charles H , 

Trowbridge, Thomas R 

Trowbridge, I [enry 

Trowbridge, Ezekiel H 

Tutlle, Milo D 

Treat, Arthur B 

Wooster, David 

Whitney, Eli 

Woolsey, Theodore D 

Webster, Noah 

White, Henry 

Wright, De.xter R 

Winchell, Alverd E., M.D 

Wilson, Charles 

Ward, W. W 

Watrous, ( leorge H 

Webster, Charles 

Wilcox, Augustus C 



.on page 291 

■ " 341 

. " 510 

• " 525 

. " 604 

" 622 

622 

" 627 

633 

• " 163 

" 211 

: " ::::::: 371 

• " 529 

• •; 536 

• " 548 

• " 599 

. •' 619 

. " 83 and 236 

'7« 

. " 200 

" 251 

• " 289 

. " 292 

• " 333 

■ " 381 

406 

" 526 

• " 643 

■ " 673 

• " 547 

■ " 594 

. " 606 

. " 608 

. " 611 

" 201 

. " 203 

. " 245 and 307 

. " 288 

. " 206 

• " 3'o 

■ " 3>5 

" 506 

" 506 

• " 507 

• " 563 

. " 60s 

■ " 47 

• " 95 

• " '75 

. " 198 

■ " 249 

. " 249 and 257 

■ " 297 

• " 340 

• " 375 

. " 371 

• " 472 

• " 525 



PORTRAITS 



Anderson. W. D., M.D facing page 293' 

Adams, Cliflbrd B., M.D " 294 

Atwater, William " 524'. 

Arnold, Ebenezer " 531 

Adler, Max '• 582-' 

Andrew, Frank S " Sio"^ 

liushnell, Cornelius Scranton " ^O^ 

Bacon, Leonard " 122 '^ 

Bissell, Evelyn L., M.D " 2891^ 

Bigelow, Hobart B " 3341 

Bowers, Caleb B " 343 

Boardman, William Whiting " 409' 

Bissell, Major Lyman " 476^ 

Benedict, Henry W " 520' 

Barnes, Amos F " 520 ^ 

Bassett. John K " 521 1 



Beckley, William Augustus facing page 528 

Bishop, John W " 530 

Brewster, James " 558 

Brockett, John B ■" 562 - 

Bradley, Edward E " 569' 

Barnes, E. Henry " 609" 

(Harrington, Ji>hn B " 221 1^ 

Crane, Samuel H " 393 ^' 

Clark, David H " 553 ,/ 

Camp, Hiram " 580 >--' 

Chatfield, Philo " 605 ^ ' 

Davenport, John " no 

Day, Jeremiah " 175 

Dutton. Henry " 256: 

Davis, James A " 37' " 

Dawson. Henry Shepard " 412 



/ lA^t^^ 



t02 



INDEX— ILL USTRA TIONS. 



Dewell, James D facmg _ page 521! 

Davenport, [ohn Alfred " "°i 

Elliott, Matthew G " 33^ 

Kverit, Richard Mansfield " 5°9 

Ensign, Wooster A " S'^- 

Engfish, Charles L " 5^3 

English, James E " 577 

Foote, Andrew I lull ''^ 7° 

Foote, Alexander " 5^" . 

Forsyth, Thomas " 5°5 

Frost, Herrick 1' " 032 

Grilling, John Starr " 527 

Greeley, E. S " 571 

Gerry, Elbridge " f''*9 

Hillhouse, James facmg title page 

Harrison, Lynde facing page 253 

Harrison, Henry Baldwin " 259 

Hotchkiss, Henry " 33 ' 

Hendrick, A. C " 478 

Hale, Henry " SJ> 

Hooker. Henry " 5o4 

Holconib, George F " 5°7 

Harmon, George M " 5°3 

Ingersoll, Charles Roberts . " 255 , 

Ives, Charles " 257 

Ives,Eli, M.D " 287 

Ives, Levi, M.D " 286 

Kelsey, George R " 53^ 

Lewis, Henry G " 4'^ 

Ueds, John H " 542 

Miller, .Samuel " 251 

Morris, Luzon li " 252 

Morse, ( lardner " 342 

Mitchell, Edward A " 380 

Moseley, Seth Hamilton " 392- 

Mix, Elihu Leonard " 508 

Munson, Amos " 54°'' 

Morton, H. J " 559 , 

Manville, Burritt " 5^^ •' 

Merwin, Samuel E " 607 

Moffatt, G. J " 624 

Mitchell, Charles L .,, ' " 635 

Norton, Prof. William A '. . . " 182 

Osborn, Minott Augur " 223 

Olds, Henry H " 541 

Osborn, John Joel " 561 

Osterweis, Ix;wis " 576 

Porter, Noah " 181 '. 



Peterson, Charles facing page 341 

Prescott, Harry " 5 '° 

Pierpont. Cornelius " 535 

Perkins, Stephen P " 604 

Parker, Frederick Sheldon " 622 

Parker, Joseph " 623 

Peck, Henry Franklin " 627 

Phipps, Daniel GolTe '■ 633 

Russell, William Huntington " 163 

Read, D.aniel " 211 

Reed, Edward Mordecai " 371 

Reynolds, William A " 529 

Redfield, Robert " 548 

Reynolds, Henry " 599 

Rowe, Henry C " 619 

Stiles, Ezra " 171 

Sherman, Roger " 236 

Sheldon, Joseph " 251 

Sanford, L. J., M.D " 289 

Skiff, P.iul C, M.D " 292 

Scranton, Erastus C " 333 

Sperry, Nehemiah Day " 3^' 

Smith, Willis Minor " 4°6 

Shelton, Charles " 526 

Shares, Horace P " 547 

Stannard, E " 594 

Strong, H. H " 606 

Sperry, Joel A " 608 

Shoninger, Bernard " 611 

Sloat, Frank D " 643 

Smith, Stephen R " 673 

Tyler, David A., M.D " 288 

Townsend, Isaac H " 307 

Townsend, James M " 3'° 

Townshend, Charles Hervey " 315 

Trowbiidge, Thomas Rutherford " 5°^ 

Trowbridge, Henry " 5°7 

Trowbridge, E/.ekiel Hayes " 5°7 

Tuttle, Milo D " 563 

Treat, Arthur B " 605 

Wooster, David " 45 

Whitney. Eli " 95 

Wright, Dexter R " 254 

Winchell, Alverd E., M.D " 290 

Wilson, Charles " 345 

Watrous, George H " 372 

Webster, Charles " 477 

Wilcox, Augustus C " 525 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Autograph of Momaugin on page 2 

" Sugcogisin " 2 

" Quesaquaush " 2 

" Canoughood " 2^ 

" Shaumpishuh " 2 

" Wcesaucuck " 2 

" Montowese *' 2 

' ' Sawseunck " 2 

Map of New Haven in 1641 facing page 10 

Exterior of Meeting House on page 12 

Interior of " " 12 

Map of New Haven in 1724 facing p.age 24 

Map of the Town of New Haven with all 

the buildings in 1748 " 30 

Map of New Haven in 1 775 •' 32 

General Wooster's House on page 46 



Diagram illustrating the British Invasion . . facing 
Roger Sherman House in Chapel Street .... on 

Chapel Street in 1786 ' 

Humphrey Street Congregational Church. . ' 

President Dwight's House, 1795 ' 

Conscript Camp {Grape-vine Point) ' 

Map of New Haven Harbor facing 

Soldiers* Monument. ' 

The City Seal and Flag on 

County Court House and City Hall ' 

Residence of George A. Basserman facing 

The Rector's or President's House on 

L. Caiidee & Go's. Rubber Boot and Shoe 

Works facing 

First Hume of New Haven Orphan Asylum on 



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